
Police: Messages for No. 1 Mafioso Hidden in Sicilian Soil - wglb
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/3f3d97339e1a455faa8b9d3d856d14bd
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stenl
Seems like there should be some less ridiculously low-bandwidth and high-
latency tech for the modern Godfather, no? E.g. why don't they use an
electronic dropbox, posting messages in code on a public forum? Is it just
that Mr Godfather is technologically challenged, or is there a good reason why
burying scraps of paper in soil is inherently better?

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epoxyhockey
_is there a good reason why burying scraps of paper in soil is inherently
better?_

That should read: "burying scraps in _Sicilian_ soil"

The messages never travel outside of the country, which may bolster a case
that no other country may have jurisdiction in helping to track down the mafia
members.

Recent Intel leaks have shown us that every government in the world has their
fingers tapping all of the telecom links in the world. When we talk about
using farm land as a messaging platform, the playing field is a bit more even.

The government doesn't have cameras hiding under every rock, or soldiers
posted every 5 feet across the land. Imaging satellites perhaps may not be
able to be tasked full-time for years to monitor all of Sicily to the required
resolution for the purposes of finding one man, yet.

Balled-up pieces of paper are very much off-the-grid.

~~~
jomtung
Here's a Radiolab podcast about the tech they can use to capture people off
the grid. They'd have to fly a drone for the day when the message is delivered
and know who received the message.

[http://www.radiolab.org/story/eye-sky/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/eye-
sky/)

