Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.

President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.

Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employeees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.

“Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States,” says a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/201…

Maybe Obama could hire Kos to ferret out any liberals.  

Even if Markos is unwilling, shouldn’t be too hard to spot any employees that seem in urgent need of taking a leak.

Best,  Terry  

She hid behind a couch.

“Good morning, Mrs. Smith,” said the head of Obama’s revitalized Peace Corps.  “Sure hope we got the right address this time.  You have nothing  to be afraid of.  We have the Attorney General with us to be sure everything is done in strict accordance with law. We are here to repossess your patented genes that belong to big corporations.”

“Did you have to break down my door?” quavered Mrs. Smith.

“You would be shocked to learn how many people flee from Peace officers and hurt themselves.  That fellow sharpening his scalpel in your yard is the Surgeon General.  He has had very few fatalities.”

“But aren’t gene patents outlawed?”

“Only for one small biotech so far.  Your President is a Harvard lawyer and knows all about that stuff.  We all know laws are different for big crooks than small ones.  You can ask the Attorney General, if you like, but he has testified to Congress about that and can be rather abrupt when he has to keep repeating himself.  Big Pharma has to take possession of its genes though in case some slick shyster objects to Big Pharma being left out.  Prudence is always called for in these cases.”

“But I thought people owned their own genes.”

“Humpty Dumpty and Alice have moved to D.C. from Kansas.  There was no work for them anymore in Kansas.  Kansas is much more of a Wonderland than Washington though Washington is improving. Conservatives are now liberals.  Insanity is principled conservatism.  I could go on but until Alice and Humpty Dumpty get around to changing patent law, ownership is ownership.  I see the Surgeon General has finished sharpening his scalpel.  He will just whip out those bad genes in no time.  Be happy, Mrs. Smith. I see you have blue eyes. Nobody has patented those mutated blue oncogenes that are associated with a great deal of cancer.  There are a lot of those genes.  I guess they are still making up lists.”

Chief Justice Roberts: You want to patent light, Mr. Edison?  Just because you’re dead and may be speaking to God, it doesn’t give you any right to ask for reconsideration of the Patent Office turning down your patent on the light bulb.  You are now speaking to a much higher authority that works in the dark mostly.

Edison: I don’t want to patent light.  I just want to finally patent my successful invention for creating light and turning night into day.

Chief Justice Roberts:  I know you only had 3 months of schooling and can’t hear well beyond your autism so I will leave the questioning to Justice Scalia.  He speaks loud enough and simple enough to wake the dead.

Justice Scalia:  Though you are a dirty, smelly, mean, hippy recluse, like that Steve Jobs who was fired by the company he founded, I won’t ask you about how you had two wives and numerous children.  It’s too late to protect women from you but I want to know about you going around electrocuting elephants.  

Edison:  I only electrocuted one used elephant to demonstrate one of the problems with Tesla’s AC current.  I fired Tesla and he went bankrupt with his business, you know, but America is still stuck his lethal AC.

Justice Thomas breaks his silence and shouts at Edison:  We are all educated, God-fearing men here and we know Natural Law better than some uneducated inventor.  I should add there are some women here too but we don’t listen to them.  We just look.  Go away.  We have spoken.

Best,  Terry

One Size Cloaks All

Nov. 23, 2012 – A metamaterial invisibility cloak that can adapt to hide different sized objects is demonstrated by in Nature Communications this week. The findings represent a useful advance for more practical applications of metamaterial cloaking…

Metamaterials have already been shown to hide objects from electromagnetic waves by manipulating the light so that it appears to have not interacted with anything. However, these cloaks need to be redesigned and rebuilt if the shape of the object changes. Kyoungsik Kim and colleagues now present a smart metamaterial that is able to adapt to changes in the object shape, so that a range of objects may be hidden by one cloak.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/re…

Take that, Superman, with your stinking x-ray vision that sees under clothes at airports.

Just tripping the light fantastic as we used to say but never got around to.

But there is even better news for people as opposed to snoops.

‘Temporal Cloaking’ Could Bring More Secure Optical Communications

June 5, 2013 – Researchers have demonstrated a method for “temporal cloaking” of optical communications, representing a potential tool to thwart would-be eavesdroppers and improve security for telecommunications.

“More work has to be done before this approach finds practical application, but it does use technology that could integrate smoothly into the existing telecommunications infrastructure,” said Purdue University graduate student Joseph Lukens, working with Andrew Weiner, the Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/re…

Hey, what’s with that electrical and computer engineering?  Is that some way of hiding from the snoops at the CIA who always work in the dark?

You have to talk optonics for this stuff rather than the old-fashioned electronics.

See?

No wonder the Republicans (and the Obama Democrats, if the full truth be told) want to gut research for the [chuckle] balanced budget.

Best,  Terry

Adam Smith’s capitalism is as different from Mitt Romney’s as a robin is from a buzzard.

Understand please that humans throw around terminology that has dubious relation to reality but how might one not be able to distinguish a small greedy street peddler struggling for survival with a giant corporation raiding other giants for all their cash and readily salable assets, loading it up with debt to further enrich the plunderers and then shipping the pitiful remains to China or other poor countries where they may survive only through the use of even child or slave labor?

The latter tend to represent socialism (in its true sense) more than anything remotely resembling the theories of Adam Smith.  Europe’s prosperous northern tier of “socialist” countries are not socialist at all in any meaningful sense such as the kibbutzim of early Israel that produced wealth but weighed too heavily on the people to continue long.

It is hardly unknown for poisons to be utilized as medicine with beneficial effect.

As children we got into an old visiting doctor’s bag in a day when doctors made house calls.  I was startled even at a very tender age to find a container of strychnine used to poison coyotes by whipping up the heart beyond the limits of its ability.

The doctor explained that he was able to use the strychnine in what could be fatal doses for healthy people to sometimes revive a dying heart patient.

Vampire bat saliva has been used for strokes, proteins from the rabies virus may be more efficacious in smuggling drugs across the blood-brain barrier than Vitamin C.

Most all vaccines utilize a poison, an adjuvant, to alert and direct the immune system to vigorously attack a pathogen or even an internal enemy like cancer.

Prof. Yvonne Paterson spent decades experimenting with the often lethal Listeria bacterium as a vaccine adjuvant but Big Pharma shuddered in fright at the thought of giving deathly ill cancer patients (the primary target) with blasted immune systems a shot of Listeria, even in a weakened form.  Today they are far more interested in pushing conventional and junk branded medicine than in ultra-expensive risky research, let alone what Yvonne Patersonm had to offer.

Much smaller fry were not tempted either.

Then one courageous, daffy sort raised money from the most notorious of all financial predators with death spiral convertibles to run a Phase I trial and had blazing success IMO.  Of 13 patients, 2 had their widely metastasized cancers disappear without a trace.  

This was not the diabolical melanoma that seems capable of doing a disappearing act with most anything and then rapidly mutates and returns with a vengeance, meaner and more hurtful than ever.  It was cervical cancer that is easily cured in early stages but very aggressive and mostly impervious to any attack in later stages.

Then the company and the vaccine were dead again – a bled out corpse done in by the financial predator.

Then it was resuscitated with a ton of money and a mighty struggle by a tainted promoter and now it may well die again.  Angry shareholders who dreamed of a cornucopia of wealth quickly are mad, mad, mad and want to sue and want Big Pharma to buy what they didn’t want before and lawyers may be preparing for their favorite chase: ambulances.

This puny capitalist has pitched some pennies in the pot (literally pennies – I may be stupid but that doesn’t necessarily mean I am a fool).  I do love inventors and people doggedly pursuing their dreams and hate cancer.  

Maybe then after all, I am a fool as well.  I have seen Lazarus walk [not a dead Lazarus but a doomed Lazarus].  Probably would have been better had I not.

The very bad guys will probably win again Friday and Lazarus can remain safely in his grave.

Best,  Terry

Boehner Will Insist on Cuts to Raise Debt Limit

Said Boehner: “I believe that if we’re going to increase the debt limit, there ought to be cuts and reforms in place that are greater than the increase in the debt limit.”

http://politicalwire.com/archi…

Even Dan Quayle couldn’t possibly have gotten through Princeton on his minority set aside without being able to figure out that if spending cuts result in a surplus rather than a deficit, there would be no need to increase the debt limit.

Is there no unemployed Head Start teacher who would be so kind as to volunteer to teach the President and congress critters how math works?  He or she isn’t likely to find work anyway and would have a roof over her head for a few hours anyway.

I know it would be a hell of a tough job but isn’t that what teachers ask for?

Best,  Terry

From an ancient post with dead links about geothermal power development in The Philippines, second only to the aging pioneer work in the U.S. for generating power from geothermal brines:

Bad Blondes

>>Local Critics Worried by GMA’s Dev’t Plan for Central RP

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s critics in Negros Occidental have a different view of her development plan for Central Philippines, with most saying it will only worsen the “already acute exploitation and oppression of the people” and the “plunder” of the region’s rich resources.

–

“The Visayans would naturally be mesmerized dreaming of having around more ‘RORO’ boats, fast crafts, modern ports and airports, linking bridges and mega malls, blondes, tourists in topless suits…

[dead link]

i suppose.

http://www.investorvillage.com…

The theme plays out endlessly despite the huge improvement in the economies of poor countries, most spectacularly Iceland [“yeah, they are just lucky to have such a superior resource”] alongside great kindness to Mother Earth.

And now to Indonesia, former OPEC member, desperately trying to replace fast dwindling oil production with the greatest of all energy sources on earth – Mother Earth herself:

Unresolved land acquisition issues delaying Gunung Tampomas project of PT Wika Jabar Power in Sumedang, Indonesia.

“The land acquisition process is hampered due to public concerns about the impact of environmental pollution resulted from the geothermal project,” [the geothermal engineer] said.

This misconception has led to an opposition from the surrounding communities, hampering this geothermal project that is actually eco-friendly.

However, he added, the company understands that the opposition emerged because of the people’s limited understanding.

http://thinkgeoenergy.com/arch…

Tell me about it.

The misunderstanding is universal outside of small pockets like Iceland.

Indonesia is widely reported to have the best geothermal resources of any country but no landmass anywhere is without splendid resources as advanced technology can generate electricity with heated geothermal brines barely sufficient for a warm cup of tea.

Sarah Palin could probably see volcanic action for real from her front porch if she lived at Chena Spa, Alaska’s record busting low temperature and low cost electricity geothermal power producer that is the only geothermal power producer in Alaska. Alaska is the state with the mostest geothermal assets of any state. Ironic that Chena keeps its ice museum frozen in summer using hot water.

Even in New Zealand, a country bearing down on Iceland for the greatest producer of renewable energy, a government corporation, Mighty River, is buying into geothermal assets all but abandoned in the U.S. because of growing opposition in New Zealand.  Geothermal was given a huge boost when a lady prime minister courageously vetoed plans to build a string of coal-burning power plants. Prophets of doom predicted disaster if they couldn’t have their coal plants.  Of course.

The huge investment in sometime wind power is a rocky detour but New Zealanders are hardly the only people on the planet fooled by the worst of the renewables, barring only solar.

Best,  Terry

Barbara Buono reminds me of the Chinese man that stood in front of a line of tanks headed for Tiananmen Square.

The Chinese man at least held the tanks up for a spell daring them to run over him but they had no hesitation at all in running over student protestors at the Square.  Would that a very enlightened and well-spoken Barbara Buono could even do that well against the horrible Chris Christie.

Major Democratic donors flock to Christie

TRENTON – Gov. Chris Christie is cashing in donations from top Democratic fundraisers and other traditionally liberal donors across the country, even nabbing the support of a handful of rainmakers aligned with President Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Star-Ledger review of state and federal records shows.

The checks are flying into the Republican governor’s war chest from all sorts of unlikely places – the hedge fund run by liberal billionaire George Soros, for example, and the politically progressive halls of the University of California, Berkeley.

http://www.nj.com/politics/ind…

Thanks, guys.

I used to have questions about your liberal bona fides. You just answered them all.

It’s not over until the fat man sings but, oh gawd, I hear him warming up.

Best,  Terry

Rich Entrepreneur: The Wealthy Aren’t Job Creators, Middle-Class Workers Are

http://thinkprogress.org/econo…

Wrongo, me buckos.  

Only in exceptional circumstances are the middle class even workers.  It is the working class, and only the working class, that creates wealth.

Think Progress is an exceptional site that I first got to because of the particular pained targeting of it by the rightist loons, e.g. Republicans, and it is not difficult to see why with a quick scan of very perceptive short essays.

But even Think Progress can’t divorce itself from the insidious effect of linguistic purposeful destruction of meaning like Alice’s Humpty Dumpty, this one by the DLC.

What a job you done on us, Clintons.  Are megacorporations still just people?

Best,  Terry

The bovine metabolism is a natural system of biogas production. During the digestion of forage, which takes place under anaerobic conditions – that is, without oxygen – the animals secrete microorganisms that break down the food. This process generates several gases, including methane.

Cows belch approximately every 40 seconds and can emit up to 230 litres of methane per day.

“With respect to gases that warm the atmosphere, methane is more important than carbon dioxide (CO2),” Wolfgang Buescher, professor of animal sciences at the University of Bonn and director of the Riswick project, told Tierramérica.

Wolfgang ain’t just barking.

Methane is some 23-25% more poisonous to the atmosphere than CO2.

Cows and other livestock also emit plenty of CO2 that could be used for fertilizer instead of heating the whole outdoors.

Pig city

Gottlan Paludan, the lead architect in the construction of the “City of Pigs”, says the purpose is “to analyse the synergies of large-scale livestock raising and the production of tomatoes, in order to take advantage, in a reciprocal way, of the waste that each process produces.”

The site of the pig farm, on the Jutland Peninsula [Denmark], allows the filtration and absorption of CO2, ammonia and other gases. The manure will be reused to generate biogas, which in turn will produce electricity. The manure will also be recycled to remove water and produce natural fertilisers.

The electricity, water and fertilisers will be used to grow tomatoes, which will take place in a two-storey greenhouse.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/01…

The experimental farm was built, tomatoes sold on the open market and commercial operations are in progress last I read.

Meanwhile organic farmers increase deforestation, production of greenhouse gases, fouling of land and water and costs of contaminated meat and byproducts for consumers but they keep their virginity.

Virginity is very important to some cults.

Best,  Terry

http://www.cio.com/article/734…

Long past time the President took charge of the War on Inventors instead of just giving it lip service.

Private equity firms that take over healthy, cash-rich companies with the use of bail money from financiers, loot the cash and assets from the company, load them up with debt, fire employees, ship the remains to exotic locations and the proceeds to island tax shelters have only to worry about increasing competition for the vulture feast.

Corey Booker got very angry with Obama during the last presidential election for saying mean things about private equity firms like Corey Booker’s in attacking Romney.  

Booker was reminded politics was politics, financiers would continue to get bail money and protection as always and that “We the people” has been replaced by “Moneyed interests” in The Constitution by Supreme Court decree.  Corey was safe from everybody but even better fed vultures like Chris Christie.

Booker is a quick study.  He was at peace with the arrangements and will probably soon join the protection racket known as the U.S. Senate where he too can help with the War on Inventors, which is better known as the War on Science but has a more partisan tone.

Best,  Terry