Reality Check

Sprint Broadband Direct Goes Offline July 31 - Service you thought died long ago finally does… - dslreports.com
Sprint Broadband Direct Goes Offline July 31
Service you thought died long ago finally does…
02:17PM Monday May 19 2008 by Karl
tags: business · wireless · alternatives · trouble · Sprint Broadband Direct
Remember Sprint Broadband Direct? Sprint is e-mailing the remaining customers of their line-of-sight-based wireless broadband service to inform them that they’ll be terminating the service starting July 31. Made painfully irrelevant by the combination of Sprint EVDO and WiMAX, the 1.5Mbps service, which required a 13.5″ diamond-shaped dish, saw mixed reviews over the years from our users. In the e-mail to customers, it looks like they’re blaming the FCC and a spectrum policy decision for the closure:
Click for full size
As the result of a recent FCC action, Sprint will no longer have access to the spectrum used to operate our Sprint Broadband Direct Service in your area. Due to this FCC mandate, Sprint will discontinue your service by 6/30/2008. This discontinuance of service will also affect your EarthLink email account. Please contact EarthLink directly if you choose to continue with their service.
One user who pays $45.00 a month now for 1.5Mbps service, tells me that despite the added mobility, he’s not thrilled about being nudged toward EVDO for $59.95. Many users have had this service (and the same IP address) since as early as 2000. But the service, which blocked ICMP (pinging) and suffered from high-latency, was more than ready to be put out to pasture in the face of mobile WiMax.

Given limited Sprint deployment and promotion, I had almost forgotten that the service still existed. Sprint stopped offering the SBBD to new customers back in 2001 during a rough patch, then started taking new subscribers again in 2005.

I have been using this service since around 1999 or 2000 and have in the past two years had NOTHING but problems with the service. As an online gamer I’ve experienced major latency, lag and what we like to call “Lag Death” often due to the crappy service. I stayed with them because they were the only thing I could get.

Now, I’ve received a letter from them stating they are shutting down. Nice, interesting. Forces me to go to cable modems and a local cable company which is probably faster and better, but not cheaper. That’s the plus side.

The down side is something kind of unrelated to internet technology. It has to do with Customer service, and simply being “straight” with people.

I tried, and failed in the last few days to locate ANY mandate or information from the FCC. I have spent 5 days on the telephone with the FCC, in emails and filing complaints now, with both the FCC and with Sprint broadband Direct.

I now accuse, outright, the SBBD personnel of lying, obfuscating and hiding information as to why they are doing this.

Not that I care if they do it now, I’m signing up with someone else, which will be faster, and I’ve saved my ancient Earthlink addresses as well. Nice for me.

BAD for Sprint though.

Sold my stock in them. Getting rid of cellular telephones through them and I plan on reviewing every single aspect of their business and writing about it - as much BAD crap as I can find.

I can’t stand liars, and I certainly do not appreciate people like “Jason” who utterly REFUSE to pass me to a shift supervisor or manager when requested. He not only refused, but stated “I’m not going to do that!”

What sort of Customer Service training did this young man have? None. Apparently Sprint hires assholes to do their dirty work.

Ok… well, lots of us can behave that way, and they just hit my “Assholier-than-Thou” buttons. We’ll see.

For starters I’ve filed an FCC complaint against these people for their apparent obfuscation, misdirection and misrepresentation.

Secondly, I plan on filing a large lawsuit to recover the last two years worth of monies I’ve sent these bastards.

Let me give you the rest of the story.

About eighteen months ago I was having major problems with connections and drop outs on the services. I contacted them repeatedly and was told over and over “We can’t see a problem from here”.

Being that I AM a computer professional, someone familiar with networks, and able to run network scans, and actually determine causes of problems on networks, I ran my own checks and discovered some issues.

My modem was “acting up” to some extent, but the BIG problem was at the “Head End”, a place that sits high up on Cheyenne Mountain outside the Colorado Springs area - AKA NORAD to most of you.

I confirmed my findings by contacting a friend in the industry, and having him bring hardware to the house, connect it up and we located the exact systems on the analyzers to tell us where the problem was.

I then contacted, with my network engineering friend the customer service persons there, while the gear was still connected.

Not only could they NOT see our equipment, they couldn’t tell me there was a problem. I sent, by email data to the technical support people and remained ignored.

I stayed with the system because DSL at my house can only go at 512K MAX (and much less than that, I might as well go with a dial up line for that price and the problems it causes)… I didn’t have access to cable without fees to have the cabling put in at the house and simply put, I didn’t have other choices at the time.

So - essentially, service has sucked, the people who provide that service suck, and I was stuck with a sucky service.

Now that they are LYING to the public about this alleged “FCC mandate” (which the FCC can’t seem to find themselves!!!!!!) I’m planning on showing precisely what these people are made of.

Starting now.

Enjoy the message, and by the way, DON’T USE SPRINT until they get their act together!

I used to have Skype set up on my systems so that folks could call and leave me a voice message for the podcasts. I never really got much in the way of feedback via voice, only email. So, at some point I simply stopped using Skype. It still shows up on the main page with a button to leave me a voice mail, but I rarely if ever have the Skype turned on.

Right now, I’ve just rebuilt my machines into Ubuntu (lap top is running the desktop version and my desktop machine is running a server version) - and in doing some research I discovered some interesting, if not shocking things about Skype and Voice over IP (VOIP) in general.

At this link we discover there are some interesting aspects about Skype of which I was not previously aware. For instance, apparently there has been some cooperation with the country of China on censorship - something that “free” people should shun at all times. In digging through the documentation, I came across the link for SkypeEthics and a couple of articles about it, one from The Register and another from FT.com giving information that Skype, Ebay and even Google are helping China censor communications out of that country.

I have no love whatever for the Chinese Government. I spent a month over there seeing how they lived, and how the government treated it’s people. China is not a Saint when it comes to commercial espionage, and espionage against the United States - which is my home and I’m proud of that fact. I also know for a fact, based on open source information that China PLANS to be at war with our country in the next decade. This is backed up by their own Generals and white papers they’ve written stating they need to be in charge of the Pacific Rim, and their main competition is the US.

Given that the Chinese keep their people in the dark, and refuse to allow freedoms we have in this country it is simple amazing that Google, Skype and eBay would kowtow to Beijing and assist them in censoring the Chinese people - preventing good human rights.

Therefore, it is with that in mind that I will no longer use Skype for a communications VOIP program, and will remove it shortly from my web pages forever (or until they wake the hell up). In the mean time I will evaluate several other programs that can run under Linux and can use data encryption to determine which is better. Personally I don’t think anyone should be listening to my voice mail, email or any other communication I make - however, I make exception to Amateur Radio, since it is specifically forbidden in our regulations to use any sort of encryption of data or voice. I find that too, to be a bit “heavy handed” of our own government to forbid encryption. But, having worked with voice and data encryption for the better part of two decades now, I do understand the reasoning of the NSA to prevent it.

On the other (third?) hand, I believe that Americans have an innate right to privacy and unless they are doing something illegal, no one has a right to dig into our daily, private conversations with our loved ones, business professionals and certainly not to just “listen in to see if we’re behaving appropriately”. NO one has that right. NO one should be able to decide if I am “behaving appropriately” except me. Especially not the Government. They are there to protect my rights, not negate them.

On the subject of free VOIP software for Ubuntu (and other Linux distros) there are several listed on the Ubuntu documentation pages, there are three:

VoIP soft-phones included in Ubuntu

There are several alternative software based VoIP phones, that are ‘free libre open’, use ‘open’ protocols, and are included in the Ubuntu repositories. Among others, there are:

* Ekiga
* Twinkle
* Wengophone

Off the cuff, and with a quick scan of the pages, I’d say that the first one, Ekiga, appears to be the most “compatible” with most VOIP services and apparently can communicate with other software systems of VOIP. It comes “standard” on Ubuntu installs, and it can run under an MS Windows environment. Ekiga is also compatible with Netmeeting (H.323, windows), Windows Messenger as well as some other packages.

Twinkle is a Linux-only application and according to the site:

In addition to making basic voice calls Twinkle provides you the following features:

* 2 call appearances (lines)
* Multiple active call identities
* Custom ring tones
* Call Waiting
* Call Hold
* 3-way conference calling
* Mute
* Call redirection on demand
* Call redirection unconditional
* Call redirection when busy
* Call redirection no answer
* Reject call redirection request
* Blind call transfer
* Call transfer with consultation (attended call transfer)
* Reject call transfer request
* Call reject
* Repeat last call
* Do not disturb
* Auto answer
* Message Waiting Inidication
* Voice mail speed dial
* Presence
* Instant messaging
* User defineable scripts triggered on call events
E.g. to implement selective call reject or distinctive ringing
* RFC 2833 DTMF events
* Inband DTMF
* Out-of-band DTMF (SIP INFO)
* STUN support for NAT traversal
* Send NAT keep alive packets when using STUN
* NAT traversal through static provisioning
* Missed call indication
* History of call detail records for incoming, outgoing, successful and missed calls
* DNS SRV support
* Automatic failover to an alternate server if a server is unavailable
* Other programs can originate a SIP call via Twinkle, e.g. call from address book
* System tray icon
* System tray menu to quickly originate and answer calls while Twinkle stays hidden
* User defineable number conversion rules
* Simple address book
* Support for UDP and TCP (new) as transport for SIP

Here’s a screen shot, borrowed from the site:

And here are some reviews.

On the third application, it appears to be of French origin, and I’m sort of ambivalent about that aspect of a piece of software. I don’t really like the French much, and when I have visited that country, I’ve encountered nothing but rude, snotty people who seem to dislike Americans. While I remained polite to them all, they were rude to me. So, I just won’t use any of their products and I won’t ever visit the country again nor spend money there. They can keep their snotty attitude - and I’ll keep mine

My last comments on Skype are echoed in this article and instead of me writing what I think, I’ll quote this article and the pertinent part… go to the article for his links and documentation.

http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/357

What’s that you said?
Skype has many things going for it. Among the various software-based VoIP apps (which thereby excludes hardware-based offerings like Vonage from consideration), Skype probably works the best in terms of computer-to-computer, computer-to-land line, and computer-to-cell based calling. It’s easy to set up and use, and it works on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux boxes. Skype also provides more than just VoIP, with IM and file transfer also available. I’ve used it quite a bit, and overall, I’ve been happy with its sound quality, as have many other people, given that the program has been downloaded more than 100 million times. It has more than 52 million registered users (among those 2 million paying customers), and well over 3 million people are online and using the program right now, as I’m typing this column.

But that doesn’t mean that Skype is perfect. Far from it. Skype claims that it uses strong encryption to protect phone calls, IM messages, and file transfers:

“Skype uses AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), also known as Rijndael, which is used by U.S. Government organizations to protect sensitive, information. Skype uses 256-bit encryption, which has a total of 1.1 x 1077 possible keys, in order to actively encrypt the data in each Skype call or instant message. Skype uses 1024 bit RSA to negotiate symmetric AES keys. User public keys are certified by the Skype server at login using 1536 or 2048-bit RSA certificates.”

Here’s the problem with that statement: since Skype is an insistently closed source program - and one that additionally uses a proprietary protocol, but I’ll get to that in a moment - we have no way of verifying Skype’s security. We simply have to take them at their word that their encryption works. For such an important program, that’s quite a problem. I’m just not sure how safe I feel when Skype says, “Trust me - everything’s going to be fine.”

One other thing about Skype that bugs me is that it apparently can, and does, use YOUR machine to assist in directing and assisting other stations with VOIP out side of your personal direction and control on your own machine. What this means is, your personally paid-for-out-of-pocket expenses on your ISP are being used without your permission. Check this link for more information on this situation.

All of this said, I rarely use any VOIP communications other than some ham radio applications, specifically EchoLink, which I might mention later on in another post. But, for the most part, when I was doing podcasts and looking for some feedback, I rarely got much. I suppose that my podcasts aren’t that great (I don’t think they are all that great) but at the same time I’ve had a lot of feedback about them via email. That tells me that most people just aren’t into the VOIP thing yet, and those that are most likely are Geekier than me (which I seriously doubt).

Somewhere along the way, many years ago I started using various distros of Linux.

I’ve used Slackware, Redhat (several versions), CentOS, and recently started using Ubuntu 8.04.

My old laptop is a Compaq Presario 2170US and has been through a couple of hard drives, the original being a 40 gig drive that finally bit the dust after being used for XP, then XP professional and massive online gaming on the MMORPG Dark Ages of Camelot. (Wife and I moved on to World of Warcraft a couple of years back though and I built better computers than the laptop for that).

A few weeks back my laptop’s hd (which was now an 80 gig drive) died a violent, heat-related death and I replaced it with a nice, new 160 gig drive a few days ago. I installed CentOS 4.3 and had several issues trying to get wireless to work - and since I want to be able to sit on the deck this summer and browse the internet and read, I wanted to get the wireless components working with little or no effort.

I started searching and found several folks saying how Ubuntu would fill the bill, and sure enough, after downloading version 8.04 last Thursday, I’m up and running. In fact, wireless works like a champ, and I can switch back and forth on the wire to the router, or run wireless without reboots, or much other than check-marking a setting for the network. It’s awesome.

The one problem I found is that when I’m at the desk I can’t use the external monitor, but think I might have found a couple of solutions I’ll try soon enough. There are some issues with putting the right information in the /etc/xorg.conf file - and I need to do a bit more research to see if there is an “easy way” through a GUI and hopefully by this weekend I ought to be able to switch from the lap top’s screen to the big 19″ wide screen display I use for my Linux boxes.

So far, Ubuntu has been a breeze to use, configure and load new software. Last night, I loaded WINE as easily as if I inserted a CD into a windows machine. (I hate to compare things in Linux to Windows, but it’s not very difficult to load Windows software, whereas, unless you’re a real computer geek with some serious background in playing with OSes, you’re not going to take the average Windows user and hand him or her a Linux based machine and say “Go for it!” without some serious headaches on their part). On the other hand, Windows IS the “standard” in the Computer World and around the Planet at the moment. Besides, I might have a reason or two to use some Windows Applications.

I’m hoping that we can change that view of operating systems, and proprietary software, drives and operating systems some day. This will only serve to make things easier in the future and eventually force a more competitive atmosphere in the gaming industry to ensure that games like World of Warcraft will EASILY run under any Linux OS without major Geek-Head-Tweaking that is currently required.

The ONLY reason I keep a windows machine around is for playing online games - something I suppose a half-century-old man ought NOT be doing in his spare time, but hey, you know, I EARNED my gray hair and I deserve to live in whatever fantasy world I chose! All I can say to game manufacturers is “You folks REALLY need to wake up and smell the coffee - and the free money — if you can start making things work under Linux!”

Hey, here’s a quick video from Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal’s Science and Technology Journal… he’s not happy with Ubuntu - and this was done in Sep 2007. As he says, though, Linux still isn’t quite ready for main stream, non-technical users. Those with a bit more computer background and savvy though are certainly pretty happy. Especially if all you’re really doing is browsing the internet, listening to music and sending/receiving emails. So listen to him, and check out linux if you’re a mind too…

For anyone that would like to download the version I’m using go to this link.

lgf: We Got Mail!

Apparently there are STILL kooks who believe that the attacks on 9-11-01 was a US Government Conspiracy.

Anyone with a lick of sense already knows this was a conspiracy, but it was a conspiracy carried out by terrorists, and not people in the US Government.

That ANYONE could believe the US Government was in any way involved shows that there is so much ignorance in the world and we continually need to combat this lack-of-intelligence on the part of the general population of the world.

The Truth, as a once-popular (and coming back) TV series “X Files” said, “Is out there”. Unfortunately, those who “believe in the truth” of a government conspiracy are buying into lies, and obfuscation and utterly refusing to see the facts — because they “want to believe”.

It is sad and frustrating that there are still ignorant people like this in the world. Below is the text of the letter sent to LGF.

Sad. Very, very sad.

Come on, tell me why you still believe it was possilbe for hijacked!? airliners to fly all over the eastern U.S. for hours without any meaningful response nor even any pursuit? Come on! (How could Osama bin-Forgotten do that? Or was that the work of Cheney?)

Our trillion-dollar air defenses were allegedly defeated by Osama bin-Forgotten & his 19 lackeys with box-cutters?

American Airlines Flight 77, having a 125’ wingspan disappeared though a16’ foot initial impact hole at the Pentagon. All clear video (at least 80 of them) of what blew-up the Pentagon being withheld to this day?

WTC-7 has small, scattered fires, yet it imploded in a controlled demolition later in the day on 9/11. Larry Silverstein, the over-insured leaseholder, said:

“I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, ‘We’ve had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it.’ And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse.”

Etc., etc.

Everyone needs to do his/her own research about September 11, 2001! (A good start is to watch “9/11 Ripple Effect” free on the web.)

Cell Phones Bad For Your Health – Again - Lifestyle News - Digital Trends

It’s the issue that won’t go away. Are cell phones detrimental to your health? Will the electromagnetic radiation cause brain tumors? Studies have said yes, studies have said no.

Again and again I have heard this. Again and again, I have to say that to make statements that cellular telephones specifically cause brain tumors is a load of nonsense.

I do not say this lightly either. As a long, long time Ham Radio operator I have used radios for many years. In the military I used handheld radios as did many, many people.

Amateur Radio Operators have been exposed, on average to much more Radio Frequency (RF) energy than anyone is exposed to by cellular phones on a daily basis, over long periods of time.

The fact is that all life on earth has adapted to exist in low frequency, naturally occurring radio frequency energy. While Amateur radio tends to be higher frequencies - usually falling between 2 and 30 megahertz, and a majority falling in the 144-440 mhz (used in local and repeater communications).

I believe that there are numbers showing that ham radio operators do not suffer from any greater instances of cancer than other people not exposed to ham radio. I’ll probably look into that a bit more later, but for now, this is merely opinion - although it’s not simply my opinion, but it is based upon knowledge of RF radiation.

Essentially, RF radiation is non-ionizing radiation and in most cases the worst thing that can happen is skin heating. Of course, not to minimize this a high powered radio system can injure you and cause burns.

Cellular telephones are much higher in frequency than even your television signals, or those of ham radio, the local AM/FM radio stations and so forth. They generally run in the 800-900 Mhz range - approaching what is commonly called “microwaves’. So-called because of their very short wavelength in the micrometer length.

Nearly all radio frequency energy at those frequencies travel over the surface of radiators, or antennas - and I’m speaking of the human body in terms of acting like an inductive device. The human body is mostly salt water, and thus is relatively conductive in comparison to many other things.

In fact, the human body will conduct RF along the surface. The evidence for internal heating simply doesn’t exist except at extremely high energy levels, something a cellular telephone is NOT capable of accomplishing. The fact is that tumors occur internal to the body, and frequencies from above about 30 Mhz simply don’t enter the body into the brain unless there are inordinate amounts of energy being used.

The majority of cellular telephones in use generally use less than 2 watts of RF power. There are some that use as much as 4.6 watts, but in general most phones are much less. Now, since I can’t cite specific studies where they have shown the penetrative abilities of RF energy at telephone frequencies, I can’t say for certain that 2-4 watts of energy does not definitively cause damage, however, I will say that from personal experience with radios operating at higher wattages, close to my face that I have never once suffered from RF burns on my eyes, eye sockets or anywhere near them, having used radios of much higher power, and even lower frequencies.

I know of no other amateur or professional radio operators who have suffered such damages either.

I did see one… error… at least in my opinion. Far be it for me to “question” a person with a phd, however,

Occupational and Environmental
Medicine (2004) Volume 61; pages 769-772). In other words, deep in a building
or in a moving elevator, the handset’s power output increases temporarily in order
to pick up a base-station’s signal so that the phone users can continue to
communicate effectively.

this bothers me some. His explanation is incorrect, though, I get his meaning. The handset doesn’t increase it’s power in order to “pickup” the base-station’s signal, it increases power to maintain contact with the base-station. Nitpicking, I know, but if you’re going to write a technical paper, then be technically correct.

In electrical signals, particularly alternating current signals, there is a physics phenomenon called “Skin Effect”. This is where currents flow in conductors closer to the surface as the AC frequency increases. There are set depths in electronics for various frequencies using copper as the medium. The higher the frequency, the lesser the depth for copper. The human body, being made up as I mentioned before of mostly salt water is a poor conductor at best and therefore higher frequencies penetrate the skin less than they do in copper wires.

This simple science fact should be enough for everyone to understand that at higher telephone frequencies there is less ability for RF energy to penetrate into the body. And yet, so-called “smart organizations” like the World Health Organization states that cell phones are dangerous. Oh, pardon me, they have “determined” they are dangerous.

Well, as a former electronics teacher, a real-world “physicist” with my background in RF energy, and a professional communicator, an amateur radio operator and someone with forty years of RF experience, I too have made a determination. The World Health Organization, Vini G. Khurana and his paper and pretty much anyone that makes the comment that “cell phones are dangerous and cause cancer” are simply playing on your emotions, probably have a reason to detest cellular phones and want the general public to stop using them at large.

In other words, these groups and people are wrong - and in short “full of it…”.

Obviously, I’m not a doctor, nor a lawyer, but I am an expert in RF radiation. It seems to me that these “dire warnings” put out in this paper
are based upon less science and more upon poorly accomplished research than anything else. In particular this scientist states clearly that this is “evidence based conclusions” and “opinions” of the author alone.

That is fine and dandy, but any one with a sufficient amount of research can find and draw incorrect conclusions from any evidence one choses to use, and in some cases ignore. At the same time, I do understand myself that safety precautions should always be observed in relation to any sort of electronic communications devices that emit radio frequency radiation. However, there are some questionable issues with the paper, as well as anyone simply making the accusation that a tumor is caused by a cellular phone.

Will I, should I ever find myself in that scary predicament suddenly sue Sprint and Samsung because I’ve been using the same sort of phones for over 10 years now, and the same services for at least eight or nine years? I might. Previous precedence has already been set in law suits leading up to these sorts of articles.

Essentially, there have been several dozen studies which have had varying degrees of finger pointing regarding cancer, cell phones and malignant brain tumors. In no case has any study conclusively determined there is a connection. Period. The World Health Organization, for no apparent good reason has determined cell phones are dangerous, and various people across the land have made unsupported, unsubstantiated claims regarding RF energy from cellular phones.

Why, I wonder, haven’t military personnel made similar claims about handheld radios? How about police and fire officials, nearly all of whom have handy-talkies strapped to their belts? What about amateur radio operators? How about ambulance drivers? Why aren’t any of the people in the security field making similar claims of handy-talkies?

It amazes me that this radio technology has been around since 1945 (hand held radios) set up on various frequencies from 1 MHz all the way up to the gigahertz range and yet is is only cellular telephones which have become the bane of the brain, and the purveyor of cancer when radio signals at higher frequencies like the cellular phone do not even penetrate the skull.

When will things like Global Warming and the rest of these silly, pseudo-science-based Conspiracy theories stop?

When people become educated.

I will state that a cellular telephone in the hand is generating an average of 2 watts, and probably much less would even be contacting a person from a few inches away. People who live in buildings, with antennas above their heads, broadcasting hundreds, or perhaps thousands of watts are in a much greater danger than those with handheld devices.

My own antennas have 100 watts or less RF power applied (and much less than that a few meters away from the antenna) so keeping in safety guild-lines put out by the Federal Communications Commission is not very difficult to do. However, making “more rules” for consumer devices is much more invasive than the RF that this doctor, and others are trying to limit.

Humans Spread Bird Flu To Humans in Indonesia
Science Daily ^ | 8/29/2007 | Fred Hutchinson

In the first systematic, statistical analysis of its kind, infectious-disease-modeling experts at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center confirm that the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus in 2006 spread between a small number of people within a family in Indonesia. The findings, by biostatistician Ira M. Longini Jr., Ph.D., and colleagues, will be published inthe journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Co-authors on the paper were biostatisticians M. Elizabeth (Betz) Halloran, M.D., D.Sc., and Yang Yang, Ph.D.; and epidemiologist Jonathan Sugimoto, M.H.S., a pre-doctoral research associate. All are within the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division and Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute.

The researchers based their findings on a cluster of eight flu cases within an extended family in northern Sumatra. Using a computerized disease-transmission model that took into account the number of infected cases, the number of people potentially exposed, the viral-incubation period and other parameters, the researchers produced the first statistical confirmation of humans contracting the disease from each other rather than from infected birds.

The cluster contained a chain of infection that involved a 10-year-old boy who probably caught the virus from his 37-year-old aunt, who had been exposed to dead poultry and chicken feces, the presumed source of infection. The boy then probably passed the virus to his father. The possibility that the boy infected his father was supported by genetic sequencing data. Other person-to-person transmissions in the cluster are backed up with statistical data. All but one of the flu victims died, and all had had sustained close contact with other ill family members prior to getting sick — a factor considered crucial for transmission of this particular flu strain.

In an attempt to contain the spread of the virus, the local health authorities eventually placed more than 50 surviving relatives and close contacts under voluntary quarantine and all, except for pregnant women and infants, received antiviral medication as a precaution.

“The containment strategy was implemented late in the game, so it could have been just luck that the virus burned out,” Longini said. “It went two generations and then just stopped, but it could have gotten out of control. The world really may have dodged a bullet with that one, and the next time we might not be so lucky,” he said.

Should a strain of avian flu acquire the ability to cause sustained human-to-human transmission, the results could be catastrophic, Longini said. “If not contained, the outbreak could spread worldwide through the global transportation network faster than the appropriate vaccine supply could be made available. That’s why it’s so important to ascertain whether human-to-human transmission is happening as well as the virulence of the strain.” The researchers estimated the secondary-attack rate of the virus in Indonesia — the risk of one infected person passing it to another — to be 29 percent, a level of infectiousness similar to statistical estimates for seasonal influenza A in the United States.

The researchers also aimed their statistical transmission-assessment technology at another large avian-flu cluster in eastern Turkey that in 2006 infected eight people, four of whom died. In this case, the researchers did not find statistical evidence of human-to-human transmission, most likely due to a lack of sufficient data. “There probably was person-to-person spread there as well but we couldn’t get all the information we needed for the analysis,” Yang said.

The methods and software used in this research led to the development of a software application called TranStat, which will allow first responders to enter, store and perform real-time analysis of data from infectious-disease outbreaks. This tool soon will be available online free of charge via MIDAS, the Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study, which is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

“We know the key to preventing a pandemic is early detection, containment and mitigation with antiviral therapy and this tool will enable those on the front lines, such as physicians, epidemiologists and other public-health officials, to carry that out efficiently,” Halloran said. “The manuals on how to collect the necessary data are decades old. They are very outdated and incomplete. Often people on the front lines don’t know what to do; they don’t collect the correct data to assess whether transmission is occurring. TranStat will prompt people to gather precisely the data that needs to be collected to better understand and contain any infectious-disease spread, not just the avian flu,” Sugimoto said.

If a smoldering disease cluster does flame out of control, the software also could be used to estimate the important characteristics of the virus — such as its transmissibility, secondary-attack rate and reproductive number — which would give public-health officials a better chance at slowing its spread until a vaccine or other effective control measures could be implemented.

Yang and colleagues recently described the basis for the statistical methods used in the research in The Annals of Applied Statistics.

The study was funded and supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences MIDAS network and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Longini and Halloran also are professors of biostatistics and Sugimoto is a pre-doctoral student in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Washington.

References: Emerging Infectious Diseases paper, “Detecting human-to-human transmission of avian influenza A (H5N1)”, September 1, print edition. This journal is published by the CDC.

The Annals of Applied Statistics paper, “A resampling-based test to detect person-to-person transmission of infectious disease” (2007, Vol. 1, No. 1, 211-228)

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

In the last 72 hours, two very, VERY important things have happened, which leads me to believe I’m living in a comic book.

A planet was discovered, about 20.5 light years from here. This planet has 1.6 times Earth gravity, probably contains water, and could reasonably be expected to support life, perhaps intelligent life.

In Serbia a couple of days ago, they discovered “Kryptonite“, a new mineral. No it doesn’t glow green, but it really is called Kryptonite.

If Hubble sees that planet “blow up” any time soon, I’m gonna join the newspapers so I can take pictures of “Superman”.

/sigh

cbs13.com - Scientists: Massive Meteorite Found Near Stockton

Yet another meteor impact crater discovered. Excerpt from the article follows:

“Scientist believe the meteorite is buried nearly a mile beneath farmland. Three dimensional images show the circular crater created by the rock are estimated to be three miles wide. They say that this event occurred over 50 million years ago. “

Also, they state:

“The impact would have been as powerful as 100,000 atomic bomb blasts and would have been seen and heard for hundreds of miles.”

Essentially, they are talking about 100,000 Hiroshima sized bombs, added together. I say this because most such impacts and statements are measured against the Hiroshima bomb, which was roughly 10 kilotons in size.

The world has been struck many, many times before and we’re just really starting to dig deep enough to discover these sites. Check one of my articles, called Circumstances Beyond Our Control for some information on this.

Hot Air » Blog Archive » UK paper: “Global Warming Swindle” riddled with errors

Yesterday, I reported a bit on, and posted the link to the video “The Great Global Warming Swindle”. Today, Hotair is reporting that a UK paper is saying it is “riddled with errors”.

Seems to me that after I watched it, and did a bit of research, I discovered that the facts are pretty well documented and checkable. That is something that not ONE pro-Global Warming goon can show — facts. Global warming is a pack of lies, told and retold without any evidence, and people are becoming convinced that lies are the truth.

People better wake up and stop worrying so much about this, and paying attention to real troubles in this world.

Global warming is being shown for precisely what it is, an anti-capitalist, Hate-America-Most political campaign. Sad. Just, horribly, sad.

YouTube - The Great Global Warming Swindle (Complete)

Folks, those of you pushing the Global Warming, POLITICAL agenda really need to listen to and watch this movie. All your alleged ‘facts’ are wrong. Global warming isn’t happening based on CO2, CO2 happens because of warming. Golly, you all have it wrong way around!

Earth’s Busy Neighborhood

Somewhere out there is a great big piece of rock, with our name on it. Oh, it’s out there, and it’s headed for us. It’s going to slam into the Earth with enough energy to devastate a small country. The problem won’t be that the country is destroyed, but the entire human race and 90% of all other life forms will be eliminated.

That piece of rock is called an asteroid, and it will have what is called an “Earth Crossing Orbit”. Regardless of your feelings and belief in “mankind”, how we were created, whether by God or by evolution isn’t really very relevant. We can, and in all probability be completely wiped from the face of this planet by such a cataclysm in the future.

Unless we do something about it.

As human beings, we don’t think really about “what’s beyond the atmosphere” on a daily basis and I’d not advocate that you lose sleep over it, however, I would advocate that you start paying attention. Oh, sure some of you will say, “The human race has been here for thousands, perhaps millions of years on this world and we’ve survived other things. So what?”

Well, it is reasonable that the dinosaurs were wiped out by just such an event, 65 million years ago. It is also just as likely that several other known extinction events occurred due directly to asteroid impacts on our world.

Nothing “devastating” has happened in our known history, but there have been impacts that occurred on this planet that are known about. For instance, Tunguska Russia, at 7:17 AM on June 30, 1908 a massive explosion occurred. The event is sometimes referred to as the Great Siberian Explosion. It wasn’t until nearly twenty years later that people went to the region to examine what happened. It is believed to have been a cometary impact, the comet exploding some distance above the ground with devastating effects.

Meteor Crater in the desert of Arizona is just over a mile across and several hundred feet deep. This even occurred around 50,000 years ago and left a gaping hole in the ground.

The rock was a nickel-iron meteor, believed to be around 526 yards across and weighed in at about 300,000 tons. We’re pretty sure there were people present on the plains of the Americas 50,000 years ago

Both of these events may very well have been “devastating” had they been over populated cities. We really do not know if people were indeed killed in the Tunguska impact, and of course there’s no evidence of people being present during the impact that left the scar in Arizona.

Why should we “worry”? In 2029, on Friday, April 13th an asteroid will pass very close to Earth. It’s name is 2004 MN4, now called by a the grim name Apophis. Apophis for those of you not up on your mythology was also known as Apep, and is the demon of Darkness for the Egyptian Mythos. This demon or god was the opposer of light, thus eventually known in the mythos as the opposer of Ra, or light. He was evil, wont to do evil things to humans and the gods. But this is all mythology and not science.

The fact that there are some massive pieces of rock out there whirling around space in orbits that periodically cross the Earth’s orbit however, is science. Right now, there are probably less than 30 or so scientists world wide who are working on collecting data for Near Earth Asteroids (NEOs) and Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), but they have cataloged roughly 2000 out of an estimated 25-50 thousand such objects.

The problem comes from the fact that in the last three days we’ve had not one, but two close calls. Asteroids 2007 EH and 2007 EK narrowly missed (or will narrowly miss) the Earth. Yesterda, 2006 EH was discovered just before it made a swipe as the Earth. It passed within a few Moon-diameters of the Earth, passing between the Earth and moon.

The other rock should swing past us within the next 24 hours. I ran tracks on both of these using one of NASA’s java tools, and all I can say is “Holy COW, that was close.”

I still haven’t really answered the question about “Why worry”, not precisely. We should worry because we can do something about these things. In 1865, we could have done little save stand and watch as the planet was perhaps doomed to destruction by some giant chunk of rock, that humans probably didn’t know about, couldn’t see and couldn’t do a damned thing about. Today, we not only can see them, track them and calculate the exact impact point on the planet should they have our name on them, but we can DO something about them.

We have the technology to boost dangerous, Earth orbit crossing asteroids into a different orbit, thereby protecting something extremely precious. Ourselves, and our world. I’m concerned less about myself than I am my own legacy, my children and grandchildren. My great grandparents probably didn’t think twice about what happens beyond their own generation, but we damned sure ought to be worrying about it.

America, and humankind in general stand up on a great road to the future. Our technology will in short order take us off this world, perhaps to explore Mars within 30-50 years. Beyond that, I can only guess, but human kind can preserve itself and become someday, interstellar travelers if we try hard enough. Sometimes I think people are just too bogged down standing around and waiting for something bad to happen, instead of being proactive enough to make good things happen.

So, write Congress, asking your representatives to consider funding the space program, doing something about potentially hazardous asteroids, and rocks that can doom not only the United States, but the world to a coming dark age that the human race may never recover from. Write the president of the United States. If you live in another country, then write your own governments, asking… no demanding that they take time out of their busy political schedules to actually THINK about the future of the human race.

Over the course of the past couple of years, honey bees in the United States, particularly the western US regions have suffered massive losses to something they are calling “Colony Collapse” and was perhaps formerly known as “Fall Dwindle Disease”.

In the past history of bees, if this has occurred it has been in small regions. Now it is occurring across the US. At present at least twenty-two states have been affected. Honey bees are not native to the United States, and were introduced here in the early days of the Colonies.

“Honey-bees are responsible for approximately one third of the United States crop pollination including such species as: peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, pumpkins, cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. [1]

According to the above quoted article, this is believed to be a contagious disease.

During the months of October, November, and December 2006, an alarming number of honeybee colonies began to die along the East Coast of the United States. West Coast beekeepers are also beginning to report unprecedented losses. This phenomenon, without a recognizable underlying cause, has been tentatively been termed “Fall Dwindle Disease,” and threatens the pollination industry and production of commercial honey in the United States. This has become a highly significant yet poorly understood problem for beekeepers. States like Pennsylvania can ill afford these heavy losses; the number of managed colonies is less than one half of what it was 25 years ago. Many beekeepers are openly wondering if the industry can survive. There are serious concerns that losses are so great that there will not be enough bees to rebuild colony numbers in order service pollination needs and to maintain economic viability in these beekeeping operations. [2]

While the exact mechanisms of CCD are unknown, pathogens, pesticides or mite associations are suspected as causative agents. One study group is doing autopsies on bees. [3]

Now, let’s interject a bit of skeptical speculation into the mix. If I were a bad guy, say a foreign state bent on the destruction of the United States and I wanted to bring down the US without firing a shot, how could I do it. Easy, study my enemy and know their weaknesses. Let us say our foreign power figured out a way to destroy bees, without firing a shot. What would be the result?

In the United States, a very large portion of all pollination occurs from honey bees. That number is roughly 80% of the of all insect crop pollination is accomplished by honeybees, instead of other insect species. If you suddenly eliminated bees somehow, the cross pollination of many species, including, but especially apple trees and many other fruit trees would cease. Those crops would not yield as much the following year and perhaps nothing the next year. So, supplies of food drop drastically.

Prices increase. A large strain on the economy may be the result.

The United States is one of the largest producers of food in the world, and we export a great majority of that food. Fortunately, bees aren’t the method of pollinization for wheat and similar grains. But they certainly support orchards of fruit. Especially oranges, apples and similar trees. Most plants that produce fruit, produce flowers where the bees drink nectar for their honey production, and rub off pollen, moving from flower to flower, depositing some of that pollen on other plants. Thus, cross pollination occurs. For fruit to be produced, the flower must be pollinated in this manner. Sometimes the wind can do it, but most plants are successfully touched by bees throughout their cycle, thus ensuring pollination.

If this process stopped, fruit and many other types of food production would be drastically curtailed.

Ok, let’s do our speculation a step further. What if somehow, say the Russians could introduce into the United States, legally, and effectively a bee that contained nothing at all, but over time send sick bees, or bees infected with something that would rapidly spread throughout the US, as bees do?

In 2004 or so, the US Agriculture introduced to the United States a specially bred bee, that was highly resistant to a specific type of mite, called the varrao. These bees under went testing and were quarantined, tested and so forth. I personally don’t know, and haven’t been able to figure out the process on how foreign species are introduced to the US through the USDA, but if there are ANY holes in the process, what happens if some bad bees get through? What if it were planned?

Yes, this is a conspiracy theory. Yes, it is speculation. Is it true? I highly doubt it but its a probable scenario. I’m not a proponent of such things as conspiracy theories, but I will say this much. You must think like a bad guy, to fight a bad guy. We need to investigate this completely and of course rule out foul play, but I certainly would not put it past the Russians at all.

[1] Alarm sounded over US honey bee die-off; Wikinews, http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Alarm_sounded_over_US_honey_bee_die-off
[2] Wednesday Edition: Colony Collapse — The Death of Bees, http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=2&aid=118658
[3] Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), http://www.ento.psu.edu/MAAREC/pressReleases/FallDwindleUpdate0107.pdf

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?SEQ_NO_115=180423
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?SEQ_NO_115=150884

Side note: Here’s a letter from a Bee Keeper. It was written to a site called UrbanSurvival.Com and mentions the Russian Bees. I can’t say that I put a lot of stock in the site necessarily, but I certainly think that someone who has seen this first hand and knows the introduction of these bees was perhaps related could be at least considered a source.

http://www.urbansurvival.com/lastweek.htm
Bee Story

The collapse of bee colonies has something to do with Russia? Well, here’s an email to ponder from a bee-keeping reader:

“Hello George, Just a comment on the honey bee problems in the US.

I agree that genetically modified plant-life may be causing many problems for the bee population.

There is also another possible cause that non-beekeepers probably wouldn’t know about.

Over the years the honey bee population in the US has been greatly reduced due to attacks of Tracheal mites, Varroa mites, and Hive beetles.

Two years ago, in an effort to replenish the bee supply, the government introduced a program to give away “Russian” honeybees.

In the US, most beekeepers keep “Italian” honeybees. The “Russian” bees were supposed to be more resistant to the Varroa mites.

The original deal was that selected beekeepers would receive (free-of-charge) 2 packages of “Russian” bees and 2 hives. In exchange the beekeepers agreed to not sell the hives for 3 years and to allow regular inspections by government officials.

Due to an overwhelming response by beekeepers the deal was later changed to 1 hive of “Russian” and 1 hive of “Italian” bees.

I did not take part in the program but I did keep watch on the results in my state.

Within the first year (2005) all 250 hives of “Russian” bees that were introduced into this state were dead.

I personally know two beekeepers who took part in the program. By the end to 2006, one had lost 43 hives to “Colony Collapse”, the other had lost 200 hives (his entire operation) to “Colony Collapse”

I don’t know if there is a connection or just a horrible coincidence but perhaps the plants aren’t the only things being “modified”.

Safe Journey,”

Bee safe, Ure self.

There was just something TOO funny about this.

 http://www.drudgereport.com/

HOUSE HEARING ON ‘WARMING OF THE PLANET’ CANCELED AFTER SNOW/ICE STORM
HEARING NOTICE
Tue Feb 13 2007 19:31:25 ET

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows around 18. Northwest winds around 20 mph.

Blue Origin Let’s all go into space

I really can’t wait.

t.  

I have noted that several folks have had "issues" reading the site.

I have not verified that the problem is NOT the site, but it is INTERNET EXPLORER. 

Therefore, if you want to view the site PROPERLY don’t use IE to do it, I strongly, highly recommend Mozilla Firefox. It’s free, it’s easy to install, and it works a million times better than IE ever has.

You don’t have to be computer savvy, so click the download button, store it some place you can find it, click the icon (or file name) to install, do a standard install and then make it your default browser.  You’ll love it, and love me for pointing you in the right direction.

Please, put down the Internet Explorer and step away from it!

Thanks

I just wanna make something very clear here…. /rant ON

My opinions are mine. I’ll share them if you ask, and sometimes when you don’t ask. I make sure that when I form an opinion it is based on factual data, thoroughly examined and calculated, weighed and OBJECTIVELY read. I also base my opinions on life experiences as well. I know the difference in right and wrong, and I know when someone is trying to pull the wool over my eyes. So, if you want my opinion, and ask, I will give it and you can KNOW for a FACT it is well through out. If you don’t like my opinions, tough shit, I probably don’t like yours either.

If I appear to have slammed something someone has said on these forums, then know that it isn’t that I just "disagree" with you, or that I am "brainwashed" by some "Fanatic Right Wing government", nor that I’m a Nazi (I’m not for the record, I’m a dyed in the wool-Reagan-Republican who saw the light after working for Jimmy Carter, the very FIRST President I voted for. Reagan was the second.) — Nor am I a man of no or small principles. It’s because the person that made the crack that I responded to is full of shit, talking out his or her ass, or worse, is merely a misinformed person trying desperately to "fit in" with some group or organization (usually a left-leaning group, by the way).

As Elzie Segar’s, Popeye the Sailorman used to say, "I yam what I yam…"

Somewhere along the way, I’ve gained a kind of "following". I receive non-solicited "Fan Letters" on occasion. They range from awesomely written pieces to manaical personal attacks upon me. In the years since I started doing Anomalies I gained a vast array of–for lack of a better word–evildoers who were at the time hell bent on the destruction of the Anomalies Network. I’ve received, recently in fact, death threats. The shit never stops. The idiots continue to breed. Stupid people, by the way, ought not breed, nor should Liberals. (I suggest you continue aborting your children, and leave ours alone so that the Liberal will eventually go extinct.)

The kooks at Anomalies managed, for the most part to be written off as part of the history of the site. Somewhere along the way, I let my guard down and some of the got the "best of me" and managed to convince Olav that I was a tyrant and evil person, who was hell bent on preventing them, good innocent little people of the world, from "getting the word out". The truth is, I was protecting the site, and Olav with all my heart and soul. I poured more hours each day into that site than I did my family, my job, my hobbies. In short, I LIVED IN that site and was a PART of the site. I left a large mark on the site, and not a Black one as people like Kerry P, Jools, Porque, Tripp, Mr. P and many others are still SPOUTING even THIS day out on other sites out there. They know that they can’t bring a fight to me any more since I never respond to their nonsense on Anomalies these days, and if they come here, they will find themselves quickly in the toilet. And, they HATE it.

Olav, God Love him, was looking for a way to make Anomalies into his vision. I can not, nor would I blame him for that, and he managed to get his chance once day. But, regardless of the original intent of Anomalies, it grew out of love for the stories and information, and the people came. Both sides of the fence showed, and discussed and debated real data. Then it spiraled with the joining of a few trolls — some of whom I converted to be good Moderators. Andy G for one. Andy wasn’t really a troll, per se, but was definately misinformed. The day he took the helm of one of the forums, Andy did an about face, and took a "Right Turn" towards reality. He was one of our better moderators (and they were all damned fine people, don’t get me wrong, even a few I ended up firing eventually). But Andy was a person who, like many sat there and believed a lot of the stuff he read, as long as it fitted into some preconceived notion of his world view.

Then, shortly after taking over as a Moderator, Andy G did what few people do. He realized that belief in a subject is not the same as KNOWLEDGE in a subject and he studied a lot.

Andy was diagnosed with some sort of spinal cancer a year or so back. I was in contact with him for a time, and then that contact stopped. His Girl Friend was to let us know what was going on, but I’ve never heard from her since. I have not heard from Andy in months and I don’t think anyone else has either.

Andy G.– Where ever you are now, we all miss you.

Today, I see Anomalies suffering from piddling little posts and godawful conspiracy theories to no end. It’s sad, very sad. It’s like watching your mother with Alzheimer’s Disease, wasting away, babbling about things that aren’t true, or trapped in her mind that you can never know about.

Here on this site, several folks have taken to making cracks and remarks, which tend to "incite" me. Religion is one. Let me tell you my take on religion. First let me say this, carefully, I have no argument with religion per se. I appreciate it, and I understand the companionship people seek in knowing God. I also understand there are dozens of religions out there and billions belong to one or another. Finally, I understand that we all must take certain things on faith.

Now, stand back and minute and forget anything you knew about ANY religion, just for a moment, including your own. Place yourself as a complete and utter novice in the face of ANY religion, and know you know nothing about it.

Now, completely indoctrinate yourself into one (any) religion, follow it’s tenents, listen carefully to the Preachers (or whatever other teachers are involved) and then understand that you’ve been brainwashed. Now you know why Islamics are so hell bent on killing Americans, Jews and Western Civilization.

Now, knowing that this can happen to people, is it any WONDER that sometimes the Left Wing in America can be so evil when it comes to churches and religion? Is it any wonder that they bitch and scream and want to see something they call the "Separation of Church and State"? You see, where religion is involved, there is a degree of BELIEF and FAITH that must be taken into account. When that belief and faith are used as battering rams against people, say, like me who APPEAR to be "non-believers" then the application of that religious teaching becomes unwanted and unwarranted. I don’t need, nor want "conversion" and I do NOT believe that God is going to take care of me all the time. He might be there to nudge me a bit one way or the other, but what I do, and what happens around him has NOTHING to do with him normally. You believe what you will, and I will believe MY way. Don’t try to tell me that I’m doing something wrong because you disagree with it — but at the same time, don’t think that you’re doing something RIGHT because you simply BELIEVE it.

Things I can’t and won’t tolerate ever:

1) Someone trying to force me to "believe" in ANYTHING including religion, or conspiracy theory… which by the way, are BOTH RELIGIONS.

2) Lies. Damned lies and Statistics. I use statistics, but I show all of them, not part of them (like the crazy, whacko Global warming kooks do). One thing I don’t do on this or other web sites when I write though, is LIE about data. I tell it like it is, exactly. I show the facts. If I interject my OPINION on a subject, it’s not based on vague, feel-good rules. It’s based on facts and personal experience. I’m sure no one likes to think they are wrong, and neither do I. But I STRIVE to be not just right, but ACCURATE, even in opinions.

3) Personal attacks on anyone on this site. I won’t stand for it. And if you think I’ve made one, then look again at what you did to get the remarks I made. If you are going to sit there and tell me I did something I didn’t do, that’s akin to calling me a liar, and you’re going to get creamed. Don’t like that? TOUGH, don’t tell me I said something I didn’t say.

4) Rewording something I’ve said. Don’t do that. My writing is my writing, as is my writing style. I may not remember in two weeks precisely what I said, but it’s there for the world to see. If you wanna question something I’ve said, then you need to make sure you quote me ACCURATELY.

5) I won’t tolerate Communists, Socialists, Marxists, or whatever you wanna call yourselves, I don’t tolerate Enviromental LIBERAL idiots, people who damage others’ properties, murderers, terrorists, rapists and in general criminals. I WON"T tolerate people who threaten me, my family or my friends, and a lot of my friends are on this site.

There’s probably a lot more I WON’T Tolerate… just don’t be one of the "more".

Then, there’s the Right Wing, in particular the Religious right… who deem themselves sometimes completely free of committing crimes or wrong doing, and see that even recently the head of the New Life Church, Ted Haggard got himself in deep doo doo. Well, he and others got himself in to it — and no puns were intended here. People on both sides of the political aisle can be fools, do things they shouldn’t do. I’ve done a lot of things in my time I shouldn’t have and am not proud of them. But, it ain’t nobody’s business but mine. And unlike LIBERALS I don’t go around telling my kids and others what I’ve done "bad" — because it isn’t anyone’s business, and any mother or father that admits to their children they did drugs in the ’60s and ’70s are imbeciles. Your KIDS don’t need that kind of example. They need one that DOESN"T make mistakes. They need Parents who are BEYOND HUMAN. So, if you want to be a good parent, it’s easy. Be strong, and sometimes LIE to your kids when they ask you stupid questions.

When it comes to gathering information, I don’t just sit back, read and listen to one point of view. Neither should you. I listen to them all, so if anyone wants to tell me "You’re brainwashed" — go ahead, but know you’re lying, and I’ll call you out… and in the same vein as my ancestors, I’ll be happy to meet you on the street and kick your ass for saying such a thing about me. I tend to look up things, a lot of things every day. EVERYTHING that catches my attention becomes either a bookmark on a computer, or a piece of information I put in my brain. I’d expect every one of you to do the same, instead of setting your parameters and bias ahead of time, why DON’T you spend time digging into that conspiracy piece that looks so inviting and find the actual, first person source of the data.

You will be SURPRISED, trust me, if you go and read up on, say… "Concentration camps in America". Oh, my God, you will find so LITTLE truth, and a whole lot of run around, it’s truly mind boggling that people can believe this CRAP. (and a little hint, ALL the information you will find will eventually lead back to ONE PERSON, imagine that!)

I don’t mince words. I tell it EXACTLY like I see it. I AM somewhat wordy at times in articles (like this one). This is because I try very hard NOT to leave some of the imbeciles out there that like nothing better than to argue for no reason, and with no argument, no way out.

If you want to complain about my articles. Do it to yourselves. I’m sick of people telling me I write too much, or not enough. I am what I am. I do what I do because I know it is the right thing to do.

So.. for that group of you finally coming back out of the woodwork, who used to hang at Anomalies, and are looking to pick fresh fights with me… I’ll tell you this. I have more backup here than you can imagine. We might argue amongst ourselves at times on the meaning of this or that, but the folks that formed the core of this site have a goal, and we will stick to it. we don’t have any backdoors you’re going to get into and stab one of us in the back. TAA is here, for the duration. Trolls won’t shut us down and they won’t shut me up.

There’s no going behind one of our backs. You stand up, you face us like men, and we’ll face you back. You wanna bring weapons to the fight, feel free, but understand this core group not only outguns you in intellect, it outguns you in real life.

For the forces of evil out there bent on doing harm to the United States of America…

Do your best, but know that there are Americans.. JUST LIKE Me, who will not take your shit, we will point it out every step of the way. We will follow you around and scream at you if necessary, shoot you if we have too. America will not fall to the likes of Leftists, Socialists and Communists. The Democrats in this country need to understand this and get behind the rest of us Americans in fending off the Islamofascists and the rest of the WRONG-THINKING on this planet. Socialism is going to die in the next generation. I will help see to that.

President Bush said, after 9-11, "You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists".

Chose sides. Most already have, those that are on my side will win. Those on the side of the terrorists will lose.

So, when you post on this site, get your FACTS STRAIGHT, don’t lie, and DO by all means DOUBLE CHECK YOUR DATA. Because if I start seeing conspiracy crap on this site, I’m going to go through it with a fine toothed comb and I’ll call you out when I find your sources don’t match or all are circular to the same source.

Get your shit together on this site and expect, EXPECT that you’ll be questioned when you post crap. If you don’t like it, tough, go somewhere simple-minded and sloppy to post your garbage. But if you want to discuss something with an intelligent group, this is the place to do it. Just don’t expect me or anyone else to back down when it comes to hard questions.

If you don’t like my opinion, don’t ask for it. Don’t post things that are going to bring me out to work on what you’ve said. Because, folks, I’m probably the meanest son of a bitch in the valley and you don’t want to screw with me.

Oh… and last thing. The next THREAT I receive, I won’t send to the FBI or the local cops. I’ll take it seriously and I’ll hunt your ass down and make God Damned sure you don’t do that to me or anyone in my family again.

That’s not a threat, that’s a PROMISE. If the cops won’t do anything, *I* will.

have a nice day.
__________________
Rick Donaldson

It’s better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for who you’re not.

If your opponent is quick to anger, seek to irritate him. — Sun Tzu

Illegitimus non carborundum.
http://realitycheck.blogsome.com
http://survival.anomalies.net
http://www.transasianaxis.com

In recent weeks there have been rumors about illegals crossing the border from both Mexico and Canada, being detained and odd things being found on these folks.  Apparently, I find out now, I’m not the ONLY one hearing these rumors. For the most part they are other-than-Mexican illegals, some being classified as Chinese, and some as Iranian nationals. This in and of itself is enough to make me cringe.  I’ve been predicting a type of "Red Dawn" scenario for roughly five years now — mostly on Anomalies Network.  Unfortunately, the site has changed recently, and apparently the two most important threads I’ve every created are completely missing in action, so I’ll try to provide some background a bit later.

(Update: Here are the original threads 21 Sep 06:

The China Threat

Ground War in the US

The threads above were started a long time ago, and the top one is "The China Threat", second one is "Ground war in the US"…. )

A couple of days ago, Sean Osborne from the Northeast Intelligence Network reported on this very subject.  First he posted private messages to alert the staff at TAA.  Then he later has posted his own, open source story on NEIN and at TAA. Apparently, according to his article, these illegals have been caught, detained and searched.  On many of them have been found "KI Tablets".  These are also known as potassium-iodine tablets, and are used just before, or during a nuclear emergency by public citizens, nuclear workers, government folks, and military personnel to attempt to prevent the body, specifically the thyroid from absorbing a large, and deadly quantity of radioactive iodine. (Here is some information about the tablets.)

Since the 1950s, the United States has been providing "iodine" in another form, in normal, everyday table salt.  However, such use of these tablets is not inherently going to flush the system of radioactive materials. In fact, it’s only use would be PRIOR to exposure, and it ONLY protects ones thyroid against the intake of potentially deadly radioactive iodine.  Once this radioactive version of iodine has bound with your thyroid, nothing is going to flush it.  So, the provision of iodine in salt form since the 1950s was the preferred method, protecting every child and adult in the United States against fallout, and subsequent intake of radioactive elements.

I believe that the thyroid is one part of the human body that can ingest quickly these forms of radioactive materials, and put you at significant risk, quickly. Obviously there are other radioactive elements the body can absorb readily and they can become potentially dangerous as well. However, this one, Iodine (I) is one that can be used daily to help save lives in the case of a nuclear showdown of some sort. The below is quoted from: Civil Defense Perspectives, January 1997 (vol. 13, #2) 1601 N Tucson Blvd #9, Tucson AZ 85716 c 1997 Physicians for Civil Defense

In the Dec. 6, 1996, issue, Science published a much abbreviated version of the letter that follows:

We are surprised that Science has not yet published a correction of the potentially life-endangering scientific error in “Children Become the First Victims of Fallout,'’ Michael Balter’s article in the April 19, 1996 issue. In the last paragraph of his otherwise informative article, Balter stated: “Much of the radiation exposure [caused by fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident], for example, could have been countered by rapid administration of nonradioactive iodine to `flush out’ the radioactive isotopes from binding sites in the thyroid.'’

In fact, radioactive isotopes, once bound in the thyroid, cannot be flushed out by subsequent administration of nonradioactive iodine. To be effective in preventing the uptake and binding of radioactive isotopes, stable iodine must be administered before exposure. A daily 130-mg dose of stable KI, starting one-half hour to one day before the arrival of fallout or other material contaminated with radioactive iodine, will effectively saturate the thyroid, giving 99% effective protection. A 130-mg tablet or four drops of a saturated solution of KI may be used.

Why am I talking about this?  Well, back to the first paragraph.  Why are illegal aliens carrying such things in their pockets?  Have they been hoodwinked to think these tablets were some kind of drug? Or are they fully, completely aware of the use of these tablets?  My educated guess is that they know full well the use of the chemicals involved. 

That brings me to "Why are they carrying this into the United States, as illegals?"  Are they somehow aware of something the rest of us are NOT?  Are they aware there will be an "incident"?  Are they here as some kind of "Red Dawn Force" to spread out across the United States, to cause mayhem and murder when someone sets off a nuclear device within the confines of the United States?  Perhaps dirty bombs are already in place? Or worse, a nuclear device capable of wiping out a whole city?

Knowing that the use of such a chemical to be used prior to a nuclear fallout situation is critical here.  That *I* know I can use this chemical to help prevent my intake of I-131 for instance, is also critical. I’m just your average, every day American. I know these things. Granted I’ve studied these things with a keen interest over the years, I have quite a large military training background and have been through the old NBC and later CBRN courses the military offered.  Does this make me different from some random "illegal immigrant"?  Perhaps yes.  Then someone explain to me WHY illegal immigrants know this information, if they are as the media portrays them, as uneducated for the most part, people with an "American Dream" to come here and work at "jobs you and I wouldn’t want to do"???

I do not know the answer to these things, and I can only speculate at this point, since I’ve not had direct access to the sources that NEIN has had to date.  I can only at this point take Sean Osborne’s word at this.  I’ll ask for sources, but, the truth is most of these folks give information only on the word they will remain anonymous.  I suppose that’s got its good and bad aspects.  I’ll wait, like everyone else to see what is going to happen.

The fact is, I have been completely unable to locate ONE piece of news reporting this, from ANY news organization, whether it is main stream media or otherwise. Not one.  I’ve heard the talk on the internet, I’ve seen some folks mention this in various ways….

UPDATE: I’m updating the links as I locate them today. See Also:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46190

http://www.canadafreepress.com/audio/hagmann-williams.htm

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-09-12-voa70.cfm

http://www.worldthreats.com/general_information/aqarsenal.htm

http://pc540.blogspot.com/2006/09/terrorism-al-qaedas-mr-nuclear-to-head.html

http://www.watchermagazine.com/?p=6443

http://news.bostonherald.com/localPolitics/view.bg?articleid=153483

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/bbs/message.php?messageid=292134

http://www.watchermagazine.com/wp-mobile.php?p=6445&more=1

http://stoptheaclu.com/archives/2006/09/17/al-qaeda-orders-muslims-to-leave-us-before-nuclear-terror-strike/

http://bamapachyderm.com/archives/2006/09/13/adnan-g-el-shukrijumah-attack-in-us-coming

Project Orion - NASA going to the Moon again
1 September 2006
by Rick Donaldson