[odf-discuss] Open Standards and security

[marbux]

On Jan 24, 2008 12:28 PM, <robert_weir at us.ibm.com> wrote:

>
> Also, one of the few invasions to be preceded by the airdrop of a
> CIA-authored comic-book;
>
> http://www.ep.tc/grenada/
>

The 4th Psychological Operation Group (I was a member) did similar things in
the Viet Nam War. E.g., our outfit air dropped millions of bars of soap that
exposed different propaganda messages as layers were washed away during use.
We had a few operations where helicopters sprayed fish sauce (nuoc mam) over
surrounded enemy troops to exacerbate their hunger, making them more
inclined to surrender, or so the logic went.

4th PsyOp also air-dropped millions of cheap transistor radios equipped with
tiny flare parachutes, all hard-wired to our 50,000 watt propaganda radio
station based in the city of Pleiku. But the staples of our work on the
combat field teams were leaflets and loudspeaker broadcasts, both aerial and
using backpack loudspeakers. My team's 3/4-ton truck was emblazoned with the
motto: "Minds blown to your specs."

Another similar example is the adoption of standard hose couplings and fire
> hydrants after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904:
>
> http://www.fire.gov/newsletter/fall2004/Hydrants_NISTIR7158.pdf
>

There were also communications problems in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina because assigned U.S. military aircraft could not communicate with
coordinating civilian emergency responders because they could not share
radio frequencies.

Katrina has resulted in far greater attention to standards for disaster
response communications. Some of the resulting standards work is being
conducted under the auspices of OASIS.

History also records that standards can be imposed by armed rebellion. In
the terms of the original Magna Carta of 1215 we find:

 "[35] There shall be standard measures of wine, ale, and corn (the London
quarter), throughout the kingdom. There shall also be a standard width of
dyed cloth, russett, and haberject, namely two ells within the selvedges.
Weights are to be standardised similarly."

<http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/magnacarta.html>.

See also <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_carta#Rebellion_and_signing_of_the_document
>.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.opendocumentfellowship.com/pipermail/odf-discuss/attachments/20080124/8f96a6c9/attachment-0001.html