Select Links

• Vmyths Hovering at Death's Door (Michelle Delio, Wired News)

""The computer security industry is a media circus. It's filled with clowns who want to siphon billions of dollars of counterterrorism funds so the Keystone Cops can shield us from Osama bin Virus," Rosenberger said."

• Regime Change in North Korea? (Fred Kaplan, Slate Magazine)

“Very interesting things are brewing in North Korea right now, and President Bush would be well-advised to get diplomatically involved, in an intensely serious way, before the good things turn cold and the bad things boil over."

• In The Empire Of The Obscene (Michael Martin, Nerve.com)

"Eric Schlosser's first book, "Fast Food Nation," split the to-go industry wide open, exposing everything from how the taste of french fries is designed to mask the fecal matter in the kitchen sink. En route to the New York Times bestseller list, the book became a minor miracle of viral marketing: what was essentially a 400-page investigative report became a fixture on every 25-year-old's reading list. His new book, "Reefer Madness," is less exhaustive but equally essential reading. In three pieces originally written for The New Yorker and The Atlantic, Schlosser takes a similarly deconstructive look at three products of the American black market: pot, porn and migrant labor. The titular section on marijuana is drawn from two Atlantic articles that won the National Magazine Award, and it's easy to see why: In prose that's pointed but immaculately researched, Schlosser scores a massive takedown with nothing blunter than the facts, outlining the absurdity of mandatory minimum sentences and offering surprising facts about suppliers (specifically, who they are)."

• Washington Needs A Colonial Office (Max Boot, Financial Times)

"The US occupation of Iraq is still in its early stages. It is ludicrously premature to call it a failure, as some critics already do. Assuming that the US and Britain keep their nerve in the face of growing guerrilla attacks, there is little doubt that they can still make good on George W. Bush's pledge, delivered in a speech on Tuesday, that "there will be no return to tyranny in Iraq" and that "those who threaten the order and stability of that country will face ruin, just as surely as the regime they once served"."

The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd.