cryptogon.com
   HOME
10/1/2004

Going Out of Town...

No updates until Monday.



"Unauthorized" Images of Item-Level RFID Tagging :.

Apparently, the photos I took at the Frontline conference hit a nerve, as now there has been a request (see the Advanstar letter below) not to share them with anyone.

These photos depict item-level RFID tagging of consumer items including: Calvin Klein, Champion, and Abercrombie & Fitch clothing, Huggies baby wipes, Kimberly Clark diapers, Nyquil cold medicine, CVS vitamins, Similac baby formula, and Lanacane cream. (Click for photos)

The RFID tagging of these items is quite shocking from a consumer privacy standpoint, since the RFID industry has been telling lawmakers and the press that they are interested in only "supply side" inventory tracking on crates and pallets. They have claimed that item-level tagging of consumer goods is not feasible for the near term, thus there is no need to worry about its consumer privacy implications.



Scalia: Orgies Are the Way to Ease Social Tensions :.

Man, it gets weirder by the hour. One has to wonder... After Scalia and Cheney slaughter caged animals for fun---it's difficult for me to speculate here---uh, what do you think the boys get up to in the country club?

He is the conservative bastion of the US supreme court, a favourite of President Bush, and a hunting partner of the vice-president. He has argued vociferously against abortion rights, and in favour of anti-sodomy laws.

But it turns out that there is another side to Justice Antonin Scalia: he thinks Americans ought to be having more orgies.

Challenged about his views on sexual morality, Justice Scalia surprised his audience at Harvard University, telling them: "I even take the position that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged."


Related: Dick Cheney Personally Slaughters 70+ Captive Birds with a Shotgun



U.S. Plans to Destroy Space Capabilities of Friends and Foes Alike :.

If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists... Wait... Even if you are with us, you get bombed anyway, because you're actually helping the terrorists somehow.

So there:

First, the document declares that the U.S. Air Force is duty-bound to slap down other countries' space efforts, should the need arise. Then, Counterspace Operations declares that a satellite or ground-control station doesn't have to belong to one of America's enemies in order to get hit.



Vitamin Supplements May Boost Cancer Risk :.

Let me get this straight: Taking vitamins increases one's chances of getting cancer... Oh sure. That's a good one. I guess I'll just have to eat some Vioxx:

Vioxx, the blockbuster arthritis drug dubbed at its debut as "super aspirin," was pulled from the market by its maker yesterday because the painkiller can double the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

This is just the latest debacle from Big Pharma's House of Horrors. And it's fitting that a day after one of the most prescribed drugs in the world was suddenly pulled out of circulation, we see a hit piece on vitamins in Forbes magazine! HAHAHA! Excellent! (It might also be worth noting that $28 billion in Merck shareholder value went to money heaven on yesterday's Vioxx news. That's right. Merck lost 27% of its value in one trading day.)

So, what's the moral of the story? Short the pigs like Merck before they die? Well, yes, that would be good for fattening your wallet. But the main point is that before you believe any of the nonsense published about vitamins by the mainstream press, check out Gary Null's Comprehensive Nutrient Review. How many stories does Forbes run about the hundreds of studies that show the benefits of taking vitamins? Keep in mind that easy access to inexpensive supplements threatens the profits of pharmaceutical companies. It's pretty easy to do the math from there.



Kerry Wins the U.S. Marine Shit-House Graffiti Poll :.

Cryptogon readers demand the most comprehensive and up to date polling data:

The US military, which traditionally avoids meddling in politics, is expressing its views about the US presidential race in the one place where a soldier can speak his mind freely: the latrines.

Here, in graffiti, young soldiers wax philosophical -- albeit crudely and with a fondness for four-letter words -- about God, death, President George W. Bush and his democratic rival John Kerry.

And, if one straw poll is to be believed on this gigantic air base in the western Iraqi desert, Kerry is due to rout Bush in the November 2 elections, after the Massachusetts senator picked up 73 votes to 58 on the bathroom wall.

While independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader received nary a mention, some marines nominated pornography kingpins Hugh Hefner and Larry Flynt onto the latrine wall ballots.

Heavy Metal gods Slayer and Rob Zombie received 11th-hour nominations from men in uniform to run for the White House. The bathroom wall vents a surprising amount of anger over Bush, considered by many rank-and-file a great wartime president, and heaps a mountain of cynicism on the US presence in Iraq.

Much of the bile is dedicated to denigrating Bush's homestate of Texas, the land of cowboys and toughness that has come to define his wartime presidency. "Here I sit cheeks a-flexin'. Bout to make another Texan," one rhyme reads, repeated in multiple stalls.


9/30/2004

Freak Radio Santa Cruz Taken Down at Gunpoint :.

At 8:20 AM on Wednesday, September 29, armed US Marshals and FCC Agents raided the house from which Free Radio Santa Cruz broadcasts. Agents entered with guns drawn, showing the warrant to a couple of residents but not serving the warrant to anyone at that time. All residents, some wearing only their bathrobes and PJ's, were herded to the sidewalk in front of their house.


9/29/2004

Recent .Mil and .Gov Hits

Greetings, Gentlemen:

.Mil

gate11-sandiego.nmci.usmc.mil
gate18-quantico.nmci.usmc.mil
cutler27.ncts.navy.mil
usma-cce.usma.army.mil
dns22b.dfas.mil
gate6-sandiego.nmci.navy.mil
bluecoat01.randolph.af.mil
gate14-sandiego.nmci.usmc.mil
450sl.pica.army.mil
pc-200-201.otc.army.mil
webproxy.crrel.usace.army.mil
hrcpro01.hoffman.army.mil
comdt-tx.comdt.uscg.mil
ws18-32.darpa.mil
bliswk99.bliss.army.mil
gate3.hqmc.usmc.mil
uhqpx1.jfcom.mil
jidc-bld-109w.isg.mil
nt-lee.nrlmry.navy.mil
gate4-norfolk.nmci.navy.mil
wcs2-schriever.nipr.mil
citspr.tyndall.af.mil
gateway.uscg.mil
papa2o.barksdale.af.mil
abs-teo.afis.osd.mil
sc031ws150.chs.spawar.navy.mil

.Gov

tias-gw1.treas.gov
tias-gw7.treas.gov
sephiroth.rtp.epa.gov
godavari.abs.gov.au
smtp1.sanantonio.gov
amcproxy.jccbi.gov
host.159-142-237-82.gsa.gov
dofpxy1.nyc.gov
air21.larc.nasa.gov
walltiger-pub.fda.gov
wdcsun19.usdoj.gov
mail.atlantaga.gov
sherman.state.gov
legion.dera.gov.uk
vicce003.net.gov.bc.ca
nwg001-ce1.customs.treas.gov
gateway202.gsi.gov.uk
206-211-166-17.gen.columbus.gov
cerf.grc.nasa.gov
gk-central-101.usps.gov
gate-v.fdic.gov
sad1.inel.gov


9/28/2004

Defense Finance and Accounting Service

A user at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (dns22b.dfas.mil, IP 207.133.248.241, 27 Sep 2004 - 18:57) conducted the following AskJeeves search: CHARTS OF OIL RESERVES DEPLETION.



Spy Imagery Agency Watching Inside U.S. :.

In the name of homeland security, America's spy imagery agency is keeping a close eye, close to home. It's watching America. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, about 100 employees of a little-known branch of the Defense Department called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and some of the country's most sophisticated aerial imaging equipment have focused on observing what's going on in the United States.

Their work brushes up against the fine line between protecting the public and performing illegal government spying on Americans.



Woman Arrested for Talking on Cell Phone :.

Sakinah Aaron was walking into the bus area at the Wheaton Metro station several weeks ago, talking loudly on her Motorola cell phone. A little too loudly for Officer George Saoutis of the Metro Transit Police.

The police officer told Aaron, who is five months pregnant, to lower her voice. She told the officer he had no right to tell her how to speak into her cell phone.

Their verbal dispute quickly escalated, and Saoutis grabbed Aaron by the arm and pushed her to the ground. He handcuffed the 23-year-old woman, called for backup and took her to a cell where she was held for three hours before being released to her aunt. She was charged with two misdemeanors: "disorderly manner that disturbed the public peace" and resisting arrest.


9/27/2004

Haiti Doctors Operate Without Electricity :.

Fill up your Hummer while you can!

Doctors are performing amputations without electricity or running water while waste from this city's shattered sewage system contaminates mud and floodwaters, infecting wounds that threaten to turn gangrenous.

More than a week after the passage of Tropical Storm Jeanne, the calamity in the northwest city of Gonaives has overwhelmed Haitians and foreign rescue workers.



OIL AT $50 :.

Nigerian insurgency... Isn't Africa crawling with al Qaeda!? Wait for it. You heard it here first. Nevermind the fact that the Nigerian insurgency has been smoldering for years with no sign at all of al Qaeda... They will announce an al Qaeda component to the situation in Nigeria. Note my comments from 9/8/2004:

Perhaps as "terrorists" start showing up in the G8 states, those governments will shape the political order in a de facto manner (by the arbitrary use of military power). What political order? It's pretty simple: Where there are oil and natural gas deposits, G8 states will strike "terrorists" with the right hand, while the left hand steals the natural resources.
Can you see the writing on the wall?

Oil prices reached a record $50 a barrel on Monday as Nigeria emerged as the latest focus for worries about supply in an already tight worldwide energy market.

The U.S. light crude front month contract rose a further 36 cents a barrel in after-hours electronic trading to hit $50, its loftiest level in the 21 years of trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.


Related: Busted Whores of War Have American and British Links



Crude Oil Soars to Record $49.75 on Nigerian Supply Threat :.

Emergency reserves are are being utilized:

Crude oil surged to a record $49.75 a barrel in New York amid concern rebel attacks in Nigeria will reduce production and U.S. refiners will struggle to replenish supplies disrupted by Hurricane Ivan.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group's venture in Nigeria evacuated 235 workers from the Niger River delta Sept. 24. U.S. oil supplies fell 10 percent in the eight weeks ended Sept. 17, leaving them close to a 29-year low. The government agreed Friday to loan refiners barrels from emergency reserves.



The Weather

I heard Michio Kaku's interview with Ross Gelbspan on the most recent "Explorations" radio program. Take a good look outside your window. How does it feel to stare disaster in the face?

This show is coming down, and right before our eyes. The chaos unfolding (in the wake of Hurricane Jeanne, 2.5 million homes and businesses are without power in Florida and Haiti is in a state of total collapse) is nothing compared to what is about to happen!

I can't begin to sum up what was said in this interview. Even if I did, you wouldn't believe me. Here is the link to Gelbspan's new book, if you dare to find out more:

Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis--And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster by Ross Gelbspan

Related: Pentagon Tells Bush: Climate Change Will Destroy Us



Liberation: U.S. Blitzkrieg in Fallujah Slaughters Iraqi Civilians

Or was it Mission Accomplished?

There are several stories about this, but I thought the pictures were more appropriate:




BBC Plans Radical Rethink of Panorama :.

For current events programming on mainstream television, the BBC's Panorama is as good as it gets. Obviously, that couldn't be allowed to continue:

Panorama, the world's longest-running TV current affairs programme, needs a "touchy-feely" overhaul because it has become "too distant, demanding, difficult and didactic", according to a briefing document prepared for the BBC executive in charge of the series.

The "creative brief", leaked to the Guardian, sets out a plan to restore the series to peak time that includes recruiting presenters with "warmer" faces, such as Fiona Bruce. The Newsnight presenter, Jeremy Paxman, would be used for more "analytical" subjects.

Storylines from EastEnders could be used as subjects for the programme to tackle in an attempt to make it "more accessible and enjoyable".

It is understood that the Panorama team is outraged at some of the ideas raised in the brief. But executives said yesterday it was a genuine attempt to find out how the series could be transmitted in peak time and retain its reputation for serious and authoritative journalism - without being trounced in the ratings by more popular shows on other channels.



Busted Whores of War Have American and British Links :.

Links have been discovered between senior American military officials and the failed coup plot in Equatorial Guinea that has left Sir Mark Thatcher facing trial in South Africa.

Theresa Whelan, a member of the Bush administration in charge of African affairs at the Pentagon, twice met a London-based businessman, Greg Wales, in Washington before the coup attempt. Mr Wales has been accused of being one of its organisers, but has denied any involvement.

A US defence official told Newsweek magazine yesterday: "Mr Wales mentioned in passing... there might be some trouble brewing in Equatorial Guinea. Specifically, he had heard from some business associates of his that wealthy citizens of the country were planning to flee in case of a crisis."



Applied Digital Unit Gets Air Force Deal :.

Microchip implants, .mil organizations and multi million dollar contracts. Nice:

Applied Digital Solutions Inc., a maker of embedded chips used to check vital signs and locate people and animals, said Tuesday that its Government Telecommunications Inc. unit received a $2.3 million Air Force contract to install, maintain and support certain telecommunications facilities.


9/26/2004

Google Censors News Stories Critical of Chinese Government :.

We are all digging our own holes by relying on Google. This thing is a proven memory hole, and we all use it!

A call to all lone nut programmers, freaks, open source developers: We need an open source search system that is based on p2p technology. If millions of us ran the client and dedicated a few megs to the effort, couldn't it work?

Google's recently launched news service in China doesn't display results from websites blocked by that country's authorities, raising prickly questions for an online search engine that has famously promised to "do no evil."

Dynamic Internet Technology, a research firm striving to defeat online censorship, conducted tests that found Google omits results from the government-banned sites if search requests are made through computers connecting to the Internet in China.


Steered by an identical search request, computers with a United States connection retrieved results from the sites blocked by China.

"That's a problem because the Chinese people need to know there are alternative opinions from the Chinese government and there are many things being covered up by the government," said Bill Xia, Dynamic's chief executive. "Users expect Google to return anything on the Internet. That's what a search engine does."

Xia suspects Google is cooperating with the Chinese government's censorship efforts to smooth the way for expansion plans that could help the Mountain View-based company boost future profits.



Special Skills Draft :.

Will you serve the beast?

TOPICAL AGENDA
The Department of Defense (Personnel & Readiness) and the Selective Service System

In line with today's needs, the SSS' structure, programs and activities should be re-engineered toward maintaining a national inventory of American men and (for the first time) women, ages 18 through 34, with an added focus on identifying individuals with critical skills.



Biomod: Montreal Team Offers Build-Your-Own Solar Scooters :.

Fire it up:

A couple of entrepreneurs in Montreal are teaching people how to build their own solar-powered scooters by making the instructions freely available on the internet.

Many people are looking to alternative fuels but solar-powered vehicles are often too expensive.

"The total cost of the project was probably about $600,000," said Paul Glass, project manager for McGill University's solar car.

The Biomod company in Montreal said it can build the vehicles for much cheaper. By using surplus parts, a solar-powered scooter costs $1,600.

"It's got three off-the-shelf components that are inexpensive," said Jeff Dekzty of Biomod. "You could begin building one by just getting a small kit."


Related: Biomod Site with Pictures



U.S. State Department: Poppy Crop in Afghanistan to Jump 40% this Year :.

Do you get it yet? Is it obvious yet?

Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the world's leading supplier of illicit opium, morphine and heroin, is expected to jump by 40 percent this year, a State Department official said Thursday.

The CIA's counternarcotics center had estimated the crop last year at 61,000 hectares (150,000 acres).

"My guess is this year, although the numbers are not in and they will be released in the next several weeks, it is probably 100,000 hectaresacres)," Robert Charles, the assistant secretary of the bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, told a congressional hearing.

Opium production this year could see a 20 to 40 percent jump, he said.

"On the narcotics front, tied like a ball-and-chain to security, justice and economic development, we stand in the darkness of a long shadow," Charles said.



Visit to Cryptogon from Microsoft

A user at Microsoft (tide002.microsoft.com, IP 131.107.76.145, 25/Sep/2004:19:31:24 -0700) conducted the following Google search: CIA controls cocaine.

I don't know whether to be proud or stunned by the fact that my site is the second result for this search (as of right now)!




Google


cryptogon.com
www

:. 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.