Science Meets Homeland Security

I've been doing a little tech reading this morning, as well as some current events and political analysis. Most of it has been mildly interesting, but nothing has screamed at me to blog it. Things occasionally do scream in such a manner, and I usually tell them to take a timeout. I don't want to encourage such behavior. Eventually, of course, I cave to their insistent pressure that I make a fuss over them, and give them exactly what they want by telling Meow readers how important, or interesting, or maddening I found them. I know I shouldn't reward screaming with positive attention, but sometimes I just have to give in to their demands so they will stop pestering me. I probably would have made a lousy parent. Firm consistency is very important with children. Less so with blogs; however, the same general truths apply. If my blog gets out of line, I have no one to blame, but myself.

All of this to say that, while I haven't found anything so compelling that it simply must be discussed at length, I did find something worth tossing your way. Not to whine, but I am on the second day of a migraine, so my thinking is a little unfocused. However, I still got enough out of a piece I read at IEEE Spectrum, by Ted G. Lewis, that I thought maybe those of you the topic interests enough to follow the link might get a bit more out of it than I, not being hindered as I am at the moment by brain-fuzziness. It applies mathematical networking analysis to Homeland Security issues, and looks at the defense of infrastructure of all sorts, from the Internet, to social structures such as governments, to physical infrastructure, power, transportation, communication and public health. Let my clarify: This is not an article about math, nor is there math in it. You do not have to understand math to understand the article. It is about networks of all kinds, and how to protect them. It is a bit of a dry read, not one of those science articles that brings ideas to life and makes them completely accessible to the non-scientific mind, but I still found it interesting. Not screamingly so, but one or two of you might want to go here anyway. If not, just tell it to take a timeout.