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10/1/2005

Fundraiser for Tony's Crusty Road Show

Over the years on Cryptogon, you may have noticed quotes and research from a source I have referred to as TR. Tony is a friend of mine. We met and worked together at a biotech company back in 2001. I was the IT department for the company. Tony was a software engineer.

Tony is an interesting guy. He has a PhD in Cognitive Science. His undergrad degree is in Computer Science. His research has been published in leading scientific journals. I think he has something like 15 years of programming experience. He has worked for Silicon Valley PHBs, Fortune 500 swindlers and crackpot upstarts from inside the asylums of academia and elsewhere. All in all, Tony has done a decent job of maintaining appearances over the years...

Friends, Tony's days of maintaining appearances are over.

You see, he's had it. To make a long story very short: Toiling in a cubicle, in the service of evil, isn't living. He can't play that game anymore. His immediate hopes for buying land in Oregon were dashed by the diabolical behavior of his last PHB. Stuck between a landlord---demanding a rent check---and having to sell himself to the next criminal PHB, Tony was facing some tough choices.

Folks, as of today, October 1, 2005, Tony is living in a mid-1980s era, 23-foot-long RV that he just purchased with a few thousand of the dollars that he managed to save up. His immediate plans range from outlaw parking lot camping to staying at an ecovillage to squatting on BLM land...


Which brings me to the point of this post:

I spoke with Tony a couple of days ago. His five-year-old laptop is in the process of dying. The motherboard has a power problem and a few of the keys aren't working. He tried taking it to a PC repair place, but they told him to junk it. He has dissected the system in a futile attempt to check connections and clean contacts, etc.

When Tony isn't learning how to make paper or sewing up a pair of homemade pants or teaching himself Latin and Ancient Greek, he will have all kinds of weird and interesting wisdom to share with the world. He's going to need a way of getting his message out of the verdant ecotopia of Western Oregon and onto the Internet for the rest of us to see.

I proposed the idea of holding a fund raiser on Cryptogon to see if we could get $500 together for a new computer. Tony thought I was kidding at first. But I thought about those good, old fashioned barn raising parties. Why not? Many hands, people. Many hands make light work.

If we all pitch in just a little bit, Tony will be able to get a reliable computer system. He's aiming for either an Apple Mac Mini or a Dell Inspiron 1200 (upon which he would immediately install Linux). I want to try and get him $500 toward the purchase of a system.

When Tony decides to fire up a site, I will be able to host his domain on the vast Cryptogon datacenter. (HA!)

$500 is a very ambitious goal, but we have the entire month of October to reach it. So come guys! Let's all lend a hand and get Tony a reliable system so he can share his insights, wisdom and crust with the rest of the world.

I'm going to kick this thing off right and throw $50 into the jar.

Many hands, people. Many hands.

Note: If you happen to be looking for a land custodian in the Eugene, Oregon area, Tony is the guy for you. He's looking for an arrangement where he can exchange some amount of labor for the ability to park his RV without fear of being busted by cops. He has experience with organic agriculture, horses, chickens and has recently been acquiring wood working and carpentry skills. He may (or may not) be willing to do C/C++/java/php/mysql development, Linux networking, high level algorithm design, signal processing, neural networks, etc. if your goals are not overtly evil and your land is extraordinarily beautiful.


9/30/2005

NSA Applies for Patent to ID Physical Address of Web Surfers :.

They already have you via the ECHELON and CALEA infrastructures; and who knows what else...

Hmm.

I wonder how the billion dollar spook nets deal with the greasy nerd who knows how to use his Pringles can and MAC spoofer properly? My guess is that we probably don't want to know:

Patent 6,947,978, granted this week, describes a process based on latency, or time lag between computers exchanging data, of "numerous" known locations on the Internet to build a "network latency topology map" for all users. Identifying the physical location of an individual user, reports CNET News.com, could then be accomplished by measuring how long it takes to connect to an unknown computer from numerous known machines, and using the latency response to display location on a map.

Research Credit: PW



Venezuela Dumps U.S. Assets :.

I've been doing it for months:

Venezuela has moved its central bank foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury securities and placed the funds in Europe, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday.

"We've had to move the international reserves from U.S. banks because of the threats," from the U.S., Chavez said during televised remarks from a South American summit in Brazil.

"The reserves we had (invested) in U.S. Treasury bonds, we've sold them and we moved them to Europe and other countries," he said.



Free Food for the Homeless Lures People Who Are Too Lazy to Cook :.

SOUP runs in London are being increasingly abused by people who are not poor, needy or homeless, according to research that claims there is now one for every two rough sleepers in the capital.

Research for Westminster City Council has found that many of the capital's 65 soup runs, which provide good quality sandwiches and hot and cold drinks, are attracting people with homes from all over London, who regard them as a convenient, free catering service.

On a recent sweep of soup runs in the capital, the council's researchers came across one man, John, at a soup run in Victoria, who said a friend was "saving up money for a football season ticket". John said the friend "takes the cheese sandwiches home with his mate to toast and eat while watching TV".


Research Credit: hereticfig.com



New Orleans Ethnic Cleansing :.

Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of "500,000 people for a long time," and "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."


9/29/2005

Gold Taps $477 to Trade at Week High :.

As Rita was drawing a bead on energy production infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico, gold was soaring. I wondered if people were taking positions in gold as a hedge against possible damage to the economy.

This is from today's CBS MarketWatch:

Gold futures climbed as high as $477 an ounce Thursday to mark their loftiest level in a week as traders continued to eye developments in the energy and currency markets.



All Gulf Oil Output Shut Down :.

The Minerals Management Service reports that all oil production in the Gulf of Mexico has temporarily ceased.

M-M-S says its survey indicated that 100 percent of oil production in the Gulf is shut down as well as more than 80 percent of natural gas production.

The Gulf supplies 29 percent of the nation's oil and 21 percent of the gas.


9/28/2005

Overdue Credit Card Bills Hit Record High :.

Charge it! That familiar refrain is producing an unwanted response for more Americans: Your bill is overdue! Surging energy prices, low personal savings and the higher cost of borrowing have combined to produce a record level of overdue credit card bills.

The American Bankers Association reported Wednesday that the percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due climbed to an all-time high of 4.81 percent in the April-to-June period. It could grow in the months ahead, experts said.



Weird Winter Ahead :.

Yesterday, I wrote:
If you rely on heating oil or natural gas for survival during the winter months, you better have a contingency plan.
From today's Financial Times:

Refineries that normally would be building inventories of fuel oil have been instead replenishing petrol supplies lost in the hurricanes and the evacuation. That has set the stage for reduced supplies of heating oil that will drive up prices as winter approaches.



Heretic Fig Radio Show :.

that's right! live from KUCI, the little station that could, the last bastion of goodness in orange county, i'll be broadcasting a humble talk show about the politics of food.



U.S. House Majority Leader Indicted On Criminal Conspiracy Charges :.

U.S. Representative Tom DeLay, the second-highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, was indicted by a Texas grand jury on a single count of criminal conspiracy, according to the grand jury clerk.

...

The indictment stems from a grand jury investigation into alleged use of illegal corporate contributions by DeLay's political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, in the 2002 races for the state House of Representatives.


Related: Subgovernment: Concentrating Benefits, Diffusing Costs



First Woman Bomber Kills Six Iraqis :.

A woman disguised as a man and strapped with explosives blew herself up outside an Iraqi army recruitment centre in a northern town, killing at least six would-be recruits and wounding 30 in the first known attack by a female suicide bomber in the country's bloody insurgency.



Confessions of an Engineering Washout :.

The social-life-killing workload was the stuff of gallows humor among the three or four upper-class engineers who could still laugh. "Sleep is for the weak!" they bellowed, when gathering at the listless engineering parties. "Your underwear has two sides," they whispered, pressing their furry acne-ridden faces into the ears of bewildered freshmen. "Use them."


9/27/2005

JAPAN'S NATIONAL DEBT HITS US$ 7.1 TRILLION :.

How does this show stay up on a day to day basis? HOW!? Japan is keeping the U.S. afloat by buying up U.S. debt. But who's buying Japanese debt to the tune of 7.1 trillion?

Don't get caught without a chair when the music stops playing:

Japan's government debt, already the highest in the industrialized world, rose 1.7 per cent to a record high of 795.8 trillion yen ($7.1 trillion US) at the end of June, according to a report released by the Finance Ministry.

The latest figure marked an increase of 14.3 trillion yen from the end of March, the ministry said Thursday. The amount is equivalent to about 6.24 million yen ($55,900) for every Japanese.

Japan has relied on government bond issues to make up for falling tax revenues, turning into one of the world's most indebted countries.

Japan's public debt burden is almost 160 per cent of its GDP and already the highest in the industrialized world.



Saudi Arabia Makes It a Double! :.

Sure. Why not?

Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil producer, and Exxon Mobil, the largest oil company, yesterday declared that the world had decades' worth of oil to come, in an attempt to calm fears about the record prices experienced in recent weeks.

Forming a powerful alliance, the Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said, at an industry conference in Johannesburg, that the country would soon almost double its "proven" reserve base, while Exxon's president, Rex Tillerson, spoke of 3 trillion or more barrels of oil that are yet to be recovered.



Woman Ticketed for Sitting on a Playground Bench with No Kids :.

Supersize your freedom fries, but check park benches for end user license agreements...

Welcome to Hell:

It's an only in New York story. A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children.

The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child. Forty-seven-year-old Sandra Catena says she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start. Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a one thousand dollar fine and 90 days in jail.



RITA CAUSES RECORD DAMAGE TO OIL RIGS :.

If you rely on heating oil or natural gas for survival during the winter months, you better have a contingency plan:

Hurricane Rita has caused more damage to oil rigs than any other storm in history and will force companies to delay drilling for oil in the US and as far away as the Middle East, initial damage assessments show.

ODS-Petrodata, which provides market intelligence to the offshore oil and natural gas industry, said it expected a shortage of rigs in the US Gulf this year.

"Based on what we have right now, it appears that drilling contractors and rig owners took a big hit from Rita," said Tom Marsh of ODS-Petrodata. "The path Katrina took was through the mature areas of the US Gulf where there are mainly oil [production] platforms. Rita came to the west where there is a lot of [exploratory] rig activity."

Ken Sill of Credit Suisse First Boston said: "Early reports indicate numerous rigs are missing, destroyed or have suffered serious damage and several companies have yet to report. Rita may set an all-time record."

The US Coast Guard said nine semisubmersible rigs had broken free from their moorings and were adrift.



Greenspan: America "Lost Control" of Its Budget :.

Bitter disagreements over global economic policy broke out into the open yesterday as the French Finance Minister claimed that Alan Greenspan had admitted America had "lost control" of its budget while China warned the US to drop demands for radical economic policy changes.

In an extraordinary revelation after a meeting between Thierry Breton and Mr Greenspan, M. Breton told reporters: "'We have lost control,' that was his [Mr Greenspan's] expression.

"The US has lost control of their budget at a time when racking up deficits has been authorised without any control [from Congress]," M. Breton said.

"We were both disappointed that the management of debt is not a political priority today. The situation that is creating tension today on the currency market ... is clearly the American deficit."



U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops By Most in 15 Years :.

Consumer confidence in the U.S. dropped by the most in 15 years in September after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast and pushed gasoline prices to a record.


9/26/2005

Rita Sinks Offshore Rigs; Capsizes Tension Leg Platform :.

If these early reports are any indication of the total offshore facilities damage caused by Rita, natural gas and oil prices will be moving up smartly to new highs in the weeks ahead.



U.S. Coast Guard: Rigs Adrift After Rita :.

Several rigs and platforms were broken, missing or adrift in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Coast Guard and energy company statements.



RITA: OFFSHORE PLATFORM DAMAGE WORSE THAN THOUGHT :.

Late Friday night, I was looking at this map wondering why the platform story wasn't big news?! The was lots of talk about Rita weakening and Houston avoiding disaster, etc...

And now back to our usual programming:

President Bush on Monday urged Americans to cut back on car trips amid warnings that the energy disruption from Hurricane Rita could be worse than initially thought.

Although Rita spared massive refineries and chemical complexes in the Houston area, the first reports about damage to offshore production of crude oil and natural gas were grim.

"The early indication is that at least as many rigs are going to be impacted from Rita as Katrina. Rita went through an area of the gulf where there simply were more mobile offshore rigs," said David Kent, owner and editor of Rigzone.com, a Web site devoted to offshore oil production. "Rita cooled off once she got to shore, but she was churning out there for a while pretty viciously."



ENTIRE 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION DEPLOYING TO IRAQ :.

The ENTIRE 101st is deploying to Iraq... to train Iraqi cops?

Uh, sure stupid:

The 101st Airborne Division is once again answering the call to serve in Iraq.

Around 20,000 soldiers got their final briefing Friday afternoon at Ft. Campbell. It's been two years since the division was last deployed to Iraq.

Soldiers will board planes and be heading off Friday to do numerous duties, including helping train Iraqi law enforcement.


Related: 82nd Airborne Deployed to Iraq in Mid-September

Related: U.S. Now in Possession of "Superbase"



IRA Has Scrapped Its Entire Arsenal :.

The IRA has scrapped all of the weapons used to wage its 30-year armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, international monitors said on Monday.

The move is historic for an organisation that once viewed arms disposal as akin to surrender, but its significance for Northern Ireland politics will take longer to assess, given the deep mistrust of the IRA among the main pro-British parties.


9/25/2005

Here's What Counterinsurgency Bait Looks Like, Don't Take It

Hello Freespeaker,

First of all, you are either:

A) a federal agent or ;

B) so ignorant of information security concepts that your days as a revolutionary would end before they even got started. Hint: By sending your message in a way that only requires the recipient to answer a question that anyone could answer, you have compromised yourself. Your message was saved at multiple points along the way to my inbox. National security organizations from at least three governments had access to that message. If hushmail.com isn't a honeypot---which, personally, would come as a shock to me---all nodes to and from it are fully compromised.

Second, all insurgency movements are compromised. The message you sent to me is exactly the type of message that the federal government uses to get people to say stupid things that could land them in jail, or worse.

Third, mounting an insurgency against the American Corporate State by conventional methods is impossible. If you want to bring this thing down, become self sufficient and teach others to do the same. Stop buying crap from WalMart! Another alternative is to walk away from it, leave the country. Without your tax money, the American Corporate State will collapse. Still another alternative is to sit back and watch. This thing is very close to collapse as it is.

If you're not a fed, you should remember, .mil and .gov are just waiting to say that Middle Eastern terrorists have joined forces with domestic/American terrorists. The second you go violent, you're with Bin Laden.

Again, if you're not a federal agent, you quite literally have no idea what you're dealing with. The American Corporate State has mastered violence and PSYOPS. You're not going to beat Them at that game. You should do some reading about insurgency/counterinsurgency AND modern communications security; that might prevent you from meeting with a VERY bad end in the future. I hate to sound like I'm lecturing, but what you did was VERY, VERY stupid.

So, Freespeaker, this is my response to you. I had to make it public, though, because I think you're a fed and you forced me to cover my ass.

The message:
From: freespeaker@hushmail.com

Hey there,

You don't know me, but I've been reading your page for a while now. I want to say that you do some great work, and I'd like to pose a question to you. Is it time for revolution in the United States? Do you think it's the right time to make a move, and that that move should be a full-on Neo American Revolution? Or, rather, civil war? I personally believe it is time, and I'm currently looking into a few different options. I've grown too disgusted with the state of things to allow them to continue any longer, and I'm tired of waiting for someone else to make the first move. What I'm primarily interested in is finding out how much support there might be for the movement, although I'm fully prepared to stand alone on this.

Keep up the good work,
Freespeaker
Let that be a warning to the rest of you out there: As things fall apart, .mil and .gov will start trying to figure out who They need to take down first. If someone is talking about "starting the revolution now" or some similar nonsense, you're almost certainly dealing with a counter insurgency operative of some kind. Out them. Make it clear that you want nothing to do with it. Have a nice day.

Related: Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG)

Related: Pseudo Operations and Counterinsurgency: Lessons from Other Countries

Related: Low-intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency and Peacekeeping

Related: Militant Electronic Piracy: Non-Violent Insurgency Tactics Against the American Corporate State



Bill Would Permit Forced DNA Collection From All Those Arrested :.

Suspects arrested or detained by federal authorities could be forced to provide samples of their DNA that would be recorded in a central database under a provision of a Senate bill to expand government collection of personal data.



Georgia Closes Public Schools to Save Fuel :.

More fuel for the Hummers, praise be to Jeebis for that:

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue Friday asked the state's schools to take two "early snow days" and cancel classes Monday and Tuesday to help conserve gasoline as Hurricane Rita threatens the nation's fuel supply line.

If all of Georgia's schools close, the governor estimated about 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel would be saved each day by keeping buses off the road.

Perdue also said an undetermined amount of regular gasoline also would be saved by allowing teachers, other school staff and some parents to stay home. He says electricity also would be conserved by keeping the schools closed.


More: Kentucky Shortens School Week to Four Days



Armed Dolphins Let Loose by Katrina :.

I sh*t you not!

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.




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