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.
[...]