Easter Island: Mystery solved.

tc Uncategorized
The Polynesians came from the Marquesas, heading for Hawaii.  They made many trips; but on at least one of those trips the navigator missed a beat and found Easter Island instead.  The sea is rough there…it's hard to fish and almost impossible to escape once you land.

There was no hardwood on Easter Island and coconut rafts are not particularly seaworthy.  So they began sculpting and displaying their work in places it was visible from the sea.  They hoped to attract the attention of another voyaging canoe which might send help.  We do not know whether or not help arrived.  We don't know if the last Easter Islanders went back to the Marquesas, came to Hawaii, or simply perished.

But we do know why they made the monoliths…because there is no other possible explanation.

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Current events, chapter one.

tc Uncategorized
I doubt these are available to reference.  Some are logical constructs based upon what is available to the public and industry insiders. Don't bother arguing your opinion to me.  If you disagree, wait and see.

Chapter one begins

CHINA

As of 2010 the US is not the only superpower.  China now outclasses us in fighter aircraft and equals us as a nuclear power.  They have weapons operational can which defeat our super-carriers before those carriers can become effective by closing to within the operating range, even with two air-refuelings, of a land target. So far these weapons are non-nuclear and have not been exported from China.  Russia has almost the equivalent missile.  We are trying to make one, but neither China nor Russia have carriers.

As an aside, EVERY bit of American technology, no matter how classified, and every bit of Russian technology has been obtained by China and is being used as a basis for next-fen weapons systems, whereas in the US it IS the nex-gen weapons systems.  That is to say that China is, and shall continue to be at least one generation of tactical and strategic weapons ahead of us going forward.

The Chinese now have the most powerful supercomputer in the world online, the most efficient, safe and advanced nuclear generation facilities, and is building fast attack submarines and boomers.  In 2007, a Chinese Song Class Diesel-electric  submarine popped up next to the US carrier Kitty Hawk during exercises in the Pacific. The Chinese submarine got by ELEVEN screening vessels undetected and caused the navy to shit a brick.   I do not have any current information on the capabilities of the new Chinese nuclear attack boats but my understanding is that they exceed the capabilities of the Russian Akula II and US Los Angeles class boats.  The Chinese, being pragmatic, are likely concentrating on completely silent diesel-electric boats which can be built by the dozen for the cost of a nuclear powered boat.  D/E boats don't have the range of nukes, but they command the same attack capabilities.  

The US is down the path of huge, nuclear-powered carriers and submarines.  Having a few super-ships is a fine plan if you are invulnerable to attack. But if someone can put twenty or thirty completely silent attack subs in the water, any of which can take out another sub or a carrier, you have lost the game simply through attrition.

I have a study of Chinese capabilities in the works but it is being outdated faster than I can keep up.  The bottom line:

The US can never face China in a war because they own us. The simple reality is that China ALLOWS the United States to continue as a nation by loaning us a billion dollars a day just to keep our economy afloat.  They (and Japan) own most of our debt.  They can bankrupt the country in an hour.  They know it and we know it. So when they decide to take back Taiwan, we will let them.  When they decide to squish the Philippines, we will let them.  And when they decide to exercise their power, all our base are belong to them.

(1) The US cannot guarantee or even expect to command air superiority against China or Chinese aircraft.
     (a) Current Chinese fighter aircraft are at least one generation ahead of current US aircraft and continue to move out in front.
(2) The US cannot rely on US carrier air power in areas contested by the Chinese.
     (a) The Chinese DF 21-series mach 10 anti-ship missile is not defeatable by the US. 
(3) The US cannot retaliate against China with nuclear weapons.
     (a) China will not use nuclear weapons first; their strategic policy doesn't require it.
     (b) China DOES have a full retaliatory capability if the US used a nuclear weapon.
     (c) The age of huge strategic nuclear weapons is about over. China doesn't need to use them. They can simply pick off out ships using conventional and, if necessary, disposable hardware and we can no longer project power. 

THE ECONOMY

I really believed that Barack Obama was going to turn the country around.  It was time for a leader, it was time for a change, and it was time to turn us back to pre-crazy policies. He is not the person for the job.  He broke EVERY one of his campaign promises, kept most of the criminals from the Bush administration in his administration, and gave the job of repairing the economy to two of the bastards who ruined it in the first place.  Geithner and Summers are Clinton AND Bush retreads and they  can't fix it. Unfortunately, no one can.

Now we see that unemployment is going to continue to rise; that housing is going to keep tanking for years to come, and that the dreaded 'double dip' recession is merely the beginning of the Depression.  Everyone know it's happening, so everyone (big business, the richest 1%, elected leaders)  are stealing all the money they can before it happens and jockeying for political power so they will be immune to the draconial laws they will pass to keep the tax slaves under control when the food riots break out.

So the White House is run by fear and polls and is completely ineffective.  The many wonderful new things Obama has delivered are meaningless.  One cannot force people to but mandatory health insurance when over 10% (and I am guessing closer to 20%) of the population is unemployed…and 46 states are bankrupt and slashing public services… and the federal government survives only by borrowing a billion dollars a day from China.

The problem is that the previous administrations, going back to Nixon, screwed the country up so badly it cannot be fixed.  That's all there is to it.  We are riding the coattails of prosperity down and there is no bottom.  And no safety net.


The End of The Constitution

The government is dysfunctional.  All three branches; and they are all immune from prosecution. The Supremes now say that corporations may donate as much 'quiet' money as they like to get their pawns elected and a seat in congress is going for about $100 million.  Congress cannot pass ANY reasonable legislation, and no one seems to have the power to stop the wars in Afghanistan and the failed war on drugs, or close Gitmo, or give all Americans equal rights, or tone down the intelligence community's internal spying.  We spy on Americans more than we spy on the rest of the world. 

In fact, it is now illegal to videotape police officers doing illegal things OR AT ALL, or to whistle-blow about criminal activities or military corruption or war crimes….but police have video cameras in their cars and, now, on their person.  Why are civilians committing a crime by videotaping the same thing the police are?  

We are committing war crimes which are much worse than Saddam ever committed.  What's up that the US Coast Guard threatens reporters with arrest for being in a public place on US soil?  That happened because BP owns the Coast Guard and, apparently, the White House…because Obama was tepid at best during the BP disaster and is now trying to pretend it didn't happen. 

We are fast-forwarding to another civil war.  Half the population is preparing for it.  The other half don't believe it's possible…like they don't believe global warming is actually happening.  Like they don't believe we can overpopulate the earth.  Like they don't believe we can really kill all the fish in the seas.

Wrong.  All of that is happening and we can't stop it.

Chapter one ends.

Posted via email from Thus knowledge flows like water

Current events, chapter one.

tc Uncategorized
I doubt these are available to reference.  Some are logical constructs based upon what is available to the public and industry insiders. Don't bother arguing your opinion to me.  If you disagree, wait and see.

Chapter one begins

CHINA

As of 2010 the US is not the only superpower.  China now outclasses us in fighter aircraft and equals us as a nuclear power.  They have weapons operational can which defeat our super-carriers before those carriers can become effective by closing to within the operating range, even with two air-refuelings, of a land target. So far these weapons are non-nuclear and have not been exported from China.  Russia has almost the equivalent missile.  We are trying to make one, but neither China nor Russia have carriers.

As an aside, EVERY bit of American technology, no matter how classified, and every bit of Russian technology has been obtained by China and is being used as a basis for next-fen weapons systems, whereas in the US it IS the nex-gen weapons systems.  That is to say that China is, and shall continue to be at least one generation of tactical and strategic weapons ahead of us going forward.

The Chinese now have the most powerful supercomputer in the world online, the most efficient, safe and advanced nuclear generation facilities, and is building fast attack submarines and boomers.  In 2007, a Chinese Song Class Diesel-electric  submarine popped up next to the US carrier Kitty Hawk during exercises in the Pacific. The Chinese submarine got by ELEVEN screening vessels undetected and caused the navy to shit a brick.   I do not have any current information on the capabilities of the new Chinese nuclear attack boats but my understanding is that they exceed the capabilities of the Russian Akula II and US Los Angeles class boats.  The Chinese, being pragmatic, are likely concentrating on completely silent diesel-electric boats which can be built by the dozen for the cost of a nuclear powered boat.  D/E boats don't have the range of nukes, but they command the same attack capabilities.  

The US is down the path of huge, nuclear-powered carriers and submarines.  Having a few super-ships is a fine plan if you are invulnerable to attack. But if someone can put twenty or thirty completely silent attack subs in the water, any of which can take out another sub or a carrier, you have lost the game simply through attrition.

I have a study of Chinese capabilities in the works but it is being outdated faster than I can keep up.  The bottom line:

The US can never face China in a war because they own us. The simple reality is that China ALLOWS the United States to continue as a nation by loaning us a billion dollars a day just to keep our economy afloat.  They (and Japan) own most of our debt.  They can bankrupt the country in an hour.  They know it and we know it. So when they decide to take back Taiwan, we will let them.  When they decide to squish the Philippines, we will let them.  And when they decide to exercise their power, all our base are belong to them.

(1) The US cannot guarantee or even expect to command air superiority against China or Chinese aircraft.
     (a) Current Chinese fighter aircraft are at least one generation ahead of current US aircraft and continue to move out in front.
(2) The US cannot rely on US carrier air power in areas contested by the Chinese.
     (a) The Chinese DF 21-series mach 10 anti-ship missile is not defeatable by the US. 
(3) The US cannot retaliate against China with nuclear weapons.
     (a) China will not use nuclear weapons first; their strategic policy doesn't require it.
     (b) China DOES have a full retaliatory capability if the US used a nuclear weapon.
     (c) The age of huge strategic nuclear weapons is about over. China doesn't need to use them. They can simply pick off out ships using conventional and, if necessary, disposable hardware and we can no longer project power. 

THE ECONOMY

I really believed that Barack Obama was going to turn the country around.  It was time for a leader, it was time for a change, and it was time to turn us back to pre-crazy policies. He is not the person for the job.  He broke EVERY one of his campaign promises, kept most of the criminals from the Bush administration in his administration, and gave the job of repairing the economy to two of the bastards who ruined it in the first place.  Geithner and Summers are Clinton AND Bush retreads and they  can't fix it. Unfortunately, no one can.

Now we see that unemployment is going to continue to rise; that housing is going to keep tanking for years to come, and that the dreaded 'double dip' recession is merely the beginning of the Depression.  Everyone know it's happening, so everyone (big business, the richest 1%, elected leaders)  are stealing all the money they can before it happens and jockeying for political power so they will be immune to the draconial laws they will pass to keep the tax slaves under control when the food riots break out.

So the White House is run by fear and polls and is completely ineffective.  The many wonderful new things Obama has delivered are meaningless.  One cannot force people to but mandatory health insurance when over 10% (and I am guessing closer to 20%) of the population is unemployed…and 46 states are bankrupt and slashing public services… and the federal government survives only by borrowing a billion dollars a day from China.

The problem is that the previous administrations, going back to Nixon, screwed the country up so badly it cannot be fixed.  That's all there is to it.  We are riding the coattails of prosperity down and there is no bottom.  And no safety net.


The End of The Constitution

The government is dysfunctional.  All three branches; and they are all immune from prosecution. The Supremes now say that corporations may donate as much 'quiet' money as they like to get their pawns elected and a seat in congress is going for about $100 million.  Congress cannot pass ANY reasonable legislation, and no one seems to have the power to stop the wars in Afghanistan and the failed war on drugs, or close Gitmo, or give all Americans equal rights, or tone down the intelligence community's internal spying.  We spy on Americans more than we spy on the rest of the world. 

In fact, it is now illegal to videotape police officers doing illegal things OR AT ALL, or to whistle-blow about criminal activities or military corruption or war crimes….but police have video cameras in their cars and, now, on their person.  Why are civilians committing a crime by videotaping the same thing the police are?  

We are committing war crimes which are much worse than Saddam ever committed.  What's up that the US Coast Guard threatens reporters with arrest for being in a public place on US soil?  That happened because BP owns the Coast Guard and, apparently, the White House…because Obama was tepid at best during the BP disaster and is now trying to pretend it didn't happen. 

We are fast-forwarding to another civil war.  Half the population is preparing for it.  The other half don't believe it's possible…like they don't believe global warming is actually happening.  Like they don't believe we can overpopulate the earth.  Like they don't believe we can really kill all the fish in the seas.

Wrong.  All of that is happening and we can't stop it.

Chapter one ends.

Posted via email from Thus knowledge flows like water

The Republican party is now officially the party of insanity.

tc Uncategorized
Dois being processed…

Dan Maes, Colorado Gubernatorial Candidate, Warns Of U.N. Plot To Destroy America With Bike-Sharing Programs

This week, former Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) “made good on his threat” to jump into the race for the Colorado statehouse after a prolonged temper tantrum about how unsatisfied he is with the GOP's two candidates for the nomination, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes. Tancredo — who will run under the auspices of the American Constitution Party — immediately threw the GOP's designs on the governor's race into stunning disarray: polls indicate that Tancredo would divide the state's conservatives nearly in half, paving the way for a John Hickenlooper victory.

Dan Maes, however, isn't going down without a fight, and has apparently decided to go all out in competition for Tancredo's natural constituency — ridiculous xenophobes. So, what crazy paranoia over the creeping menace of foreigners is Maes fearmongering about? Let's ask the Denver Post:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are “converting Denver into a United Nations community.”

I'm sorry, what?

“This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed,” Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.

Okay, here's the mystery that Maes alone has penetrated. Denver is a member in something called the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. They've been a member since 1992. It is an “international association that promotes sustainable development.” One of the things that contributes to sustainability and an overall pleasant quality of life is a bike-sharing program called “B-Cycle” which has taken donations and grant monies to make 400 bicycles available for the residents of Denver to tool around on when the spirit moves them. Hickenlooper has praised the program so Maes is trying to make the case that it's a UN plot to deprive people of “freedom.”

Also, as Charlie Eisenhood points out over at ThinkProgress, maybe this is the Obamacare of bicycles, or something?

Just last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood — a former Republican member of Congress — visited Denver, strapped on a helmet to take a bike ride through town, and called the bicycle-sharing program “a model for America.”

So, in other words, Dan Maes is deeply, unquenchably crazy. But will he be able to out cray-cray Tancredo? Westword's Michael Roberts offers Maes some suggestions on where to go from here, including doing something about Denver-area “Best Buy outlets still selling TV remotes with SAP buttons, nefariously promoting languages other than 'Merican.”

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Stuxnet: Serious business.

tc Uncategorized

Stuxnet Attack Shows Signs of Nation-State Involvement, Experts Say

SAN FRANCISCO–The Stuxnet attack has been making headlines for several weeks now, thanks to the fact that includes a pair of zero-day vulnerabilities and also has drivers signed by a stolen digital certificate. However, the real story of this novel malware attack may not be its tactics but its creator, which security experts say could be a nation-state.

Virtually all of the malware that's prevalent on the Internet today is designed with one goal in mind, and that's to make money for its creators. Banker Trojans, bot clients, rootkits, keyloggers, they all are meant to make money, either directly or indirectly. Some malware, such as banker Trojans and keyloggers, cut right to the chase and simply steal online banking credentials and other financial information. Others, such as bot clients, are pieces of larger puzzle in which the attackers make money either through renting slices of the botnet to other attackers or by threatening to launch DDoS attacks against a specific site unless the owner pays a fee.

Attackers and malware writers have become very adept at finding new ways to make money over the years, and the risk of prosecution is very low in most cases. That's one of the reasons that the Stuxnet malware stands out: there's no clear immediate financial gain for its creators. The Stuxnet attack is designed to be as stealthy as possible and targets mainly SCADA systems, some of the highest value machines in the world.

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The attack exploits a zero-day vulnerability in the way that all currently supported versions of Windows handle LNK files and is spread initially through USB sticks. Once an infected USB drive is attached to a PC, the attack on the machine is essentially automatic and there is little indication to the user that anything bad has happened. But that's just one piece of the puzzle. Stuxnet also exploits a vulnerability in Siemens' WinCC SCADA control software, which runs on industrial control systems in utilities, power plants, manufacturing facilities and other key environments.Once on the machines, the malware attempts to contact a remote server and join a botnet.

Stuxnet's sophistication and its lack of any real money-making component are leading experts to believe the attack is likely the work of a national government or intelligence agency.

“This is the most sophisticated attack that we have seen to date, by far,” Roel Schouwenberg, a malware researcher at Kaspersky Lab, said at the company's Virus Analyst Summit here Tuesday. “The involvement of a nation-state is the most likely scenario. This is a highly advanced attack.”

The topic of national governments and intelligence agencies being involved in offensive attacks online has been a touchy one for years, and while many security experts and analysts say that it's simply a fact of life in the modern world, there has been little in the way of evidence of actual attacks.

Microsoft issued an emergency patch for the LNK flaw on Monday, after reports surfaced of other existing malware families, such as Sality, beginning to exploit the flaw, as well. In addition to the USB exploitation method, the LNK flaw also can be exploited via a drive-by download.

Schouwenberg, who has been researching Stuxnet for several weeks, said that although the first public reports of the malware's existence only appeared in recent weeks, he now believes the malware itself is much older.

“We went back and looked at our samples and found Stuxnet samples from 2009,” he said. “No one knows what it was doing before it became public a few weeks ago.”

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Population optimum.

tc Uncategorized
I tend to think in terms of a global population optimum.  My best guess is that there WAS a global population optimum of 3 billion and a global maximum of 3.2 billion.  If populations had stabilized at 1960 levels (3b) we would have had unlimited natural resources for thousands of years.  We are now at 7 billion.  We are almost out of water, the oceans are empty shitholes and every government is corrupt through greed.  We cannot sustain what we have, even with factory farms, GMO crops and chemical fertilizer. More energy, more food and more water will simply have the effect of creating more people.

But no one stopped it because reproduction is our prime natural directive.  Now we have used up all the things that can't be replaced.  Even the agriculture is failing because the soil is depleted.  And still we don't stop.  Bow we are 'hydrofracking' to get a few more barrels of oil and managing to poison the adjacent aquifers.  We are allowing the destruction of our entire ecosystem because the oil companies simply buy the regulations they want.  Their thinking is exactly like tobacco companies. It doesn't matter how many people we kill because there will always be a market.

We will never stop ourselves but nature will stop us…with our help….as we are seeing now. By 2020 mass dieoffs will be the norm, weather will be unpredictable and very severe. And people will do what people always do when they don't know what else to do:  find someone to blame and kill them.

It's no good saying that if there were no firearms none of this could happen. Firearms are not that effective at large scales. If they were, no one would need cannons or aircraft or bombs or mortars or nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

In fact, firearms are less effective than edged weapons.  Their only advantage is that they potentially make everyone in the fight equal. Before that equality existed, the stronger, younger, more experienced warrior won – so in order to have a society, you had to hire warriors for your side to protect you from plunderers. We still have those in the form of police and the military, but there are so many people that the police can't get there BEFORE the crime.  All they can do is try to catch the person who killed you and your family.  The odds are even that they never will.

So women, by nature, want peace and love life and babies and butterflies and want to populate the world.  They are good at it. They are TOO good at it.  Men want to go off and engage in dangerous sports which have, for the most part, displaced their natural instincts to hunt and fight. I like farming and raising little animals and watching vegetables grow.  Kids, not so much anymore because kids are out of control and the parents are either oblivious or irresponsible and don't teach their kids to shut up and listen instead of scream until they get what they want.  That's the way the parents were raised and their kids are just like them.  They do not understand that actions have consequences.

So I like to farm and pull weeds and smell tomato plants and enjoy the quiet and solitude…but I do it while quietly armed.  For I am no longer young and I could easily be mistaken for easy pickens by someone who, for reasons I can't know wants my truck or my crop or has an excess of adrenaline, had an argument with his girl and just wants to hurt someone.  That happens a lot. A lot more than you hear about.

After months of agonizing about going further into debt to prepare for the depression I believe is here, I finally jumped.  I started selling my 'spare' firearms.  I traded some for the long-term lease of another farm.  I sold or am selling all the ones I will never use, and optimizing the ones I may have a use for.

To not prepare yourself for all eventualities; to leave your life in the hands of the government and to believe that the country and economy is actually sustainable is a fool's errand.  No one is in charge and no one has a viable plan to save us.  You had better be prepared to save yourself. Now. Today.  When it stops, it will stop all at once.

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Physics Today: Small nuclear reactors.

tc Uncategorized
Yes, I DID help design it.  No, I didn't get any money.  OK, I didn't help design it.  I helped by telling the people who designed it that some of their ideas were fucked up until they changed them.  If YOU have an idea, submit it to me.  I'll tell you what is wrong with the idea, your pedigree, the world at large, and supermarket tomatoes.

http://ptonline.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_63/iss_8/25_1.shtml?type=PTALERT&bypassSSO=1

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