Disposable Razors, Spys and Secrets
Disposable blade straight razors
Razors which are similar in use and appearance to straight razors but which use either a standard double edged blade or specially made blades are available.
Many razors of this type are referred to as "shavettes" although this name was originally restricted to a razor manufactured by Dovo in Germany.
Disposable bladed straights have many of the advantages of straight razors without needing the stropping and honing of ordinary straight razors. They are also popular in travel wash kits as a means of avoiding difficulties with airport security.
Safety razors
The first safety razor, a razor where the skin is protected from all but the very edge of the blade, was invented in the late 18th century by a Frenchman, Jean-Jacques Perret, who was inspired by the joiner's plane. In 1875 it was marketed by the Kampfe Brothers as "the best available shaving method on the market that won't cut a user, like straight steel razors."In 1901, the American inventor King Camp Gillette, with the assistance of William Nickerson, invented a safety razor with disposable blades. Gillette realized that a profit could be made by selling a razor with inexpensive disposable blades. This has been called the Razor and blades business model, or a "loss leader", and has become a very common practice for a wide variety of products.
There are also safety razors that are made of inexpensive materials that are meant to be wholly disposable. One such device was patented in the late 1950's by American entertainer and inventor Paul Winchell.
There are many different brands of safety razor blades manufactured today including: Gillette, Wilkinson Sword, Merkur, Astra, Treet, Big Ben, Racer and Feather. Blades are made in a wide variety of different countries including: Germany, England, Russia, India and Japan. Safety blades can be purchased cheaply when compared to the per blade cost of multiblade cartridges. Safety blades cost between $.08 and $.50 compared to approximately $3.50 for a cartridge blade.
As of late manufacturers of modern safety razors have been involved in a race to the top, or better put, who has the most blades on a razor. This is seen by many to be fueled primarily by marketing concerns, and has triggered a small resurgence in popularity of more traditional shaving methods often involving the use of double-edged safety razors.
Various forms of Spying
Unlike other forms of intelligence collection disciplines, espionage usually involves accessing the place where the desired information is stored, or accessing the people who know the information and will divulge it through some kind of subterfuge. There are exceptions to physical meetings, such as the Oslo Report, or the insistence of Robert Hanssen in never meeting the people to whom he was selling information.
The US defines espionage towards itself as "The act of obtaining, delivering, transmitting, communicating, or receiving information about the national defense with an intent, or reason to believe, that the information may be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation. Espionage is a violation of United States law, 18 U.S.C. § 792-798 and Article 106 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice[3]." The United States, like most nations, conducts espionage against other nations, under the control of the National Clandestine Service. Britain's espionage activities are controlled by the Secret Intelligence Service. Espionage is usually part of an institutional effort (i.e., governmental or corporate espionage), and the term is most readily associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies, primarily for military purposes, but this has been extended to spying involving corporations, known specifically as industrial espionage. Many nations routinely spy on both their enemies and allies, although they maintain a policy of not making comment on this. In addition to utilizing agencies within a government many also employ private companies to collect information on their behalf such as SCG International Risk and others. Black's Law Dictionary (1990) defines espionage as: "...gathering, transmitting, or losing...information related to the national defense."
While news media may speak of "spy satellites" and the like, espionage is not a synonym for all types of intelligence functions. It is a specific form of human source intelligence (HUMINT). Codebreaking (cryptanalysis or COMINT), aircraft or satellite photography (IMINT) and research in open publications (OSINT) are all intelligence gathering disciplines, but none of them are espionage. Not all HUMINT activities, such as interviewing prisoners, reports from military reconnaissance patrols and from diplomats, etc., are espionage.
A spy is a person employed to obtain such secrets. Within the US intelligence community, asset is a more common usage. A case officer, who may have diplomatic status (i.e., official cover or non-official cover) supports and directs the human collector. Cutouts are couriers who do not know the agent or case officer, but transfer messages. A safe house is a refuge for spies.
In larger networks, the organization can be complex, with many methods to avoid detection, including clandestine cell systems. Often the players have never met and are sometimes unaware that they are participating. This is often referred to as "the Tyson Effect," where important players are unaware of their own participation.[clarification needed][citation needed] See Clandestine HUMINT for details of the actual operations and people of espionage systems.
Case officers are stationed in foreign countries to recruit and supervise intelligence agents, who in turn spy on targets in their countries where they are assigned. A spy may or may not be an actual citizen of a target country. While the more common practice is to recruit a person already trusted with access to sensitive information, there are cases where a person may attempt to infiltrate a target organization, with a well-prepared synthetic identity for them, called a legend in tradecraft.
These agents can be moles (who are recruited before they get access to secrets), defectors (who are recruited after they get access to secrets and leave their country) or defectors in place (who get access but do not leave).
Natural and sociological secrecy
Secrecy is built into biology. Animals, including humans (in some cases), conceal the location of their den or nest from predators. Humans attempt to consciously conceal aspects of themselves from others due to shame, or from fear of rejection, loss of acceptance, or loss of employment. On a deeper level, humans attempt to conceal aspects of their own self which they are not capable of incorporating psychologically into their conscious being. Families sometimes maintain "family secrets", obliging family members never discuss disagreeable issues concerning the family, either with those outside the family and sometimes even within the family. Many "family secrets" are maintained by using a mutually agreed-upon construct (an official family story) when speaking with outside members. Agreement to maintain the secret is often coerced through "shaming" and reference to family honor. The information may even be something as trivial as a recipe.
Keeping one's strategy secret is important in many aspects of game theory.