Long Game

" It's been a nightmarish three weeks for Sony, as it struggles to recover from massive hack attacks on three separate gaming systems it runs. Not only are the PlayStation, Qriocity and Sony online gaming networks still offline, but tens of millions of credit card numbers may have been stolen." - May. 10, 2011

"Test Drive Unlimited 2 developer Eden Games is initiating a "symbolic day strike" in response to layoffs and alleged "mismanagement" by parent Atari, according to a statement sent to Gamasutra. The statement said that the studio is in the middle of a redundancy plan that targets 51 out of the total 80 employees at the Lyon, France-based developer. The strike is taking place today."

"Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton examines the U.S. stealth helicopter used by Navy SEALs in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound."

""Byronic" Romanticism. With Rand's division of free will into two parts, one pertaining to consciousness and the other to existence, she proceeds to develop a second category of Romanticism:"

"Throughout America's history, New Orleans has really been the axis through the heartland - the core, if you will - of the United States of America. The colonization of the Midwest is really what allowed America to become a great agricultural power and also eventually an industrial power. This is why the battle for New Orleans in January of 1815 was actually one of the most key moments of American history. To this day, New Orleans remains a critical piece of infrastructure in the United States. The Port of South Louisiana is the largest port in the U.S. by tonnage, and New Orleans retains its role in transportation of not just energy, but also petrochemicals, fertilizers and agricultural products."

"Analyst Reva Bhalla discusses the increased violence at the annual nakba demonstrations and how Syria and Iran are using the demonstrations to further their regional aims. "

"It was back in 1852 that College of New Jersey astronomer Stephen Alexander first suggested the galaxy has a spiral shape. Since then, we've identified at least six arms of that spiral, and in the 1990s we found evidence that there is a star-heavy central bar running through the galactic plane. It's not easy figuring all this out because our neighboring stars tend to obscure the ones further away, making it difficult to identify our galaxy's larger structures with precision."

"In any case, it took me a while to realize what should have been perfectly obvious: that Atlas Shrugged (about which I've written several times in these "pages") was and is so ripe for parody, it's not even funny. It's not even necessary, either, in some ways, since, like all truly horrible books, it parodies itself, brimming and fit to bust as it is with excellent, excellent examples of awful, awful writing. "

During the recent and overly publicized breakdown of ­Charlie Sheen, I was repeatedly contacted by the media and asked to comment, as it was assumed that I know a thing or two about starring on a sitcom, fighting with producers, nasty divorces, public meltdowns, and bombing through a live comedytour. I have, however, never smoked crack or taken too many drugs, unless you count alcohol as a drug (I don't). But I do know what it's like to be seized by bipolar thoughts that make one spout wise about Tiger Blood and brag about winning when one is actually losing. It's hard to tell whether one is winning or, in fact, losing once one starts to think of oneself as a commodity, or a product, or a character, or a voice for the downtrodden. It's called losing perspective. Fame's a bitch. It's hard to handle and drives you nuts. Yes, it's true that your sense of entitlement grows exponentially with every perk until it becomes too stupendous a weight to walk around under, but it's a cutthroat business, show, and without the perks, plain ol' fame and fortune just ain't worth the trouble.

"With the Palestinians demonstrating and the International Monetary Fund in turmoil, it would seem odd to focus this week on something called the Visegrad Group. But this is not a frivolous choice. What the Visegrad Group decided to do last week will, I think, resonate for years, long after the alleged attempted rape by Dominique Strauss-Kahn is forgotten and long before the Israeli-Palestinian issue is resolved. The obscurity of the decision to most people outside the region should not be allowed to obscure its importance. "

"Those who planned the secret mission to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan knew it was a one-shot deal, and it nearly went terribly wrong."

"Until relatively recently the spread of agriculture in Europe, and to some extent the whole world, was pigeon-holed into two maximalist models: cultural or demographic diffusionist. Neither of these models were maximalist in that they denied the impact of culture or demographics in totality, but they tended to be rhetorically brandished in a manner where it was clear which dynamic was the dominant mode of explaining the nature of cultural and genetic variation and their origins."

Naturalistic Romanticism. Rand introduces one other category of hybrid Romanticism in addition to Byronism, as explained in the following passage from The Romantic Manifesto:

So anyway, I finally got around to getting a copy of David Harriman's "The Logical Leap: Induction In Physics". I've been in no hurry because, not unlike Atlas Shrugged: The Movie, everything I'd read about it pointed towards it being a typical Objectivist trainwreck.

"Rand introduces yet another poorly thought out aesthetic construct. She explains "plot-theme" as follows:"

Protests among ethnic Mongolians in the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia have spread and intensified in the past week. The current clashes, between Mongolian herders and ethnic Han coal workers, belie deep-seated tensions over the region's rapid economic development and influx of ethnic Han. While clashes currently are limited to Inner Mongolia, their handling has been a challenge for local authorities, especially the province's new Party secretary, Hu Chunhua, who is currently seen as a likely presidential successor but who could find his career marred by prolonged unrest.

As one studies Mexico's cartel war, it is not uncommon to hear Mexican politicians - and some people in the United States - claim that Mexico's problems of violence and corruption stem largely from the country's proximity to the United States. According to this narrative, the United States is the world's largest illicit narcotics market, and the inexorable force of economic demand means that the countries supplying the demand, and those that are positioned between the source countries and the huge U.S. market, are trapped in a very bad position. Because of this market and the illicit trade it creates, billions of dollars worth of drugs flow northward through Mexico (or are produced there) and billions of dollars in cash flow back southward into Mexico. The guns that flow southward along with the cash, according to the narrative, are largely responsible for Mexico's violence. As one looks at other countries lying to the south of Mexico along the smuggling routes from South America to the United States, they too seem to suffer from the same maladies.

"Our ARCHNblog mole "Mr A" goes undercover at an Ayn Rand Institute weekend student workshop. Once a year, the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism hosts a free conference for college students on "The Moral Foundations of Capitalism" and the greatest book ever written in defense of it...oops, I forgot, Atlas Shrugged isn't primarily about capitalism, but hey, it STILL made the best defense of capitalism in the history of the world!"

"Angola is promoting investment in its diamond-mining sector, an area in which South Africa has a great deal of interest. At the same time, the South African-owned Development Bank of Southern Africa has approved a loan for the construction of new road infrastructure in western Zambia that could be intended to link to Angola's diamond-producing regions. Angola and South Africa both have an interest in developing the Angolan diamond-mining sector, but lingering suspicions of South Africa's intentions will lead Luanda to approach any deal with caution."

"Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos is reportedly scheduled to visit South Africa on Dec. 14-15. As both governments begin to look for opportunities to extend their influence in the region, the visit serves as a chance for STRATFOR to assess whether those opportunities will lead to future cooperation or competition."