You need to be aware of a new weapon in our government's arsenal. Known as DIME, standing for Dense Inert Metal Explosives, these warheads have an incredibly compact killing radius. A strong tungsten warhead can punch through a foot-thick concrete wall to explode in a ball of killing energy that won't spread shrapnel further than about a 6 foot radius. It's designed to reduce collateral damage to people and buildings, excellent for fighting a war in civilian areas.
Israel is alleged to have used this against Hezbollah in Gaza. The United States has supposedly been using it in Iraq for some time now. A complex explosive warhead which can go through walls and kill an individual without harming a child across the room is an extremely marketable weapon.
It won't be long before it finds its way into the hands of law enforcement in the United States, just like night vision, stun guns, teflon-coated bullets, and flash bangs.
The problems with these weapons? The warheads disintegrate into a cloud of tungsten microfibers, known to cause cancer inside the human body. The microfibers are still going to penetrate the skin of anyone around, either through the explosion itself or through breathing or touching the dust. Once inside, they rapidly create cancer sites, as fast as depleted uranium. And because these fibers are microscopic, you can't get them out with surgery. Being caught near a blast, or passing where a blast has occurred within several years is a death sentence. It won't kill you right there while the cameras are rolling, or leave a body for the propaganda machine to hold up, but you'll die just the same in a few years.
Our soldiers are being exposed to it now. You may be exposed to it in a few years. Remember this post when you start hearing about it in the local news.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006
Defeating Face Recognition
Chicago is instituting a policy of cameras on every block. Well screw you, Mayor Daley. I don't want my life under the scrutiny of your corrupt and sinister thugs. While I may not be able to stop the cameras from going up, I can educate my fellow citizens on how to render them useless. It's just too bad that you're using my tax dollars to do this.
Cameras are part of one of Darpa's old projects .. HID technology, or "HumanId at a Distance". They advocate that it's used to pick known terrorists out of crowds in public spaces, but it's undoubtedly being used for more than that in our America of secret prisons and CIA-sponsored murders of American citizens.
Now keep in mind that most facial recognition systems require a reference photo to be cross-checked when the system scans your face. This would be something like a driver's license, credit card photo, or national ID photo. The technology basically renders your face into a computerized image of mapped "points" such as the dimensions of your chin, eyes, nose, etc. Then it translates those to numbers and does a quick search of all the numbers in its database (mapped to reference photos). It comes up with probability hits as to who you might be. It's suprisingly accurate when all the conditions are right (fresh photos, good lighting, etc.)
Methods for Foiling
Knowing now how it works, your next step is to use this knowledge to prevent it from reading your mapped points correctly.
1. Physically altering your appearance - This doesn't have to mean a big rubber Nixon mask. It can be as simple as mirrored sunglasses, wrapping a scarf around your face in cold weather, a bandage on the face, etc. These are relatively innocuous and won't attract a lot of attention. Additional countermeasures include wearing a mask or painting your face with stripes, but these I rule out as impractical when you're trying to avoid calling attention to yourself.
2. Altering the lighting - If the camera position is known, stay in shadow or turn your face away from it. Carry a cigarette or a cellphone and inconspicuously cover your face with your hand. A flashlight shined either at the camera or used to backlight your face also works, but will attract attention.
3. Good Prepartion - Many distinguishing marks occur in the reference photos and make it so that it's almost impossible to conceal your identity later on. Eyeglasses and facial hair play a prominent part in this. When posing for government photos, make sure you look as different in them as possible.
Some individuals have such a unique face that they simply are not able to avoid detection. Being alert to the presence of cameras and avoiding those locations is easy today, but will not be so by 2016 when almost all of the major cities are camera-promiscuous. In those situations it is necessary to inject as much noise in the system as possible. Move in large crowds, concealing yourself where possible behind other individuals. Use the landscape to your advantage. Don't walk through the normal 'channels' where public traffic is herded; instead take alternate routes in and out of public spaces.
Remember: Whether or not you use these methods today is up to you, but as a citizen it is your duty to know them. Our government is conceivably less benign today than it was in earlier years and is likely to continue its downhill slide under either party. Prepare for the future.
Cameras are part of one of Darpa's old projects .. HID technology, or "HumanId at a Distance". They advocate that it's used to pick known terrorists out of crowds in public spaces, but it's undoubtedly being used for more than that in our America of secret prisons and CIA-sponsored murders of American citizens.
Now keep in mind that most facial recognition systems require a reference photo to be cross-checked when the system scans your face. This would be something like a driver's license, credit card photo, or national ID photo. The technology basically renders your face into a computerized image of mapped "points" such as the dimensions of your chin, eyes, nose, etc. Then it translates those to numbers and does a quick search of all the numbers in its database (mapped to reference photos). It comes up with probability hits as to who you might be. It's suprisingly accurate when all the conditions are right (fresh photos, good lighting, etc.)
Methods for Foiling
Knowing now how it works, your next step is to use this knowledge to prevent it from reading your mapped points correctly.
1. Physically altering your appearance - This doesn't have to mean a big rubber Nixon mask. It can be as simple as mirrored sunglasses, wrapping a scarf around your face in cold weather, a bandage on the face, etc. These are relatively innocuous and won't attract a lot of attention. Additional countermeasures include wearing a mask or painting your face with stripes, but these I rule out as impractical when you're trying to avoid calling attention to yourself.
2. Altering the lighting - If the camera position is known, stay in shadow or turn your face away from it. Carry a cigarette or a cellphone and inconspicuously cover your face with your hand. A flashlight shined either at the camera or used to backlight your face also works, but will attract attention.
3. Good Prepartion - Many distinguishing marks occur in the reference photos and make it so that it's almost impossible to conceal your identity later on. Eyeglasses and facial hair play a prominent part in this. When posing for government photos, make sure you look as different in them as possible.
Some individuals have such a unique face that they simply are not able to avoid detection. Being alert to the presence of cameras and avoiding those locations is easy today, but will not be so by 2016 when almost all of the major cities are camera-promiscuous. In those situations it is necessary to inject as much noise in the system as possible. Move in large crowds, concealing yourself where possible behind other individuals. Use the landscape to your advantage. Don't walk through the normal 'channels' where public traffic is herded; instead take alternate routes in and out of public spaces.
Remember: Whether or not you use these methods today is up to you, but as a citizen it is your duty to know them. Our government is conceivably less benign today than it was in earlier years and is likely to continue its downhill slide under either party. Prepare for the future.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
United 93
This film about the passengers of flight 93 is really starting to bug me. Keep in mind the complete fiction of this. We not only do not know what happened on that flight, other than one guy on his cell phone told his wife they were about to do something, we also don’t really know what happened to that plane. There are still an extraordinary number of witnesses who claim to have seen military jets chasing it and launching missiles. We also know that the vice-president had issued the order to the military to shoot down any planes still in the air. We also know that numerous crash investigators describe the debris field as coming from a plane that broke up in the air.
So now there’s a movie about these heroic passengers who fought back against the terrorists. This is absolute propaganda at its worst. It’s highly likely that these passengers were killed by our own government as soon as it was suspected that United 93 was bound for the White House. Also keep in mind that these heroic passengers sat in their seats and did nothing while the stewardesses and flight crew were brutally murdered. If you can believe the quasi-fiction of Hollywood’s propaganda machine that they took over the plane, then they only did so after they realized it was their own lives in danger.
Learn to recognize propaganda, people, and stop thinking it’s something that only foreign governments put out.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Wake Up
Now the BATF is after components that can be MADE into weapons.
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20060608.htm
Wake up, people.
http://www.jpfo.org/alert20060608.htm
Wake up, people.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Literary Stylings of the Unabomber
Have you ever actually read the Unabomber's manifesto? Until recently I had not done so myself, but as part of my 'trust nothing' mentality, I decided to do so.
It's actually pretty amazing. I can easily draw comparisons (and see this work as a modern antecedent of) with Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and Thorsten Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class. Both Hobbes and Veblen are considered great thinkers, but why not Ted Kaczynski?
The man held a PHD from the University of Michigan in mathematics. He was faculty at Berkeley in California. Crazy? Possibly, but he was definitely not stupid. It took the FBI 17 years to track him down, and they wouldn't have succeeded at all had Ted's own brother not recognized some of his brother's writings and turned him in.
But let's look at some comparisons in the actual manifesto ...
Manifesto:
35. Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.
36. Nonattainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if nonattainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.
37. Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
Theory of the Leisure Class:
It has already been remarked that the term "leisure", as here used, does not connote indolence or quiescence. What it connotes is non-productive consumption of time. Time is consumed non-productively (1) from a sense of the unworthiness of productive work, and (2) as an evidence of pecuniary ability to afford a life of idleness. But the whole of the life of the gentleman of leisure is not spent before the eyes of the spectators who are to be impressed with that spectacle of honorific leisure which in the ideal scheme makes up his life. For some part of the time his life is perforce withdrawn from the public eye, and of this portion which is spent in private the gentleman of leisure should, for the sake of his good name, be able to give a convincing account. He should (44) find some means of putting in evidence the leisure that is not spent in the sight of the spectators. This can be done only indirectly, through the exhibition of some tangible, lasting results of the leisure so spent -- in a manner analogous to the familiar exhibition of tangible, lasting products of the labour performed for the gentleman of leisure by handicraftsmen and servants in his employ.
In other words, if all your basic needs are met, you've still got to have SOMETHING to do. In Veblen's world, it was the European aristocrats who squandered their time on hunting or dancing or other useless endeavors. In Kaczynski's world, it's the "leftists" who pursue the most meaningless causes (save the spotted owl, etc.) instead of working towards the loftier goal of fixing a broken society.
Kaczynski's words now echo in blogs and newspaper columns across the Western world. From the manifesto:
32. The problems of the leftist are indicative of the problems of our society as a whole. Low self-esteem, depressive tendencies and defeatism are not restricted to the left. Though they are especially noticeable in the left, they are widespread in our society. And today's society tries to socialize us to a greater extent than any previous society. We are even told by experts how to eat, how to exercise, how to make love, how to raise our kids and so forth.
How many times have you heard that complaint echoed? Or how about this one:
51.The breakdown of traditional values to some extent implies the breakdown of the bonds that hold together traditional small-scale social groups. The disintegration of small-scale social groups is also promoted by the fact that modern conditions often require or tempt individuals to move to new locations, separating themselves from their communities. Beyond that, a technological society HAS TO weaken family ties and local communities if it is to function efficiently. In modern society an individual's loyalty must be first to the system and only secondarily to a small-scale community, because if the internal loyalties of small-scale small-scale communities were stronger than loyalty to the system, such communities would pursue their own advantage at the expense of the system.
52. Suppose that a public official or a corporation executive appoints his cousin, his friend or his co-religionist to a position rather than appointing the person best qualified for the job. He has permitted personal loyalty to supersede his loyalty to the system, and that is "nepotism" or "discrimination," both of which are terrible sins in modern society. Would-be industrial societies that have done a poor job of subordinating personal or local loyalties to loyalty to the system are usually very inefficient. (Look at Latin America.) Thus an advanced industrial society can tolerate only those small-scale communities that are emasculated, tamed and made into tools of the system. [7]
I've had this same discussion with friends in restaurants. Kaczynski's words continue to ring true:
59. We divide human drives into three groups: (1) those drives that can be satisfied with minimal effort; (2) those that can be satisfied but only at the cost of serious effort; (3) those that cannot be adequately satisfied no matter how much effort one makes. The power process is the process of satisfying the drives of the second group. The more drives there are in the third group, the more there is frustration, anger, eventually defeatism, depression, etc.
60. In modern industrial society natural human drives tend to be pushed into the first and third groups, and the second group tends to consist increasingly of artificially created drives.
61. In primitive societies, physical necessities generally fall into group 2: They can be obtained, but only at the cost of serious effort. But modern society tends to guaranty the physical necessities to everyone [9] in exchange for only minimal effort, hence physical needs are pushed into group 1. (There may be disagreement about whether the effort needed to hold a job is "minimal"; but usually, in lower- to middle-level jobs, whatever effort is required is merely that of obedience. You sit or stand where you are told to sit or stand and do what you are told to do in the way you are told to do it. Seldom do you have to exert yourself seriously, and in any case you have hardly any autonomy in work, so that the need for the power process is not well served.)
62. Social needs, such as sex, love and status, often remain in group 2 in modern society, depending on the situation of the individual. [10] But, except for people who have a particularly strong drive for status, the effort required to fulfill the social drives is insufficient to satisfy adequately the need for the power process.
63. So certain artificial needs have been created that fall into group 2, hence serve the need for the power process. Advertising and marketing techniques have been developed that make many people feel they need things that their grandparents never desired or even dreamed of. It requires serious effort to earn enough money to satisfy these artificial needs, hence they fall into group 2. (But see paragraphs 80-82.) Modern man must satisfy his need for the power process largely through pursuit of the artificial needs created by the advertising and marketing industry [11], and through surrogate activities.
When the Unabomber was captured, the government spent a great deal of effort making him look like a crackpot. They described his lunatic lifestyle (living without electricity in a small cabin in the forest? CRAZY! Just like Thoreau) and then leaked the court-ordered psychiatric evaluations, which talked about deep levels of paranoia and sexual frustration. Well, the man was calling for the overthrow of an entire social structure overly dependent on technology, so he had a right to be paranoid. And as for sexual frustration ... he lived all alone in a cabin in the woods. Need I say more?
I won't go so far as to say that I admire the guy, because after all, his bombs injured or killed on 16 separate occasions. His victims ranged from unfortunate grad students to geneticists, to the California Forestry Association's president. He's now locked up in Colorado's supermax prison where he (presumably) doesn't have access to a typewriter, bomb-making materials, or the Internet.
However, his writings deserve more than a dismissal as the ravings of a madman. Time will tell, but the Unabomber Manifesto may go down in history, if the human race survives long enough to write its own history, as the most prescient and visionary document of our age.
It's actually pretty amazing. I can easily draw comparisons (and see this work as a modern antecedent of) with Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan and Thorsten Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class. Both Hobbes and Veblen are considered great thinkers, but why not Ted Kaczynski?
The man held a PHD from the University of Michigan in mathematics. He was faculty at Berkeley in California. Crazy? Possibly, but he was definitely not stupid. It took the FBI 17 years to track him down, and they wouldn't have succeeded at all had Ted's own brother not recognized some of his brother's writings and turned him in.
But let's look at some comparisons in the actual manifesto ...
Manifesto:
35. Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.
36. Nonattainment of important goals results in death if the goals are physical necessities, and in frustration if nonattainment of the goals is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.
37. Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human being needs goals whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
Theory of the Leisure Class:
It has already been remarked that the term "leisure", as here used, does not connote indolence or quiescence. What it connotes is non-productive consumption of time. Time is consumed non-productively (1) from a sense of the unworthiness of productive work, and (2) as an evidence of pecuniary ability to afford a life of idleness. But the whole of the life of the gentleman of leisure is not spent before the eyes of the spectators who are to be impressed with that spectacle of honorific leisure which in the ideal scheme makes up his life. For some part of the time his life is perforce withdrawn from the public eye, and of this portion which is spent in private the gentleman of leisure should, for the sake of his good name, be able to give a convincing account. He should (44) find some means of putting in evidence the leisure that is not spent in the sight of the spectators. This can be done only indirectly, through the exhibition of some tangible, lasting results of the leisure so spent -- in a manner analogous to the familiar exhibition of tangible, lasting products of the labour performed for the gentleman of leisure by handicraftsmen and servants in his employ.
In other words, if all your basic needs are met, you've still got to have SOMETHING to do. In Veblen's world, it was the European aristocrats who squandered their time on hunting or dancing or other useless endeavors. In Kaczynski's world, it's the "leftists" who pursue the most meaningless causes (save the spotted owl, etc.) instead of working towards the loftier goal of fixing a broken society.
Kaczynski's words now echo in blogs and newspaper columns across the Western world. From the manifesto:
32. The problems of the leftist are indicative of the problems of our society as a whole. Low self-esteem, depressive tendencies and defeatism are not restricted to the left. Though they are especially noticeable in the left, they are widespread in our society. And today's society tries to socialize us to a greater extent than any previous society. We are even told by experts how to eat, how to exercise, how to make love, how to raise our kids and so forth.
How many times have you heard that complaint echoed? Or how about this one:
51.The breakdown of traditional values to some extent implies the breakdown of the bonds that hold together traditional small-scale social groups. The disintegration of small-scale social groups is also promoted by the fact that modern conditions often require or tempt individuals to move to new locations, separating themselves from their communities. Beyond that, a technological society HAS TO weaken family ties and local communities if it is to function efficiently. In modern society an individual's loyalty must be first to the system and only secondarily to a small-scale community, because if the internal loyalties of small-scale small-scale communities were stronger than loyalty to the system, such communities would pursue their own advantage at the expense of the system.
52. Suppose that a public official or a corporation executive appoints his cousin, his friend or his co-religionist to a position rather than appointing the person best qualified for the job. He has permitted personal loyalty to supersede his loyalty to the system, and that is "nepotism" or "discrimination," both of which are terrible sins in modern society. Would-be industrial societies that have done a poor job of subordinating personal or local loyalties to loyalty to the system are usually very inefficient. (Look at Latin America.) Thus an advanced industrial society can tolerate only those small-scale communities that are emasculated, tamed and made into tools of the system. [7]
I've had this same discussion with friends in restaurants. Kaczynski's words continue to ring true:
59. We divide human drives into three groups: (1) those drives that can be satisfied with minimal effort; (2) those that can be satisfied but only at the cost of serious effort; (3) those that cannot be adequately satisfied no matter how much effort one makes. The power process is the process of satisfying the drives of the second group. The more drives there are in the third group, the more there is frustration, anger, eventually defeatism, depression, etc.
60. In modern industrial society natural human drives tend to be pushed into the first and third groups, and the second group tends to consist increasingly of artificially created drives.
61. In primitive societies, physical necessities generally fall into group 2: They can be obtained, but only at the cost of serious effort. But modern society tends to guaranty the physical necessities to everyone [9] in exchange for only minimal effort, hence physical needs are pushed into group 1. (There may be disagreement about whether the effort needed to hold a job is "minimal"; but usually, in lower- to middle-level jobs, whatever effort is required is merely that of obedience. You sit or stand where you are told to sit or stand and do what you are told to do in the way you are told to do it. Seldom do you have to exert yourself seriously, and in any case you have hardly any autonomy in work, so that the need for the power process is not well served.)
62. Social needs, such as sex, love and status, often remain in group 2 in modern society, depending on the situation of the individual. [10] But, except for people who have a particularly strong drive for status, the effort required to fulfill the social drives is insufficient to satisfy adequately the need for the power process.
63. So certain artificial needs have been created that fall into group 2, hence serve the need for the power process. Advertising and marketing techniques have been developed that make many people feel they need things that their grandparents never desired or even dreamed of. It requires serious effort to earn enough money to satisfy these artificial needs, hence they fall into group 2. (But see paragraphs 80-82.) Modern man must satisfy his need for the power process largely through pursuit of the artificial needs created by the advertising and marketing industry [11], and through surrogate activities.
When the Unabomber was captured, the government spent a great deal of effort making him look like a crackpot. They described his lunatic lifestyle (living without electricity in a small cabin in the forest? CRAZY! Just like Thoreau) and then leaked the court-ordered psychiatric evaluations, which talked about deep levels of paranoia and sexual frustration. Well, the man was calling for the overthrow of an entire social structure overly dependent on technology, so he had a right to be paranoid. And as for sexual frustration ... he lived all alone in a cabin in the woods. Need I say more?
I won't go so far as to say that I admire the guy, because after all, his bombs injured or killed on 16 separate occasions. His victims ranged from unfortunate grad students to geneticists, to the California Forestry Association's president. He's now locked up in Colorado's supermax prison where he (presumably) doesn't have access to a typewriter, bomb-making materials, or the Internet.
However, his writings deserve more than a dismissal as the ravings of a madman. Time will tell, but the Unabomber Manifesto may go down in history, if the human race survives long enough to write its own history, as the most prescient and visionary document of our age.
Life in Crazy Town
Well, Cynthia McKinney, you had a good run. Crazy bitch that you are. I don't know what those Georgians were thinking when they elected you, but I'm glad they finally wised up. You represent the worst of politicans, but ironically, your attitudes were just a little more up front than your colleagues. Oh, I'm sure most of them share your belief that as a politician you can get away with whatever you want. You've been in there since 1993, entrenched, where you've weighed in on the loftiest ideals of our Republic such as slave reparations, Tupac Shakur and renaming buildings after Frank Church, an obscure Democrat who once ran against Jimmy Carter in the Democratic primaries.
But wait ... as I look through the bills she introduced, I start to see a bigger picture. She also sponsored:
HR 5738 Corporate Welfare Reduction and Job Preservation Act of 2006 - A bill aimed at decreasing tax benefits and handouts to companies who lay off workers. (dying in committee)
HR 5377 and 5376 - Two bills aimed at multinational corporations, requiring them to implement posted "codes of conduct" for their foreign subsidiaries and requiring full transparancy in all of their overseas operations. (also dying in committee)
She stood alone on these. Couldn't find a co-sponsor, which doesn't surprise me. How many honest men do you think there are in Washington?
And here's my personal favorite ...
H. Con. Res 274 - Reaffirming the continued importance and applicability of the Posse Comitatus Act - Whoa! At a time when all the other politicians are lining up and bending over for George Bush and his band of war criminals, giving them increasing war powers and means under the Patriot Act, this lady actually called for a reaffirmation of Posse Comitatus? Good job!
So now it's starting to look like Rep. McKinney posed a serious threat to the multinational corporations who control our government. I'm beginning to see why they used the media to blast her when she made an ass out of herself in public, and I'm starting to lament the fact that other more polished politicans have moved in to take her spot.
You know our system has suffered a serious malfunction when you more closely identify with the 'crazy' politicans.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Tomorrow's Police Force
I have been a little negligent on posting in this blog. In fact, I haven't really put a lot of thought of what I wanted to do here. However, I'm going to keep it and keep posting, even if I wander off theme from time to time. Here's one of my current lines of thought ...
Ex-military have always made up the bulk of our police forces. State troopers, local cops, FBI agents, etc. all fill their ranks from the newly-discharged. They even get preferential treatment in the recruitment process, gaining additional points due to veteran status.
Look at the rapes, murders, killings, and other crimes being committed by our soldiers in Iraq right now. Now while I'm not 100% sure of the causes of these atrocities, on a scale not seen since Vietnam, I do know one thing ... these soldiers are tomorrow's police force. They'll be patrolling the streets here in the United States in the next few years. Does that frighten you? It should. They've tortured prisoners, raped and murdered entire families, and spread chaos and wanton violence across Iraq.
How are we to protect ourselves when they come home and get a gun and a badge?
Ex-military have always made up the bulk of our police forces. State troopers, local cops, FBI agents, etc. all fill their ranks from the newly-discharged. They even get preferential treatment in the recruitment process, gaining additional points due to veteran status.
Look at the rapes, murders, killings, and other crimes being committed by our soldiers in Iraq right now. Now while I'm not 100% sure of the causes of these atrocities, on a scale not seen since Vietnam, I do know one thing ... these soldiers are tomorrow's police force. They'll be patrolling the streets here in the United States in the next few years. Does that frighten you? It should. They've tortured prisoners, raped and murdered entire families, and spread chaos and wanton violence across Iraq.
How are we to protect ourselves when they come home and get a gun and a badge?
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