John McCain doesn’t use e-mail. So it was downright odd to see one of his aides hold up a BlackBerry on Tuesday and claim that the Arizona senator somehow deserves credit for its existence.
“He did this,” economic policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin told reporters, referring to a BlackBerry, according to a report on Politico.com. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”
This may join the ranks of the-Internet-is-too-hard-to-use statements personally made by the Republican candidate, including this remarkable admission from July: “I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don’t expect to be a great communicator, I don’t expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need–including going to my daughter’s blog first, before anything else.”
Wow, now it’s time to wake up. In this article from The Telegraph, we learn that Prince Charles said a £15 billion annual programme was required to halt deforestation or the world would have to live with the dire consequences. He also said the following:
We will end up seeing more drought and starvation on a grand scale. Weather patterns will become even more terrifying and there will be less and less rainfall.
We are asking for something pretty dreadful unless we really understand the issues now and [the] urgency of them.
Ok, this is something we are all aware of. Why wake up 18 months before?
Here are some other interesting quotes in the article:
He said that every year, 20 million hectares of forest – equivalent to the area of England, Wales and Scotland – were destroyed and called for a “gigantic partnership” of governments, businesses and consumers to slow it down.
“What we have got to do is try to ensure that these forests are more valuable alive than dead. At the moment, there is more value in them being dead,” he said.
He estimated that the cost would be about £15 billion a year but said that this should be viewed as an insurance policy for the whole world. “That is roughly just under one per cent of all the insurance premiums paid in the world in any one year. It is an insurance premium to ensure the world has some rainfall and reasonable weather patterns. It is a good deal.”
This is no news to me and I’m sure this no news to you either. We are all aware of the climate changes and that we must act quickly! Why this sudden rush from the Prince Charles? I guess this has a lot more impact when you say 18 months than when you say it’s 5-10 years away like we’ve been saying for the past decade. At least someone in the political sphere is spreading the word…One question we may ask is: even if he’s “Prince Charles”, does he really have influence on important political decisions? I don’t think so unfortunately. But anyway, that’s a step forward, he certainly has more influence than you and me!
The last time I posted a video about 9/11 conspiracy theory, it brought a lot of controversy among DCS readers and I must admit I liked it. So I’m going with one more well made 9/11 video. This is a 20 minutes video supporting the 9/11 conspiracy theory and I’m not commenting on it, you make your own opinion on that one. I just enjoy getting your opinions on this interesting subject and 9/11 always bring interesting conversations.
Still while browsing today I came across this interesting post:
If you can adequately outline what this program does, please email me, X@X.com. The entire program runs 41 single spaced pages, too large for here, but I’ll gladly upload entirety to all takers. I believe it is evidence of illegal FBI data harvesting from ALL Windows based computers as this log was generated from a computer never on the internet. Notice it also mentions ‘CIA section’. I’d also guess this is part of the US government TIA program, outlawed by Congress but nevertheless initiated by the current bunch of rats at the helm….let me know.
REGFIX: Batch file processing initiated.
REGFIX: Updating arbitrators…
REGFIX: Deleting original values…
…
REGFIX: Replace %PNP0C02% … “*PNP0C0210″
REGFIX: Replace %PNP0C02% … “*PNP0C0211″
REGFIX: Importing new values…
REGFIX: Looking for device file… “80861229.REG”
REGFIX: Looking for device file… “80867124.REG”
REGFIX: Looking for device file… “80867125.REG”
REGFIX: Looking for device file… “80862418.REG”
REGFIX: Looking for device file… “80862410.REG”
REGFIX: Batch file processing completed.
****************************************************** FBI StartUp at ->Wed Sep 05 23:46:26 2001<- aka ->999751586
This should be the first start of FBI - 1.20.14
SM v1.04.2
Log started on Wed Sep 05 23:46:26 2001 [23:46:26.600] attempting to merge autotest.ini file defined as ->A:AUTOTEST.INI
[23:46:26.660] FBI is starting in Retail mode
[23:46:26.660] Loading Internal FBI Toolbox functions
[23:46:26.660] LoadFBIInt15 - FBIInt15.VxD load Successful
[23:46:26.710] LoadFBIKB_95 - FBIKB_95.VxD load Successful
[23:46:26.710] OpenFBIKB_95() - FBIKB_95.VxD driver loaded->CMD14 ->WriteUIAErrorCode
In that situation, FBI stands for File Based Installer and is packaged on HP computers. I believe that’s mostly how 99% of conspiracy theories get started. Somebody who doesn’t have a single clue what he’s talking about think everyone is watching him just because FBI appears on a couple of lines of code on his computer.
Sure, FBI would clearly name their programs running on your computer “FBI”. They are that stupid.
Daily Common Sense readers know I’m usually debunking scams and I don’t agree with most conspiracy theories. Something I haven’t wrote about so far on Daily Common Sense is the 9/11 World Trade Center conspiracy theory. Why? Well, I don’t feel comfortable enough to provide a yes or no answer about the theory. And I still don’t. From the first time I saw the towers collapse I kind of knew there was something wrong. The way they collapsed didn’t seem to agree with the most basic laws of physics but at the same time I’d like to believe it was perfectly normal. I came across a video today simply by browsing the web and I think it’s quite interesting. I don’t want this post to be a “9/11 was an inside job” post because we simply don’t know but I’d like you to have a look at this video. Feel free to leave your comments whatever your beliefs are about the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, I’d like to hear everyone’s opinion on that one as it’s a really interesting debate.
Text of President Bush on Wednesday, as provided by the White House.
Director, thank you for joining me. Good morning. At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison. To carry out their plans, they must communicate with each other, they must recruit operatives, and they must share information.
The lives of countless Americans depend on our ability to monitor these communications. Our intelligence professionals must be able to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying, and what they’re planning.
To help our intelligence agencies do this, Congress passed the Protect America Act last year. Unfortunately, Congress set the law to expire on February 1st — and then failed to pass new legislation that would keep these tools in effect over the long run. And so at the 11th hour, Congress passed a temporary 15-day extension of the current law which will expire at midnight this Saturday. I signed that extension. I did so to give members of the House and Senate more time to work out their differences.
Well, the Senate has used this time wisely. I am pleased that last night, senators approved new legislation that will ensure our intelligence professionals have the tools they need to make us safer — and they did so by a wide, bipartisan majority. The Senate bill also provides fair and just liability protections for companies that did the right thing and assisted in defending America after the attacks of September the 11th.
In order to be able to discover enemy — the enemy’s plans, we need the cooperation of telecommunication companies. If these companies are subjected to lawsuits that could cost them billions of dollars, they won’t participate; they won’t help us; they won’t help protect America. Liability protection is critical to securing the private sector’s cooperation with our intelligence efforts. The Senate has passed a good bill, and has shown that protecting our nation is not a partisan issue. And I congratulate the senators.
Unfortunately, the House has failed to pass a good bill. And now House leaders say they want still more time to reach agreement with the Senate on a final bill. They make this claim even though it is clear that the Senate bill, the bill passed last night, has significant bipartisan support in the House.
Congress has had over six months to discuss and deliberate. The time for debate is over. I will not accept any temporary extension. House members have had plenty of time to pass a good bill. They have already been given a two-week extension beyond the deadline they set for themselves. If Republicans and Democrats in the Senate can come together on a good piece of legislation, there is no reason why Republicans and Democrats in the House cannot pass the Senate bill immediately.
The House’s failure to pass the bipartisan Senate bill would jeopardize the security of our citizens. As Director McConnell has told me, without this law, our ability to prevent new attacks will be weakened. And it will become harder for us to uncover terrorist plots. We must not allow this to happen. It is time for Congress to ensure the flow of vital intelligence is not disrupted. It is time for Congress to pass a law that provides a long-term foundation to protect our country. And they must do so immediately.
Thank you very much.
END
That’s exactly how fear propaganda works. The whole thing is all about creating a feeling of fear to make you accept something that wouldn’t be reasonable. The two main parts they want you to get in that statement are:
At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country. Their goal is to bring destruction to our shores that will make September the 11th pale by comparison. To carry out their plans, they must communicate with each other, they must recruit operatives, and they must share information.
AND
In order to be able to discover enemy — the enemy’s plans, we need the cooperation of telecommunication companies. If these companies are subjected to lawsuits that could cost them billions of dollars, they won’t participate; they won’t help us; they won’t help protect America. Liability protection is critical to securing the private sector’s cooperation with our intelligence efforts. The Senate has passed a good bill, and has shown that protecting our nation is not a partisan issue. And I congratulate the senators.
An interesting video surfaced a couple of hours ago and it doesn’t need any comments. CNN’s Sunny Host talks about a quadriplegic being dumped on his face by a Sheriff’s deputy and what might happen next.
There’s definitely something not right with people these days…How can someone actually think of doing something like that? Particularly coming from a Sheriff, you would think these persons actually have a little common sense, but apparently no.
Most of you are probably aware of this news, but if you aren’t here’s the story in brief:
BOSTON (AP) - A man listed as one of the state’s most dangerous sex offender has won $10 million in the Massachusetts lottery, but the attention may have landed him in new trouble. Daniel Snay had been living and working in Massachusetts since 2004. In January, he paid $20 for a “Billion Dollar Blockbuster” scratch ticket at a suburban convenience store and hit the jackpot.
He picked up the first of 20 annual checks for $500,000 on Jan. 30. And the Massachusetts Lottery Commission said he gambled legally. But his story caught the attention of police in neighboring Connecticut, where Snay had lived for several years and where, officials said, he never informed authorities he was moving out of state.
Connecticut Trooper William Tate said Snay could face up to five years in prison if convicted of failing to notify authorities of his change of address, a felony. He said Snay hadn’t confirmed his address for the Connecticut sex offender registry since May 2004, though that state requires address verification every 90 days.
“We’re trying to determine when he moved, why he didn’t register with us and whether any charges are warranted,” Tate said.
Snay, 56, a divorced father of five, was convicted several times of indecent assault and battery from 1974 to 1987. Two of the assaults were on a child under the age of 14.
Snay’s lawyer, Joseph Fabbricotti, said that when Snay moved from Connecticut, he believed he had to register only in the state where he was moving. [...]
While most people focus on the fact that he won $10M but may face 5 years of prison or even lose the $10M because he failed notifying authorities that he was moving out of Connecticut, I’d like to see it in a different way. Daniel Snay says he didn’t know he had to notify Connecticut, but instead he thought he had to notify only the new state he was moving in which is Massachusetts. According to its lawyer, he’s supposed to be registered in the Massachusetts Sex offender registry, so that would confirm it.
Where am I getting? The point I’m trying to make is that according to Connecticut’s law, you have to confirm your address every 90 days if you’re in the sex offender registry. Then, the guy went away for four years without anyone noticing and it took $10M for anyone to notice. You have a level 3 sex offender on your list (most dangerous or most likely to re-offend) and you forget about him because he fails to confirm his address? That’s kind of easy to get away from that registry. I mean, does anyone ever do follow ups on that? What’s the point of having a damn registry if you don’t check who fails to comply?
It would have been fairly easy to locate Daniel Snay, he was working legally with his real name in another state. I’m pretty sure this could have been solved fairly easily. Instead, the guy wins $10M and we realize he hasn’t confirmed his address for 4 years and realize he left Connecticut 4 years ago.
It’s sad to see that the authorities/government aren’t doing simple follow-ups on their registry and raise a flag when someone is missing for more than 90 days. Instead, they don’t give a damn and take the chance of letting him go.
It’s no rocket science, registry = comply to it. There’s probably a lot of similar things happening all around the country…
The FBI wants to create a computer database containing people’s biometric information. What is biometric information? Well, your finger prints, palm prints, eye scan, tattoo mappings, etc. This would be very effective for them to “identify suspects”. The FBI should announce the project in the next couple of days which would be a $1 billion, 10 years contract to create the biometric database.
This is far from reaching general agreement: it raise major privacy concerns. I personally really don’t like it. Here’s what Kimberly Del Greco, the FBI’s Biometric Services chief has to say about the project:
[...] important to protect the borders to keep the terrorists out, protect our citizens, our neighbors, our children so they can have good jobs, and have a safe country to live in.
God, that terrorist thing is strong. Can they really do all they want only by saying it’s to protect the country from terrorists? Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, biometric database, what’s next? Every single bloody controversial project is to protect the country from terrorists and to protect freedom. Fear can make people accept anything. Do you really think that’s going to keep the terrorists out? Of course not! That technology is still opened to mistakes and who will suffer from it? Every single honest person. The more I learn about these projects the more I start to think about 9/11 really being an inside job. Most of Daily Common Sense readers know I’m a rational person usually debunking conspiracy theories, but there’s too many things happening since 2001 on the back of terrorists. Anyway, I’m not getting into that, I don’t have a clear opinion about it.
That biometric information database is just one more step to a surveillance society where your every moves are tracked.
The government said that a large US spy satellite is falling from orbit and could hit earth in late February or March. It has lost all power and propulsion, making in uncontrollable. The worst thing is that the spy satellite may contain hazardous materials and they have no idea where on earth it will fall. Obviously, it is not the first time a satellite fall from orbit and they’ve all been harmless.
Here’s what Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council has to say about the situation:
“Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation”
“Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly.”
“We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause”
What I don’t understand is why don’t they put a mechanism in the satellite to prevent that from happening? We send people in space and bring them back. Why can’t we put an auto-destruction or “bring it back” device on a simple god damn satellite? I imagine the engineers meeting when they built the spy satellite:
“But what to we do when there’s no more power?”
“I don’t know, we’ll deal with that in 25 years”
There’s good chances it falls harmlessly and that’s really not a good reason to say it doesn’t matter. It’s not because it doesn’t harm humans that it doesn’t matter: it’s not a better news if the satellite falls in the ocean, it contains hazardous materials.
I really don’t understand why there was nothing built-in to deal with the death of the satellite, they knew it would happen. Even if does no harm, I’m just concerned with the quality of the engineers we employ to build critical things.
I think an important thing in life is to remain rational and not being caught in all sorts of fear/war/whatever propaganda. The key to that is being able to detect propaganda. In fact, I’m amazed that propaganda still works really good in today’s world because access to information is so much easy. Access to information and education is key to eliminate propaganda. Well informed people are less likely to believe things that doesn’t make sense because they can make their own objective opinion from things they’ve read or seen. With Wikipedia and all the information available on the internet these days, you don’t have any excuse anymore to be misinformed.
Wikipedia defines propaganda as follows:
Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience.
Propaganda can take the form of, but not limited to, leaflets, posters, TV and radio broadcasts and Internet websites. Any medium that has access to mass population can be used. Propaganda is a very cleaver principle and works mostly by appealing to your emotions while making you believe it is appealing to your reason. In fact, it tries to make people act like animals more than rational, self-thinking persons. The most common form of propaganda is fear propaganda, but there are numerous types. The thing they all have in common is that they are appealing to your emotions and not to your brain. It’s really easy to figure out why it works so well with fear: What’s your reaction when you’re afraid? You’re acting under impulsion and not with your brain; that’s also what animals do. You make people fear something so they approve whatever agenda you may have as long as it resolves the issue. War on terror anyone? Also, what do you do to people not agreeing with you when you’re afraid? You reject them, creating a community of “believers” and clearly separate Good from Bad. Of course you’re always on the good side, never on the bad side. Then you become Self-righteous and the propaganda wheel is in good shape!
So, how to detect it? It’s really simple, when a group of people in charge (Government, at work, school, etc.) tries to justify actions they have intentions to take by appealing to your emotions/feelings, there’s good chance they have a hidden agenda or want to start a propaganda campaign about something. Another good clue is that they won’t make reference to any rational/scientific/proven argument just to make sure you’re not self-thinking. The part where it gets tricky is if arguments are made up to make you believe they’re right. That’s where information and education enter the game. If you’re well informed, you will be able to detect those lies because you can think in a rational way and make links with things you’ve read and experienced.
A good thing can be to observe existing propaganda campaigns and note their similarities. You’ll notice that war, end of the world, UFO, etc. propagandas campaigns all make reference to your most primitive emotions and doesn’t make reference to any scientific/proven/valid arguments. It’s all about emotions and feelings while making you think it’s rational by the ways it’s put!
It’s a very short, straight to the point article about propaganda but I think it’s a good thing to know. Also, if it gave anyone the “drive” to be more informed about their world well it’s a success.
Another common sense classic. This story didn’t happen to me, but to one of my friend. She had to go to the mall and when driving there, she saw a man laying on the ground and he wasn’t moving at all! Surely, this can be a homeless but there’s still a possibility that he needs help. She saw a police car on the other side of the street so she decided the best way to help him fast is to alert the police there directly and they’ll take care of him, and I also think it was the best way. She knocked on the police’s car window and said:
Friend: Sorry but there’s a man on the ground on the other side of the street and he’s not moving! He might just be a homeless but I think he might need some help!
Now comes the most ridiculous answer I’ve ever heard. I’m thinking of something more stupid than that and I can’t come with an answer.
Police: Do you have the address?
What? Do you have the address? It’s on the other side of the street, who needs an address? The man can easily be seen from the car! But you haven’t heard the worst…
Friend: Address? It’s on the other side of the street, right there! I can read the address but I don’t see the point
Police: It’s just that I’m filling in some papers and I’ll have to send another car…
You’ll have to send another car? There’s a man maybe dying on the other side of the street and you’ll send another car?
When I first started this blog, I knew there was a major lack of common sense in this world, but please! I totally lost faith in common sense with that story. If there’s people in this world that should use their judgment I think it’s the authorities. It seems like I was wrong.
I think an important thing in life is to remain rational and not being caught in all sorts of fear/war/whatever propaganda. The key to that is being able to detect propaganda. In fact, I’m amazed that propaganda still works really good in today’s world because access to information is so much easy. Access to information and education is key to eliminate propaganda. Well informed people are less likely to believe things that doesn’t make sense because they can make their own objective opinion from things they’ve read or seen. With Wikipedia and all the information available on the internet these days, you don’t have any excuse anymore to be misinformed.
Another common sense classic. This story didn’t happen to me, but to one of my friend. She had to go to the mall and when driving there, she saw a man laying on the ground and he wasn’t moving at all! Surely, this can be a homeless but there’s still a possibility that he needs help. She saw a police car on the other side of the street so she decided the best way to help him fast is to alert the police there directly and they’ll take care of him, and I also think it was the best way. She knocked on the police’s car window and said:
Computer engineering student, web developer and Web strategist, 
