Oscars for Intelligence

 It is difficult to conjur up an image of the “intelligence community” without the CIA or other US intelligence agencies. So, it might come as a surprise to see that no US body has made it to the list of the world’s top intelligence agencies, published by Foreign Policy this month.
And the winners are:
1. Russia’s [...]

INTSUM: Privatization of the Kyrgyz Electricity Industry Likely to Hit Hardest the Poor

 IWPR (Bishkek) 25 January 2008
Plans to privatize Kyrgyzstan’s electricity industry are under way, after President Bakiyev’s statement that the only way to bring more money into the sector is through privatization. He and his officials believe that Kyrgyzstan can become self-sufficient in energy as privatization would help with renovating derelict Soviet equipment and with the [...]

WEF Global Risks 2008 Report Adopts Vocabulary from Complexity and Systemics

 WEF is convening its annual session in Davos next week (24-26Jan), and have just put online their 2008 risk assessment report, which covers the topics that will be discussed at the various panels.
The report is very interesting, not least because of the 2nd appendix, which features a table of predicted risks and their likelihood and [...]

Speculations about Nuclear Cargo Detained in Kyrgyzstan Continue

Speculations about the origin and destination of the nuclear cargo discovered on a Tajik train at the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border are continuing as IAEA has launched a formal request to the Kyrgyz government to cooperate with the investigation. RFL just published another article, in which a US expert on nuclear proliferation and terrorism talks about the [...]

Code word: Tom & Jerry

Further to my posts on the growing of the Hizb ut-Tahrir’s following in Southern Kyrgyzstan, here’s an article the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) just published on the spread of Islamist propaganda in the form of CDs and videotapes (alias Tom  & Jerry) by one Muhammad Amin – a passionate supporter of the [...]

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Black Swan – a Brilliantly Irreverant Attack on Bildungsphilisters*

For some time now I have had a second-hand exposure to Black Swan theory but this weekend I came face-to-face with Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s brilliant writing – a most hedonistic Saturday and Sunday, when uninterrupted by worldly social or work distractions, save a short school assignment, I read Taleb’s The Black Swan cover to cover.
“Erudite” [...]

INTSUM: Afghanistan – a New Migration Destination for Kyrgyz Workers

While the majority of Kyrgyz economic migrants still seek better opportunities in the booming economies of northern neighbors Russia and Kazakhstan, some are turning instead to conflict-ridden Afghanistan, where higher security risks are compensated with higher wages. A major source of employment for south-bound Kyrgyz migrants are US private contractors in Afghanistan. The US State [...]

INTSUM: Radionuclide Cargo Intercepted at Kyrgyz-Uzbek Border

On 31 December 2007 border control officials at the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border intercepted a cargo with radiation exceeding 1000 mR/hr on a Tajik train, which originated in Kazakhstan and was heading toward Iran. The cargo’s origin itself is unknown. The train passed undetected through three border control checks before Uzbek authorities detected the dangerous cargo and [...]

Think tank on the Future of Books

Another great serendipitous find – The Institute for the Future of the Book. It’s a Brooklyn/London-based think tank dedicated to the evolution of reading and writing in the digital age.  Some of their projects include The Googlization of Everything – a book in progress that visitors to the site can contribute to, aiming at the [...]

Strange Maps

I just stumbled upon a great blog, Strange Maps , which offers an amazing collection of…strange maps and eloquent discussions by the author on their history and context. In addition to the Europa Polyglotta gem from 1730, which would be a pure delight to anyone with interest in languages and historical linguistics, there can be found a French [...]