Washington Post article: Dissertation Could Be Security Threat

["Mike Suter" <mike () dakota by-design net>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23689-2003Jul7.html

    Sean Gorman's professor called his dissertation "tedious and 
    unimportant." Gorman didn't talk about it when he went on dates 
    because "it was so boring they'd start staring up at the ceiling." 
    But since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Gorman's work has become so 
    compelling that companies want to seize it, government officials want 
    to suppress it, and al Qaeda operatives -- if they could get their 
    hands on it -- would find a terrorist treasure map.

    Tinkering on a laptop, wearing a rumpled T-shirt and a soul patch 
    goatee, this George Mason University graduate student has mapped 
    every business and industrial sector in the American economy, 
    layering on top the fiber-optic network that connects them. 

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