Geo-Politics

[jya@pipeline.com (John Young)]

Two articles today in WSJ and FiTi show an unpected link between
geo-technology and geo-politics: 
 
 
One reviews the explosives sniffing technology invented by geologist
Anthony Barringer for global mineral exploration -- like copper, luxury
metals and oil -- but which came to have more practical utility in the
antiterrorist market (the company's stock is rocketing). Even so, its best
use may prove to be in discovering petroleum and other wealth of the earth.
As this tech becomes more widespread, Shell has good reason to encrypt its
geological logs and steganographize its governmental bribes. 
 
 
And, a column reviews the tie between nationalist conflicts (markets for
cheap explosives) and the invention of modern states (markets for expensive
munitions). How the citizenry of modern nations are united by "the need for
context-free communication" that was once limited to the members of the
"high culture" of pre-modern communities. And how the nationalist citizenry
are adopting the cheap versions of expensive munitions of the states' high
culture to get their overdue share of the earth's pie. It explores the
geopolitical differences among: 
 
 
Ethnic community 
Ethnic category 
Nation 
Nation-state 
Nationalism 
 
 
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http://jya.com/geopol.txt 
 
 
GEO_pol