Acute economic crisis may cure the nation's chronic materialism
David Lazarus, Consumer Confidential October 26, 2008
EXCERPT
"Our whole economy is designed to convince people that they want more," said David Colander, an economics professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. "Nobody is asking the big question: How much of a consumer society do we really want to be?"
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus26-2008oct26,0,1269281.column
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Pair of quakes strike off Northern Calif. coast
The Associated Press - 45 minutes agoEUREKA, Calif. (AP) - A pair of minor-to-moderate offshore earthquakes have struck the northern California coast, but there are no reports of any damage or injury.
One moderate quake, one light quake hit California Reuters
Second small earthquake strikes near Morgan Hill San Jose Mercury News
The Associated Press - 45 minutes agoEUREKA, Calif. (AP) - A pair of minor-to-moderate offshore earthquakes have struck the northern California coast, but there are no reports of any damage or injury.
One moderate quake, one light quake hit California Reuters
Second small earthquake strikes near Morgan Hill San Jose Mercury News
And now the Manchurian microchip
Email from Joe D. Long
U.S.A.
Looks like the Chinese have finally broken out of their their walls and into ours... So much for political relations with China... Just a matter of time before they make their move on America, and really take her over...
It's coming folks, in some form or fashion, just a matter of time...
joe~
_________________________
And now the Manchurian microchip
Robert Eringer
http://cryptome.org/manchu-chip.htm
October 18, 2008 7:13 AM
The geniuses at Homeland Security who brought you hare-brained procedures at airports (which inconvenience travelers without snagging terrorists) have decreed that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This means The Investigator -- at the risk of
compromising national insecurities -- would be remiss not to make you aware of the hottest topic in U.S. counterintelligence circles: rogue microchips. This threat emanates from China (PRC) -- and it is hugely significant.
The myth: Chinese intelligence services have concealed a microchip in every computer everywhere, programmed to "call home" if and when activated.
The reality: It may actually be true.
All computers on the market today -- be they Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Apple or especially IBM -- are assembled with components manufactured inside the PRC. Each component produced by the Chinese, according to a reliable source within the intelligence community, is secretly equipped with a hidden microchip that can be activated any time by China's military intelligence services, the PLA.
"It is there, deep inside your computer, if they decide to call it up," the security chief of a multinational corporation told The Investigator. "It is capable of providing Chinese intelligence with everything stored on your system -- on everyone's system -- from e-mail to documents. I call it Call Home Technology. It doesn't mean to say they're sucking data from everyone's computer today, it means the Chinese think ahead -- and they now have the potential to do it
when it suits their purposes."
Discussed theoretically in high-tech security circles as "Trojan Horse on a Chip" or "The Manchurian Chip," Call Home Technology came to light after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a security program in December 2007 called Trust in
Integrated Circuits. DARPA awarded almost $25 million in contracts to six companies and university research labs to test foreign-made microchips for hardware Trojans, back doors and kill switches -- techie-speak for bugs and gremlins -- with a view toward microchip verification.
Raytheon, a defense contractor, was granted almost half of these funds for hardware and software testing.
Its findings, which are classified, have apparently sent shockwaves through the counter intelligence community.
"It is the hottest topic concerning the FBI and the Pentagon," a retired intelligence official told The Investigator. "They don't know quite what to do about it. The Chinese have even been able to hack into the computer system that handles our Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system."
Another senior intelligence source told The Investigator, "Our military is aware of this and has had to take some protective measures. The problem includes defective chips that don't reach
military specs -- as well as probable Trojans."
A little context: In 2005 the Lenovo Group in China paid $1.75 billion for IBM's PC unit, even though that unit had lost $965 million the previous four years. Three congressmen, including the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, tried to block this sale because of national security concerns, to no avail. (The PRC embassy in Washington, D.C., maintains a large lobbying presence to influence congressmen and their staffs through direct contact.)
In June 2007, a Pentagon computer network utilized by the U.S. defense secretary's office was hacked into -- and traced directly back to the Chinese PLA.
A report presented to Congress late last year characterized PRC espionage as "the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies." Almost simultaneously, Jonathan Evans, director-general of MI5, Britain's domestic security and counterintelligence service, sent a confidential letter to CEOs and security chiefs at 300 UK companies to warn that they were under attack by "Chinese state organizations" whose purpose, said Mr. Evans, was to defeat their computer security systems and steal confidential commercial information.
The Chinese had specifically targeted Rolls-Royce and Shell Oil.
The key to unlocking computer secrets through rogue microchips is uncovering (or stealing) source codes, without which such microchips would be useless. This is why Chinese espionage is so heavily focused upon the U.S. computer industry.
Four main computer operating systems exist. Two of them, Unix and Linux, utilize open-source codes. Apple's operating system is Unix-based.
Which leaves only Microsoft as the source code worth cracking. But in early 2004, Microsoft announced that its security had been breached and that its source code was "lost or stolen."
"As technology evolves, each new program has a new source code," a computer forensics expert told The Investigator. "So the Chinese would need ongoing access to new Microsoft source codes for maintaining their ability to activate any microchips they may have installed, along with the expertise to utilize new hardware technology."
No surprise then that the FBI expends much of its counterintelligence resources these days on Chinese high-tech espionage within the United States. Timothy Bereznay, while still serving as assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, told USA Today, "Foreign collectors don't wait until something is classified -- they're targeting it at the research and development stage." Mr. Bereznay now heads Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems division.
The PRC's intelligence services use tourists, exchange students and trade show attendees to gather strategic data, mostly from open sources. They have also created over 3,500 front companies in the United States -- including several based in Palo Alto to focus on computer technology.
Back in 2005, when the Chinese espionage problem was thought to be focused on military technology, then-FBI counterintelligence operations chief Dave Szady said, "I think the problem is huge, and it's something we're just getting our arms around." Little did he know just how huge, as it currently applies to computer network security.
The FBI is reported to have arrested more than 25 Chinese nationals and Chinese-Americans on suspicion of conspiracy to commit espionage between 2004 and 2006. The Investigator endeavored to update this figure, but was told by FBI spokesman William Carter, "We do not track cases by ethnicity."
Excuse us for asking. We may be losing secrets, but at least the dignity of our political correctness remains intact.
Oh, and Homeland Security snagged comic icon Jerry Lewis, 82, trying to board a plane in Las Vegas with a gun -- no joke.
If you have a story idea for The Investigator, contact him at reringer@.... State if your query is confidential.
--
_____________________________
YAHSHUAH is the sole expression of the glory of Elohim, the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine, and HE is the perfect imprint and very image of Elohim's nature. Heb 1:3a
Joe D. Long
U.S.A.
Looks like the Chinese have finally broken out of their their walls and into ours... So much for political relations with China... Just a matter of time before they make their move on America, and really take her over...
It's coming folks, in some form or fashion, just a matter of time...
joe~
_________________________
And now the Manchurian microchip
Robert Eringer
http://cryptome.org/manchu-chip.htm
October 18, 2008 7:13 AM
The geniuses at Homeland Security who brought you hare-brained procedures at airports (which inconvenience travelers without snagging terrorists) have decreed that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This means The Investigator -- at the risk of
compromising national insecurities -- would be remiss not to make you aware of the hottest topic in U.S. counterintelligence circles: rogue microchips. This threat emanates from China (PRC) -- and it is hugely significant.
The myth: Chinese intelligence services have concealed a microchip in every computer everywhere, programmed to "call home" if and when activated.
The reality: It may actually be true.
All computers on the market today -- be they Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Apple or especially IBM -- are assembled with components manufactured inside the PRC. Each component produced by the Chinese, according to a reliable source within the intelligence community, is secretly equipped with a hidden microchip that can be activated any time by China's military intelligence services, the PLA.
"It is there, deep inside your computer, if they decide to call it up," the security chief of a multinational corporation told The Investigator. "It is capable of providing Chinese intelligence with everything stored on your system -- on everyone's system -- from e-mail to documents. I call it Call Home Technology. It doesn't mean to say they're sucking data from everyone's computer today, it means the Chinese think ahead -- and they now have the potential to do it
when it suits their purposes."
Discussed theoretically in high-tech security circles as "Trojan Horse on a Chip" or "The Manchurian Chip," Call Home Technology came to light after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a security program in December 2007 called Trust in
Integrated Circuits. DARPA awarded almost $25 million in contracts to six companies and university research labs to test foreign-made microchips for hardware Trojans, back doors and kill switches -- techie-speak for bugs and gremlins -- with a view toward microchip verification.
Raytheon, a defense contractor, was granted almost half of these funds for hardware and software testing.
Its findings, which are classified, have apparently sent shockwaves through the counter intelligence community.
"It is the hottest topic concerning the FBI and the Pentagon," a retired intelligence official told The Investigator. "They don't know quite what to do about it. The Chinese have even been able to hack into the computer system that handles our Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system."
Another senior intelligence source told The Investigator, "Our military is aware of this and has had to take some protective measures. The problem includes defective chips that don't reach
military specs -- as well as probable Trojans."
A little context: In 2005 the Lenovo Group in China paid $1.75 billion for IBM's PC unit, even though that unit had lost $965 million the previous four years. Three congressmen, including the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, tried to block this sale because of national security concerns, to no avail. (The PRC embassy in Washington, D.C., maintains a large lobbying presence to influence congressmen and their staffs through direct contact.)
In June 2007, a Pentagon computer network utilized by the U.S. defense secretary's office was hacked into -- and traced directly back to the Chinese PLA.
A report presented to Congress late last year characterized PRC espionage as "the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies." Almost simultaneously, Jonathan Evans, director-general of MI5, Britain's domestic security and counterintelligence service, sent a confidential letter to CEOs and security chiefs at 300 UK companies to warn that they were under attack by "Chinese state organizations" whose purpose, said Mr. Evans, was to defeat their computer security systems and steal confidential commercial information.
The Chinese had specifically targeted Rolls-Royce and Shell Oil.
The key to unlocking computer secrets through rogue microchips is uncovering (or stealing) source codes, without which such microchips would be useless. This is why Chinese espionage is so heavily focused upon the U.S. computer industry.
Four main computer operating systems exist. Two of them, Unix and Linux, utilize open-source codes. Apple's operating system is Unix-based.
Which leaves only Microsoft as the source code worth cracking. But in early 2004, Microsoft announced that its security had been breached and that its source code was "lost or stolen."
"As technology evolves, each new program has a new source code," a computer forensics expert told The Investigator. "So the Chinese would need ongoing access to new Microsoft source codes for maintaining their ability to activate any microchips they may have installed, along with the expertise to utilize new hardware technology."
No surprise then that the FBI expends much of its counterintelligence resources these days on Chinese high-tech espionage within the United States. Timothy Bereznay, while still serving as assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, told USA Today, "Foreign collectors don't wait until something is classified -- they're targeting it at the research and development stage." Mr. Bereznay now heads Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems division.
The PRC's intelligence services use tourists, exchange students and trade show attendees to gather strategic data, mostly from open sources. They have also created over 3,500 front companies in the United States -- including several based in Palo Alto to focus on computer technology.
Back in 2005, when the Chinese espionage problem was thought to be focused on military technology, then-FBI counterintelligence operations chief Dave Szady said, "I think the problem is huge, and it's something we're just getting our arms around." Little did he know just how huge, as it currently applies to computer network security.
The FBI is reported to have arrested more than 25 Chinese nationals and Chinese-Americans on suspicion of conspiracy to commit espionage between 2004 and 2006. The Investigator endeavored to update this figure, but was told by FBI spokesman William Carter, "We do not track cases by ethnicity."
Excuse us for asking. We may be losing secrets, but at least the dignity of our political correctness remains intact.
Oh, and Homeland Security snagged comic icon Jerry Lewis, 82, trying to board a plane in Las Vegas with a gun -- no joke.
If you have a story idea for The Investigator, contact him at reringer@.... State if your query is confidential.
--
_____________________________
YAHSHUAH is the sole expression of the glory of Elohim, the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine, and HE is the perfect imprint and very image of Elohim's nature. Heb 1:3a
Joe D. Long
As US economy sours, some migrants return south
As US economy sours, some migrants return south
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO -- After struggling just to pay his $300 monthly rent and send money to his wife and two children back in Honduras, Dionisio Urbina has given up. The day laborer is saving for a one-way plane ticket home.
"I lost hope about finding work," the 54-year-old illegal immigrant said outside a Home Depot store as he entered his fourth straight week without a job. "I'm homesick. It's best to leave."
Thousands of Latin American immigrants both legal and illegal are going back home as the economic crisis in the U.S. causes jobs to dry up in the construction, landscaping and restaurant industries.
Read here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/740218.html
__________________
Related:
Polish immigrants returning from U.S. - International Herald Tribune
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO -- After struggling just to pay his $300 monthly rent and send money to his wife and two children back in Honduras, Dionisio Urbina has given up. The day laborer is saving for a one-way plane ticket home.
"I lost hope about finding work," the 54-year-old illegal immigrant said outside a Home Depot store as he entered his fourth straight week without a job. "I'm homesick. It's best to leave."
Thousands of Latin American immigrants both legal and illegal are going back home as the economic crisis in the U.S. causes jobs to dry up in the construction, landscaping and restaurant industries.
Read here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/740218.html
__________________
Related:
Polish immigrants returning from U.S. - International Herald Tribune
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Isaiah 46:9-11 (King James Version)
9Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
9Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Vision: The Flight Of Wisdom
Vision: Voice Of America
VISION: WISE LEADERS SIT OUT THE DANCE
VISION: 5 UNEXPLODED BOMBS IN AMERICA
Transcript OF Audio-Vision: America O America
Vision: The Giant Hideous Bird In America
Vision: White Dove Over America
Vision: Mad Britain: Insane America
VISION: THE SPIKED BALL AND CHAIN
Vision: Men Lose Their Shirts
VISION: AMERICA- CAN YOU HEAR THE SCHEMES
Vision: A New Thing In China
Vision: America Watch The Back Door
VISION: RAIDERS OF THE AIRWAYS
VISION: ROMAN CENTURIONS IN D.C.
VISION: SCHOOLING IN AMERICA
CROSSING THE RUBICON-BY STEPHEN SMITH
Vision: The Three Trains
Vision: Voice Of America
VISION: WISE LEADERS SIT OUT THE DANCE
VISION: 5 UNEXPLODED BOMBS IN AMERICA
Transcript OF Audio-Vision: America O America
Vision: The Giant Hideous Bird In America
Vision: White Dove Over America
Vision: Mad Britain: Insane America
VISION: THE SPIKED BALL AND CHAIN
Vision: Men Lose Their Shirts
VISION: AMERICA- CAN YOU HEAR THE SCHEMES
Vision: A New Thing In China
Vision: America Watch The Back Door
VISION: RAIDERS OF THE AIRWAYS
VISION: ROMAN CENTURIONS IN D.C.
VISION: SCHOOLING IN AMERICA
CROSSING THE RUBICON-BY STEPHEN SMITH
Vision: The Three Trains
Jeremiah 28 (King James Version)
Jeremiah 28
1And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
2Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
3Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
4And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
5Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
6Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
7Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
8The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
9The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Jeremiah 28
1And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
2Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
3Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
4And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
5Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
6Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
7Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
8The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
9The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
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