My Sunday Ramblings
Another week has passed (well not really PASSED but more like "Hit us in the Face") and quite a bit has been happening on this 3rd Rock from the Sun.
The headlines have been full of destructive weather, nasty political rumblings in Washington and through the world, strange killings, a few mysteries, some cool scientific discoveries and one or two heart breaking and even a few heart warming stories.
Anyone watching the news or reading the daily papers will see all of the above.
My aim today is to go beyond these stories and while I may be talking about some of the above things, I want to dig into some of the more interesting things happening and give my perspective on some of what is happening and also talk about some of the things that are going in my "neck of the woods".....
So without delay, let us start:
Contents
- Spring Time in Europe (A friend's travels across the "Pond"..."Icing on the Cake")
- The Escalating Situation in Iran (Will the U.S. NUKE a Soveriegn Country?)
- Big Brother or Big Mother? (AT&T Forwarding All Internet Traffic to NSA?)
- NARUS 6400 (The Big Brother/Mother Computer that is keeping tabs on us?)
- Closing Thoughts (My personal editorial of sorts)
___________________________________________________________________
Spring Time in Europe
First off I have to say that I am very envious of the following experience I am about to write about. I had asked if there was room in their suitcases before they left. But, there wasn't so their eyes and thoughts will have to do for now:
Two of my friends recentley returned from a dream vacation overseas. I was wondering how things went for them and have been thinking of them for the last few weeks. Earlier today I recieved an Email from one of my friends and she reports that they had the most wonderful time on their little jaunt across the pond. I am so happy that they had a great time (and from the email, it sounds like their trip was full of excitement and that everything went perfectly).
One of my dreams is to make it across the ocean myself to see some of what they just experienced along with other parts of our "Old World". I originally had planned a massive vacation for 2004 but due to unforseen circumstances, I did not get to go back then. That vacation still ended up being wonderful as I chose to take a two week long "Road Trip" across the Western Section of our nation.
I will probably reminisce a little on that in the future again some time (and if one were to look back in my archives from that period of time: http://jrepinski.blogspot.com/2004_06_01_jrepinski_archive.html, they could probably search through my travellouges of that trip) but for now I want to share a little bit of my friend's trip to Europe. A few lines from the email I just recieved:
__________________________________________________________________________
We had the best time. It was the ultimate trip and we catergorized it as the best trip ever!!!!!
Paris was so beautiful and overwhelming that I actually had tears when I saw the Eiffel Tower. I couldn't believe that I was actually there seeing something that I had only dreamed of.
The whole trip was so powerful and exhilerating that I get shivers when I think about. Amsterdam was gorgeous. All the buildings were unlike anything I have ever seen and the people were so incredibly nice.
In Paris there was definately a language barrier but in Amsterdam as soon as you spoke English to someone they would then speak it right back to you. We found this awesome Dutch bakery our first day there and had the best chocolate I have ever tasted! Everything just seemed to work out perfectly.
The train stations were a little complicated at first but once we figured out how to read the signs it was a piece of cake. The trains were so fast and clean. The funny thing about the trains is that they didn't always anounce what stop you were at so we really needed to pay attention. The times they did announce, first they would say it in Dutch then English and as we were approaching Paris they would speak in Dutch, then French then English. It was crazy to hear the many different languages.
We didn't have any problems at all. Everyone was very nice and we met a lot of interesting people. We stayed at a Courtyard for the employee rate and because we were employees they seemed to treat us better. I think they loved the fact that we were employees from the US and decided to stay with them.
We went on a guided tour from the hotel call Holland Stopovers on our last day there. That was like the icing to the cake. We had already been walking around from a few days and we had guide books and everything but the woman that showed us around was actually from there and gave us the history of the areas we had already walked. This was definately worth. She picked us up in her van and first took us to a wooden shoe and cheese factory where we were shown how they actually make the shoes. Then we saw the Rembrandt Windmill, then she walked around with us in downtown Amsterdam. The last thing that was included was a canal tour on one of the many boats. And that was so cool.
__________________________________________________________________________
The Escalating Situation in Iran
Are we getting close to the World's first nuclear confrontation since World War Two??
This seems to be the consensus of a lot of different people including our own administration (who will by the way be leading this confrontation) as quoted by a few of the recent articles I have read over the course of the last few months and in particular the last few days. Things are getting a bit scary out there.
I am going to repeat here, my prior feelings on this situation by simply saying that I don't feel this administration has the right to attack a soveriegn nation that is (by all accounts from most media that is not controlled by the government "Spin Machine") just trying to protect itself from the big bad "Zionists", which unfortuanately the U.S. is and has been controlled by for a very long time. And you all thought that Israel was being protected by us......
A couple of articles that may give a better feel for what is currently happening and what many are afraid will erupt into the initial stages of the Next World War (The Last World War).....
This quote from a CNN news article that originally appeared in The "New Yorker Magazine" a couple days ago, which the first link takes you to that article (all below-including an article from out of the U.S. as well as an article from CNN):
The U.S. administration is stepping up plans for a possible air strike on Iran, despite publicly pushing for a diplomatic solution to a dispute over its nuclear ambitions, according to a report by influential investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060417fa_fact
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060410/asp/foreign/story_6080051.asp
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/04/09/hersh.iran.reut/index.html
And last but not least, to get a feeling of real U.S. thoughts on Iran, as close as one can get without being in the inner circle of those who ultimately make those decisions (and these people probably are the ones who make these decisions..), I have included an article that I found on the CFR (Council of Foriegn Relations) web site:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/10355/iran_vexes_us_policymakers.html
_________________________________________________________________________
Big Brother or Big Mother??
AT&T Forwarding All Internet Traffic to NSA?
So this is my phone company as well as my ISP. Should people be worried that the government is so totally entrenched in our lives at this point that if you pick your nose, they will probably know about it?? It is probably too late for worrying or anything else. A "police state" such as the one we are becoming, monitors all of it's citizens. This is your warning to be good little boys and girls....and no dissention! Otherwise you may find yourself in a detention camp in Alaska.....
Read the following missives from Slashdot and a few other places. and click on the underlined words for links to more articles on these "Big Brother" tactics. I have said it before and I will say it again....
Welcome to 1984 (We may be a few years late....but we have finally arrived!)
_________________________________________________________________________
1. An anonymous reader writes that "SpamDailyNews is reporting that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a brief that claims AT&T has been forwarding internet traffic directly into the hands of the NSA. The brief was filed under seal (a procedure that allows only the judge and the litigants to view the document) in order to give the court time to review the information. From the article: 'More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now.'"
2. pkbarbiedoll writes "The recent discovery of AT&T's monitoring program has raised more than a few eyebrows. While the class action suit filed by EFF is pending (as well as a seperate suit filed against the NSA filed by the ACLU), interested parties are taking the time to learn more about the scope of this massive invasion of privacy. Bewert examines the Narus architecture used by AT&T in their previously shadowed (and ongoing) collaboration with the NSA."
__________________________________________________________________________
NARUS 6400
So a little bit more on our friend, the NARUS Company. Their website is interesting and though I have just begun to read through the many links and pages on their site, it seems like one of the guys from the webiste called "The Dailykoss-State of the Union" has done some digging and uncoverd some nifty little tidbits on this company and it's board of directors and it's overall mission to help usher in the age of "Orwell's 1984". Read on by clicking the link below. And after the article, click on the comments to expand those and read some of those as well. Alot of interesting commentary on this subject:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/8/14724/28476
I have begun to some more digging into this company and though I have a long way to go, I have discovered links already via "Google" that suggest that this company may even be into RFD stuff such as barcodes that can read info that are on products and things. They also have their hands dug into "cell phone technology" and other stuff. They sure do have a global reach already as suggested by the following links that I have included as well. I have a feeling that this company is very much connected to "Big Brother" and all that it implies. Keep on eye on that name folks.....NARUS. I have also included a link to this companie's web site as well.
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/August2002/3932.htm
http://www.barcodes.com/htmlprod/class-81.html
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/Nov2003/6068.htm
http://www.shanghaiist.com/archives/2006/04/05/shanghai_to_blo.php
_________________________________________________________________________
Closing Thoughts
As I start a new week (well actually end my weekend with one more day off), I see the world heading into more trouble (Which it has been doing for thousands of years) than I can remember in recent history.
Our nation being ravaged by storms of unprecedented magnitude, killing everywhere, kids running amok, pedophiles and sex crazed politicians and teachers being caught for doing nasty stuff with minors, politicians arguing over everything.....and the list goes on and on. I feel like I am living in the last days of the "Ancient Roman Republic" at times. I just hope we fair better than they did and that history looks upon this time in a light that can at least be seen further in the future. Who knows though as it seems right now that all of what is happening can very well turn this current time into a very "hard to reconstruct" memory for any future historians.
Extra: "The Great West Racine Black Out of 2006"
On another note, I had strange thoughts on the wonder we call "Electricity" last night. What brought that about? Well, it was shortly after 2:30AM and I was browsing the web when all of a sudden the power went out in my little cave of an apartment.
My laptop has a battery so it was quite weird to loose all lighting and the little tv that was switched to the Weather Channel on my desk. I thought it may have just been my little place so I got up and looked outside and it was complete darkness outside. I went outside to see if I could hear a storm or something approaching. Nothing. Just silence except for the dogs in the neighborhood starting to bark (why the dogs would bark because of a power outage is beyond me...maybe their lights in their respective dog houses went out also) and the sounds of some cars traveling down the main road just down the street from where I live.
So I went back inside and started lighting the few candles I had around the "cave" and since I am on a Wireless Router for my internet connection, I had no access to the web and the things I was looking at, I decided to shut the computer off and then I thought after about 25 minutes still without power that maybe I should call the power company to report the outage as I figured there probably aren't alot of night owls like me still awake at 3:00AM.
So...I reach for the cordless and no power! Darn, that uses electricity also. So I go into the bedroom where I still have an old "landline" phone hooked up and I call the power company and get a recording that they know about the outage and are working to repair it but do not know how long it will take.
So I decided to go to bed as I couldn't watch a movie and I hate reading by candlelight. I am in bed and it is so quiet as the fan that I normally have on to make background noise is also not working due to electricity. (Am I the only one in the world who can not sleep without some sort of white noise??)
And so I am laying in bed and wondering what would happen if the power would stay off forever or even for just a period of time where all the things we as humans have come to depend on as far as comforts, went away. The TV, the computer, the ability to keep things cold in the fridge, AC comfort in the summer, people who depend on electricity to stay alive in hospitals and even at home, and all sorts of other things that we have come to take for granted. Tossing and turning, I decided to get up again and just spent a few minutes looking out the windows and talking to my room mate Scrappy( my pain in the but kitty) and then we decided to go back to bed.
About an hour later the power came back on just as I was finally starting to fall asleep and I heard the answering machine click on and announce that I needed to set the time and the fan clicked back on and lights that I had on before the outage came back on. The "Great West Racine Black Out of 2006" was over and with that I hit my head on the pillow and slumbered pretty well for the rest of the night.
Ahhh...electricity. I did go out today and bought a bunch more candles and a big cooler and a few other things that will keep me comfy in the case of an extended version of what happened last night. I still have to look for some batteries to hook up to my laptop (I have one but it is very old and I do not know how long it lasts) and maybe even one of those nifty little generators that power an entire apartment. But where would I keep that?? Oh well, it is a thought.
I just rented "BrokeBack Mountain" and am going to pop some popcorn, grab the licorice and hunker down on my sofa and watch a movie......unless the power goes out!!!
Warm Regards for a good week to all.....
No comments:
Post a Comment