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5/20/2006

Cryptogon Reader Signs Up With Blue Host!

Cryptogon receives $65!

Thanks to theunionjack.net for choosing to host with Blue Host via Cryptogon!

Man, you guys are kicking @ss with the Blue Host sign ups! If this keeps up, Becky and I will start having visions of weird wind, hydro and solar power projects, and maybe the great broadband bird in the sky....

Don't get me wrong, I love New Zealand, but we're being ripped off in a couple of ways: electricity and telecommunications. We're paying between NZ.21 and NZ.23 per KW/h for power. This seems so stupid, with all the hydro, wind and solar options we have on this property. I try not to think too much about it because it makes me so wild! At a minimum, next Summer, we're shutting off the hot water heater and going with some sort of half-@ss black pipe/watertank/outdoor shower thing. I fantasize about just doing it up right with evacuated tube solar collectors. But that's going to cost a few ducats. More then a few, actually.

Then there's the Telecom nightmare. The one thing I miss about the U.S. is my all-you-can eat 3.5 megabit/second cable modem connection. I miss broadband. You don't want to get me started on how bad the broadband situation sucks in New Zealand. We're thinking about going with a BayCity/Farmside satellite program, but it's NZ$90 per month and requires a !THREE YEAR! commitment. Dialup out here in the wop-wops is crippling; it only gets up to 28.8 most of the time. :(

Even though the NZ government finally woke up and went Medieval on Telecom, nobody knows when, or even if, unbundling will result in broadband in very rural areas (like where we live). Well, if these signups continue, the great broadband bird in the sky will allow us to shed all of our earthly bonds to Telecom... and allow me to digest the requisite grist for this Cryptogon mill in a far more efficient manner.

Related: Hosting With Blue Host



Port Scanner of Mass Destruction :.

Drop that PERL script! Step away from the keyboard! This is your last warning:

IT and security professionals who make network monitoring tools publicly available or disclose details of unpatched vulnerabilities could be convicted under a proposed UK law, experts have warned.

Related: UK Government to Force Handover of Encryption Keys



Peak Food :.

Forget Die Off theories. It's the Kill Off theories that make me nervous:

The world is now eating more food than farmers grow, pushing global grain stocks to their lowest level in 30 years.

Rising population, water shortages, climate change, and the growing costs of fossil fuel-based fertilisers point to a calamitous shortfall in the world's grain supplies in the near future, according to Canada's National Farmers Union (NFU).

Thirty years ago, the oceans were teeming with fish, but today more people rely on farmers to produce their food than ever before, says Stewart Wells, NFU's president.

In five of the last six years, global population ate significantly more grains than farmers produced.

And with the world's farmers unable to increase food production, policymakers must address the "massive challenges to the ability of humanity to continue to feed its growing numbers", Wells said in a statement.



Sunny Delight Spilled Into River Kills Fish :.

Yummy!

It has become a big no-no in school lunchboxes because of its unhealthy reputation.

But it seems that Sunny D, formerly known as Sunny Delight, is not half as bad for children as it is for fish.

Around 8,000 litres of concentrate used to make the drink leaked into a watercourse on Wednesday morning, turning the river bright yellow.

Dozens of fish were found floating on the surface, poisoned by the lurid mixture.

The spill of 'sub-standard' juice was a category one pollution incident, the most serious kind, according to the Environment Agency.


5/19/2006

Couple Arrested for Asking for Directions :.

File this one under Mad Pig Disease, or With Cops Like This, Who Needs Terrorists?

They hate us for our freedom!

Baltimore City police arrested a Virginia couple over the weekend after they asked an officer for directions.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Joshua Kelly and Llara Brook, of Chantilly, Va., got lost leaving an Orioles game on Saturday. Collins reported a city officer arrested them for trespassing on a public street while they were asking for directions.


5/18/2006

UK Government to Force Handover of Encryption Keys :.

INCREDIBLE! Absolutely incredible. The UK is trying to give China a run for its money to see who can set up the most diabolical police state on the planet.

Are the British people this beaten? Will they actually go along with this?

Businesses and individuals may soon have to release their encryption keys to the police or face imprisonment, when Part 3 of the RIP Act comes into effect.

The UK Government is preparing to give the police the authority to force organisations and individuals to disclose encryption keys, a move which has outraged some security and civil rights experts.

The powers are contained within Part 3 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). RIPA was introduced in 2000, but the government has held back from bringing Part 3 into effect. Now, more than five years after the original act was passed, the Home Office is seeking to exercise the powers within Part Three of RIPA.

Some security experts are concerned that the plan could criminalise innocent people and drive businesses out of the UK. But the Home Office, which has just launched a consultation process, says the powers contained in Part 3 are needed to combat an increased use of encryption by criminals, paedophiles, and terrorists.

"The use of encryption is... proliferating," Liam Byrne, Home Office minister of state told Parliament last week. "Encryption products are more widely available and are integrated as security features in standard operating systems, so the Government has concluded that it is now right to implement the provisions of Part 3 of RIPA... which is not presently in force."

Part 3 of RIPA gives the police powers to order the disclosure of encryption keys, or force suspects to decrypt encrypted data.

Anyone who refuses to hand over a key to the police would face up to two years' imprisonment.



Global Markets Take a Pounding :.

Stock markets fell heavily around the world on Thursday, with Tokyo shares hitting a two-month low, as investors were spooked by big losses in U.S. stocks and bet interest rates would keep rising.

Some $64 billion was wiped off the market value of the 30 companies that make up the Dow industrial average on Wednesday, giving the blue-chip index its biggest one-day points drop in three years.

European shares also suffered their biggest points fall since October 2002 to close at a more than three-month low.



We Just Bought the Bill Mollison Tagari Package :.

Becky and I just invested some of our precious capital in Bill Mollison's Tagari Package of books. The titles included are:
PERMACULTURE: A Designer's Manual

Introduction to Permaculture

Permaculture Two -- Practical Design for Town and Country in Permanent Agriculture

The Permaculture Book of Ferment & Human Nutrition

The Power of Duck - Integrated Rice and Duck Farming
We have been coveting those books for a long time, and tonight, we decided to take the plunge.

Thanks to May's Cryptogon contributors, who helped make this strategic purchase possible.


5/17/2006

Genetically Engineered Rice Contains Human Genes :.

If these criminals were actually concerned with helping children in developing countries they would work on clean drinking water projects, not pHarming rice containing human genes!

Ventria's rice produces two human proteins found in mother's milk, saliva and tears, which help people hydrate and lessen the severity and duration of diarrhea attacks, a top killer of children in developing countries.

But farmers, environmentalists and others fear that such medicinal crops will mix with conventional crops, making them unsafe to eat.



DOW SUFFERS BIGGEST ONE-DAY LOSS IN THREE YEARS :.

UPDATE: THIS IS A PRETTY GOOD ONE

File this one your Illuminati Loki Freak Phenomena folder:

Question: How old is the New York Stock Exchange?

Answer: Today, May 17, 2006, is the NYSE's 214th birthday.

Question: How much was the Dow down today?

Answer: 214 points.

Bonus Question: How much was the NASDAQ down today?

Answer: 33 points.

Oh yeah, anyone who thinks that this is anything but a total coincidence is obviously nuts.

That is all.

Related: NY Lottery Numbers: 911 - S&P Futures Close At: 911

Research Credit: You really don't want to know... Ok, here you go.

- - - - -

A child could have spotted this short. Too bad I'm no longer a betting man, speculator or whatever you want to call it:

Blue chips led a broad selloff Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average posting its biggest single-day loss in three years, after a stronger-than-expected consumer inflation report re-ignited fears of inflation.

Related: European Shares Suffer Biggest Fall Since 2002



Sustainable War :.

Clean, green death:

"Ramadi, Iraq. The most dangerous location in Iraq, where gun battles rage several times a day, and incoming mortar and rocket fire requires close attention to the nearest bunker. Trust me; I had to run for one today. Yet, even here, there is a Green Movement afoot."

"The Army, granted, driven more by cost than environmentalism, is ramping up a serious change to rechargeable batteries from the old standard disposables. Now that the new LiIon versions of the ubiquitious "5590" radio battery have arrived, soldiers can get almost as much runtime from a rechargeable as they can from an $80, toxic, LiSO2 disposable. Not only will the military save tens of millions of dollars in purchase and logistics costs per year, but the reduction in landfill waste will be huge.

But it doesn't stop there. Serious research is being conducted into alternative methods of power generation on the battlefield, including solar powered battery chargers for the military batteries, which, yes, we'll be trialing in two weeks.



Makram Chams and Titan Corp :.

Hopsicker is still belting it out down there in Florida:

Makram Chams owned a Kwik-Check convenience store in Venice, where the biggest overseas money transfer to the terrorists, $70,000 from the UAE., was sent, according to the testimony of FBI agents during the 9.11 Commission hearings.

...

Strangely, Chams left town soon after the 9.11 attack, abandoning a thriving convenience store which has stood vacant ever since.

...

No one knew where he was, or why he'd left. But now Chams has re-surfaced in Saudi Arabia, where he worked in an unlikely capacity: as a contractor for American defense firm Titan Corp.

...

It has since been revealed that Titan trains mercenaries, and provides mercenaries for operations. Current operations. Ongoing operations...

Disclosures in the Duke Cunningham scandal lead directly to Titan. Before it is done, this may present someone with some very thorny problems.


5/15/2006

Cryptogon Reader Signs Up With Blue Host!

Cryptogon receives $65!

Thanks to boonenc.org for choosing to host with Blue Host via Cryptogon!

Related: Hosting With Blue Host



Laura Bush Doesn't Believe President's Low Poll Numbers :.

That's ok, Laura. Your husband assumed power through fraud, so who cares about those polls anyway:

U.S. First lady Laura Bush said, on Sunday, that she does not believe opinion polls showing President Bush's approval ratings touching its lowest point in his five-year presidency.

The ratings are also among the lowest for any president in the past 50 years.



Chavez: Oil for No One if Iran Attacked :.

Bomb him! Bomb him! Terrorist! Bommmmmmmmmmmmmmb him!!!

Oh, sorry, can I get an order of freedom fries with my Jesus fish?

Rome, May 12 - Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said here on Thursday in case of a military attack against Iran, no country in the world would have access to crude oil.

Chavez made the remark at a press conference, adding, "as Iran's President Ahmadinejad has reiterated, if Tehran would come under attack, oil would get scarce for everyone."

He also said that the American President George W. Bush should be put to trial at the International Court of Justice for having launched genocide in Iraq.

The Venezuelan president added, "for all the horror it has created around the globe in the course of the past century, the United States' war machine should be dismantled, since under the current conditions it is a threat against the entire mankind, particularly against our children."

Chavez added, "the North American empire is the most cruel murderer regime that has ever come to power in world history and a serious threat for all nations."



Tower Block Floors Shut After Brain Tumour Alert :.

What could possibly we wrong with sitting under a microwave transmitter? And smoking is good for you, right?

THE top floors of a Melbourne office building were closed down yesterday and 100 people evacuated after a seventh worker in as many years was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

But Telstra insisted the mobile phone towers on the roof of the 17-storey RMIT University building were not linked to the cancer cluster.

Five academics - who worked on the top floor - and two general staff have suffered brain tumours since 1999. Six of the seven staff had worked at the Bourke Street premises for more than a decade. Two of the cases were malignant.



Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling :.

Can you imagine how utterly clueless you would have to be to deal with matters involving state secrets over an open telephone line? And these are the reporters who are allegedly bringing us the news?

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.



Hosting With Blue Host

I've been hosting Cryptogon on Blue Host for just over a year. I've been so impressed with the service that I personally started referring people to them. I know that five of these people went on to sign up for hosting.

Here's the bad news: I missed out on $65 EACH time one of these folks signed up for hosting with Blue Host.

Here's the good news: I'm now an affiliate, so now I will make $65 each time a Cryptogon reader/fan/supporter signs up for hosting with Blue Host.

I searched long and hard for a reliable and reasonably priced host for Cryptogon (after repeated disasters with other hosting companies). Check out Blue Host's features and reputation. You'll see why I went with them.

And I don't need to tell you about their reliability.

How often has Cryptogon been down over the past year? You, the Cryptogon reader, should know.

Exactly! It's never down. (Well, it may have been down once for about two hours, but I don't remember if that was their fault or mine... It was probably mine.)

So, if you're looking for the best hosting possible for a reasonable price AND you want to support Cryptogon, it's simple: Blue Host.

PLEASE NOTE: Sadly, there is some confusion about how I receive Blue Host referral payments.

IN ORDER FOR ME TO RECEIVE CREDIT, YOU MUST CLICK ON ANY OF THE LINKS TO BLUE HOST FROM CRYPTOGON.COM AND SIGN UP FROM THERE. If you just go to Blue Host, without clicking a link from Cryptogon, and sign up, I won't and can't get credit for it after the fact. So far, this has happened twice.

It's my fault for not making this explicitly clear in the first place. Sometimes, computer people, like me, assume things that shouldn't be assumed. This was one of those cases.


5/14/2006

Markets Braced for the Worst :.

Just more joy and happiness:

Global markets are bracing for turmoil today after an ominous slide in the US dollar and a slump in equity and bond prices late last week sent tremors through the global financial system, evoking memories of the 1987 crash.

...

The dollar has slumped 6pc against the euro and 8pc against the yen this year as the markets anticipate an end to interest-rate rises by the US Federal Reserve, switching attention back to America's debt mountain and current account deficit of 7pc of GDP.

Volkmar Hable, chairman of Samarium Technology, said the world was now on the brink of a dollar crisis.

"The crash in the autumn of 1987 started with a massive dollar and bond decline in the spring. We are experiencing exactly the same now," he said.

Ominously, bonds are no longer viewed as a safe haven, a sign of fear that inflation is gaining a foothold in the major economies.

Interest rates on 10-year Treasury bonds have jumped from 4.36pc to 5.19pc since February, in part because Asian investors are demanding a higher premium for holding risky dollar investments. The 10-year bond is the benchmark for economic activity in the US, setting corporate borrowing rates and the cost of most mortgages.

The bond slide is exacting a toll on the US property market, where the price of new homes has fallen for five consecutive months. A half-year inventory of unsold houses now hangs over the market.



Seven-Eleven Japan to Sell Canned Oxygen :.

Japanese convenience store operator Seven-Eleven Japan has breathed fresh air into its product lineup by announcing it will add cans of oxygen to its shelves.

The firm said it would make an entry into the rapidly expanding oxygen market and begin selling cans of oxygen on May 24.



Aquygen: A Gaseous Combustible Form of Water :.

UPDATE: US Patent Application # 20060075683

In the original entry, I wondered what Santilli's connection was to Aquygen. Reader DF provided the answer. Thanks's DF!

Klein and Santilli are both named on the Aquygen patent:
US Patent Application # 20060075683
Apparatus and Method for the Conversion of Water into a New Gaseous and Combustible Form and the Combustible Gas Formed Thereby
( 13 April 2006 )
Dennis J. KLEIN & Ruggero M. SANTILLI
(Source)

- - - - -

At first, I thought this was Magnegas (aka Bingofuel). Nope. It's different. Magnegas has a carbon component. Aquygen doesn't have a carbon component. The Aquygen molecule is HHO (not the H20 that you drink, but pretty similar) and it's generated with some sort of proprietary electrolysis process.

I was wondering what Professor Santilli thought about all of this, since it seemed pretty similar to his invention. That's just about when I stumbled upon a page where Professor Santilli himself, inventor of Magnegas, has written a technical paper on the Aquygen gas, a gaseous combustible form of water!

Is Santilli working for Hydrogen Technology Applications? Is Hydrogen Technology Applications using Santilli technology? I'm just trying to get the story straight.

So, what's the point?

You can run your car on these clean gases.

Anyway, watch the video.

Hint: The video makes it seem like the car is literally just running on water. Nope. The machine that makes the gas requires electricity. If Toshiba would just release that new lithium ion battery, we could skip the gas-as-battery phase in which we seem to be heading.




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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
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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.