Combat Air Patrols Over U.S. Will be Grounded on September 14th in Wake of Nuke Flap
September 6th, 2007Via: CNN:
Lt. Col. Ed Thomas said that while the military does not publicly discuss nuclear weapons procedures, in this case the Air Force decided to acknowledge the incident in order to reassure the public.
“The public was never in any danger,” Thomas said. But officials also said the incident was a major breach of security rules surrounding nuclear weapons. One Air Force official said that he could not recall anything similar happening. The Air Force announced that all flights of fighters and bombers in the United States will be halted on Sept. 14 to allow for a review of procedures. –From Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr
Record Drop in Pending Home Sales
September 5th, 2007Via: CNN:
The meltdown in the mortgage market caused the biggest drop on record in July for pending home sales, taking the index down to the lowest level since the month that included the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
The National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index, which measures contracts to buy existing homes, fell 12.2 percent to a reading of 89.9. It the second lowest reading on record for the seven-year old index, trailing only the 89.8 reading in September 2001.
The biggest drop on record for pending home sales is likely to put more downward pressure on home prices.
“There’s bad reports and then there’s truly awful ones. This is clearly the latter,” said Mike Larson, real estate analyst for independent research firm Weiss Research. “Even I’m shocked by a 12 percent decline.”
Milestone in Magnetic Cooling
September 5th, 2007Danish researchers are developing a silent, very low power refrigeration technology that uses magnets.
Via: Physorg:
The first milestone in magnetic cooling has been achieved. Between 5 and 10 degrees of cooling – this was the success criteria for the first milestone in a project involving magnetic cooling at Risø National Laboratory – Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
And the figure is currently at 8.7°C – this means that a refrigerator at room temperature (20°C) can be cooled to almost 11°C. Of course, this is not quite enough to keep the milk cold, but the project’s test setup also has only the one objective of conducting research in different materials, varying operating conditions and the strength of the magnetic field.
“The setup is not the largest of its type, but the most important thing is that it ’s easy to exchange parts in the machine. With the knowledge that we gain along the way, we will ultimately be able to build the very best magnetic cooling system,†explains Christian Bahl, a postdoctoral student attached to the project for one year.
How is a magnetic field used for cooling?
Magnetic cooling technology exploits the fact that when a magnetic material, in this case the element gadolinium, is magnetised, heat is produced as a by-product of entropy. The principle of entropy is that there will always be a constant amount of order/disorder in a substance. When the magnet puts the substance in “orderâ€, it has to get rid of the excess disorder – and this becomes heat. Conversely, when the magnetic field is again removed, the substance becomes cold.
The heat is transferred to a fluid that is pumped back and forth past the substance inside a cylinder. The end that becomes cold will be located inside the refrigerator and the warm end will be outside.
Did 22 SDI Researchers Really ALL Commit Suicide?
September 5th, 2007Glad to see this one making the rounds again.
Via: fiu.edu:
With his death, Beckham’s name was added to a growing list of British scientists who’ve died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances since 1982. Each was a skilled expert in computers, and each was working on a highly classified project for the American Star Wars program. None had any apparent motive for killing himself.
The British government contends that the deaths are all a matter of coincidence. The British press blames stress. Others allude to an ongoing fraud investigation involving the nation’s leading defense contractor. Relatives left behind don’t know what to think.
Related: Dead Microbiologists
“State Police Intelligence Units on Steroids”
September 5th, 2007Via: My San Antonio:
The Congressional Research Service earlier this summer prepared a report to Congress on anti-terrorism efforts at state law enforcement “fusion centers,” including the one run by DPS. A focus of the report was on computer systems such as TDEx used by the fusion centers to connect the dots in criminal activity.
The report said such computers represent “state police intelligence units on steroids” and said they take a more “proactive approach to law enforcement.” It noted a variety of terrorist plots that had been foiled by interagency cooperation.
But the report also said protecting civil liberties may be a major problem with such intelligence gathering. It quoted National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell as saying, “The intelligence community has an obligation to better identify and counter threats to Americans while still safeguarding their privacy. The task is inherently a difficult one.”
Cesinger, Perry’s spokeswoman, said the governor is not concerned about potential misuse of the state databases because he believes law enforcement will use it properly.
Research Credit: Pookie
Markets Brace for Seismic September
September 4th, 2007Via: New York Post:
The Labor Day weekend is over, the kids are back in school and Wall Street traders have returned to their desks, bracing themselves for a bumpy ride.
But this year investors shouldn’t count on the “Santa Claus rally” to rescue them from the tumult created by the subprime market implosion.
” People talk a lot about October, because that’s when the big crashes – 1929, 1987 – have happened, but actually it’s September that is usually the worst month of the year for stock indexes,” said Tobias Levkovich, U.S. equity strategist at Citigroup.
This September promises to be extraordinarily interesting. Next week, investors will get the first signals of how badly major financial services firms have been hit by the subprime market’s collapse and the credit market fallout.
A week later, on Sept. 18, the Federal Reserve’s policy makers meet to discuss whether the credit market carnage has damaged the economy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has made it clear that he will act promptly to slash rates at the first hint that this is occurring, and there is less chance of the market getting the jitters if the rate cut follows a regularly scheduled meeting.
Even if investors emerge unscathed from September, October has more perils. Hedge funds will have reported at the end of the third quarter and at least some of those funds will permit investors to sell their holdings.
The subsequent forced sales of hedge fund holdings could further rattle markets.”
“There is a huge unknown risk that is going to have to work its way through the market, and that is going to take months,” warned Stephen Wood, senior portfolio strategist at the Russell Investment Group.
“We should expect to see financial stress of the kind that we haven’t seen since” the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, Wood said.
California Senate Blocks Mandatory ID Implants in Employees
September 4th, 2007Oh, thank you, Master.
Via: Los Angeles Times:
Tackling a dilemma right out of a science fiction novel, the state Senate passed legislation Thursday that would bar employers from requiring workers to have identification devices implanted under their skin.
State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) proposed the measure after at least one company began marketing radio frequency identification devices for use in humans.
The devices, as small as a grain of rice, can be used by employers to identify workers. A scanner passing over a body part implanted with one can instantly identify the person.
“RFID is a minor miracle, with all sorts of good uses,” Simitian said. “But we shouldn’t condone forced ‘tagging’ of humans. It’s the ultimate invasion of privacy.”
Simitian said he fears that the devices could be compromised by persons with unauthorized scanners, facilitating identity theft and improper tracking and surveillance.
The bill has been approved by the state Assembly and now goes to the governor.
Nine senators opposed the measure, including Bob Margett (R-Arcadia), who said it is premature to legislate technology that has not yet proved to be a problem. “It sounded like it was a solution looking for a problem,” Margett said. “It didn’t seem like it was necessary.”
One company, VeriChip, has been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration to sell implanted identification devices, and about 2,000 people have had them implanted, Simitian said. A representative of the firm did not return calls seeking comment Thursday.
CityWatcher.com, a Cincinnati video surveillance company, has required employees who work in its secure data center to have a microchip implanted in an arm.
Similar technology has been used for years to help identify lost pets.
Water Cannons, City Lockdown: Welcome to APEC
September 4th, 2007Via: Stuff:
The security fence is in place. The warning systems are installed. The water cannon is loaded.
Sydney is braced for Apec, for better or worse.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard extolled the benefits of Apec week with his now-customary address via the internet, on YouTube, as 20 world leaders prepare to descend on a city that is expected to grind to halt to traffic by Friday, a public holiday for lucky workers.
Reading their helpful Sydney Morning Herald four-page Apec survival guide, commuters were warned of major traffic delays.
But around the CBD there was little disruption on a warm spring Monday morning.
The 5km perimeter fence around the inner city, standing an imposing 2.8m high, caused intrigue as much as anything as Sydneysiders went about their business.
Police gathered in groups on street corners and at the entrance to train stations, helicopters buzzed overhead, while police cars were dotted around but hardly forced into action.
A bemused German tourist had the distinction of being the first to press police into action when he was detained briefly for taking a cellphone photo of the security fence.
The Daily Telegraph captured his confusion as he sat on the pavement, released with a warning after being told to delete the offending photos. Anyone who even looks like a potential protester or organiser, possibly looking for “weak points” in the fence, is apparently not to be encouraged.
It starts to get interesting, or nightmarish, today when US President George Bush rumbles into town…
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions and Sign Up for Hosting with Blue Host
September 4th, 2007JB sent $50 and JG set $10. Also, the owners of Salon Intuitions and Dialup Land signed up for hosting with Blue Host via Cryptogon. I will receive a $130 commission payment from BlueHost as a result of these signups.
Thanks to all of you for getting September off to such a great start.
Asymmetric Warfare: Causing Incredible Economic Damage by Simply Smashing Machines
September 4th, 2007In 1996, when I suggested to a crusty, old professor of mine that crude, physical attacks on electricity and communications infrastructures could cause economic damage on par with conventional military attacks, but at a fraction of the cost, both in terms of money and manpower required, he chuckled.
I wrote the term paper anyway. The professor gave me an ‘A’ and asked if it would be ok if he showed my paper to “some people.” He wasn’t smiling. He was matter of fact about it. He looked deeply concerned. I knew this guy was an old time spook and I didn’t care what he did with the paper. I didn’t ask and he didn’t say where the paper went, but I had a good idea of where it wound up. Even back then, the nature of undefended critical infrastructure was absolutely clear to anyone who bothered to look. I can’t release that 1996 paper, even now, because it would piss off the wrong people.
In 2002, I wrote an informal essay with a similar theme, minus the operational detail. In short: If war is the order of the day, an opponent could physically attack the undefended data circuits that connect “critical” systems. If chaos is desired, as a force multiplier, the opponent could attack the power grid as well. The most interesting part of this argument would be a discussion of whether the macroeconomic ponzi scheme (global economy) would collapse in hours, or days. That it is possible for a small team—armed with nothing more than public information and shovels—to do it is not in question.
I really hate not being able to talk about this in more detail, but even talking about techniques that threaten the movement of money makes Them nervous. You can wave your stupid “Peace” sign until you’re blue in the face, but breathe a word of anything that actually threatens this horror show and you’ll have an unpleasant encounter with elements of the national security state. Guaranteed. Doubt it? Look who came knocking on Sean Gorman’s door.
I’ve attempted to make this as simple as possible, but still, to the lay person, this all might sound like a bunch of nonsense.
I think, however, that I’ve found a story that will make the point clear to just about anyone.
In a fit of rage, a Home Depot customer caused $10,000 worth of damage to an automated checkout system with a single blow from a pry bar.
I’m not going to go much further with this, but here’s the point: If “the terrorists” were really serious, the world outside your window would look very different than it does right now. No collapsing buildings necessary. No nuclear, biological or chemical weapons necessary. No hostages, ski masks or car bombs necessary. Knowing where to dig and what to cut is all that it would take.
This information is available to anyone who knows what to type into Google.
Note: Comments that contain operational details will be deleted.
Via: Seattle Post Intelligencer:
Well, let’s look at it this way: At least, this guy wasn’t buying a blowtorch.
But that age-old adage — that patience is a virtue — somehow slipped the mind of a man shopping at The Home Depot on Utah Avenue South in Seattle on Thursday.
Around 9 p.m., the man was in line at a self-service checkout stand, ready to buy a pry bar and a hacksaw, according to a Seattle police report.
But, as a manager told an officer, the man accidentally hit the button for Spanish on the computer screen.
That was the tipping point for this consumer.
He became “frustrated that the machine was speaking Spanish,” the police report says.
So, instead of asking for help, he let loose a blow with the pry bar and shattered the computer. He ran from the store and made a beeline to some nearby railroad tracks, the report said.
A Seattle police officer searched for the man, but didn’t find him.
The manager believes he caused about $10,000 in damage. He left the pry bar in his shopping cart.
Related: The Coming Urban Terror
