A comment by someone on my post about the death of the Armenian PM got me thinking about export death and tobacco. I did a little reading and searching and ran into a Trade and Environment Database (TED) report called Zimbabwe Tobacco Exports (ZIMTOBAC Case). I think it’s from 1994 and it has some interesting … Continue reading Tobacco and Ethanol Death→
The BBC does not give much detail in its story, but it does at least mention that the data in question may have been encrypted: In its filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the group said it believed “the intruder had access to the decryption tool for the encryption software utilized by TJX”. … Continue reading Massive TJX encrypted (or not) data theft→
Maybe it’s just me but I can’t help but notice that the Armenian prime minister is suddenly found dead a few weeks after announcing that his country would start using a new gas pipeline from Iran by 2008 to lessen its dependence on Russia for power-generating facilities. It seems the first section was reported to … Continue reading Andranik Margaryan dead at 55→
I love this description of poetry by the famous Science Fiction author Dan Simmons: I don’t think I’ve ever seen it commented on, but there’s a great affinity between writing poetry and SF. As with poetry, quality speculative fiction demands great skill with language and invites linguistic invention. As with poetry, good SF delves deep … Continue reading Dan Simmons on Poetry→