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10/31/2004

Hermit Fires-It-Up On Los Alamos National Labortory Land :.

I don't have much use for the pot plants, but the rest of this show sounds pretty good. Nice going, Mike! You escaped the clutches of a PHB and rent for four years! You may not have solved the mysteries of the universe quite yet, but you pulled off a pretty good one just the same!

I love stories like this, so the full text follows:

Roy Michael Moore, a 56-year-old who grew up in Amarillo, said he came to Los Alamos about four years ago for a "very distinct reason": to get the attention of scientists working on the most complex cosmological problems of the universe and introduce them to his unifying theory.

Mike, as he calls himself, has come to be known as either the "caveman" or the "hermit," depending on to whom you talk, since he was discovered on Oct. 13 living in a well-appointed cave in a deep, wooded canyon on Los Alamos National Laboratory property.

Firefighters and LANL's security force discovered Moore and his cave when they were called to investigate a plume of smoke wafting up the 100-foot canyon wall. The smoke was spotted by an Energy Department employee, who works at DOE's Los Alamos headquarters, about 100 yards back from the canyon's cliff, almost directly above Moore's cave.

"I think it is just heaven on earth," he said about his former home. What the intruders found was a bit startling. Moore had made himself a home in a south-facing cave— "the most beautiful views in town, no irritating neighbors"— complete with photovoltaic solar panels, batteries to store the solar energy, satellite radio, wood-burning stove, a bed and a glass door sealed across the cave's entrance.

By his own account he'd been living there for close to four years but said he doesn't keep good track of time, mostly because he devotes his energy and thoughts to intensive cosmological problem solving. He said he earns spending money doing odd jobs around town and worked at Los Alamos Music for two years.

To avoid detection, Moore said he was careful to avoid creating walking paths through the wooded canyon to his hideout, where Moore was growing marijuana— 10 plants, each about 18 inches tall, according to police records. Police also found and confiscated 21 ounces of dried marijuana in baggies and a homemade metal marijuana pipe.

Fire crews called police because Moore was trespassing on restricted federal property. DOE officials have said Moore posed no security threat and that the area where the cave was located— about half a mile from downtown Los Alamos— has been decommissioned as an active site for years.

He was arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance, a fourth-degree felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. Those charges were dropped on Thursday pending further investigation, according to court documents.

Los Alamos County Magistrate Court Judge Pat A. Casados said she signed the order dropping the charges against Moore at the request of a prosecutor. She said it is not unusual for the District Attorney's Office to dismiss felony charges in Magistrate Court and then refile them in state District Court or take the case to a grand jury.

Moore, who contended he has done nothing wrong, said DOE officials confiscated all of his aforementioned possessions, including his long pants, coat, socks and his prized walking stick— which he says supported him along more than 8,000 miles of trekking.

"So, I am camping with almost nothing at all," he said, adding that he is in the process of "negotiating several situations" with the many friends he has made.

Moore, who said he as an undergraduate biology degree from Texas Tech and also studied electronics and computers, said he doesn't consider himself homeless. He sold all his possessions in 1996— his house, his car, everything— so he could focus all his energy and thought toward solving large, complex problems.

Moore even maintains several Web sites— one is www.micromike.com/index.htm— where he explains his theories in detail and provides a brief autobiography.

He headed for Los Alamos, he said, because it is one of the smartest towns in the country, with a dense population of physicists working at LANL.

Using marijuana to help him solve problems inherent to the mysteries of space and time, Moore said, constitutes his "pursuit of happiness."

"I just dedicated myself to staying here forever until I die to try to get this work done," he said.

posted by Kevin at 3:30 PM


New Study Shows Correlation Between Decline of IQ and Rise of GOP :.

In my opinion, the fact that alleged "smart" people support Kerry is much more frightening than the fact that idiots support Bush:

"Stupid people love Bush" new study proves According to the prestigious Southern California think tank, The Gluton Group, stupid people prefer President George W Bush over Senator John Kerry by a 4-to-1 margin. As Chief Resident Dr. Louis Friend characterized the results of the research, "the less intelligent you are, the more you like Bush." This landmark study, conducted over a 5 month period, involved 2400 likely voters bridging all economic stratas in the 17 states generally considered up for grabs on November 2nd. Participants were tested for intelligence, then asked to fill out a 12 page series of questions involving the Presidential candidates with results released earlier this week.

The consensus: the higher the IQ, the less people trust Bush and respect the job his administration has done. The lower the IQ, the more people admire his steadfastness. "It was pretty much a slam dunk. There's no nice way to say this. Dumb people like him. They think his unwavering nature is a positive personality trait. They even venerate him for never admitting mistakes, even when he's wrong. On the other hand, smart people think he's a lying bully. I mean, c'mon, you have a deserter accusing a decorated veteran of treason. Who's going to buy that besides stupid people?"

posted by Kevin at 1:08 PM


Kurt Vonnegut: The End is Near :.

Remember, Vonnegut was one of a handful of people to emerge from Dresden alive after the U.S. and British blitzkrieg during World War 2 flattened the place. In case you don't know, he was held prisoner by the Germans in a meat-locker under a slaughterhouse as the bombs rained down. See Slaughterhouse Five.

Now, it's one thing for me to say it's The End, which I've been doing for years on this site! But it's another thing altogether when Vonnegut does it:

I am writing this before the election, so I cannot know whether George W. Bush or John F. Kerry will be our President, God willing, for the next four years. These two Nordic, aristocratic multi-millionaires are virtually twins, and as unlike most of the rest of us as a couple of cross-eyed albinos. But this much I find timely:
Both candidates were and still are members of the exclusive secret society at Yale, called "Skull and Bones."

That means that, no matter which one wins, we will have a Skull and Bones President at a time when entire vertebrate species, because of how we have poisoned the topsoil, the waters and the atmosphere, are becoming, hey presto, nothing but skulls and bones.

Poetry!

posted by Kevin at 3:36 AM


Trade Towers Rescue Hero Files 9-11 RICO Suit :.

Another lawsuit has been filed against top officials in the Bush administration, accusing them of complicity in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

William Rodriguez, a former maintenance worker at the World Trade Center, has filed suit in a Philadelphia federal court naming George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others as being complicit in the 9-11 attacks. Rodriguez claims that top officials either planned the attacks or had foreknowledge of the attacks and permitted them to succeed for the purpose of exploiting a “New Pearl Harbor” in order to launch wars against Afghanistan and Iraq.

The lawsuit—Rodriguez v. Bush, et al., Civil Action No. 04 CV 4952—was filed in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Oct. 22.

posted by Kevin at 3:28 AM


Off Topic: Zorb :.

My girlfriend is a Kiwi, and I just sent her an email indicating that a visit to the Zorb freaks needs to be near the top of the list of things to do when we go to New Zealand. Check out the National Geographic video of the Zorb. Excellent!

posted by Kevin at 3:00 AM

10/30/2004

Halliburton: International Criminal Investigation Underway :.

British authorities have opened a new front in the widening investigation into allegations of bribery at Halliburton, the American oil services business, while it was being run by the US vice-president, Dick Cheney.

The Guardian has learned that the Serious Fraud Office has joined the international effort at the request of the US Department of Justice in Washington. French and Nigerian officials are already involved in the inquiry.

Halliburton has become a political liability for the Bush administration as the US prepares to vote in presidential elections next week.

The company, one of the chief government contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been dogged by controversy, which includes claims of White House favouritism in awarding the firm billions of dollars of contracts without being forced to bid and Pentagon allegations that the firm has massively overcharged for its work.

It emerged late on Thursday that the FBI had launched an inquiry into how Halliburton secured contracts in Iraq, so far worth almost $9bn (£4.9bn).

The Nigerian investigation centres on $180m in payments allegedly made by a consortium led by Halliburton to secure the contract to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria.

The cash was allegedly channelled through a US-owned oil engineering firm in London called MW Kellogg and was handled by a company executive based in Berkshire. The funds were said to have been paid into a Swiss bank by a British lawyer.

posted by Kevin at 11:00 AM


Whistleblower Says Halliburton Contract Abuse Blatant :.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' top contracting official on Friday called the government's grant of multi-billion dollar contracts to oil services giant Halliburton the worst case of contracting abuse she has ever seen.

"It was misconduct, and part of that misconduct was blatant," said Bunny Greenhouse, in an interview on NBC's Nightly News program.

Greenhouse has already demanded an investigation into the contracts that last year were granted to Halliburton, the energy services firm run by Vice President Dick Cheney from 1995-2000. According to her attorney, the FBI has since asked her for an interview on the matter.

A spokesman for President George W. Bush on Friday said the president expects a full investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in how Iraq-related contracts were awarded to Halliburton.

Oh sure...

Research Credit: AM

posted by Kevin at 10:57 AM

10/29/2004

Germany: Seven Homeschooling Dads Thrown in Jail :.

Seven homeschooling fathers in Germany spent several days in jail for refusing to pay fines that were imposed on them for failing to send their children to government schools.

posted by Kevin at 1:38 PM


9/11 Black Boxes WERE Found :.

Two men who worked extensively in the wreckage of the World Trade Center claim they helped federal agents find three of the four "black boxes" from the jetliners that struck the towers on 9/11 - contradicting the official account.

Both the independent 9/11 Commission and federal authorities insist that none of the four devices - a cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) from the two planes - was ever found.

But New York City Firefighter Nicholas DeMasi has written in a book self-published by Ground Zero workers that he took federal agents on an all-terrain vehicle in October 2001 and located three of the four. His account is backed by a well-known Ground Zero volunteer.

Their story raises the question of a cover-up at Ground Zero - although's it's not clear why the government would want to keep the discovery under wraps.

A footnote to this summer's 9/11 Commission Report states: "The CVRs and FDRs from American 11 and United 175" - the two planes that hit the Trade Center - "were not found."

posted by Kevin at 5:07 AM

10/28/2004

FBI Investigating Contracts With Halliburton :.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether the Army's handling of a large Iraq contract with the Halliburton Company violated procurement rules, according to lawyers for an Army official who made the charges of improprieties.

F.B.I. agents have requested an interview with the official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, the chief of contracting with the Army Corps of Engineers, on her allegations regarding a 2003 contract with Halliburton to repair Iraqi oil fields, her lawyer, Michael D. Kohn, said in an interview yesterday.

Ms. Greenhouse, in an Oct. 21 letter to the acting Army secretary, charged that officials had shown favoritism toward Halliburton, the Houston-based conglomerate formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney, in the awarding and oversight of the oil contract. She also said officials at the Army Corps of Engineers had tried to remove her as chief contract monitor after she raised persistent questions about Halliburton contracts. The Army says it has referred her letter to the Pentagon's inspector general for review.

The oil contract was awarded in early 2003 without competition to the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root, as the American-led invasion of Iraq began, and was initially for five years and up to $7 billion.

posted by Kevin at 8:32 PM


The Unauthorized Biography of Dick Cheney :.

The Unauthorized Biography of Dick Cheney
Produced and Broadcast by CBC TV in Canada 10/06/04 - 41 minutes

posted by Kevin at 8:21 PM


Latest Terror Warning

That tool Drudge is helping Cheney and the Gang set the pretext for the next Big One. You can hear it now... They hate our democracy, so we'll need to impose martial law to protect you from the terrorists...

Well, I caught a glimpse of Cheney practicing his lines before he got into costume for his latest role:

Do you get it yet?

posted by Kevin at 5:10 PM


CIVILIAN DEATH TOLL IN IRAQ EXCEEDS 100,000 :.

Apocalypse Now:

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violence since the U.S.-led invasion last year, American public health experts have calculated in a report that estimates there were 100,000 "excess deaths" in 18 months.

The rise in the death rate was mainly due to violence and much of it was caused by U.S. air strikes on towns and cities.

"Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq," said Les Roberts of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal.

"The use of air power in areas with lots of civilians appears to be killing a lot of women and children," Roberts told Reuters.

The report came just days before the U.S. presidential election in which the Iraq war has been a major issue.

Mortality was already high in Iraq before the war because of United Nations sanctions blocking food and medical imports but the researchers described what they found as shocking.

The new figures are based on surveys done by the researchers in Iraq in September 2004. They compared Iraqi deaths during 14.6 months before the invasion in March 2003 and the 17.8 months after it by conducting household surveys in randomly selected neighbourhoods.

Research Credit: AM

posted by Kevin at 5:04 PM


Want to Know the Hardware Behind Echelon? :.

Solid state memory systems---virtual drives in RAM---are being used to increase speed:

TMS has a TM-44 DSP chip which has 8 GFLOPS of processing power - that's eight billion floating point operations per second. The processing uses floating point arithmatic operations to supply the accuracy needed for the analysis. A DSP chip turns analogue signals from a sensor or recorder into digital information usable by a computer. Digital cameras will use a DSP to turn the light signals coming through the lens into digital picture element, or pixel, information.

A SAM-650 product is called a 192 GFLOPS DSP supercomputer by TMS. It is just 3U high and has 24 DSP chips and is positioned as a back-end number cruncher controlled by any standard server - a similar architecture to that used by Cray supercomputers. There are vast streams of information coming from recorded telephone conversations. The ability to have the DSPs work in parallel speeds up analysis enormously. Spinning hard drives can't feed the DSPs fast enough, nor are they quick enough for subsequent software analysis of the data. Consequently TMS uses its solid state technology to provide a buffer up to 32GB that keeps the DSPs operating at full speed.

A cluster of five SAM-650's provides a terra flop of processing power; one trillion floating point operations per second.

Echelon is a global surveillance network set up in Cold War days to provide the US goverment with intelligence data about Russia. One of the main contractors is Raytheon. Lockheed Martin has been involved in writing software for it. Since then it has expanded into a general listening facility, an electronic vacuum cleaner, sucking up the world's telephone conversations. Information about it's existence has been reluctantly revealed, prompted by scandals such as the recordings of Princess Diana's telephone calls by the NSA.

Recorded signals are fed into the TMS SAM systems where the DSPs filter out the noise to produce much clearer signals that software can work on to detect individual voices, perform voice recognition, and listen out for keywords, such as, for example, "Semtex". Decryption of encrypted calls is also a likely activity.

Hutsell says the SAM systems, "are supplied to intelligence agencies and the military though system integrators like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Zeta. It's an intelligence community application involving data from various sources. This is loaded into RAM and then real-time analysis is carried out on it. Step one is to filter out the noise and our DSP chips are used for that. Then they look into patterns using other tools - images or voice. It's very high-speed."

TMS has supplied its RAMsan high-speed SSD technology to several US government agencies. Hutsell said, "We have recently sold another terabyte system to a federal agency. It's installed in the DC [District of Columbia] area via our partner Vion. There's another in a government data centre with Oracle indices that needed to be accelerated."

TMS has had 40 percent year on year growth for three years. It has no debt and is privately-owned. Hutsell said: "This year is the healthiest year ever." Half the company's revenue comes from the government sector.

posted by Kevin at 1:36 AM

10/27/2004

Eminem's New Video Highlights 9/11, Illuminati :.

Woh! This guy isn't quite maintaining appearances. But what's the message? Vote for Kerry? HA!

posted by Kevin at 5:28 PM


Bush Gives Us the Bird :.

Nice one.

posted by Kevin at 5:21 PM


American Exceptionalism :.

Many Americans, like the citizens of dominant nations of the past, believe that their way of life is superior and should be shared with other peoples—often at gunpoint. Lately, this American exceptionalism has assumed even more pernicious forms.

Whether called the Bush I administration’s “New World Order” or the Clinton administration’s “Engagement and Enlargement” or the Bush II administration’s effort to “liberate” Afghanistan, Iraq, and perhaps the entire Middle East, using military force to bring democracy and market economies to errant peoples has been a staple of both Democratic and Republican administrations since World War II. Similarly, the Roman, British, Spanish and other empires believed they were civilizing conquered lands with their ways of doing things.

posted by Kevin at 1:41 PM


Advent of the Robotic Monkeys :.

The article doesn't say this, but I would be willing to bet that the data collected from the ein vivo neuro implant will be used by the military to create software for autonomous robotic systems:

If a monkey is hungry but has his arms pinned, there's not much he can do about it. Unless that monkey can control a nearby robotic arm with his brain.

And that's exactly what the monkey in Andrew Schwartz's neurobiology lab at the University of Pittsburgh can do, feeding himself using a prosthetic arm controlled solely by his thoughts.

The unique aspect of Schwartz's research is that he conducted what is known as "closed loop" brain experiments. In a "closed loop" experiment, the monkey is conscious of the robotic arm and is making an effort to control it. Monkeys in previous experiments did not understand that they were having an effect on the world at all. Duke University performed such prosthetic arm experiments as far back as 2000. In one case they even sent the electrode signals over the internet, allowing the monkey to move an arm 600 miles away at MIT.

"The open loop experiment was really very crude," said Schwartz. "The closed loop introduces us into a whole new field because the animal actually sees the arm and the consequence of what it is doing." For Schwartz's monkey the robotic arm is incorporated into its mental body representation, making it an extra limb.

posted by Kevin at 1:39 PM


Company to Develop Hypo-Allergenic Cats :.

Dear God, please let our decline be swift and painless:

ALLERCA Inc. today launched a project to produce the world's first hypoallergenic cats. The hypoallergenic cats produced by ALLERCA will allow consumers to enjoy the love and companionship of a pet without the cost, inconvenience, risk, and limited effectiveness of current allergy treatments. Clients will take delivery of the first ALLERCA kittens in 2007. The hypoallergenic cat is the first of a planned series of lifestyle pets that ALLERCA will develop over the next few years.

ALLERCA's hypoallergenic cats will be a significant new alternative to the traditional treatment of cat allergies given that it eliminates the allergen at its source. Researchers will use patented biotechnology to suppress the allergen-producing gene in cats.

posted by Kevin at 1:34 PM


Scientists Warn of 'Ethnic Weapons' :.

BIOLOGICAL weapons that target selected ethnic groups could become part of the terrorists' arsenal unless governments and scientists act now, the British Medical Association warns.

Such designer weapons would be based on the growing ability of scientists to unravel and compare human DNA.

In theory, experts could engineer organisms to attack genetic variations commonly found in, say, Chinese or German populations.

Genetically engineered anthrax, smallpox and polio viruses are also "approaching reality", the BMA claims in a new report, Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity II.

The report, released yesterday in London, adds that organisms designed to attack food crops and even human immune and nervous systems are serious threats.

posted by Kevin at 1:29 PM


Tom Harkin: Bush has no Choice but to Reinstate Draft :.

President Bush may or may not have a secret plan to reinstate the draft. But this is beside the point. The deteriorating facts on the ground in Iraq, plus the Bush doctrine of acting pre-emptively and unilaterally against hostile regimes, will soon leave him no choice. If President Bush is re-elected, he will have to restart the draft.

Indeed, President Bush has already imposed Stage 1 of a new draft. Many soldiers whose enlistment period is up are not being allowed to leave the service, and those who left the service years ago are being forced to put on the uniform again against their will. It is clear that we already have a backdoor draft.

President Bush has effectively ended the all-volunteer military.

And Stage 2 of a reinstated draft would be easy to implement. Draft boards are already in place in every county in America, and young men who turn 18 are already required to register with their local draft board. A major terrorist attack could easily serve as the pretext for flipping the switch and setting this apparatus in motion.

posted by Kevin at 1:26 PM


Piece of Sh*t Blogger.com Was Down Again

Updates later... If this steaming heap can stay operational until this evening.

posted by Kevin at 6:06 AM

10/26/2004

What's Another $70 Billion Among Friends? :.

I keep hearing about how much the rest of the world is supposedly against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Ok, then they should stop buying U.S. debt instruments that make it possible! This show would be down in a matter of days!

The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday.

posted by Kevin at 4:23 AM


OneNote to Rule Them All

When Microsoft OneNote came out a while ago, I thought it sounded interesting... but since I've been trying to lower my exposure to Microsoft products over the years, I never bothered to look into it further.

Well, Microsoft recently distributed free copies of OneNote at the university my girlfriend attends.

I wanted to check it out.

I'm having a hard time keeping track of all the information and research that I'm accumulating for the documentary film I'm producing. I'm sourcing information from books, magazines, websites, video and still images (that need descriptions), audio files, interviews, my own thoughts, etc. My girlfriend is working on a PhD and she has heavy information management needs as well. We decided to install OneNote on her system to check it out.

I hate to say it, but after using OneNote for a few minutes, I was convinced that this was an extremely attractive solution to my information overload mess. Right now, I take notes in Notepad (believe it or not) and a paper notebook. I have browser bookmarks on two different computers. I have all of my images and media files in directories with no descriptions. This is a bad scene.

I need to sort all of this stuff out by topic, regardless of the type of media. I need to access the underlying files from the notes. OneNote can do all of this in a really elegant way.

Fine, so why am I writing about this? If OneNote can take care of these issues, what's the problem?

This is a Microsoft Product! I've seen this before. Things look good on the surface, but then, down the road, BGates finds a way to set you up the bomb.

So I was wondering... Do you use a non-Microsoft information management system? Is there something else out there as mature and intuitive as OneNote? I'm quite happy with Firebird and OpenOffice, for example. Some kind of opensource Notezilla thing would be great! (Watch, someone will suggest notetaking and information management with vi or emacs.) By the way, I don't need any of the Office/Outlook interoperability that OneNote provides, since I don't use those apps.

Forget Chandler. I got a runtime error trying to install it under Win2000. I need this to run on 2000 and XP. That thing sounds good, but I can't be bothered with early stage apps that don't install properly. I wish those guys luck, though. This would be a nice opensource tool to have.

Thanks for any input you may have!

posted by Kevin at 2:05 AM

10/25/2004

The Yumemi Koubou Machine :.

Weird:

INVENTIONS need to be useful but they don’t always need to be serious. A company in Japan has come up with a machine that claims to help people choose their dreams, writes Julie Earle-Levine.

The Yumemi Koubou machine is being developed by Takara in conjunction with Dr Eiko Matsuda at Edogawa University. It means “dream workshop” and is pronounced “you-may-mee ko-bo”.

Before going to sleep, you look at a photo of what you want to dream about and record the storyline into the machine. For example, a person who wants to run a marathon in his dreams might choose a photo of a runner and attach it to the machine.

Yumemi Koubou then stimulates sleepers during periods of rapid eye movement (REM) using the voice recording as well as lights, music and aromas to help the person direct his dreams.

posted by Kevin at 11:37 PM


Robots on the Front Lines :.

iRobot sold 1 million robotic vacuums into homes and brought the small, unmanned PackBot robots to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, along with new partner John Deere Corporation, the company is preparing to deliver truck-size robots that can be driven into combat manned, controlled remotely, or operate autonomously.

The Military R-Gator is an intelligent vehicle that's significantly larger than the all-terrain PackBots currently used by the U.S. military. It's designed to handle perimeter security and to take the load off soldiers, acting as a mule that can carry supplies into battle. It also will be able to deliver much-needed provisions from the back lines to the front, a notoriously dangerous job that company executives promise the R-Gator will be able to perform unmanned, if needed. The R-Gator is actually an upgrade of sorts to Deere's current M-Gator, a utility vehicle used in the Afghan war.

posted by Kevin at 11:20 PM


Cryptogon Reader Contributes $25!

Thanks MF!

posted by Kevin at 2:12 PM


Iraq: Hundreds of Tons of High Explosives Missing :.

You couldn't even make this up:

The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, make missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished sometime after the American-led invasion last year.

posted by Kevin at 4:40 AM


VREELAND ARRESTED :.

I don't believe it... Days before the election!? The cauldron is definitely swirling now:

He disappeared from a ransacked Toronto apartment two years ago after claiming he was an undercover American naval officer who predicted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But that was just the latest twist in the bizarre story of Delmart Vreeland — a tale that goes back 10 years and winds its way through the United States and Canada.

Vreeland's whereabouts, however, are no longer a mystery.

Officers with an Iowa sheriff's department surrounded his car Wednesday as he was driving an Interstate highway from Denver to Minneapolis. The use of a flagged Shell gas card alerted Franklin County authorities, Chief Deputy Ken Lubkeman said in an interview.

More: It's Probably Nothing....

Flashback: FTW INTERVIEW: DELMART "MIKE" VREELAND

posted by Kevin at 4:11 AM


Dollar Has Longest Losing Streak Since December 2000 on Oil :.

The dollar fell against the euro for the ninth straight day, the longest losing streak since December 2000, on concern record oil prices will slow U.S. growth.

posted by Kevin at 3:50 AM


Portrait of a Country on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown :.

With only nine days to go and the polls showing Bush and Kerry still neck and neck, the result is once agin likely to turn on the minutiae of the voting system. But this time the whole country seems poised to descend into post-election chaos. Andrew Gumbel reports on the traumatising effects of this bitter campaign and how, as the world's most powerful democracy talks of exporting freedom to Iraq, it is at risk of becoming an object of international ridicule.

No need to wonder if this year's US presidential election is headed for another meltdown: the meltdown has already started. The voting machines have already begun to break down, accusations of systematic voter suppression and fraud are rampant, and lawyers fully armed and ready with an intimate knowledge of the nation's byzantine election laws have flocked to court to cry foul in half a dozen states.

posted by Kevin at 2:07 AM


Nikkei Down 1239.15 Points (2.20%)

Oil up. Gold WAY up. Dollar down.

posted by Kevin at 1:48 AM

10/24/2004

Cryptogon Reader Contributes $25

Excellent! Thank you! MM also offered to help with music for the documentary. I didn't know I had so many musicians reading Cryptogon.

posted by Kevin at 1:56 PM


The Daily Show: Bush "We Will Not Have an All-Volunteer Army." :.

Bush is brain dead. You don't know whether to laugh or cry after watching this!

posted by Kevin at 1:49 PM


Female Soldiers Eyed for Combat :.

The Army is negotiating with civilian leaders about eliminating a women-in-combat ban so it can place mixed-sex support companies within warfighting units, starting with a division going to Iraq in January.

Despite the legal prohibition, Army plans already have included such collocation of women-men units in blueprints for a lighter force of 10 active divisions, according to Defense Department sources.

An Army spokesman yesterday, in response to questions from The Washington Times, said the Army is now in discussions with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's staff to see whether the 10-year-old ban in this one area should be lifted. The ban prohibits the Army from putting women in units that "collocate" with ground combatants.

"When that policy was made up, there was a different threat," said Lt. Col. Chris Rodney, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. "We imagined a more linear combat environment. Now, with the nature of asymmetrical threats, we have to relook at that policy."

Col. Rodney cited the fighting in Iraq as typifying the new threat whereby all soldiers, support or combat, face attack by rockets, mortars, roadside bombs and ambushes.

"Everybody faces a similar threat," he said. "There is no front-line threat right now."

posted by Kevin at 4:40 AM


51 Iraqi Soldiers Found Executed :.

Imagine the will required to do this. These were Iraqis! There is no possible way that the U.S. and its puppet clients in Iraq are going to prevail against an enemy that is capable of doing something like this. Short of razing entire cities, the U.S. campaign in Iraq is doomed:

A group of at least 51 soldiers of the New Iraq Army were ambushed and killed while on their way home after graduating from training, Iraqi police officials said.

The soldiers appeared to have been forced to lie face down on the ground and then were shot dead at close range, Diyala province police chief Major General Waleed Khalid Abdul Salam told CNN.

They were surprised and captured Saturday on a road near the Iranian border, about 80 miles (130 km) east of Baghdad, he said.

The ambush happened between 3 and 5 p.m. Saturday and the bodies were found in groups of 12 and 13 around midnight, Maj. Gen. Salam said.

The soldiers, who were found with their army IDs, had just graduated from training, he said.

posted by Kevin at 2:33 AM

10/23/2004

“BRAIN” IN A DISH ACTS AS AUTOPILOT, LIVING COMPUTER :.

Oh yeah:

"Scientists at the University of Florida made a living 'brain' by extracting 25,000 neurons from a rat's brain and culturing them inside a glass dish. Then, the neurons began to extend lines to each other, creating a living neural network between them. The dish had a grid of 60 electrodes connected to a computer running a flight simulator. The scientists were able to train the 'brain' to control the plane in the simulator and to react to conditions of the plane. Are we getting closer to create an artificially made conscious being, or perhaps, a living computer?"

posted by Kevin at 6:47 PM


CIA Mind Control Victims Win Cash Claims :.

Full text follows:

HUNDREDS of mentally ill patients who were subjected to barbaric CIA-funded brainwashing experiments by a Scottish doctor could be entitled to compensation following a landmark court ruling.

Doctor Ewan Cameron, who became one of the world’s leading psychiatrists, developed techniques used by Nazi scientists to wipe out the existing personalities of people in his care.

Cameron, who graduated from Glasgow University, was recruited by the CIA during the cold war while working at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

He carried out mind-control experiments using drugs such as LSD on hundreds of patients, but only 77 of them were awarded compensation.

Now a landmark ruling by a Federal Court judge in Montreal will allow more than 250 former patients, whose claims were rejected, to seek compensation.

Gail Kastner, who underwent electroshock treatment at a Montreal psychiatric institute in 1953, and whose claim was rejected 10 years ago, successfully appealed the judgment.

Last week, Alan Stein, of Montreal law firm Stein and Stein, which represented Kastner, confirmed he was in the process of contacting former clients who could now renew their appeal.

“There are about 200 people still due compensation,” he said. “This judgment should send out strong signals to the Canadian government. Those who have previously missed out should have a strong case for appealing.”

Using techniques similar to those portrayed in the celebrated novel the Manchurian Candidate, it was believed that people could be brainwashed and reprogrammed to carry out specific acts.

Cameron developed a range of depatterning “treatments” while director of the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill University.

Patients were woken from drug-induced stupors two or three times a day for multiple electric shocks. In a specially designed “sleep room” made famous by Anne Collins’s book of the same name, Cameron placed a speaker under the patient’s pillow and relayed negative messages for 16 hours a day.

Kastner was a 19-year-old honours student suffering from mild depression when she first underwent “treatment” in 1953. On returning home she sucked her thumb, demanded to be fed from a bottle, talked in a baby voice and urinated on the floor.

She was ostracised by her affluent family, who were unable to cope with her changed state, and her marriage in 1955 quickly broke down due to her difficulties.

Cameron, who was born in Bridge of Allan in 1901, rose to become the first president of the World Psychiatric Association.

It took two decades and the persistence of Joseph Rauh, the distinguished American civil liberties lawyer, to uncover what happened and secure compensation for some of Cameron’s victims.

Research Credit: NF

posted by Kevin at 11:19 AM


Documentary Progress

People are writing in, wondering about the documentary. How am I funding this project? Did I manage to get a decent camera?

Yeah, I got the camera, but the funding certainly didn't come from donations to Cryptogon! (Thanks to the handful readers who have contributed recently. I bought food and gasoline with the money.)

Actually, there is no outside funding. I sold all of my 35mm still camera gear, an expensive mobile phone that I got for free (contract renewal) and a couple of other goodies I can manage to live without. That's how I raised the money to buy the Canon GL2 video camera and the 160GB firewire drive I'll need to edit this thing. At the moment, though, I don't know how I'll be able to afford gas to drive to interviews and blank video tape... I guess lights and a gel kit are not in the cards at the moment. I've read about other bum low-budget/no-budget filmmakers who use work lights from Home Depot on their projects. That might be the way to go.

A couple of you have written in to offer help with music and sound design. That's great, since I have no musical talent at all. Thanks for offering to help.

Oh, what's the topic?

Ahhh, it's a secret for now. I'll reveal it as I get closer to completing the project. But rest assured, production is well underway. In case you doubt it, take a look inside the Cryptogon Studios. Baby, if that doesn't look like progress, I don't know what does!


posted by Kevin at 1:26 AM


A Bush Pre-Election Strike on Iran 'Imminent' :.

I doubt it, but just in case...

According to White House and Washington Beltway insiders, the Bush administration, worried that it could lose the presidential election to Senator John F. Kerry, has initiated plans to launch a military strike on Iran's top Islamic leadership, its nuclear reactor at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf, and key nuclear targets throughout the country, including the main underground research site at Natanz in central Iran and another in Isfahan. Targets of the planned U.S. attack reportedly include mosques in Tehran, Qom, and Isfahan known by the U.S. to headquarter Iran's top mullahs.

The Iran attack plan was reportedly drawn up after internal polling indicated that if the Bush administration launched a so-called anti-terrorist attack on Iran some two weeks before the election, Bush would be assured of a landslide win against Kerry. Reports of a pre-emptive strike on Iran come amid concerns by a number of political observers that the Bush administration would concoct an "October Surprise" to influence the outcome of the presidential election.

posted by Kevin at 1:23 AM


Chips Coming to a Brain Near You :.

In this era of high-tech memory management, next in line to get that memory upgrade isn't your computer, it's you.

Professor Theodore W. Berger, director of the Center for Neural Engineering at the University of Southern California, is creating a silicon chip implant that mimics the hippocampus, an area of the brain known for creating memories. If successful, the artificial brain prosthesis could replace its biological counterpart, enabling people who suffer from memory disorders to regain the ability to store new memories.

posted by Kevin at 1:13 AM


Representative Tim Ryan (D) Ohio :.

Make sure you have Quicktime enabled and click that link!

posted by Kevin at 1:06 AM

10/22/2004

Cryptogon Reader Contributes $25!

Thanks JS.

posted by Kevin at 2:39 AM

10/21/2004

Is the Bush Administration Suppressing the Price of Gas? :.

TR and I have been discussing this for weeks. The price of gas at the pump has become largely decoupled from the price of the underlying commodity (oil). My only guess is that a determination was made (don't ask me by who or what) to keep gas prices stable in some parts of the country, while letting them rise in other areas. For example, prices in Oregon, where TR lives, are stable to down. Where I live, in Southern California, gas prices have shot up to near records.

This article goes into this phenomenon in detail. Excellent work:

I guess suppressing only the vote isn't enough for this administration.

It seems that the price of gas has suspiciously dropped in the face of rocketing oil prices. This is directly counter to the tight correlation that this commodity and its derivative have experienced in past years.

With a bit of analysis, we see that if the price of gas were to catch up with the price of oil in percentage terms (as it always has in the past), then a gallon of gas would be about $2.60 per gallon!

And check this out, it seems that Bush's approval ratings seem to move up and down right along with the price of gas. True, correlation alone does not mean causation -- but correlation coupled with good ol' common sense certainly does.

Note: By linking to this, it doesn't mean that I support Kerry. This election is a fraud. I don't participate in fraudulent activities.

posted by Kevin at 6:07 PM


U.S. Special Operations Command Visits Cryptogon

A user at the U.S. Special Operations Command (host: asoc3.soc.mil, ip: 204.34.247.9, time: 20/Oct/2004:12:03:58 -0700) conducted the following Google search: "joint special operations command".

The visitor from SOC went to The Secret War page hosted on Cryptogon.

posted by Kevin at 5:00 AM


U.S. Department of Homeland Security Interested in TV-B-Gone

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security user (host: n021.dhs.gov, ip: 63.162.143.21, time: 21/Oct/2004:04:41:19 -0700) conducted the following Google search: purchase tv-b-gone. The DHS user wound up clicking the link to Cryptogon.

Related: Cryptogon Mention of TV-B-Gone

posted by Kevin at 4:44 AM


Open Source Intelligence Support :.

Such services can include, but are not limited to: Rapid-response deep Internet and commercial (fee for service) research; Acquisition of specified overtly available information products and data services; Procurement of Russian military maps and other forms of geospatial information; Translation of foreign language materials in 29 languages; Providing OSINT training or advisory services.

The contractor will conduct surveys of foreign terrorist, guerilla and insurgent groups on the Internet and newsgroups within the indexed and un-indexed World Wide Web (WWW). Searches will be conducted in multiple languages to ensure comprehensive coverage. The contractor, at a minimum, will search in various dialects of English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, German, Korean, Russian, Italian and Arabic.

Conduct research and provide data emphasizing the capabilities of foreign Government Special Operations Forces (SOF).

posted by Kevin at 4:37 AM


Physical Compromise Ops Training :.

This procurement is intended to provide USSOCOM with a readily available source to provide technical surveillance training to personnel in the United States. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services to perform technical surveillance curriculum development and instruction...

posted by Kevin at 4:30 AM


Bush Ear Piece :.

More...

posted by Kevin at 4:27 AM


Cops = Robbers :.

Los Angeles Police officers robbed people at gunpoint for drugs, guns and jewelry!

FIVE police officers in Los Angeles stand accused of pursuing a four-year armed robbery spree, using squad cars, uniforms and badges to make the brazen heists look like official raids.

At least two men were shot with stun guns during the robberies, while another was beaten with a police baton, had a gun stuffed into his mouth and was burnt with a cigarette lighter. The five men, working with as many as fifteen accomplices, including a professional female boxer, stole 320kg (700lb) of marijuana and 50kg of cocaine, as well as cars, firearms and jewellery.

The gang used Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) 0surveillance tactics to keep a look out for police or witnesses, and restrained victims with standard-issue handcuffs.

In one instance, the thieves, confident they would not be caught, even identified themselves as LAPD as they stole television sets from a lorry. Their total haul has been valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly more.

posted by Kevin at 4:10 AM


Police Taser 75-Year-Old Woman at Nursing Home :.

The Rock Hill Police Department is investigating why an officer used an electric stun gun on a 75-year-old woman who refused to leave a nursing home where she had gone to visit an ailing friend.

posted by Kevin at 4:09 AM


American Passports to Get Chipped :.

New U.S. passports will soon be read remotely at borders around the world, thanks to embedded chips that will broadcast on command an individual's name, address and digital photo to a computerized reader.

The State Department hopes the addition of the chips, which employ radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, will make passports more secure and harder to forge, according to spokeswoman Kelly Shannon.

posted by Kevin at 4:04 AM


Very Interesting Book :.

The Founders' Facade: Christianity, Democracy, Freemasonry, and the Founding of America by R. L. Worthy

posted by Kevin at 3:58 AM

10/20/2004

Oil Back at $55

I knew those couple of down days were a short squeeze setup. In the near term, the question is, how many traders got short on the recent downturn, and how many have covered as a result of the upside today? If lots of them are still short, look for a brutal squeeze above $55. The "5s" are sticky resistance and support levels. Prices, in general, have a harder time breaking through the 5 levels on the upside, and will find support at the 5 levels on the downside. The prices will briefly "overshoot" the 5s but tend to retreat/advance for some period before continuing. This is exactly what has been happening with oil at the $55 level.

posted by Kevin at 1:42 PM


Wake Up and Smell the Fascism :.

I just copied the bullet points. Click through to see the commentary and links for each point:

1.) Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

2.) Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

3.) Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

4.) Supremacy of the Military

5.) Rampant Sexism

6.) Controlled Mass Media

7.) Obsession with National Security

8.) Religion and Government are Intertwined

9.) Corporate Power is Protected

10.) Labor Power is Suppressed

11.) Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

12.) Obsession with Crime and Punishment

13.) Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

14.) Fraudulent Elections

posted by Kevin at 1:12 PM


Mostly PSYOPS Most of the Time :.

Media accounts of government PSYOPS; that's the news. And it's all designed to keep al Qaeda guessing... Isn't that nice...

What does it mean if the leader of al Qaeda is Dick Cheney?

When "unnamed U.S. government officials" leaked the story this fall that al Qaeda computer expert Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan had been arrested in Pakistan, media reports described British and Pakistani intelligence officials as furious about the resulting firestorm of coverage. Officials were quoted as saying that the news had blown a global sting operation by destroying Khan's value as a "double agent" who'd been turned against his al Qaeda colleagues. U.S. senators and British MPs on both sides of the aisle publicly deplored this shocking intelligence "debacle."

What a terrific story. But was any of it -- Khan's purported role as a double agent, the outrage of intelligence officers -- really true? There's a good chance that much of it wasn't.

Research Credit: AL

posted by Kevin at 3:53 AM


FARMERS NOT ALLOWED TO SAVE SEED IN IRAQ :.

Do you get it yet? The ability to grow food in a sustainable manner is dangerous to the machine:

When the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) celebrates biodiversity on World Food Day on October 16, Iraqi farmers will be mourning its loss.

A new report by GRAIN and Focus on the Global South has found that new legislation in Iraq has been carefully put in place by the US that prevents farmers from saving their seeds and effectively hands over the seed market to transnational corporations. This is a disastrous turn of events for Iraqi farmers, biodiversity and the country's food security. While political sovereignty remains an illusion, food sovereignty for the Iraqi people has been made near impossible by these new regulations.

"The US has been imposing patents on life around the world through trade deals. In this case, they invaded the country first, then imposed their patents. This is both immoral and unacceptable", said Shalini Bhutani, one of the report's authors.

The new law in question heralds the entry into Iraqi law of patents on life forms - this first one affecting plants and seeds. This law fits in neatly into the US vision of Iraqi agriculture in the future - that of an industrial agricultural system dependent on large corporations providing inputs and seeds.

In 2002, FAO estimated that 97 percent of Iraqi farmers used saved seed from their own stocks from last year's harvest or purchased from local markets. When the new law - on plant variety protection (PVP) - is put into effect, seed saving will be illegal and the market will only offer proprietary "PVP-protected" planting material "invented" by transnational agribusiness corporations. The new law totally ignores all the contributions Iraqi farmers have made to development of important crops like wheat, barley, date and pulses. Its consequences are the loss of farmers' freedoms and a grave threat to food sovereignty in Iraq. In this way, the US has declared a new war against the Iraqi farmer.

posted by Kevin at 3:15 AM

10/19/2004

Scientists Create Monkey Drones :.

Read every word:

Scientists have discovered a way of manipulating a gene that turns animals into drones that do not become bored with repetitive tasks. The experiments, conducted on monkeys, are the first to demonstrate that animal behaviour can be permanently changed, turning the subjects from aggressive to "compliant" creatures.

The genes are identical in humans and although the discovery could help to treat depression and other types of mental illness, it will raise images of the Epsilon caste from Aldous Huxley's futuristic novel Brave New World.

The experiments -- detailed in the journal Nature Neuroscience this month -- involved blocking the effect of a gene called D2 in a particular part of the brain. This cut off the link between the rhesus monkeys' motivation and reward.

Instead of speeding up with the approach of a deadline or the prospect of a "treat," the monkeys in the experiment could be made to work just as enthusiastically for long periods. The scientists say the identical technique would apply to humans.

"Most people are motivated to work hard and well only by the expectation of reward, whether it's a paycheque or a word of praise," said Barry Richmond, a government neurobiologist at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, who led the project. "We found we could remove that link and create a situation where repetitive, hard work would continue without any reward."

posted by Kevin at 1:07 PM


Oil: Setting the Bear Trap?

This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument, but here's how I see it.

Oil prices have gapped down over the last two sessions. Traders are taking short positions thinking that the near term top is in. Watch out. Typically, when you see price action like this, it's a scam designed to lure in the shorts. My guess is that a nearterm gap above $55 is a very real possibility.

posted by Kevin at 6:11 AM


TV-B-Gone :.

I like it:

Altman's key-chain fob was a TV-B-Gone, a new universal remote that turns off almost any television. The device, which looks like an automobile remote, has just one button. When activated, it spends over a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, the most popular brands first.

Related: http://www.tvbgone.com/

posted by Kevin at 4:42 AM


Iraqis Bathed in Propaganda :.

Giant billboards call for unity. Posters assure skeptics that the January election will be fair. Car bumper stickers plead for divine protection for a nation that needs all the help it can get.

With anger and despair mounting over a seemingly endless cycle of violence, Baghdad's streets, airwaves and newspapers are being used to reassure the city's six million residents and try to imbue them with hope.

That's a tough sell in a city where most people have lost a friend, a relative or an acquaintance to the violence. Thousands of middle class families are fleeing the country in search of safety.

Don't forget to read the last two sentences to get a real flavor of the democracy in Iraq:

Congratulating Muslims on the occasion of Ramadan, the 1st Cavalry Division's 3rd Brigade also had a stern warning to residents in newspaper advertisements. "Please stay clear from military vehicles to avoid traffic accidents and the use of deadly force."

Yep. Get out the vote...

posted by Kevin at 1:36 AM


U.S. Has Contingency Plans for a Draft of Medical Workers :.

This is from the New York Times:

The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency that overwhelms the military's medical corps.

In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.

On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals, schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade publications.

On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and discreet because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical community will be seen as precursors to a draft," and that could alarm the public.

posted by Kevin at 1:23 AM

10/18/2004

Tech Sector Unemployment Apocalypse Gets Worse :.

Job cuts increase 127% at computer companies! WOW!!!

The U.S. technology sector suffered another round of widespread layoffs during the third quarter, with computer firms slashing jobs most aggressively, a report said on Monday.

"High-tech job cuts are on the way up as the end of the year approaches," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Behind this trend is the fact that technology companies have virtually no pricing power,"

Job cuts in technology jumped 60 percent between July and September to 54,701, compared with 34,213 layoffs in the second quarter. Computer companies alone saw job cuts jump 127 percent, to 30,624.

Manufacturers in the sector are having trouble making money since they have been forced to lower prices in order to attract consumers, Challenger said. So they end up firing workers in order to maintain healthy profit margins.

Worse yet, the growing number of layoffs is not being countered by any move to hire, Challenger added.

posted by Kevin at 6:06 PM


Election Day Red Alert? :.

If the pre-election internal tracking polls and public opinion polls show the Kerry-Edwards ticket leading in key battleground states, the Bush team will begin to implement their plan to announce an imminent terrorist alert for the West Coast for November 2 sometime during the mid afternoon Pacific Standard Time. At 2:00 PST, the polls in Kentucky and Indiana will be one hour from closing (5:00 PM EST – the polls close in Indiana and Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST). Exit polls in both states will be known to the Bush people by that time and if Kentucky (not likely Indiana) looks too close to call or leaning to Kerry-Edwards, the California plan will be implemented. A Bush problem in Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST would mean that problems could be expected in neighboring states and that plans to declare a state of emergency in California would begin in earnest at 3:00 PM PST.

The U.S. Northern Command, which has military jurisdiction over the United States, will, along with the Department of Homeland Security and Schwarzenegger’s police and homeland security officials in Sacramento, declare an “imminent” terrorist threat – a RED ALERT -- affecting California’s major urban areas.

Although the polls in California will not be closed as a result of the declaration, the panic that sets in and the early rush hour will clog major traffic arteries and change the plans of many voters to cast their ballot after work.

That terrorist emergency declaration could be made around 5:00 PM PST and with only three hours left for voting throughout the state, a number of working class voters in urban centers will either be caught up in California’s infamous freeway traffic and be too late to get to their polling places or be more concerned about their families and avoid voting altogether.

Without a doubt, many Democratic voters might simply opt to pick their kids up from day care centers or relatives and then go home without voting. These would tend to be the lower and middle income Californians and the Democratic base. The affluent voters in California who vote Republicans and can easily vote early (and be late for work) or have the option of leaving work at any time during the day to vote will have likely already cast their ballots. Therefore, the recipe of a White House-induced California terrorist alert and a low Democratic turnout could toss 54 electoral votes into Bush’s lap, especially if the scare tactics affect the turnout in such urban and typically pro-Democratic vote-rich areas as Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento.

posted by Kevin at 1:43 PM


Voting Problems in Florida... Already :.

Problems were already being reported with Florida's new voting system today as the state opened early polling.

Punch cards which caused "hanging chads" and widespread chaos at the last election have been replaced with touch screen machines in many parts of the state.

But one of the systems crashed shortly after it was fired up to allow Floridians to start casting early votes.

The machines have proved controversial because many do not provide a paper reading of how votes are cast, making a recount of a disputed result impossible.

As an alternative some polling stations are providing voters with paper ballot alternatives.

But a Democratic state legislator said when she asked for an absentee paper ballot it was incomplete.

Shelley Vana, from Palm Beach County, centre of the last election's debacle, said election workers were indifferent when she pointed out the oversight.

"This is not a good start. If there are incomplete ballots out there, I can't imagine I would be the only one getting it," she said.

posted by Kevin at 1:03 PM


OIL $55

Heating oil supply worries.

posted by Kevin at 2:50 AM

10/16/2004

U.S. ARMY RESERVE PLATOON: MUTINY IN IRAQ :.

The U.S. military was investigating a possible mutiny in Iraq yesterday after a platoon of Army reservists refused to go on what they called a "suicide mission."

If confirmed, it would be the first time a group of American soldiers defied a direct order in the Iraq conflict - and a worrisome sign that there might be cracks in the overstretched military's resolve.

posted by Kevin at 2:45 AM


What the Bleep Do We Know?! :.

Go see it. And take a fundamentalist Christian, Muslim or Jew with you.

posted by Kevin at 2:37 AM

10/15/2004

U.S. Government Hits $7.38 Trillion Debt Limit :.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.71 billion per day since September 30, 2003!

The U.S. government reached the $7.384 trillion legal limit on how much it can borrow, forcing the Bush administration to shuffle funds among accounts and prompting fresh Democratic criticism of the president's economic policies.

To avoid exceeding the cap, the Treasury said it would temporarily suspend contributions to a government pension program. The department's plan to announce new debt sales in early November won't be affected. Congress isn't expected to increase the amount of debt the Treasury can sell to fund approved government spending until sometime next month.

Related: U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

posted by Kevin at 5:17 AM


U.S. Budget Deficit Hits Record $413 Billion :.

Financial oblivion!

The U.S. budget deficit expanded to $412.6 billion in the 2004 fiscal year, making the Bush administration's second-straight record fiscal gap, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

posted by Kevin at 5:06 AM


Outsourcing the Lawyers :.

I love it:

Contrary to popular perception, Shakespeare didn't really suggest that killing all the lawyers might be a good thing. But that hasn't stopped some people from wishing they would just go away.

And now they are -- attorneys are the latest to see their jobs outsourced.

A number of U.S. companies, including members of the Fortune 500 and some of the country's largest law firms, are now embracing the idea of outsourcing routine legal work to India, South Korea, Australia and other locales with far lower labor costs.

General Electric (Research), the country's fifth-largest corporation, has taken the idea the farthest of any company and set up a subsidiary in India that employs about 30 lawyers.

posted by Kevin at 5:03 AM


Our Kids Are in Big Trouble :.

Before the atomic bomb, we couldn't really break the future. And before deficit financing, we couldn't easily bankrupt it either.

Technology will soon give us more power to erase the future, or so technologists such as Bill Joy worry. And one body in particular - government - has become efficient at using technology to burden the future.

posted by Kevin at 4:41 AM

10/14/2004

Hopsicker Attacks Ruppert on PQI Affiliation :.

I really hate it when people who are generally on the same (and right) side of an issue start to go after each other. I have a great deal of respect for both of these men, so it's tough to see this happening. If Hopsicker's claims are correct, though, Ruppert does have some splainin' to do.

I don't agree with Dan when he says Mike is, "out of credibility." People make mistakes, and if this PQI organization is as crooked as it seems on its face, then Mike needs to be open about making the mistake of being associated with them. Personally, I find it interesting that this is happening as Crossing the Rubicon is blasting up the charts on Amazon...

The Massachusetts Securities Commission declared Global Prosperity Group (which was closed down in May last year and "re-opened" the next day as PQI) to be "an illegal pyramid scheme."

They were ordered permanently to cease trading in that state.

PQI sales consultants are in New Zealand promoting a "three-stage educational process," we read. "First, you buy a set of instructional CDs (cost, $2200). Second, you attend a seminar. The next is in Mexico (cost, $10,800). Then, you attend another seminar on a cruise ship (cost, nearly $26,000). These fees cover entry to the seminar and purchase of the CDs. They do not include airfares, accommodation, food or expenses."

"Pinnacle Quest International (PQI) is a US company that promises to introduce you to "secret companies" that will provide returns of over 100 percent, and teach you how to avoid ever paying tax again. You'll also be in line for some hefty consultant commissions.

"People like Queen Elizabeth II and Muhammad Ali are involved with PQI. Not many people know this," sales consultants confided.

"As for the secret companies, only the mega-rich have known about them up until now."

Could it all be somehow true?

"The lion will lay down with the lamb...But only one will get back up."

Neither Queen Elizabeth nor Muhammad Ali responded to MadCowMorningNews requests for confirmation.

Could they be hiding something?

We sort of doubt it. The self-appointed "pit-bull of 9/11" & Fearless Leader of 9.11 "Truth" Movement cadres nationwide is, quite frankly, out of credibility. So let's move on...

posted by Kevin at 1:17 PM


Trade Deficit Soars, Jobless Claims Up :.

The U.S. trade deficit, propelled by a record foreign oil bill, surged to $54 billion in August, the second highest level in history. The politically sensitive deficit with China hit a new high as American retailers upped their orders for cell phones, toys and televisions.

posted by Kevin at 1:15 PM


OIL $54.76

Gas prices are gapping up where I live in Southern California.

posted by Kevin at 1:10 PM


Oil Reaches $54 a Barrel on Concern Winter Will Drain Supplies :.

Bundle up, it's nearly The End:

Crude oil rose close to a record on concern that refiners will lack the supplies to meet demand for heating fuel during the northern hemisphere winter.

"There's a distinct lack of availability of heating fuels in the U.S. and northwest Europe," said Jack Kellet, a senior trader at Standard Bank in London. "That's preventing speculators from selling and encouraging commercial players to buy."

posted by Kevin at 6:09 AM


Fox TV Producer Sues Host O'Reilly for Harassment :.

God, what an idiot... It's about time someone took him down:

Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, the nation's top-rated cable news host and a brash advocate of personal responsibility and self-control, was sued for sexual harassment Wednesday by a producer on his show who says he repeatedly pressured her to engage in phone sex and frightened her with lewd "monologues."

The suit, filed by Andrea Mackris, a 33-year-old associate producer on "The O'Reilly Factor," quotes O'Reilly as speaking to her in highly explicit terms about vibrators, oral sex, masturbation and a fantasy in a Caribbean hotel room shower.

The suit also quotes O'Reilly as threatening "any woman" who would complain about his sexual advances, and as suggesting Fox News chief Roger Ailes would "go after" enemies of the channel.

posted by Kevin at 5:58 AM


FDA Approves Microchip Implant :.

A tiny computer chip approved Wednesday for implantation in a patient's arm can speed vital information about a patient's medical history to doctors and hospitals. But critics warn that it could open new ways to imperil the confidentiality of medical records.

The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that Applied Digital Solutions of Delray Beach, Fla., could market the VeriChip, an implantable computer chip about the size of a grain of rice, for medical purposes.

With the pinch of a syringe, the microchip is inserted under the skin in a procedure that takes less than 20 minutes and requires no stitches. The chip stores a code that releases patient-specific information when a scanner passes over it.

A spokeswoman for Applied Digital say the cost of chip implantation would be $150 to $200.

posted by Kevin at 5:58 AM

10/13/2004

Did 25 Chechen Terrorists Enter the U.S. from Mexico? :.

Election day antics? Sit back and watch the show:

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July.

The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports.

posted by Kevin at 4:32 AM

10/12/2004

Senator Shuts D.C. Office :.

Sen. Mark Dayton said Tuesday he is closing his Washington office because of a classified intelligence report that made him fear for the safety of his staff.

Dayton, D-Minn., said the office will be closed while Congress is in recess through Election Day, with his staff working out of his Minnesota office and in Senate space off Capitol Hill.

"I take this step out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety of my Senate staff and my Minnesota constituents, who might otherwise be visiting my Senate office in the next three weeks," he said on a call with reporters.

"I feel compelled to do so because I will not be here in Washington to share what I consider to be an unacceptably greater risk to their safety," he said.

CBS News Correspondent Bob Orr reports that federal officials said they knew of no new, specific intelligence information that would have prompted Dayton to close his office.

Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, said the department had no intelligence indicating al-Qaida intends to target any specific U.S. locations.

Added Capitol police spokesman Michael Lauer: "There's been no specific threats against the Capitol complex. We continue to be on guard now, all the way up to the election and all the way through
the inauguration."

Dayton said he could not describe the contents of the top-secret intelligence report, which was presented to senators at a briefing two weeks ago.

"None of us can predict the future," he said. "I hope and pray that the precautions I've taken will prove unnecessary."

Related: Is an Election Day Faux-Terror Event All But CERTain?

posted by Kevin at 1:58 PM


Cement Mixer-Based Truck Dwarfs Hummer and F-350 :.

Now we're talkin'! God Bless America!

For the driver looking for more in a pickup -- one that dwarfs the Hummer and the Ford F-350 -- Navistar has just the ride for you.

The new CXT -- short for commercial extreme truck and built from the same platform as the heavy-truck maker's typical tow truck or cement mixer -- will be sold starting this week by Navistar's International Truck & Engine subsidiary.

At 258 inches, or 21-1/2 feet long, the CXT is about 4-1/2 feet longer than the new Hummer H2 pickup, and about 2 inches longer than the F-350 Crew Cab.

But the way it really towers over what's on the road now is in height. At 108 inches, or 9 feet, the CXT stands only a foot below a basketball rim and more than two feet above the Hummer or the F-350.

"It's not going to fit into the standard garage," said Mark Oberle, a spokesman for Navistar, based in Warrenville, Ill., outside Chicago. "We can see it as a vehicle for business people who want to make a distinct impression. For personal use, it's for people who want to make a statement."

Yeah, the statement is that you're a f*cking idiot if you drive this thing.

posted by Kevin at 4:58 AM


UK: Solar Power for All New Homes :.

Wow!

John Prescott has demanded that all new homes built in Britain be designed so that they can receive solar power. Draft building regulations from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, due to come into effect in January 2006, stipulate the change.

The move is significant since the government is on the cusp of a major housebuilding drive. It will infuriate housebuilders, adding millions to the cost of constructing homes. But it will delight environmentalists as concerns mount over the effects of climate change.

The government's own agency, the Energy Saving Trust, is trying to ensure that all new homes will be powered in part by solar power before the end of 2010.

Last month Prime Minister Tony Blair said sustainable development would be incorporated in all new schools and public sector buildings.

posted by Kevin at 4:25 AM


OIL $54

What should my commentary be? Grab your ankles?

posted by Kevin at 2:45 AM


Peace Prize Winner: AIDS Is a Bioweapon :.

Wooohhh! That Nobel panel needs to select people who will maintain appearances!

Ms. Maathai kicked off her reign as the first African woman to become a Nobel laureate by telling reporters AIDS did not originate in monkeys, as some believe, but may instead have been "created by a scientist for biological warfare."

posted by Kevin at 2:35 AM


United Airlines: Largest Pension Default in History Looms :.

I wonder how many houses-of-cards can fall down at once?

Despite ongoing negotiations with its unions, United Airlines has told the bankruptcy court that the "likely result" will be a decision to terminate all of its pension plans.

That would precipitate the biggest pension default in history, more twice the size of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation default in 2002. The move is expected to destabilize the already struggling airline industry, prompting other old-line carriers like Delta to eventually follow suit to maintain competitiveness.

Research Credit: JH

posted by Kevin at 2:30 AM


Climate Fear as Carbon Levels Soar :.

Make your time:

An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming.

Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas has leapt in a two-year period and are concerned that the Earth's natural systems are no longer able to absorb as much as in the past.

posted by Kevin at 2:24 AM


Appropriate Technology Advocate Wins $500,000 :.

Does technology liberate you or bog you down? Does it solve problems or create new ones? If people were capable of using technology in appropriate ways, a veritable Heaven on Earth scenario wouldn't be too hard to imagine. For the most part, though, technology serves to dumb us down as it enslaves us.

What if technologists spent more time thinking about ways to substantially improve our standard of living and less time creating increasingly useless gadgets and baubles?

Amy Smith represents a glimmer of hope along these lines:

An engineer who is uninterested in advancing technologies is, to put it mildly, a rarity. So rare, in fact, that the MacArthur Foundation awarded one such engineer $500,000.

Mechanical engineer Amy Smith, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology instructor, joined the MacArthur fellowship fold last week, receiving the so-called "genius award" and a colossal cash prize. Her award-winning feat? Using old technology in fresh ways to improve the lives of entire communities.

The MacArthur committee seeks dedication to original, creative pursuits that could affect the future. Smith's anonymous nominator probably didn't have a very tough sell. Smith has a stable of oldfangled technologies that she has reconfigured and applied to underdeveloped areas around the world. Her solutions -- including new grain-processing techniques, alternative cooking fuels and water-quality tests -- sound like answers to problems that should have been solved a century ago. To Smith, that's the point.

"Looking at things from a more basic level, you can come up with a more direct solution, and a lot of people go well, duh, that's really obvious!" Smith said. "But that's what you want: people saying it should have been done that way all along. It may sound small in theory, but it in practice, it can change entire economies."

posted by Kevin at 1:18 AM


Israeli Military Executing Palestinian Girls

Genocide:

Dead Palestinian Girl 'Riddled With Bullets'

The story of Raghda al-Assar: The Palestinian School Girl Who Was Murdered at School By Israeli Bullets

Two Girls, Two Shots To The Head

posted by Kevin at 1:00 AM

10/11/2004

Crossing the Rubicon in the Top 200 on Amazon :.

I can't believe that the book is THIS popular! I got my copy a couple of days ago and I've just started reading it.

Order it using this link and support Cryptogon:

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
by Michael C. Ruppert

posted by Kevin at 1:44 PM


OIL $53.67 :.

Crude oil in New York rose to a record $53.67 a barrel after the U.S. said some production shutdowns in the Gulf of Mexico caused by Hurricane Ivan may last as long as six months.

posted by Kevin at 12:39 PM

10/10/2004

Is an Election Day Faux-Terror Event All But CERTain? :.

If it happens... Well, it happens:

On Tuesday, October 25th, CERT trainees will receive training on "Terrorism and CERT."

Then, exactly one week later, CERT’s training program will conclude with a "Disaster Simulation & Examination".

This final day for the CERT training program, the day when CERT will climax with a "disaster simulation," is none other than Election Day!

posted by Kevin at 3:08 AM


Families Plan to Skip Military Draft :.

Opposed to the Iraq war, some Ashland and Talent teens and their parents are getting their ducks in a row, fearing a revival of the military draft.

They are creating conscientious objector files and searching out safe-haven countries, all in case what they consider likely or even inevitable comes to pass, regardless of who is elected president.

posted by Kevin at 1:58 AM


Bush's Mystery Bulge :.

Was President Bush literally channeling Karl Rove in his first debate with John Kerry? That's the latest rumor flooding the Internet, unleashed last week in the wake of an image caught by a television camera during the Miami debate. The image shows a large solid object between Bush's shoulder blades as he leans over the lectern and faces moderator Jim Lehrer.

posted by Kevin at 1:54 AM


Indymedia Takedown Details :.

The entire thing is over the publication of photographs of two undercover Swiss cops. Cryptome is on the job with the full story, including comments from Rackspace and the pictures of the cops.

posted by Kevin at 1:46 AM


American Style Democracy in Afghanistan :.

Even before the polling booths closed in Afghanistan's first-ever direct presidential election, all 15 candidates running against incumbent Hamid Karzai denounced the election as a fraud and refused to recognize the results.

posted by Kevin at 1:03 AM

10/8/2004

U.S. Military Bombs Wedding Party in Fallujah, Kills 11 :.

A US air raid, aimed at foreign fighters led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, killed 11 people and wounded 17 after a wedding party in the rebel-held Iraqi city of Fallujah today, residents and doctors said.

The US military said a "precision strike" hit a safe-house used by associates of the Jordanian Islamist militant.

Rescuers dug bodies from rubble with their hands after the raid on the house where residents said a wedding party had just taken place. They said the groom died and the bride was wounded.

"Credible intelligence sources confirmed Zarqawi leaders were meeting at the safe house at the time of the strike," a US military statement said.

Blood pooled on the floor of the hospital. A doctor named Rafah al-Hayat said 11 people had been killed and 17 wounded. One of his colleagues, Khaled Nasser, said nine females aged between 5 and 50 were among the wounded.

Reuters television footage showed four of the wounded women lying bloodied and bandaged in the hospital.

posted by Kevin at 2:43 AM

10/7/2004

U.S. Government Plans to Track Every Car :.

A little-known federal agency is planning a new monitoring program by which the government would track every car on the road by using onboard transceivers.

The agency, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, is part of the Department of Transportation. According to an extensive report in the Charlotte, N.C., Creative Loafing, the agency doesn't respond to public inquiries about its activity.


According to the report, cutting-edge tracking technology will be used by government transportation management centers to monitor every aspect of transportation. Under the plan, not only will movement be monitored but it also will be archived in massive databases for future use.

The paper reports a group of car manufacturers, technology companies and government interests have worked toward implementing the project for 13 years.

posted by Kevin at 7:47 PM


Researchers Resurrect Deadly 'Spanish' Flu :.

I couldn't make it up if I tried!

A tiny genetic change may be all that stands between us and the next deadly flu pandemic.

A team of scientists at the National Microbiology Research Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba arrived at that chilling conclusion after they managed to create a cousin of the deadly 1918 Spanish flu virus in the lab.

The results of their work are published in the journal Nature.

Working with American and Japanese partners, the researchers used two synthetic genes copied from the 1918 virus, as well as three other human viruses, to come up with something that mimics the deadly effects of the 1918 strain.

When the lab-produced virus was injected into the noses of lab mice, it went on a deadly rampage through their lungs, causing fatal internal bleeding and inflammation.

posted by Kevin at 6:25 PM


FBI Seizes Global Indymedia Servers, Reasons Unknown :.

The FBI took the hard drives of Global IMC servers in the USA and the UK. It appears that a court order was issued to Rackspace (Indymedia's service provider with offices in the US and in London) to physically remove the hard drives from Global Indymedia servers (backup servers are now in place). Rackspace was given no time to defend against the order before it was acted upon and turned over the hard drives, both in the US and the UK. The servers hosted numerous local IMCs, including UK Indymedia, Belgium, African imcs, Palestine, UK, Germany, Brasil, Italy, Uruguay, Poland, Belgrade, Portugal and others.

posted by Kevin at 5:27 PM


Heating Oil Supply Issues

I'd like to hear from readers who rely on heating oil. Are you making contingency plans for this winter? I emailed a good friend of mine who lives near Boston and these issues were VERY much on his mind. I'm just curious if anyone else is doing anything about it. Of course, a disruption in the supply of heating oil is unthinkable. As my friend put it:

What you have to realize is that most of the East Coast runs on heating oil. If we have a severe winter and people can't heat their homes you are going to have a natural disaster much worse than any f*cken hurricane.
This is why I like Oregon... Trees are an excellent way to store solar energy. Keep enough trees around and you will never freeze.

posted by Kevin at 2:00 PM


OIL $53

In the short term, I'd say this is now a panic buying bubble. Traders who take long positions during panic buying bubbles tend to get their clocks cleaned. We might see some whipsawing back down to the $48 region before it consolidates and rises more. But as someone who has traded using just about every technical indicator in the book, and combinations thereof, I can tell you that there is no rhyme or reason to these moves. We could be at $60 just as easily as we could be at $40. It certainly does seem like it's headed even higher, based on the steady din of supply problems.

posted by Kevin at 1:36 PM

10/6/2004

U.S. Job Cuts Hit 8-Month High in September :.

U.S. planned job cuts soared to an eight-month high in September while new hiring rose only slightly, a report said on Tuesday.

Employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said employers announced 107,863 layoffs in September, 41 percent more than in September 2003 and 45 percent more than in August of this year, when 74,150 were laid off.

The September figure was the largest since January 2004, when employers laid off 117,556 workers.

The September figure brings third-quarter job cuts to 251,585, 19.9 percent more than the 209,895 registered in the previous quarter and 4 percent more than the 241,548 for the third quarter of 2003.

Job losses in September were particularly heavy in the computer, transportation, telecommunications and consumer products industries, the report said.

Adding to the glum jobs picture was the slow pace of new hiring in September. The report said employer hiring announcements revealed only 16,166 new job openings in that month compared with 132,105 in August.

posted by Kevin at 8:53 PM


Smart Highways: GPS Tracking and Toll Roads for Everyone :.

Increased transportation technology investment will center on Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC), the technology expected to support applications for "smart" highway initiatives such as real-time traffic and weather updates to motorists, comprehensive automobile tracking, and universal electronic toll collection. Used today primarily for automated toll collection, DSRC is a combination of wireless and radio frequency identification technologies, used to support a wide range of roadside-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle public safety applications, according to INPUT.

posted by Kevin at 1:09 PM


'Panic Sets In' As Oil Prices Hit New High :.

"There is a grim realisation that there is a chronic shortage of light sweet crude in the world," analysts said.

"Real panic is setting in, and the hurricane-related bad weather is still causing a backlog in US imports, so this afternoon's results will be interesting to say the least," they added.

Almost 27% of Mexico's 1.7 million barrels of daily production is still disrupted, according to the US Department of the Interior.

More than 15 million barrels, 2.5% of Mexico's annual oil production, have been affected.

posted by Kevin at 1:05 PM


OIL ABOVE $52

Light crude for November delivery rose $1.06 to $52.15.

posted by Kevin at 1:00 PM


Final Official Report: No Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq :.

In a final report to be made public Wednesday, investigators will conclude that Saddam Hussein didn't possess stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction at the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

posted by Kevin at 11:52 AM


Robert Reich: U.S. Dollar Heading For Collapse :.

The US dollar is fast reaching a point at which foreign investors will abandon it and send it into a freefall, says Bill Clinton's former economic adviser.

Robert Reich told the Global Business Forum in Banff that record high budget and trade deficits, personal debt and a foreign policy that is alienating traditional allies, has the already slumping US dollar headed for collapse. The US already requires a daily infusion of $1.2 billion in foreign investment just to keep the greenback's decline under control, he said.

"The mainstream view is that the budget deficit (currently $422 billion).. is going to get larger,: said Reich, who is an "informal adviser" to presidential hopeful John Kerry. "Simultaneously, the mainstream view is that there is no reason to believe that the trade deficit (approximately $600 billion) is going to shrink anytime soon.

In fact, I see the dollar continuing to decline and I see at some point a tipping point where East Asian banks that have been trying to prop up the dollar, maintaining their exports (to the US), because at some point it becomes a lousy investment."

Reich said global investors are already conducting significant amounts of business in Euros, not US dollars.

posted by Kevin at 11:47 AM


Oh Dude: Video of U.S. F-16 Slaughter in Iraq :.

The video is here:

The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians.

The 30-second clip shows the pilot targeting the group of people in a street in the city of Fallujah and asking his mission controllers whether he should "take them out". He is told to do so and, shortly afterwards, the footage shows a huge explosion where the people were. A second voice can be heard on the clip saying: "Oh, dude."

The existence of the video, taken last April inside the cockpit of a US F-16 fighter has been known for some time, though last night's broadcast by Channel 4 News is believed to be the first time a mainstream broadcaster has shown the footage.

At no point during the exchange between the pilot and controllers does anyone ask whether the Iraqis are armed or posing a threat. Critics say it proves war crimes are being committed.

posted by Kevin at 11:43 AM


High School Students Build Solar/Hydrogen Vehicle :.

This project cost less than $10,000 and was undertaken by high school physics students and their teacher. Please Please Please support Mr. Waxman and his students!

From the Arizona Republic story:

The ungainly looking Chevy pickup parked in the courtyard at Central High School, with a huge set of solar panels mounted on top, may not look so futuristic.

But it certainly points the way.

Hand-built on a shoestring budget by a Central physics teacher and a team of students, the truck is one of a kind, a demonstration of how future transportation can be self-sustaining and pollution-free.

The truck is hydrogen-powered and creates its own fuel from solar energy and water, a technical feat that rivals the advanced technology being researched by major auto companies and universities. The four-cylinder engine is tuned to run on hydrogen, which is produced by a hand-built electrolysis system mounted in the bed.

Teacher Cory Waxman and his students took four years to build the experiment, believed to be the only self-sustaining hydrogen vehicle that uses a conventional internal-combustion engine.

"Nobody has ever made a car that runs on sunlight and water," Waxman said. "There are other cars that run on hydrogen, but they don't make their own fuel."

Built for less than $10,000, the project has caught the attention of experts in alternative-fuel research.

"Over the past three years of research in hydrogen, I've been more impressed with what they did than anything else I've seen around the world," said Scottsdale inventor Bryan Beaulieu, who is building a hydrogen-powered house in north Scottsdale. "With practically no resources, they are doing something everybody says it's going to take 20 years to do."

Related: Central High School (Phoenix, Arizona) E-Tech Club (Environmental Technologies Club)

posted by Kevin at 2:32 AM


Edwards/Cheney Debate

Believe me when I say that I have no intention of voting for Kerry/Edwards or Bush/Cheney. Last night's Vice Presidential debate, however, was an incredible spectacle to behold!

The Kerry/Edwards ticket represents mainstream, status quo criminality. The Bush/Cheney ticket, on the other hand, represents the knife's edge of a lunatic element of the elite.

I listened to the debate with my girlfriend, and she would be able to tell you: Cheney's comments left me in awe. I was expecting men in coats to drag Cheney off the stage with a big net.

Would you believe me if I told you that Cheney cited El Salvador as a model of democracy!!??

CHENEY: Twenty years ago we had a similar situation in El Salvador. We had—guerrilla insurgency controlled roughly a third of the country, 75,000 people dead, and we held free elections. I was there as an observer on behalf of the Congress.

The human drive for freedom, the determination of these people to vote, was unbelievable. And the terrorists would come in and shoot up polling places; as soon as they left, the voters would come back and get in line and would not be denied the right to vote.

And today El Salvador is a whale of a lot better because we held free elections.

The power of that concept is enormous. And it will apply in Afghanistan, and it will apply as well in Iraq.
WOW!

posted by Kevin at 1:39 AM

10/5/2004

Fahrenheit 9/11 Out On DVD :.

Number 1 on Amazon.com.

posted by Kevin at 1:35 PM


OIL HITS $51 ON LENGTHY U.S. SUPPLY OUTAGE :.

Oil prices hit a new record of more than $51 a barrel Tuesday as a prolonged U.S. production outage following Hurricane Ivan attracted fresh speculative buying.

U.S. light crude set a high of $51.24 a barrel in afternoon trading, while London Brent moved to a record $47.40 a barrel.

"Fair value is probably not too far from these levels," said Emanuele Ravano, head of portfolio management at PIMCO. "If you look at the longer term factors there is still clearly demand inelasticity and poor infrastructure."

High prices have had little effect on the fastest oil demand growth in a generation this year, while concern of potential supply disruptions as oil producers pump at full capacity has fed price gains.

Supply anxiety is building ahead of the northern hemisphere winter, when demand for heating oil surges. Inventories of crude and distillates in the world's top energy user, the United States, are running as much as 4 percent below last year.

posted by Kevin at 1:21 PM


Air Force Pursuing Antimatter Weapons :.

Rest assured, humanity will annihilate itself:

The U.S. Air Force is quietly spending millions of dollars investigating ways to use a radical power source -- antimatter, the eerie "mirror" of ordinary matter -- in future weapons.

The most powerful potential energy source presently thought to be available to humanity, antimatter is a term normally heard in science-fiction films and TV shows, whose heroes fly "antimatter-powered spaceships" and do battle with "antimatter guns."

But antimatter itself isn't fiction; it actually exists and has been intensively studied by physicists since the 1930s. In a sense, matter and antimatter are the yin and yang of reality: Every type of subatomic particle has its antimatter counterpart. But when matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other in an immense burst of energy.

During the Cold War, the Air Force funded numerous scientific studies of the basic physics of antimatter. With the knowledge gained, some Air Force insiders are beginning to think seriously about potential military uses -- for example, antimatter bombs small enough to hold in one's hand, and antimatter engines for 24/7 surveillance aircraft.

More cataclysmic possible uses include a new generation of super weapons -- either pure antimatter bombs or antimatter-triggered nuclear weapons; the former wouldn't emit radioactive fallout. Another possibility is antimatter- powered "electromagnetic pulse" weapons that could fry an enemy's electric power grid and communications networks, leaving him literally in the dark and unable to operate his society and armed forces.

posted by Kevin at 1:16 PM


U.S. Faces Complex Insurgency in Iraq :.

The key to fighting an enemy like the U.S. is to avoid, to the extent possible, formal, heirarchical organization:

The U.S. military is fighting the most complex guerrilla war in its history, with 140,000 American soldiers trained for conventional warfare flailing against a thicket of insurgent groups with competing aims and no supreme leader.

The three dozen or so guerrilla bands agree on little beyond forcing the Americans out of Iraq.

In other U.S. wars, the enemy was clear. In Vietnam, a visible leader - Ho Chi Minh - led a single army fighting to unify the country under socialism. But in Iraq, the disorganized insurgency has no single commander, no political wing and no dominant group.

U.S. troops can't settle on a single approach to fight groups whose goals and operations vary. And it's hard to sort combatants from civilians in a chaotic land where large parts of some communities support the insurgents and others are too afraid to risk their lives to help foreigners.

"It's more complex and challenging than any other insurgency the United States has fought," aid Bruce Hoffman, a RAND counterinsurgency expert who served as an adviser to the U.S.-led occupation administration.

posted by Kevin at 4:49 AM


Air Force Building Superconducting Generator to Power Microwave Weapons :.

Five megawatts of power from a generator the size of a beer keg!?

"Wright-Patterson... Wright-Patterson," I mumbled to myself for a few seconds. "Where have I heard references to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in the past?"

Then it hit me. Type Wright-Patterson UFO into Google. HAHA!

Force expects planes will be able to fire non-lethal microwave rays at enemy ground troops with the help of a new superconducting generator system developed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base after about 25 years of research.

Heavy, inefficient generators have been a hurdle to the development of airborne microwave weapons, which create a disabling burning sensation.

Microwaves could be used to control large groups of enemy fighters without killing them or disable electronics-dependent enemy weapons, said Philip Coyle, senior adviser for the Center for Defense Information.

The Air Force is preparing to award a $22 million contract to a private contractor to construct and demonstrate the new electrical generating system by 2009.

"We finally have the materials where we're ready to build this generator," Lt. Col. JoAnn Erno, chief of the power division of Air Force Research Laboratory's Propulsion Directorate, said Monday.

Microwaves high-powered electromagnetic beams that can rapidly heat water molecules and other directed-energy weapons could bring advantages to the battlefield in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops have had to deal with hostile but unarmed crowds as well as dangerous insurgents.

Aside from paralyzing potential attackers or noncombatants like a long-range stun gun, the weapons could disable the electronics of missiles and roadside bombs or even disable a vehicle in a high-speed chase, developers say. The weapons emit a pulse of energy and can destroy semiconductors with a surge of volts.

Erno said conventional generators, which have heavy copper coils, are large, heavy and less efficient in producing power than the superconducting generators. Planes carrying conventional generators would have to fly at low altitudes and be in danger of being shot down by small-arms fire, she said.

"We can't take those airborne," Erno said. "What we have to do from the Air Force side is to produce much smaller superconducting generators."

Powered by a turbine engine, the new generators are about the size of a small beer keg and designed to produce five megawatts of power.

The generators have lightweight metal foils coated with superconducting material that carry many times more current and are more efficient, making possible an electric power system strong enough for microwave weapons and light enough for airplanes.

Erno said the system would probably be used on cargo planes such as C-130s. With a superconducting generator, the system will weigh about half of its current 20,000 pounds, which is the equivalent of about eight Toyota Corollas.

"They've got something going there," said Ivan Oelrich, director of strategic security programs for the Federation of American Scientists, a private group dedicated to ending the arms race and avoiding the use of nuclear weapons. "What they're trying to do is doable."

However, Oelrich said that to operate a diesel engine to power the generator will require a lot of fuel, adding weight and cost to the operation.

"If you're going to use it continuously, then the fuel will be the big weight factor," he said. "To operate a thing like that requires a few tons of fuel per hour."

Oelrich also questioned whether the Air Force had considered a less efficient, but less expensive superconducting system. He said the proposed system could be expensive to maintain and might require multiple backup systems.

Coyle said it is not yet known how effective microwave weapons will be. For example, he said, it may take a lot of microwaves to disable just a few enemy weapons, and microwaves may not be effective in battling small numbers of insurgents in urban areas because the fighters hide and seek cover behind buildings.

posted by Kevin at 4:27 AM


Politics and Religion Spark Slap Fight :.

Fully nuts!

Police were called to quell a slap fight between two University of North Carolina students that began with an argument over who Jesus would vote for president.

James Robert Austin, 19, and Robert Brooks Rollins, 22, apparently let their passion get out of hand after watching the U.S. presidential debates Thursday night, the Durham Herald-Sun reported.

Austin reportedly slapped Rollins and Rollins slapped back -- and the slap fight escalated to where Austin fell on a concrete patio, hitting his head, police told the newspaper.

Rollins called an ambulance and Austin was taken to UNC Hospitals for examination, then released.

Both students decided to turn the other cheek and declined to press charges.

posted by Kevin at 4:01 AM

10/4/2004

Manifesting Madness in the Name of Jesus :.

Today, NPR ran a piece called Politics and the Prayer Group. This must be heard to be believed. I find it incredibly ironic that these "Christians" support presidential candidates who have both participated in Satanic rituals as part of their initiation into the Skull and Bones organization.

Tonight, I'll pray to God to save me from His followers.

posted by Kevin at 5:18 PM


REpower Completes Construction of a 5 MegaWatt Wind Turbine :.

With the installation of the rotor on Friday evening, all the essential assembly work on the REpower 5M had been successfully completed. The remaining work was finished off over the weekend, leaving the way clear for the electrical commissioning work. By the end of the year, the largest wind turbine in the world with a rated output of 5 megawatts and a rotor diameter of 126 metres, will be supplying the grid with enough power for around 4,500 average households.

posted by Kevin at 5:10 PM

10/3/2004

2004 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival :.

this is an audio post - click to play


I was up in San Francisco with some friends for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. I had a great time. I've never been to a concert in San Francisco, never mind a free, multistage, outdoor event. Golden Gate Park is a beautiful place.

I appreciated the cop tollerance of the flagrant disregard of alcohol laws. People were hauling their booze around by the cooler-load AND IT WAS ALLOWED! I kept having a gag-type reflex when I was walking with open containers right in front of cops. It seemed extremely weird to see cops showing no concern at all while standing in the middle of a public event with thousands of drunk people meandering about. I don't smoke pot, but I was shocked by the cop tolerance of pot heads at this thing! WOW. I know, it's San Francisco, but Jesus!!!! It REEEEEEEEKED like pot at that thing, pot was everywhere... the cops couldn't care less.

How about the music?

I liked Reeltime Travelers, John Prine and Old Crow Medicine Show most of all.

posted by Kevin at 1:53 PM

10/1/2004

Going Out of Town...

No updates until Monday.

posted by Kevin at 11:17 AM


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

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

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

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

posted by Kevin at 5:20 AM


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

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

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

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

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

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

posted by Kevin at 5:01 AM


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

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

So there:

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

posted by Kevin at 4:43 AM


Vitamin Supplements May Boost Cancer Risk :.

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

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

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

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

posted by Kevin at 3:24 AM


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

posted by Kevin at 2:36 AM


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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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