KeepNet 6 June 2008
Postings are likely to be light for the next few days as the slew of summer weddings begins, combined with starting a new job and attending conferences, so here are a few links to sustain in the meantime:
James Petras at Atlantic Free Press pays Homage to Manuel Marulanda (RIP 1930-2008):
What make Marulanda’s achievements so significant are his organizational abilities, strategic acuity and his intransigent and principled programmatic positions consisting of support of popular demands. Marulanda, more than any other guerrilla leader, had unmatched rapport with the rural poor, the landless, the subsistence cultivators and the rural refugees over three generations.
Jihadica presents the clearest explanation yet of jihadist justifications for the use of WMDs against civilians, as well as outlining how ideological indoctrination is actually implemented online.
Arms dealing and militarisation in Second Life - interviews with members of the Novus Ordo Imperialis. You can’t make this stuff up.
New research by Strategy Analytics suggests that 22 percent of all broadband users will register to a virtual world by 2018. That’s one billion people, estimated as a market worth eight billion dollars [via EuroGamer]. Eight bucks a person? Sounds low to me.
Some small towns opt to buy terrorism insurance, USA Today:
“If terrorists got this far into the country [West Baraboo, Wisconsin], there wouldn’t be anyone to make the claim anyway,” said village clerk Mary Klingenmeyer. But the village board voted 5-2 to pay $87 annually for the coverage.
“We had quite a few outlying areas laughing at us,” Klingenmeyer said. “Maybe we’ll have the last laugh.”
A neat neologism: Envirogee [via Culture Matters].
How does the Arab world view Barack Obama? Find out at Arabic Media Shack.
Hahahaha. I’d never heard of The Trumpet before, but apparently it’s published by the Philadelphia Church of God, who seem to have some, er, eschatological issues. That’s probably why I was a bit surprised whilst reading a perfectly bland assessment of America’s future destruction at the hands of foreign cybersomethings, World Cyberwar I [ouch, someone shoot the sub-editor]. Towards the end, this paragraph popped up:
As the basis of his analysis, [Trumpet editor-in-chief] Mr. Flurry pointed to a key Bible prophecy that might be fulfilled in part by cyberwarfare: “Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel; An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. … They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle: for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof” (Ezekiel 7:1-2, 14). Even though the modern nations of Israel, including the U.S., Britain and the Jewish nation, sound an alarm of impending attack and expect their mighty armed forces to respond, “none goes to battle.” There are a variety of ways the immediate future could play out, but one thing is certain to happen: Ezekiel 7.
Eh? Oh. I get it - he’s talking out of his trumpet. Meanwhile, as I reported a couple of weeks ago, Air Force Cyber Command is recruiting cyberwarriors, i.e. part-time geeks, to beat the bad guys.
A good, solid post at Burning Bridge, Kenyan media and the futility of restrictions - how a community radio station in Nairobi helped out during the recent crisis, and why national information spaces should be liberalised.
