Why he even set foot in Ireland is a mystery to me.
posted by Kevin at 6:52 PM

A quiet corner of rural Ireland was encased in a steel cage tonight as military helicopters patrolled the skies above thousands of troops.

The normally tranquil Dromoland Castle in Co Clare became a fort as US President George W Bush touched down at the nearby Shannon Airport.

Anti-war protesters who gathered outside lines of more than 2,000 troops and heavy armour.

All routes to Shannon Airport and the luxurious castle grounds were sealed off and police officers paced roadsides keeping a watchful eye that no-one strayed into unapproved areas, while camouflaged army vehicles waited in the bushes.

Local people simply gazed on in amazement as the largest security operation in the history of the State swung into action and transformed their peaceful neighbourhoods into something not unlike a war film set.

The surreal atmosphere was compounded by the location of chemical toilets like those used at music festivals at road junctions to accommodate the needs of hundreds of troops and garda officers patrolling the remote countryside.

Previous American presidents had received a warm welcome to Ireland but Mr Bush was kept well away from the people of Shannon, the majority of whom were firmly against his visit.
posted by Kevin at 6:43 PM

A guide for Cryptogon regulars:

Make a list of websites that you think people need to see and print fliers for distribution at the film! Mingle with people in line and just start talking and giving away your information. Fahrenheit 9/11 is an excellent opportunity to reach people who are ready to take the next step in understanding events. The film only goes so far, and I found that people are hungry for more. Every single Cryptogon reader should be engaging these Fahrenheit 9/11 audiences. Get your ass and your insights out from in front of that computer and onto the pavement. Share the information with others, face to face.

If you have Deception Dollars, use those. I gave my first stack of fifty away in under two minutes as I was waiting to see the film. I had absolutely no idea how many people would be at the theater. It was incredible. (More like shocking.) Multiple screens, sold out. This theater is usually dead, by the way. It shows mainly foreign, independent and documentary films. Throngs of people were all over it for Fahrenheit 9/11. I returned later, as the last showing was letting out. I gave out about two hundred more DDs at 12:30am.

If you're distributing information to a line-up of people, smile, be polite and ask, "Would you like more information about the film?" or, if you have DDs, "Would you like a Deception Dollar?" Since most people haven't seen DDs before, they're usually interested. I was actually surprised by how many people knew about them already. (About five people, out of hundreds.)

If you're distributing to a throng of people exiting the theater, I found that the following technique worked very well. (If you're shy, you'll get over that pretty fast.)

Hold your material over your head and say (loud enough to be heard above the ambient noise of dozens of people milling about):

"The film only shows 5% of the story. Here's free information about the rest."

Most people were receptive to taking the information. I found it interesting that a few people didn't want it at first, but then they came back and asked to take one. Some people asked to take a few. The more people who take info from you, the more people will want it from you. I reached a point where I couldn't give the DDs away fast enough. I was surrounded by outstretched hands. Definitely have a friend or two help you if you're distributing info to crowd exiting the theater.

Hint: I think it's more effective to distribute info to the lines of people waiting to see the film, than to the exiting crowds.

I was taking the pulse of the people I was talking to, in general, just to see where they were along the path. I learned that you, as an activist/dissident/teacher/whatever need to take things very gently. The people I spoke with, in general, want to believe that Kerry is the savior. I know. As incredible as it seems to you guys, that's the case. These conversations go in predictable ways, but my suggestion to you is to not press the facts too hard about how totally compromised and corrupt Kerry is. You'll lose people. Reassure them that Kerry will probably be the next president (even if you think there might not even be an election), because he probably will be the next president. I said, "Obviously, if Bush gets in again, we're in deep trouble, but if things continue to get worse under Kerry, and you want to know why, contact me." Obviously, we're in deep trouble for a lot of reasons, no matter who gets in. And you guys know all about those issues.

You can't really get away with, "The end of the oil age will throw all developed states into chaos," or "Did you hear about the genetic engineering experiment that nearly wiped out all plant life in North America?" No. You need to maintain appearances somewhat.

Take it slow...

I found that even mentioning Skull & Bones in the public setting isn't a good idea. They don't want to believe it, and tended to think it was nonsense immediately. "Bush is evil," goes over well. "Kerry is the other face of Bush," well.... that's a harder sell. They're just not ready to see that; not yet anyway. But just wait....

This aided people in seeing it (because they already KNOW IT, deep down, they just don't want to admit it):

"If you wanted to take over a country, what would be the easiest way to go about it? Force a dictatorship on people or offer them a choice between two candidates who actually represented your interests? The choice is the mechanism of control. Since people think they have a choice, they forget about things continuing to get worse under both parties."

You'll see the light bulbs clicking on.

My final suggestion is to NOT spend too much time talking to other freaks, if you should encounter them. You know what I mean; people who already get it. It's really easy to start preaching to the choir. I think we do this to reassure ourselves that we're not alone. Try to remember that you're out there to reach people who are hungry for information. You're not out there to socialize with others who already have it. That feels good, everyone hold hands in a circle, etc. but focus on reaching people who are on the verge of getting it, but are looking for that little push. Save the socializing for times when hundreds of people aren't gathered together who could potentially be unplugged from The Matrix! And for God's sake, what ever you do, don't start arguing with anyone about anything. That's a waste of your time. Move on.

All in all, good stuff. Have fun out there and let me know what your experiences are like.
posted by Kevin at 3:27 AM

The two year mark was actually on 6/23, but nobody noticed, including me. HA!
posted by Kevin at 3:23 AM

RTE reporter, Carole Coleman, rattles Dubya's cage. Link is to RealVideo content.
posted by Kevin at 3:21 AM

Well, I'm going to burn karma points with the content filtering firewalls on this one. But, hey, nobody said that reporting on the words and actions of Dick Cheney was going to be easy. One has to break a few eggs if one wants to make an omlette. Right, Dick?

I just love it! These deranged whackos are less able to maintain appearances with each passing day. Poor Cheney. He gets so upset when people mention his evil activities in public. I wonder if he travels with a mobile cardiac emergency unit... You know... Are there coolers full of spare valves made of pig parts? Is the charge on the defibrillator's battery pack checked every half hour? Are there plenty of balloon-tipped catheters and stents on hand? Nitroglycerine. Don't forget the nitro, for fuck's sake! Ooops!

US Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out the "F word" at Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor, congressional aides said today.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in a terse discussion between the two that touched on politics, religion and money, with Cheney finally telling Leahy to "fuck off" or "go fuck yourself," the aides said.
posted by Kevin at 5:17 AM

You would have to be out of your tree to be running Microsoft IIS! If I had to run IIS on a WAN link, I wouldn't even allow a persistent connection to exist between that thing and the rest of my network. IIS has always had a bull's-eye painted on it. It has been broken from day one. httpd, I say.

On the client side, Mozilla Firefox is an excellent browser. It's easily worthy of default browser status. I'd say it renders HTML 20% to 30% faster than Microsoft Internet EXPLODEr. Oh yeah, Firefox doesn't come with all of the functionality that "allows an attacker to run the code of his choice" on your computer!

Boneheaded:

Security researchers warned Web surfers on Thursday to be on guard after uncovering evidence that widespread Web server compromises have turned corporate home pages into points of digital infection.

The researchers believe that online organized crime groups are breaking into Web servers and surreptitiously inserting code that takes advantage of two flaws in Internet Explorer that Microsoft has not yet fixed. Those flaws allow the Web server to install a program that takes control of the user's computer.

The extent of the attacks is unknown, but the security community has seen numerous cases of personal computers infected when the user merely visits a Web site.

Researchers believe that attackers seed the Web sites with malicious code by breaking into unsecured servers or by using a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft's Web software, Internet Information Server (IIS).
posted by Kevin at 4:34 AM

They might as well be trying to stop the sun from rising in the morning. These are the nonsensical words of desperate minds:

Farmers of the world must shift quickly to growing plants for industrial uses such as oils and plastics to replace petrochemicals as the climate warms and crude supplies run out, British scientists said on Monday.

Research Credit: AL
posted by Kevin at 4:19 AM

* shaking head *

There are now robots that can get around on two legs, participate in simple conversations, and manipulate objects in rudimentary ways. Of course, we don't yet have a bot that can navigate downtown Manhattan, tie its shoelaces, or even tell a chair from a desk. MIT's Cynthia Breazeal holds out hope that within five years, robots will cross a critical threshold, becoming partners rather than tools - in other words, we'll have friends, not appliances. And while there are a number of extremely complex problems to solve before we can make something as advanced as Sonny, the star of I, Robot, we're getting there, one piece at a time. To find out where the state of the art lies, Wired surveyed the projects that might one day add up to an android just like the rest of us.
posted by Kevin at 4:16 AM

Do you feel a draft?

U.S. military planners are preparing to send possibly as many as 15,000 additional ground troops to Iraq if the level of violence increases, CNN has learned.

That word comes as nearly 100 people were killed in insurgent attacks in five Iraqi cities Thursday.
posted by Kevin at 3:17 AM

Drugs for Alzheimer's disease, which pharmaceutical companies and campaigners have lobbied the government to provide to large numbers of elderly patients with dementia across the country at a cost of over £39m a year, have little effect on their memory and do not stop the distressing deterioration of their lives, according to an important study published today.

The five-year study, paid for by the NHS and not the drug companies, found that the drugs are a waste of the scarce resources available for the condition, said the lead researcher Roger Gray, director of Birmingham University's clinical trials unit.
posted by Kevin at 2:33 AM

Ahh, such touching considerations:

Israeli-made bullets bought by the U.S. Army to plug a shortfall should be used for training only, not to fight Muslim guerrillas in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. lawmakers told Army generals on Thursday.

Since the Army has other stockpiled ammunition, "by no means, under any circumstances should a round (from Israel) be utilized," said Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, the top Democrat on a House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee with jurisdiction over land forces.

The Army contracted with Israel Military Industries Ltd. in December for $70 million in small-caliber ammunition.
posted by Kevin at 5:10 PM

The meat grinder has turned into a free for all. Will we have a repeat of Saigon? Will Bremmer exit Baghdad hanging from one of the skids of a Blackhawk helicopter?

A wave of insurgent bombings and ambushes in key Iraqi cities Thursday killed 92 people, officials said, and terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has emerged as a key suspect.

Violence rocked Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Mosul and Ba'qubah.

The assaults come six days ahead of the scheduled handover of power from the U.S.-led coalition to Iraqis.

About 285 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Iraqi police and health officials.
posted by Kevin at 5:31 AM

Have no doubt about it: The goal is to kill you and lift your wallet. I can only assume that the BBC is in on this scam, along with the World Health Organization. This is probably the most ridiculous story I've ever read. It is pure nonsense. As you read it, keep these facts in mind:

The American Medical System Is THE Leading Cause of Death and Injury in the U.S.

Each year approximately 2.2 million US hospital patients experience adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to prescribed medications. In 1995, Dr. Richard Besser of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections to be 20 million; in 2003, Dr. Besser spoke in terms of tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually. Approximately 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed annually in the US, while approximately 8.9 million Americans are hospitalized unnecessarily.

...The estimated total number of iatrogenic deaths---that is, deaths induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures---in the US annually is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is itself the leading cause of death and injury in the US. By comparison, approximately 699,697 Americans died of heart [disease] in 2001, while 553,251 died of cancer.

I cured my own skin cancer, a condition for which the dermatologist told me reconstructive surgery would be required on my nose, with black salve (blood root paste). I cured my own eczema with vitamin C, a condition for which the dermatologist told me there was no cure. He offered me some cortisone based poison called Dermatop. Read the fine print and you notice: "Not for use on face." The eczema was on my cheeks. My sister eliminated warts on her feet with high dose C, l-lysine and green tea extract (epigallocatechin gallate, EGCG, 50%). My elderly father has improved his own cognitive function with SuperNutrition's Einstein's Favorite product. He has also eliminated his frequent urination issues with saw palmetto. Oh, did I mention I saved his life with capsicum when he suffered a major heart attack several years ago?

My mom died of colon cancer. We tried several alternative therapies with her. When she was diagnosed, her oncologist gave her 6 months to live. Maximum. She lived for three years after that point. She never modified her diet; she pretty much continued to eat the things that gave her the cancer in the first place. By the time I learned about Dr. Rath's methods and cesium chloride, she was at the end stages of the process and was tired of trying alternatives. Did any of these treatments harm her? No. In fact, they most likely prolonged her life by years. Of course, our efforts were thought of as silly by the doctors, and the fact that she didn't die within months of their diagnosis was explained away as an anomaly. Note on preventing colon cancer: read about folic acid.

So, the "experts" want to ban vitamins and supplements outright [this article only hints at what is coming; Americans read about Senate Bill 722, Europeans read about The Food Supplements Directive], or require prescriptions from medical doctors in order to obtain them, driving prices of everything through the roof!? I view the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization and pharmaceutical corporations as a clear and present danger to me, my family and the rest of humanity. THESE ORGANIZATIONS CAN JUST F**K RIGHT OFF!!! I swear eternal hostility toward these and similar organizations! Filthy, thieving, murdering bastards! Ok, I'm so enraged, I can't even focus anymore... Have a nice day.

Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 5:30 AM

"If you shoot the robot, we don't care." Keep that in mind as you change your child's diapers. Your tiny, pink babies are going to face an unbeatable enemy---that your tax money is building today:

One robot being tested is a Jeep-size, four-wheeled vehicle that has been equipped with radar, television cameras and an infrared scan to detect people, vehicles and other objects. It carries a breadbox-sized mini-robot that can be launched to search under vehicles, inside buildings and other small places.

Another robot is fashioned from an off-the-shelf, four-wheeled all-terrain vehicle, giving it added versatility because a human also can ride it like a normal ATV. Both vehicles can be remotely operated from laptop computers and can be equipped with remotely fired weapons, like an M-16 rifle or pepper spray.

"What we are hoping is the robots will actually detect the enemy first," said Capt. Adolfo Meana Jr., chief of the concepts division for the Force Protection Battlelab at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

"If you shoot the robot we don't care. We know you're there, you're hostile, and we can keep our forces in reserve to move tactically against the enemy. The robots will save our troops' lives," he said.

Research Credit: KB
posted by Kevin at 3:55 AM

A serving senior CIA officer has forecast an apocalyptic future for the United States in its war on terrorism because of Washington’s misguided and ill-directed policies. al Qaida is going to attack mainland US again, possibly with weapons of mass destruction, and the strike will be bigger than 9/11, he says.

The stark and grim warning, along with a scathing analysis of Washington’s approach to terrorism and turmoil in the Islamic world, is contained in a forthcoming book titled Imperial Hubris written by 'Anonymous' – a nom de guerre the author is forced to take because he is still on CIA rolls.

Although the book is slated for release three weeks from now, previews of the book and the television interviews 'Anonymous' is giving - in silhouette - is causing concern in the administration, already under pressure with the opening this week in the US of Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 9/11.

Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 3:36 AM

Quite good, actually:

T is for terrorism and tax cuts. Can you solve this problem? President Bush wants to invade Iraq. But foreign invasions cost billions of dollars, and President Bush has just passed huge tax cuts. How's he ever going to pay for the war? It's a very hard problem, but you may take as long as you need to solve it. Put your head on your desk when you've finished. Hint: Don't forget to compound the interest! (Did we mention that D is also for debt, and S is also for Shit Happens?)
posted by Kevin at 3:09 AM

Not enough orgy stories make the news these days. This is a pretty good one. In case you're wondering, my editorial filter may have been affected by the nearly two (out of a total of four) pitchers of cheap beer I have consumed with Cryptogon reader DG this evening:

An urgent inquiry was launched in Cyprus last night after an undercover police operation exposed a group of up to 100 tourists, including Britons, taking part in what was described a mass orgy aboard a cruise ship off the island.

The scenes, shown on local TV and described as "debauched", were broadcast after being caught on camera in the police sting. Arrests are expected in the coming days. "These scenes are not just graphic, they go beyond every conceivable limit," the island's deputy chief of police, Sotiris Haralambous, said. "We are talking about 50, 100 people involved in acts of total debauchery. It's hard to even describe."

The still pictures, leaked to the privately owned Mega TV channel and broadcast in suitably edited form, show the ferrygoers during the night cruise in international waters off the island. Some revellers are seen nude and taking part in various sex acts; others appear clothed, gawping from around the deck. One man is wearing a T-shirt clearly emblazoned with the words "100% Brummie".
posted by Kevin at 2:36 AM

Cryptogon took a hit from a U.S. Military Central Command machine named gargamel.orha.centcom.mil.

I was mumbling to myself, "Gargamel.... Gargamel.... WTF is Gargamel?" It sounded familiar for some reason. After 15 seconds of not being able to recall what Gargamel referred to, I consulted Google.

Gargamel:

Living in a dilapidated hovel on the edge of the forest, Gargamel, the horrible sorcerer, is an evil, cunning and two-faced wizard. He hates the Smurfs and is constantly in pursuit of them, but the Smurfs always outwit him and manage to escape. After each setback Gargamel swears he shall be revenged. [sic]

My sister used to watch the Smurfs when we were kids. I'd hear it in the other room, as I built weird things out of Legos, patiently waiting my turn to watch cartoons*. So, I knew Gargamel sounded familiar.

In any event, it's nice to know that CENTCOM named one of its machines after an evil wizard from a 1980s-era cartoon about small blue creatures who lived inside mushrooms. Let me know if any of you freaks come across U.S. military computers with names taken from ROBOTECH or Gundam.

* Voltron, if you must know.
posted by Kevin at 8:27 PM

AM, a Cryptogon reader from Australia, writes:

Hi Kevin,

Our very own tinpot fascist here in Australia made this announcement the same day you posted your theories on children being the vanguard of fascism.

John Howard is a madman:

SCHOOLS that fail to fly the Australian flag will miss out on future Commonwealth cash under hardline conditions announced yesterday.

Prime Minister John Howard denied his flags-for-funds demand was old-fashioned.

"There is a cultural change in relation to the display of national symbols and, far from this being old fashioned, I think it is very compatible and very consonant with what people want," Mr Howard said.

"The younger generations embrace those things far more, may I say with great respect, than people aged between 35 and 50."

Schools will be required to have "functioning flagpoles" to be eligible for a slice of the Government's $31 billion funding pool.

Research Credit: AM
posted by Kevin at 8:10 PM

Mr. Moore, who has tackled corporate greed (Roger & Me) and gun control (Bowling for Columbine), now feels driven and obligated to strip the façade from a swaggering, bow-legged, grammatically challenged bully and a cabinet that is beginning to look more like the Third Reich every day. He accuses them of lying about their motivations for declaring war against Iraq, a country that never threatened America in the first place, killing thousands of innocent civilians in retaliation for the acts of 9/11 aggression, although not one of the terrorists was from Iraq, and killing more than 800 of our own American kids (all from ethnic or working-class families). Nobody denies that Saddam Hussein was a monster, but not the Iraqi women and children who have been "saved" from one villain only to be burned and shot and maimed for life without arms and legs by villains in a different uniform. At the same time, Mr. Moore shows Mr. Bush justifying American atrocities against Saddam Hussein by actually saying to the camera, "He tried to kill my daddy."
posted by Kevin at 7:06 PM

Faaaaaaaaaantastic!

European companies are finding ingenious ways to disguise ugly, but necessary, mobile phone antenna masts. Customers can pick everything from trees to crucifixes.

Those willing to set up mobile phone antenna masts on their property can get good money for their cooperation -- along with grief from their neighbors.

The masts are typically unwanted in neighborhoods, either because of fears that they can damage your health or due to their ugly appearance. There's an answer to that last objection, simply dress the masts up as trees, chimneys, or even crucifixes.

"Different authorities always request ways to make the masts look nicer," said Josef Skuk, manager of the Austrian company Industrieanlageabau. So Skuk's company started disguising their masts to look like full-grown trees.

"Pine needle or trees with leaves, we have both on offer," Skuk said.

A growing number of companies across Europe provide similar services. Kaal in Holland and the British company, Francis & Lewis, offer trees that can be "built in a day" and look real, even down to the bark.

The starting price for Skuk's trees is around €25,000 ($30,200). But if the client wants to avoid foliage, the company also produces chimney masts and crucifixes for churches.

Jesus on the antenna

The latter crosses the line for some congregations, who are not willing to see Christ on a cross, with antennae sticking out here and there. The mayor of Schwabhausen, in deeply Catholic Bavaria, has come out against such an antenna in his village church. Mobile phone companies are hesitant as well.

Research Credit: JH
posted by Kevin at 1:51 PM

Greetings to all Federal Government employees:

199.196.144.12 - - [22/Jun/2004:08:40:36 -0600] "GET /docs/cryptogon_cyberwar.pdf HTTP/1.0" 206 356921 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)"

DNS translation of 199.196.144.12: tias-gw2.treas.gov

The user at Treasury conducted the following Google search: "large PDF" and proxy servers

You can see why he/she downloaded my report from the results of that Google search.
posted by Kevin at 4:47 AM

Personally, I think M1 tanks and cobra gunships should patrol WalMart. HA!

The other day, I had a weird "vision" of soldiers nodding and saying "hello" to fat hog people and their fat hog spawn as they entered a WalMart. And all the fat hog people just loved it:

One New York lawmaker is demanding better security at the nation's shopping malls in the wake of last week's revelation about a terrorist plot to bomb an Ohio shopping center.

Sen. Charles Schumer, New York: "We have to learn the lessons of 9-11 and look at anything the terrorist might throw at us... "

Sen. Chuck Schumer asked a question a lot of us have asked for a long time, 'If security is so tight at the airports why isn't it the same with subways or at shopping malls?'

Sen. Charles Schumer, New York: "It's not that we should stop going to shopping malls. I went this morning to Costco with my wife and kids but rather we should do everything, everything, everything to keep ourselves as safe as possible."
posted by Kevin at 4:02 AM

The full horror is nearly upon us:

United States Patent 6,754,472
Williams, et al. June 22, 2004

Method and apparatus for transmitting power and data using the human body

Abstract
Methods and apparatus for distributing power and data to devices coupled to the human body are described. The human body is used as a conductive medium, e.g., a bus, over which power and/or data is distributed. Power is distributed by coupling a power source to the human body via a first set of electrodes. One or more devise to be powered, e.g., peripheral devices, are also coupled to the human body via additional sets of electrodes. The devices may be, e.g., a speaker, display, watch, keyboard, etc. A pulsed DC signal or AC signal may be used as the power source. By using multiple power supply signals of differing frequencies, different devices can be selectively powered. Digital data and/or other information signals, e.g., audio signals, can be modulated on the power signal using frequency and/or amplitude modulation techniques.

Inventors: Williams; Lyndsay (Cambridge, GB); Vablais; William (Woodinville, WA); Bathiche; Steven N. (Bellevue, WA)
Assignee: Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA)
Appl. No.: 559746
Filed: April 27, 2000

Research Credit: AL
posted by Kevin at 3:53 AM

I'm preparing an extended response to this important article, but I wanted you to see this right away. To sum up, Niall Ferguson, a Council of Foreign Relations stooge, is letting us see the writing on the wall: Chaos will follow a decline of U.S. hegemony. My commentary will explain why this is a good thing, and what has to happen after "It" comes down:

Without American hegemony the world would likely return to the dark ages.

In short, each of the obvious 21st-century hegemons--the U.S., Europe, China--seems to contain within it the seeds of decline; while Islam remains a diffuse force in world politics, lacking the resources of a superpower.

Suppose, in a worst-case scenario, that U.S. neoconservativism meets its match in Iraq and that the Bush administration's project to democratize the Middle East at gunpoint ends in withdrawal: from empire to decolonization in 24 months. Suppose also that no rival power shows interest in filling the resulting vacuums--not only in Iraq but conceivably also Afghanistan, to say nothing of the Balkans and Haiti. What would an "apolar" future look like?

The question should be: What will this system look like in 20 years if it continues apace? HA!

Research Credit: btuswci
posted by Kevin at 3:36 AM

I wonder why this image isn't in all the newspapers and on TV? Hmmm.... Oh yeah, make sure that your kids send in their Selective Service registration information:


posted by Kevin at 3:29 AM

Is there anyone in Orange County who wants to help me give away "cryptogon.com" enhanced Deception Dollars at movie theaters? I figure that two of us can give more away before security guards/cops escort us off the property.
posted by Kevin at 2:59 AM

I think it's almost funny how upset people are about this! We have a system of arbitrary, asymmetrical, de facto law in this country. WTF do you think will be the result!? The laws, the lawyers and the judges are criminally corrupt from top to bottom! That's the purpose of them! That's why they're in positions of power. States exist to tax you into oblivion, rob you at gunpoint and kill you. That's it. All the rest of it is window dressing.

At some point, tyrants and swindlers determined that appearances are more effectively maintained if policies and positions of power are backed by laws. Fine. You get a tyranny with lawyers. This identity flap is a red hearing for the collapsed state of liberty in this country. This supreme court decision is just the icing on the cake. Well, no, actually, that will arrive when you're required to carry a state ID card, driver's license or national ID card. Or maybe it will be a chip...

A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that people who refuse to give their names to police can be arrested, even if they've done nothing wrong.

The court previously had said police may briefly detain people they suspect of wrongdoing, without any proof.

But until now, the justices had never held that during those encounters a person must reveal their identity.

The court's 5-4 decision upholds laws in at least 21 states giving police the right to ask people their name and jail those who don't cooperate.
posted by Kevin at 2:26 AM

* yawn * The Supreme Court MOSTLY serves to rubberstamp policies that increase government and corporate power:

The U.S. Supreme Court handed health insurers a victory Monday by ruling that patients cannot sue them in a state court for malpractice or negligence damages.

The justices, in a unanimous decision dealing with both health care and federalism, said that a U.S. law passed 30 years ago trumps various state laws governing patients' rights to sue health plans.

While supporters say that limiting lawsuits will save everyone in the long run, critics see the decision as a major blow to patients' rights.
posted by Kevin at 2:08 AM

This is a fairly standard practice in fascist systems. The Soviet Union had political officers stationed in all apartment buildings, etc. I would expect "Anti-Terror" youth groups to start appearing at any moment in America.

Some of you know that I can be pretty sarcastic, but I'm not kidding with that last statement. I'm just going by what HAS HAPPENED in ALL overtly fascist systems I have ever examined. Youth participation in state activities is a critical component of state power and security. The goal is to make parents afraid of their own children. The result is that parents watch their political speech and actions around their kids out of fear that the child might report them to teachers or other state authorities. This is, in effect, a passive form of counter insurgency.

With youth groups, the state instills the types of attitudes and obedience to authority that are necessary for system maintenance. And no, I don't think the public school system is sufficient. Public school provides the ideological setting, but it is the counter insurgency capability of all of those young eyes and ears that the fascist states covet. These skills are more effectively developed in a separate, more militant, setting. The goal, of course, is to cultivate and weaponize the worst aspects of human behavior very early on in a child's development.

To many people, the brand of fascism practiced in the U.S. doesn't appear as ugly as it has in other states. This "friendly fascism" perverts traditional mythology, imagery and other cultural referents into systems of control and oppression. (See Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross.) I would look for traditional groups like the Boy Scouts to start taking on a homeland security role. Perhaps, Girl Scout Freedom Cookies, or some similar nonsense, will become a patriotic "litmus test" of sorts. Would little Sally think Mr. Jones was a terrorist because he didn't want to buy any Freedom Cookies? You get the idea...

Building superintendents and doormen in New York City are receiving anti-terrorism training under a program developed with the help of the Police Department. The idea is to make the building employees the eyes and ears for the police.

Plans call for the training of 28,000 building employees in the next 18 months. "My mother in Queens knows everything that goes on in her neighborhood," said Michael Lollo, one of the police-academy instructors teaching the course. "We want 56,000 more eyes."

Research Credit: btuswci
posted by Kevin at 1:04 AM

Ahhh, the benefits of having a fission reactor onboard your warship...
posted by Kevin at 12:14 AM

The video associated with this story is really weird and worth checking out:

It was a power surge that left up to 65-thousand Arizonans in the dark one week ago.

Now, some are pointing to strange lights in the skies as a possible link to that massive outage. The disturbance was large enough to shut-down all 3 units at the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant. About the same time as this massive power outage some people in the West Valley spotted something strange hovering in the sky.

Then less than 48 hours later in the same direction of the plant you had THIS captured on video. Astronomer, Steve Kates, known throughout the Valley as "Dr.Sky" says he believes the video is legit. Kates says he has seen a lot over the years but THIS sighting is special and similar to the "Phoenix Lights" sighting back in 1997.

So what is this? Not wanting to sound like someone out of a science fiction novel Dr. Sky says they're still investigating. But Dr. Sky says regardless of *WHAT* this is...the timing of this showing up.... so close to the Palo Verde Outage is interesting.
posted by Kevin at 12:02 AM

Routine:

Detainees held in Afghanistan by US troops have been routinely tortured and humiliated as part of the interrogation process in the same way as those in Iraq, a Guardian investigation has found.

Five detainees have died in custody, three of them in suspicious circumstances, and survivors have told stories of beatings, strippings, hoodings and sleep deprivation.

The nature of the alleged abuse indicates that what happened at Abu Ghraib was part of a pattern of interrogation that has been common practice since the invasion of Afghanistan.
posted by Kevin at 12:01 AM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration.
posted by Kevin at 11:02 AM

I REALLY LIKE AUTAMATA! Ken McHugh's eclectic sound is imbued with delicate nuances that compel me to listen to the tracks over and over again. Check out some of Autamata's songs for yourself. The entire "My Sanctuary" album is available for download for about 11 U.S. dollars. Not bad, considering that the CD isn't available in the U.S.

I hope that you'll like Autamata and support Ken McHugh's work. If you enjoy bands like Autamata, The Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, Badly Drawn Boy, Iron and Wine, American Analog Set and the Eels, let me know some of your other favorites.
posted by Kevin at 2:33 AM

In the past few months several books have been published that attack the US intelligence community, and the White House, for their alleged mistakes and misstatements about Iraq and the war on terror. Most of these books, the Guardian reports, have been written by "embittered" former officials.

But now, the newspaper reports, a senior US intelligence official is "about to publish a bitter condemnation of America's counter-terrorism policy, arguing that the West is losing the war against Al Qaeda and that an 'avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked' war in Iraq has played into Osama bin Laden's hands." This senior intelligence official, who writes as 'Anonymous,' also says that Osama bin Laden may attack the US before the November election to ensure the re-election of President George Bush."

Anonymous, who published an analysis of Al Qaeda last year, called Through Our Enemies' Eyes, thinks it quite possible that another devastating strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, as was the case in the Madrid bombing, but of keeping the same one in place. "I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now," he said. "One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the president."

"Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror" will be released in July.
posted by Kevin at 2:13 AM

Excellent Flash presentation.
posted by Kevin at 2:07 AM

If you're on Windows, don't wreck your head trying to use GPG from the command line. Manage your private and public keys with GPGshell.

Related: New Encryption (GnuPG) Key
posted by Kevin at 5:41 PM

Not long to wait now:

Most folks these days easily brush aside any message suggesting that all of humanity faces an epic crisis. However, the story suddenly becomes so disturbing no one can longer ignore the consequences of inaction. I speak as a college professor with 32 years of dedication to studying and promoting global sustainability. I admit freely to the frustration I have experienced getting the message very far beyond a small choir of folks willing to listen. Sometimes I feel as if all I can do is pray for the dead and fight like hell for what is left alive.

This morning, I read an article entitled "Eating Fossil Fuels" by Dale Allen Pfieffer.

In all of my years, I have never been hit anywhere near as hard as I have been by the power and implications of these words. My conscience as a teacher and letter writer obligates me to condense these words for, perhaps, a broader exposure. The most astounding reality remains that in this year of a presidential election, only one minor candidate has addressed the problem in any significant way.
posted by Kevin at 5:15 AM

Make your time:

A look at debt in Canada and the United States reveals some eye-popping numbers: In both countries, the level of debt to disposable income is at about 115 per cent, meaning residents owe more than their entire available annual income. A decade ago, that ratio was closer to 85 per cent, and even as recently as three years ago it was less than 100 per cent.

Rather than scale back consumption during the recent economic downturn, consumers took on debt at an unprecedented rate — and that has continued, despite the promise of higher interest rates. In the first quarter of 2004, U.S. household debt rose at an annual rate of 10.9 per cent, the second fastest in 15 years. It has risen by 30 per cent since 2000 to $9.4-trillion (U.S.).

The primary engine for this has been record-low mortgage rates, which have driven a refinancing boom in the United States and to a lesser extent in Canada. That, in turn, has poured billions of dollars into consumption of all kinds, including house buying. And the main driver behind low mortgage rates, of course, has been the lowest interest rates in half a century.
posted by Kevin at 2:28 AM

The World Bank's drive to promote fossil fuel-generated power for 1.6 billion people lacking electricity will drive developing countries deeper into debt, a report by a development thinktank claims today.

Fossil fuels, such as oil, gas and coal, will never provide enough power for developing nations because of the cost of connecting remote communities to a national grid, whereas renewable forms of electricity generation could provide a cheaper solution, the New Economics Foundation says.

The subsidies paid by the World Bank and export credit agencies to fossil fuel industries to expand in the developing world, particularly Africa, are driving countries deeper into debt rather than helping the poor as is the declared intention, stresses the foundation. It criticises the president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, who has dismissed renewables as an expensive solution. The report says Mr Wolfensohn "at best has a bad grasp of basic economics and at worst reflects the entrenched interests of the Bank's major donors, the fossil fuel industries".
posted by Kevin at 2:23 AM

Paul Kesterson was getting ready for work Friday morning when two thunderous explosions a split second apart rocked the sky above his home.

"It was loud enough to shake the house and rattle the windows," said Kesterson, owner of Marshfield TV and Electronics. "The dog's probably still hiding."

The rural Webster County man rushed outside, not sure what he'd find.

"There was a smoke trail in the sky, but it wasn't straight," he said. "It kind of came down at an angle, like a jet contrail that the wind had distorted."

The Webster County Sheriff's Department fielded nearly 20 phone calls from area residents around 9:20 a.m., concerned something had blown up.

NASA scientist Mike Mumma said the likely culprit was a "sizable" meteor ripping apart as it blasted through the atmosphere at 100,000 mph.

"From the description of buildings and windows shaking, that's a fairly significant sonic boom," said Mumma, chief scientist of planetary research at Goddard Research Center in Greenbelt, Md. "It would have been much larger than fist-sized to make that loud of a noise and generate that much energy. I couldn't speculate how big, though."
posted by Kevin at 2:20 AM

Cryptogon is up, after being down for about two days.

I was a collateral damage victim of a distributed denial of service attack that was directed at a different domain.

Cryptogon is hosted on a machine with about 200 other domains. One of these boneheads got the bright idea to start some kind of scam involving spam. The strikeback, by antispam jihadists, that was directed at the renegade domain, crippled the server and took down all of the other domains running on that machine, including Cryptogon.

Hey, I guess you take your chances by sharing a box with 200 other bums who can't afford dedicated hosting. * Sigh *
posted by Kevin at 1:29 AM

Military intelligence personnel undertaking operations against Americans, and running agents, inside the United States? Sure:

A Pentagon effort to persuade Congress to allow military intelligence agents to work undercover in the United States met with resistance in the House Wednesday when the provision was left out of the highly secretive intelligence funding bill.

However, the Senate's version of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2005 still includes the provision, which exempts Department of Defense intelligence agents from a portion of the Privacy Act, a 30-year-old law that outlaws secret databases on American citizens and green-card holders.

John Young, over at Cryptome, writes, "Senate Report 108-258 accompanying the bill describes in Section 502 why DoD needs to have domestic spying prohibition lifted: so DoD can do what the CIA does!" Here's a taste of it:

To improve the ability of intelligence personnel of the Department of Defense to recruit sources, it is necessary for Defense intelligence personnel, without having to divulge their affiliation with the Department or the U.S. Government, to approach potential sources and collect personal information from them to determine their suitability and willingness to become intelligence sources.

Current counterterrorism operations highlight the need for greater latitude for assessing potential intelligence sources, both overseas and within the United States. Amending the Privacy Act to give Defense intelligence officers the same protection enjoyed by CIA when assessing and recruiting sources should serve to protect these officers and shield their operations. This should improve the Defense Department's ability to conduct successful human intelligence operations.
posted by Kevin at 4:16 AM