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7/31/2005

Mac OS X Intel Kernel Uses DRM :.

I take no pleasure from calling these things in advance. I wish I'd been wrong:

Several people have discovered that the new Intel kernel Apple has included with the Developer Kit DVD uses TCPA/TPM DRM. More specifically, it includes "a TCPA/Palladium implementation that uses a Infineon 1.1 chip which will prevent certain parts of the OS from working unless authorized.



T.E. Lawrence and the Mind of an Insurgent :.

Via Xymphora:

". . . Lawrence distilled six fundamental principles of insurgency that even today have remarkable relevance. First, a successful guerrilla movement must have an unassailable base - a base secure not only from direct physical assault, but from attack in other forms as well, including psychological attack. Second, the guerrilla must have a technologically sophisticated enemy. The greater this sophistication, the greater this alien force would rely on forms of communications and logistics that must necessarily present vulnerabilities to the irregular. Third, the enemy must be sufficiently weak in numbers so as to be unable to occupy the disputed territory in depth with a system of interlocking fortified posts. Fourth, the guerrilla must have at least the passive support of the populace, if not its full involvement. By Lawrence's calculation, 'Rebellions can be made by 2 percent active in striking force and 98 percent passively sympathetic.' Fifth, the irregular force must have the fundamental qualities of speed, endurance, presence and logistical independence. Sixth, the irregular must be sufficiently advanced in weaponry to strike at the enemy's logistics and signals vulnerabilities."



Post Collapse: Earthaven Ecovillage :.

Post collapse living doesn't have to be punctuated by misery, famine and darkness. To thrive in the times ahead, people need to make preparations while the present system is still functional. Those who build a symbiotic relationship with the natural world and have access to appropriate and sustainable technologies will have the opportunity to serve as an example to humanity of how peaceful and rewarding life on this planet can be.

Ecovillages are the crucible of future possibilities. I know that many of you aren't yet ready to think in terms of ecovillage living, and that's fine. But for the handful of people who: 1) Realize that politics is a waste of time and 2) Are over the existential depression that accompanies the realization that this system is in the process of collapsing, and 3) Want to BE THE SOLUTION, you might seriously consider joining an ecovillage.

Cryptogon forum author, skateari, has posted an exciting summary of what the Earthaven Ecovillage is doing to prepare for Peak Oil. I encourage you to check out his posts and further develop the thread.

Related: Intentional Communities



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $20

Thanks JG. I realize that you have literally millions of websites to choose from to read and or support. The fact that you---and all Cryptogon supporters---chose to contribute to my effort is very humbling and greatly appreciated.

July was the best month for contributions in the history of Cryptogon. To celebrate, I'm sending $25 to Amnesty International.


7/30/2005

RFID Babysitter? :.

The new line of clothing, from Lauren Scott, a division of DST Media Inc., is poised to debut next spring. The clothing, including nightgowns, will be sold at Target stores and will include RFID technologies that parents can place in doorways and windows, which will trigger an alarm if children wearing the tagged clothes travel more than 30 feet.

The children's line of nightgowns and pajamas apparently is the first commercial application of RFID in clothing that has debuted so far, but others are expected soon, experts said.

"We've been contacted about this by retailers," said Tawnya Clark, vice president of sales and marketing at RSI ID Technologies in Chula Vista, Calif., a maker of RFID products. "They want to use RFID not only to track the clothes in the warehouse and during shipping. They want to track the clothes when they are bought by customers."


7/29/2005

Oil Over $61 :.

Oil prices surged a dollar to $61 a barrel on Friday as U.S. refinery fires and an oilfield outage in the North Sea underlined concerns about stretched global refining and crude production capacity.

U.S. light crude for September delivery rose as high as $61.05 and by 1600 GMT was up 86 cents at $60.80 a barrel. Crude hit a record in early July of $62.10.



Peak Oil: Post Collapse :.

There's a good thread on peak oil running in the Cryptogon forum.

Start thinking about the post collapse order, or, more likely, lack of order. If you buy some nice land in a remote area, and your neighbors all buy their food at Walmart, you've got a serious problem.

MO writes:

The peak oil question should not be, how will I get from point A to point B, on my corn jetta or fart scooter, but how to sustain existence during the ensuing mayhem of the transition to the post-petroleum era. I don't think you'll want to leave your house when that hits the fan.

To put a context, today I was driving on the highway, in the right lane, doing a sporty but conservative 70-something. Meanwhile in the left lane, psychotic pill popping soccer moms in their minivans and SUVs, testosterone pumped biffs in their hummers and king cabs, roared by at 90 MPH and faster, just guzzling up that $50 tank of gas like theres nothing to it. This is the norm, they know no other way, and have no conception of an alternative existence. I am conflicted that on one level I deride them, another level I pity them, and still another, am I one of them. Most of them, however, will never wake up.

Given I've tried to position my existential sphere in such an area, and the assumption that I can burn wood, drink from a spring, hunt, and farm, the next issue is dealing with the breakdown of the security and control apparatus. While we all know there are issues in its current instantiation, it does serve, to a degree, to protect basic human rights. The void left by a breakdown of government services will quickly be filled by power grabs of would-be local warlords, lone nuts, and nomadic gangs, all seeking to secure as much of whatever resources there are left, with violence and sadism as their means. Ultimately localized systems will reach a feudal equilibrium, but its a long bloody road and the end state is much worse than what we have now. I don't have a plan for that piece, yet.



Critics Squeeze Cisco Over China :.

Why not try to train a scorpion not to sting?

Internet equipment maker Cisco Systems is fighting a shareholder action that urges the company to adopt a comprehensive human rights policy for its dealings with the Chinese government, and with other states practicing political censorship of the internet.

A shareholder resolution filed last May by the Massachusetts-based investment group Boston Common Asset Management calls for Cisco to add human rights considerations to the criteria it uses to certify resellers.



Robotic Gun Turrets Along Israeli Fence :.

Watchtowers armed with remote-controlled machine-guns are to be built every two kilometres, and within a year, remote-controlled unmanned vehicles will begin patrolling the area.


7/28/2005

CAFTA Passed :.

Write letters to your elected representatives. Oh sure:


Related: Original Link to CNN Poll



Solar Power Breakthrough :.

It's a press release from a pink sheet company called, International Automated Systems Inc., but keep an eye on it anyway:

IAUS' unique thin-film solar panels can be produced at a fraction of the cost of today's photovoltaic solar panels. IAUS is on schedule to begin mass production of its solar panels by September 2005. Once in production, IAUS will be able to turn out nearly 200 megawatts of solar panels yearly, nearly 10 times greater capacity than a $100 million photovoltaic fabrication plant.

A solar area of only 100 square miles -- a size of land that equals only nine percent of the state of Nevada -- can generate enough electricity for the entire United States.

"The discovery of economical solar energy is more valuable than oil," said Neldon Johnson, president and CEO of International Automated Systems Inc. "The sun's energy is free, clean and virtually unlimited. IAS' new solar technology is a discovery of historical proportions that we hope will revolutionize energy production throughout the world."



Newspeak Update: Washington Recasts Terror War as 'Struggle' :.

The Bush administration is retooling its slogan for the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, pushing the idea that the long-term struggle is as much an ideological battle as a military mission, according to senior administration and military officials.



Microsoft Genuine Advantage Cracked in 24 Hours :.

HA!



Has Bush Gone Completely Nuts? :.

Don't you sleep well at night knowing that the nuclear football is always near this man?



The Nerd Who Saw Too Much :.

It took me a few minutes to recover from laughing so hard after I read this. I just wish McKinnon wasn't such a piss head. He might have actually seen some interesting stuff...

Must read for nerds with a dark sense of humor:

He did a few trial runs, hacking into Oxford University's network, for example, and he found the whole business "incredibly exciting. And then it got more exciting when I started going to places where I really shouldn't be."

"Like where?" I ask.

"The US Space Command," he says.

And so, for the next seven years, on and off, McKinnon sat in that aunt's house, a joint in the ashtray and a can of Foster's next to the mouse pad, and he snooped. From time to time, some NASA scientist sitting at his desk somewhere would see his cursor move for no apparent reason. On those occasions, McKinnon's connection would be cut. This would never fail to freak out the then-stoned McKinnon.

When I ask if he is brilliant, he says no. He's just an ordinary, self-taught techie. And, he says, he was never alone. "Once you're on the network, you can do a command called NetStat - Network Status - and it lists all the connections to that machine. There were hackers from Denmark, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Thailand…"

"All on at once?" I ask. "You could see hackers from all over the world, snooping around, without the spaceniks or the military realising?"

"Every night," he says.

"What was the most exciting thing you saw?"

"I found a list of officers' names," he says, "under the heading 'Non-Terrestrial Officers' …. It doesn't mean little green men. What I think it means is not Earth-based. I found a list of 'fleet-to-fleet transfers', and a list of ship names. I looked them up. They weren't US Navy ships. What I saw made me believe they have some kind of spaceship, off-planet."

"The Americans have a secret spaceship?" I ask.

"That's what this trickle of evidence has led me to believe."

"What were the ship names?"

"I can't remember," he says. "I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. Not good for the intellect."



London Police: Open Fire Without Warning :.

A police source has told the Guardian that there is no need for officers to verbally warn a suspect before opening fire.

The source said: "If the firearms team are reasonably certain the person is a suicide bomber then there is no need to issue any warning.



IRA Permanently Abandoning Military Operations :.

Forget the IRA, compromised all the way to the top with MI5/MI6/FRU operatives. It's time to fear al-Qaeda. Never mind the fact that, according to Tony Blair, "al-Qaeda is not an organization."

Your papers please:

As British officials continued their hunt for Muslim extremists in what they described as their biggest security operations since World War II, another group that used fear and violence for decades - the Irish Republican Army - announced Thursday it was permanently abandoning military operations.


7/27/2005

Cryptogon Forum :.

Cryptogon finally has a forum area.

Why now?

If we want to gain a more accurate understanding of events, we have to cast a wide net into the memepool. Unfortunately, that means our haul of information is going to contain a large amount of chaff, noise and disinformation, along with a few morsels of good stuff. Our skills of discernment have never been more important. What we exclude is as important as what we include.

Cryptogon has an incredibly intelligent, motivated and diverse reader base. (I know this is true because I've personally interacted with many of you in email.) We need to start applying our collective intelligence gathering and analytical skills to Cryptogon-related areas of inquiry. I feel as though a forum could facilitate some extremely useful and interesting discussions. So, get in there, meet some other Cryptogon readers and get to work! Let's see what we can come up with.

Note: I'm running an off the shelf version of phpBB. This is a very powerful bulletin board system. It's so powerful, in fact, that things may get weird at first. I actually don't know if I've locked it down too much, or not enough. So, think of this as a beta attempt. I'll add permanent links to the forum area as soon as I'm convinced that we're running smoothly.



Fiber Optics Bring the Sun Indoors :.

Nice:

The HSL 3000, a hybrid lighting system developed by Sunlight Direct, carries the actual light of the sun indoors. The system's 48-inch primary mirror concentrates light into a secondary mirror, which strips away the infrared and ultraviolet components, and directs the visible light into the receiver. A tracking system has two motors governed by a GPS microprocessor, which can calculate the position of the sun within half a degree. This enables the mirror to follow the sun across the sky like a sunflower, gathering in maximum light intensity throughout the day. The tracking system itself requires very little power to operate. It could be supported by a small solar cell - equivalent to a 9-volt battery (which would last about a week).


7/26/2005

London Police: Operation Kratos :.

Essentially what we are dealing with is the formation of a death squadron mentality under the auspices of what is stilled officially considered a "civilian police force".


7/25/2005

Pringles Wi-Fi Cantenna Illegal in Sacremento :.

Mad pig disease is producing some really weird behavior in Sacremento. When the pig tells you to step away from the Pringles can, it's not kidding.

I guess these guys didn't get the memo:

Known as "cantennas," they consist of a Pringles can and some hardware worth $5 to $10 but can be used to amplify a wireless signal several miles away.

"They're unsophisticated but reliable, and it's illegal to possess them," said Lozito of the Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force.



ARMY.PENTAGON.MIL Search for N379P

A pentagon.mil user (host: uodlanfw.hqda-aoc.army.pentagon.mil, ip: 140.185.28.2) conducted the following Google Images search: n379p.

A couple of hours later, a cbs.com user (host: proxy-ny.cbs.com, ip: 170.20.11.59) conducted the same search.

Possible news story brewing on the CIA torture flights?



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $15

Longtime Cryptogon reader and regular contributor, AH, sent in $15. Thanks to AH, and all Cryptogon contributors! You guys are making July a record month for contributions.



British Police Chief: Shoot Heads Off First, Ask Questions Later :.

They just murdered an innocent man. Sorry, chap. Expect more of the same:

Britain's most senior police officer apologized for the killing of a young Brazilian man mistaken for a suicide bomber, but warned yesterday that more such deaths are possible.

The frank statement from Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair forced many Britons to consider a difficult question: How much police violence can they accept in the name of public safety?

As sirens wailed through downtown London and the roundup of terrorism suspects continued, Sir Ian answered bluntly.

"Somebody else could be shot. But everything is done to make it right," he said. "This is a terrifying set of circumstances for individuals to make decisions."

If officers are dealing with someone suspected of carrying a bomb, they must be lethal, Sir Ian added. "The only way to deal with this is to shoot to the head. There is no point in shooting at someone's chest because that is where the bomb is likely to be."


7/24/2005

Must I Paint You a Picture? :.

America has already processed the softer scenes of prisoners set upon by dogs, stacked naked in pyramids, forced to perform sex acts on one-another, smeared in excrement and posed for electrocution. And the usual Americans have made peace with them, in their "freedom isn't free" subterfuge of every decent thing. Are they ready for the harder stuff? If not, after years of a concerted dulling of consciences, how much worse must they be?



WalMart Deploys Solar, Wind, Sustainable Design :.

Walmart built its empire by destroying the planet and turning human beings into nutrient agar. Just keep that in mind.

And now, Walmart as posterchild of the green revolution? Sh*t, why not? Oh yeah. Watch the idiot Left slobber all over this.

Evil will attempt to cloak itself in all kinds of ways as the end of this sickening paradigm approaches. Thank God (god/gods/dog, etc.) it's too little, too late to save this show.

Of course, the nightmare scenario is that They pull off system maintenance for another couple of decades:

Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, unveiled a new store outside of Dallas, Texas that could revolutionize how the company builds and powers their stores. The experimental design combines a host of renewable energy technologies including numerous solar PV arrays, two, small wind turbines, a bio-fuel boiler to recycle and burn recovered oil from store operations and a nearly endless list of energy-saving and sustainable design principles.



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $1

Thanks JD. If everyone who read Cryptogon donated just $1 per month, I'd be getting about five grand per month. Imagine the trouble I would cause with a budget like that! Hmmm. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't have that kind of money.



Carlyle Group Behind Explosive Scanners Going Into Subway Stations :.

Imagine my shock:

A new generation of body and baggage scanning systems could be introduced soon, a leading government security adviser suggested yesterday. Simon Stringer, managing director of the security division of Qinetiq, said wave sensors could screen people as they put their tickets through the gates before entering platforms. Passengers could be slowed down by making them walk through an S-shaped barrier.

Qinetiq - which is 56% owned by the government and 30% by the Carlyle Group - is developing a "passive millimetric wave" scan which could screen people in real time and without the radiation risks associated with x-rays, Mr Stringer said.


Research Credit: AV


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.


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.


7/9/2005

LONDON UNDERGROUND BOMBING 'EXERCISES' :.

LONDON UNDERGROUND BOMBING 'EXERCISES' TOOK PLACE AT THE SAME TIME AS THE REAL ATTACK!!!

ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!

On a BBC Radio 5 interview that aired on the evening of the 7th, the host interviewed Peter Power, Managing Director of Visor Consultants, which bills itself as a 'crisis management' advice company, better known to you and I as a PR firm.

Peter Power was a former Scotland Yard official, working at one time with the Anti Terrorist Branch.

Power told the host that at the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place, his company was running a 1,000 person strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations, at the exact same times, as happened in real life.


Related: Wargames Were Cover For the Operational Execution of 9/11



We Got the House in New Zealand :.

I know that there is a lot of very serious news breaking right now, but I wanted to let all of you know that Becky and I got our small farm in New Zealand. The negotiations went back and forth a few times, but the seller finally let us have it. He took what really was our final offer.


7/8/2005

Israeli Officials Told Not to Give Interviews Regarding London Bombs :.

Yeah...

The Prime Minister's Office instructed Israeli officials not to give interviews to the foreign media Thursday on the London bombings.

After 9/11, Israel made some effort on international TV to impress upon the world that global terror and terror against Israelis were a common cause.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanhayu conveyed similar messages, but only to the Hebrew-language media.

In the international arena this time the message was the following: "It's not a story with anything to do with Israel. It's a story of international terrorism in Britain and therefore we should be quiet," according to a government source.


7/7/2005

UK Plans Iraq Troop Withdrawal :.

BOOM!

The Ministry of Defence has drafted plans for a significant withdrawal of British troops from Iraq over the next 18 months and a big deployment to Afghanistan, the Financial Times has learnt.

In what would represent the biggest operational shake-up involving the armed forces since the Iraq war, the first stage of a run-down in military operations is likely to take place this autumn with a handover of security to Iraqis in at least two southern provinces.



Sex, Drugs, Mind Control, and Gitmo :.

BOOM!

Many of the revelations in the New Yorker article ("The Experiment," by Jane Mayer, July 11 & 18, 2005 -- not yet available online, but here's an interview with the author) are familiar, but there are hints of techniques that mirror the most horrific (and mostly ignored) abuses at Abu Ghraib and the historical accounts of government-sponsored mind control. Baher Azmy, a professor at Seton Hall Law School who is representing one detainee states in the article, "The whole place appears to be one giant human experiment."

The people behind these psychological abuses and experiments are known as Behavioral Science Consultation Teams, or BSCTs (commonly called "biscuits"). Originally, BSCTs served as therapists and dispensed psychotropic drugs to soldiers, and evaluated their combat readiness. Post 9/11, however, their mission was altered -- instead of helping soldiers, their talents were turned to interrogation and psychological torture under the umbrella of military intelligence.



Karl Rove Might Be Indicted :.

BOOM!

All the judges who have seen the prosecutor's secret evidence firmly believe he is pursuing a very serious crime, and they have done everything they can to help him get an indictment.



Statement from Jamaat al-Tandheem Al-Sierri :.

One of my classmates from college (who also happens to be the wife of a lifelong friend of mine) is fluent in Italian. She said she would send a word-for-word English translation of the La Repubblica article referenced below, but I'll go with her initial email for the moment:

I thought you might be interested in this quote from La Repubblica, a very reliable Italian news source.
"14:33 La rivendicazione, a nome di Al Qaeda, degli attentati di oggi a Londra, pubblicata sul sito internet "elqual3ah.com" ritenuta inattendibile da fonti di intelligence italiana, che sottolineano, tra l'altro, "errori in alcune parole arabe", precisando che anche un sito vicino al fondamentalismo islamico ha invitato a non dar credito alla rivendicazione."
It basically states that at the present time, Italian intelligence has stated that based on several misspellings and misuse of several Arabic words, the info on the website: elqual3ah.com cannot be considered credible at this time.


UPDATE: Literal Translation:

"The claim, in the name of Al Qaeda, regarding today's attack in London, published on the elqual3ah.com website, is not considered credible by Italian intelligence sources, who point out, among other inaccuracies, "errors in certain arabic words", specifying that even an islamic fundamentalist website has stated that credit should not be given to this claim."

More: MSNBC Has Doubts :.

But MSNBC TV translator Jacob Keryakes, who said that a copy of the message was later posted on a secular Web site, noted that the claim of responsibility contained an error in one of the Quranic verses it cited. That suggests that the claim may be phony, he said.

"This is not something al-Qaida would do," he said.


Research Credit: ED



UK Has Bombed Itself Before :.

Click through for the archived stories on Prison Planet:

BRITISH INTELLIGENCE INVOLVEMENT IN IRISH REPUBLICAN TERRORISM:

The army asked me to make bombs for the IRA, told me I had the Prime Minister's blessing ... then tried to kill me: Sunday Herald

British double-agent was in Real IRA's Omagh bomb team: Sunday Herald

Rogue British agents name MI5 bosses in video expose: Sunday Herald

IRA torturer was in the Royal Marines: Sunday Herald

Ulster spies to 'blow MI5 cover': London Guardian 07/06/02

British Protection of Terrorists

Al-Qaida suspect 'hidden by UK agents': London Guardian 07/08/02

Britain 'sheltering al-Qaeda leader': BBC 07/08/02

MI5 wanted me to escape, claims cleric: London Guardian 10/21/01

MI6 'halted bid to arrest bin Laden': London Observer 11/10/02



Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning :.

BOOM!

By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 7, 7:14 AM ET

British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said.

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had planned to attend an economic conference in a hotel over the subway stop where one of the blasts occurred, and the warning prompted him to stay in his hotel room instead, government officials said.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said he wasn't aware of any Israeli casualties.

Just before the blasts, Scotland Yard called the security officer at the Israeli Embassy to say they had received warnings of possible attacks, the official said. He did not say whether British police made any link to the economic conference.



MULTIPLE EXPLOSIONS ROCK LONDON :.

Near simultaneous explosions rocked the London Underground network and at least one bus at the morning rush hour, police said, causing fatalities and prompting officials to shut down the entire underground transport network.



Indonesians Queued at Gas Stations :.

Indonesians queued for hours at gas stations across the country Thursday as fuel shortages began to bite amid calls by the president not to panic in the face of what he called an "energy crisis."

With global oil prices at record highs, state-owned oil company Pertamina has been unable to meet the soaring demand for fuel sparked by a strong economic recovery in Indonesia.

Long lines occurred at stations in many towns across the archipelago Thursday, local TV footage showed, with some reports saying the price of premium gasoline had spiked by 500 percent.

"I call on all people, please don't panic...because we will fulfill the people's fuel consumption (needs) while we search for the formula to solve the energy crisis," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said late Wednesday.

Other government ministers have called for fuel reduction measures, but it is unclear how they will be enforced.


7/6/2005

Saudis: OPEC Can't Meet West's Oil Demand :.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will be unable to meet projected western demand in 10 to 15 years, Saudi officials have warned.

At today's prices, the world will need the cartel to boost its production from 30m to 50m barrels a day to 50m by 2020 to meet rapidly rising demand, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog for consuming countries.

But senior Saudi energy officials have privately warned US and European counterparts that Opec would have an “extremely difficult time” meeting that demand. Saudi Arabia calculates there is a 4.5m b/d gap between what the world needs and what the kingdom can provide.



Reader Contributions

AZ contributed $15. DC contributed $10. Thanks very much, gentlemen.



How About That Oil? :.

U.S. stocks slid on Wednesday as crude prices flew to a record high above $61 a barrel, fueled by fears that two tropical storms would pinch supply.

The surge in oil prices capped a three-day run that drove NYMEX August crude futures up to settle at $61.28 a barrel -- up nearly $5, or more than 8 percent since June 30.


7/5/2005

Computers Simulate Terror Attacks :.

Matrix mock-up?

Deep inside the cave-like laboratories of the legendary research center that created the atomic bomb, scientists have begun work on a Manhattan Project of a different sort.

In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, they have been constructing the most elaborate computer models of the United States ever attempted. There are virtual cities inhabited by millions of virtual individuals who go to work, shopping centers, soccer games and anywhere else their real life counterparts go. And there are virtual power grids, oil and gas lines, water pipelines, airplane and train systems, even a virtual Internet.



Britain's Decent into Fascism, Soviet Style :.

THE news that the Government is considering compulsory voting reminds me of a comment made by the late Ipswich MP Jamie Cann.

He said: "I dislike almost everything that Tony Blair has done to the Labour Party but as a former Stalinist I'm very impressed by the way he's done it."

The revelation by Leader of the Commons Geoff Hoon yesterday that the Government is looking at fining people who don't vote is very reminiscent of the old Soviet Bloc.



Lunatic Ramblings: Paul Harvey Calls for Genocide to Fight War on Terror :.

In comments broadcast to over 18 million listeners, Harvey stated the following....

Once upon a time, we elbowed our way onto and into this continent by giving small pox infected blankets to native Americans.

Yes, that was biological warfare!

And we used every other weapon we could get our hands on to grab this land from whomever. And we grew prosperous.

And, yes, we greased the skids with the sweat of slaves.

And so it goes with most nation states, which, feeling guilty about their savage pasts, eventually civilize themselves out of business and wind up invaded, and ultimately dominated by the lean, hungry and up and coming who are not made of sugar candy.


7/4/2005

Madmen Create GM Trees to Battle Global Warming :.

I was trying to think of some commentary for this article when I realized I'd already written it. From, Crisis: Honey Bee Population Disappearing:
One of the most likely nightmare scenarios, in my opinion, is that the system remains functional long enough to destroy the environment to the point where human survival ISN'T possible without increasingly heroic uses of high technology. Regardless of what you think about my religious/spiritual belief system, I do pray that TEOTWAWKI occurs before human survival on this planet is inextricably linked to high technology.
Don't worry, everything is under control:

Israeli scientists are testing genetically modified high-speed trees which grow twice as fast as normal trees. The idea is more forests will absorb more carbon dioxide.

Research Credit: RT


7/3/2005

Forget Cameras - Black Box Will Cut Drivers' Speed by Satellite :.

IT IS the ultimate back seat driver. Motorists face having their cars fitted with a "spy" device that stops speeding.

The satellite-based system will monitor the speed limit and apply the brakes or cut out the accelerator if the driver tries to exceed it. A government-funded trial has concluded that the scheme promotes safer driving.

Drivers in London could be among the first to have the "speed spy" devices fitted. They would be offered a discount on the congestion charge if they use the system.


Related: UK Hell: Satellite Toll Plan to Make Drivers Pay by the Mile

Research Credit: ME



Update: .MIL Proxy

I've never trusted anonymous proxies. No way. If I can set up a box that is capable of logging everything that goes through it, what is .gov/.mil capable of doing?

Fred writes:
Hi,

Just wanting to share what I know about cacheserver.wbamc.amedd.army.mil (192.138.52.41)...

I run [Deleted for Fred's Protection], and that IP was just used in the last 10 minutes to run an attempt to exploit a hole in one of my web pages (an old version of the FormMail script that I had "fixed" and thought was secure).

Based on the pattern of access, I believe the attempts are coming from someone in Saudi Arabia - or they may even be hiding behind layers of proxy servers. Someone has been trying to use that hole for several days to send spam to AOL users. I have since replaced the bad script with one that logs their attempts to relay through my server and emails me their IP and Proxy IP information :)

If you look up that IP in Google, you'll see it is listed in many of the lists of "open proxy" servers which are used for a variety of purposes - mostly things like hackers and spammers wanting to cover their tracks.

That means that either that server is misconfigured and the Army has a real security hole, or [more likely] that server is a "honey pot"... it is deliberately being left open and published in the open proxy lists in order to monitor what hackers are trying to do.

Of course, I saw your page because I Googled to try to find out why a .mil server was trying to relay spam through my broken script...

Fred
I'd believe it either way, Fred. I would tend to believe, however, that the .gov/.mil honeypots aren't found within official .gov/.mil IP ranges, but who knows?!

Someone should audit the big spam blacklists for IPs that belong to .gov/.mil. I would be very interested in the results of that study.


7/2/2005

Rove Source of Plame Leak? :.

Now that Time Inc. has turned over documents to federal court, presumably revealing who its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source in the Valerie Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant on the name of that source, and what might happen to him or her. Tonight, on the syndicated McLaughlin Group political talk show, Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, claimed to know that name--and it is, according to him, top White House mastermind Karl Rove.



Japanese Robot Guards to Patrol Shops and Offices :.

Burglars beware, robot guards are here. In an idea straight out of science fiction, robots could soon begin patrolling Japanese offices, shopping malls and banks to keep them safe from intruders.

Equipped with a camera and sensors, the Guardrobo D1, developed by Japanese security firm Sohgo Security Services Co, is designed to patrol along pre-programmed paths and keep an eye out for signs of trouble.


7/1/2005

Nearly 9,000 U.S. Troops Dead? :.

According to the article: "...DoD lists currently being very quietly circulated indicate almost 9,000 [U.S. military] dead"; this far exceeds the "official" death count of 1,831. How can this be? It's largely because "U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have not previously been counted."

In other words, "death" has been redefined.


Update: Apparently This Story is Bullsh*t



Gonzales to Supreme Court?! :.

From Democracy Now:

You have to look, and the international law precedence and American law requires it, you look up the chain of command. What I discovered by accident was that -- this is not a concern that I have alone -- President Bush's White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, himself, who is now the Attorney General of the United States, wrote a memo in January 2002 to President Bush saying one of the reasons we need to opt out of the Geneva Conventions wasn't just because they didn't like the Geneva Conventions because they don't like treaties, but he said, we have to worry about prosecutions under the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996.

Congress decided that it wanted to adopt laws to take it into full compliance with its obligations under an international torture statute and an international torture treaty and the Geneva Conventions. And so, it passed two laws. One is a statute making it a U.S. crime to engage in torture. It was passed two years before the 1996 law, and then you have the War Crimes Act of 1996.

And basically, what it does, it makes grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions a federal crime. Got it? Just like kidnapping or interstate burglary or child pornography, it is a federal crime. And the other thing, that's interesting is that it carries the death penalty. If death results from torture or inhuman treatment, then there is a death penalty, and that means there's no statute of limitations. That means that if any high level official violates the War Crimes Act, and somebody died, they can be prosecuted. They are subject to prosecution for the rest of their lives.




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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.