Year: 2006

The Spirit of Resistance an Anniversary

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.” – (Thomas Jefferson To Abigail Adams, 2/22/1787)

Thirty-five years ago today, a group of anonymous activists broke into the small, two-man office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Media, Pa., and stole more than 1,000 FBI documents that revealed years of systematic wiretapping, infiltration and media manipulation designed to suppress dissent. LATimes

COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) an FBI program that targeted organizations that were considered politically radical. Their operations in were discontinued in April of 1971 due to their exposure. I should state “officially” discontinued. The Church Commission”—the 1975 Senate committee on intelligence, headed by Senator Frank Church, of Idaho, which investigated C.I.A. abuses during the previous two decades brings up a familiar.

In 1971 The Citizens Committee to Investigate the FBI released secret files on the FBI’s domestic counterintelligence program, COINTELPRO, to the press, revealing that ordinary citizens had been FBI targets, as had Albert Einstein, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Martin Luther King, John Lennon and Elvis Presley.

Other interesting info found while researching this subject:

10/15/2003 an FBI Intelligence Bulletin no. 89 is sent to police departments The New York times and other media reported that this memo revealed that the federal government is advocating that local authorities spy on U.S. citizens. When the Atlanta Police Department acknowledges that it routinely places antiwar protesters under surveillance, Georgia Rep. Nan Orrock tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “This harkens back to some very dark times in our nation’s history.”

Here is the FBI’s response to the media and the original bulletin

Nixon talking to Donald Rumsfeld from the 1971 tapes:

PRESIDENT NIXON: You should be thinking down the road. My view is if we can survive, which I think we can, and do the …(inaudible), I think …(inaudible) can do, as far as I’m concerned, anything in the Cabinet field, except I wouldn’t put you in Defense. I wouldn’t put you in State, obviously, because I think those two, at this time, …(inaudible) Well, you’d have a hell of a lot more experience, but would not appear to be something that you can, or actually, you could be a …(inaudible). But in any other position, …(inaudible) HEW, HUD, Transportation, Interior– you wouldn’t want Agriculture?

RUMSFELD: No.

Even Nixon did not think Rumsfeld belonged in Defense.

lyrics to COINTELPRO by Ryan Harvey

PFOA and Teflon Vs. Grandmother’s Black Cast Iron Pan and A Bear

Now that the EPA has decided that my Teflon coated cookware (not the cheap stuff either) needs to go I might just convert back to the old cast iron ware. NO perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) lurks in my old skillet. Just think how much stronger my arms will become lifting the pans and pots off ceiling rack. Now there is another problem the rack. Ok, switch to a wall rack.

I remember how to “season” the cast iron skillets. My favorite bean pot (Dutch Oven) was recently re-seasoned. It is rather a challenge on a boring rainy day, see how well seasoned you can get your skillet, how shinny the surface is when you are done. Cast iron gets hotter than my Teflon skillets do. I always figured that settling for less browned chicken was better than stuck like glue onions and potato’s.

I have never read an article about cast iron pans being carcinogenic. My grandmothers cooking never found its way into the drinking water or polar bears. Although a California bear did get supper one night while we camped. My Grandfather banged a skillet with a spoon to scare the bear and just about everyone else in camp.

There is stainless steel cookware. However, it has been found in studies to release substances such as nickel, molybdenum, or chromium that can cause allergic reactions.
Ceramic-coated pots chip. Aluminum pans make the food taste funny.

My egg skillets coating has reached its end of proper functioning. I guess I will visit the local thrift store and buy one of the cast iron skillets like the one I donated years ago.

Sometimes to progress forward you have to look backwards.

dutch oven picture

Superhydrophobicity – say what?

superhydrophobicity

With GE’s new Super-Repellent Plastic, self-washing buildings, cheap diagnostic chips, and free-flowing honey jars are possible.

superhydrophilicity

Since 1995

Used in products that defog glass and enable oil spots to be swept away with water. Such materials are already commercialized as door mirrors for cars, coatings for buildings.
The surface can be reversibly switched from being superhydrophilic to being superhydrophobic with a very small change in temperature.

The Botnets Are Busy

The bots are marching on, and on, and on, as my firewall log screen is almost rolling. Yesterday and the day before, I had more warnings in one hour than I usually get in one day. The botnet was working overtime.

A botnet is a collection of computers that are running programs ( usually worms, Trojan horses) on computers that have been compromised/infected and are now under the control of someone else other than their owner. They discreetly take hold of a user’s computer on and remain hidden while they launch their malicious attacks. Typically, a botnet can range in size between 10,000 and 100,000 infected machines.

I traced back (ping) the source IP addresses in my warning log and a pattern emerged. Almost all of attempts originated in China – no surprise there. But, what is going on that all of a sudden I see this increase and is it happening all over or did my poor little computer let down it’s guard long enough to get noticed?

Tue Mar 7, Reuters, in an article titled “Cyber criminals stepping up targeted attacks”

“China is also fast turning into a major source of botnet attacks likely due to the rapid growth in broadband Internet connections there, the report said.
During the last six months of the year, botnet attacks originating in China soared 153 percent, which is 72 percentage points above the average increase, the report said.

I read an article a while back (can not remember where, sorry) that made a case supporting the idea that this problem would grow in proportion to the Chinese governments censorship of it’s citizens internet access. The more desperately the citizens wanted to find a way past government controls on access more botnets would be created. More firewall warnings and infections of Western computer systems would lead to the Western worlds blocking of Chinese IP addresses. And round and round it would go. A firewall of it’s own.
Make sure your firewall is properly set up, and, anti virus and operating systems have the latest updates installed. And, do not use your dogs name as a password for your blog.

Check your firewall security here: Shieldsup

Create a secure password here: Password Checker Mircrosoft

Live information on latest threats: DShield

Just one of the IP’s that have busy with my firewall has 383126 reports of abuse against it at one reporting service.