Halliburton Execs Said to Take Kickbacks :.

Yawn:

Two Halliburton Co. officials accepted up to $6 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti company that was awarded contracts to supply U.S. troops in Iraq, according to a newspaper report.

Halliburton disclosed the alleged impropriety to the Pentagon inspector general's office this week, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site Friday.
posted by Kevin at 5:17 AM

A Shovel, a Cell Phone and an Epiphany in the Dirt

As you guys already know, I'm attempting to grow some of my own food. Digging up the dirt, upon which one of the raised beds will sit, is proving to be a very humbling experience. The top several inches of dirt in the backyard is actually a conglomeration of knotted up weed balls, rocks, sand stone, clay that's the consistency of concrete, sticks and other hard organic matter. In its present condition, this "soil" (to call it "soil" is a big stretch) is wholly unusable for growing anything, except perhaps more weeds.

Obviously, the raised bed is the only way to go. I'm breaking up the hard pan so that roots from the deeper burrowing crops will be able to penetrate down beyond the limits of the raised bed. I'm fabricating my top soil (the stuff that will fill up the raised bed) out of some slightly better dirt from the hillside (screened for rocks, sticks, etc.) and my compost.

As I was working, something dawned on me. None of this would be possible without a good shovel. Without this tool, man, you can forget it. I weigh 180lbs and I have to stand on the head of that shovel, and really work it, in order to get it to penetrate the hard dirt. There is just no way I could do this without the shovel. TR, long time Cryptogon contributor and fellow researcher, added, "Welcome to the Iron Age."

While standing there in the dirt, reflecting on the primacy of my shovel to this work, I became aware of the presence of my cell phone in my back pocket. I must have grabbed it, by reflex, and put it in my back pocket before I went out to work on the garden.

I took the phone out of my pocket and looked at it. I marveled at it for a few moments. It was on, connected to the mobile network, waiting to be used. If I wanted to, I could dial a number and talk to anyone, anywhere in the world. And anyone, anywhere in the world, could call me. It's amazing! But in terms of this work in the dirt, in terms of doing something that involves self sufficiency, freedom, liberation, feeding yourself based on an understanding of your environment, what good is that cell phone? I took both implements in my hands, the cellphone in my left and the shovel in my right, and looked at them. That's when it hit me; a frightening, stunning moment of clarity. As incredible as all of this technological wizardry is, something as simple as a shovel is much more useful (and necessary) for building a sane reality than a cell phone would ever be.

A recent survey concluded that the cell phone is the most hated, yet most necessary, technological invention. Indeed, asking people to exist in this society without their cell phones is almost as unthinkable as expecting people to understand the global implications of their deranged lifestyles. (Isn't it incredible how detached we have become from the most basic processes of life!?) But after my time in the dirt, if someone asked me which technological invention I couldn't live without, I'd say the shovel. No doubt about it.

I see homeless people on the street with cell phones, but how many people have a shovel? This thought led me to wonder: how many people in my own neighborhood have shovels? Afterall, why would they need shovels? The only time I ever see people using shovels around here is when gardeners or landscapers are putting in decorative plants for homeowners...

Welcome to oblivion.

It's only a matter of time before this bizarre and frenetic state of existence breaks down. While I'm not saying that people need to abandon technology (no, I didn't throw my phone into the dirt and smash it with the shovel), I'm saying that more of our time, energy and money must be dedicated to creating a sane and meaningful lifestyle. More shovels, less cell phones. Start the transition to a more sustainable and real existence while it's still possible to do gradually. The pain for most people will come suddenly, as the dominant paradigm snaps. They don't see anything wrong with what's happening in the world (or, they aren't willing to do anything at all about it). Don't be one of these people. Do something. Do anything. Grow a tomato.

Resistance is fertile.
posted by Kevin at 4:41 AM

Eastman Kodak Co. Plans to Cut as Many as 15,000 Jobs :.

Eastman Kodak Co., the world's largest maker of film, said it plans to cut as many as 15,000 jobs, or about 20 percent of the workforce, as earnings fall.
posted by Kevin at 4:12 AM

Making Way for Designer Insects :.

Pray for this society to collapse soon. That may be humanity's only hope. If this thing doesn't come down, there's no doubt about it, we're doomed. The deranged quacks in corporate and academic circles are tinkering with the physical base, the building blocks of life itself. If this nonsense is allowed to continue, well, it's just a matter of time before we all have a collective, "Oh shit!" moment:

The insect world could shortly undergo a genetic makeover in the laboratory. Scientists are at work developing silkworms that produce pharmaceuticals instead of silk, honeybees resilient enough to resist pesticides and even mosquitoes capable of delivering vaccines, instead of disease, with every bite.

Remember the story about how all plant life in North America was nearly wiped out.

Related: NRC Warns on GMOs Again :.

These people think they can control their nightmarish creations. This is the epitome of winkin', blinkin', nod. Why take risks with technology that has the potential to wipe us all out? Forget nuclear weapons! That's nothing compared to this technology. A bomb only explodes once:

For the fourth time in recent years, a committee of the US National Research Council has warned regulators and developers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that science knows too little about how the novel organisms will behave in the real world.

The latest report, issued Tuesday (January 20), argues that the safest way to make sure that a transgenic animal or plant cannot escape to spread its engineered genes in nature is to fence it off with more than one containment system. If one method falters, then others can take over as fail-safes.

Related: Call for Kill Switch in GM Organisms :.

Government agencies should consider requiring the use of "suicide genes" or other biological tools to keep genetically engineered organisms from spreading artificial genetic traits into the environment, a committee of United States scientists has recommended.

The committee urged the US Department of Agriculture, for which it prepared its report, to consider "bioconfinement" techniques to help keep the organisms under control. These techniques would add genetic traits that make the newly created life forms sterile or cause them to destroy themselves after a time.

The report, released by the National Academy of Sciences, says that while many techniques are being developed to prevent genetically engineered organisms or their genes from escaping into the wild, most are still in the early stages and none appears to be completely effective.
posted by Kevin at 11:06 PM

Email from Chris

Overt fascism is taking hold in America at an astonishing pace. The problem isn't the Republicans or the Democrats or the corporations they serve.... Nope. You see, according to Chris, I'm the problem. HAHAHA!

From Chris:

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:27 PM
To: kevin@cryptogon.com
Subject: What are you trying to prove?

I hope this site isn't based in the U.S., because if so, you guys have some self-hatred issues going on. Very negative site-sites like this give me more than enough reason to vote FOR Bush, because when I see who's against him (people like you)...it would scare the hell out of me if you people got your way. Thanks for pushing another undecided voter away from you guys, and toward the Republicans. (P.S. If you think life is so hard and our government is so evil and we're not free...move to China or Iran, and you might notice a difference.)

Chris

My response:

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin F [mailto:kevin@cryptogon.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:46 PM
To: Chris
Subject: RE: What are you trying to prove?

Do you actually believe that there is a difference between the two main political parties in the U.S.? Wake up and smell the bullshit. Do your homework before you write to me, boy.
posted by Kevin at 10:51 PM

Treasury Reneges on 30 Year Bond Holders :.

Winding down:

The U.S. Treasury will default on contracts with investors, mostly individuals, who loaned the government money in 1979 on the agreement that they would receive 9.125 percent interest every year until their bonds mature in the year 2009.

No longer will politicians and appointed bureaucrats be able to brag that the United States has never failed to live up to its obligation as the safest investment in the world. Investment is no longer guaranteed.

The Bureau of Public Debt announcement claims that this recall applies to about $4.6 billion in 30 year bonds issued on May 15, 1979 and calls for their redemption by May 15, 2004. Of course, investors holding these bonds are not forced to cash them in and can hold them until 2009 if they want, but they will no longer receive the interest promised, the main reason for investing their money in the first place.
posted by Kevin at 2:42 AM

Earth 'Entering Uncharted Waters' :.

The Earth has entered a new era, one in which human beings may be the dominant force, say four environmental leaders.

In the International Herald Tribune, they say the uncertainty, magnitude and speed of change in many of the Earth's systems is without precedent.

The four, who include Margot Wallstrom, the European environment commissioner, say uncertainty cannot excuse inaction.

They believe humanity may cross some critical thresholds unawares, setting off changes which cannot be reversed.

Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 2:22 AM

Vitamins C and E 'Cut Alzheimer's Effect' :.

I've been taking between three and six grams of Vitamin C (both ascorbic acid and mineral ascorbates) and between 400 to 800 IU of Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) per day for years. I also take a good quality multivitamin (including high dose Vitamin B complex) and flax seed oil. Read about the bowel tolerance method to learn how to dose Vitamin C. If you don't feel like reading all of that, here's a summary. It tells you to increase your dose of Vitamin C until you begin to get diarrhea. At this point, reduce your dose until the diarrhea abates. DO NOT SUDDENLY STOP TAKING HIGH DOSES OF VITAMIN C. If you want to stop taking supplemental Vitamin C, scale back your doses over time:

It may be possible to reduce the effects of Alzheimer's disease by taking the right combination of vitamins, US research suggests.

Scientists have found vitamins E and C may protect the ageing brain - but only if taken together.

They both mop up destructive molecules, called free radicals, released by the body's metabolic processes.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland announced their findings in the journal Archives of Neurology.

Brain cells, known as neurons, are thought to be particularly sensitive to damage caused by free radicals.

Lead researcher Dr Peter Zandi said: "These results are extremely exciting.

"Our study suggests that the regular use of vitamin E in nutritional supplement doses, especially in combination with vitamin C, may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease."
posted by Kevin at 1:21 AM

Israelis Shoot Deaf Palestinian Woman :.

Israeli occupation troops have shot and wounded a "mentally disturbed" woman as she worked on her family's farm in the town of Musha, near Qalqilya in the West Bank.

According to our correspondent, the troops opened fire on the woman, wounding her in the shoulder. The woman, who is deaf, was carrying farm implements at the time.
posted by Kevin at 12:23 AM

Britain Has too Many Graduates, Warn Employers :.

More than two-thirds of graduate recruiters believe that Britain has too many university students, according to research published yesterday.

A survey of 215 personnel managers - from some of the country's biggest employers - also revealed that 60 per cent believed the increase in student numbers had led to a "dumbing down" of standards.

The figures, published by the Association of Graduate Recruiters, put business leaders at odds with Tony Blair over his aim to get 50 per cent of young people into higher education by the end of the decade.

Fifty-three per cent are of the opinion that the UK produces too many graduates.The research comes as the Conservative party indicated it was dropping its opposition to student fees - a policy which would have led to a major reduction in student numbers. Asked if university expansion had adversely affected standards, 60 per cent agreed. Eight per cent of young people went to university in 1963 compared with 43.5 per cent today.
posted by Kevin at 12:21 AM

State of The Union :.

This list is much longer, here are a few:

See the millions of unemployed, many with advanced college degrees? THAT is the state of the union.

See the high-paying jobs flowing to other countries? THAT is the state of the union.

See the dollar in decline and nothing left to arrest the fall? THAT is the state of the union.

See corporate executives looting their own companies and then walking free? THAT is the state of the union.

See the schools that lack basic supplies? THAT is the state of the union.

See the closed emergency rooms? THAT is the state of the union.
posted by Kevin at 12:19 AM

Insider-Trading Investigation Launched in Banking Merger :.

Nah, you don't say! HAHA! Back on 1/15, I called the BankOne/Chase deal a merger between, "two of the most corrupt organizations in the world clinging to each other for dear life as the entire thing goes down." And now this:

Securities regulators are examining a surge in options trading just before Wednesday's announcement that J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to buy Bank One for $58 billion, according to people familiar with the situation.

Regulators at the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), the largest U.S. stock-options market, are examining the activity at the behest of traders who lost money, said the people, who declined to be named. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also looking into the trading, they said.

Trading in options that bet on a drop in J.P. Morgan shares almost tripled Wednesday to more than 20,300 contracts, compared with roughly 7,800 the day before. At the same time, the volume of trading in options that bet on a rise in Bank One shares rose to more than 11,000 on Wednesday from 4,900 on Tuesday.

"The pattern smacks of insider trading," said Jon Najarian, chief market strategist for Chicago-based PTI Securities and the publisher of InsideOptions.com, an online newsletter about unusual activity in the options markets.
posted by Kevin at 4:52 AM

2004: Vote Skull and Bones for President :.

I'm directing you guys to a story I wrote back on 4/13/03. Keep it in mind if Kerry emerges as the Democratic candidate. U.S. national elections. Please. We might as well be talking about paint drying:


posted by Kevin at 4:31 AM

Aspartame - History of Fraud and Deception :.

I've known this stuff was bad news from the moment I first tasted it. Yuck! I've avoided it ever since:

It is estimated that as many as 20,000,000 people cannot metabolize phenylalimine, and this inability is genetically inherited by children. The inability to metabolize phenylalinine can lead to mental retardation in children. This means a risk of retardation for millions of children. A multi-billion dollar enterprise, this substance is said to be "refined" from "natural"substances. Like other "refined" substances, it represents a health threat to the general public. No long term studies have been performed to evaluate the physiological effects of this substance, yet the public is lead to believe it is absolutely safe. Technically, the chemical is called aspartame, and it was once on a Pentagon list of biowarfare chemicals submitted to Congress.
posted by Kevin at 4:04 AM

JP Morgan Offers Bonus Delay Deal :.

Go to your PHB and demand payment for your work in something other than dollars! HAHAHA! Man, is this thing down yet?

Investment bank JP Morgan Chase is offering some staff the chance to delay receiving their bonuses in dollars to prevent a potential collapse in the value of their compensation packages, the Financial Times said.

The bank has given employees an extra two months to decide whether they want their bonuses paid in U.S. dollars or in their local currency, the report said.

Bonuses for many bankers are calculated in dollars, regardless of the country in which they work, but the recent slide in the dollar against major currencies has wiped out some of this year's payment.

The extension is being offered to JP Morgan's 10,000 employees in the UK. In continental Europe, where the company has about 15,000 employees, it will be decided case by case, depending on the laws of the country, the FT said.
posted by Kevin at 3:52 AM

Internet Take Down and the Aftermath: Welcome to the Lockdown :.

A bunch of Big Deals (people with all sorts of impressive sounding credentials) are in total denial of the realities facing information systems today. There is no way to defend the global information infrastructure (the Internet) from a catastrophic attack. Say it with me: No way.

These jokers who make their livings by theorizing about how the big attack will happen do nothing but bloviate about software exploits. These guys are so smart that they don't take into consideration the most obvious realities glaring at them in the face. Man, worry about a guy pulling up the right manhole cover and taking a chainsaw to all the single, dual and multimode fiber he finds down there. Nope. Scratch that. Worry about several hundred guys doing that---at the same time. Why won't any of the bloviating jokers talk about the real threat, the physical threat? Wooooohhhhh. Wait a minute, that's not allowed. Sean Gorman did a thesis on the subject and the entire U.S. government went ape shit and classified his project. There's one problem: the information Gorman used to compile his map system is out there in the open for anyone to access.

The single biggest piece of evidence I have that Al Qaeda isn't real is the fact that I am able to post this message, and that you are able to read it. If Al Qaeda, or any other group of individuals, wanted to destroy the U.S. they would attack the means by which the U.S. military and U.S. corporations move information. It just so happens that the U.S. military and U.S. corporations use the same infrastructure that you're using right now to read this. Assume .mil has hardened systems that will allow it to maintain some level of C3I. Fine. We will give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. But take away Corporate America's ability to move funny money around the globe, and this thing is down. D. O. W. N.

So, if someone like me, sitting here in my boxer shorts with cookie crumbs on my face, figured out how to take down the Internet back in 1996, don't you think it stands to reason that an international terrorist organization, with infinite resources and access to experts in any field, would be able to come to the same conclusions? Please. It's obvious. Al Qaeda either isn't real, or it isn't interested in delivering the kill shot.

I wouldn't be surprised, however, if the Them were to bring the Internet down as a false flag operation, blame Bin Laden, et al. and provide the pretext for the economic collapse that is, in reality, long over due. If the Internet comes down, it will indicate that life as we know it has overtly come to an end. It will indicate that the Them feel that there is nothing left to loot and that some hellish system of martial law is necessary in order to maintain control.

The Internet will rise again, but it won't look anything like it does now. It might be that only "trusted" users are allowed on wide area networks, with "trusted" users meaning only those who are totally surveiled and compromised. If you haven't read about Microsoft's DRM plans, you've been missing out on the stuff of nightmares.

Maybe B Gates will wait until after "the event" to fully unfurl that Longhorn abomination. He'll be able to get it legislated into everyone's existence, purely as a matter of Homeland Security. I almost don't believe that they don't mention it by name, but when this article discusses the locked down nightmare scenario that emerges after "the event," they're describing the Microsoft DRM system exactly:

Welcome to the lockdown

After the Digital Pearl Harbor, one simple truth will become apparent to everyone: The surest and fastest way to avoid another one, to save lives and to make the world's computer systems secure, is to lock them up, freeze them in a permanent status quo. Put functions into chips that not only won't integrate with other applications but can't. Extensibility in 2010 is a liability, not a feature.

"That [scenario] is appealing because it's one of the simplest things you can do with computers: restrict their abilities," says Peter Tippett, CTO of security vendor TruSecure and noted security expert.

Tippett can't bear to imagine such a world. But Software Engineering Institute fellow Watts Humphrey has resigned himself to it. "If we force security restrictions, we'll dry up a lot of innovation," he says. "That's a cycle we're likely to go through."

At the same time that the integration of applications becomes unethical as well as physically impossible, there will be a human lockdown. After decades spent making access to applications universal, computer scientists and software designers will focus on preventing access. Obviously, if bad guys can't get in, they can't do damage. Even good guys will face broad strictures on what data is available to them.

So there will be a surge in the development of software that blocks access to applications such as chat rooms, the Web, databases, whatever. And even features within programs, like the ability to forward e-mail messages, will be shut off. Again, the thinking is that since openness got us into this mess, only a lockdown will get us out of it.

Authentication applications will explode. The federal government will mandate that users must authenticate their identity to access the Internet itself, a sort of digital passport system for entering cyber-country.

However, as Dan Geer, former CTO of @Stake, notes, authentication can't possibly keep up with the number of people who need it and the number of transactions we try to control with it. Authentication doesn't scale.

But surveillance does. "The costs to observe are virtually zero, so it's not a question of will it exist, but what will we do with it?" Geer asks.

Enforcement of the government's security policy will come from broad, ubiquitous surveillance, both visual monitoring and keystroke logging. The adaptation of cheap wireless gadgets like RFIDs will make the tracking of people and things simple, cheap and inevitable.

Some people, perhaps the majority, will accept this as the price that must be paid to avoid another digital Pearl Harbor. Others will rue what the lockdown has wrought: an utter lack of privacy, a digital iron curtain descending upon innovation, economic stagnation, social calcification. Big Brother will arrive fashionably late, but arrive he will. Security and privacy will become dominant themes in the elections of 2010 and 2012.

Geer is convinced we're heading toward a broadly surveilled police state. "I'm sad about this," he says, "but I'm trying to be realistic."

Related: Cyberwar: How Terrorists Could Defeat the U.S., and Why They Won't
posted by Kevin at 6:46 AM

People And The Land: Israelis and Palestinians :.

Spend 56 minutes with this video and prepare to have your mind blown:

Award-winning filmmaker Tom Hayes crosses borders and check-points to uncover the conflicting opinions and policies of the people who seem unwilling to share this land-and yet are unable to let go. Created at great personal risk by Tom Hayes and his crew. Zionists have lobbied to prevent PBS from showing the film.
posted by Kevin at 5:00 AM

Cannibalize Before the Collapse :.

Remember the phrase "eating your own?" Well, that is what brainless Corporate America is doing to its US consumers by shipping out the decent paying jobs that allowed people to buy all those products�needed or not�constantly pushed in advertisements on TV, radio and plastered to any horizontal or vertical surface.

Without people with the money to buy, Corporate America collapses, but the geniuses exporting Americans' jobs haven't yet made that connection. All they can see is the short-term swelling of their profits.

In fattening their bottom lines�and the bigwigs' obscene salaries, bonuses, benefits and all manner of perks�they have plundered our natural resources, polluted our environment, stripped our industrial base and are now even sending white collar jobs offshore, where they are plundering other peoples' natural resources, polluting their environment, exploiting their labor and even threatening to have the corporate puppets in Washington make war on any nation that resists.

Welcome to the New World Order in which those who made $50,000 and up a year are now competing for jobs at Wal-Mart and McDonald's that barely pay minimum wage. Oops, don't tell them you have one or more college degrees or were a skilled industrial worker or you will be declared "overqualified," which means no job as one of Wal-Mart's precious "associates" or as a McDonald hamburger flipper.

If you are lucky, you will earn enough to buy food, clothing and keep a roof over your head. If not, there is dumpster-diving and discarded cartons big enough to curl up in�just no sleeping on park benches or anywhere you can be seen in public spaces, because that upsets the fat cats who will sic the police on you.
posted by Kevin at 4:53 AM

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, 1729 :.

Well, it could be worse. At least this wasn't written by Dick Cheney. Although, he does seem to have a glimmer in his eye when roaming through the hatchery with that long blade:

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.

...the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in sale to the persons of quality and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, encreaseth to 28 pounds.

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
posted by Kevin at 4:39 AM

All Your Base Are Belong to U.S. :.

As distinct from other peoples, most Americans do not recognize -- or do not want to recognize -- that the United States dominates the world through its military power. Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire -- an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class. Without grasping the dimensions of this globe-girdling Baseworld, one can't begin to understand the size and nature of our imperial aspirations or the degree to which a new kind of militarism is undermining our constitutional order.

Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 4:17 AM