Beyond the the limits of the absurd

Students Charged as Felony Hackers - Password Written on Back of iBooks 19 August 2005 06:15 EST Jason D. O'Grady From the Opinion Dept. In other educational news - 13 high school students in the PowerPage's home state of Pennsylvania (the Kutztown 13 as they're known) were charged with third-degree felonies for misusing their school-issued Apple iBooks. Their heinous crime? They used the administrator password (which was taped on the back of the computers, no less) to install unauthorized software. Not BitTorrent, not Limewire, but iChat AV. Sheesh. Now that's not the only thing that the kids are accused of doing, they also turned off the monitoring software (Apple Remote Desktop?) and even used it to monitor the admins. In addition, they're accused of using hacking tools to find the new admin password when it was changed from the password that was taped on the back of the machines. James Shrawder uncle of fifteen-year-old John Shrawder set up a Web site, CutUsABreak.org, to tell the students' side of the story. The even posted the letter sent to the students charged with the felonies. The sells t-shirts and bumper stickers, including my favorite: "Arrest me, I know the password!" The Kutztown Area School District issued a press release detailing the laptop policy violations but the charges still smack of heavy-handedness to me. Do they really want to graduate a class of students that must check "Yes" for the question "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" Give them community service and suspend their computer or Internet privileges, maybe, but felony convictions for being kids? Give me a break. UPDATE: New charges were filed yesterday against the teens. A charge of computer theft has been lodged against all 13 defendants, so that they are now charged with three variations of computer trespassing.

Welcome to "the future"

Pay special attention to the loudspeakers. What an astonishing work. That and this: http://www.yoomedia.com/yooplay/ Say "you are in the future"... Just like they said it would be. See Yoo Play on Astra 279. Pay special attention to the games where you are asked to call in with an answer. Note how it appears that the presenter is taking part in half of a conversation. Its more like a wild feed than a TV programme.

You can all consideder yourselvs as having been warned

Procurement launched amid fresh criticism
Sarah Arnott, Computing 17 Aug 2005

The government has taken the first steps in the technology procurement
for its national biometric identity cards programme.

But experts are already questioning the maturity of the biometric
systems at the heart of the proposals.

The legislation required for the scheme is not yet law, but the Home
Office last week issued the first notice alerting potential suppliers,
to ensure the procurement can start as soon as the bill is passed.

The formal tender will include the creation of a national identity
register, biometric technology, and the production and distribution of
cards.

The scheme will create a gold standard of identification to help fight
fraud, terrorism and illegal immigration, according to the government.

But biometric technology is not accurate enough to support such a claim,
says Neil Fisher, director of security solutions at defence technology
supplier QinetiQ.

'Telecoms systems are judged on an availability of 99.999 per cent, but
even that level of accuracy of biometrics, across the whole population,
would mean 6,000 people in the country being mistaken, and no biometric
technology is anywhere close to that reliable yet,' Fisher told
Computing.

'Unless there is a strategy to overcome that lack of accuracy, the
system will be flawed as soon as it starts,' he added.

Plans to include multiple biometrics - two eyes, 10 fingers and one face
- offer some improvement, but checking all 13 will be a long and
expensive process, says Graham Titterington, principal analyst at Ovum.

And the belief that biometrics mean no one will be able to register
twice is incorrect.

'At the moment, the whole reliability of biometrics is up in the air.
There have been lots of studies done with very different results,' said
Titterington.

'The government needs a dose of reality because its trust in the system
is unfounded and doesn't match up with experience.

'The plan is working on the assumption that, by the time it is live, the
technology will have come on in leaps and bounds. But that is not a
reasonable basis from which to start.' [...]

http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2141259/biometric-flaws-mar-start-id

My emphasia. Yes, 'emphasia'. This style of report always contains the implicit assumption that everyone will willingly register in the system. Most people will opt not to obey, and the closer the date of rollout comes, the more people will understand precisely what all of this means, and the number of refusniks will number in the millions. This will cause some problems. Will people be allowed to leave the UK on an expired passport? What is the law on this? Are the immigration officials meant to bar you from exit if your passport is expired? I have travelled on an expired passport several times, and never had any problem at either end. Its interesting that even the QinetiQ staff are saying that it will not work "from the start". Maybe they dont want to live in a country with a biometric net thrown over it either. After all, these people have children, they have real lives - maybe the penny has just dropped that their secret affairs with the secretaries will now be easily discoverable. No more informal confidential lunches anywhere with anyone ever again. Maybe now they understand that their children's inevitable future indescressions will be instantly discoverable. No more pats on the head with a "don't do anything like this again son, its all forgotten". Everyone will know everything, and nothing will ever be forgotten. That is a total nightmare, far worse than living under the Soviet Union era Russia, where photocopiers were kept under lock and key, and every other absurd paranoid control that we read and laughed about was a daily fact of life. Unless this database project is absolutely terminated, this total surveillance UK will come to pass, and because the system cannot work, tens of thousands will be hurt by it, and millions will be humiliated, inconvenienced and defrauded because of it.

Cut unnecessary words and stay wrong: 'concise bias'

Unnecessary words Some words add nothing but length to your prose. Use adjectives to make your meaning more precise and be cautious of those you find yourself using to make it more emphatic. The word very is a case in point. If it occurs in a sentence you have written, try leaving it out and see whether the meaning is changed. The omens were good may have more force than The omens were very good. Avoid strike action (strike will do), cutbacks (cuts), track record (record), wilderness area (usually either a wilderness or a wild area), large-scale (big), the policymaking process (policymaking), weather conditions (weather), etc. This time around just means This time. Shoot off, or rather shoot, as many prepositions after verbs as possible. Thus people can meet rather than meet with; companies can be bought and sold rather than bought up and sold off; budgets can be cut rather than cut back; plots can be hatched but not hatched up; organisations should be headed by rather than headed up by chairmen, just as markets should be freed, rather than freed up. And children can be sent to bed rather than sent off to bed—though if they are to sit up they must first sit down. This advice you are given free, or for nothing, but not for free. Certain words are often redundant. The leader of the so-called Front for a Free Freedonia is the leader of the Front for a Free Freedonia. A top politician or top priority is usually just a politician or a priority, and a major speech usually just a speech. A safe haven is a haven. Most probably and most especially are probably and especially. The fact that can often be shortened to That (That I did not do so was a self-indulgence). Loans to the industrial and agricultural sectors are just loans to industry and farming. Community is another word often best cut out. Not only is it usually unnecessary, it purports to convey a sense of togetherness that may well not exist. The black community means blacks, the business community means businessmen, the homosexual community means homosexuals, the intelligence community means spies, the international community, if it means anything, means other countries, aid agencies or, just occasionally, the family of nations. Use words with care. A heart condition is usually a bad heart. A near miss is probably a near hit. Positive thoughts (held by long-suffering creditors, according to The Economist) presumably means optimism, just as a negative report is probably a critical report. Industrial action is usually industrial inaction, industrial disruption or a strike. A courtesy call is generally a sales offer or an uninvited visit. A substantially finished bridge is an unfinished bridge. Someone with high name-recognition is well known. Something with reliability problems probably does not work. If yours is a live audience, what would a dead one be like? In general, be concise. Try to be economical in your account or argument (“The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out”—Voltaire). Similarly, try to be economical with words. “As a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give to your style.” (Sydney Smith) Raymond Mortimer put it even more crisply when commenting about Susan Sontag: “Her journalism, like a diamond, will sparkle more if it is cut.” [...] http://www.economist.com/research/styleGuide/index.cfm?page=673919 ???!! 'Lets find out'. Here is a recent article from 'The Economist', with the above rules applied....by me. Watch your mouth (this title is vague).

Aug 12th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda

In the wake (after) of the London Tube and bus bombings, Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair (spelling: 'Bliar'), thinks that European human-rights laws prevent Britain from dealing with supporters of terrorism. But the real obstacles lie closer to home (elsewhere)

EPA

WHAT makes a suicide-bomber? Long before the attacks that killed 52 people in London on July 7th, Britain’s security services had a clear pattern (they have patterns that are anything else but clear?) in their minds. A man who may drink beer, play football, chase girls and lead a life that is indistinguishable from those of most other young Britons starts looking around for something less ordinary. At that point, he comes under the influence of a charismatic imam (what is a 'charismatic' imam?), who rails (they dont rail, they preach) against the ill-treatment of Muslims around the world and suggests a straightforward (how is suicide straightforward?) route to self-fulfilment. He may eventually board a plane to Israel or a train to London, with the intention of killing as many civilians as possible.

Trying to prevent rebellious (mischaracterises suicide bombers as being motivated by a naughty teenage motivation trivializes suicide bombers and their motivations) impulses from taking hold is a difficult thing for a parent to do, let alone a government. So Britain’s Labour government is looking instead at clamping down on (stopping) the people who inspire terrorists. Many of these people, it thinks, are foreign-born, and therefore the state ought to be able to deal with them, without the liberties that British citizens enjoy getting in the way. That was the impulse (use a synonym since you used it earlier) behind a plan launched by Charles Clarke, the home secretary (interior minister), to define what counts as unacceptable behaviour by Muslims in Britain. It was also behind the 12-point plan that Tony Blair, the prime minister, announced on August 5th, while Mr Clarke was on holiday, before he too headed for the beach. (went on holiday)

Mr Blair’s agenda is wide-ranging and vague. It includes speeding up the deportation of foreign-born radicals,(dishonest use of english: 'people who speak against the government' or 'dissenting voices') extending a proposed ban on glorifying terrorism to cover people who justify or glorify terrorism anywhere in the world, holding pre-trial hearings to allow sensitive (dishonest use of english, should use 'secret') evidence to be admitted (these have already been dubbed “secret courts”), banning some Islamist (religious bias. use 'political' then question why BNP faces no sanctions) organisations from Britain, and closing troublesome (dishonest english; infers speech is dangerous. delete word) places of worship.

That was more than enough to frighten libertarians. “Just having undergraduate debates about whether it is ever right to take up arms could get you into this,” reckons Shami Chakrabati, director of Liberty, a pressure group (dishonest use of english. 'Pressure group' infers that Liberty is on the outside of society putting pressure on HMG, when in fact, they are a 'lobby group' or 'lobby' just like any other). But then the attorney-general raised the temperature (inflamatory language. revise) further, by letting it be known that radical (delete) imams might be charged with treason, an ancient crime in English law that dates back to an era when having sex with the king’s consort was a capital offence.

Part of this is politicking. “Everything the prime minister said will go down well in Conservative associations,” notes Edward Garnier, the shadow home affairs minister with the main opposition Conservative Party. The treason idea was quickly scotched (dropped), though not before it had inspired some headlines.

But Mr Blair’s insistence that “the rules of the game are changing”, plus a nagging suspicion that Britain’s legal system might be less well equipped to deal with Islamic extremism (dishonest use of english; you mean 'free speech') than those of other European countries, has left the government looking for ways to make Britain a bit more like France (innapropriate ambush humor). The French have both experience of Islamic extremism and a reputation for toughness—they have long been exasperated by what they see as excessive tolerance of radical Islam in Britain. The French government has promised a new anti-terrorism law by the end of this month, designed to strengthen the hardline approach it has adopted in recent years (see article).

According to Mr Blair, the first step towards a tougher approach in Britain is to find a way around (use honest english: 'a way to nullify' or 'a way to cancel') the 1998 Human Rights Act. That’s (informal contraction. delete) odd, because the other members of the Council of Europe are also bound by the European Convention on Human Rights (which British civil servants played a big part in drafting). Though Mr Blair says that Article 3, which prohibits torture, makes it difficult to deport undesirables (use honest english. you will be deporting PEOPLE not 'UNDESIREABLES' the latter is a prejorative and introduces bias into the article.) to countries where their toenails might be pulled out, (torture) this has not prevented other signatories to the convention from doing so. So what is Britain’s problem? (flippant. 'So what is preventing Britian from implimenting these measures')

First, though the convention is the same everywhere, Britain’s adversarial legal system means that it works differently there. Defendants typically have the right to appeal at several stages of the legal process. That makes appeals against extradition protracted and expensive. In 2001, it took an average of eight months to extradite someone to Britain, but 18 months to send someone the other way. Contested hearings cost around £125,000 ($223,000). An attempt two years ago to streamline the process has not altered its fundamentally fractious nature. In France, by contrast, deporting suspects to countries with patchy human-rights records causes little fuss (is easy). Rights of appeal are more restricted and deportees may not be able to appeal until after they have left the country, by which time it might be too late. “Often you send a fellow back to Algeria and that’s the last you hear of him,” says Clive Walker, who studies terrorism laws at Leeds University.

Second, Britain has a long tradition of sheltering firebrands, (use plain english. this is a 'free speech' issue and nothing more) which is reflected in the law. Victorian London was an excellent place for foreign radicals to set up shop—whether they were scholarly types like Karl Marx, who plotted the overthrow of capitalism from the reading room of the British Museum, or militants like Johann Most, a German anarchist who was allowed to wander the streets despite penning a guide called “The Science of Revolutionary Warfare”. Ancient laws on free speech, a light touch from the censor and a lack of legal distinctions between citizens and non-citizens have appealed to African National Congress supporters and Islamist radicals (when 'The Caliphate' is established, no doubt this language will change to 'supporters of Islam'? This is how 'African National Congress radicals' turns into 'ANC supporters'. 'Radicals' is a loaded word and should be used only in the context of criticising its use in speech or writing, and never to describe people who merely excersise their right to free speech.) alike. If the government really wanted (wants) to overturn this tradition, it would need extensive legislation.

A more straightforward (another) option is to get agreements from foreign countries not to harm anyone who is extradited from Britain. It already has one such agreement with Jordan, and is seeking similar undertakings from nine other countries. On August 11th, police arrested ten foreign nationals in south-east England and the Midlands, with a view to deporting them. It will provide the first test of how judges respond to Mr Blair’s hectoring. (??? use simple english)

None of this helps much where the culprits ('culprits'? does this refer to people excersising their right to free speech? Or maybe The Economist thinks that free speech is only for journalists? These people can in no way be described as 'culprits'. They are 'defendants' at the very least and, 'victims' depending on who is doing the talking.) are British-born, however. For them, the government proposes to use more control orders—a new legal device that deprives people of some liberties without actually locking them up. Mr Blair also said that the government would look at stripping naturalised Brits of their citizenship if they support terrorists. In practice that is difficult: unless someone has dual nationality, revoking their citizenship means making them stateless.

Some have suggested that the flurry of announcements, coupled with a lack of detail on how they might work, is really aimed at scaring the firebrands away (doshonest use of english; this really means 'supressing free speech'). If so, it might be working. Omar Bakri Mohammed, a Syrian-born imam who could be caught out by the new laws, recently left Britain to visit his mother. He told reporters he would be coming back (not to foment terror (this is a libel. he has never 'fomented terror'), but to have a heart operation on the state-run National Health Service). On August 12th, however—following Mr Mohammed's brief detention by the Lebanese authorities—the British government said that he would be barred from returning as his presence was not “conducive to the public good”.

So. We see how A) the economist lets through all sorts of garbage english, and B) it is an extremely biased publication I wonder if this had passed throught the style guide filter, and if it had, what it had looked like BEFORE it was trimmed down.

We always knew it

An absolutely fascinating interview with Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor who has studied every suicide terrorist attack since 1980. "The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland." [...] requothed:

RP: The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign—over 95 percent of all the incidents—has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw.

TAC: That would seem to run contrary to a view that one heard during the American election campaign, put forth by people who favor Bush’s policy. That is, we need to fight the terrorists over there, so we don’t have to fight them here.

RP: Since suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation and not Islamic fundamentalism, the use of heavy military force to transform Muslim societies over there, if you would, is only likely to increase the number of suicide terrorists coming at us. [...]

http://www.amconmag.com/2005_07_18/article.html From the most recent Cryptogram. Everyone everywhere who has been listening to what these people have been saying for decades knows that all of todays problems are to do with illegal and unwelcome occupation. This should be a surprise to absolutely no one, and yet...here we are, seeing people banned for speaking aobut the problems. The IRA was banned from speaking through the UK TV; the BBQ used to hire actors to speak the words of Gerry Adams and co whenever they were interviewed. It was as totaly absurd as it seems today, and yet, it was done, just like banning preachers is being done today. Stopping Gerry Addam's actual voice didnt make anything change at all, and it made Britian look stupid.

Either no man or no woman

Man Not Included

Woman Not Included

The Reason Why

And he manages to keep a straight face as he spouts this guff.

Noted UFO debunker Klass dies at 85

Noted UFO debunker Klass dies at 85

Was well-known aviation writer

BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE FLORIDA TODAY

Philip J. Klass spent a 50-year career meticulously researching stories on the latest in aviation technology as a senior editor for Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine. He spent his off hours trying to disprove the existence of UFOs.

Klass died Tuesday of prostate cancer at the Merritt Island home he shared with his wife of 25 years, Nadya.

"He fought very hard," said Nadya, a former news editor with Voice of America.

Klass, 85, was born and raised in Iowa, the son of a lawyer. He earned a degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State and went on to work for General Electric in aviation development. In 1952, he switched careers to journalism.

His sister, Rosanne Klass of New York City, said her brother was always building crystal radio sets as a boy. She remembers his first glimpse of his future at a fairground in Cedar Rapids.

"As a Boy Scout, he won a contest, and the prize was a chance to go up in an autogyro, now called a helicopter," Rosanne Klass said, adding that her parents stood by frightened as her brother ascended. "In my mind, I can see Phil in his Boy Scout uniform in the autogyro."

He received numerous awards for his reporting, but he became culturally known for his UFO work, earning criticism from those who insist UFOs and aliens are real.

He published "UFOs Identified" in 1968, along with four other books that explained away UFOs.

Klass was one of the founders of the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and a regular contributor to its journal, Skeptical Inquirer. He famously offered $10,000 to anyone whose UFO or alien abduction claims could be verified by the FBI. He never paid a reward.

David Jacobs, a Temple University history professor and alien abduction expert, said Klass was dedicated to his cause. The two argued their points on CNN's "Larry King Live" in 1993.

"Regardless of evidence, regardless of logic, regardless of disconfirming information, he always set his path clearly on one course and that was that the UFO phenomenon was not extraterrestrial and had no basis in reality," Jacobs said Thursday night. He added, though, "I wish that UFO researchers were as dedicated and tenacious as he was."

A funeral is scheduled for Sunday at 11:30 a.m. in the Washington, D.C., area.

[...]

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050812/NEWS01/508120337/1006

This immediately calls to mind the last lines from the documentary "UFOs are Real" which says that old and outdated ideas die with the old when they pass away.

Philip J. Klass was one of the 'flat earthers' who simply couldn't accept the things people were telling him were true, no matter what their credentials were. The world was flat, and no photograph of the world taken from space, no story of Antarctic penguins could make him say otherwise.

For this reason, bolstered by his association with the publication Aviation Week & Space Technology, which provided him with a badge of authority, he was asked again and again to 'balance' any 'debate' about UFOs, and like a reliable grandfather clock would trott out all the best skeptic tricks, ridicule and illogic to make sure that no one took any UFO sighting seriously, no matter what the facts were.

His legacy is CSICOP (Completely Stupid Irrational Cooks On Prozac), the anti-Science science cult whose work is similar in rigor, zeal and ferocity to that of the religous police in countries run on Sharia.

Could a man really be so completely and pathologically irrational, or was he 'just doing his job' whatever that might have been? Who knows. One thing is for sure, the days of The James Obergs, The Philip J. Klasses, the Shostacks and the like are absolutely numbered, and no one is coming up to replace them because their ideas are totally at odds with reality. Rest in peace Mr. Klass.

Perseid Sounds

Here is a 9 hour long sound file of last nights Perseid shower, from 0 GMT. It is 135megs in size, and is served by Bittorrent. The source was http://science.nasa.gov/audio/meteor/meteorburst.m3u

Last FM is teh ghey!

David 'The Hof' Hasselhof

You love The Hof. [...] http://www.last.fm/help/team.php Its all so very Pink! :p Thanks to 'The Box' for this laugh of teh week...yes, 'teh' week! After having played around with the new Audioscrobbler, my overall impression is that it is vastly improved; the hard work they have put in has been worth it...well done guys!

Hang your DNA in your living room

Product FAQs:

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Can I select the color and size of my art piece? Yes. Please visit the Size, Cost and Color Options page for more information.

How is my DNA collected? We send you an easy to use saliva DNA collection kit. You can learn more about our process here.

Do you only accept saliva for your collection process? Yes. Please follow the directions that are included in your collection kit.

Is each piece truly unique to every individual? Yes. The technique we use gives a unique genetic fingerprint image for every individual in the world. No two pieces of art will ever look exactly the same.

What materials do you use to create the art piece? Each piece is a Giclee fine art piece, printed on high quality acid free polyester-cotton canvas, using pigmented inks designed to resist fading. Each piece is also sealed with a non-yellowing protective varnish to further prolong the print life. Learn more about our art.

Are the art pieces signed? Yes. Each piece is stamped and signed by DNA 11 on the back of the canvas, ensuring authenticity. However, we do not sign the front of the art piece because you are in fact the true artist.

Do the art pieces come framed? Framing is a very personal touch, and we feel only the creator of each art work knows the perfect compliment to their work

Do you offer a margin so that I can stretch the canvas? Yes, we leave a 2.5 inch border.

How can I give this as a present? The DNA extraction kit comes in a well designed, branded box that can be wrapped and presented as a gift.

How long will it take to receive my piece? Average delivery time is 4-8 weeks from the date we receive your DNA sample.

Do you keep my DNA? No. Every sample is discarded in our high secure lab facility, designed to deal with such samples.

[...]

Snarfled from RE.

Just in case you missed it

Finally, a Mainstream Media Outlet is Questioning 9/11 On August 6, 2005, a UK mainstream newspaper, The Daily Mail, published an article raising many of the serious concerns regarding the 9/11 cover-up. The article is written by Tony Rennell, and was featured on pages 36, 37, and 38 of the newspaper. (They didn't post the article on their online site). Although I don't particularly agree with everything in the article, its at least nice to see a mainstream source raise the questions that have not been answered re: 9/11. Here is the article: The plot by America’s military bosses was devilish in both design and intent – to fabricate an outrage against innocent civilians, fool the world and provide a pretext for war. In the pentagon, a top secret team drew up a plan to simultaneously send up two airliners painted and numbered exactly the same, one from a civil airport in America, the other from a secret military airbase nearby. The one from the airport would have military personnel on board who had checked in as ordinary passengers under false names. The one from the airbase would be an empty drone, a remote-controlled unmanned aircraft. Somewhere along their joint flight paths, the passenger-carrying plane would drop below radar height, and disappear, landing back at the airbase and unloading its occupants in secret. Meanwhile, the drone would have taken up the other plane’s designated course. High over the island of Cuba, it would be exploded in mid-air after broadcasting an international distress call that it was under attack from enemy fighters. The world would be told that a plane load of blameless American holidaymakers had been deliberately shot down by Fidel Castro’s Communists – and that the US had no choice but to declare war and topple his regime. This ‘agent provocateur’ plan – code named OPERATION NORTHWOODS and revealed in official archives – dates from 1962 when the Cold War was at its height. [...]

http://bulldogpolitics.blogspot.com/2005/08/finally-mainstream-media-outlet-is.html And what follows thereafter is the full transcript of what was published in the paper. Another one to be put down to the 'silly season' by the ostriches.

An excellent news site

Look at this news site and article: http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/review/article_full_story.asp?service_ID=9400 This is a great site (mostly) because anyone can comment on the stories posted there. None of the major news sites from the west allow this...does anyone really wonder why? Imagine the torrent of informed rebuttal demolishing every lie filled and distorted story, devaluing the propaganda impact of the stories. It just cant happen. Where these people let themselvs down is how they filter the posts so that you cannot use certain words. Look at how the english is distorted as people work around the word filters. Oh well, no one is perfect; better that you have some distorted comments than no comments at all.

Hard Core Porn at The Guardian

Trawling around the guardian, thanks to todays mini-theme, we find:

At the heart of the fiasco lies a technique called steganography, the art, and now hardcore science, of hiding messages. [...]

? What on earth is 'Hardcore Science'? Is that like Hard Core Porn? Lets see what Google says!: Hard-core science??? or Mind-bending terror??? YOU DECIDE!!! Just what I thought.

... But to experts, the idea al-Qaida would be passing steganographic messages through TV broadcasts is ludicrous. "When they worked out the tactics of the 9/11 perpetrators, what they did was get in a car, drive some place and meet someone and have a conversation, they didn't even get online," says Peter Honeyman, steganography expert and scientific director of the centre for information technology integration at the University of Michigan. "Why were the CIA believing that they were seeing something in al-Jazeera broadcasts? I can't fathom it." The CIA had been using computers to look for hidden messages in the headlines that scroll along the bottom of al-Jazeera broadcasts, a feature used by most rolling news broadcasters. What the CIA was up to found its way into the intelligence community rumour mill and got back to the satellite channel. "We were aware there were intelligence reports saying that al-Qaida or its supporters might be communicating in ways that were unconventional. There were certain whispers that perhaps they were using al-Jazeera and other organisations, something we refuted categorically," says Jihad Ballout, al-Jazeera's spokesman in Qatar. "It's funny and it's frustrating at the same time as far as al-Jazeera's concerned. We're fed up of these rumours that al-Jazeera is a conduit for communication for any group." Confirmation that the CIA had been hunting for hidden messages in broadcasts - and had turned up some curious results - came in June when US officials talked to NBC News. During the interview, the officials told how technicians at the CIA's directorate of science and technology believed they had found numbers embedded in al-Jazeera's news strip that corresponded with a hotch-potch of targets. There were dates and flight numbers, coordinates for high-profile sites such as the White House, as well as information apparently pointing to the small town of Tappahannock, Virginia. [...] http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1546179,00.html

I did an interview with TV station recently; they asked me if OBL & C^o (aQ) used Numbers Stations to get their messages to'd and fro'd. I wonder if the Murder Inc boys in 'ol Virginnie' have been staring into TVs without antennae, looking into the snow to gain insight into what the HELL they are going to do next. The whole steganography story, which is as absurd as it is old, is just likie staring into the white noise of a TV, and frankly, if thats the best they can come up with, they had better go to the negotiating table right now, because they are grasping at invisible straws... and spending millions doing it no doubt. These guys have no 'way in' to aQ; they have no way of monitoring them, getting their heads around them, getting into their skin...they think that they can do good work by staing in their offices and watching TV. Honestly, it doesnt get any more absurd.....if this were a story in a book, you would wet yourself laughing. Hard Core Stupidity...is that like Hard Core Porn....or is it more like Hardcore Science? We may never find out.

Serious Newspapers for Serious People?

"The whole UFO thing is a kind of meme," says Susan Blackmore, a psychologist who studies paranormal activity. "It's a craze, a bit like sudoku. UFOs were just a rather long-lived version. But crazes thrive on novelty, and eventually that dies out. It's taken a long time, but it's good that the UFO era is over. My prediction is that it will go away for a long time and then come back." [...] Susan Blackmore is like Seth Shostack of SETI ; they both freely admit that they have never studied any of the relevant and inexplicable UFO cases, and yet, they shamelessly line up to be the 'expert' talking heads whenever a brain dead journalist like Stephen Moss is tasked with writing around this subject. The reason why there has been a spate of articles could be that we are in the annual 'silly season' the crisis that newspapers face every year where there are no stories pouring in from PR companies since they are all away on holiday. The other reason could be that we are in the middle of a 'flap' up north where people are getting footage and photographs that are hard to explain. One thing is for certain. If only one instance of an extraterrestrial UFO is true, then ETs exist, and Blackmore is humiliated and Shostack is out of a job. Anyone taking the time to read NUFORC will be aware of the constant flow of very bizarre, inexplicable sightings of the higest quality, right up to last month. Susan Blackmore is an interesting example of a deluded and dishonest 'scientist'. She has written a book on 'memes' (which is why she is always putting everything she says in that context, to sell her book) and asserts whenever she is put on television as an expert in things she admits to never having studied, that it can all be put down to these 'memes' which she asserts, without any evidence at all, both exist and which might even be alive in some way. No one ever pulls her up on these absurd claims, even worse, no one challenges her suitability as a talking head for this subject. In the age of google, it is impossible to say that she is the only one that could be found to chime in on this subject....unless there is an agenda in the writing of this piece. But thats impossible, right? Especially with the Guardian, which is a quality newspaper for intelligent people.... SETI, whilst being a totally illogical waste of time and energy, is harmless in itself. Whoever wants to work at it is free to do so, just like the Alchemists used to ferret away in the dark trying to turn lead into gold. What is odd, perplexing, and rather suspicious is why Seth Shostack, the spokesman for that endeavour says anything at all about UFOs. He refuses to read any of the cases, and instead, consistenly uses ridicule, lies and his own supersitition to prop up his 'position', which is, "I have a gig. I put my life into it. Dont rain on my parade". The dogma they repeat and refuse to address has been challenged clearly, and actually, from non intrenched camps, you can begin to hear the rumblings of the form 'hey wait a minute' from many true scientists who are beginning to understand that there is something to the UFO problem, and that there is only one inescapable conslusion to the cases that are of interest to us. The French are way ahead in this 'putting away of childish things', which sadly, The Guardian perpetually chooses not to do. The COMETA report, which is available in English if you know how to google, is a report written by:

High-level officials - including retired generals from the French Institute of Higher Studies for National Defense, a government-financed strategic planning agency - recently took a giant step in openly challenging skepticism about UFOs. In a report based on a three-year study, they concluded that ''numerous manifestations observed by reliable witnesses could be the work of craft of extraterrestrial origin'' and that, in fact, the best explanation is ''the extraterrestrial hypothesis.'' Although not categorically proven, ''strong presumptions exist in its favor and if it is correct, it is loaded with significant consequences.'' The French group reached that conclusion after examining nearly 500 international aeronautical sightings and radar/ visual cases, and previously undisclosed pilots' reports. They drew on data from official sources, government authorities, and the air forces of other countries. The findings are contained in a 90-page report titled ''UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?''

Any serious journalist that is computer literate (do I need to say it, regular readers of BLOGDIAL?) should have found and read this document, instead of going down their in-house list of "talking heads to contact by subject". On a purely selfish level, most journalists want to write articles that are popular and read by alot of people. If Mr Moss had simply re-puslished the COMETA report ver batim, it would have been devoured by readers all over the world, becauese there really has not been a widespread exposure of this shockingly frank report in the English speaking world. It would have been timely, since some editor obviously asked him to write in response to the binoculoids scanning the skies in North Yorkshire. So, why go down the route of the dullard, the lowest common denominator, the idiot? It's so very boring. The COMETA report is hair raising stuff, because it is as close to a public government admission that UFOs are ET spacecraft as has ever been made. It is frank, balanced, pulls no punches, considers everything, leaves out nothing. It is breathtaking, literally. It shows categorically that when serious professional people (Shostack and Blackmore are not serious or objective by any measure) look at the strong UFO evidence, they come to one inescapable conclusion, and they also say, almost uniformly, that this problem needs to be studied, the absurd and illogical ridicule associated with the subject, which (rightly) puts off scientists from studying it needs to be countered so that we can...do somehing about this, instead of letting it carry on unobserved and un recorded. Finally, did you know that until very recently scientists didn't believe that meteors came from space? Seems absurd doesn't it, and this relates directly to the present UFO problem; an ongoing sporadic event that cannot be repeated in the lab, witnissed by tens of thousands of credible witnesses, that is definately real, photographed and filmed but which is not accepted simply because it is not part of the current scientific dogma:

HISTORY OF METEOR SHOWER OBSERVATION Chinese, Hebrew, Greek, and Roman records of meteor showers date back about 3000 years. The most ancient records of meteor showers show that people interpreted the showers as magical or religious events. Ancient Greeks and Romans thought meteor showers were weather-related, like lightning and rain. During the 18th century many scientists, including American astronomer David Rittenhouse, began to favor the idea that meteor showers had their origin in space. Many scientists still believed that meteors were weather-related or caused by some phenomenon on the earth and did not accept that meteors came from space until the Leonid meteor storm in 1833. In that storm, observers noticed that the meteors all seemed to come from one place in the sky. This is an effect of perspective, but proved that the meteors originated beyond the earth’s atmosphere. American astronomer Charles P. Olivier and British astronomer William F. Denning helped pioneer modern visual scientific studies of meteor showers in the beginning of the 20th century. American astronomer William Lewis Elkin obtained the first photographs of meteors during the Perseid and Leonid showers in the first years of the 20th century. British astronomers James Stanley Hey and G. S. Stewart studied meteor showers with radar. They projected radio waves into the sky during a meteor shower and recorded the radio waves as they bounced back from the meteors. The results of radar observations of meteor showers are very similar to the results of visual observation. [...] Googled

There are plenty of places on the web where you can read about this, which seems to us now to be an absurd ostrich posture from people who should have known better, given the great advances they had been making and hence the clearly dangerous nature of word 'impossible' when applied to what is true and doable in the world. They are stil around today, these ostriches, and the most vocal of them are Seth Shostack and Susan Blackmore, aided and abetted by thier lazy brain dead supporters like The Guardian.

The Lie Machine is dusted off

US accuses Iran of smuggling weapons into Iraq A correspondent in Baghdad August 11, 2005 US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has accused Tehran of smuggling weapons into Iraq, after US intelligence reports claimed a cache of bombs found in the country's north had come from Iran's Revolutionary Guard. "It is true that weapons clearly, unambiguously, from Iran have been found in Iraq," Mr Rumsfeld said.

"It's a problem for the Iraqi Government. It's a problem for the coalition forces. It's a problem for the international community. And ultimately, it's a problem for Iran."

The US military believes a hidden store of manufactured bombs seized in Iraq about two weeks ago was smuggled into the country by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. If the intelligence is correct, it would suggest the Revolutionary Guard is moving into a conflict that for the past year has been dominated by Sunnis rather than Shi'ites.

The claim came as The New York Times reported that armed men had entered Baghdad's municipal building during a blinding dust storm and deposed the city's mayor, installing in his place a member of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite militia.

The deposed mayor, Alaa

al-Tamimi, who was not in his offices at the time, called the move a municipal coup d'etat. He added that he had gone into hiding for fear of his life. [....]

The Australian

My emphasis. This story smells so bad its making monkeys puke on the south pole.

Note how its written by 'a correspondent' hmmm lets find out who REALLY wrote it:

Anagram generator says:

CONNED REPORTS
CENSOR PORTEND

And there you have it. There cannot be a single person living on this planet that thinks this report is true. Donald 'known unknowns' Rumsfeld is a LIAR and a MURDERER and a WARMONGER and has been caught in a blantant lie that has cost us all greatly. Now he and Murder inc. are trying to use lies again to get us all to sit still while they prepare to smash Iran. Not only are they trying to use lies again, but they are attempting to use the same lies twice. Breathtaking audacity.

Audio Scrobbler across different browsers

The 'new audioscrobbler' which is actually lastfm now, looks great and works well. It isnt immediately obvious where you get plugins from; there is no link on the landing page to the plugins, which is...insane. No doubt they will fix this. I took my first look at it on my Linux box and was very worried (did you know that we have finally dumped windoze for Linux? Fedora Core 4 is good enough to replace windows, and frankly its about time. Thanks to Codeweavers Crossover, we run iTunes as a music server...we dont run MS office anymore; Open Office does all of that stuff.) because it looked TERRIBLE. check out the screen grabs; the first two are from Mozilla and Safari on OSX and the third is from firefox on Fedora Core 4... Mozilla: it all lines up nicely Safari: has some probs with the buttons. Firefox under FC4. This is very broken indeed; different and ugly scrollbars, missing buttons..cross browser compatibility is a nightmare, and this is the proof (as if you needed any). Mozilla under FC4...messed up, though all the buttons and icons are there, and some of the layout is better rendered.

the new AS

The new audioscrobbler is up, and it looks like it's all Last.fm now. I think I miss the old audioscrobbler already!!... this new screen is all pink and bulbous, and it has a journal function? and tags?? Perhaps it will be more modular and functional, but I think I miss the old audioscrobbler... anyone else have any thoughts?

Feel the dizzying spin

Kyrgyz group aims for Caliphate

By Artyom Liss and Damian Grammaticas BBC News, Kyrgyzstan

The London bombings have prompted the UK government to outlaw Hizb ut Tahrir - a radical Islamic group that wants to replace secular governments with an Islamic Caliphate, or super-state run according to Sharia Law.

The group is particularly strong in Central Asia, where it believes it may take the first steps towards establishing its Caliphate. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4131762.stm

This article is pure spin; see how the beginning of it lies by not specifying that Hizb ut Tahrir wants to encourage the creation of an Islamic Caliphate....but not in western countries. Using the innapropriate word 'super-state' keys in with peoples fears of a Euro super-state; it is a very carefully (or very carelessly) worded article.

This article has been published because Hizb ut Tahrir is on the list of groups that are about to be banned in the UK. It is a propaganda article because it deliberately omits the stated and limited aim of this group. By doing this, and giving the false impression that Hizb ut Tahrir want to make everyone everywhere live under Sharia law, BBQ is stoking the flames, stirring the pot, being very evil etc, etc.

BBQ and the two shill 'journalists' are feeding the lie that aQ and its cheeleaders 'want to take over the whole world' and 'destroy our way of life'. Anyone who reads the website of Hizb ut Tahrir knows that they are only interested in muslim countries, and have no interest in western countries or converting them to Sharia.

The only threat to our way of life, the only people who are dismantling all the checks and balances, the 1000 year old institutions and systems, the only people who are setting the clock back are Murder inc and The Subsidiary. They are the ones passing the Soviet style laws that strip away our freedoms and privacy. They are the ones rolling out the total surveillance systems, crippling the justice system and running secret gulags all over the world.

Looking to the far flung future...when the UK population is 40% muslim, it will be easy to convert it to Sharia, since all the restrictive laws brought in by The Subsidiary will be tantamount to Sharia, or Sharia by any other name...you know, curfiews, bans on speech, no dancing in the open air, no gatherings of more than 99 without police permission, no right to demonstraion... and the like. When that future comes, the difference between Sharia Britain and the Britian of The Subsidiary will be near zero. No one will even notice the changeover.

Cherry picking history

Note how the sideline here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4131706.stm completely omits the crucial facts about the history of Iran's nuclear programme, as can be read beneath this post (in part) snarfled from Wikipedia. There is no reason why they should not include the entire history in bullet point form, and or a link to Wikipedia, if they cant be bothered to do the work. Putting in the historical context (and not cherry picking just the last three years) would make quite a difference to the readers perception of just who is responsible for this completely manufactured 'crisis'.

Sharia is the guide

In the sense that aQ is decentralised a guarantee of cessation of violence from it's 'leaders' cannot be taken for granted. If you take their adherence to Sharia as a guide, OBL has laid down a Fatwa, and only the person who lays down a Fatwa can remove it. Ayatollah Khomeini, who laid down the Fatwa saying that Salman Rushdie must be killed for writing that book, died, and so the Fatwa remains:

On February 14, 1989, a fatwa promising his execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran, calling his book "blasphemous against Islam." Furthermore, Khomeini condemned Rushdie for the crime of "apostasy"—attempting to abandon the Islamic faith— which according to the Hadith is punishable by death. This was due to Rushdie's communication through the novel that he no longer believes in Islam. Khomeini called on all "zealous Muslims" to execute the writer, as well as those of the publishers of the book who knew about the concepts of the book:

In the name of God Almighty. There is only one God, to whom we shall all return. I would like to inform all intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book entitled The Satanic Verses, which has been compiled, printed, and published in opposition to Islam, the Prophet, and the Qur’an, as well as those publishers who were aware of its contents, have been sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Muslims to execute them quickly, wherever they find them, so that no one will dare insult the Islamic sanctions. Whoever is killed on this path will be regarded as a martyr, God willing. In addition, anyone who has access to the author of the book, but does not possess the power to execute him, should refer him to the people so that he may be punished for his actions. May God’s blessing be on you all. Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini.

On February 24, Khomeini placed a three-million-U.S. dollar bounty for the death of Rushdie. Rushdie lived for a time under British-financed security. [...] As Ayatollah Khomeini died his fatwa lived on, as certain members of the Islamic fundamentalist media allegedly stated:

"The responsibility for carrying out the fatwa is not the exclusive responsibility of Iran. It is the religious duty of all Muslims – those who have the ability or the means – to carry it out. It does not require any reward. In fact, those who carry out this edict in hopes of a monetary reward are acting against Islamic injunctions."

In 1999, an Iranian foundation put a US$2.8 million bounty on Rushdie's head. In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwa against Rushdie was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. In response to requests to withdraw the fatwa, Iran has stated that only the person who issued it may withdraw it; Khomeini, however, died in 1989. [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie#The_Satanic_Verses_controversy

We can probably transpose this to OBL calling a cease fire; only he can do it, only he has the authority to do it. Since no one should be interfering with these people anyway, withdrawl should be done and this ceasefire offer accepted. We can then deal with the consequences (peace) afterwards.

Duck and goose

the difference is barely there. The difference is in the history. Murder Inc. and its wholly pwned subsidiary has a long history of invading, pillaging and disturbing these people. They have no history of disturbing the west.... Until now. aQ telling MI that when it gets out of the affairs of the middle east everything will stop is not propaganda. Propaganda is:

...a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. At its root, the denotation of propaganda is 'to propagate (actively spread) a philosophy or point of view'. The most common use of the term (historically) is in political contexts; in particular to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments or political groups.

Purpose of propaganda

The aim of propaganda is to influence people's opinions actively, rather than to merely communicate the facts about something. For example, propaganda might be used to garner either support or disapproval of a certain position, rather than to simply present the position. [...] http://www.answers.com/

What aQ do when they make their statements is initiating negotiation. They are laying out the terms for a cease fire; "get out of our affairs and we will cease all activities" is the opening bid. What MI do when they speak about what is happening is pure propaganda. They use language to distort the true situation; calling this a 'war on terror', a 'clash of cultures', the beliefs of the 'enemy' an 'evil ideology', claiming that the attacks have nothing to do with the illegal invasion of Iraq, re-writing history...and so on and so on. This is the essential difference between what comes out of the mouths of OBL and Bliar/USUK/Murder Inc. I know under which rule I would rather live. I have said this before. What is true however, is that the side of right is on one side only in this case, and the people who are responsible will not back down and put an end to this absolute nonsense. The "Plan for Iran" is coming into focus. To its eternal shame, even Canada is getting in on this plot to attack Tehran. I mention this due to the lines below talking about how MI could ease our dependence on oil if only the monies were diverted from nonsense to science. The same has to be said about Iran. That place is soaked in sunshine. These people have no imagination whatsoever, and they are completely infuriating in this respect. Imagine if Tehran had spent the BILLIONS that they have wasted on nuclear technology on making their universities the greatest on earth; the place where every physics student is desperate to study. And yes, they really have spent that much money and probably more:

By 1975, The US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, had signed National Security Decision Memorandum 292, titled "U.S.-Iran Nuclear Cooperation," which laid out the details of the sale of nuclear energy equipment to Iran projected to bring U.S. corporations more than $6 billion in revenue. At the time, Iran was pumping as much as 6 million barrels (950,000 m³) of oil a day, compared with an average of about 4 million barrels (640,000 m³) daily today.

President Gerald R. Ford even signed a directive in 1976 offering Tehran the chance to buy and operate a U.S.-built reprocessing facility for extracting plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel. The deal was for a complete "nuclear fuel cycle".

The shah, who referred to oil as "noble fuel," said it was too valuable to waste on daily energy needs. The Ford strategy paper said the "introduction of nuclear power will both provide for the growing needs of Iran's economy and free remaining oil reserves for export or conversion to petrochemicals."[1] [...]

not only would they have an R&D programme that was the envy of the world, but they would be well on the road to having a clean energy economy, the technology for which they would be able to export to everyone that is too stupid to spend money on R&D and universities. Rather than wasting the ignoble fule on daily energy needs by servicing that demand with nuclear power, they would have saved the same amount of oil with clean energy technology. No waste problems. No threat to any other country. They would also be proving that an Islamic republic was able to compete with every other country on an equal footing, instead of being places that are backwards, crippled and broken and perpetually the pitiful underdogs of the world. They have had the billions to do the job. They had the enthusiastic populations to pull it off. They even have some brilliant scientists to put it all together. Instead, they spent (and continue to spend) money on nuclear power plants, the albatross technology that everyone in the west wants to be rid of - its almost as if they live in the same paralell universe that Bliar does, where no matter what is happening in another country, they will simply continue as they have been doing, no matter what the cost. These people need(ed) to recognise Israel, put all their oil money into education, universities and R&D and put all their energy into becoming....like Japan, who without the 'blessing' of oil or any cash cow, have managed to do very well since they have been forced to turn away from wasting money on pointless technology. In the late 1970s Iran had the Japanese example to take inspiration from; "turn away from the war machine, and dominate", but you need to have an imagination to be able to see yourself in the future with a high tech economy ruling the roost with your brains and ingenuity alone. Now they will pay the price for their lack of vision. And so will we, as they retaliate and everything spirals into this, "If someone had told me this in the 80's I would have laughed out loud" future, which is beyond a nightmare.

Remove the laws

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens' What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted - and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957 Someone just quoth this over at slashdot In a thread about a proposed EU directive making P2P apps illegal. I have been thinking about a new website, where you can log in and list a piece of legislation that you believe needs to be removed from the statue books in order to restore freedom from your country. There would be comments, moderation and every other feature you would expect. I have said before that parliaments sit down and make law even when they don't have to because that is why they exist. To make new law. Everyone and their dog knows that there are enough laws - in fact that there are too many laws. In order to restore freedom and return our countries to a state where people are free, it is required that we remove laws from the statute books to fix the balance that has been slowly eroded. This website would collect lists of all the laws that must be removed. Each law would, after six months of debate, be either moderated as 'good to go' or 'must keep'. Shoud it be marked good to go, the relevant legislature would be notified. If a motion is not tabled for its removal within sixty days, the law would rendered null and void, and it should no longer be obeyed by anyone. Unless people are willing to take this sort of action, the steady accretion of laws will continue unabated, and everyone everywhere will end up living in a world identical to 'The Trial' by Kafka, where you can be accused of a crime but not be told....ummm right.

Kicking out the pricks

So, people who merely say stuff are to be rounded up and kicked out. Groups are to be banned, including 'Hizb ut Tahrir' who I had never heard of until I read that they were to be outlawed. Well, thanks for pointing them out so I can read their website. I quoth it:

O Muslims: We in Hizb ut-Tahrir do not believe it is allowed to kill civilians or to harm people who have amaanah (security). We believe there is a distinction between the theatre of war; the conflict between armies on the battle field, and material actions undertaken inside cities. Since the armies on the battlefield fight, they kill and are killed and the army which fights in the path of Allah is rewarded and helped (by Allah). As for fighting in cities and among civilians, it is a different matter and it is not correct or allowed. Islam has given an excellent example in its battles and its dealings during the good Futuhaat (conquests) which were undertaken to spread justice throughout the world. The actions of Salah ad-Deen when he liberated al-Quds from the crusaders is a testimony to that. When he won in the battlefield he entered the city of al-Quds and did not spill blood or kill a prisoner, while at the same time the crusaders spilled the blood of Muslims inside the city of al-Quds and even in Masjid al-Aqsa such that the blood in some places reached knee high as reported by the historians. This is Islam, its civilisation and values and this was the malicious crusader, his civilisation and values. Despite the fact that we in Hizb ut-Tahrir are against explosions in cities and we do not believe they are allowed, we wonder why the West look at their civilians who have been killed in one way and look at Muslims who have been killed in another way? Why is it that the Muslims killed in Palestine, the Muslims killed in Iraq, the Muslims killed in Afghanistan, the Muslims killed in Chechnya, the Muslims killed in Kashmir, the Muslims killed in Fatani in Thailand, the Muslims killed in the Moroland in the Philippines, the Muslims killed here and there, whose blood is unjustly spilled day and night by the Jewish state, America, Britain, Russia, the Hindus, Thailand and the Philippines, at the hands of the tyrants of all nationalities is justified? Why is it that those whose blood has been spilled unjustly are said to have been killed in self defence by the G8 countries! However, when Americans, British, Jews, Russians, Hindus and others are killed, the world is turned upside down for their sake! Why do those Kuffar in the West and the Jews expect that the massacre of Muslims will not result in violent reactions from Muslims? Why do they not expect that the violation of honour, desecration of Qur'ans and the sanctities, the brutal crimes in occupied Muslim countries such as Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Chechnya will push some people to take revenge, to meet killing with killing. Why do they not expect this? Why do they not solve the problem by stopping their aggression against the Muslims and stop spilling their blood? Why do they not look at the reason for the problems and remove it rather than focussing on the effect and leaving the cause?

Why indeed. Its the queastion we all keep asking. The spokesman for this group said, on hearing this news:

IMRAN WAHEED, SPOKESMAN FOR HIZB UT TAHRIR BRITAIN There will be serious repercussions in terms of community relations if this ban goes ahead. We have a lot of support among the Muslim community in Britain and it will be seen by the Muslim community as stifling legitimate political dissent. Hizb ut Tahrir is a non-violent political party. It has had a history of non-violence for the last 50 years and these measures are like what we have seen in Uzbekistan where President Karimov has been burning his political opponents alive.

hmmmm my emphasis. Aparently anyone involved in websites like this Hizb website will also be given the boot. Websites can be run from anywhere. You know this. Even Bliar knows this. I wonder when it will become illegal to write 'Bliar' on a blog instead of 'Blair'. Other countries have laws against disparaging the leader, Bliar is following them into the abyss, so why not? Honestly, shutting up people who are AGAINST violence (or for it for that matter) is really sinking to the lowest of the low. This has nothing to do with speech and everything to do with murder; the murder of people in other countries by USUK. I'm surprised that they have not reactivated the laws forbidding the voices of turists to be broadcast, it worked before didn...oh, no, that didnt do anything did it! OBL's No2 said it perfectly. You WILL be leaving, so you might as well leave sooner rather than later and after tens of thousands of needless deaths. And why not? Imagine if an agreement had been reached with the IRA decades ago - imagine all the lives that would have been saved. In the end, we have come to peace with the IRA and eventually we WILL see and end to the OBL situation, and not through 'victory' but through sheer fatigue. In fact, it would be better to end it now while OBL is alive so that he can personally declare that it is over. Should he die without declaring a total cease fire, there will be no end of illiterate and maladjusted nincompoops ready to 'avenge' his death and 'keep the struggle alive'; we have seen that in a nebulous non-organization like OBL's people can make up whatever they want and attack whenever they want and it will be attributed to him. Only HE can turn off this flood of cell based martyrs. Something to think about.

Money Back Guarantee

Well, what would you most like a refund for? I'm sure all the people who paid for the national rail service and all the other stolen services and utilities would love to get a refund for all the money they paid into those services.

Ladytron still rule...thankfully.

I just heard some of the new Ladytron tracks, and.....they are beautiful. Ladytron still rule....amazing. Be grateful for Ladytron.

We must talk to al-Qaeda

Mowlam: We must talk to al-Qaeda

Mowlam plans a one-woman show Mo Mowlam has called on the British and American governments to open talks with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In a TV interview to be broadcast on Sunday, the former Northern Ireland secretary describes the war on terror as "completely counter-productive". And she says she will use her new one woman show to criticise government policy on Iraq and the Middle East. Ms Mowlam, who stood down as Redcar MP in 2001, said the US and UK should open dialogue with their enemies. In an interview with Tyne Tees television to be broadcast on Easter Sunday, Ms Mowlam said the UK and US were acting as a "recruitment officer for the terrorists" by carrying out military action in Iraq. 'Destruction' Asked if she could imagine "al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden arriving at the negotiating table," she replied: "You have to do that. If you do not you condemn large parts of the world to war forever. "Some people couldn't conceive of Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness getting to the table but they did." Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell criticised Ms Mowlam's remarks. "What possible result would there be from sitting down with al-Qaeda?" he asked. "Their intention is to destroy the liberal values upon which our way of life is based. "You cannot negotiate with those whose aim is your own destruction."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3611805.stm

BBQ is teh sux0rz

"Please note that some blogs can contain strongly-worded language and highly-personal views." [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4660681.stm#tokyo So says one 'Darren Waters', BBQ News entertainment reporter. Of course, the BBQ does not contain 'highly-personal views'. Not even hyphenated ones.

Davis attacks UK multiculturalism

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis is calling on the government to scrap its "outdated" policy of multiculturalism. Allowing people of different cultures to settle without integrating let the "perverted values of suicide bombers" take root, he told the Daily Telegraph. Mr Davis, favourite to become the next Tory leader, urged the government to "build a single nation" and demand "respect for the British way of life". [...] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4740633.stm YOU SEE??!?!?! I wonder what Davis would say about the 'traditional' British who attack Multisexualism? Hmmmm he can't win this argument....or anything like it...ever

Bangladeshi Gov. Seeks Irdial for ID Project

INTRODUCTION OF MRP, MRV AND MRNID The Govt. of People’s Republic of Bangladesh has decided to introduce Machine Readable Passport (MRP), Machine Readable Visa (MRV) and Machine Readable National Identity Card (MRNID). Now Ministry of Home Affairs intends to accept EOI from international firms to implement the programme under “one” contract for all goods, services and works. This “one” contract will have two major segments: (1) phased implementation and (2) post implementation maintenance and operational technical support. Following are the major components of the program:

1. Carry out detail systems study
2. Determine client/ user requirement
3. Design MRP, MRV, and MRNID
4. Develop business processes
5. Make recommendations reading policy changes
6. Develop procedures for the business process
7. Launch change management program
8. Carry out technical feasibility study
9. Determine functional specifications
10. Develop technical design and specifications
11. Design details LAN & WAN layouts
12. Provide detail implementation plan
13. Start production of blank MRP, MRV, MRNID
14. Customize software
15. Deploy LAN & WAN
16. Deploy all required hardware/ equipment
17. Install integrated systems for pilot test
18. Pilot test full life cycles of MRP, MRV, MRNID issuance
19. Launch management, user and technical training
20. Launch full life cycle integrated system

Full life cycle system deployment and business process will maintain the following general guidelines: Local Office – (480 locations & 69 + Foreign Missions)

1. Application information & images captured electronically

a. Foreign Missions- Visa application & images will be captured, processed and issued

1. Physical information verification for local offices located within Bangladesh

a. Foreign Missions-Divisional HQ, Dhaka will carry out all necessary verifications

1. Physical and electronic files transferred to the Divisional HQ and /or District offices

a. Foreign Missions –Dhaka Divisional HQ will coordinate Divisional Headquarters / District Offices (6+68) locations:

1. Electronic and print/ paper information validated
2. Documentation and electronic filed
3. Validated information sent to National Headquarters for issuance
4. Visa application and images captured and processed at selected Divisional HQs & Foreign Missions.

National Headquarters (1 Location):

1. Finger print checked 2. Quality control assured 3. Passport, ID produced 4. Product delivery

Other Sites:

1. Disaster Recovery Site 2. Ministry of Home Affairs 3. Passport & immigration Department 4. All passport control points in Bangladesh (airports, land ports & sea ports)

Qualification & Experience The interested firm with no subcontracting should have the following professional and financial background:

1. Minimum turnover USD 80 (eighty) million each year over last three years
2. Minimum 7 years experience in MRP, MRV and Machine readable ID card manufacturing
3. (a) Successful project implementation experience of MRP, MRV in three different countries (b) Successful project implementation experience of Machine readable ID card project in three different countries
4. Experience in setting up at least one central registration system
5. Experience in setting up MRNID or MRP project with data capturing and processing sties of 200 or more in at least one country
6. Implementation experience of one large Information Communication Technology (ICT) Project of USD 10 million or more within last 5 years including significant experience in large systems implementation and database management
7. Must have experience in providing security features for MRP, MRV and MRNID

Others Details: The interested firms must provide following information: (a) Company profile, number of offices and locations, total number of staff, association with other internationally reputed relevant firms (b) Latest audited financial report, yearly turnover, financial performance and records to show capacity to execute large ICT project (c)Description of similar assignments implemented in last 10 years including transaction volume (number of passport/ visa/ ID), contract reference details (d) Similar and/ or large ICT project implementation experience, and (e)Availability of appropriate professional qualification and experience among staff. [...] Yes indeed, this arrived via email today.

Grammar Watch

Now that the man in Italian custody has said that Iraq was the motivator that made him do what he did, perhaps we will stop hearing the absurd pager fed nonsense about atacks happening 'before 911' etc. More interestingly, his admission that his team had nothing to do with the first suicide bombers and nothing to do with 'Al Qaeda' we will now certainly see the term 'Al Qaeda' shifted from being used as noun to being used as an adjective. This will enable them to keep the 'Al Qaeda' energy flowing whilst not appearing to have lost the plot completely. Expect extensive use of phrases in the form 'Al Qaeda style attack' to begin the process, finally transorming into 'doing an Al Qaeda', and descriptions of people who have 'gone Al Qaeda' and so on. You know what an adjective is. The bogey man OBL, that phantom menace will be kept alive in this further abuse of language. Watch and listen for it.

Tearing down those knowledge walls

Tearing down those knowledge walls: "Knowledge is open source. It cannot be curtailed and has to be freely available. The concept of open source is not new. It is a subversive ideology that has been surfacing every now and then, setting it's mark on the pages of history. I am of the firm belief that money should never be made at the expense of restricting knowledge and innovation. Money can always be made by forming a services driven model around your knowledge. In the same way, the Roman Catholic Church could have continued to made billions of dollars if they had managed to keep the Bible 'licensed' from the people (which they did succeed to do, for about 1000 years!) The authors of the Quran, Mahabharata, Ramayan, Bhagwad Gita and hundreds of literary works of epic proportion could have taken the same route. But they have taught us an important lesson by giving and sharing their knowledge with the community." [...] by Shankar Iyer of Red Hat India Pvt. Ltd.