Some random items of interest:
- Ant Tribe in China. Hordes of China’s underemployed or underpaid university graduates have formed squalid enclaves on the fringes of the country’s big cities, earning themselves the label yi zu or ‘ant tribe’.
- Canary in the coal mine. Austin. Rasmussen: The American people are “united in the belief that our political system is broken, that politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers.” He adds that “the gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and the politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.”
- Aquaponics hits the NYTimes. There is something about aquaponics that seems to inspire this quirky blend of entrepreneurialism, environmentalism and survivalism. LOL, no. Just high productivity food production that can be done with an improvised set up. Also: The greenhouse vents run on a $20 pair of recycled windshield wiper motors, and a thermostat system sends Mr. Torcellini e-mail alerts when the temperature drops below 36 degrees.
- Tapito. A tactical information system -- gathers observations, verifies them, and then disseminates them -- that uses SMS for street protest/ops. Used by Black bloc.
- Another Canary. Bulldozing home.
- Cyberwar hysteria. Lots of money is being, or about to be thrown, at cyber warfare in the name of US security. As is usually the case, lots of really silly things are being done. This is primarily due to the fact that the entire effort isn't based on any model of warfare, just odds and ends: Collections of tactics, exploits, incidents, etc. and a bevy of strange movie plot threats. As a result, no coherent strategy that can guide spending will emerge, and tens of billions will be wasted.
