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4/15/2005

'Minority Report' Interface Created for U.S. Military :.

Keystrokes and mouse clicks limit your degree of freedom... Actually, being robbed at gun point to pay for this sh*t limits your degree of freedom. And never mind how it will be used against you in the future:

A computer interface inspired by the futuristic system portrayed in the movie Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, could soon help real military personnel deal with information overload.

The film sees characters call up and manipulate video footage and other data in mid-air after donning a special pair of gloves. Now defence company Raytheon, based in Massachusetts, US, is working on a real version and has even employed John Underkoffler, the researcher who proposed the interface to the makers of the film.

Underkoffler is a science and technology consultant for Treadle and Loam Provisioners in California, US, and previously developed radical computer interfaces at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He says the new system should help military experts sift through large quantities of information quickly and efficiently.

"Keystrokes and mouse clicks limit your degree of freedom," Underkoffler told The Wall Street Journal.



Making a Science Out of Applied Idiocy :.

If you know anything about the fraud of the university system, you'll want to frame this one and hang it on your wall:

The research paper was clearly the work of experts. It had a long, baffling title and its authors were familiar with key topics such as "simulated annealing" and "flexible modalities".

Submitted to the World Multiconference on Systematics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI), a computer science event to be held in Florida in July, it was promptly selected for presentation.

There was just one problem: it was complete gibberish. A random collection of charts, diagrams and obtuse lines such as "We implemented our scatter/gather I/O server in Simula-67", it was generated by a computer program written by three Massachussetts Insitute of Technology students.

MIT graduate student Jeremy Stribling, 25, and two friends created the fake paper because they were tired of being sent emails by WMSCI organisers soliciting admissions.

Mr Stribling said he was "definitely surprised" when Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy, was accepted, but "we kind of suspected they had low standards". He added: "They ask for submissions, but once you get in you have to pay a $400 (£220) fee to have your paper published." The prank had been aimed at the WMSCI and was not a statement about jargon in computer science.

Nagib Callaos, a WMSCI organiser, said the bogus paper had been accepted on a "non-reviewed" basis.

Mr Stribling said the trio wanted to present their paper. "It's just a matter of whether we can get in."



CHINESE VILLAGE REVOLTS :.

It's about time:

In driving off more than 1,000 riot police at the start of the week, Huankantou village in Zhejiang province is at the crest of a wave of anarchy that has seen millions of impoverished farmers block roads and launch protests against official corruption, environmental destruction and the growing gap between urban wealth and rural poverty.



Facing the Future with a Chip in the Shoulder :.

Forget mobile phones as the hottest new media technology - for anyone under 30, handsets as we know them will be gone in 20 years. The world's tech-savvy youngsters will be using microchip implants to communicate and transact.



U.S. Stocks Sink to 2005 Lows :.

Just wait till GM reports! HA!

U.S. stocks finished at 5 1/2-month lows on Friday -- in the third straight day of steep declines -- as disappointing results from IBM increased investor concerns about an economic slowdown and made Wall Street skittish about the coming flood of earnings.

The blue-chip Dow average had its biggest one-day drop since May 2003, falling 191 points. Friday marked the third consecutive day of triple-digit declines for the Dow, which has fallen more than 400 points in three sessions.


4/14/2005

CRYPTOGON READERS CONTRIBUTE $250!!!

Shocking. Incredible.

Ask the people I work with.

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this. PT sent $50. The $200 contribution came from someone who asked to remain anonymous. Both of these people have made very generous contributions in the past.

Thank you, both, very much.

Here's an update on my plans for the future, since this money will help to make them a reality:

I've managed to get a decent paying IT job and now Becky and I are saving every cent for our land in New Zealand. In case you don't know, Becky is a Kiwi. Our plan is to buy some land in the far North of New Zealand and turn it into a model of sustainable living; an example that others will WANT to follow. You already know the story... Organic, small scale agriculture. Solar/wind/hydro power. A dwelling made out of earthbags, or some other sensible material.

Becky, who's getting a PhD in Comparative Literature at the moment, sends me out the door each morning (into the bowels of IT hell) with a kind smile, a kiss and the words, "Just remember why you're doing it."


So, to PT, anonymous and all Cryptogon contributors: Thanks for bringing Becky and me a little closer to our goal.



Conference Told Oil Reserves May Be Healthy :.

Is Peak Oil a myth?

I tend to think not, but there are those who believe the entire thing is a PSYOP.

Clearly, the situation is being allowed to hit the wall. There is no doubt that a crisis has been engineered. Whether it comes about do to artificial scarcity and/or suppression/underfunding of viable alternatives doesn't matter anymore. Take your pick.

Personally, I think the world has peaked AND viable alternatives have been actively suppressed and underfunded. I think the Peak-Oil-Is-A-Myth notion is almost certainly a red herring. (Is the decline of natural gas production a myth as well???)

What's not debatable is the fragility of the oil distribution infrastructure and lack of spare refining capacity. (Forget, for a moment, about the destruction of the natural world.) Those factors alone should cause people to start thinking beyond petroleum:

The Australian Petroleum and Production Exploration Association conference in Perth has been told that the world's oil reserves might not be as low as analysts are predicting.

The United States Geological survey conducted in 2000 predicts that only 30 per cent of global oil supplies have been used.


Research Credit: AL



NY Law Enforcement Caught Doctoring Video of RNC Arrests :.

What's that? Cops lied? * yawn *:

New York law enforcement is caught doctoring video of arrests made during the Republican Convention. We speak with Alexander Dunlop, whose charges were dropped after the edited video was exposed, his lawyer Michael Conroy as well as a member of I-Witness Video who helped find the footage that eventually vindicated Alexander.



Guardsmen Accused of Smuggling Ecstasy :.

A U.S. military pilot and a sergeant were being held on federal narcotics charges after admitting they flew an Air Force jet from New York to Germany and returned with 290,000 pills of Ecstasy worth millions of dollars, authorities said Wednesday.

Capt. Franklin Rodriguez, 35, and Master Sgt. John Fong, 36, were arrested Tuesday when their cargo plane returned to Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, about 40 miles north of New York City.

The men were ordered held without bail at court appearances late Wednesday.



President Bush Tells Reporters About His 'Walk With Christ' :.



"Now Jesus don't like killin' No matter what the reason's for..."
---John Prine, Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

Unfortunately, Josef Mengele wasn't available to dispense a canticle on bioethics:

President Bush talked to the seven reporters traveling with him on Air Force One about Jesus after attending the pope's funeral in Rome last week. For 47 minutes, Bush and the journalists had an intimate, friendly chat largely about the pope, his legacy and Bush's own "walk with Christ," "The Washington Post" reported this week in an article with the headline, "Preacher Bush."

"There is no doubt in my mind there is a living God. And no doubt in my mind that Lord, Christ, was sent by the Almighty. No doubt in my mind about that," he said.

Bush said attending Pope John Paul II's emotional funeral last Friday strengthened his faith, his belief in a living God and in how religious faith is a lifelong journey, "not a respite."

"At times using language familiar to evangelicals, including talking in some detail about faith as a spiritual 'walk' with Christ, the president said viewing the pope's body made him feel 'much more in touch with the spirit,'" the "Post" observed.

"I think a walk in faith constantly confronts doubt, as faith becomes more mature," Bush said. "And you constantly confront, you know, questions. My faith is strong. The Bible [says] ... you've got to constantly stay in touch with the Word of God in order to help you on the walk.

"But the Lord works in mysterious ways, and during all our life's journeys, we're enabled to see the Lord at work if our eyes are open and our hearts are open," he added.



Crust: Everglades Holdout Agrees to Deal :.

Hopefully, this guy will take his $5 million and fire up another show somewhere else:

A man who fought for years to keep his home and businesses in the Everglades has accepted a $4.95 million buyout offer from the state, which plans to restore the wetlands ecosystem.

The deal, approved Wednesday by a Collier County judge after a more than 12-hour mediation hearing, allows Jesse Hardy to remain on his 160 acres until November 30.

Hardy paid $60,000 in 1976 for the land about 40 miles east of downtown Naples on the southwest coast, and built a small, corrugated metal-roofed house. He had no electricity and used propane for cooking and refrigeration.

He refused for years to sell, saying he wanted to hold onto a dying rural lifestyle.



Bank Says Saudi's Top Field in Decline :.

Has Saudi Arabia peaked?

The Bank of Montreal's analyst Don Coxe, working from their Chicago office, is the first mainstream number-cruncher to say that Gharwar's days are fated.

Coxe uses the phrase 'Hubbert's Peak' to describe the situation. This refers to the seminal geologist M King Hubbert, who predicted the unavoidable decline of oilfields back in the 1950s.

"The combination of the news that there's no new Saudi Light coming on stream for the next seven years plus the 27% projected decline from existing fields means Hubbert's Peak has arrived in Saudi Arabia," says Coxe, referring to data compiled by the International Energy Association's (IEA) August 2004 monthly report.


4/13/2005

International Terrorist Seeks Asylum in the U.S. :.

Give us your tired, your sick, your CIA trained international terrorists:

An Irish organization has sent a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland Dermot Ahern to call in the US Ambassador and request that Luis Posada Carriles not be granted asylum in the USA.

The letter to Mr Ahern, recently appointed special advisor to Kofi Annan on UN reform, recalls that Posada Carriles was convicted of involvement in the bombing in October 1976 of a Cuban civilian airline resulting in the death of all 73 people on board.

Posada Carriles, whom Havana accusses of masterminding many other terrorist actions against Cuban targets, admitted to having carried out such atrocious crime in an interview that later came up in the book "I Planted Bomb and So What" by Venezuelan writer Alicia Herrera.


He was tried and sentenced in Venezuela and later escaped from prison in 1985 -Venezuelan authorities have demanded his extradiction. Posada Carriles has now turned up in Miami, Florida, having spent many years on the run in Central America.

"We would ask that you make representations to the US Ambassador requesting that Posada Carriles' asylum application is denied and that he is returned to Venezuela to complete his sentence. This is the least that can be expected of any country which has declared itself a participant in the war against terrorism," the letter underlines.

"You might remind him -it continues- of President Bush's famous stipulation that anyone harboring a terrorist is guilty of terrorism themselves".

"Your recent pronouncements on terrorism and criminality indicate that we are on the same side in our efforts to stamp out tolerance of terrorism, regardless of the source", the text added.



School to Pay Students for Tips on Campus Crime :.

A high school is looking for a few good snitches.

Using revenue from its candy and soda sales, Model High School plans to pay up to $100 for information about thefts and drug or gun possession on campus.

"It's not that we feel there are any problems here," said Principal Glenn White. "It's a proactive move for getting information that will help deter any sort of illegal activity."

Under the new policy, a student would receive $10 for information about a theft on campus, $25 or $50 for information about drug possession, and $100 for information about gun possession or other serious felonies.

Informants will not receive the reward if they are involved in the crime, White said.



Cryptogon Reader Contributes $25

WO kicks down $25 from the Great White North! Thanks!



Cloned Cows Yummy and Safe :.

How long until the "Mad Cloned Cow" stories hit the wires?

Cattle-cloning scientists at the University of Connecticut say milk and meat from cloned animals are safe for human consumption.



Labs Urged to Destroy Pandemic Flu Strain :.

Remember the dead biologists as you read this. What's the plan for all of us, eh?

Thousands of scientists were scrambling Tuesday at the urging of global health authorities to destroy vials of a pandemic flu strain sent to labs in 18 countries as part of routine testing.

The rush, urged by the World Health Organization, was sparked by a slim, but real, risk that the samples, could spark a global flu epidemic. The vials of virus sent by a U.S. company went to nearly 5,000 labs, mostly in the United States, officials said.

"The risk is relatively low that a lab worker will get sick, but a large number of labs got it and if someone does get infected, the risk of severe illness is high and this virus has shown to be fully transmissible," WHO's influenza chief, Klaus Stohr, told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear why the 1957 pandemic strain, which killed between 1 million and 4 million people — was in the proficiency test kits routinely sent to labs.

It was a decision that Stohr described as "unwise," and "unfortunate."


4/12/2005

U.S. Trade Deficit Record :.

The U.S. trade deficit hit a record monthly high of $61.04 billion in February as imports of oil and textiles surged while American exports barely budged.

The deficit figure sent tremors through Wall Street with investors worrying that the huge amount of foreigners' money America needs to finance the deficit could at some point trigger a freefall in the dollar and aggravate U.S. inflation problems.


4/11/2005

Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies :.

Yale University researchers say their study that used lasers to create remote-controlled fruit flies could lead to a better understanding of overeating and violence in humans.

Using the lasers to stimulate specific brain cells, researchers say they were able to make the flies jump, walk, flap their wings and fly.

Even headless flies took flight when researchers stimulated the correct neurons, according to the study, published in the April 7 issue of the journal Cell.

Scientists say the study could ultimately help identify the cells associated with psychiatric disorders, overeating and aggressiveness.

Biologists have long known that an electrical stimulus can trigger muscle response, but this approach used focused beams of light to stimulate neurons that would have been impossible to study using electrodes.

Gero Miesenbock, associate professor of cell biology at Yale, said if the process could be duplicated on mice, researchers might be able to better understand the cellular activity that leads to certain behavior.

"Ultimately, that could be important to understanding human psychiatric disorders," Miesenbock said. "That's really futuristic stuff."



Israel: Army to Disarm Settlers Before Pullout :.

This might get weird:

The Israeli military plans to disarm residents of four Jewish settlements in the West Bank two weeks before the communities are to be dismantled this summer, officials said Monday, reflecting growing concern that settler resistance in the West Bank will be far more difficult to put down than in the fenced-in Gaza Strip.


Access for Israeli extremists already living in the West Bank to the four tiny northern settlements is relatively easy, and the warning conjured images of thousands of ultranationalists converging on the settlements to prevent their evacuation — as they have resisted removal of unauthorized outposts in recent months.


Officials expressed concern about armed confrontations, and settlers said Monday they would not hand in their guns.



FORD WARNS :.

Ford Motor Co. got another dose of bad news Monday after Fitch Ratings issued a negative outlook on the struggling company's debt, making it the second major credit agency to express concern the automotive maker's corporate bonds might slip into junk status.

Fitch joins Standard & Poor's Corp. in eyeing a downgrade of Ford's estimated $172 billion of outstanding debt into a high-yield rating, a move that would trigger a sharp rise in borrowing costs. The nation's second-largest automobile maker on Friday slashed this year's profit forecast by 29 percent and warned 2006 earnings would fall short of its target of $7 billion in pretax profits.

Concerns about Ford's financial health and outstanding debt come just weeks after larger rival General Motors Corp. cut its full-year earnings outlook by more than half. Sales at both GM and Ford have plummeted as higher gas prices have kept consumers at bay, and competition has heated up from rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co.

"These are two exceedingly large issuers of debt, and if they came into the high-yield market I don't think they'd be welcome with open arms," said Joseph Bencivenga, a managing director with Guggenheim Capital Markets. "There's a whole list of investors that can't own junk bonds and would be forced to sell. And when that starts happening, it's like a falling knife - nobody wants to catch it."


4/10/2005

Film: The Corporation :.

I've been waiting to see The Corporation for a very long time. I finally watched it on DVD last night. If you haven't seen this film, it's very worthy of your time. Regular Cryptogon readers won't learn anything new, but there's something about seeing the images that makes the, "It's not that bad, it's worse," concept sink in. (The situation is actually far worse than what is portrayed in the film, but that's why you guys have been showing up to read Cryptogon in increasing numbers since 2002.)

The film is extremely useful "red pill" material for your friends and family who don't see the big picture yet. The Corporation will attach specific names, places, images and ideas to the vague sense of discomfort most sane people have about living in this society. Actually, it will shock the average viewer; even the moderately informed viewer might have to hit pause a few times to let bits and pieces of it sink in. This is not to say that the average viewer will think the film was made by lunatics. (This is a common problem with Alex Jones' films. Even though much of his information is correct, he comes off like a nut to people in "polite circles.") None of the information in the film is controversial at all. All of the content is readily verifiable and old news to anyone who has taken even a cursory look at fascism. Feel free to recommend The Corporation to close friends and associates, especially the allegedly educated ones.

I wish The Corporation would have accentuated the point that these are not bipartisan political issues. In fact, these aren't political issue at all. (Not now. Not anymore.) I can't criticize the filmmakers too much for staying safely inside the mainstream when they ask, "Should we REFORM, REGULATE, or REWRITE the corporation?" Oh sure. HAHA! Why not ask your cat to explain the difference between special and general relativity???

The film itself makes the point, repeatedly, that corporations won. They occupy the commanding heights of society. And we're now going to try to use the system THEY transformed to suit THEIR needs to reign THEM in? Come on, man! This is, on its face, a fallacy.

Indeed, the worst case scenario is that people will watch the film and then waste time mucking around in the honey-pot of political activism and meaningless blather instead of actually moving to turn their backs on the machine, which is what needs to happen at this point. The machine will collapse on its own if enough people turn their backs on it and devise viable alternatives to it.

The time for sign waving, protesting and pithy bumper stickers is long over. (The time for political documentaries is long over, for that matter.) If this film accomplishes anything, it should convince people to begin walking away from the machine to the extent that they are capable of doing so.

If you have been debating whether or not to finally buy that piece of land, or work toward small-group self sufficiency, watching this film should light a fire under your tail to get a move on... while there's still time.

The following is from a piece I wrote called, Dave Emory Lecture: Half Great, Half Rat Poison:
Very few people are willing to accept the fact that our only real chance of survival is to leave the system and re-establish right human relationships, and a balance with the natural world, outside of the societies currently in existence---BEFORE THEY COLLAPSE. This is the only option that offers even a slim hope for the survival of the human race in any form we would like to see.

My advice to anyone who is serious about doing something real and meaningful: RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, RIGHT NOW. Run for your life. It's that simple.

If you try to run after "it" happens, you might as well forget it. If you have a place "in the hills," you should already be there. Think hard about what you should take with you. Build an arc with the things you think are important to the survival of the human race. Take an encyclopedia with you. Take some of the books I have listed on the right side of this webpage. Take some heirloom seeds with you. Have kids out there and tell them what happened and why they MUST NOT allow it to happen again.

Yes. This means you should stop voting, stop working at the job you hate and stop buying sh*t from WalMart. This also means that you may not have much money, but chances are, you don't have much money anyway. And what do you care if you are self-sufficient, or getting close to it?

Oh, but wait, Kevin, if "it" comes down, that will mean that there will be chaos, violence and, and, and... I won't get any new DVDs or that neat sweater or the new video game...

Hey, nobody said it was going to be easy, but it just might be paradise compared to what this thing is about to become. Besides, if this society doesn't come down, if the genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics and surveillance research all continue apace, your children are going to inherit a dystopia that is so incomprehensible that science fiction authors will be struck dumb by it. A total, systemic collapse would be extremely bad, and it's the best of all possible outcomes at this point. Pray for it.

Yeah, I'm nuts. I know. But... it's time to throw in the towel on the Democrats, the Republicans, the Greens, Pinks, Blues and Reds. This system is down. D.O.W.N. Nobody is coming to save you or me or anyone else.

If you're afraid, that's fine, you should be. Now get over it and figure out how you're going to get your land. And if you're lucky enough to have land, by God, you had better be getting proficient in the skills you need to live off of that land. You have an obligation to the human race to learn those skills and to pass them on to others.

People are making the mistake of squirting out babies in toxic, polluted cities that are, quite literally, on the verge of collapse. Friend, don't disconnect your brain from your biological predisposition to multiply. What's the point of having a child in a prison? Sure, go forth and multiply! But do it in a place where you and your children will have a fighting chance to not just survive, but to prosper. Build a new society outside of this doomed society, rebuild the culture, before you are forced to do these things under the yoke of chaos and starvation. Choose your wife/husband, friends and neighbors wisely. You're going to need their help, and they're going to need yours.
If what I wrote above sounds nuts, watch The Corporation again. This time, keep what I wrote in mind. If it still sounds nuts, don't worry, that's to be expected. In any event, know that there will be pockets of survivors and hope that they will not make the same mistakes that we did.

Related: Ran Prieur




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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.