Liberty & Geekery

The Very Heavens Welcome Obama to Norway

GeekHeretic — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:31:47 +0000

Stossel on Obamacare

GeekHeretic — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:41:57 +0000

Feds Query Sprint Customer Location Data 8 Million Times int the Last Year

GeekHeretic — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:10:11 +0000

Once again your phone is spying on you. Sprint created a service to allow law enforcement to query customer GPS data because they could not keep up with the number of requests. According to a Sprint rep this service has been accessed over 8 million times in the last year according to the Wired Threat Level Story.

The story goes on to state that there are only 4 valid circumstances for law enforcement to request this data.

1) under the authority of a court order;

2) to track the location of a customer who has made a 911 call;

3) in an emergency situation, such as tracking someone lost in the wilderness or trying to locate an abducted child or hostage;

4) with a customer’s consent.

Most like it is under point 4 that these requests have been made. You might want to read over you service agreement again. There is probably some fine print legaleze which grants law enforcement open access.

Sprint right now is the smallest of the big 3 carriers in the US. One can only wonder what the stats for Verizon or AT&T might be.

Chuck Norris - Clamate Change Leads to NWO

GeekHeretic — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:01:16 +0000

AGW - The Consensus Lie - Hackers crack IPCC Email

GeekHeretic — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:46:48 +0000

The Wall Street Journal, NYT and others are reporting about a large amount of cracked emails posted to the internet detailing the unethical promotion of man made global warming.

Some emails also refer to efforts by scientists who believe man is causing global warming to exclude contrary views from important scientific publications.

"This is horrible," said Pat Michaels, a climate scientist at the Cato Institute in Washington who is mentioned negatively in the emails. "This is what everyone feared. Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult for anyone who does not view global warming as an end-of-the-world issue to publish papers. This isn't questionable practice, this is unethical."

In all, more than 1,000 emails and more than 2,000 other documents were stolen Thursday from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University in the U.K. The identity of the hackers isn't certain, but the files were posted on a Russian file-sharing server late Thursday, and university officials confirmed over the weekend that their computer had been attacked and said the documents appeared to be genuine.

The IPCC couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

In one email, Benjamin Santer from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., wrote to the director of the climate-study center that he was "tempted to beat" up Mr. Michaels. Mr. Santer couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.

In another, Phil Jones, the director of the East Anglia climate center, suggested to climate scientist Michael Mann of Penn State University that skeptics' research was unwelcome: We "will keep them out somehow -- even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" Neither man could be reached for comment Sunday.

The emails were published less than a month before the opening of a major climate-change summit in Copenhagen.

Representatives of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a large professional organization, expressed concern that the hacked emails would weaken global resolve to curb greenhouse-gas emissions. The association believes "that climate change is real, it is related to human activities, and the need to counteract its impacts is now urgent," said Ginger Pinholster, an association spokeswoman. She added that the association's journal, Science, evaluates papers solely on scientific merit.

John Christy, a scientist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville attacked in the emails for asking that an IPCC report include dissenting viewpoints, said, "It's disconcerting to realize that legislative actions this nation is preparing to take, and which will cost trillions of dollars, are based upon a view of climate that has not been completely scientifically tested."

Mojib Latif, a climate researcher at Germany's Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, said he found it hard to believe that climate scientists were trying to squelch dissent. Mr. Latif, who believes in man-made global warming but who has co-authored a paper ascribing current cooling to temporary natural trends, said, "I simply can't believe that there is a kind of mafia that is trying to inhibit critical papers from being published."

Also included in the pirated email is numerous discussions about cleaning up email trails to prevent information from getting out. As the article points out this could not happen at a worst time for the Pro AGW crowd since Copenhagen is only a few weeks away.

Update

Bishop Hill has links to the hacked documents and a description of each here.

Government for Sale... Cheap

GeekHeretic — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:17:44 +0000

The Huffington Post has an article outlining how 25 of the top bailout receipients have thus far spent 71 million on lobbying against such reforms as The Credit Card Reform Act, and the abillity for bankruptcy lawyers to renegotiate mortgages. The New York Times and Reuters have artices outlining out about 40 congressmen 20 from each party, used the same talking points and verbiage when discussing health care reform. Which isn't a problem except the talking points were provided by Genentech lobbyist.

Now that the Senate has passed the healthcare act out of commitee - which looks to be the biggest windfall for insurance companies ever - have you begun to realize how important it is to stand up and vote these people out of office yet? The Congress and Senate both openly accept cash contributions for supporting the viewpoints as provided by lobbyists. Yet even though this is the case, over and over again they are voted back into office.

Pay attention folks, vote em out, because otherwise you are getting what you deserve.

Thank You Former President Bush

GeekHeretic — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:32:18 +0000

My friend Jim over at Critical Bookwork sent me a link to an article over at hillbuz. Its a moving article thanking President Bush from a bunch of former Bush Bashers. Its worth a read if nothing else to remind ourselves that no matter your opinion on the guy, President Bush had a decent heart in him. The comments are worth a read as well.

CNBC - New World Order Now Primetime

GeekHeretic — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:38:53 +0000

Check out from about 1:14 on.

UK - ISP's and Telco's Required to Track Your Digital Life

GeekHeretic — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:56:54 +0000

London Telegraph has an article about how British ISP's and Telco's are required by law to keep a record of every customers personal communications showing who they contact, when and where, what websites they visit. This information will be made available to 653 public bodoes including police, local councils, Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, Fire Department, even prison wardens.

The best part of the artricle is the ironic statement

Ministers had originally wanted to store the information on a single government-run database, but chose not to because of privacy concerns.

Think it can't happen in the states? Check out the latest go around with IndyMedia.us when the Justice Departement demanded all records of visitors for June 25 then demanded that the site keep mum about the request. The UK is just a little further along then the US.

Nancy Pelosi - What Tenth Amendment?

GeekHeretic — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:22:07 +0000

Over on the tenth admendment center they have a great write up on Nancy Pelosi's response to the idea that a state could refuse to participate in Obamacare.

A state is free to refuse the support and refuse to assist the federal government in administering the program, but Congress can authorize the federal government to administer the program on its own. Thus, Congress cannot force a state to administer a health insurance exchange, but it can authorize the federal government to administer such an exchange in any state that declines to do so

Basically a state is within its rights to refuse, but the federal government will ignore it and run it themselves.

Ron Paul HR 1207 Update - Worth a watch.

GeekHeretic — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:22:27 +0000

EM Drive

GeekHeretic — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:23:37 +0000

Inventor Roger Sawyer want's to conquer gravity. If the video above is legit, it looks like he is on his way. He has come up with a theory and working prototype and is looking to take it to the next step. So far his theory has been scoffed at by the scientists and space agencies around the world. This doesn't seem to phase Sawyer who also reports that the Chinese is working on a prototype of their own.

Looks pretty cool, hopefully this will shut Avery Brooks up.

Update

New Scientist has a much more indepth article here.

Hoffman gets 46%

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:49:09 +0000

Doug Hoffman who ran under the Conservative Party in NY's 23 distict has conceded the race to Bill Owens. This race was controversial because the local GOP was supporting Dede Scozzafava (who withdrew last weekend and still got 5%) who is a "moderate" republican.

Scozzafava withdrew on saturday and promptly threw her support behind Bill Owens the democratic candidate. Owens garnered 49% of the vote for the win.

The GOP needs to figure out whether they are a democratic light party or a conservative party. The lack of focus on this race and the lack of support for a true conservative, cost them a seat.

This brings NY's republican seats down to 2 districts. Personally I think Hoffman ran a great race, and his strong showing gives hope for other third party candidates.

Ron Paul - HR 1207 Gutted

GeekHeretic — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:48:42 +0000

With most Americans outraged over the behavior of the Federal Reserve and the part it has played in the bailouts of huge institutions in the financial and automotive industries, Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1207, which would have required a full audit of the Federal Reserve and its activities, which crosses international lines.
According to Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, the House Financial Service Committee’s panel on domestic monetary policy, Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., essentially stripped the bill of just about everything that would have required transparency, and pretty much is now worthless as to its original purpose of letting the American people and Congress see what their secretive dealings have entailed.

After Watt got hold of the bill, it no longer includes the communications reports between the reserve banks and its various workers, and also the Board. What was especially wanted to be seen was what types of deals were made with foreign central banks and how recent bailout money was spent and what banks received it and how much. Paul asserts those loopholes, which had been closed in the original language of the bill, are now reopened.

Citing a telephone interview with Paul, Bloomberg reported Paul said about the revised bill: “There’s nothing left; it’s been gutted. This is not a partisan issue. People all over the country want to know what the Fed is up to, and this legislation was supposed to help them do that.

More information here

Ukraine Flu-And Then it Turns Ugly

GeekHeretic — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:28:47 +0000

There are numerous reports of a far nastier flu like illness striking the Ukraine. The disease may or may not be swine flu or an as yet unidentified pneumonia illness.

The country is currently is full panic mode and shutting down schools and movie theatres. Even more interesting is the number of broken links this story is creating. Take for example this link which was live yesterday and dead today. Instead this link replaces it. Unfortunately the original text isn't around to compare. I have a few other links which worked yesterday but have died today. Whats being changed in these stories?

The Ukraine has also restricted travel and has seen numerous deaths. Keep an eye on this, it may be a far nastier bug than our current piggy flu.

Movies for Halloween - Death of a Ghost Hunter

GeekHeretic — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:11:06 +0000

The idea of a gore fest for Halloween has bored me of late, I found myself digging for a good supernatural thriller last night and came across this indie. Done in the style of Blair Witch this flick follows a paranomal investigation in 2002 which killed the team of investigators.

The investigation follows the team as they spend 3 days in the Masterson house. A notoriously haunted home which was the scene of a number of grisly murders several years before.

I'm a little late to the party on this one, it came out in 2007 and won a few awards for writing. I can understand the writting winning an award. The movie is fairly tightly written and contains a few decent scares. Despite the low budget, the effects are well done.

The acting is a bit off putting however, it comes accross as stiff and awkward. I will grant that this may have been intentional as the film was intended to convey amateurs filming a ghost hunt, so I will grant them the benefit of the doubt.

On the whole I enjoyed the flick, it kept my interest throughout, and was enough of a scare to make me jump a couple of times. Give it a shot, its a free rent these days on Netflix streaming.

Heres the link on IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1160317/

Worth a Listen - Healthcare Podcast

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:08:01 +0000

Phileas Club is a podcast run by Patrick Bajas a French National with a vaguely tech bend. It's an interesting podcast because he assembles people from around the world then discusses what is largely American issues.

The latest podcast covers healthcare and has panelists from Argentina, Netherlands, Sweden, Canada and France as well as a representative from the US. It is a fascinating listen to see what people with out a political ax to grind really think about their system.

http://frenchspin.com/en/2009/10/phileas-s4-healthcare-for-dummies/

Canadian Dollar to Reach Parity With US Dollar

GeekHeretic — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:32:58 +0000

The Canadian economy is growing the US economy is tanking, and the result is by year end a 60% chance of the Canadian Dollar hitting parity with the US according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile Washington is still debating on how to spend even more money.

WSJ - US Debt to hit 100% of GDP in 2011

GeekHeretic — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:17:27 +0000

WSJ online has a scary article outlining where the economy will be in 2011. Our debt will have risen at that point to at least 100% of our GDP. In their view this will drive more and more investors out of US dollar backed investments.

Unprecedented spending, unending fiscal deficits, unconscionable
accumulations of government debt: These are the trends that are shaping
America's financial future. And since loose monetary policy and a weak
U.S. dollar are part of the mix, apparently, it's no wonder people
around the world are searching for an alternative form of money in
which to calculate and preserve their own wealth.

Worth a read, and even if gold has hit an all time high against the dollar, it still may be the best bet. A few economists are starting to say it may go as high as 5000. Taking the cue from the fine folks over at QandO this investor has started buying gold.

A Lobyist by Any Other Name....Obama's Ag Apoointments

GeekHeretic — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:54:50 +0000

From a corporate standpoint lobbyist petition Washington on your behalf so that the executives and other "productive" people don't have to. When it comes to promoting your interest whats even better than a lobbyist? Actually getting one of your executives a key slot in the current administration.

Just ask Monsanto and CropLife who both had senior execs tapped this past weekend. Monsanto's Roger Beachy has been selected as the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture chief. And Isalm Suddiqui has been nominated as the Chief Agricultural Negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative's office.

As Fast Company puts it.

This is puzzling news. A representative of a company with a stronghold
on the GMO market is being put in charge of distributing almost $500
million in USDA grants and research funding. And CropLife, which
admonished Michelle Obama for not using pesticides in the White House
Garden, is going to be in charge of opening foreign markets to
U.S.-grown (and pesticide-covered) crops.

So much for that post Nobel buzz.

Obama - Nobel Peace Prize Winner?

GeekHeretic — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:01:21 +0000

Bloomberg and others are reporting that the Prez has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Politics and personal opinion aside, what has President Obama done to deserve this honor? To quote the committee.

“The Nobel Committee has in particular looked at Obama’s
vision and work toward a world without atomic weapons,”
Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the five-member Nobel committee
said in an interview broadcast on Norway’s TV2 today. “Obama
has as president created a new climate in international
politics.”

I am not a fan of most of Obama's domestic policies, but on the Foreign front he has not seemed much of a player yet. Was there a crisis or international incident I missed? Did he fly around the world and gather all the nuclear missiles last night and throw them into the sun while America was snug in our beds?

Presidents with substantial track records, and dedication to world peace I can see gaining this award, heck it took Carter 30 years before he was acknowledged. This is bizarre.

FTC Blogging Ruling - Much Ado About Nothing

GeekHeretic — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:20:59 +0000

I am not a fan of government intervention - In case the rest of this blog did not give you a clue. So when I came across the Q and O article entitled

"BREAKING: Government Figures Out how to Shut Down Blogs" I was naturally worried. Blogs as a whole are a major source of news and analysis and will often report stories that the mainstream publications are slow to pick up on. The FTC ruling in question indicates that a blog must disclose when they receive anything for free in relationship to their blogging. The Q and O article can be best summed up by the closing paragraph

The main thing to remember here is that free speech is not nearly as
important as protecting the public from some blogger who doesn’t
disclose that he got a free review copy of the book to read, in order
to write the review. And, of course, you’re all too stupid and venal
to protect yourselves from the danger to the republic that freebies to
bloggers represent.

The purpose of the FTC ruling as I read it is to eliminate confusion between paid endorsements (no matter how that payment is made) and honest reviews. The gist is if you are receiving some sort of reward (even a free copy of a program) you should indicate that in your review. This type of disclosure is one of the reasons people were up in arms about the David Pogue review of the new OSX release Snow Leopard. Mr. Pogue stands to make a fair amount of money selling books about using Snow Leopard, and this could potentially effect his New York Times Review of the product. Its not that folks don't trust Dave, its just that his potential profit in making you wan't to run out and buy a copy of Snow Leopard should be disclosed.

This is no different then celebrities who need to indicate when they were paid for their endorsement, and to be frank, I don't mind this sort of disclosure. I think the Q and O article in this case is a bit overstated. Contrast the "End of Blogosphere" attitude at Q and O with the position of Search Engine Watch which acknowledges there is some grey area's in the disclosure definition (for example ad networks may place targeted ad's on a blog which now would be obligated to disclose that) but generally thinks this is a good thing for the reader. In the long run I expect that the targeted ad's aspect of the regulation will be resolved by some legal fine print at the bottom of the page.

Goldman Sachs - Risk is Good

GeekHeretic — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:30:49 +0000

NY Times is reporting that despite claims of reform and tighter controls on the banking system, Goldman Sachs (the Treasury Department's default talent pool) has actually increased its Value at Risk numbers since the beginning of the crisis.

A brief glance at a metric known as VAR or “value at risk,” which ostensibly measures the amount of money an institution could lose on any given day or week, shows that at some firms that number is way up. At Goldman Sachs, for example, the firm’s value at risk has risen from $240 million in the first quarter to $245 million. But the bigger leap is from February 2008, just a month before Bear Stearns was sold to JPMorgan Chase, when Goldman’s VAR stood at only $127 million. As a result, in part, it has recorded some of its most profitable trades in its history.

Goldman comes right out and says our business model has not changed. You have to admire honesty.

Bad Charts and Global Warming

GeekHeretic — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:45:12 +0000

A number of publications and websites are reporting on the latest ice thickness satellite measurements from NASA. Sadly they are ding it with graphs like the one to the left here. Area's in red and yellow are showing area's whose ice is thinning, compare that to area's whose blue to dark blue tint indicate ice increasing. I may be a layman but it seems to me that the size of the blue area's exceed the yellow red. So if you expect me to panic about this I must be missing something.

If you look very closely though, you will see the entire board of Exxon using flamethrowers and clubbing baby seals.

HSBC Bids Farewell to Dollar Supremacy

GeekHeretic — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:18:16 +0000

The London Telegraph is running a story about how the US dollar is looking alot like the British pound after WWI.

A monetary policy of near zero rates – further juiced by quantitative easing –
is completely incompatible with circumstances in most of Asia, the Middle
East, Latin America, and Africa. Divorce is inevitable. The US is expected
to hold rates near zero through 2010 to tackle its own crisis.

Definitely worth a read. It looks like its only a matter of time before an exodus out of the US dollar starts occurring. Start prepping your wheelbarrows now.

WSJ/BLN - Goldman and JP Gaining Media Ownership

GeekHeretic — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:18:34 +0000

Back in June Matt Taibbi wrote a scathing article about Goldman Sachs and how they were the major beneficiaries (if not architects) of America's Financial Woes. Numerous other media sources such as the WSJ and CNN have also been critical of Goldman, and to a lesser extent JP Morgan. That Tarnished media image may be about to change as these two lenders find themselves in possession of larger and larger stakes of media outlets due to debt restructuring and defaults.

US to Hit Debt Ceiling Again

GeekHeretic — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:13:46 +0000

From CNN Money via Blacklisted News

NEW YORK - Congress has raised the debt ceiling four times in the past two years and will probably have to do it again in the next month.
With the government borrowing record amounts of money, the nation's current debt ceiling of $12.1 trillion will be pierced soon.
That ceiling is the cap on how much the country allows itself to have in debt. In credit card parlance, the ceiling is the U.S. credit limit. At the end of August, U.S. debt totaled $11.8 trillion. That's roughly $349 billion shy of the statutory limit.
The ceiling is meant to serve as a brake on spending because lawmakers would have to think very seriously before they breach the limit and take a very difficult political vote to do so. In reality, lawmakers really don't have a choice but to raise the ceiling and they know it.
Put simply, if they don't raise the ceiling, the country will go into default on its debt. The domino effect would be painful, to say the least.

Wow, good thing the recession is over or I would be worried. Of course with folks like Peter "Debt is Wealth" Stark running the show its little surprise.

Vote Em Out Folks... its our only hope.

WSJ - Stocks higher as Bernake Pronounces Recession over

GeekHeretic — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:45:25 +0000

Link HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Toon

GeekHeretic — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:22:59 +0000

Clifton Park Healthcare Town Hall

GeekHeretic — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:29:16 +0000

Congressman Murphy did his local town hall stop last Monday, to speak about health care reform and the economy. His economy talk was cautiously optimistic. He literally stated that things are getting worse at a reduced rate.

The healthcare reforms which congress is mulling over was why the majority of folks were there. I was surprised at the number of Pro public option folks who were there. The majority of pro reform people were public option supporters and they numbered about 60% of the total audience. They seemed fairly well organized and had preprinted signs and banners.

The anti reform crowd was much more informal. It was interesting to see the comparison of the 2 groups. Both groups seemed to be late 50s early 60s. The anti HC reform crowd seemed to be mostly blue collar workers by their dress. The pro HC reform crowd seemed to be Berkinstock and sock wearing yuppie types. Better dressed and far more smug than the anti crowd.

Murphy talked for about 50 minutes then opened it up for a line of people to ask questions. There was no PA, and no one could hear. The crowd grew restless while the congressmen listened to the question or rant in some cases then repeated a summary of the question for the crowd. The questions boiled down to this

Q.People are dying how can anyone be against this.
A. Everyone knows the system needs reform (boos and cat calls in the background from the anti HC folks, chants of "Public Option Now" from the pro HC folks.

Q. Shouldn't Tort Reform be part of this?
A. Torte reform is part of the problem, but there is little chance of addressing that issue as part of this. A torte reform bill should be introduced.

Q. Would you vote for the house bill as it stands now.
A. No

Q. How would we pay for public option Health Care if the government is broke now.
A. I am only in favor of public option if it would be self funding

Q. Wouldn't public option crush private healthcare
A. No.... Then he went on about the whole fedex vs post office thing. The analogy would be far better if the post office was still self supporting and not tanking.

Murphy then did an informal survey asking if folks could pick between 5 to 1. 5 being no change at all, 1 being complete government take over of the health care system. Two things I found interesting here. No one voted for 5 (no change) most of the anti HC bill crowd voted for 4 some reforms of the health care system. The a large majority of attendees (60%) still voted for 1 - compete government take over.