refractal

Links for the week of 11 October 2008:

• Kent’s Imperative: Intelligence and financial crisis, historical edition - “The system of mutual espionage and rivalry which exists amongst joint-stock banks is another source of security to the public. That a system of espionage exists upon every joint-stock bank, at least in Scotland. by their sister banks, who exchange notes and checks with them, must be admitted, after what took place with regard to a joint-stock bank establishment in the west of Scotland.
• 20 Useful Visualization Libraries : A Beautiful WWW -
• YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. - Catch up on your Favorite MacGyver Moments. Watch Full Episodes Now!
• Welcome to the Chemical-Biological Warfare Exposures Site - The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) play distinct roles in dealing with chemical and biological (CB) exposures. DoD identifies and validates veteran’s exposure to CB agents (What was he exposed to? When and Where was he exposed?) and provides the names of these individuals along with their exposure information to the VA. The VA then notifies individuals of their potential exposure, provides treatment, if necessary, for these individuals and adjudicates any claim for compensation.
• BibliOdyssey: Early Microscopes -
• U.S. Geological Survey Photographic Library -
• Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s Library -
• Antonie Pannekoek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Pannekoek studied mathematics and physics in Leiden from 1891. Even before he went to college he was interested in astronomy and studied the variability of Polaris. He published his first article, On the Necessity of Further Researches on the Milky Way, as a student. Some years after he had finished his study he started work at the Leidse Sterrewacht (Leiden observatory), where he wrote his thesis.After reading Edward Bellamy’s Equality, Pannekoek became a convinced socialist and started studying Karl Marx’s theories.
• How I became a soldier in the Georgia-Russia cyberwar. - By Evgeny Morozov - Slate Magazine - My experiment also might shed some light on why the recent cyberwar has been so hard to pin down and why no group in particular has claimed responsibility. Paranoid that the Kremlin’s hand is everywhere, we risk underestimating the great patriotic rage of many ordinary Russians, who, having been fed too much government propaganda in the last few days, are convinced that they need to crash Georgian Web sites. Many Russians undoubtedly went online to learn how to make mischief, as I did. Within an hour, they, too, could become cyberwarriors.
• Big Brother Is Listening - The Atlantic (April 2006) - The NSA has the ability to eavesdrop on your communications—landlines, cell phones, e-mails, BlackBerry messages, Internet searches, and more—with ease. What happens when the technology of espionage outstrips the law’s ability to protect ordinary citizens from it?by James Bamford
• Defense Tech: JIMMY CARTER: SUPER SPY? - The rumors are that the Navy’s newest nuclear sub, the USS Jimmy Carter, has been designed for spywork, with a “special capability… to tap undersea cables and eavesdrop on the communications passing through them,” according to the AP.
• Sense Networks - How many people are going out at night? Locally or to
  destinations? By income level? Did the financial district come
  in early this morning?
• Curt Herzstark and his Pocket Calculator CURTA -
• Leyden jar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - The Leyden jar is a simple device that “stores” static electricity in large amounts. It was invented in 1745 by Pieter van Musschenbroek (1692–1761), in Leiden, The Netherlands. It was the original form of the capacitor. The Leyden jar was used to conduct many early experiments in electricity, and its discovery was of fundamental importance in the study of electricity.
• India’s first virtual porn star. | MetaFilter - Savita Bhabhi is India’s First Virtual Pornstar (NSFW). A sexy, buxom, and lusty almond-eyed femme fatale, Savita, bearing the title ‘bhabhi’ which means ’sister-in-law’ indicating that she’s married, is the quintessential Indian male porn fantasy ‘toon. Launched in March this year, the web site has proven to be a hit, incorporating South Asian themes such as sleeping with the servant boy; with a cousin; and, of course, the boys playing cricket next door.
• Personal History: The Madness of Spies: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker - The Madness of Spies A Secret Service secret by John Le Carré
• Colliding-beam accelerators — will they reveal the ultimate particles? -
• Quantum Hacking group - Quantum cryptography is a method of secure communication using qubits. Such communication can be proved by the rules of quantum mechanics to be, in theory, completely secure. That is, any attempt of eavesdropping will be caught. We consider practical implementations of quantum cryptography. First, we play the role of an eavesdropper and try to hack a variety of quantum cryptosystems by taking advantage of non-ideal behavior of the equipment. Then, we suggest countermeasures, either practically by modifying the setups, or theoretically by modifying the way of communicating. This makes future cryptosystems harder to crack, ultimately approaching the goal of absolute security.