Gold Medal for Spam

When I heard that we (Australia) had won our first gold medal I was understandably impressed. I was sure that I had heard Begg-Smith's name before and it turns out I had.
Dale Begg-Smith is named in a 2002 ValueAd.com press release as the president of AdsCPM Network. You may never have heard of this company but if you're an Internet user I would be surprised if you hadn't had some interaction with his companies products. Because, if it pops up, pops under, sneakily installs spyware, and/or uses exploits in Microsoft products to install software without your permission then it's possible that Mr Begg-Smith's company brought it to you.
Here's an article from Computer Associates that identifies CPM Media and AdsCPM by name as being responsible for the 'Free Scratch and Win' scam that installed both a keylogger and trojan via an exploit called an ActiveX driveby.
It would be nice to send him back to Canada but I doubt they would have him. This situation also goes to show just how lax the criteria is to emigrate to Australia. This man shouldn't be competing in the Olympics, let alone winning a medal. He should be in a cold dark cell with Bubba the online Viagra addict.

Tags: Begg_Smith, spam, olympics, gold medal, exploit, Australia

Deja Vous

'You must get rid of those nineteenth-century ideas about the laws of Nature. We make the laws of Nature'. - O'Brien, 1984.

"Have you ever seen those bones, Winston? Of course not. Nineteenth-century biologists invented them. Before man there was nothing. After man, if he could come to an end, there would be nothing. Outside man there is nothing."

"But the whole universe is outside us. Look at the stars! Some of them are a million light-years away. They are out of our reach forever."

"What are the stars?" said O'Brien indifferently. "They are bits of fire a few kilometers away. We could reach them if we wanted to. Or we could blot them out. The earth is the center of the universe. The sun and the stars go round it."

Winston made another convulsive movement. This time he did not say anything. O'Brien continued as though answering a spoken objection:

"For certain purposes, of course, that is not true. When we navigate the ocean, or when we predict an eclipse, we often find it convenient to assume that the earth goes round the sun and that the stars are millions upon millions of kilometers away. But what of it? Do you suppose it is beyond us to produce a dual system of astronomy? The stars can be near or distant, according as we need them. Do you suppose our mathematicians are unequal to that? Have you forgotten doublethink?"

Tags: Suskind, politics, doublespeak, Bush, lies

Kill the Poor

Efficiency and progress is ours once more
Now that we have the Neutron bomb
It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done
Away with excess enemy
But no less value to property
No sense in war but perfect sense at home:

The sun beams down on a brand new day
No more welfare tax to pay
Unsightly slums gone up in flashing light
Jobless millions whisked away
At last we have more room to play
All systems go to kill the poor tonight

Gonna
Kill kill kill kill Kill the poor:Tonight

Behold the sparkle of champagne
The crime rate's gone
Feel free again
O' life's a dream with you, Miss Lily White
Jane Fonda on the screen today
Convinced the liberals it's okay
So let's get dressed and dance away the night

While they:
Kill kill kill kill Kill the poor:Tonight

Tags: Iraq, US, war, biafra, politics

BlackHawk shot down in Iraq?

The Iraqi Resistance is claiming to have shot down a Blackhawk Helicopter

In a bulletin posted at 7:20pm Mecca time Sunday evening, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that a short time earlier, Iraqi Resistance fighters had shot down an American Black Hawk helicopter in date palm groves in the al-Jazirah area north of ar-Ramadi, some 110km west of Baghdad.

The correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported a number of local residents as saying that the American Black Hawk had been hovering at low altitude over their area when Resistance gunfire caused it to explode in the air and crash. The witnesses said that the American crew was killed instantly.

Afterwards, US forces with dozens of vehicles and helicopter gunships flying air support stormed into the crash zone and imposed a curfew.
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/79573

Tags: Iraq, US, Iraq War, blackhawk, war

Blogging is a Threat to National Security

In this article about CyberStorm™ bloggers are specifically identified as a threat to National Security™. Apparently our powers to disseminate misinformation are so great that we are treated as an enemy by the Department of Homeland Security™. It's no surprise then that the US wants to retain its control over ICANNand have the right to spy on all Internet users. I haven't even touched upon the Carnivore or Echelon projects. Why would we be surprised at any of this anyway? It was stated in no uncertain terms back in September, 2000 when the Project for the New American Century released Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century in which it is plainly stated that the US needs to:

CONTROL THE NEW "INTERNATIONAL COMMONS" OF SPACE AND "CYBERSPACE,"....

Look it up for yourself, it's all there in black and white at the PNAC website. A glimpse at the project participants in the 'Rebuilding...' document is an enlightening experience and should be your first stop.

Tags: internet, cyberstorm, ICANN, blogging, echelon, carnivore, politics, US

The Definition of Doublespeak

the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies—all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.

- George Orwell, 1984 (pages 35, 176-177)

Tags: terrorism, politics, military, doublespeak, Bush, lies

The Professional Military

There's very little one can say here.
To watch video click here.

Tags: terrorism, politics, military, torture, Iraq, Iraq