November 28 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Ryan Singel has published an informative, if slightly heated, article on his Wired blog about the direction of U.S. wiretapping and the ill-informed media reporting around the subject. The piece (as is the perspective) is definitely worth a read. Click here for more.

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November 27 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Here is an interesting article by Michael Berk, originally published in the National Post:

“When Russian explorers planted a flag on the Arctic seabed earlier this year, they set off a chorus of howls from Canada, Denmark, the United States and Norway — all making claims of ownership. But if Canada really wants the maple leaf taken seriously in the Great White North, we must drop our “baby steps” strategy and do something… sensibly Canadian.

Coincidentally, one such sensible strategy to build our presence in the Arctic would do more than open the door to untold billions in trade between Canada and the rapidly emerging economies of Eurasia. It would also provide a clear route — through Churchill, Man. — for the integration of Afghanistan and the rest of Central Asia into the global economy. That economic integration would do more to stabilize the region than Canadian forces ever can.

The Churchill-to-Kandahar route is not an easy one to see at first glance, but each leg of the journey makes sense locally and fits into a global context that can result in the greatest geopolitical and economic advance of the 21st century.

Churchill is Canada’s only Arctic deep-water seaport; a crucial shipping point for goods between North America, Europe and Asia. As part of an Arctic Bridge, Churchill is ready for its role on the global stage. Connecting to Murmansk, an ice-free seaport in the extreme northwest of Russia, Churchill could become an end point for the shortest shipping route between North America and rapidly developing Eurasian markets, such as Russia, China and India. Shipping via the Churchill-to-Murmansk Arctic Bridge is nine days faster than the St. Lawrence Seaway passage– a huge competitive advantage.

Last month, the federal and Manitoba governments agreed to invest in rail and port improvements to Churchill — a modest first step. The vision is that, in conjunction with other North American transportation infrastructure projects, goods would enter Churchill and be moved through Manitoba to the U.S. Midwest, and if desired into Mexico. Thus, Canada becomes an essential and desirable link between North American and Eurasian markets.

At the same time, Churchill would play an even bigger role in Canadian attempts to assert sovereignty over the Arctic, as infrastructure projects create jobs, promote regional development and increase the level of our activities in the North. Furthermore, the development of Arctic shipping routes will bring many countries to the negotiating table, which would increase dialogue over confrontation.

With the Arctic Bridge connecting North America, Europe and Eurasia in an unprecedented manner, the impetus for the construction of a Eurasian land bridge — ground transportation routes connecting Central Asia to itself and the rest of the world–becomes enormous.

At present, about US$600-billion worth of goods are shipped from Asia to Europe each year, only 1% of which is moved over inland transit routes. Developing common Eurasian transportation routes is a top priority for many countries in the region, as trade volume is expected to bolster both local economies and security co-operation.”

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November 27 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Here is an interesting article from The Record:

“A first review of Secret Service files has found that only half of identity-theft cases involved technological devices, such as computers, scanners and digital cameras, and only 10 percent were done exclusively through the Internet.

Some low-tech tactics in the other cases included rerouting mail by sending change of address requests to institutions handling credit card and bank accounts, swiping items right from residents’ mailboxes and “Dumpster diving” — going through trash for information used to produce counterfeit documents and to open credit accounts.

Researchers from Utica College’s Center for Identity Management and Information Protection analyzed 517 closed Secret Service cases of ID theft from 2000 to 2006. It was the first study of such files from the federal agency, which is responsible for investigating identity theft and fraud.

Among their findings:A fifth of the time, identity thieves stole personal data at their workplace. Of those, 60 percent were employed in places such as stores, car dealerships, gas stations, casinos, restaurants, hotels, hospitals and doctors’ offices.

Another 22 percent worked for financial services, such as banks and credit card companies, and 9 percent were in government.

• The thief was a relative or friend of the victim 16 percent of the time.

• Personal information was stolen from someone’s home, car, wallet or pocketbook 12 percent of the time.

• Most of the thefts occurred in the Northeast and the South.

• The median loss was about $31,000, although in one case a thief spent millions on luxury vehicles and established shell companies to defraud more victims.

The study follows a recent Consumer Reports poll that found Americans overwhelmingly believe they are more vulnerable to identity theft when a business has their Social Security number. Most respondents said they want companies to stop using the numbers to identify customers.

A Social Security number, coupled with a date of birth and address, is the holy grail for identity thieves, said Cindy Wofford, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Newark, N.J., field office.

“Those three things together identify you,” she said. Personal information should never be given out over the telephone or Internet unless you know whom you’re dealing with, she said.

In addition to shredding documents before discarding them, Wofford recommends not storing any passwords on your computer’s hard drive. Hackers know how to retrieve them, she said.

Additionally, Postal Inspector Douglas Bem said residents shouldn’t use their home mailboxes for outgoing mail. And by no means should they raise the flag on the box if they do. “That’s as much an indicator to a thief as it would be to a letter carrier that there’s mail to be had,” he said.

Bem said there were few instances in which identity thieves rerouted mail by submitting a change of address card to the postal service. In the overwhelming majority of cases, he said, “the change of address was actually done directly with the bank or financial institution” that held the victim’s personal information.

“Many times we see mail that is stolen by organized groups who may have infiltrated airlines or private delivery companies or private mail rooms,” Bem said. “It even occurs when couriers hired by the banks and financial institutions are picking up mail from post offices. It’s not all residential mailboxes —not by any stretch.”

High-tech versus no-tech

High-tech theft: 49 percentUse of the Internet (e-mail, phishing,hacking, malware/viruses)Technological devices (i.e., computers, scanners, digital cameras)

No-tech theft: 51 percentIncludes rerouting of bank and credit card mail, mail theft, Dumpster diving, public records.”

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November 16 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

For a different perspective on world population statistics click here. The creators of this website have used animations to highlight what world population statistics would look like if the entire global population was reduced to just 100 villagers.

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November 15 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Here is more on the Israeli wiretapping scandal from The Jerusalem Post:

Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman was back on the Israel Police’s radar Monday, this time as an alleged victim of wiretapping.

Police said they suspect that private detectives Rafi Fridan and Aviv Mor, both of Tel Aviv, and right-wing activist Avigdor Eskin participated in a criminal conspiracy to listen in on Russian immigrant businessman Michael Chernoy’s telephone conversations, as well as those of Chernoy’s secretary.

Lieberman, who submitted an official complaint with police last week, believes the wiretapping of his friend’s office was part of a plot to get information to politically discredit the Israel Beiteinu founder.

International and Serious Crimes Unit police raided Fridan’s, Mor’s and Eskin’s homes and offices early Monday morning and arrested all three. Officers close to the investigation said police had recovered “relevant materials.”

Later Monday, all three were taken before the Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court, where police representatives requested remand extensions, claiming that there was a legitimate fear that the suspects might try to tamper with evidence or witnesses. Mor’s and Fridan’s remands were extended by four days, and Eskin’s remand was extended by five days.

Detectives believe there may be more suspects in the case. Police and attorneys hinted that this was merely the tip of the iceberg in a wider web of political intrigue. The three current suspects may face charges on a number of offenses, including carrying out illegal wiretapping, illegal use of a wiretap, conspiracy to commit a crime and violations of the Law for the Protection of Privacy.

Fridan already had 42 previous offenses for illegal wiretapping, and Mor had “slightly fewer,” police said Monday night.

Eskin was one of the far-right-wing demonstrators at Rimonim Prison on Sunday who came to support former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, as Amir’s family attended his son’s circumcision. Eskin also was involved in the pulsa denura cursing ceremony against Rabin shortly before his assassination.

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November 14 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Here is an interesting perspective on what makes it into the news, published originally in The Times Online:

Good news doesn’t sell. I have learnt that this is as true of science fiction as of newspapers after spending a day judging stories submitted to a writing competition on the theme of an “ethical future” shaped by biotechnology.

The resulting tales were unremittingly dystopian; they were stories of unethical futures. With depressing regularity, the vignettes depicted superior immortals living alongside oppressed mortals, sinister states intent on controlling people’s genes and worldwide prohibitions on natural procreation. There were baby incubators galore, lined up in rows in sterile hangars, ready to disgorge their designer cargo to rich couples. In one entry, the 2012 Olympic Games in London were shelved because of a smallpox epidemic, with the stadium later becoming a venue for the genetic reprogramming of undesirables.

The competition was run by the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and entrants were drawn from its followers and fellows. If this is how enlightened people imagine the future, then how pessimistic the unenlightened must be.

The day after judging I was called up by a PR company asking me why society at large is so wary of science. Why, I was asked, do most people shudder at the idea of animal experiments? You’re wrong, I said – surveys show that a large majority will support animal research if it benefits medical research and provided it is tightly controlled and suffering is minimised.

Next, he asked that I consider the editorial merits of three competing stories: the discovery of an Earth-like planet, a scare story about obesity and a piece of research showing what happens when a biscuit is dunked in tea. My reply? Context, my dear, context. On a slow news day, a new planet or fat-people-will-die could make the front page. The day after a Tube bombing, it might be that none might cut the mustard.

What more, he wanted to know, could be done to get feel good stories about science in the media? That is not my job, I thundered haughtily. I am not a cheerleader for science. I am in journalism, not PR. We reflect science, warts and all. Okay, so it’s mainly warts, because that’s what people worry about. And then I wondered: could those visions of oppressed mortals and baby incubators be down to people such as me?

A simulation of an American banking crisis, predicated on a pandemic flu outbreak, proved intriguing. Each week last month 3,000 financial institutions were sent several letters of the alphabet, and told that all employees with surnames beginning with those letters were unavailable. As a result, 60 per cent of participants felt their pandemic planning was inadequate. Would a pandemic lead to a run on banks? Experts say no, because there’ll be nothing to spend money on (shops will close) and people won’t risk joining queues. At a stretch, I’d call this good news.

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November 13 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

The following is an interesting article posted on the Continuity and Business blog managed by John Fernandes:

Time to return to a theme we have sounded on numerous occasions in the past three years. In a recent post we called for a renewed investment in our public health and social service infrastructure as the best strategy. The object is to harden local communities and make them more resilient to all kinds of shocks, not just a pandemic. We should have added, however, that this means local preparation can’t be too local: only looking after ourselves and our families. Of course families should prepare, to the best of their ability, and having some reasonable stockpile will stand them in good stead whether it is a pandemic, a flood, a hurricane or a blizzard. But the more important point is that making a community more resilient requires structures that allow us to help each other, not just protect ourselves.

People react in different ways to community disasters. Some hunker down and wall themselves off from their neighbors. In a pandemic, this will serve a useful purpose and I don’t condemn anyone for doing it. But experience shows many people will also try to help their neighbors, even if it entails added risk to themselves. If you aren’t a helper, you could easily be among the helped. Communities where the impulse to help is encouraged and facilitated will do much better than those where helping others depends on individual heroic initiative. In practical terms, this means looking ahead to organizing and using volunteers efficiently, establishing means of communication (like neighborhood visiting groups) that allow others to know when a family is in distress, having community stockpiles and resources available for those who need it (e.g., essential medications or baby formula) are all part of thinking like a community, not just acting like anonymous individuals and isolated families.

It’s easier to prepare individually than to get your neighborhood or community moving in the right direction and individual prepping is a good thing. But it’s not the only thing.

Posted in Disasters, Health Preparedness | No Comments »

November 12 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

CBC news has reported that:

“The provincial Labour Ministry is investigating the bridge collapse that injured six construction workers in southwestern Ontario on Saturday.

Ontario Labour Ministry spokesman Tom Zach said Sunday a team of experts remain at the collapsed bridge, interviewing the contractor and engineers and examining bridge drawings.

“We’re looking to see if proper safety precautions were taken during the building of this bridge,” Zach said.

Rescuers said construction workers were pouring concrete on the deck of the two-lane bridge near the small community of Lucknow, Ont., when the structure came crashing down on Saturday afternoon. Lucknow is about 110 kilometres north of London.

Two workers remain in hospital with non-life threatening injuries, including one man who broke his leg, police said. Four others suffered minor injuries, including cuts, bruises, and sprained ankles.

“There’s a lot of twisted steel and cement everywhere,” said Capt. Stephen MacPherson of the Goderich Volunteer Fire Department, adding that it’s amazing no one was pinned in the rubble.

Work started last July on the bridge, which was originally due to open Nov. 5. But it’s been estimated to be 10 weeks behind schedule.”

With crumbling infrastructure in Minneapolis, Montreal and Toronto the question is not one of whether more similar collapses will occur but when. Much of North American highway infrastructure was begun after World War II and designed for much less traffic than is currently experienced on such roads and overpasses. Nevertheless, this same infrastructure is used day in and day out, and, due to congestion keeping up with minor repairs, forget developing a viable alternative, is all that can be done to keep our current system moving.

A recent federal government announcement to provide a $33-billion Building Canada budget is just a drop in the ocean. The funds are to be stretched out across Canada in a provincial cost-sharing initiative for improvements to not only roads but public water systems and emergency preparedness too. Toronto and other big cities might see some minor improvements as a result, but small towns such as Lucknow where at times a single restaurant or grocery store struggles to be maintained will likely continue to crumble.

With an utter lack of strategic planning in North America over the last 20 years, the story of our critical infrastructure might be more aptly titled, “that’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Posted in Economic Issues, Disasters, Security Measures | No Comments »

November 9 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

Vladimir Putin’s statements as reported in The Moscow Times “that there were people in the world who wanted to split up Russia and…were attempting “to rule over mankind”" should come as no surprise to anyone in the West. In fact, after years of increasingly negative press in the Western media, the only thing that would be surprising is if Russia felt that countries such as the United States and Britain were her friends and allies.

The Russian system isn’t an exact replica of the American model, but should it be? It’s time that we in the West wake up. Our governance models may be better than many, but flaws still abound. Emerging democracies might not view us as exemplary and thus fall at our feet in imitation. Before impetuously leaping onto a pedestal that in the next instant we will be tossed down from, we should look inwards and assess our own weaknesses.

Leaders who will bring about positive change in this world will not be made due to an ability to judge, but rather, an ability to guide based on exemplary experience. If the West had truly been leading by example after the fall of the U.S.S.R. it would be highly unlikely that Putin would even be making such ominous statements now.

It’s time we put international relations into perspective before something worse happens.

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November 9 2007 by The Systemic Analyst.

PsyBlog has published a very interesting article covering an experiment questioning how easily social groups are formed as well as the prejudices that seem to accompany such group formations.

As humans are apparently easily led into groups, from which discrimination for others outside of such groups automatically seems to derive, questions around current Canadian approaches to social structure should be raised, particularly in the context of multiculturalism.

In a previous article we reported on the Dutch Problem of determined tolerance, which on one hand promoted (if not enforced) a sense of tolerance among the Dutch people for newcomers, but on the other hand neglected to educate both the existing population on the cultures of new immigrants as well as the newcomers on the society into which they would now be integrating. Coupled with an inability of mainstream politicians to address the issue before trouble arose, quite likely out of a fear of appearing intolerant, this lack of awareness has led to a nearly disastrous result.

As the PsyBlog article illustrates, group formation and resultant prejudices can occur due to the slightest instigation. In terms of cultures, groups are already formed and the resultant discrimination only exacerbated when leaders wilfully ignore that such social inclinations exist. Indeed, until politicians and other leaders begin to question the impact of culture on the social fabric of a country like Canada, we will continue to sit perilously on the brink of a multicultural crisis.

It truly is a very unfortunate state of affairs. Canada has the potential to create a very different model of citizenship. After all, people have relocated to the country for centuries to escape hardship and hatred as a result of such social imbalances. It’s a shame that the prevailing mentality is one of militant Liberazism preventing the raising of important questions under some blinding veil of so-called tolerance.

Posted in Identity | No Comments »