Russian-Kazakh Cuisine in Virginia

I am always asked about Ukrainian cuisine. What's it like? And I've already blogged about it.
Here is a new place, Cafe Assorti, that offers a mixed Russian-Kazakh cuisine and it seems to have several food items from Ukrainian cuisine such as ravioli (pelmeni), cutlets (kotleti), meatballs (tefteli), pirogi, crepes (blinchiki), summer soup reminding French vichyssoise (okroshka), and borscht.

in reference to: CAFÉ ASSORTI (view on Google Sidewiki)

My GMU Fellow-Blogger is Under Hacker Attack

As a follow-up on my previous post about InZero invention, here is example of how it's really easy to breach anybody's computer security via the PDF attachment.

in reference to: North Korean Economy Watch » Blog Archive » Someone is not playing nice…. (view on Google Sidewiki)

Free Trade Hits Hackers Hard!

Who could figure that the main breakthrough in hackproof hardware-based computer systems would come from … Ukraine. Yes, the Ukrainian programmer, Oleksiy Shevchenko, employed by the Kyiv-based American IT company came up with ingenious invention, the reversely engineered computer system. It protects your computer by creating its virtual copy so that hackers, spywares, viruses and other web-based security breaches end up in a wrong, non-existing, computer system. By the way, the estimated losses from hacker attacks are pegged at more than $1 trillion per year. According to the Ponemon Institute's survey, 85% of companies and agencies have suffered security breaches and data losses over the previous year.

Now Mr. Shevchenko works in, a tiny, Herndon (Virginia, USA) startup called InZero Systems side by side with Mr. Hughes, former president of General Motors' international operations and of Lockheed Martin. The BusinessWeek reports that the InZero has already been tested by the US "military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and several companies that specialize in finding cracks in computer security. No one has broken in". Since InZero wants to catch a big fish, the US DOD, both Mr. Shevchenko and Mr. Hughes face a burden of proof that InZero has no built-in back door left for Eastern European spies. Let's cross our fingers that the red tape of the American bureaucracy will not stall the technological breakthrough. The Obama administration actually thinks about speeding up a bureaucratic review of export-oriented products that are sensitive to the national security. Now the US Department of Commerce can take up to 60 days to review the export-oriented product. President Obama wants to slash it down to 30 minutes!

The estimated cost of InZero software is $25 for individual users versus more than $1 trillion in losses from hacker attacks per year. If it is not the Pareto improvement, then what's that? The InZero is a direct outcome of free market forces. It is a by-product of globalization, free trade, and outsourcing. Isn't it the best way to give a lecture about benefits of free trade? I'll test it on my students in the International Economic Policy class. Rock on!

From UkraineWatch

Finally… a Ph.D.

I am thrilled to inform you all that I have defended my dissertation successfully. My defense ended just a few hours ago. My deepest appreciation to my dissertation committee - Dr. Peter J. Boettke (Chair), Dr. Peter T. Leeson, and Dr. Frederic E. Sautet for their guidance and support in my graduate studies.

This August, I am heading to Texas. I'm joining the Economics Department at the University of Texas in Arlington. I am thrilled about this opportunity and will sadly miss George Mason University which had been my home for the past four years.

    

Gorbachev's Op-Ed in the New York Times

I believe that it's the first time when Mr. Gorbachev praises President Boris Yeltsin and denounces post-Yeltsin Russia's government.

Here are some quotes:

"President Boris Yeltsin’s 1996 re-election and the transfer of power to his appointed heir, Vladimir Putin, in 2000 were democratic in form but not in substance. That was when I began to worry about the future of democracy in Russia."

"I sense alarm in the words of President Dmitri Medvedev when he wondered, “Should a primitive economy based on raw materials and endemic corruption accompany us into the future?” He has also warned against complacency in a society where the government “is the biggest employer, the biggest publisher, the best producer, its own judiciary ... and ultimately a nation unto itself.”

in reference to: Op-Ed Contributor - Today’s Russia - Perestroika Lost - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)