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7/23/2005

The "Magic Bomb" Theory :.

London bombing survivor, Bruce Lait:
"The policeman said 'mind that hole, that's where the bomb was'. The metal was pushed upwards as if the bomb was underneath the train. They seem to think the bomb was left in a bag, but I don't remember anybody being where the bomb was, or any bag," he said.
If you still believe in the terrorist threat posed by al-Qaeda, it's because you can't allow yourself to believe the obvious facts in front of your face: The Government = The Terrorists.

Keep trying to say it isn't so. It just can't be that way. That's impossble. Damn conspiracy theorists...

Feel better?

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

Related: Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning

Related: Italian Intelligence Questions Claim of Responsibility

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

Related: Kingstar Company Van Near London Bus



The Four Powers Behind the Al-Qaeda Conspiracy :.

This is an excellent article. It's especially useful for giving to friends and family who still see he world in black and white terms. Of course, things are vastly more grim and complicated, but it's good to start the beginners off slow:

AT TIMES of national emergency, the habit of the news media to drop a story or a lead in mid-air when it seems to be going nowhere unsettles the public. The media betray a sort of sheepish wish to "move on" from an erroneous report, hoping that their audience will not notice. Rather than acknowledge this, they publish a new report, leaving us to compare it with what had previously been said - and draw our own conclusions.

Research Credit: AV



London: Man Executed by Police Unconnected to Terror Investigation :.

A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's London attacks was a Brazilian electrician unconnected to the incidents.

The man, who died at Stockwell Tube on Friday, has been named by police as Jean Charles de Menezes, 27.


7/22/2005

British Police Demand Access to Encryption Keys :.

Police last night told Tony Blair that they need sweeping new powers to counter the terrorist threat, including the right to detain a suspect for up to three months without charge instead of the current 14 days.

Senior officers also want powers to attack and close down websites, and a new criminal offence of using the internet to prepare acts of terrorism, to "suppress inappropriate internet usage".

They also want to make it a criminal offence for suspects to refuse to cooperate in giving the police full access to computer files by refusing to disclose their encryption keys.



Pentagon Wants to Raise Age Limit for Recruits to 42 :.

Faced with major recruiting problems sparked by troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon has asked Congress to raise the maximum age for U.S. military enlistees from 35 to 42 years old.

The request, sent to lawmakers this week, would apply to all active duty branches of the military services, said Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, Friday. But it is aimed chiefly at the active duty Army, which has fallen far short of recruiting goals this year, by adding millions of potential enlistees.



MASSIVE BOMBING IN EGYPT

Not quite July 22nd in that time zone...



Running on Diesel in Student Housing

My fiancee lives in grad student housing on a large university campus. Two days ago, the power went out at 6am. The university housing maintenance people managed to get the juice turned back on by 3:30pm. Well, actually, they connected a massive diesel generator to the section of the grid that powers the student apartments in the area!

The housing minions left a memo on the door of each apartment that explained what happened. This mess was caused by the failure of a power transformer. They determined that the transformer was destroyed and could not be repaired. The generator would be in place until a 'temporary' transformer could be found, which could take two weeks. And get this one: It will take fifteen weeks for the 'permanent' transformer to be installed.

I walked outside and took a look at the generator. The massive orange box was situated atop a trailer and parked next to the electrical closet out in the parking lot. Heavy gauge black cables emerged from the thing. The exhaust billowed out into the warm Summer air.

I looked around at all the concrete, the hundreds of parked cars, the bushes cut into various geometric shapes... And the generator, burning diesel fuel to keep the lights on. Then I thought about the "Grass Under Renovation" epiphany Becky and I had together a few weeks ago. I looked for a, "Pardon Our Generator" sign, but all I saw was yellow "CAUTION" tape.

Back inside the apartment, though, computers worked, lights were on, everything appeared normal. There was ice in the freezer. Even the Asian people next door had their usual LAN party fired-up.

Ahh, but notice how the courtyard lights are off... (I guess energy conservation makes sense, for the moment.) And what's that low, inescapable rumble you hear outside the window at bed time? Don't think of it as generator noise. It's the Myth of the Machine, rocking you to sleep.



London: Man Executed by Police :.

Stockwell passenger Mark Whitby told BBC News he had seen a man of Asian appearance shot five times by "plain-clothes police officers".

"One of them was carrying a black handgun - it looked like an automatic - they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him," he said.



Students Flock to Campus Organic Farms :.

In the last decade or so, student-run farms have cropped up across the country, at almost 60 schools in 27 states.



Horse-and-Plow Farming Making a Comeback :.

Just wait:

To some, the thought of a farmer patiently working the field behind a horse and plow might evoke pangs of nostalgia for the early days of agriculture. But in fact, the practice is making a comeback.


7/21/2005

London Bombings V2.0 :.

I have no idea WTF this is all about. Four suicide bombers, four simultaneous duds? Vinegar smell? [UPDATE: Possible vinegar smell.] Uhhh...

"He looked about 19 or 20-years-old, of mixed-race, clean shaven and dressed smartly in jeans, a navy blue T-shirt and baseball cap.

"The rucksack was ripped at the bottom with some kind of muslin showing and some gooey lard coming out of it. I could see what looked like a pressurised cannister or tube and there was a strong smell of vinegar.

"Then people in the other carriage shouted at me to move away from him and come over to the other carriage where they were.

"I looked back and saw him stand up looking disorientated and confused. He then walked to the back of the carriage leaving the bag and his cap on the floor and I could see some copper wire showing out of the back of his T-shirt. It was then I clicked he was an attempted suicide bomber.

"He then opened the emergency exit door and jumped down onto the tracks and started calmly walking away down the line heading west.

"I thought should I go after him - but didn't. I don't know what happened to him after that.


Research Credit: DG



California: Stage 2 Power Emergency :.

(Folsom, CA) The California Independent System Operator (California ISO) issued a Stage Two Electrical Emergency for Southern California only after several power plant units, equaling approximately 2,000 megawatts, tripped offline since yesterday due to various equipment failures, some of which are heat-related.

The California ISO has not triggered voluntary load interruptions, yet, but is prepared to do so to relieve a strained system that is importing additional power from out-of-state in order to accommodate the loss of in-state resources. The added imports are causing interstate transmission lines to near their capacity limitations.



Police Begin Checking Bags on NYC Subways :.

In other news, a body cavity search will be required to visit the Statue of Liberty. Just kidding... for now:

Police on Thursday began random searches of bags and packages carried by people entering city subways, a new security measure announced after another round of bomb attacks in London.

The inspections began Thursday on a small-scale basis in at least one location in Manhattan, where a cluster of officers was seen stopping five men over a 15-minute period as they entered a subway at evening rush hour. In each instance, the officers peered briefly into the men's bags, then waved them through.

Full-scale inspections are scheduled to be in place by rush hour Friday.



China Ends Yuan Dollar Peg :.

The crap at Walmart is about to start costing more:

China let the yuan strengthen against the dollar for the first time in a decade, responding to criticism from the U.S. and Europe that an undervalued currency gives the nation an unfair trade advantage.



Treaty Gives CIA Powers Over Irish Citizens :.

US INVESTIGATORS, including CIA agents, will be allowed interrogate Irish citizens on Irish soil in total secrecy, under an agreement signed between Ireland and the US last week.

Suspects will also have to give testimony and allow property to be searched and seized even if what the suspect is accused of is not a crime in Ireland.

Under 'instruments of agreement' signed last week by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, Ireland and the US pledged mutual co-operation in the investigation of criminal activity. It is primarily designed to assist America's so-called 'war on terror' in the wake of the September 11 atrocities.


7/20/2005

Cryptogon Reader Contributes $50

Thanks, PT, for your continuous support and generosity. PT writes:

In memory of Joe V. Long may he wave...

Share the Wealth: I'm Sending CDN$25 to Jeff Wells - Rigorous Intuition



Riot Control Ray Gun :.

Wave your signs and shake your fists, meanwhile They will consider whether or not to hit you with Their directed energy weapons:

Scientists are questioning the safety of a Star Wars-style riot control ray gun due to be deployed in Iraq next year.

The Active Denial System weapon, classified as "less lethal" by the Pentagon, fires a 95GHz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.



Any Signal in the Noise?

Part of my daily routine includes reading the baseline noise patterns that emerge from the lunatic fringe backwaters of the Internet. I won't even post the links to these freakish dens of rumor, speculation and obvious nonsense.

Right now, there is a din of non-credible, anonymous messages claiming that something big is going to happen on July 22, 2005. I won't bore you---and embarrass myself---by posting the details about why July 22, 2005 could be a big day. I have seen no actionable or verifiable information. If I did, I'd let you know.

As usual, my guess is that nothing will happen on July 22, 2005.

But...

If you know something and want to share, my public key is here.


7/19/2005

How About Those U.S. Navy Buildings? :.

It's just a coincidence that these U.S. Navy buildings on the base at Coronado Island, San Diego are arranged in the shape of swastika. Right? Just like it's a coincidence that George HW Bush happens to be holding a pyramid in this publicity image of him lounging in bed with Barb and the kiddies. It's also just a coincidence that... Oh, never mind.



Mind May Affect Machines :.

There is very little that the researchers understand about the phenomenon, but they do know that results aren't affected by distance or time. Participants, for example, can have the same effect on a machine from outside the room or across the country. They can also have the same effect if they have the intention before the REG is turned on or even if they read a book or listen to music while the machine is running.

Environmental conditions -- such as room temperature -- also don't matter, but the tester's mood and attitude do. It helps, for example, if the participant believes he or she can affect the machine.

Resonance with the machine is another important factor, Jahn said. He likens it to what happens when a great musician seems at one with her violin or a gifted athlete suddenly performs with his equipment in a way that is outside his normal bounds.

Gender matters as well. Men tend to get results that match their intent, although the degree of the effect is often small. Women tend to get a bigger effect, but not necessarily the one they intend. For example, they might intend to direct balls in the random cascade machine to fall to the left, but they fall to the right instead.

Results are also greater if a male and female work together, but same-sex pairs produce no significant results. Pairs of the opposite sex who are romantically involved produce the best results -- often seven times greater than when the same individuals are tested alone. Brenda Dunne, a developmental psychologist and the lab's manager, said the results in such cases often reflect the two gender styles. The effects are bigger, in keeping with what the female alone would tend to produce, but more on target, in keeping with what the male alone would produce.



HP Firing About 14,500 Employees :.

Nice one:

Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday said it will slash 14,500 jobs, or about 10 percent of its work force, in a sweeping move by new Chief Executive Mark Hurd to cut costs by $1.9 billion a year and compete better in cutthroat computer and printer markets.



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $75!

I received a letter from AB, along with a money order for $75!
Dear Kevin,

Enclosed is a money order. All the work you've done with your website is very much appreciated.

You're moving to New Zealand and I'm hoping to move to Canada. I put in an application for a permanent resident card in May and if all goes well, I'll be moving to rural [area in Canada deleted for privacy] around August of next year.

Best wishes to you and Becky in all you do.
AB, thank you for your generous donation and kind words. When I showed Becky your letter and money order, she smiled and said, "WOW!" We read your letter together. We wished we knew a little more about you and what your plans entail. Do you have friends and/or family up there? Are you into gardening and sustainability issues? I wanted to let you know about Mike Oehler's Earth-sheltered Greenhouse article. Below freezing outside? No problem, pick some tomatoes! ;)

Thanks again, AB.

P.S. Most of the Cryptogon readers who have told me they are leaving the U.S. are going to Canada.


7/18/2005

The Antichrist's Church Is Open for Business :.

If true Christians ever needed proof of the existence of Satan, the Lakewood "Church" in Texas pretty much fits the bill:

America's largest church has moved into a 16,000-seat sports stadium to accommodate its giant congregation.

The arena, once home to the Houston Rockets bastketball team, boasts two indoor waterfalls, video game machines and an internet cafe but no cross or other religious iconography.



Tattooed Fruit Is on the Way :.

I checked the domain name on this story three times because I thought it was a joke. Nope. It really says nytimes.com. This is no joke.

My personal favorite was the prospect of having advertising tattooed right onto the produce!

I'm going to cut my commentary off right here because I'm about to start saying things that could get me into serious trouble:

A new technology being used by produce distributors employs lasers to tattoo fruits and vegetables with their names, identifying numbers, countries of origin and other information that helps speed distribution. The marks are burned onto the outer layer of the skin and are visible to discerning consumers and befuddled cashiers alike.

The process, government approved and called safe by the industry, may sound sinister. But it was designed with the consumer in mind: laser coding could mean the end of those tiny stubborn stickers that have to be picked, scraped or yanked off produce.

The stickerless technology has a broader purpose, too: it is part of the produce industry's latest effort to identify and track, whether for profit or for security, everything Americans eat. Since 9/11, the industry has been encouraged to develop "track and trace" technology to allow protection of the food supply at various stages of distribution. In addition, next year federal regulations will require all imported produce to be labeled with the country of origin.

"With the right scanning technology the produce could even be bar-coded with lots of information: where it comes from, who grew it, who picked it, even how many calories it has per serving," said Fred Durand III, president of Durand-Wayland. "You could have a green pepper that was completely covered with coding. Or you could sell advertising space."



London Bombings and the Not-So-Invisible Hand of the Market :.

This is VERY interesting:

As the first chart shows, temporary liquidity hit a multi-year high on July 5th, which was Tuesday, and it remained highly elevated on Wednesday and Thursday. And the second chart indicates that "securities lending"---another way for the Fed to create liquidity in the financial system---saw a huge spike on June 30th...

Why the need for all that easy money all of a sudden? The Fed doesn't take this sort of action for no reason, particularly when the price of oil is already at an all-time high. It does so in response to circumstances it predicts will create a need for liquidity, or when it specifically wants to support the stock market as it did after 9/11.

The terrorist attacks in London took place on Thursday. The Fed dramatically increased the pool of liquidity available for stocks to a multi-year high 48 hours before that---an ideal amount of time for that liquidity to filter into the market---and kept it elevated for the next few days. And indeed, it worked. The stock market saw heavy buying right at the opening bell on Thursday and has shot straight up since then.


Related: Plunge Protection Team



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20

Regular Cryptogon contributor, MW, sent $20. His continuous support helps keep Cryptogon open and free to all.



New Zealand Natural Gas: Gone Within Two Years :.

This is a great article for people who don't understand natural gas depletion issues. While the piece focuses on New Zealand, consider the broader implications of natural gas depletion elsewhere. (FYI: NZ gets most of its power from hydro and it is building out wind infrastructure on a massive scale.) Whatever happens in NZ will be nothing compared to what will happen in the U.S. as the shortages become more severe:

Maui gas production is in free fall. In peak oil terminology we are over the cliff. Within a year, maybe two tops, Maui gas will be gone. We are not the only nation facing natural gas depletion. The great Canadian natural gas fields, which power much of the United States, are on the production plateau. Major blackouts have already plagued the US over the last couple of years caused by peak surges in electricity consumption. As Canadian gas production hits the cliff it is almost certain that the US will experience severe and lasting electricity outages.

Research Credit: MR



Iraq: State of Nature :.

Iraqis have begun barricading themselves in their homes and forming neighborhood militias in an effort to fend off relentless suicide attacks, residents in the capital said on Monday.

The measures come amid waning confidence in the Iraqi police and other security forces as they struggle to get on top of the two-year-old insurgency. In the latest attack, 98 people were killed by a suicide truck bomb south of Baghdad on Saturday.

A senior member of Iraq's parliament on Sunday called for popular militias to be created as an extra line of defense against the militants, and criticized the government for failing to stop the bombs.


7/17/2005

Kingstar Company Van Near London Bus

Kingstar is a company that provides controlled demolition services. That's right:



Cryptogon local copy of the image as it appeared on the BBC at the time of this post.

Image on BBC.

More: Rigorous Intuition



Exploding Patsies :.

THE London bombers may have been duped into killing themselves so their secrets stayed hidden.



Lewis Libby: Another Source for Cooper on Valerie Plame Story :.

Maybe the prosecutor will throw a conspiracy wrap into the mix of federal crimes that Rove and Libby will be charged with:

Cooper said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he spoke to Libby after first learning about Wilson's wife from Rove.

According to Cooper, Libby and Rove were among the government officials referred to in Cooper's subsequent Time story that said Wilson's wife was a CIA official and that she was involved in sending her husband on a trip to Africa.


Related: U.S. Code : Title 18 : Section 371 : Conspiracy to Commit Offense or to Defraud United States



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20

Regular contributor, WB, advises me to, "keep stokin'."

Thanks WB! I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I will continue to broadcast for as long as possible. Know that there will be pockets of survivors. Hope that they will not make the same mistakes that we did.

All contributions are now going toward the Cryptogon New Zealand station. Man, just wait until Becky and I get over there and fire up that thing. That show is going to be incredible.

We were wondering how we were going to deal with the thick Kikuyu grass that covers most of our land. The grass is ok for fattening the bullaphants, but you don't want to deal with it in your food crops. Obviously, chemical defoliants aren't an option for us. And that's ok because Becky found a great, natural method for getting rid of Kikuyu grass!



Xymphora :.

I've taken the weekend off so far. Xymphora hasn't.




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:. 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.