The publisher shipped this book today, it will be released at Amazon from 29 August, but can be pre-ordered from today.
The Routledge Companion to Intelligence Studies provides a broad overview of the growing field of intelligence studies.
Part I: The Evolution of Intelligence Studies
1. The Development of the Field of Intelligence Studies, Loch Johnson
Part II: Abstract Approaches to Intelligence
2. Theories of Intelligence, Michael Warner
3.Cultures of Intelligence, Mark Phythian
4. Philosophy, theory and Intelligence, Jennifer Sims
5. Strategists and Intelligence, Gerald Hughes
6. The Cycle of Intelligence, David Omand
7. The Evolving Craft of Intelligence, Robert David Steele
Google Earth offers unprecedented public access to satellite material that was once the exclusive preserve of the state. One obvious if unintended consequence of this service, writes Nicholas Kaempffer, is that insurgents and extremists now use satellite imagery to plot and better coordinate their activities.
By Nicholas Kaempffer for Canadian Military Journal (CMJ)
EXTRACT
Take 3rd World Ideology, Add 2nd World Weaponry, Plus 1st World Technology, Equals…
Within the tragic tale of the long-established Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is clear that Israel has held the dominating position of military supremacy via technology and surveillance for several decades. This balance of power is slowly starting to shift, and one element in this ever-changing equation is the introduction and utilization of Google Earth by Palestinian militants to more accurately strike Israel with rockets.[15] Striking distant targets with indirect fire (munitions fired beyond line-of-sight) is extremely difficult, as numerous variables are required to predict the necessary point of aim. Imagery from Google Earth allows the collection of distance, altitude, and target identification, allowing militants the ability to both fixate (figure out where they are) and orient (what way they need to point) rocket positions, to strike Israeli positions using firing tables. In layman’s terms, Google Earth allows Palestinian militant groups, such as the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, to more accurately strike specific locations within Israel, by giving them a better picture of real-world intelligence on the ground.[16] This cartographic knowledge was once almost exclusively held by the Israelis, and Google Earth is, in essence, ‘levelling the playing field’ between the two combatants. Khaled Jaabari, a commander for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, stated: “We [al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade] obtain the details from Google Earth and check them against our maps of the city centre and sensitive areas.”[17] Thus, Google Earth is narrowing the technical divide between two historically mismatched opponents. Ten years ago, militants such as Khaled Jaabari simply could not match the surveillance and cartographic capabilities of the Israelis, who spent millions, if not billions of dollars to maintain such superiority. Now, groups like the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade are receiving high quality geographic information, for free. While this cost is easy for them to bear, it is certainly the opposite for the Israelis, and efforts have been undertaken to have imagery purposely censored or lowered in resolution to make targeting more difficult. Following the next case study of Google Earth and the ‘War on Terror,’ further discussion will deal with state responses and security issues regarding Google Earth.
Lieutenant Nicholas Kaempffer, an artillery officer,has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Geography from Queen’s University. He is a Troop Commander at the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery School (RCAS).
Analytics is the newest buzzword in the enterprise. Analytics indicates that that solution is intelligent and agile, and the industry is paying attention. Information Management gives the latest news in the article, “3 Major Trends in New Discovery Analytics.”
After a discussion of visual discovery’s role in data discovery, the author moves on to the second trend:
“The second trend is renewed focus on information discovery (i.e., search) . . . IBM acquired Vivisimo and has incorporated the technology into its PureSystems and big data platform. Microsoft recently previewed its big data information discovery tool, Data Explorer. Oracle acquired Endeca and has made it a key component of its big data strategy. SAP added search to its latest Lumira platform. LucidWorks, an independent information discovery vendor that provides enterprise support for open source Lucene/Solr, adds search as an API and has received significant adoption. There are different levels of search, from documents to social media data to machine data.”
LucidWorks is clearly holding their own among the major players, even huge proprietary companies like IBM and Oracle. And these longstanding commercial solutions are taking note of the real estate that the open source solutions, like LucidWorks, are carving out of their traditional territory. Users are pleased by the low price point, the efficient functionality, and the excellent customer support of LucidWorks and others like it.
We are increasingly living in a big data and analytic society. But when discussing all this information, it’s hard to put a visual with it. Humans are, after all, very sight-oriented. However, that problem is quickly looking like a thing of the past after discovering a recent Make Use Of article, “Create Your Own Infographic about Your Facebook, Twitter and Youtube Use.”
According to the story:
What About Me is a free to use web service that lets you easily analyze how you have been using your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. You start by granting the site access to your accounts. Your usage is analyzed and the infographic is generated while you play with some distractingly interactive circles that are displayed.
The infographic that is finally generated shows your interests in terms of percentages, how you react with friends, plus a number of other interesting things about your social networking usage.
This really is the next logical step in infographics. We’ve been lured, as Wired astutely pointed out, by infographics as “link bait” for a long time. It’s time we turned that gaze inward to see what our social habits say about us. This will take off, we predict.
The hoohah about cloud computing, Big Data, and other “innovations” continues. Who needs Oracle when one has Hadoop? Why license SPSS or some other Fancy Dan analytics system when there are open choice analytics systems a mouse click away? Search? Lots of open source choices.
We have entered the Gilded Age of information and data analysis. Do I have that right?
The marketers and young MBAs chasing venture funding instead of building revenue shout, “Yes, break out the top hats and cigars. We are riding a hockey stick type curve.”
Where are Web sites hosted? The average user has no idea how to harness the right tools to locate where a server is located, but there might be a common solution. Makeuseof.com, gotta love that Web site, wrote the article, “Find Out Where A Web Site’s Server Is Located With FlagFox And Flag For Chrome.” Made for two open source OS, the Flag and FlagFox plugins are rather simple. Whenever you visit a Web site, the URL bar displays its server’s country of origin. Judging by the plugin’s name you can tell it displays the flag.
Pretty neat, huh? It is also pretty useful:
“This little flag isn’t just cool to show off, but it can also serve some interesting purposes, for example it can let you know which country a server is located in (especially when the server location doesn’t match the top-level domain like .co.uk, .de, etc.), help you troubleshoot why a certain connection may be acting slow, or help you identify when you’ve accidentally landed on a phishing Web site. Say you try to visit your bank’s website which usually shows your country’s flag, but suddenly you see a completely different flag. The chances that you’ve landed on a phishing site are very high. The flag shown by the extension also serves as a reminder of where our data goes — you practically visit the world through your browsing habits!”
It does more than show colorful flags too. Clicking on the flag displays technical data about the server: postal code, Web hosting provider, location, IP Address, and ISP. It also has the Web of Trust rating and embed other techy features. That is just for the Firefox version, the Google plug-in has a few more features that are specific to Google.
For the common users, use this tool as a way to prevent identity theft and catch phishing Web sites. Another simple tool to keep your Internet experience safe.
Before the better Internet we have today, school children used to have rely on poor search and hacked together Web sites to cheat on their homework. The Wolfram Alpha database did not exist and it made school children rely on their own skills. Wolfram Alpha is a powerhouse database with a snarky attitude that can answer veritably any question. Makeuseof.com points out “10 Surprising Things You Didn’t Know Wolfram Alpha Could Do” and how you can harness the tool to do more than cheat on chemistry homework. Originally built as a computational math engine, geeks have added other and often fun features to Wolfram Alpha. You can upload an image to see how it would look as a comic book, through a dog’s eyes, or via color blindness.
Want a Morse code translator or statistics on everything associated with NFL for the past twenty-five years? Look no further. You can also get a head start on your Christmas shopping by using it as product comparison tool:
“Instead of using filters on any shopping website, you can try an English language query in the search box and see if it helps narrow down your shopping choices. Wolfram Alpha handshakes with Best Buy’s API to source the results, so the results are America and Canada centric. You can also use Wolfram Alpha to make a direct comparison between two products in the same product line by typing in their brand names and model numbers. The results page includes enough details to help you bore down to the right choices.”
Calorie burning calculator, anniversary gift recommender, and medical prescription decoder are yet even more ways. The most artful and mathematical way takes Wolfram Alpha back to its original purpose…almost. The database can take any image and render it into a mathematical equation. What does the Mona Lisa look like in numbers? Play around with Wolfram Alpha and do not forget to ask it a Douglas Adams inspired question.
