12/19/2002
Web Activists Target Poindexter with Jihad :.Every move you make, every breath you take... Internet activists have a message for John Poindexter, the head of a controversial Pentagon research project to find terrorists by searching the everyday transactions of Americans: Threaten to invade our privacy, we'll invade yours.
They've plastered Poindexter's e-mail address and home phone number on dozens of Web sites, forcing him to block all incoming calls. They've posted satellite images of his suburban Washington house and maps showing how to get there. And they've created online forms to collect even more personal data on him.
"If you are a store clerk, study the photos above. Learn this face. If you are a shipping clerk, study this name," reads a site titled "The John Poindexter Awareness Office," a play on Poindexter's Information Awareness Office at the Pentagon. "When and if you see Mr. Poindexter purchase something, travel somewhere or do, well, anything -- send us a tip describing your observations. We will display the information received right here on this Web site."
posted by Kevin at 10:08 PM
Patriot Act: Just Say No :.Fearing that the Patriot Act will curtail Americans' civil rights, municipalities across the country are passing resolutions to repudiate the legislation and protect their residents from a perceived abuse of authority by the federal government.
On Tuesday, Oakland became the 20th municipality to pass a resolution barring its employees -- from police officer to librarian -- from collaborating with federal officials who may try to use their new power to investigate city residents.
posted by Kevin at 9:56 PM
Slave Race?It may sound pretty far out, but I think the ultimate goal of the Elite is the creation of a slave race. They pretty much already have that right now, but there's a bit of a problem: We require constant supervision to make sure we don't get out of line. I think They would much rather dispense with the inconvience of strikes, revolutions, etc. Clones will probably be a viable alternative at some stage in the not too distant future. Slave wages? Think again. No wages: - Genesis: Hacked by ChineseChina's primacy in the critical areas of stemcell research and cloning is virtually guaranteed because there are no moral, ethical or legal constraints to anything related to the development of the new wetware.- Productivity: Our friends at DARPA never sleep"Eliminating the need for sleep during an operation � will create a fundamental change in war fighting and force employment," says a recent statement by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.- Kill switch: Remote control bacteriaRemote-controlled bacteria could be just around the corner. Researchers have found a way to switch cell processes on and off with radio waves.- Related: First clone due in weeksIn a telephone interview, Boisselier said the cloned baby will be delivered by Caesarean section from an American woman in her 30s. She declined to say where or when the birth will take place, but ruled out Christmas Day. She also said four more clone births are due by the end of February.
posted by Kevin at 9:47 PM
The No-Doze Soldier :.What would we do without DARPA? "Eliminating the need for sleep during an operation � will create a fundamental change in war fighting and force employment," says a recent statement by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
To strive toward creating the no-sleep soldier, DARPA has funded a multi-tiered program from tinkering with a soldier's brain using magnetic resonance to analyzing the neural circuits of birds that stay awake for days during migration. The hope is to stump the body's need for sleep � at least temporarily.
"This program is really out of the box," says John Carney, director of DARPA's Continuous Assisted Performance program. "We want to look at capabilities in nature and leverage it so we can apply it in ways that no one thought possible."
posted by Kevin at 9:43 PM
12/18/2002
Hundreds of Muslim Immigrants Rounded Up and Jailed :."The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way."---Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were FreeTake a good long look at what we have become. Who will be next? Me? You? All of America is in jail tonight: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iranian and other Middle East citizens were in southern California jails on Wednesday after coming forward to comply with a new rule to register with immigration authorities only to wind up handcuffed and behind bars.
Shocked and frustrated Islamic and immigrant groups estimate that more than 500 people have been arrested in Los Angeles, neighboring Orange County and San Diego in the past three days under a new nationwide anti-terrorism program. Some unconfirmed reports put the figure as high as 1,000.
The arrests sparked a demonstration by hundreds of Iranians outside a Los Angeles immigration office. The protesters carried banners saying "What's next? Concentration camps?" and "What happened to liberty and justice?."
A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said no numbers of people arrested would be made public. A Justice Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The head of the southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union compared the arrests to the internment of Japanese Americans in camps during the Second World War.
"I think it is shocking what is happening. It is reminiscent of what happened in the past with the internment of Japanese Americans. We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that people went down wanting to cooperate and then they were detained," said Ramona Ripston, the ACLU's executive director.
posted by Kevin at 8:31 PM
Look for Iraq War: End of January/Beginning of FebruaryA source provided me with some information indicating that the war will begin at the end of January or the beginning of February. I believe the information to be credible. Knowing that the U.S. military prefers to begin attacks at night, under a new moon, I checked the moon phases for this period of time. Indeed, the new moon falls on February 1, 2003. I would say to look for the initial air strikes to begin on or about February 1, 2003. Special forces activity (surveillance and target selection) inside Iraq is probably already underway. Why on the new moon? Iraqi nightvision equipment will be least effective when the moon is new. UPDATE: Confirmation from Today's Washington Post :....more signs point toward forces being ready to launch a wide-ranging, highly synchronized ground and air attack in six to eight weeks. Psychological operations, such as leafleting and broadcasting into Iraq, have been stepped up lately, and there is talk at the Pentagon of large-scale troop movements or mobilizations being announced soon after the holidays.Enjoy the calm before the storm, folks.
posted by Kevin at 8:12 AM
Two Hospitals Refuse Call To Vaccinate Workers :.Two prominent teaching hospitals are refusing to vaccinate their employees against smallpox, rejecting President Bush's call for mass inoculation of front-line medical workers who would be the first to confront a biological attack.
Officials at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond said yesterday that the risk of dangerous side effects of the vaccine and inadvertent transmission to patients outweigh the remote threat of an attack with a virus that has not been seen since the 1970s. Three other large medical centers, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Emory Medical Center in Atlanta and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics are leaning against inoculating their staffs.Research Credit: JH
posted by Kevin at 7:37 AM
U.S. Let Taliban General Go :.U.S. troops say that the military mistakenly released one of the most-wanted Taliban leaders in Afghanistan in the summer based on faulty intelligence.
U.S. Special Forces soldiers said that in late July, a Green Beret A-Team, backed by about 20 local Afghan fighters, apprehended Mullah Akhter Mohammed Osmani as he left his compound at daybreak in a town west of Kandahar. Soldiers identified him as Osmani, handcuffed him and brought him by truck to Kandahar.
Osmani, among the top six most-wanted Taliban, was flown to a detention center at Bagram air base, north of Kabul, for interrogation, the Special Forces soldiers said. He was one of the Taliban's top generals, leading thousands of troops as coalition forces ousted the hard-line regime.
But, according to these soldiers, Task Force 180 � the overall command in Afghanistan � released Osmani a few weeks later.If anyone has information on the separate allegation that U.S. Special Forces aided Al Qaeda with escape from Afghanistan, please email me. Alex Jones had it posted. Thanks Alex: The Getaway by Seymour M. Hersh
posted by Kevin at 7:07 AM
12/17/2002
Somewhat Off Topic: Surgical Tool Left in Woman's Stomach :.I think most conventional medicine is useless quackery, at best. I don't want to get too far into it, but I could start an entirely different web site on the shocking frauds associated with conventional medicine. This article was so incredible, so totally off the rails, I couldn't resist posting it. I know this story is about a mishap that took place in Canada, but don't breathe any sighs of relief if you're an American or European. While the economic structures are different, the procedures, training and drugs are virtually the same throughout the West. To make a long story very short: There are alternative cures for lots of conditions, and diet is probably the main factor in health, but quacks will seldom admit it. For example, I got rid of my own skin cancers with this stuff. I've also had eczema on my cheeks for years. I tried lots of things and nothing really worked. It would come and go. The same dermatologist that diagnosed my basal cell carcinoma, gave me some stuff (Dermatop) for the eczema after telling me there was no cure for eczema and there was nothing I could do but cover up the symptoms with a [carcinogenic] steroid cream. I read the fine print on the insert that was in the box, recall the eczema was on my cheeks: "Do not put this medicine on the face." HAHAHA! He also said I'd need reconstructive surgery after I had the skin cancer removed. ALL OF IT WAS COMPLETE BULLCRAP. I have a small scar on my nose from the black salve treatment that I did myself. As for the eczema, I started taking between 3 and 4.5 grams (yes, grams) of plain old Vitamin C (with rose hips) per day and it went away. Totally gone. You better be sitting down for this one: My mom was given a maximum of six months to live (inoperable colon cancer, metastasized to liver and lung) back in July. They said there was nothing they could do. Chemo wasn't even an option (not that we would have done it anyway). They said she would have to be on a morphine drip by this stage. I just nodded politely, smiled and thought, "I'm on to you swindlers!" Turns out, she is up walking around, going places and doing things just fine. She is not in any pain at all. Is this a miracle? Maybe. Although, I think it might just have something to do with the Protocel I put her on as soon as she left the hospital. If you want to know more about what Protocel is, read this. Same stuff, different name. Hint: If you think that you or someone you know needs to be on Protocel, ask the Renewal & Wellness people about the graviola tincture when you call. They're very nice, helpful and supportive people. NOTE: I do not work for, or have any financial interest in, any of the companies mentioned. What follows below is a disclaimer, but don't stop reading: The ideas expressed here are not intended to and cannot be used to diagnose, prescribe, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Your mileage may vary. Batteries not included. I feel the need to include that ridiculous disclaimer, even though I have personally CURED MY OWN SKIN CANCERS and seen miraculous results with my mom. The sad fact is that the FDA is a dangerous Gestapo hit squad for the pharmaceutical industry. If medical doctors had to disclose JUST THE THINGS THAT COULD KILL OR SERIOUSLY INJURE YOU while under their "care" you would be signing forms until the end of days. For some reason, though, medical doctors don't have to tell you that they are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Hmmm. That might be bad for business. Anyway, I've digressed: It took an airport metal detector to give a Canadian woman a clue to why she was suffering from persistent stomach aches four months after having abdominal surgery.
Despite the detector's beep, airport security guards in Regina, Saskatchewan, were unable to find any metal on her body before the woman's October flight to Calgary, Alberta.
Several days later the woman had an X-ray.
It showed a 30-centimeter (11.7-inch) long, 5 cm wide surgical retractor, used to hold incisions open, had been left in her abdomen after surgery four months earlier at the Regina General Hospital.
posted by Kevin at 3:37 PM
NIH: Bio-Terror Disaster in the Making :.The National Institutes of Health is moving ahead with plans to build three large laboratories for research on the deadliest known microbes, despite warnings from some scientists that the facilities will increase the odds that a disease like Ebola could escape - or be deliberately released - into the general population.
"This is a recipe for disaster," Eileen Choffnes, a program manager at the National Academy of Sciences Committee for International Security and Arms Control, declared last month in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
"These laboratories might become a pathogen-modification training academy or a biowarfare agent 'superstore,'" Choffnes wrote. "The physical tools and technology of bioterror are relatively cheap. It's the knowledge and experience of working with pathogens that's priceless."UPDATE: NIH Hit to CryptogonA user at the National Institutes of Health was searching Google with the search argument "deflector iraq biological weapons": Wed Dec 18 02 at 11:05:16 AM cryptogon.com/2002_08_18_blogarchive.html Go : www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=deflector+iraq+biological+weapons 128.231.155.181 nichd10b181.nichd.nih.gov Can anyone provide insights as to what this search might be about? Research Credit: EG
posted by Kevin at 12:38 PM
U.S. Military Wants Wi-Fi Limitations :.The Defense Department, arguing that an increasingly popular form of wireless Internet access could interfere with military radar, is seeking new limits on the technology, which is seen as a rare bright spot for the communications industry.Related: Feds Label Wi-Fi (802.11) a Terrorist Tool
posted by Kevin at 11:27 AM
Los Angeles: Another Deadly Gang on the Street :.Federal authorities, answering a call from Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton to help fight violent street gangs, pledged on Monday to commit more officers, agents and resources to that battle.
Debra Yang, U.S. Attorney for three southern California counties, emerged from a meeting with Bratton and Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn to tell reporters that her office would use federal laws to crack down on out-of-control gang members.
posted by Kevin at 11:00 AM
U.K.: Cops Install Video Cameras in Private Residences :.I thought this story was a joke. HAHA! This is a joke, right? Are you Brits that far gone? Serial burglary victims have had tiny spy cameras fitted in their homes in a bid by police to catch thieves in the act.Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 10:55 AM
Hussein's End Game Nears, Bush and Blair Move Death Star Into Position :.The USUK imperial armada will include five or six carrier battle groups and 300,000 troops. The Persian Gulf will be almost unavigable due to the number of war ships packed into it. Hey, at least the record will show that Saddam Hussein rated several dozen nuclear powered war ships, hundreds of fighter aircraft and bombers and hundreds of thousands of troops when it came time for his take down. That's a hell of a lot more than any of us would rate if THEY came to punch our tickets. While I have no respect for Saddam Hussein at all, I understand him. There's something liberating about fighting when you have absolutely no chance of winning. At that point, you have nothing left to lose. Weeks or months from now, a U.S. general, maybe Franks himself, will be escorted to a flagpole somewhere in downtown Baghdad by a group of Navy SEALs, Delta and maybe some SAS operators. Cobra and Apache gun ships will be wump wump wumping overhead. Snipers will be festooned atop buildings (or the remaining rubble). What will go through your mind as they raise the American flag? I will be wondering if the stench of decaying Iraqi civilians will be present as they raise Old Glory over their oil prize. A HUGE force of at least 300,000 Allied troops will be sent to Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, The Sun can reveal.
And the build-up to war will be launched by the Ministry of Defence TODAY.
Allied military chiefs have advised US President George Bush and PM Tony Blair that Iraqi forces must be swamped if Saddam is to be deposed.
They urged the preparations as US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced �problems� with Iraq�s arms declaration.
He added that early scepticism had proved �well founded�.
The MoD will hire ships to transport tanks to the Gulf. A Government figure said: �We�ll have a very firm footprint.�
posted by Kevin at 10:45 AM
Some .mil Visits to Cryptogon from YesterdayGreetings, gentlemen: Mon Dec 16 02 at 05:49:55 PM 198.26.118.36 WCS1-MOFFETT.NIPR.MIL Mon Dec 16 02 at 05:38:16 PM 131.120.124.221 he124-221.he.nps.navy.mil Mon Dec 16 02 at 05:37:48 PM 198.26.118.37 WCS2-MOFFETT.NIPR.MIL Mon Dec 16 02 at 05:02:15 PM 198.26.74.100 WCS2-PENT.NIPR.MIL <--Pentagon. Mon Dec 16 02 at 04:16:21 PM WCS2-SCHRIEVER.NIPR.MIL I wonder if they're trying out some kind of new Information Awareness Office spider that shows up from a non-descript domain. You know, so in the log it looks like some jackball on AOL, but it's really serving as a proxy for the IAO, Cheney's Secret Organ Bank, or worse! Then it emails some actual analysts or watch officers who take a look through their slightly-less-black NIPR gateways. Pure speculation. I have no idea. Let's do a test to see if I can get them to come back again in some predictable way. Yesterday's barrage roughly followed a post about Pentagon PSYOPS teams bribing reporters. Let's generate something else tasty by using the handy Echelon BS Generator. This one is far superior to first generation Echelon BS generators which simply spit out lists of words: From: mfa@smip.sv.gov.yu To: dfoisr@osd.pentagon.mil Subj: SZIGOR'UAN TITKOS (TOP SECRET - Hungary)
Lt Gen Michael V. Hayden, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), told North Korea Reconnaissance Bureau about Saint-Laurent de la Salanque (Oriental Pyrenees) frenchelon station : a money launderer sent UKUSA (United Kingdom - USA Security Agreement)`s civil rights anonymous remailers logs to Al-Jihad (a.k.a. Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Jihad Group, Islamic Jihad) !
Ask 634th Military Intelligence`s contact of Goldman Sachs marketing 'n advertising 'n wasting Dpt via http://www.dsd.gov.au/ for Ref. Information Terrorism, Terrorism Defensive Information, Defense Information Warfare.That ought to do it. Now, let's see if they come back. UPDATE 12/18/02: Different .milsI don't know if my experiment worked or if I just have a few fans: Wed Dec 18 02 at 08:08:02 AM 144.18.124.85 cld07.nwsy.navy.mil Wed Dec 18 02 at 07:51:40 AM 198.26.123.37 BU-WCS2-KELLY.NIPR.MIL Tue Dec 17 02 at 05:22:23 PM 198.26.125.13 WCS2-SCOTT.NIPR.MIL
posted by Kevin at 5:20 AM
Gold Hits $340 Per OunceIs the War Premium baked in, or are we headed higher? Gold has broken through five year overhead resistance levels. Is this just war jitters, speculation or does someone REALLY know something here? I'm not asking for generic information on gold in times of war, etc. I want to hear from people with theories about a dollar collapse or Japan going in the tank. Stuff on that kind of scale. The Venezuela crisis is driving oil prices, is it also driving gold prices? You guys at BofA, Deutsche Banc and Forbes who read Cryptogon regularly, it's time to come clean. Let's hear it. Your anonymity is assured, if desired. My PGP key is here, at the bottom. NOTE: Using PGP will attract Federal Government attention, but it will keep your PHB and your younger sister from reading your mail. Actually, the fact that you visit this site at all probably attracts Federal Government attention.
posted by Kevin at 5:04 AM
WLAN AP with Phased-Array Antennas Extends Wi-Fi Range to 7km! :.Normal Readers Should Ignore This PostOh happy day! WOW! If you use the Pringles can technology on the client side, the last mile discussion might now be a last 10 miles discussion. No word yet on prices, but even if your local band of freaks has to pass the hat to pay for one of these, it would definitely be worth it. I can see it now, wireless micro ISPs, run by guys like Foon, springing up in places where bandwidth has never gone before. The WAN link could be satellite, cable, DSL, another Wi-Fi provider or even dialup in a pinch. Imagine the off grid applications for this!!! Weatherproof models available. Shipping in early 2003. GPRS/3G networks charging per minute or per kilobyte for slow connections? HAHA! That's a good one. Tmobile charging $30 per month for a 100 foot radius around Starbucks? HAHAHAHA! Think again, gentlemen. Although, if Starbucks upgrades to these Vivato APs, well, nevermind. (Wink, blink, nod.) Using planar phased-array antennas and a single switching box, startup Vivato Inc. (San Francisco) will launch an 802.11-compliant wireless-LAN solution this week that promises an outdoor range of up to 7 km and an indoor range of up to 2 km. Touting low-cost deployment, scalability, wide coverage, centrally located management, high data rates and mobility, the company said its WLAN solution not only shreds the business model of current 802.11 networks but also undermines that of certain 2.5G/3G and fixed-broadband wireless deployments.Related: Check out TR's dream house. Related: PH invites Cryptogon readers to check out Planet P, his "personal liberty with technology" blog: I try to cover all the issues, or at least point to relevant stories, and the my occasional rant against the machine. I cover everything from wi-fi to hydrogen economics to space migration.
posted by Kevin at 4:41 AM
12/16/2002
It's Back: Pentagon Propaganda Office :.PSYOPS forces would pay bribes to reporters to write propaganda. The most difficult task will be to figure out which reporters aren't already compromised by the CIA. No double dipping on Uncle Sam's BS dole, lads: Pentagon officials are debating whether to use the military to conduct covert propaganda operations in allied nations, 10 months after disbanding a controversial office that had the same goal.
Tasks could include such things as paying journalists in European nations to write favorable stories about American policies or secretly financing books or schools to counter radical Islam taught at some of Pakistan's madrassas, or religious schools, defense officials said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The proposal to use the military to influence public opinion in friendly nations has simmered for a year, with both uniformed and civilian officials split on the idea, the officials said.Research Credit: JP
posted by Kevin at 1:23 PM
PIRA Internal Security Chief Was Elite British Soldier! :.WOW! What's next, will Gerry Adams be outed as a member of the SAS? For those of you who missed it over the past thirty years, the British government used the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland as an excuse to turn the U.K. into a police state. The interesting thing is, many members of the IRAPIRARIRAUVAUVF etc. happened to be British intelligence operatives. In this case, the Provisional IRA guy in charge of fingering informers was working for the British!?!? Unbelievable. Incredible. Keep the Irish/British experiences in mind as Bush, Ashcroft and Poindexter try to convince you that al Qaeda will be stealing your wife and blowing up your local WalMart any minute. IT IS ALL BULLCRAP: HE was one of the most feared men inside the Provisional IRA. To rank-and-file 'volunteers', a knock on the door from John Joe Magee was the equivalent of a visit from the Angel of Death.
However, court documents leaked to the Sunday Herald show that Magee, head of the IRA's infamous 'internal security unit', was trained as a member of Britain's special forces. The IRA's 'torturer-in-chief' was in reality one of the UK's most elite soldiers.
The documents, lodged as part of a court action being taken against the British government by a disgruntled military intelligence agent, name Magee as a 'former member of the Special Boat Squadron'.
The SBS is the marine equivalent to the SAS, with many in its ranks drafted from the Royal Marines, as in Magee's case. IRA sources say that Magee had left the SBS by the time he joined the Provisionals. However, the public disclosure of his time as a member of the special forces will fuel speculation that Magee was an informer for the British.
Magee died recently in Dundalk, Ireland, from a heart condition. Since his death, the IRA has been embroiled in a catalogue of disclosures that some of its most respected members were working for British military intelligence.
Magee led the IRA's internal security unit for more than a decade up to the mid-90s -- most of those he investigated were usually executed.
posted by Kevin at 12:16 PM
Future Blade Runners Better Like China :.I wrote an extended essay on the implications of cloning research in China: From organ harvesting, to forced abortions, to interspecies cloning, China doesn't even bother maintaining the appearances of justice or morality. The most populous country in the world is run by a large, well established and openly fascist regime. And by all indications, China's primacy in the critical areas of stemcell research and cloning is virtually guaranteed because there are no moral, ethical or legal constraints to anything related to the development of the new wetware. The Chinese regime knows the future of just about everything, including computers, lies in biotech, and they are not going to be impaired by rational voices of caution from anywhere. China's narrow self interests, however, may just begin to explain the large allocations of resources to stemcell and cloning research. There may be a much darker explanation.
posted by Kevin at 10:18 AM
Aftermath: Unanswered Questions from 9/11 :.I realize that Cryptogon is too much for most people to handle, and that part of my responsibility is to provide you guys with tools you may use to wake up those individuals who are---shall we say?---beginners on the path. Well, I found just the thing. NO READING REQUIRED! Guerilla News Network has produced a short video documentary of stunning quality on the nature of the 9/11. The video provides a broad overview of JUST SOME of the discrepancies associated with the official version of what happened on 9/11, and the true U.S. motives in Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. More importantly, the piece is professionally produced, visually appealing and doesn't use too many big words that are difficult for most Americans to understand. In other words, IT IS PERFECT FOR YOU TO SHOW ANYONE who needs an introduction to the fact that the entire thing is an egregious fraud. Many of the speakers on the video will be familiar to you guys. Well done GNN!
posted by Kevin at 4:10 AM
Cut Out the Middleman :.Generally speaking, the system is structured so the results of your productive output are sent up an invisible pyramid to benefit the people who quietly run the show. In the final analysis, you get virtually nothing in return but stress, chronic disease and a painless, almost unnoticeable lobotomy. Increasingly, this is the definition of a fulfilling life in the West (including Japan). And why worry about the rest of the world? All of those "other" places (the base of the pyramid) are to be liquefied into a sort of nutrient auger that fuels the West (including Japan) and empowers that notorious 1%. Increasingly, those who take the time to carefully examine the situation are figuring out that the best solution to our dire state of affairs lies in empowering individuals to live happy, independent and less stressful lives. If any number of us were to start doing that, the main pole would get knocked out from under this freak show and the tent would come crashing down in very short order. How do we do that? Simple: CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN AND START LIVING. (Stay tuned.) Even though Salon is written by and for wealthy Northern California Democrats, an especially useless demographic, this article is interesting. It focuses on the phenomenon of people doing things BECAUSE OF JOY AND DEDICATION TO IDEALS, rather than because of a motivation to get rich. (GASP!) Whether these people realize it or not, they are talking about enlightened anarchy; the very non-system which will allow us to emerge from the neo-dark age that is befalling the planet. Increasingly, people are realizing that the system in which we currently exist is about to smack the wall and that change will NEVER come from within that system. The only way to change things is if we all take direct action in creating OUR OWN SYSTEM. (I am writing a small book that will be focused exclusively on this.) But for the moment, I'm happy to see that even wealthy Northern California Democrats can see the writing on the wall: Conference organizer Kevin Werbach admitted that his "decentralization" label was "ugly," but suggested that its very awkwardness was a sign that we were dealing with an underlying trend rather than a "marketing-concocted theme." And he was right: The phenomena this event focused on, a grab bag of new technologies that have bubbled up from the humbled high-tech world in the post-crash era, are mostly geek driven and grassroots spread: Wi-Fi (802.11b), the wireless high-speed Net access method; blogs; and "Web services," a fuzzy term to describe new methods of directly and quickly connecting software applications and data across the Net.
These disparate boomlets share an "end to end" design: They rely on the power of individual users' computers -- there's no big, centrally operated piece of software or hardware mediating. The users connect across an open, "stupid" network -- the Internet itself, today -- that simply moves information without worrying about what it is. The resulting software is ad hoc, impromptu, flexible, "lightweight." Empowered individuals at the ends of the network try out new ideas and build myriad new services. It's geek heaven.No, Mr. Rosenberg, it's not geek heaven. It's the biggest threat to the established order since the invention of the printing press. And I would encourage all of you folks reading this to let your own imaginations run wild as to how you can use this stuff, and anything else you can think of, to participate in the liberation process.
posted by Kevin at 3:36 AM
Cops and Building Inspectors: Just Checking :.This is it. I think this is the most shocking article posted so far on this site. I'd tell you to read about the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but we are ALREADY living in a police state: Belleville inspectors and armed police officers show up without search warrants to check for occupancy code violations, and ticket people who don't let them in -- a practice experts say is unconstitutional.
Invite friends over, babysit your grandchildren or allow relatives to spend the night in Belleville and you risk an armed police officer turning up at your door to search your home and give you a ticket.
Enforcement teams consisting of a housing inspector and a police officer do not obtain search warrants before showing up to check for occupancy code violations, a Belleville News-Democrat investigation found.
Most residents give their permission to come in, although reluctantly, and those who don't usually are charged. Sometimes they simply walk in.
Jim Reese said he was standing in his kitchen when he heard a noise at 7 a.m. and found a housing inspector and police officer standing in his living room.
"I wanted to know who walked in without permission," he said. "They didn't answer me. They just started walking through the place."
posted by Kevin at 3:31 AM
12/15/2002
Total Poindexter Awareness: Drudge Gets Fat, Lazy and Slow :.Cryptogon brought you this information 11 days before Mister Cutting Edge got around to it.
posted by Kevin at 11:51 AM
Does al-Qaida Have 20 Suitcase Nukes? :.Don't blame me if you have nightmares. I just work here: A new book by an FBI consultant on international terrorism says Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network purchased 20 suitcase nuclear weapons from former KGB agents in 1998 for $30 million.
The book, "Al Qaeda: Brotherhood of Terror," by Paul L. Williams, also says this deal was one of at least three in the last decade in which al-Qaida purchased small nuclear weapons or weapons-grade nuclear uranium.You guys will love this part: Bin Laden succeeded in buying the 20 suitcase nukes from Chechen Mafia figures, including former KGB agents. The $30 million deal was partly cash and partly heroin with a street value of $700 million.
"After the devices were obtained, they were placed in the hands of Arab nuclear scientists who, federal sources say, 'were probably trained at American universities,'" says Williams.Also, keep this (retracted) story in mind.
posted by Kevin at 11:28 AM
Start 'Em Young with the Bio-Scan Room Security System :.One of the keys to creating a pervasive fascist system is corrupting the minds of children. Their indoctrination begins very early, and it comes from many different sources. This one definitely belongs at the front of the "I Shit You Not" file. If someone would have just told me about this, I wouldn't have believed it: Keep your room safe from prying eyes and curious little brothers and sisters using cutting edge security technology! Mount this high-tech device on your door, program in your own private security code, and let the alarm alert you if anyone unauthorized tries to pass. The talking system includes an electronic eye, finger switches to enter your code and a sensor pod to detect intruders plus your choice of four alarm settings. Requires three AA batteries (included). Ages 5 and up.
posted by Kevin at 11:14 AM
Bush: Assumes al-Qaeda in U.S. :.Homeland Security General: No Imminent al-Qaeda Threat :.I would suggest that General Ralph Eberhardt avoid air travel for the foreseeable future. Unfortunate accidents seem to befall people in positions of power who don't play the game. Besides, it wouldn't come as any big surprise if bin Laden himself was here, considering the fact that the southern border of the U.S. is wide open. I find the border situation interesting, since drivers all over the U.S. are finding themselves lined up in "random" police checkpoints: THE head of the US military's new homeland security command said in an interview published today he saw little evidence of an imminent terrorist threat inside the United States from al-Qaeda.
General Ralph Eberhardt's comments to the New York Times seemed to contradict repeated statements from President George W. Bush and others in his administration that the Islamist militant group is active in the United States.
"I am not aware of a significant threat to this nation" from al-Qaeda sleeper cells, Eberhardt said. "But to say that we're not aware of it is not the same to say that it doesn't exist."Research Credit: BW
posted by Kevin at 3:51 AM
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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.
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