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Open Web Application Security Project

Gold star.

HBO: The Wire

In April, I noted that Manuel Castells "has a new book on the way". This book is now on sale.

Wireless networks are the fastest growing communications technology in history. Are mobile phones expressions of identity, fashionable gadgets, tools for life--or all of the above? Mobile Communication and Society looks at how the possibility of multimodal communication from anywhere to anywhere at any time affects everyday life at home, at work, and at school, and raises broader concerns about politics and culture both global and local.

Drawing on data gathered from around the world, the authors explore who has access to wireless technology, and why, and analyze the patterns of social differentiation seen in unequal access. They explore the social effects of wireless communication--what it means for family life, for example, when everyone is constantly in touch, or for the idea of an office when workers can work anywhere. Is the technological ability to multitask further compressing time in our already hurried existence?

The authors consider the rise of a mobile youth culture based on peer-to-peer networks, with its own language of texting, and its own values. They examine the phenomenon of flash mobs, and the possible political implications. And they look at the relationship between communication and development and the possibility that developing countries could "leapfrog" directly to wireless and satellite technology. This sweeping book--moving easily in its analysis from the United States to China, from Europe to Latin America and Africa--answers the key questions about our transformation into a mobile network society.

You can read Chapter 1 as an introduction.

The purpose of this book is to use social research to answer the questions surrounding the transformation of human communication by the rise and diffusion of wireless digital communication technologies.

The data-intensive appendices are also freely available.

Mobile Communication and Society, by Manuel Castells

Publishers Weekly review:

Twenty years after The Society of Mind, where he introduced the concept that "minds are what brains do," Minsky probes deeper into the question of natural intelligence. Don't look for simple explanations: he believes "we need to find more complicated ways to explain our most familiar mental events"; we need to break our thought processes down into the most precise steps possible. In fact, in order to truly understand the human mind, Minsky suggests, we'll probably need to reverse-engineer a machine that can replicate those functions so we can study it. Thus, he rejects the idea of consciousness as a unitary "Self" in favor of "a decentralized cloud" of more than 20 distinct mental processes. In this view, emotional states like love and shame are not the opposite of rational cogitation; both, Minsky says, are ways of thinking. This is not a book to be read casually; Minsky builds his argument with constant reference to earlier and later sections, imagining objections from a variety of philosophical positions and refuting them. A steady stream of diagrams helps clarify matters, but readers will be forced to dig for the "aha!" moments: they're worth the effort.

The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind, by Marvin Minsky

Check this out.

Publishers Weekly Starred Review. In an eclectic but deeply satisfying collection, Dyson, a Nobel Prize–winning physicist and prolific author (Weapons and Hope), presents 33 previously published book reviews, essays and speeches (15 from the New York Review of Books). Dyson expresses his precise thinking in prose of crystal clarity, and readers will be absolutely enthralled by his breadth, his almost uncanny ability to tie diverse topics together and his many provocative statements. In the title essay, Dyson writes, "Science is an alliance of free spirits in all cultures rebelling against" the tyranny of their local cultures. In a 2006 review of Daniel Dennett's book, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, Dyson, himself a man of faith, takes issue with Dennett's quoting of physicist Stephen Weinberg that "for good people to do bad things—that takes religion." The converse is also true, says Dyson: "for bad people to do good things—that takes religion."

Three of the best chapters (reprinted from Weapons and Hope) deal with the politics of the cold war. And his writings on Einstein, Teller, Newton, Oppenheimer, Norbert Wiener and Feynman will amuse while presenting deep insights into the nature of science and humanity. Virtually every chapter deserves to be savored.

I suggest pairing this with A Jacques Barzun Reader:

Taken as a whole, these more than six dozen essays constitute one of the great critical collections of recent times and amply showcase one of the outstanding scholarly intellects of the last century.

The Scientist as Rebel, by Freeman Dyson

"No, I’m not going to be in this industry anymore. The industry's dying." He waited a beat, then added, "I'm going to sell drugs to junior high schoolers."

Lights Out

Oversight ... is reverberating through Congress as a Democratic battle cry.

The imperative to investigate financial misdeeds extends beyond the military. Congressional aides said that the House government reform committee under Henry Waxman might also investigate spending related to domestic security and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Well, now you see it, although this is only an unnamed aide, so I wouldn't put too much stock in it.

"... individuals and companies ... must be held accountable,” said Nancy Pelosi.

And the shoe is on the other foot.

But it probably won't go too deep, because

for all the pledges of rigorous oversight, Democrats are moving warily, fearful of a misstep, mainly in national security areas, that could return them to the sidelines as a minority party.

That may explain the focus on less volatile issues like waste and fraudulent spending and why few Democrats are proposing inquiries on hot-button issues, like the underlying rationale for the war in Iraq or the underpinning for the administration’s counterterrorism policies.

Democrats Aim to Save Inquiry on Work in Iraq

Thirty years after the birth of the conservative movement, some stalwarts worry the shark may be heading into shallow waters.

Notwithstanding this "water" metaphor ... not a drop about Katrina.

Mr. Mehlman said, “If a shark doesn’t keep moving he dies.”

"We have taken risks and we have changed," Broccoli told Reuters in New York recently.
"If you don't change you die."

Grover Norquist compared Tuesday’s election to the story of the princess and the pea, with the pea being liberal governance.

One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.

It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look.
...
In the morning she was asked how she had slept.

“Oh, very badly!” said she. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”

"The problem is we’re identified with it. If the wagon goes off the cliff, you’re likely to go with it."

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

“It will perhaps take ... something electric ... [a] terrible shock to a lot of people, and then I think conservative reservoirs of thought would be consulted.”

Apparently the big K was insufficiently shocking.

For Conservatives, It’s Back to Basics

With all this talk of a "salvation government", perhaps it's just about time for a come to Jesus meeting. (I especially liked the idea of a CTJM about "programmers not writing clean code.")

Let the coup plotting begin?

So plainly disaffected have the Americans become with Mr. Maliki that he used a telephone call with Mr. Bush last month to ask if the White House planned to unseat him ... after picking up rumors in the Green Zone government compound that American officials were feeling out Iraqi politicians on the possibility of replacing the Maliki administration with a “national salvation government” to be headed by an unnamed “Shiite strongman.”

You know, like Mushy:

The best we can hope for ... in the near term is a rational dictator like Pervez Musharraf.

These rumors have been circulating for months now ...

Iraqi Official Warns Against Coup Attempt

Hadi al-Amiri, a member of parliament from Iraq's most powerful political party, said in a speech in the holy city of Najaf that "some tongues" were talking about toppling Maliki's Shiite-led government and replacing it with a "national salvation government, which we call a military coup government." He did not detail the allegation.

The End of Maliki? Will a Coup Unravel Iraq?

And so, now there are rumors all over the place, in Washington, in Baghdad, in other places, that there are forces trying to come up with a non-democratic solution, some sort of coup d'etat, some sort of military takeover that would oust the elected government. It could be done under a constitutional fig leaf, let's say, if Maliki were to resign in favor of some junta of national salvation. It could be done in the middle of the night by some enterprising colonel or general, where the United States would look the other way.

I don’t think any of this could happen without American support, but I do know that there are a number of people inside the Baker commission, within the U.S. government, in the CIA and elsewhere, who are thinking about this. And just the other day, I spoke to Salah al-Mukhtar, who is a Baathist and former Iraqi official, who said that there are rumors all over Jordan that the CIA has been going around looking -- the military going around looking for a general or two, who could take over in the event of a coup d'etat in Baghdad.

Forward together?

A senior Baathist official who attended a conference of clans, parties and militia held recently in Amman says that participants in the conference gave their demands to US authorities in Iraq. The demands include the formation of a "national salvation government" and the disarming of all militia. The Baathist official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the Americans promised to form such a "salvation government" sometime after mid-October.

Could a New Strongman Help?

Here is an attempt to portray various philosophical and political factions under the Republicans' big tent ...

Here is an attempt to portray the major coalitions and blocs among Democrats ... Rather than the donkey, perhaps the cat, notoriously resistant to herding, would make a better symbol.

Those enamored by the pre-9/11 Washington Post analysis may appreciate this update.

A Guide to the Political Herds