Investigating soviet espionage and subversion: the case of Donald Maclean
This essay sets out the dimensions of investigating Soviet espionage and subversion, highlighting how Maclean's image as a Soviet agent has developed over the past 50 years. It will then consider to what extent new documents at the Public Record Office alter his image. Maclean's crime was treachery but what exactly is the intellectual challenge in investigating espionage? Just what can be achieved? Sir Dick White former head of MI6 offered this advice: Espionage is a crime that often leaves no trace of evidence. The investigator relies upon intuition for coincidences. After considering the circumstances, he might reach the moment of epiphany when all the facts added up to one conclusion1
The British Government and the Challenge of McCarthyism in the Early Cold War
The domestic policies and excesses of American anti-Communism in the early Cold War, dominated by the image of Senator Joseph McCarthy, have been the subject of controversy and a great deal of historical research. No less significant and much commented on at the time was the influence of McCarthyism on foreign relations and perceptions of the United States abroad. This article deals with the British government's responses to the anti-Communist fervor in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Britain was itself grappling with the challenges posed by the Cold War, including those relating to security and civil liberties in a democratic society. The impact of American anti-Communism was felt strongly in that context. The article draws extensively on recently released files from the British security services and other British government agencies.
FlowBrush: optical flow art
The depiction of motion in static representations has a long tradition in art and science alike. Often, motion is depicted by spatio-temporal summarizations that try to preserve as much information of the original dynamic content as possible. In our approach to depicting motion, we remove the spatial constraints and generate new content steered by the temporal changes in motion. Applying particle steering in combination with the dynamic color palette of the video content, we can create a wide range of different image styles. With recorded videos, or by live interaction with a webcam, one can influence the resulting image. We provide a set of intuitive parameters to affect the style of the result, the final image content depends on the video input. Based on a collection of results gathered from test users, we discuss example styles that can be achieved with FlowBrush. In general, our approach provides an open sandbox for creative people to generate aesthetic images from any video content they apply.