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9/30/2003
The Ubiquitous Electromagnetic Smog :.Radio signals for the next generation of mobile phone services can cause headaches and nausea, according to a study conducted by three Dutch ministries.
posted by Kevin at 1:37 PM
Blair: 'ID Cards Can Protect Civil Liberties' :.If you believe that one, I've got a bridge to sell you: A national identity card scheme may be the best way to protect civil liberties, Prime Minister Tony Blair declared.
During his keynote address to Labour's annual conference in Bournemouth, Mr Blair appeared to give his strongest backing yet to the concept of ID cards.Please remember, the British Government = the Irish Republican Army. Some of my unrepentant Fenian bastard buddies might take offence to that statement, but don't take it personally, lads, the Italians and Israelis also know a thing or two about government sponsored terrorism: Ireland:
Stakeknife: British Operative was Ranking Member of the Irish Republican Army :.For military intelligence, the prize of having the IRA's chief mole hunter in their pay for most of the Troubles is a remarkable coup. In the second world war, the equivalent would have been British intelligence running the head of the Reich security service, Reinhard Heydrich.More: Stakeknife and the Force Research Unit :.THE British army's most deadly double agent, who operated at the very heart of the IRA, has been identified as Alfredo 'Freddy' Scappaticci, known to spy-masters by the codename 'Stakeknife'.
As the British government's most powerful weapon in its 30-year 'dirty war' against the IRA and Sinn Fein, Scappaticci is suspected of being allowed by the army's Force Research Unit (FRU) to take part in up to 40 murders.Italy:
Terrorists 'Helped by CIA' to Stop Rise of Left in Italy :.US intelligence services instigated and abetted rightwing terrorism in Italy during the 1970s, a former Italian secret service general has claimed. Israel:
Do-It-Yourself Al Qaeda Cell :.Palestinian security forces have arrested a group of Palestinians for collaborating with Israel and posing as operatives of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, a senior official said yesterday.
The arrests come two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged al-Qaeda militants were operating in Gaza and in Lebanon.United States:The U.S. is, by far, the largest perpetrator of terrorism on the planet. See americanstateterrorism.com for a summary of what went on while you were sleeping: Iraq 2003, Palestine 1948-Present, Iraq 1991-2003, Afghanistan 2001-Present, Colombia 1960s-Present, Yugoslavia 1992-Present, Congo/Zaire 1961-Present, Cuba 1959-Present, Guatemala 1953 Present, El Salvador 1980-Present, East Timor 1975-1999, Haiti 1987-1994, Somalia 1993, Afghanistan 1979-1992, Nicaragua 1981-1990, Panama 1989, Libya 1981-1989, Iran 1988, Grenada 1979-1984, Greece 1964-1974, Chile 1964-1973, Costa Rica Mid-1950s, 1970-71, Dominican Republic 1963-1966, Vietnam 1945-1974, Cambodia 1955-1973, Laos 1957-1973, Thailand 1965-1973, Italy 1947-1970s, Indonesia, 1965, Brazil 1961-1964, British Guiana/Guyana 1953-1964, Iraq 1963, Soviet Union 1940s-1960s, Western Europe 1950s-1960s, Haiti 1959, Indonesia 1957-1958, Iran 1953, Albania 1949-1953, Korea 1945-1953, Philippines 1945-1953, Greece 1947-1949, Marshall Islands 1946-1958, Italy 1947-1948, France 1947, China 1945-1951, Hiroshima & Nagasaki August 1945, Dresden, Germany February 1945.So, Brits, what do you think? One ID card to keep you free? Or, one ID card to rule you all...
posted by Kevin at 1:28 PM
Super Craptastical Inkjet Fabricator :.Sheer insanity. Who needs this nonsense!? So, let me get this straight: The PHBs are going to be able to print out Palm Pilots, vibrators and proximity munition fuses with the push of a button? Oh that's just excellent. If the engineers that think up this garbage are so brilliant, why can't they devise a way to provide clean air, water and food to societies that are awash in meaningless pap and toxic waste? Soon fully assembled electric and electronic gadgets could be constructed in one go without having to add the components at great cost afterwards.
The technology "prints" layer upon layer of conducting and semi-conducting polymers at the same time building up the gadget.
Therefore, the housing of the device can be filled with circuitry during the printing process -- in fact the object itself becomes the circuit and vice versa.More: New Machine 'Could Lead to 21st Century Industrial Revolution' :.There's going to be a revolution, alright... Question: If these machines eliminate the need for employees, uh, who is going to buy this crap? Hmmm. Maybe I can use this technology to print out five acres of arable soil, a yurt and a few chickens, goats and guineas! Oh, nevermind. The whole show is going fuckobazoo right before our eyes: US scientists are developing a "Santa Claus" machine that can make fully assembled and functioning electronic toys, mobile phones and other gadgets.
They believe the technology could lead to a new industrial revolution bringing the end of traditional production lines.
A "gadget printer" uses ink-jet cartridges that deposit 3D layers of "smart polymer" droplets according to a pre-programmed design.Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 2:08 AM
Can Computers Help Reverse Falling Employment? :.The current economic paradigm is flawed. The thing is broken by design. If your work involves sitting on your ass, get ready to become unemployed. What? Don't you support free trade? Where companies are free to rape and pillage on a global scale and with a pathological focus of winning the race to the bottom!? Oh relax, eat your donut and make some faces at your PHB after it tells you to reprioritize your action items. And when that imbecile calls you into its office to lay you off, you can rest assured that it will be hittin' the bricks not long after you do: Information technologies are implicated in a worldwide and world-historic crisis: falling employment. As the wealth of nations increases, those who have lost jobs or had to accept menial ones over the past three years are left with only a wealth of culprits to blame: financial scandals, wars, tax cuts, stagnation, etc. But there is little doubt that a large contributor to rising unemployment is rising productivity, which in turn can be laid to advances in computerization and communications. I can no longer avert my eyes from the consequences of the field I have chosen, and no one else who programs, administers, or promotes the use of computers can morally avert their eyes either.
The gigantic combine of capitalism has always obsessively pursued efficiency, and computers make the pursuit almost child play. Capitalism has succeeded in sowing a cornucopia of innovation up and down society. But capitalism is atrocious at distributing the fruits of innovation. Each labor-saving device means the idling of thousands of people, wasting their years of experience, rigorous training, and practical insights.
posted by Kevin at 1:56 AM
Patriot Act Being Used to Investigate Homeless Hacker :.The Patriot Act continues to creep.....unchecked. Now it's being used for computer hacking?! Throw the First Amendment out the window so that Ashcroft and his marry band of maniacs can investigate a homeless kid, who carries everything he owns in a backpack? Man, Let the Mighty Eagle Soar: Citing a provision of the Patriot Act, the FBI is sending letters to journalists telling them to secretly prepare to turn over their notes, e-mails and sources to the bureau. Should we throw out the First Amendment to nail a hacker, writes SecurityFocus columnist Mark Rasch.
posted by Kevin at 1:44 AM
9/28/2003
Diebold Internal Memos Admit Voting Machine Flaws :.In a preemptive strike to discourage further negative publicity, Diebold Election Systems has demanded that voting activist site BlackBoxVoting.org remove internal memos which admit that Diebold's high tech voting machines are easily susceptible to vote fraud.
Dated Oct. 2001, the memo by Diebold's principal engineer Ken Clark concedes that it is quite simple to do an "end run" around the Diebold GEMS voting software, used in both touch screen and optical scan voting machines, and that this "back door" has already been used in elections. Diebold states that the memos are authentic, but claims copyright protection.
posted by Kevin at 7:15 PM
The Diabolical Genius of Joe Frank :.Every once in a while, I like to have a good laugh about something that isn't directly related to The End. Joe Frank is great.
posted by Kevin at 6:52 PM
Breaking: Possible Virus Attack Taking Down Cingular Wireless Network :.Will update: "It looks like the Cingular GSM network is having serious trouble. My phone stopped working today completely, though my wife's was still able to make outgoing calls. Talking to tech support, they claimed some kind of massive failure across the country starting around 4PM yesterday and possibly a virus attack. Howard Forums is all abuzz, but there really doesn't seem to be any hard info. Glad I haven't totally given up the land line yet... redundancy is good." Italy Power Outage :."The Third World was just around the corner." --- Billy Bragg The whole of mainland Italy has been blacked out by a power cut.
Only the island of Sardinia was unaffected.
France's national grid has confirmed that two high tension powerlines supplying electricity to Italy were cut, causing the massive power outage.
posted by Kevin at 2:18 AM
9/27/2003
Mercs: Increased Demand for Whores of War :.Mercenaries are training to do the kind of work the US Government can't afford to have its own soldiers doing. And in a couple of weeks some of them will be shipping out to places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
But why are private armies in demand? It mostly boils down to overstretch. US forces in places like Iraq cannot keep up with the work.Related: Mass Layoffs in August :.About 134,000 workers lost their jobs in 1,258 mass layoffs nationwide last month, up from the 128,103 employees who were fired in 1,248 such actions in August 2002, the bureau said.
posted by Kevin at 3:38 PM
Scientists 'Program' DNA Molecules To Self Assemble Into Patterned Nanostructures :.Afraid of nukes? Phewey. A nuclear weapon only explodes once: "Our goal is to use DNA self-assembly to precisely control the location of other molecules," said Yan, a molecular chemist working as an assistant research professor in Duke's computer science department.
"The big promise is that if we can increase the size of our lattices we can template nanoelectronics onto them and make useful devices and circuits at a smaller scale than has ever been done before," added LaBean, a molecular biologist who is also an assistant research professor of computer science.
Yan and LaBean are the tiles' principal designers. Their work in DNA computation shows that the tiles' self assembly into structures can be programmed, according to the researchers. "The tile itself is easy to modify by changing strands, so we can program the tile again and again for other purposes," Yan said.Related: Why the Future Doesn't Need Us :.Part of the answer certainly lies in our attitude toward the new - in our bias toward instant familiarity and unquestioning acceptance. Accustomed to living with almost routine scientific breakthroughs, we have yet to come to terms with the fact that the most compelling 21st-century technologies - robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology - pose a different threat than the technologies that have come before. Specifically, robots, engineered organisms, and nanobots share a dangerous amplifying factor: They can self-replicate. A bomb is blown up only once - but one bot can become many, and quickly get out of control.
posted by Kevin at 3:25 PM
Iraqphotos.com :.A couple of days ago, I said I couldn't even shake a stick at all the insanity related to the out of control situation in Iraq. Well, iraqphotos.com has made it their mission in life to keep track of it all.
posted by Kevin at 3:16 PM
More JFK Theories: All These Secrets Are the Same SecretBarr McClellan is trying to pin the murder of JFK on his former boss, President Lyndon Johnson. And Brad O'Leary and L.E. Seymour are spinning a bit of a different yarn. Besides the fact that the Kennedy administration ordered the execution of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, O'Leary and Seymour think that some milieu of French narcotics traffickers, Vietnamese operatives and New Orleans mobsters murdered Kennedy. Fine. Watch the left hand as the right hand directs you to the truth...over there. Indeed, there may be some of the truth over there. What we can't lose sight of, however, is the fact that the full resources of the U.S. intelligence community have been employed in covering up the JFK murder, and ensuring that the consensus opinion of the single shooter theory remains in force. In other words, this operation was not carried out by an individual, or a small group of individuals. This operation was large and the media, the congress and just about everyone else slurped it all up. Obviously, the single shooter theory is dumb, as are most of the mainstream explanations of the JFK murder. As this becomes obvious to larger numbers of people, we should expect ornate and robust explanations that will, once and for all, lay to rest the mystery of the JFK murder. Of course, all of that is just more of the Matrix being thrown into your skull. Look, They don't blow the heads off of U.S. presidents in public unless there's a damn good reason for it. Now, ask yourself, cui bono? Who benefits? Who died, and who made a killing? Do I think drugs are a part of it? Yes, but the drugs are just a piece of the much bigger puzzle. What we are bumping our heads up against here is what we are always bumping our heads up against: the fiat currency based, fractional reserve, global banking system. Most people are just too damn stupid, or afraid, to notice. Let's take a look at analysis from Cedric X on Presidential Executive Order 11110. Please indulge me with this long quote: On June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kennedy's order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury." This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications of this bill are enormous.
With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough of these silver certificates were to come into circulation they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes. This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything. Executive Order 11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level, because it would have given the government the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve and being charged interest in order to create the new money. Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S. the ability to create its own money backed by silver.
After Mr. Kennedy was assassinated just five months later, no more silver certificates were issued. The Final Call has learned that the Executive Order was never repealed by any U.S. President through an Executive Order and is still valid. Why then has no president utilized it? Virtually all of the nearly $6 trillion in debt has been created since 1963, and if a U.S. president had utilized Executive Order 11110 the debt would be nowhere near the current level. Perhaps the assassination of JFK was a warning to future presidents who would think to eliminate the U.S. debt by eliminating the Federal Reserve's control over the creation of money. Mr. Kennedy challenged the government of money by challenging the two most successful vehicles that have ever been used to drive up debt - war and the creation of money by a privately-owned central bank.Now, with all of that fresh in you mind, look at this excerpt from Barry and the Boys, by Daniel Hopsicker: �You referred to the gentleman Barry worked for, David Ferrie. I knew Barry had some unusual financing because he owned two airplanes by the time he was eighteen,� said one of Seal�s employees, pilot Joe Hurston.
�I�m going to tell you that there is a lot more to this that meets the eye,� this man continued. �I had an airplane that crashed, with seven souls aboard, one of whom was a representative of the US Treasury Department. My aircraft was screwed with, and I�m still very concerned for my family�s safety.�
This individual, with some obvious concerns, was with Seal when he played his role in the Watergate Scandal, when he was arrested less than two weeks after the bungled burglary by CIA Cubans like Frank Sturgis, with 13,500 pounds of plastic C4 explosives destined for anti-Castro Cubans in Mexico.
�Mena is very real,� Hurston concluded, before declining to talk further, at least on the record.
�And what did happen back then is tied to that. And you mess with �72, and you�re messing with Mena. And Mena is tied right in to current stuff. So there is a strong connection, and you should be aware of it.�
�You mean, this is all somehow connected?� we asked.
�Touch one, you�ve touched them all,� he stated solemnly. �All these secrets are the same secret.�All these secrets are the same secret... Weapons sales, which perpetuate war, death and fear, the global trade in illicit drugs and a central banking system that ensures that an ever expanding balloon of debt financing payments will be taken out of the hides of people everywhere.... all of these secrets are the same secret. So, at the end of the day, after all the French connections have been made, after all the shady New Orleans mobsters have been ground into dog food, and every conceivable theory has been laid to rest, we will be no closer to understanding the true nature of Kennedy's assassination than millions of stunned Americans were on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. And that's the way They like it.
posted by Kevin at 3:01 PM
Reader Comments on Rising PovertyAn anonymous Cryptogon reader sent these comments: The percentage of Americans living in poverty rose to 12.1 percent from 11.7 percent in 2001... the poverty threshold income level for a family of four with two children is $18,244 per year. According to the government numbers 1 out of every 8 families is living at the poverty level. The government defines poverty as $18,000 a year for a family of four. This is insane! I make $24,000 a year as a single person and I sleep under my desk. So while "poverty" rose, what happened to CEO pay? Since 1980, the average pay of regular working people increased just 66 percent, while CEO pay grew a whopping 1,996 percent. According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major corporation made 42 times the average hourly worker's pay in 1980, 85 times in 1990 and a staggering 531 times in 2000. (Compare your salary's growth to a CEO's with the calculator in their webpage.) Well, I'm sure those top-flight, high-powered PHBs are worth every penny. In an SEC filing Tuesday, Delta said it expects to lose more than the $397 million it lost in the same period last year. The airline lost $1.3 billion over the entire year: [CEO] Mullin's appeal for government aid comes after Delta revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it awarded its top executives millions in bonuses last year. Mullin received a $1.4 million bonus. The airline also moved to make sure the pensions of top executives are safe if the company does file for bankruptcy sometime in the future.
posted by Kevin at 2:03 PM
White House Compromises CIA Asset as Payback :.Valerie Plame is lucky that she is an intelligence analyst. If she had been a case officer or an independent contractor, she would already be dead. In fact, I'm surprised They didn't kill her and frame her husband, Joeseph Wilson. If you think that kind of thing doesn't happen to people who refuse to go along with the program, think again. The children are killed to make a point to others who are considering thought crimes against Uncle: A minor flap has been brewing since syndicated columnist Robert Novak, citing "two senior administration officials," reported in July that Joseph C. Wilson IV was married to a Central Intelligence Agency specialist on "weapons of mass destruction" named Valerie Plame. Wilson is the former diplomat sent by the CIA last year to check out allegations that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger. He caused the Bush administration no small embarrassment by stating, in a July 6 op-ed, that he'd reported "it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place."More: CIA Seeks Probe of White House :. Don't believe there's any real animosity here. Consider the full name of the CIA facility: SHELBY AMENDMENT NO. 3050 (Senate - June 26, 1998) page: S7289. SEC. 307. DESIGNATION OF HEADQUARTERS BUILDING OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY AS THE GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH CENTER FOR CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE. (a) Designation: The Headquarters Building of the Central Intelligence Agency located in Langley, Virginia, shall be known and designated as the 'George Herbert Walker Bush Center for Central Intelligence'.
posted by Kevin at 1:22 PM
9/26/2003
Get Chipped(TM) :.Applied Digital Solutions, Inc., an advanced technology development company, today announced that New York City's first subdermal VeriChip(TM) "chipping" procedure was performed yesterday (September 24, 2003) at the Company's lower Manhattan Authorized VeriChip Center.
posted by Kevin at 10:12 PM
Independent Replication of Mizuno's Cold Fusion Reactor :.Professors Jean-Fran�ois Fauvarque and G�rard Lallev� from the "Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Industrielle" of the CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et M�tiers) in Paris, have replicated the cold fusion process devised by Mizuno and tested repeatedly by Naudin.
posted by Kevin at 6:56 PM
Levi Strauss Enters Final Round of North American Layoffs :.I say we pay a 13 year old Malaysian girl 50 cents per day to be the President of the United States: Struggling jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. said on Thursday it would close its remaining North American plants and cut nearly 2,000 jobs, completing its long exit from the U.S. manufacturing business that began more than 20 years ago.
posted by Kevin at 1:04 AM
Iraq Situation Devolving by the HourI can't even shake a stick at it anymore. Civilians killed. Government officials killed. U.S. tanks blowing up cars driven by journalists. UN pulling out, basically indicating to Bush, "You broke it, you fix it."
posted by Kevin at 1:00 AM
CTO Loses Job After Microsoft Report :.The chief technology officer of computer security firm AtStake, which consults for Microsoft Corp., has been fired after taking part in writing a report criticizing Windows as posing a national cybersecurity risk, an associate said on Thursday.HA! Microsoft Chosen as Exclusive Homeland Security Contractor :.I shit you not, it's nearly Miller Time. Very few stories actually send a shiver down my spine, but this one did. It's obvious that we're all being set up for a very hard fall: The Homeland Security Department has chosen Microsoft Corp. as its preferred supplier of desktop computer and server software, according to a statement issued late Tuesday. The move is a significant development in the government�s ongoing merger of 22 agencies and comes as officials are selecting various technology companies� products as de facto standards for the department. HA! HA! U.S. State Department Visa Processing Brought Down by Virus Attack :.An attack of the Welchia worm lead the US Department of State to shut down its system for filtering visa applications in search of potential terrorists
A computer virus has hit the US Department of State, affecting the performance of the government's information technology system that manages visa approvals, according to reports.
The virus shut down the State Department's Consular Lookout and Support System (Class) on Tuesday, according to published reports from Reuters and the Associated Press. A State Department representative CNET News.com reached on Wednesday would not confirm that the system had crashed but indicated that IT personnel were working on a problem.
posted by Kevin at 12:47 AM
Questions, Questions, Too Many Questions: Moussaoui Case Dropped :.Prosecutors have agreed with Zacarias Moussaoui's lawyers that all charges against the terrorism defendant should be dismissed but only to hasten an appeal that challenges his right to question fellow al-Qaida prisoners.
posted by Kevin at 12:44 AM
9/25/2003
Standard Operating Procedure: 'Terrorist' Group Under U.S. Protection :.Do you get it yet? No? Well then think back on the CIA's treatment of Al Qaeda during the 1980s and that should refresh your memory. But it's not just Al Qaeda. This is how the U.S. operates EVERYWHERE: Soldiers from Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division are providing security for several members of an Iranian paramilitary group that the U.S. State Department lists as a terrorist organization.
The paratroopers are guarding a compound at Nasir Al Wa Salam that U.S. officers said is the home of a handful of members of the Mujahedin-E Khalq or MEK -- also known as the People's Mujahedeen. Members are free to come and go.
The MEK is dedicated to overthrowing the Iranian government and conducted attacks on Iran during the 1980s and 1990s. The group was nurtured by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, whose country fought a war with Iran in the 1980s. Now, with Saddam gone, the MEK's 4,000 to 5,000 fighters are in a strange limbo.
They are stuck in Iraq without support and cannot return to Iran. Many were educated in the United States and Britain, but if America took them in, the country probably would face charges of hypocrisy, given its war on terrorism.
posted by Kevin at 9:46 AM
Gold Hits 7-Year High :.By 1515GMT, spot gold closed at $390.40/391.10 per troy ounce after spiking to a high of $393.30 -- not seen since mid May 1996. That compared with $387.00/387.80 at the New York close on Wednesday.
Analysts signaled even more gains, after a period of consolidation, with prices over the psychologically significant $400 barrier looking increasingly likely.
posted by Kevin at 9:18 AM
9/24/2003
TR Comments on Helen and Scott NearingSeveral days ago, I told TR, a fellow researcher and long term Cryptogon reader and contributor, about an article I had read in Mother Earth News (Oct/Nov 2003) about Helen and Scott Nearing. I was struck by the Nearing's insights into where society was headed, even as far back as the 1930s. The parallels to today are chilling. TR has been reading their book, The Good Life, and sent over some comments that I am sure you will find interesting. Oh yeah, keep in mind that living like the Nearings is now illegal in most areas in the United States: I've been reading a very dangerous book. It's called "The Good Life" by Helen and Scott Nearing. These people saw this thing coming down in 1932! Of course, in the 30's it really was down. But still, back then they had certain freedoms that are gone to us today. We've lost our most basic freedom: the right to affordable land. In 1932, the Nearings bought a 65 acre parcel for $1100. That's $12,600 in today's currency! They never dealt with any bank and they built a very comfortable slipform stone-masonry house from rocks gathered on the property. No building inspectors were ever involved. They also never worked one day at a job. Money was made by selling maple syrup and maple sugar. The Nearings grew all their own food and bartered with neighbors for services and supplies. Their goal was to work 20 hours a week and devote the rest of their time to reading, writing and living. They wanted to create a life that would be Good in both its means and its ends. They achieved their goal and wrote about it in their book, which is an effective and entertaining mixture of biography, philosophy and how-to. I HIGHLY recommend it!
Here's a quote from the "The Good Life":
When we moved to Vermont we left a society gripped by depression and unemployment, falling a prey to fascism, and on the verge of another world-wide military free-for-all; and entered a pre industrial, rural community. The society from which we moved had rejected in practice and in principle our pacifism, our vegetarianism, and our collectivism. So thorough was this rejection that, holding such views, we could not teach in the schools, write in the press or speak over the radio, and were thus denied out part in public education. Under these circumstances, where could outcasts from a dying social order live frugally and decently, and at the same time have sufficient leisure and energy to assist in the speedy liquidation of the disintegrating society and to help replace it with a more workable social system?--- Here's to assisting "in the speedy liquidation of the disintegrating society!" I'll drink to that.
posted by Kevin at 2:23 PM
Switzerland Considering National Gun Registration :.Switzerland's minister of justice has called for national gun registration in a country held up by U.S. gun-rights advocates as a model for armed societies.
posted by Kevin at 12:11 PM
OPEC Agrees to Surprise Oil Output Cut :.Man, there's just no end to the great economic news! But that's ok, the Cheney and Bush clans will be keeping the winter chills at bay by burning logs made out of rolls of one hundred dollar bills as you go bankrupt paying for gas: OPEC producers on Wednesday agreed to a surprise cut in oil supplies that could raise fuel costs this winter and hamper economic growth.
The cartel decided to reduce output for 10 members, excluding Iraq, by 900,000 barrels a day to 24.5 million barrels daily from November 1, said the oil ministers of Kuwait and Iran.
posted by Kevin at 8:06 AM
DIEBOLD TAKEDOWN: WWW.BLACKBOXVOTING.ORGFrom the "down page" on blackboxvoting.org. NOTICE
Due to a dispute with Diebold, Incorporated, and its wholly owned subsidiary Diebold Election Systems, Inc. (collectively "Diebold"), which is claiming links to certain materials that do not reside on the blackboxvoting.org website constitute copyright infringement, blackboxvoting.org has been temporarily disabled.
We regret any inconvenience this may cause visitors and journalists to the blackboxvoting.org site and hope to have this matter resolved shortly.
In the interim, send questions or information requests to webmaster@gatorgraphics.net.
posted by Kevin at 7:44 AM
MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) :.Do you ever get the feeling that They're just doing stuff now in order to rub our faces in it? If I had come out, a few weeks ago, and said that a new law enforcement datamining/surveillance system called MATRIX was under construction, even you guys, who are basically nuts, would have emailed me and gently suggested that I should seek psychiatric care. So, for those of you keeping orderly records of The End, this one should be at the front of your I-Shit-You-Not-File: The perverse dream of integrating law enforcement, military intelligence and vast databases of virtually everything done by virtually every citizen is coming to fruition, only under state, not federal, auspices.
DARPA's dreaded Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, formerly administered by convicted felon and Republican hero John Poindexter of Iran-Contra fame, may have been de-clawed by Congress, but it lives on at the state level in an incarnation called, ominously, the MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange).
There's a lot to dislike in this new end-run around Congressional oversight. For one thing there are federal dollars behind it -- four million from the Department of Justice -- which makes it clear that the Feds will be expecting a payoff.
It also appears that the scheme is geared more towards data mining in quest of garden-variety criminal activity than anything to do with international terrorism. When you combine that with federal interest, it's hard to resist seeing the MATRIX as a sneaky way for three-letter agencies to keep tabs on ordinary folk and their foibles, side-stepping restrictions on domestic spying instituted since the Church Committee.
posted by Kevin at 7:14 AM
9/23/2003
Ward Hunt Ice Shelf Breaks Apart :.The largest ice shelf in the Arctic, a solid feature for 3,000 years, has broken up, scientists in the United States and Canada said on Monday.
They said the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, on the north coast of Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut territory, broke into two main parts, themselves cut through with fissures. A freshwater lake drained into the sea, the researchers reported.
posted by Kevin at 2:42 AM
9/22/2003
Smackdown: Dollar Falls Sharply, Pulling Down Stock and Bond Prices :.Just wait until the reality of what is happening sets in. Put this in your "jobless recovery" pipe and smoke it: The dollar fell sharply today, pulling down stock prices on Wall Street and across Europe and Asia, after global economic policymakers at a weekend meeting endorsed "flexibility in exchange rates."
Bond prices also dropped sharply in New York as traders feared foreign investors would sell United States Treasury securities to cut their losses from the decline in the dollar's value.
Many economists and policymakers have long argued that the dollar must weaken further to redistribute global growth from an unhealthy reliance on the United States. The International Monetary Fund, which is meeting in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, said last week that "imbalances" in the global economy, including the large American trade deficit, threatened the global economic recovery.
Some investors fear that the dollar's sell-off could get out of hand, destabilizing financial markets. "There is some worry that this could turn into a rout," said Matthew Wickens of ABN AMRO in London.
posted by Kevin at 5:25 PM
SEC Quizzing NYSE Specialists :.Anyone who has ever traded NYSE issues on an intraday basis knows that the specialist system is rife with criminality. The entire point of the specialist system is to make money for the specialist. They routinely disrupt liquidity and screw investors on every trade: Federal regulators have begun interviewing individual specialists on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange about an investigation of possible illegal trading, amid a leadership vacuum at the Big Board.
As the NYSE awaits the arrival next week of a temporary replacement for its ousted chairman, Richard Grasso, sources close to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the agency's look at the probe is "a very high priority."
The SEC has been monitoring an NYSE inquiry into suspected trading violations by floor specialists, including possibly failing to stand aside in adequately liquid markets and possible "trading ahead" of customer orders, the sources said.
posted by Kevin at 5:20 PM
SF Chronicle: Schwarzenegger's Inner Circle Resembles a Bohemian Grove Toga Party :."...the inner circle of Schwarzenegger's "populist" crusade looks like a Bohemian Grove toga party: Donald Bren, George Shultz, David Murdock, Warren Buffett, and so on."
posted by Kevin at 4:53 PM
9/21/2003
Microsoft Ramping Up to Total DRM Lockdown :.We are gazing straight into The End of general purpose computing as we know it. I had written a massive diatribe on this, but I decided I don't even care anymore. I'm not going to go along with this. And when Microsoft, working together with the fedgov, manages to break all of the standards that allow for the open exchange of information, I will refuse to use those systems and networks. It's as simple as that. The Microsoft� Windows� Rights Management (RM) client is required for your computer to run applications that provide functionality based on Windows RM technologies. Installing this client places software on your computer that allows RM-aware applications to work with Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) to provide licenses for publishing and consuming RM-protected information.
posted by Kevin at 11:52 PM
Iraqi Nightmare Just Beginning, Thanks to the U.S. :.Wow, the U.S. installed puppets aren't wasting any time. Most limits on "foreign direct investiment" have been lifted. Attention, transnational corporations, do you need employees who are willing to work for 10 cents per hour? Thanks to the U.S., Iraq is about to become another low wage slave hell: Iraq's recently appointed finance minister on Sunday announced a radical liberalisation of the economy, but his plans surprised US allies and were attacked by Iraqi business representatives.
The laws abolished almost all curbs on foreign direct investment except in natural resources and allowed foreign domination of the banking sector.
Wadi Surab, a member of the Iraqi Businessman's Union in Baghdad, told the BBC Arabic service the proposed reforms would "destroy the role of the Iraqi industrialist", as Iraqi business groups could not compete in privatisation tenders.
posted by Kevin at 7:23 PM
Warning! You Are Being Watched :.In June, Atlanta bookstore employee Marc Schultz found himself visited by FBI agents after someone spotted him reading an article titled �Weapons of Mass Stupidity� at a local coffee shop. Schultz has dark hair and a beard, and the combination was apparently enough to make someone call the FBI. Schultz says the agents told him: �There�s no problem. We�d just like to get to the bottom of this. Now, if we can�t, then you may have a problem. And you don�t want that.�
posted by Kevin at 4:30 AM
FBI Stunner: No Ill Gotten Gains from 9/11 Short Trades :.I'm nearly speechless on this one. Just bask in this one for a few moments and hold your nose: Somewhere out there are hedge funds or individual investors who profited from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But they had no foreknowledge of the catastrophes, an FBI spokesman said Thursday.
Spokesman Ed Cogswell said the FBI has closed its investigation of stock and option trading that took place days before the attacks. He said the investigation turned up "absolutely no evidence'' of anyone with inside knowledge of what would happen.
posted by Kevin at 3:29 AM
Angle Grinder Man :.I say, Angle Grinder Man for California Governor! He wears a baby-blue spandex jumpsuit and shiny gold panties, gloves, cape, boots and goggles. He wields a giant, metal-cutting circular power saw.
Who is Angle Grinder Man?
He is Britain's self-styled "first wheel-clamp and speed camera vigilante cum subversive superhero philanthropist entertainer type person." That's who.
For those not familiar with industrial machine tools, an angle grinder is the saw best suited to cutting through plates of steel, such as, say, the wheel clamps that authorities use to immobilize illegally parked cars in London.Related: Angle Grinder Man's Home PageResearch Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 2:47 AM
Circle Jerk at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government :.International Relations departments should be thrown off of university campuses. It's a total fraud, and the "big deals" in that area of inquiry come off as dumb to anyone with even the slightest grasp on reality. By the way, if you're against global fascism, you're a maniac AND you're working for Al Qaeda: Al Qaeda, she said, has shifted its mission, even aligning itself with neo-Nazis and white supremacists who are sympathetic to its new focus of fighting a "new world order."
"We know that Al Qaeda is very, very good at finding people who have the right passport and speak the right language" to facilitate a terrorist attack, she said. "They are finding new allies and new sources of recruits."
posted by Kevin at 2:21 AM
9/20/2003
Deficits �ber Alles: Dollar Could Collapse at Any Moment :.You guys all know how I feel about banking. Well, don't take it from me; get is straight from the horse's mouth: The International Monetary Fund yesterday warned that the colossal United States trade deficit was a noose around the neck of the economy, emphasising that the once mighty dollar could collapse at any moment.
Arguing that the world's big economies were already too dependent on the willingness of American consumers to live beyond their means, the IMF said the US could not continue to run a current account deficit of 5% of GDP.
The IMF's chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said that it was just a matter of time before the gap closed, tipping the dollar into a potentially steep fall.
"If we were looking at a poor developing country, the world gives them just enough rope to hang themselves. A country like the United States, they give them enough rope to tie the noose around their neck several times. But it does happen in the end," he said.
posted by Kevin at 3:38 AM
Electric Sports Car: 0-60 in 3.7 Seconds :.This thing is great! It has a range of about 300 miles and a top speed of 100mph. There's one problem: it costs $220,000. Well, at least the Greenpeace-t-shirt-wearing-Berkeley-Democrats-who-sold-their-shares-at-the-top crowd can now take on B Gates in a mano-a-mano, balls to the wall, billionaire take all, 1/4 mile drag race. Now, can someone tell me why this company can't produce a $20,000 electric vehicle with a 300 mile range that will get you from point A to point B at some sane rate of speed? With the throttle and brake pedals fully pressed, the bright yellow sports car shudders with power � but rather than the roar of a caged Lamborghini, the only sound is a muffled whine. Though the whine becomes only marginally louder when the brakes are released, everything else changes as the car lunges forward in a jaw-dropping, stomach-clenching and near-terrifying blur. In 3.7 seconds, it's all over. That's the time it has taken for this little electric sports car, the Tzero by AC Propulsion, to reach 60 miles per hour. And its only power is from a simple array of lithium-ion laptop computer batteries.
posted by Kevin at 3:21 AM
9/19/2003
CIA-owned Voting Machines Ensure Bush Victory in 2004 :.This writer has a more severe case of apoplexy than I do! It's a shell game, with money, companies and corporate brands switching in a blur of buyouts and bogus fronts. It's a sinkhole, where mobbed-up operators, paid-off public servants, crazed Christian fascists, CIA shadow-jobbers, war-pimping arms dealers -- and presidential family members -- lie down together in the slime. It's a hacker's dream, with pork-funded, half-finished, secretly programmed computer systems installed without basic security standards by politically partisan private firms, and protected by law from public scrutiny. It's how the United States, the "world's greatest democracy," casts its votes. And it's why George W. Bush will almost certainly be the next president of the United States -- no matter what the people of the United States might want.The rest of the article is as good as the first paragraph. Pass it around. Related: Here's my writeup on Sequoia/De La Rue
posted by Kevin at 9:56 PM
Evidence of Second Shooter in J.F.K. Assassination Released :.Who knows... Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in the J.F.K. assassination, says former L.B.J. attorney Barr McClellan, and he has posted new evidence on a website promoting his forthcoming book, "Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed J.F.K."
McClellan states that images posted on the website www.BarrMcClellan.com, identify fourteen match points to a finger print found at the Texas Schoolbook Depository with that of a known assassin, Mac Wallace. The website also matches a police composite of a suspect involved in an earlier murder with a photograph of Wallace.Research Credit: NF
posted by Kevin at 9:52 PM
Britain is Hell on Earth :.I would feel more comfortable visiting Beijing than London. The U.K. is leading the world in the race to bottom: Ensuring web sites are easy for disabled people to use is no longer an option - it is a legal obligation.
The Royal National Institute of the Blind in Peterborough is warning that anyone running a site faces prosecution if they fail to comply with the law.
posted by Kevin at 4:12 PM
9/18/2003
Janus' $150 Billion Problem :.Oops: Heck, a lot of people drank the Kool-Aid back in 1999; Janus just had seconds. However, there is no spinning this week's news, if the very convincing 44 pages of allegations prove true: Janus demonstrated that it would breach fiduciary responsibility for the right price. There are questionable fund-industry practices that firms can rightly, if cravenly, defend by saying "everybody does it," but this does not appear to be one of them.
posted by Kevin at 2:24 AM
Two Incomes, One Bankruptcy :.Elizabeth Warren, who teaches bankruptcy law at Harvard, and her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi, a former consultant with McKinsey & Co., make their case in The Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke (Basic). It's a potent cocktail of dire statistics and sympathetic interviews with families whose finances have gone off the rails. ''Every new report on consumer debt or bankruptcy blames families for frivolous buying,'' Warren says. ''Our data show families in financial trouble are working hard, playing by the rules -- and the game is stacked against them.''
The final score in this rigged game? ''Walk down any street in any middle-class neighborhood in America today,'' Warren says, ''and one in seven families are on the brink of financial collapse.'' Home foreclosures have more than doubled since 1980. Bankruptcy rolls are up 430 percent: A record 1.6 million Americans filed for Chapter 7 or 13 protection in 2002.
And the single biggest predictor that financial failure lies ahead for a family? Having children. Even just one of them. . .
posted by Kevin at 2:20 AM
The Monster Eats Its Own: Grasso Quits While the Quittins' Good :.Forget about the fact that he presided over the largest corporate bankruptcies in history. It's all winkin', blinkin' nod at this point. I bet we wouldn't even want to know what this guy knows: Richard Grasso, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, resigned on Wednesday in the face of mounting pressure from investors, regulators and top Wall Street firms over his $140 million pay package.More from NY Post: NYSE directors praised Dick Grasso to the skies before sticking the knife in him in a boardroom showdown yesterday.
posted by Kevin at 12:39 AM
9/17/2003
Mad Pig Disease: Cops Raid Wrong Home, Taser Man in Front of Wife and Child :.This guy could have just as easily been killed: Okanogan County sheriff's deputies seeking a person on outstanding warrants broke down the door to the wrong home and then jolted a man with a Taser in front of his wife and child.
Sheriff Frank Rogers says the bottom line is officers messed up.
posted by Kevin at 3:17 PM
9/16/2003
Lyle Barkley Injunction Fails: Armed Standoff Imminent in Michigan :.According to Lyle Barkley, the legal attempts to prevent the removal of the structures from his property have failed. Lyle, his family and an unknown number of militia members are preparing to defend the property by force of arms. Mr. Barkley is at the end of his rope. He and his family have no money and all they are trying to do is put shelter in place to survive to cold winter months. That's not good enough for the Nazis that run Charlevoix County, Michigan. Faced with the option of licking the boots of tyrants and becoming homeless, these people have decided to fight. Indeed, what do they have to lose? This type of incident is typical of how states devolve into civil war. Unfortunately, we are going to see many more like it. Update: Stay Denied; Standoff Still a Possibility :.A Bay Township resident who vows a militia-assisted shootout rather than comply with a court order to remove manufactured homes from his property may be finished with his attempts at court appeals.
Charlevoix County District Judge Richard May on Tuesday denied Lyle Barkley's demand for an order staying earlier rulings. May in August ordered that two, 12-by-60 foot trailers and a 24-by-34-foot former school portable be removed by Thursday from Barkley's four acres on Camp Daggett Road.
The buildings were not properly permitted, and violate both township zoning and construction codes, May ruled.
After learning of the judge's decision Tuesday, Barkley said he would forward the ruling to attorneys who are assisting him. But the ruling states that for Barkley to appeal to the county circuit court he must file an appeal bond of $7,600.
posted by Kevin at 6:42 PM
America's Hegemony Dream Becomes Nightmare :.I personally think we're going to experience another incident, and then all bets will be off: If events in Iraq continue on their present trajectory, the window of opportunity that neo-conservatives in Washington seized after the September 11 attacks will soon close.
posted by Kevin at 2:58 PM
World Trade Organisation Cockup in Cancun :.The Kenyan delegate, George Oduor, came out of the closed meeting saying: "It means that the conference is ended now."
posted by Kevin at 4:58 AM
Dizzying Dive to Red Ink Poses Stark Choices for Washington :.Steady yourself, dear reader, before you attempt to grasp the significance of this one: When President Bush informed the nation last Sunday night that remaining in Iraq next year will cost another $87 billion, many of those who will actually pay that bill were unable to watch. They had already been put to bed by their parents.
Administration officials acknowledged the next day that every dollar of that cost will be borrowed, a loan that economists say will be repaid by the next generation of taxpayers and the generation after that. The $166 billion cost of the work so far in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has stunned many in Washington, will be added to what was already the largest budget deficit the nation has ever known.
posted by Kevin at 4:30 AM
U.S. Homelessness and Poverty Rates Skyrocket While Billions Are Spent On Overseas Occupation :.(Repost) As I watch far-away images of body bags being filled, I see much closer images of bodies. I went by a local park the other day and it looked like a concentration camp crossed with a mass murder scene.
There were people in rags and covered with filth lying scattered all over the place. At least twenty people were on crutches, had parts bandaged, or with open wounds not even covered. They were all hungry and a large majority were sick.
All around this city I live in, and nation-wide, the level of homelessness and poverty is growing alarmingly. From the last counts and estimates nation-wide, there has been at least a 35-45% increase in homelessness and poverty. The increases have come over the last two years with the biggest increases being in 2002 and especially in the first six months of 2003.
Add to that the barely subsisting or borderline homeless/poor, and we start to see a very alarming trend that shows no sign of going away. Over 30% of Americans are on the borderline of poverty. A lot just do not quite make the cut to receive food stamps or some kind of benefits and live on a razor edge of desperation and starvation.
posted by Kevin at 4:27 AM
Another Satisfied Employee: Three Dead in Japan Hostage Blast :.Three people have been killed and more than 20 others injured in an explosion at a Japanese office building after a knife-wielding man took several hostages and then set light to the area.
The attacker, identified as 52-year-old Noboru Beppu, entered the building in the city of Nagoya at around 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Tuesday morning, armed with a knife and carrying a flammable liquid, Kyodo news agency reported.
Demanding back wages, Beppu took eight hostages from the courier company, but later released seven of them.
Ten minutes later, shortly after 1 p.m., a blast rocked the fourth-floor office of Nagoya-based Keikyubin Co., shattering windows and engulfing the floor with flames.
posted by Kevin at 4:17 AM
The Weird World of the Big Money Psychopath :.This goes to show you what The Them are capable of doing in order to make their ridiculous whims a reality. Think about the countless man hours and the resources that went into this! It's probably safe to say that millions of dollars were spent on this project. And for what??!!? Now, imagine what people like this would do if billions of dollars were on the line... Welcome to the world of the Big Money Psychopath: Canepa imported a pair of 959s for Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen in the early 1990s, but the cars never made it past U.S. Customs officials in Oakland, California. Little did Canepa know it would be the first step of a frustrating and confusing, but ultimately rewarding, decade-long project.
His initial instinct was to declare himself a manufacturer to facilitate the federalization process. He quickly discovered that route was mined. �Had we decided to become a manufacturer, the feds should have allowed it. But politically the car was a hot potato. So they stonewalled us.�
Gates, who was becoming increasingly frustrated at having his 959 eternally tied up in the Port of Oakland�s �free trade zone,� suggested to Canepa that perhaps they could federalize the car by buying a number of sacrificial 959s to �crash and test.� But Canepa felt that wouldn't solve the problems.
posted by Kevin at 2:09 AM
9/15/2003
Mutual Fund Investigation Should Worry All Investors :.The scandal-a-week machine on Wall Street served its latest offering earlier this month when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused Bank of America and other firms of cheating mutual fund investors to gain business from a favored client.
The new allegation is especially disturbing because it focuses on mutual fund companies.
Funds are supposed to be the safe haven for small investors. By spreading your investment among dozens or hundreds of stocks, a fund ought to minimize the damage done by fraud involving any one stock. That protection is lost if the fund company is breaking the rules itself.
posted by Kevin at 1:43 PM
Diffusing the Lyle Barkley Situation in MichiganUpdate: Optimism Not Warranted at This Time Nobody really knows what's happening at this moment. The militia groups appear to have provided legal help to Mr. Barkley and his family that has brought this situation back from the brink. I will continue to monitor. Word on the street is that Mr. Barkley will be on Alex Jones soon. Use these links to stay current on the situation: Lyle Barkley's BlogGoogle Newsawrm.org (crawling with both undercover feds and legit militia members)
posted by Kevin at 1:04 PM
Creeping Patriot Act :.Everyone who warned about this turned out to be right. It's only a matter of time before everything you do is considered terrorism: In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained fresh powers to help them track down and punish terrorists, police and prosecutors have increasingly turned the force of the new laws not on al-Qaida cells but on people charged with common crimes.
Civil liberties and legal defense groups are bothered by the string of cases, and say the government soon will be routinely using harsh anti-terrorism laws against run-of-the-mill lawbreakers.
posted by Kevin at 2:04 AM
9/14/2003
Solar Power Energy Conversion Efficiency at "Way More Than 50 Percent" :.Conventional solar panels are terribly inefficient at converting sunlight into useable power. The development out of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is extremely exciting! This story also proves that the reason we don't have viable energy alternatives is because there is no will in corporate or government circles to create them. I've been saying it for years, and I'll say it again: The barriers to clean power are political in nature, not technological. Let's do some simple arithmetic to demonstrate the point. This solar project at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has cost $700,000 over a period of three years, and has already increased solar power conversion efficiency by over 100%! Again, this was accomplished with only $700,000. Let's take a look at the costs associated with the U.S. occupation of Iraq. You better be sitting down for this: Cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq per month: $4,000,000,000 ( source) Cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq per week: $1,000,000,000 Cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq per day: $142,857,142 Cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq per hour: $5,952,380 Cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq per minute: $99,206 In eight minutes, the U.S. Government spends more money on running an illegal and unnecessary war than it took for a group of researchers to develop photovoltaic technology that is over 100% more efficient than previous designs. This cannot be explained away as merely "the vagaries of a big government," or some sort of endemic negligence. I'm not even sure this can be chocked up to criminal collusion at the highest levels. Nope. What we are witnessing is nothing less than death throws of a system that has gone totally insane. Read this article and think about what we could accomplish if a criminal gang hadn't stolen our entire existence at gunpoint: These photovoltaic window shades quietly capture the sun's rays of heat and light, focusing them into the small silicon squares, also called solar chips. The chips convert the light energy into electrical power and feed it into the building's electrical system; the energy goes into the heating and cooling systems.
While Dyson won't comment on actual costs and efficiency rates until the research is published this fall, she did reveal that Bernie Sater at Photovolt, Rensselaer's manufacturing and design partner, has developed a new manufacturing process that "gets the cost down far enough that you can use it."
Dyson said a single solar cell will cost about 25 cents. The cells are situated about a square foot apart and will have a "way more than 50 percent" energy-conversion rate, she added.
posted by Kevin at 7:03 PM
Dollar Falls Against Euro for a Third Week on Economic Reports :.Jobless recovery? My bollix. The U.S. in position to receive an economic killshot at any moment: The dollar fell for a third week in New York trading against the euro, reaching its lowest level in a month, after economic reports showed the U.S. economy shed jobs and consumer confidence declined.
Concern the U.S. won't attract the $1.5 billion a day needed to finance its current-account deficit, the broadest measure of trade and investment, dragged the dollar 1.7 percent lower on the week, the biggest decline since July.
"The whole psychology of the dollar market has shifted" after three straight months of gains from June through August, said Tim Stewart, New York-based chief foreign-exchange strategist at Morgan Stanley. "There are doubts about whether the recovery will be sustained, especially if the U.S. doesn't get job growth."
posted by Kevin at 7:02 PM
9/13/2003
Mobile Phones 'Make You Senile' :.What, strapping a microwave transmitter to my skull could be a bad thing? Mobile phones and the new wireless technology could cause a "whole generation" of today's teenagers to go senile in the prime of their lives, new research suggests
The study - which warns specifically against "the intense use of mobile phones by youngsters" - comes as research on their health effects is being scaled down, due to industry pressure. It is likely to galvanise concern about the almost universal exposure to microwaves in Western countries, by revealing a new way in which they may seriously damage health.
Professor Leif Salford, who headed the research at Sweden's prestigious Lund University, says "the voluntary exposure of the brain to microwaves from hand-held mobile phones" is "the largest human biological experiment ever". And he is concerned that, as new wireless technology spreads, people may "drown in a sea of microwaves".
posted by Kevin at 5:43 PM
Digital Pearl Harbor: A Modern Disaster Scenario :.Digital Pearl Harbor: A Modern Disaster Scenario: Gartner|G2 analyst Susan Landry will present the findings of Gartner�s recent in-depth disaster study of the global effects of a catastrophic event in the state of California. The study focuses on the global fallout in four sectors: telecom, online commerce, utilities and financial services. After the presentation, selected international thought leaders will comment, offering their perspectives on the scenario. A discussion among the panel and audience will follow, with a focus on the opportunities that arise from the understanding of the ensuing chaos, as well as hedging strategies to allow companies to survive such an event. Reader AM asks, "Don't you just love forward planning for profit?"
posted by Kevin at 5:07 AM
Bank of America Fraud :.Bank of America Corp. has fired at least one employee that may be linked to a New York Attorney probe into mutual-fund trading strategies, while another has left the bank, news services reported on Thursday.
posted by Kevin at 4:03 AM
9/12/2003
Spike in Financial Transactions Moments Before 9/11 Attack :.More on the issue of the $100 million that flew through the wires just before zero hour: GERMAN computer experts are working round the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into the New York World Trade Centre on September 11.
Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the WTC shortly before the planes hit the twin towers?
Or was it coincidence that unusually large sums of money, perhaps more than $100 million, were rushed through the computers as the disaster unfolded?
A world leader in retrieving data, German-based firm Convar is trying to answer those questions and help credit card companies, telecommunications firms and accountants in New York recover their records from computer hard drives that have been partially damaged by fire, water or fine dust.
Using a pioneering laser scanning technology to find data on damaged computer hard drives and main frames found in the rubble of the World Trade Centre and other nearby collapsed buildings, Convar has recovered information from 32 computers that support assumptions of dirty doomsday dealings.
"The suspicion is that inside information about the attack was used to send financial transaction commands and authorizations in the belief that amid all the chaos the criminals would have, at the very least, a good head start," said Convar director Peter Henschel.
posted by Kevin at 5:50 PM
Ron Paul: Paper Money and Tyranny :.Astoundingly, Mr. Greenspan�s analysis of the 1929 market crash, and how the Fed precipitated the crisis, directly parallels current conditions we are experiencing under his management of the Fed. Greenspan explains: �The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market- triggering a fantastic speculative boom.� And, ��By 1929 the speculative imbalances had become overwhelming and unmanageable by the Fed.� Greenspan concluded his article by stating: �In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation.�
He explains that the �shabby secret� of the proponents of big government and paper money is that deficit spending is simply nothing more than a �scheme for the hidden confiscation of wealth.� Yet here we are today with a purely fiat monetary system, managed almost exclusively by Alan Greenspan, who once so correctly denounced the Fed�s role in the Depression while recognizing the need for sound money.
posted by Kevin at 5:03 PM
Losing the Faith :.The west is creating an extremely dangerous economic, environmental and humanitarian timebomb. We are living beyond our means. The poorest countries need to trade on fair terms with us if they are ever to get off their knees. Handouts are no longer the answer.
When the WTO started out, poor countries were spun the line that they could gain access to western markets if they signed up to a pro-business agenda - even though that agenda was potentially at the cost of their already suffering populations.
The west has not fulfilled its part in those agreements. It has reneged on its agreement to cut subsidies to its own farmers, and rules on intellectual property rights mean drugs are too expensive and 30,000 people die every day as a direct consequence. When developing countries export to the west they have to pay tariffs four times that between western countries themselves, costing �63bn per year.
Why?
Western governments, as they increasingly lose their grip on the reality of the situation, see the key to fixing these problems (that they have helped to create) to be... more liberalisation.
This, to me, feels like a bus full of religious lunatics rolling into town singing free trade songs and banging tambourines as war and famine break out and all about them turns to shit. It's nonsense. Why should the most desperate continue to cooperate with such fools when they increasingly have nothing left to lose? They are not seeing the so-called benefits but they are seeing too much of the costs.
posted by Kevin at 4:31 PM
Armed Standoff Against Feds Looming in Michigan :.This guy went through all the bullshit involved with actually obtaining the required building permits. Then, after building the homes in question, the building department says the owner has to remove them. That's great. Lock and load: Charlevoix County Businessman Bulldozing Revetments For Coming Armed Standoff.
Alanson, MI (Sep 11) - Charlevoix County citizen, Lyle Barkley, has been ordered to remove two manufactured homes from a 4-acre parcel in Bay Township by September 18. Barkley says he will not comply with the illegal and unconstitutional order of the court but will defend his property with arms if necessary. Barkley, 55, owns B&B Excavating in Boyne City. He is presently bulldozing fortifications around his property in preparation for the standoff he promises will come if officials attempt to remove the homes from his land.
posted by Kevin at 4:11 PM
9/11/2003
Boeing Fuselage Anomaly :.What is the official story again? Does anyone even still bother to tell it? Rense.com...
We are currently engaged in an investigation of this anomaly to the fuselage of the aircraft that hit WTC2 (south tower).
We no longer refer to this plane as UA 175. We call it WTC2-AC for World Trade Center building 2 aircraft.
UA 175 was a commercial Boeing 767-222. Look at as many photos of the 767-222 as you like and you'll not see this configuration. The 767-222 has no hard points for mounting external tanks or such. We are confirming this last statement today.
It matters not, what other arguments are made as to why this ac is UA 175. The proponent of the allegation MUST explain and prove that UA 175 (registration N612UA) had modifications to its fuselage. Further, the proponent must prove that this modification to the fuselage was exhibited upon take off from Logan on that fateful day.
This is a major smoking gun that has been in our faces since the first or second day after the event. This configuration is shown on multiple images of the event from multiple cameras in multiple formats from multiple angles.
We are creating a web page for our arguments, that will be up in a few days. We will incorporate this information into a documentary we are making on the Oil Wars and America's failed energy policy. Pilots and crash investigator engineers are involved. I am available for an interview on the matter.
Best regards,
David Sadler
www.david-sadler.org
GOP congressional candidate, 12th CD/IL (2002)
618.542.4413 voice
posted by Kevin at 3:56 AM
U.S. Warns Al-Qaeda May Be Planning Chemical, Biological Attack :.The al-Qaeda terrorist network may be planning attacks more devastating than those of Sept. 11, 2001, possibly involving chemical or biological agents, the U.S. government said in a worldwide advisory to its citizens.
"With the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks upon us, we are seeing increasing indications that al-Qaeda is preparing to strike U.S. interests abroad," the government said in an e-mailed statement released through the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong. "The U.S. government remains deeply concerned about the security of U.S. citizens overseas," it said. Related: Brief Comment on MarketsThe NASDAQ lost nearly 3% yesterday, after weeks of steady gains. Was it just event risk jitters brought on by the impending 9/11 anniversary, the bin Laden tape, or was it informed dumping? Nothing at all would surprise me at this stage. Hold breath, cross finders, touch wood, etc.
posted by Kevin at 2:28 AM
Black Box Voting: Enter the Theater of the Real :.The U.S. political system has totally collapsed. This Alex Jones show lays it out bare. Please spend some time with this material and forward it to everyone you know. Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 2:26 AM
9/10/2003
No Updates TodayWork getting in the way. I'll probably be caught up by tomorrow.
posted by Kevin at 1:53 AM
9/8/2003
Florida: Law Lets Students Forgo Senior Year :.They're functionally illiterate when they graduate after four years, so why not let them out after three years? Of all the ways attempted to free up space in Florida's crowded classrooms, this one could be a dream come true for high schoolers in a hurry: a diploma without a senior year.
Supporters of a law granting a high school diploma in just three years said it will help curb crowding in Florida's schools. Critics fear it will deprive early graduates of extracurricular activities and senior year milestones.
posted by Kevin at 5:06 PM
U.K. Government Drawing Up Mass Evacuation Plans :.The Blair Government reportedly has secret plans to evacuate London and other big cities in the event of a terrorist strike or threat.
They include herding Londoners into "rest and reception areas" in the country, and raise the possibility of rehousing the displaced for the medium or long term if an attack renders an area uninhabitable.
The head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir John Stevens, last week warned that a terrorist attack on Britain was inevitable.
posted by Kevin at 4:24 PM
Organs Found Near Bushes' Maine Home :.You really, REALLY don't want to know what I rEalLy think about the Bushes, espcially Senior: KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine -- A woman walking along a beach about a mile from former President Bush's summer home today found what appeared to be body parts on the shore, police said.
The state medical examiner will inspect the items, which include at least one bone and what appeared to be internal organs, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the state Public Safety Department. He said it wasn't immediately known if they were human.
posted by Kevin at 4:02 AM
9/7/2003
In Other News: 'Gates of Hell' Could Be Opened in Israel :.La deee dah, where are the Britney Spears stories when you need them? Israel and the Palestinians were braced last night for a spiral of bloodshed after Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, called the Hamas leadership "marked men" and the terrorist group said the Holy Land was entering the "gates of Hell".
Israeli troops sealed off the West Bank and Gaza to try to prevent suicide attacks as pressure grew on Mr Sharon to deport Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.
Last night at least 11 people, including three children, were injured after Israeli helicopters fired two missiles at the home of Abdel Salam Abu Musa, a Hamas militant, in Khan Younis on the Gaza Strip.
posted by Kevin at 11:28 PM
Bush Requests $87 Billion for War on Terror :.And that is a low-ball figure. As Mike, over at What Really Happened, said, "Keep your hands on your wallet and your kids." How long will this conflict last? I wouldn't hold my breath. What is for sure is that this thing is going to expand. Look at this line from the speech: The triumph of democracy and tolerance in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and beyond would be a grave setback for international terrorism.And beyond... That's just grand. Bush cut taxes for his buddies, then created this massive boondoggle in Iraq to give your tax money to them in the form of ridiculous government contracts. Folks, we're being robbed at gunpoint.
posted by Kevin at 7:18 PM
Star Wars Kid as Steve Ballmer :. (Windows Media Video) I just saw the story on Slashdot about the Star Wars Kid phenomenon. Apparently, millions of people can't get enough of this Canadian nerd kid doing mortal combat with a golf ball retriever (or is that a broom stick?). I looked down the list of re-mix videos on jedimaster.net for one featuring Steve Ballmer doing his famous Monkey Dance. I was stunned to find that nobody had done a Ballmer rendition of the Star Wars Kid masterpiece. I felt obligated to provide this service to the community of time wasters and bandwidth hogs all over the world. So, let it rip, Steve, er.... I mean Ghyslain. Update: Star Wars Kid G-StringsDon't forget that the women's Classic Thong is available with several logos and catchphrases. Men, gather 'round because I have great insight into the female mind. Believe me when I say that women like nothing more than having caricatures of fifteen year old boys wielding pretend light sabers emblazoned on their panties.* Reader TR Adds: This Star Wars Kid needs to run for Governor of California on the Guns n' Dope ticket. Our savior has arrived!I'll drink to that! * Your results may vary.
posted by Kevin at 3:38 PM
9/5/2003
Adrian Lamo Wanted by the FBI for Allegedly 0wNinG nytimes.com :.Adrian Lamo has been a hero of mine ever since I first heard of his exploits in mid 2001. The guy didn't seem real....a homeless kid with an old laptop (missing a couple of keys, according to legend) repeatedly walks right into some of the highest profile networks....using only a web browser? Man, I used to laugh my ass off reading about Lamo's activities and techniques. His persistent, systematic and intuitive nature really impressed me. When I was stuck with figuring out some problem on a server in the middle of the night, I would think about Lamo's way of doing things, and eventually I'd find the solution. I also respected him because he unselfishly helped the companies fix their problems. Did he ever ask for payment? In one case, I think he said that the PHBs gave him a fifty cent bottle of water while he worked on patching holes in a multi-million dollar network. What do you think the chances are of actually meeting Adrian Lamo? Well, I think I saw him once. I used to frequent a 24hour donut/coffee place in Costa Mesa, CA. I went in there once at around 3am and saw a guy in his early 20s, sitting at a table, using an old laptop. His backpack was sitting on the floor next to him. I didn't think anything of it, at first. After buying a coffee (or was it a doughnut), I turned to walk out. I got a better look at him, you know, a little more than the customary glance, and he looked back at me. I started to grin, just a little bit, like, "You're Adrian Lamo, aren't you?" and he grinned back, just a little. Nahhhhh, it can't be, I said to myself and walked out the door. It was only after I was in my car and driving away that I remembered that there was a Kinkos about 100 yards away from that doughnut place. In case you don't know, Adrian Lamo often uses Kinkos networks to get online. So, was it him? I'm not sure. Maybe. Maybe not. UPDATE: I don't know why, but I never thought to look for pictures of Lamo to verify if it was him. Until now. After looking at several pictures of him online, I'm about 85% sure that it was Adrian Lamo sitting in that doughnut shop that night. I wish I would have said hello. I just registered freeadrianlamo.org to provide a central location for updates on his case and to raise money for his legal defense, if that becomes necessary. If the Lamo family and their legal team would like control of freeadrianlamo.org, I would be happy to give it to them. From the article: FBI agents armed with a federal arrest warrant out of New York were searching for Adrian Lamo Thursday, according to the hacker and his mother.
In a telephone interview, Lamo said he was in California, but does not plan to turn himself in until after conferring with the attorney. The hacker was quick-witted and seemingly in good humor, with only a trace of nervousness in his voice. He quipped about the proper etiquette of being arrested by the FBI, and suggested jokingly that SecurityFocus should purchase the publication rights to a favorite photo. He said he was in the company of a camera crew producing a television documentary on hackers.
"I have always said that actions have consequences, and this is something that I was always aware might happen," said Lamo. "I don't intend to deny anything that I have done, but I do intend to defend myself vigorously."
The 22-year-old Lamo has become famous for publicly exposing gaping security holes at large corporations, then voluntarily helping the companies fix the vulnerabilities he exploited -- sometimes visiting their offices or signing non-disclosure agreements in the process.
Until now, his cooperation and transparency have kept him from being prosecuted. Lamo's hacked Excite@Home, Yahoo, Blogger, and other companies, usually using nothing more than an ordinary Web browser. Some companies have even professed gratitude for his efforts: In December, 2001, Lamo was praised by communications giant WorldCom after he discovered, then helped close, security holes in their intranet that threatened to expose the private networks of Bank of America, CitiCorp, JP Morgan, and others.
Lamo believes the arrest warrant is for his most high-profile hack. Early last year he penetrated the New York Times, after a two-minute scan turned up seven misconfigured proxy servers acting as doorways between the public Internet and the Times private intranet, making the latter accessible to anyone capable of properly configuring their Web browser.
Once inside, Lamo exploited weaknesses in the Times password policies to broaden his access, eventually browsing such disparate information as the names and Social Security numbers of the paper's employees, logs of home delivery customers' stop and start orders, instructions and computer dial-ups for stringers to file stories, lists of contacts used by the Metro and Business desks, and the "WireWatch" keywords particular reporters had selected for monitoring wire services.
He also accessed a database of 3,000 contributors to the Times op-ed page, containing such information as the social security numbers for former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler, Democratic operative James Carville, ex-NSA chief Bobby Inman, Nannygate veteran Zoe Baird, former secretary of state James Baker, Internet policy thinker Larry Lessig, and thespian activist Robert Redford. Entries with home telephone numbers include Lawrence Walsh, William F. Buckley Jr., Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Rush Limbaugh, Vint Cerf, Warren Beatty and former president Jimmy Carter.
In February, 2002, Lamo told the Times of their vulnerability through a SecurityFocus reporter. But this time, no one was grateful, and by May federal prosecutors in New York had begun an investigation.
"I think this is unsporting of the New York Times," Lamo said Thursday.
posted by Kevin at 3:04 AM
9/4/2003
The New World Order Elite Has Big Plans for Arnold :.This is a detailed summary of the Schwarzenegger nonsense from Alex Jones. My hat is off to Alex for being able to compose himself long enough to lay all of this out in one essay. I couldn't do the same. I can't stare into concentrated evil like this and emerge on the other end with anything worth reading. I just start swearing and mumbling to myself: Most Americans think of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a charismatic bodybuilder who became a famous Hollywood actor and then married into the Kennedy clan. Just beneath the surface of Arnold's fa�ade lies an intricate web of evil including Nazi war criminals, occult rituals, a Rothschild rendezvous, a friendship with once head of the UN and known Nazi, Kurt Waldheim, Warren Buffett (the oracle of Omaha) and many others.
posted by Kevin at 2:37 PM
Israeli Sleeper Agents Mobilizing for 9-11 :.In an unprecedented move, Israel has secretly mobilized its estimated 15,000 sleeper agents �known as sayanim�across America. For the past month, in the utmost secrecy, they have been briefed by former Mossad operations director, Raphael (Rafi) Eitan, on how to update the defense systems of synagogues, Jewish religious schools, Jewish banks, and other Jewish-owned institutions.
posted by Kevin at 2:30 PM
Electronic Voting: Your Worst Nightmares Are True :.I don't normally pay any attention to the electronic voting issue. It's such an obvious fraud, what more can one say about it? But this is a pretty good one: "On Democracy Now Bev Harris of BlackBoxVoting fame, disclosed (near the end of the transcript) that in the compromised 1.8Gigs off Diebold's FTP site they uncovered "an actual election file containing actual votes on election day from San Luis Obispo County, California". Problem is, the date stamp was 3:31pm - during voting hours! The Diebold system uses a wireless network card. Worse: "So that means if they can pull the information in, they can also send information back into those machines."
posted by Kevin at 2:11 PM
Ex-Goldman Sachs Economist Indicted :.A consultant illegally tipped Goldman Sachs & Co. that the government would end sales of its benchmark bonds, leading to millions of dollars in tainted profits for the Wall Street firm, officials charged Thursday.
The consultant, Peter Davis, frantically worked his cell phone to get the information to a Goldman senior economist minutes ahead of its public release on Oct. 31, 2001, according to an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.
The news that the Treasury Department would end sales of its key 30-year bonds triggered the largest single-day rally in U.S. bonds since October 1987, when the market for stocks crashed and investors fled to bonds.
On that morning in 2001, a call by Davis to Goldman economist John Youngdahl gave the firm an eight-minute edge on the rest of the market � enough time to turn a $3.8 million profit, the indictment said.
"Goldman traders began trading like there was no tomorrow," U.S. Attorney James Comey told reporters. "And in the case of the 30-year treasury bond, there was no tomorrow."This is peanuts. What GS does on an average trading day makes this look like a boyscout exercise.
posted by Kevin at 1:59 PM
Phoenix Developing DRM-Equipped BIOS :.They say the purpose of this is stop piracy. Actually, the purpose of a Digital Rights Management enabled BIOS is to eliminate anonymity and enable point and click surveillance of every individual computer user's activities. The article states: The Orbid DRM software will be built into the cME, which provides an enhanced BIOS that allows greater interaction with the operating system. While the cME isn't directly a part of Microsoft's Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB), known previously as Palladium, Eades said the technology is "complementary". Bullshit. Microsoft's DRM plans REQUIRE DRM mechanisms at the hardware level. It won't work without hardware integration. And I'll tell you something else that won't work: Try installing a non DRM operating system on that shiny new system! HAHAHA! The End. Anyway, talking about stopping DRM is about as productive as pissing into the wind or betting against the sun rising in the morning.
posted by Kevin at 1:52 PM
Ordo ab Chao: U.S. Offers to Report to U.N. on Iraq :.Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday started a major diplomatic effort to internationalize peacekeeping of Iraq, circulating a resolution that would have the U.S. military reporting to the United Nations.
posted by Kevin at 3:46 AM
None of This Shit Means AnythingI can barely bring myself to post. I'm burned out. Here, read about a no-talent tramp kissing a gap-toothed whore. That's news. And take this great wisdom to heart: "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that."--- Britney Spears Oh my God. Total annihilation would be an improvement on this horror show. But that's too much to hope for. We're not that lucky.
posted by Kevin at 1:22 AM
9/2/2003
Kelly Murder, Sloppy Work :.Take it with a grain of salt. Take it any way you can: ...a contact of mine, a former MI6 spook, was speaking about the circumstances of Kelly's death. He said he's been taught how to "make anything look like anything" and said that there must have been some kind of struggle at the scene of Kelly's death. He said it was sloppy work that Kelly's body was found with enough pills for an overdose but hadn't ingested them, he said that should have been removed from the scene under normal procedure. He added "You can slit someone's wrists and make it look like suicide easily but it's a lot harder to make someone swallow tablets." He also said the heart monitor pads found on Kelly's chest were "simply there to make sure he was dead." He also said those should have been removed and suspects the agents involved were disturbed by someone in the process of the killing.
posted by Kevin at 4:15 AM
Email Becoming Unusable Because of Spam, Internet Publishers Switching to RSS :.This article hits very close home. I am now responsible for establishing web sites and list publishing capabilities for an organization that will grow to a minimum of 10,000 clients, and possibly as many as 300,000. I am seriously considering RSS syndication instead of email lists because of ISP blacklisting, virus and worm problems. Sadly, email is becoming unusable for many people. This is extremely ironic because email is probably the most incredible use of information technology ever devised. I really like RSS. You'd never know it because there is no good RSS feed of Cryptogon, but I've been thinking about upgrading to Blogger Pro which automatically generates RSS. A couple of readers have asked for this feature, and I'd really like to provide it. There's a thing called BlogMatrix that scrapes Cryptogon on occasion, but what use is an old RSS feed? Is anyone out there delivering content via RSS? Are people going for it, compared to email? Do normals have any trouble using the aggregators? Which readers do you recommend? (I use feedreader, myself.) My feeds will reside on .htaccess controlled Apache directories. In early testing, this seems to work grand. What problems, if any, are posed by doing this? Which feed readers are best for accessing private RSS feeds? How to you generate your RSS files? Is Blogger Pro a good way to do it? Does CSS work in RSS!? As usual, more questions than answers, but thanks for any info. Interesting article: With scam artists, spammers and virus writers all using the e-mail inbox as the main target, it has become a daily nightmare for legitimate online publishers and marketers to cope with mail filters, blacklists and irate subscribers.
Enter RSS , the XML syndication format that allows publishers to shuttle content to news aggregators, avoiding the e-mail chaos altogether.
"E-mail is dead, period," declares Chris Pirillo, the Internet entrepreneur who distributes about 400,000 e-mail newsletters weekly. "I don't care what kind of legislation goes through, people aren't signing up for newsletters anymore. People are assuming that every e-mail publisher is a spammer."
Pirillo's Lockergnome has begun actively directing subscribers away from e-mail subscriptions, touting RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) instead as a foolproof way to avoid the spam bottleneck.
posted by Kevin at 4:00 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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