Police to Deploy Spy Drones in Texas
November 26th, 2007Via: Click2Houston:
Houston police started testing unmanned aircraft and the event was shrouded in secrecy, but it was captured on tape by Local 2 Investigates.
Neighbors in rural Waller County said they thought a top-secret military venture was under way among the farmland and ranches, some 70 miles northwest of Houston. KPRC Local 2 Investigates had four hidden cameras aimed at a row of mysterious black trucks. Satellite dishes and a swirling radar added to the neighbors’ suspense.
Then, cameras were rolling as an unmanned aircraft was launched into the sky and operated by remote control.
Houston police cars were surrounding the land with a roadblock in place to check each of the dignitaries arriving for the invitation-only event. The invitation spelled out, “NO MEDIA ALLOWED.”
HPD Chief Harold Hurtt attended, along with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and dozens of officers from various police agencies in the Houston area. Few of the guests would comment as they left the test site.
News Chopper 2 had a Local 2 Investigates team following the aircraft for more than one hour as it circled overhead. Its wings spanned 10 feet and it circled at an altitude of 1,500 feet. Operators from a private firm called Insitu, Inc. manned remote controls from inside the fleet of black trucks as the guests watched a live feed from the high-powered camera aboard the 40-pound aircraft.
“I wasn’t ready to publicize this,” Executive Assistant Police Chief Martha Montalvo said. She and other department leaders hastily organized a news conference when they realized Local 2 Investigates had captured the entire event on camera.
“We still haven’t even decided how we were going to go forward on this task, so it seemed premature to me to announce this to the media,” Montalvo said. “But since, obviously, the media found out about it, then I don’t see any reason why just not go forward with what we have so far.”
Montalvo told reporters the unmanned aircraft would be used for “mobility” or traffic issues, evacuations during storms, homeland security, search and rescue, and also “tactical.” She admitted that could include covert police actions and she said she was not ruling out someday using the drones for writing traffic tickets.
Research Credit: EP
Cryptogon Readers Contribute $100 and $50
November 26th, 2007DJ sent $100 and JR sent $50. Thank you.
CLUB OF ROME PLAN FOR EUROPEAN, MIDDLE EASTERN AND NORTH AFRICAN ENERGY NETWORK: TRANS-MEDITERRANEAN RENEWABLE ENERGY COOPERATION (TREC)
November 25th, 2007Of all the hate-to-say-I-told-you-sos on Cryptogon, this one probably takes the cake…
They—the elite, the people who run the world—have a Plan. And anyone who’s trying to convince you that the world is ending because we’re running out of energy is either ignorant of basic, observable, physical phenomena, or they’re in on the scam. It’s one or the other.
What’s the scam?
Look no further than the numbers, updated continuously throughout each trading day. As that stuff runs out, you, me, all of us are going to pay. And pay dearly. The corporations involved are going to lift our wallets, flip us upside down and shake loose any change that may have remained in our pockets. It’s a good, old fashioned shakedown.
But what comes after we’ve been fleeced to within an inch of our lives?
The cull. About 90% of the global population will be killed off. You know, to a more sustainable level. Got that, all you silly twits talking about fart taxes and Al Gore!
The fraud of energy scarcity is as obvious as the real problems with topsoil/erosion and strategic material depletion.
The emerging “clean, green” system is the elite’s answer to managing what’s left for Their almost exclusive benefit. That’s what “sustainable” actually means. We’re talking about nothing less than the world being transformed into a plantation inside a prison camp. It’ll be 1984 and Brave New World, rolled into one.
Think Blackwater USA mercenaries in solar powered hummers. Everyone microchipped. Tracked, watched, profiled, under surveillance 24 hours per day. “Green” Walmarts. Terminator robots. (Ok, so we’re nearly there, even if the terminator robots aren’t running in autonomous mode yet.)
The following search link lists dozens of past stories on Cryptogon about this emerging system: clean green fascism.
If you’re not familiar with the Club of Rome, you’ll want to do some reading on that organization. (Hint: Club of Rome is an old favorite for people who keep at least half a roll of Reynold’s Wrap around their heads at all times. In polite circles, though, it’s a respected think tank.) In short: Scarcity, doom, depopulate the planet and We’ll be in charge of what’s left.
“But Kevin,” you say, “They’re just doing what you’ve said has been possible all along. Isn’t that good?”
Look, I’m all for clean energy, but I’m not taking a chip, a vaccine, or a fart tax coupon book.
If you doubt what I’m saying, the thing to do will be to just watch what comes along with the mass deployment of the clean energy systems.
It’s not going to be good.
Via: Club of Rome DESERTEC: TREC Clean Power from Deserts:
The DESERTEC Concept
Satellite-based studies by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have shown that, using less than 0.3% of the entire desert areas of the MENA region, solar thermal power plants can generate enough electricity and desalinated seawater to supply current demands in EU-MENA, and anticipated increases in those demands in the future.
Harnessing the winds in Morocco and on land around the Red Sea would generate additional supplies of electricity. Solar and wind power can be distributed in MENA and transmitted via High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) transmission lines to Europe with transmission losses that would be no more than 10-15%. The Club of Rome and TREC are both pursuing this DESERTEC Concept: bringing technology and deserts into service for energy, water and climate security. Countries like Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia have already shown an interest in this kind of cooperation.
Mortgage Failures Could Create Nightmare
November 25th, 2007This is an Associated Press piece. It’s as mainstream as it gets.
Via: Yahoo / AP:
In the months ahead, millions of other adjustable-rate mortgages like Colombo’s will reset, giving them a higher interest rate as required by the loan agreements and leaving many homeowners unable to make their payments. Soaring mortgage default rates this year already have shaken major financial institutions and the fallout from more of them, some experts say, could spread from those already battered banks into the general economy.
The worst-case scenario is anyone’s guess, but some believe it could become very bad.
“We haven’t faced a downturn like this since the Depression,” said Bill Gross, chief investment officer of PIMCO, the world’s biggest bond fund. He’s not suggesting anything like those terrible times — but, as an expert on the global credit crisis, he speaks with authority.
“Its effect on consumption, its effect on future lending attitudes, could bring us close to the zero line in terms of economic growth,” he said. “It does keep me up at night.”
Some 2 million homeowners hold $600 billion of subprime adjustable-rate mortgage loans, known as ARMs, that are due to reset at higher amounts during the next eight months. Subprime loans are those made to people with poor credit. Not all these mortgages are in trouble, but homeowners who default or fall behind on payments could cause an economic shock of a type never seen before.
Some of the nation’s leading economic minds lay out a scenario that is frightening. Not only would the next wave of the mortgage crisis force people out of their homes, it might also spiral throughout the economy.
The already severe housing slump would be exacerbated by even more empty homes on the market, causing prices to plunge by up to 40 percent in once-hot real estate spots such as California, Nevada and Florida. Builders like Chicago’s Neumann Homes, which filed for bankruptcy protection this month, could go under. The top 10 global banks, which repackage loans into exotic securities such as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, could suffer far greater write-offs than the $75 billion already taken this year.
Massive job losses would curtail consumer spending that makes up two-thirds of the economy. The Labor Department estimates almost 100,000 financial services jobs related to credit and lending in the U.S. have already been lost, from local bank loan officers to traders dealing in mortgage-backed securities. Thousands of Americans who work in the housing industry could find themselves on the dole. And there’s no telling how that would affect car dealers, retailers and others dependent on consumer paychecks.
Based on historical models, zero growth in the U.S. gross domestic product would take the current unemployment rate to 6.4 percent. That would wipe out about 3 million jobs from the economy, according to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute.
…
Borrowers who took out loans in the first six months of this year are already falling behind on their payments faster than those who took out loans in 2006, according to a report from Arlington, Va.-based investment bank Friedman, Billings Ramsey. That’s making it even harder for would-be buyers to get new mortgages — a frightening prospect for home builders with projects going begging on the market, and for homeowners desperate to unload property to avoid defaulting on their loans.
Meanwhile, the number of U.S. homes in foreclosure is expected to keep soaring after more than doubling during the third quarter from a year earlier, to 446,726 homes nationwide, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc. That’s one foreclosure filing for every 196 households in the nation, a 34 percent jump from just three months earlier.
Such data suggests more Americans could lose their homes than ever before, and those in peril are people who never thought they’d welsh on a mortgage payment…
Australia: John Howard Finally Kicked to the Curb
November 24th, 2007Via: Bloomberg:
Kevin Rudd’s Labor Party won Australia’s election, ending John Howard’s 11-year rule after promising to tackle climate change, restore workers’ bargaining power and withdraw Australian troops from Iraq.
Labor won 83 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, gaining 23 seats from 2004, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp. projections. The Liberal-National coalition has 58 seats, with two independents and seven undecided, ABC said.
…
Howard, 68, said he is unlikely to retain his seat, becoming the first Australian leader to be voted out of parliament since 1929. He accepted responsibility for the defeat and anointed his deputy, Treasurer Peter Costello, as his successor.
Australia’s second-longest serving leader, Howard was one of the first allies of U.S. President George W. Bush to send troops to Iraq.
Soybeans: Highest in 34 Years
November 24th, 2007Via: Bloomberg:
Soybeans surged above $11 a bushel to the highest in 34 years as China increased purchases of dwindling U.S. supplies.
U.S. exporters reported sales of 1.81 million metric tons last week, up 39 percent from the previous week and the second straight high in the year that began Sept. 1, the Department of Agriculture said today in a report. Citigroup Global Markets projected sales of 900,000 tons to 1.1 million tons. China, the biggest importer, accounted for 66 percent of last week’s total.
Gold Gaps Up Into Weekend: Biggest Weekly Gain Since July 2006
November 24th, 2007WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Woh.
But… Hmm. Thin holiday volume…
Decent chance for an ascending triangle long play setting up on the daily interval… or is it a short squeeze??? We’re range bound again, roughly between $772 and $845. The weekly stochastic oscillator is still perilously high (mid 80s), from a long perspective. It’s going to take a serious grunt to break above $845.
Ahh, feels good not to be trading this.
Via: Bloomberg:
Gold jumped 3.3 percent, capping the biggest weekly gain since July 2006, as the dollar’s decline to a record against the euro and climbing energy costs sparked demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation.
The price of gold has surged 29 percent this year, and the dollar is down 10 percent to the lowest ever against a basket of six currencies, including the euro and the yen. Crude oil closed above $98 a barrel, and heating oil climbed to a record.
Nanosolar’s Breakthrough: Solar Now Cheaper than Coal
November 24th, 2007Via: Celsias:
Their mission: to deliver cost-efficient solar electricity. The Nanosolar company was founded in 2002 and is working to build the world’s largest solar cell factory in California and the world’s largest panel-assembly factory in Germany. They have successfully created a solar coating that is the most cost-efficient solar energy source ever. Their PowerSheet cells contrast the current solar technology systems by reducing the cost of production from $3 a watt to a mere 30 cents per watt. This makes, for the first time in history, solar power cheaper than burning coal.
…
The Nanosolar plant in San Jose, once in full production in 2008, will be capable of producing 430 megawatts per year. This is more than the combined total of every other solar manufacturer in the U.S.
More: Nanosolar
Related: Clean Energy and Turning What’s Left Into Trash
Did NSA Put a Secret Backdoor in New Encryption Standard?
November 24th, 2007Via: Wired:
Problems with Dual_EC_DRBG were first described in early 2006. The math is complicated, but the general point is that the random numbers it produces have a small bias. The problem isn’t large enough to make the algorithm unusable — and Appendix E of the NIST standard describes an optional work-around to avoid the issue — but it’s cause for concern. Cryptographers are a conservative bunch: We don’t like to use algorithms that have even a whiff of a problem.
But today there’s an even bigger stink brewing around Dual_EC_DRBG. In an informal presentation (.pdf) at the CRYPTO 2007 conference in August, Dan Shumow and Niels Ferguson showed that the algorithm contains a weakness that can only be described a backdoor.
This is how it works: There are a bunch of constants — fixed numbers — in the standard used to define the algorithm’s elliptic curve. These constants are listed in Appendix A of the NIST publication, but nowhere is it explained where they came from.
What Shumow and Ferguson showed is that these numbers have a relationship with a second, secret set of numbers that can act as a kind of skeleton key. If you know the secret numbers, you can predict the output of the random-number generator after collecting just 32 bytes of its output. To put that in real terms, you only need to monitor one TLS internet encryption connection in order to crack the security of that protocol. If you know the secret numbers, you can completely break any instantiation of Dual_EC_DRBG.
The researchers don’t know what the secret numbers are. But because of the way the algorithm works, the person who produced the constants might know; he had the mathematical opportunity to produce the constants and the secret numbers in tandem.
Of course, we have no way of knowing whether the NSA knows the secret numbers that break Dual_EC-DRBG. We have no way of knowing whether an NSA employee working on his own came up with the constants — and has the secret numbers. We don’t know if someone from NIST, or someone in the ANSI working group, has them. Maybe nobody does.
We don’t know where the constants came from in the first place. We only know that whoever came up with them could have the key to this backdoor. And we know there’s no way for NIST — or anyone else — to prove otherwise.
This is scary stuff indeed.
Research Credit: AJ
The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR
November 23rd, 2007The fascist plot to overthrow the U.S. Government in the 1930s is definitely one They’d rather you forgot about, or, better yet, never heard of in the first place. The first time that I was introduced to this information, I thought, “This can’t be true.”
In case you don’t want to read the book, or think that this is ancient history, search the Intertubes for: Smedley Butler Prescott Bush
Of course, the circle was completed a few decades later on November 22, 1963.
Via: Amazon.com:
The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR by Jules Archer
Most people will be shocked to learn that in 1933 a cabal of wealthy industrialists—in league with groups like the K.K.K. and the American Liberty League—planned to overthrow the U.S. government in a fascist coup. Their plan was to turn discontented veterans into American “brown shirts,†depose F.D.R., and stop the New Deal. They clandestinely asked Medal of Honor recipient and Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler to become the first American Caesar. He, though, was a true patriot and revealed the plot to journalists and to Congress.
