cryptogon.com
   HOME
7/15/2005

TONY BLAIR: "AL-QAEDA IS NOT AN ORGANIZATION" :.

In other words, "We are the terrorists."

"Al-Qaeda is not an organization. Al-Qaeda is a way of working, ... but this has the hallmarks of that approach," Mr. Blair said of the attacks, which killed 53 people, including four bombers.



Longhorn to Require DRM Enabled Monitor :.

HAHA! By the time this piece of garbage ships, you're going to need a hall pass from the Department of Homeland Security to take a piss.

Meet your new tamper proof vending machine:

So what is OPM? The successor to Microsoft's rarely-mentioned COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocol), PVP-OPM (Protected Video Path - Output Protection Management) is the first play in Microsoft's game plan to ensure that protected content stays protected. PVP-OPM performs two main functions. First, it detects the capabilities of the display devices attached to the computer. For instance, does the DVI LCD monitor that you're using have HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)? Second, it manages what, if anything, gets sent to those devices.

Human Readable Summary: Slashdot

Related: DRM Coverage on Cryptogon



Shopping for Dates at WalMart :.

Darlin, lemme git that gallon jug o nacho cheese-food and that Jeff Gordon sleeping bag for ya:

From lingerie to lawn mowers, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer prides itself on offering its customers truly one-stop shopping. Now, customers at a Roanoke, Va., Wal-Mart can peruse the aisles for something extra: a date.

Singles can head to the Roanoke Wal-Mart tonight for the third of the store's weekly singles nights, held every Friday evening. Billed as a way singles can meet their match while filling their cart, participating customers select shopping carts adorned with red bows identifying them as singles looking to mingle. The rest is up to them.


Related: Chinese Try Mobile Execution Vans



New Googlebot Behavior

I noticed a spike in traffic today. When I went to see what it was, I noticed that Googlebot now arrives from lots of different IPs and crawls a small---but random???---number of pages. It returns a few minutes later for more. Here are the critters that showed up over the last couple of hours, and the numbers of pages they crawled:

crawl-66-249-71-18.googlebot.com 3
crawl-66-249-64-33.googlebot.com 3
crawl-66-249-64-38.googlebot.com 2
crawl-66-249-64-66.googlebot.com 7
crawl-66-249-66-210.googlebot.com 1
crawl-66-249-71-39.googlebot.com 2
crawl-66-249-64-68.googlebot.com 2
crawl-66-249-71-73.googlebot.com 2
crawl-66-249-64-39.googlebot.com 4
crawl-66-249-64-30.googlebot.com 3



Finger Scanning At Disney Parks :.

Supersize your freedom fries and wave your flags:

Tourists visiting Disney theme parks in Central Florida must now provide their index and middle fingers to be scanned before entering the front gates.

The scans were formerly for season pass holders but now everyone must provide their fingers, Local 6 News reported. They have reportedly been phased in for all ticket holders during the past six months, according to a report.



More Good News About Aspartame :.

The European Food Safety Authority is reviewing "as a matter of high priority" the results of a large new study into aspartame, the artificial sweetener consumed by millions of people worldwide and used in more than 6,000 food and drink products.

Researchers at the Ramazzini Institute for cancer research in Italy say their study shows that aspartame causes lymphomas and leukaemia in female laboratory animals "at doses very close to the acceptable daily intake for humans". The authors of the study also say that while rats fed aspartame ate less food, there was no difference in body weight between treated and untreated animals.


7/14/2005

FBI Hiring Contractors for Terrorist Roll Playing :.

The bureau is seeking bids from firms that can provide at least 60 civilian role players to staff these training scenarios for 12 months (and perhaps for four option years). The role players portray bank robbers, terrorists, murderers, crime victims, and witnesses. They sometimes carry weapons, engage in paintball shootouts with FBI trainees, and should be prepared to be "handcuffed in a variety of positions (i.e., standing, kneeling, prone, walking backwards on their knees)."



Unborn Babies Soaked in Toxic Chemicals :.

Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report to be released on Thursday.

The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA.

"These 10 newborn babies ... were born polluted," said New York Rep. Louise Slaughter, who planned to publicize the findings at a news conference on Thursday.

"If ever we had proof that our nation's pollution laws aren't working, it's reading the list of industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb," Slaughter, a Democrat, said.



Sploid.com Contributes $20 :.

Thanks sploid.com!


7/13/2005

Scientists Predict Brave New World of Brain Pills :.

Do you get it yet?

Can't remember phone numbers, worried about an upcoming exam or desperately want to give up smoking? In future, the answer will be simple: just pop a pill.

The idea that an array of easily available and addiction-free drugs could be used to improve memory or increase intelligence is the stuff of science fiction dystopia - in Brave New World, Aldous Huxley created a whole planet under the spell of a pleasure drug called Soma.

But a new report by leading scientists in the fields of psychology and neuroscience argues that, very soon, there really will be a pill for every ill.



Terror Exercise Held on the Same Morning as the London 7/7 Bomb Attack :.

July 12, 2005
GlobalResearch.ca

TV Interview with Mr. Peter Power of Visor Consultants, Ltd who was conducting a mock terror exercise for a business client on the same morning as the real 7/7 attack

BBC-video

Audio interview with Mr. Peter Power, BBC Radio

BBC5-radio


TRANSCRIPT OF BBC TV INTERVIEW

POWER: Today we were running an exercise for a company - bear in mind now that I'm in the private sector - and we sat everybody down in the city - 1000 people involved in the whole organization - with the crisis team. And the most peculiar thing was it was we based on a scenario of simultaneous attacks on a underground and mainline station. So we had to suddenly switch an exercise from fictional to real. And one of the first things is, get that bureau number, when you have a list of people missing, tell them. And it took a long time -

INTERVIEWER: Just to get this right, you were actually working today on an exercise that envisioned virtually this scenario?

POWER: Almost precisely. I was up to 2 oclock this morning, because it's our job, my own company. Visor Consultants, we specialize in helping people to get their crisis management response, how you jump from slow time thinking to quick time doing. And we chose a scenario with no assistance, which is based on a terrorist attack because they've been close to a property occupied by Jewish businessmen there in the city, and there are more American banks in this city than there are in the whole of New York - a logical thing to do.

INTERVIEWER: How extraordinary today must feel for you as it unfolds. You mentioned a few moments ago there our experience with Irish Republican terrorism. And of course it was very different wasn't it because however perverted their behavior, the IRA believed itself to have some sort of code of honour, and tended to issue some kind of warnings, of course they often came too late to do any good.



Democrats Aim to Increase Army Size :.

HAHA! The loving liberals need more men with guns to show you how much they care for you:

A team of Senate and House Democrats today are planning to introduce legislation today aimed at significantly increasing size of the U.S. Army.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking member of the Senate Armed Services (SASC) airland subcommittee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), a SASC member, and Reps. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), both members of the House Armed Services committee, are pressing for the passage of the United States Army Relief Act.



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $10

Thanks KG!



I'm Pulling Support for 'From the Wilderness'

The fact that Ruppert isn't mentioning the terror exercise in London, that corresponded to the actual attack, is EXTREMELY disturbing.

Until 'From the Wilderness' rectifies this SERIOUS discrepancy, I'm withdrawing support for that site.

Additionally, I'm thinking about compiling a list of sites that should be mentioning the Visor Consultants exercise, but aren't. I'm also interested in hearing about sites pushing the ridiculous idea that the story is fake.



Coast to Coast Discussing Possible Vitamin Ban in U.S. :.

Dr. Robin Falkov, Dr. Terry Grossman and journalist Jon Rappoport join together to discuss the implications of pending legislation that may regulate the distribution of over the counter dietary supplements.


7/12/2005

Why Business People Speak Like Idiots : A Bullfighter's Guide :.

I advise you to reprioritize your action items.



Robert Earl Appointed to Top Pentagon Post :.

These criminals don't go to prison, they go to the top slots in the machine:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Robert Earl, who destroyed national security documents during the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal, is working as chief of staff to acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, the Pentagon said on Monday.

Earl destroyed and stole national security documents while working for Lt. Col. Oliver North during a secret arms deal with Iran in which the United States passed money from those weapons sales to Contra guerrillas in Nicaragua, according to a report to Congress by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman confirmed Earl was a senior England aide, a fact first reported in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday. He added, "I wonder why it's an issue now."

"It was a long time ago," Whitman said. "He has served ably for many years in the department and in industry."

Earl was granted immunity for his testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal and was never prosecuted.



EUROPE BANS VITAMINS :.

The Darkness really is closing in:

A controversial new EU regulation that has threatened to outlaw thousands of mineral supplements and bankrupt health food stores across Britain was upheld this morning.

The European Court of Justice approved the Food Supplements Directive even though the court's own Advocate-General advised that the Directive was invalid under EU law.

The ruling - greeted with surprise - is a defeat for a concerted campaign by more than a million British health food customers and shops. They have argued that the law, which will come into effect on August 1, will impose an unprecedented level of regulation on mineral supplements and could threaten the existence of small suppliers.


7/11/2005

London Bombers Claim Responsibility; On Bush Connected Server in Houston?! :.

I couldn't make this sh*t up if I tried. This is from The Guardian! That's not exactly a backwater conspiracy rag:

The server in Houston has intriguing connections. Everyone's Internet was founded by brothers Robert and Roy Marsh in 1998 and by 2002 had an income of more than $30m (now about GBP17m).

Renowned for his charitable work, Roy Marsh counts among his friends President George Bush's former sister-in-law, Sharon Bush, and the president's navy secretary.



OSD.Mil Searches Google for London Terror Exercises, Hits Cryptogon

The U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense user (host: tma144118.tma.osd.mil, ip: 164.65.144.118) conducted the following Google search: london underground bombing exercises.



Blair Rejects Calls for Probe Into Bombings :.

Imagine my shock! We told you who did it now shut up!

Tony Blair will on Monday reject Conservative demands for a government inquiry into last week's London bomb attacks, insisting such a move would distract from the task of catching the perpetrators.

As police and security services on Sunday continued searching for the bombers - thought to be Islamist terrorists - Downing Street said the prime minister believed an inquiry now into the outrage which killed at least 49 people would be a "ludicrous diversion."


Related: VIDEO CONFIRMS TERROR "EXERCISE" AT SAME TIME AND PLACES AS REAL BOMBS IN LONDON WATCH IT!!!



Fortunes Made on Bombing :.

THOUSANDS of investors joined sharp institutions in making millions of pounds from the short-lived collapse in share prices that followed the terrorist strikes in London last week.

It was the busiest day of trading for over two years. The London Stock Exchange said 4.75 billion shares were traded on Thursday compared with the recent daily average of about 3.1 billion.

BP and Vodafone were among Britain's largest companies that took advantage of the volatile markets to improve their balance sheets.

Financial spread-betting firm City Index said more than 8000 retail investors had dived into the market on Thursday, correctly backing their hunch that share prices would quickly bounce back.

Some will find profiteering from horror distasteful. But many in the City applauded the resilience of capitalism.

The opportunity was created by automatic trading systems, used by institutional investors, that began dumping stock when shares fell sharply as news of the blasts spread through the City. At one point the UK benchmark stock index, the FTSE 100, had lost 100 points in two minutes and at its lowest was showing a 4 per cent fall.


7/10/2005

Rove Revealed as Plame Source :.

Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's top political adviser, was the secret source who gave a Time magazine reporter permission to testify last week, thus avoiding jail for contempt of court, Newsweek reported on Sunday.



DailyKOS and the Struggle Toward Normal :.

I was content to say, "F*ck DailyKOS" and move on. I'm glad, however, that Jeff Wells managed to come up with a somewhat more eloquent reaction to dKOS' Soviet-style attempt to stifle inquiry and appear "normal." While Markos Moulitsas' behavior is pathetic, it illustrates the standard tendency toward evil that MUST happen if one wants to join the ranks of mainstream punditry.

Sites like DailyKOS, however, represent a genre of media we may come to think of as sub-mainstream media. Imagine, if you will, that bloggers represent a social organization that resembles chicken sh*t. There's a wide flat base that includes most bloggers. Then there's the narrow, raised-up white part. This represents the pinnacle of the blogosphere. With the castrated analysis and cognitive dissonance, DailyKOS is clearly aiming for the this hallowed, almost-mainstream ground. Keep flushing verifiable facts down the memory hole, boy. You'll get there.

Here's a hint, Kos: Excluding information to reach a more accurate understanding of events makes about as much sense as a Jew signing up for capo duties in a Nazi deathcamp:

So DailyKos has conducted a "mass banning" of those who had been "perpetuating a series of bizarre, off-the-wall, unsupported and frankly embarassing conspiracy theories." I hope no one is terribly surprised by this development. From the darlings of alternative media, purges usually follow their contributors' binges of unproscribed spelunking into the deep politics of a mass event. If someone like Kos doesn't distance himself from inquiries that offend mainstream sensibilities he risks the loss of the honourary privileges extended to the pacified blogosphere, and where is he then? Just another former Republican who has a problem with women. And since inquiry isn't his strong suit - Kos regards the theft of the 2004 election as just another "conspiracy theory" and can write with a Bushian lack of irony that he has a "high tolerance level for material I deem appropriate" - making it a sacrificial offering to the incurious middle couldn't have been a tough call.

More than truth, such people crave respectability, which they call "credibility" because it conforms to the conventional wisdom of those whose approval they seek. This becomes the capital they believe they trade for "influence," which is nothing more than their place in punditry's pecking order.

They want, dear God, to be normal. That was never much to which to aspire, and it ain't what it used to be.


Research Credit: TR, holder of a PhD in cognitive science, told me that universities share a structure similar to that of chicken sh*t. The professors represent the narrow, raised-up white part.



Giuliani in London During Attacks :.

I sh*t you not. What are the odds...

Giuliani, who guided New York through the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, was staying at a hotel near Liverpool Street Station, close to where the first explosion occurred.

Don't worry, I'm not going to run the numbers past you...



Federal Deficit Reality: An Update :.

This is an excellent report. I encourage all of you to read it carefully.

Oh yeah, you better have a plan! Waiting until it's obvious to everyone is worse than stupid:

By holding dollars and investing in Treasuries, instead of converting dollars to a local currency, foreign investors have been helping to fund much of the U.S. deficit.

The combination of the rapidly deteriorating trade and budget deficits guarantee this will change. At some point, willingness among foreign investors to hold dollars will evaporate along with the reality that currency losses are more than offsetting any investment gains. When sentiment shifts away from the greenback, not only are foreign investors going to stop buying U.S. Treasuries, but also they likely will dump their holdings of existing Treasuries along with the U.S. dollar. Such actions would lead to a sharp dollar decline, a sharp spike in interest rates and a sharp sell-off in equities. The question, again, is who is going to buy the Treasuries?

With new debt continually hitting the market, eventually the Fed will have to step in to buy the Treasuries -- as lender of last resort -- effectively monetizing the debt. The more the Fed monetizes, the greater will be the growth in the money supply, the greater will be the weakness in the dollar, the greater will be the rate of inflation.




Google


cryptogon.com
www

:. Reading

Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture by Andrew Kimbrell Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms.

Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America by Bertram Myron Gross This is a relatively short but extremely cogent and well-argued treatise on the rise of a form of fascistic thought and social politics in late 20th century America. Author Bertram Gross' thesis is quite straightforward; the power elite that comprises the corporate, governmental and military superstructure of the country is increasingly inclined to employ every element in their formidable arsenal of 'friendly persuasion' to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans through what Gross refers to as friendly fascism.

The Good Life
by Scott and Helen Nearing
Helen and Scott Nearing are the great-grandparents of the back-to-the-land movement, having abandoned the city in 1932 for a rural life based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash...Fascinating, timely, and wholly useful, a mix of the Nearings' challenging philosophy and expert counsel on practical skills.

Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth by David Bollierd In Silent Theft, David Bollier argues that a great untold story of our time is the staggering privatization and abuse of our common wealth. Corporations are engaged in a relentless plunder of dozens of resources that we collectively own—publicly funded medical breakthroughs, software innovation, the airwaves, the public domain of creative works, and even the DNA of plants, animals and humans. Too often, however, our government turns a blind eye—or sometimes helps give away our assets. Amazingly, the silent theft of our shared wealth has gone largely unnoticed because we have lost our ability to see the commons.

The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It: The Complete Back-To-Basics Guide by John Seymour The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It is the only book that teaches all the skills needed to live independently in harmony with the land harnessing natural forms of energy, raising crops and keeping livestock, preserving foodstuffs, making beer and wine, basketry, carpentry, weaving, and much more.

When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten When Corporations Rule the World explains how economic globalization has concentrated the power to govern in global corporations and financial markets and detached them from accountability to the human interest. It documents the devastating human and environmental consequences of the successful efforts of these corporations to reconstruct values and institutions everywhere on the planet to serve their own narrow ends.

The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener This expansion of a now-classic guide originally published in 1989 is intended for the serious gardener or small-scale market farmer. It describes practical and sustainable ways of growing superb organic vegetables, with detailed coverage of scale and capital, marketing, livestock, the winter garden, soil fertility, weeds, and many other topics.