This Week In "Other Protests Than Egypt"

Thousands of Albanian protest despite warnings Summary: A peaceful response to a violent reaction. Excerpts:
Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the Albanian capital Tirana Friday for a silent protest closely monitored by police, a week after another demonstration turned deadly. The opposition went ahead with the protest in defiance of international appeals and police warnings, insisting it would be a peaceful gathering to honor the three people killed last week.

The demonstrators headed by the leadership of the opposition socialists and the families of the victims started their march on the government buildings, passing by the spot where the people were shot, placing flowers at the scene in silence.

Organizers said there were 200,000 protesters but AFP journalists put the number at several tens of thousands. Police would give no figure.
And:
Last Friday, tens of thousands of people turned out for a protest rally organized by Rama, calling on the government to resign over allegations of corruption and electoral fraud.

The subsequent clashes between demonstrators and the security forces left three people dead and a fourth critically wounded.

This is the longest ever political crisis in Albania, which began after the opposition disputed the results from the June 2009 parliamentary election.

Not big enough to be close to critical, tensions in Jordan, nonetheless, could flare up from growing discontent with Prime Minister Samir Rifai. Excerpts:

Thousands of people in Jordan have taken to the streets in protests, demanding the country's prime minister step down, and the government curb rising prices, inflation and unemployment.

In the third consecutive Friday of protests, about 3,500 opposition activists from Jordan's main Islamist opposition group, trade unions and leftist organisations gathered in the capital, waving colourful banners reading: "Send the corrupt guys to court".

The crowd denounced Samir Rifai's, the prime minister, and his unpopular policies.
Many shouted: "Rifai go away, prices are on fire and so are the Jordanians.''

Tame, for the moment.. We'll see, won't we? Any finally, the most desperate and volatile of the three, Yemen.. But.. Maybe the Yemeni government has learned a little something from the events of previous weeks. Calls for talks with opposition, warns of conflict Yemen ruling party urges dialogue to halt protests Excerpts:

Yemen's ruling party has called for dialogue with the opposition, the country's state news agency said late on Friday, in a bid to end anti-government protests fuelled by popular unrest across the Arab World.

Thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets of the capital Sanaa in recent days demanding a change of government, inspired by the overthrow two weeks ago of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Al Ben Ali and spillover to Egypt.

"We ... call for the halting of media propaganda and urge all political parties to work together to make the dialogue a success and arrange for upcoming elections," a committee of the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) party was quoted as saying on the website of the Saba state news agency.
And:
Saleh, a key ally of the United States in a war against a resurgent al-Qaeda wing in Yemen, has ruled the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state for over 30 years.

Yemen is trying to quell a secessionist rebellion in its south and cement a truce with northern Shiite rebels.

Security measures at the demonstrations appeared relaxed, but were tight around the interior ministry and the central bank.

The political heat in the Mid East continues to intensify, growing hotter and faster in some areas over others, but growing nonetheless. Day Five in Egypt is already underway. It's gonna get hotter 'fore it cools..

Storm On Saturn Has Grown Into A Monster!

From Universe Today: Just before the holidays, UT reported about about the Growing Storm On Saturn and showed us the Cassini images. Now more than a month has passed and the white scar of the raging atmosphere has escalated to an incredible size… Nearly 10 Earths wide!

WikiLeaks: Hot Egyptian Nights, Volume One..

First, to set the stage, lets flash back to late November(Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010).. WikiLeaks Fallout: Undermining Egypt as Mideast Mediator Excerpts:

The flood of classified U.S. diplomatic cables released on Sunday by WikiLeaks threatens to further undermine Egypt's already questionable role as a neutral mediator between Palestinian factions, embarrass the U.S. in one of its most important Middle Eastern allies and expose the authoritarian regime of President Hosni Mubarak to more criticism in the aftermath of a parliamentary election this past weekend that was marred by widespread accounts of fraud and abuse.

For Cairo, the country's current preoccupation with an election that fell on the same day as the WikiLeaks disclosure may serve to distract the public for the time being. Egyptian newspapers on Monday devoted some attention to the leaks, but focused on revelations regarding their neighbors and other countries — not Egypt. Meanwhile a Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment on the documents' impact — indicating that he was not up to speed on the details and was currently in Libya. But inevitably, analysts say, details of Egypt's hard-line stance on Hamas, as well as its close cooperation with Israel, will provide fresh fodder for Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, which suffered serious losses in the weekend's poll.

One of Brotherhood's strongest talking points against Mubarak's deeply unpopular regime has been its allegedly close relationship with Israel — a neighbor still widely vilified by the Egyptian public. Thanks to the diplomatic cables, Egypt may now have to account for fresh details regarding its cooperation with the Jewish state, as well as its role as a regional peace broker. "I think the most important thing is the link between these documents that explain everything and the crackdown on democracy and the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood," says Essam al-Erian, a member of the Brotherhood's politburo. "If there was a democracy in Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood became more powerful, this would threaten this good relationship between Egypt and the Israelis."
..
What may be more worrying to the Egyptian government,however, is a blow to the state's credibility as a regional peace broker. For years, Mubarak's regime has presented itself as the only diplomatic actor capable of resolving the 2007 split between Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah that left Hamas in control of Gaza and Fatah in control of the West Bank. Palestinians deem reconciliation critical to the success of any peace deal with Israel, but many accuse Egypt of being a biased mediator and therefore unfit for the job. The disclosed documents appear to leave little doubt as to where Egypt stands.

"Mubarak hates Hamas and considers them the same as Egypt's own Muslim Brotherhood, which he sees as his own most dangerous political threat," Scobey said in the February 2009 cable. Another cable detailing a meeting between Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and General David Petraeus, of the U.S. Central Command, in the same year revealed Suleiman was pessimistic about prospects of reaching a deal. "I consider myself a patient man, but I am losing patience," Suleiman told Petraeus. He said Egypt was committed to undermining Hamas and building popular support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West.

And from December 9th.. US ambassador tells Hillary Clinton that president will win rigged election next year, his 30th in power

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's long-serving president, is likely to seek re-election next year and will "inevitably" win a poll that will not be free and fair, the US ambassador to Cairo, Margaret Scobey, predicted in a secret cable to Hillary Clinton last year.
..
Scobey's candid view, in a cable dated May 2009, is that Mubarak, 82, who heads the Arab world's most populous and influential nation, is most likely to die in office rather than step down voluntarily or be replaced in a plausible democratic vote. "The next presidential elections are scheduled for 2011 and if Mubarak is still alive it is likely he will run again and, inevitably, win," Scobey writes.

So.. The United States knew, yet said nothing. I'm sure they've known for a very long time. That's probably common knowledge in Egypt. That knowledge might be one of the reasons the Egyptian people don't trust us.. Maybe? Maybe? Continuing on..

WikiLeaks Exposes New Egypt Docs Amid Protests. Will Anyone There See Them?

As Egyptian police fire tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at protesters in Cairo, WikiLeaks has been firing back with a stream of new State Department cables that reveal human rights abuses and political arrests in the country. But it shouldn’t expect those document dumps to fuel the mass movement there: As of Wednesday evening, Egypt’s government had shut off all four of its major Internet service providers, (ISPs) essentially instituting a nationwide digital blackout. (But the ones in November and December.. They probably got out there, right?)
..
The blackout means there’s little chance of anyone in Egypt seeing a new round of WikiLeaks’ secret State Department cables that the secret-spilling group has released and linked to on its Twitter feed, apparently specially timed to highlight the injustices of the Egyptian regime and America’s ties to it. Those cables reveal that “police brutality continues to be a pervasive, daily occurrence,” with police often hanging criminal suspects from their arms for days at a time, and that bloggers and journalists live in fear of arrest. One cable admits that under Mubarak’s rule, which has long received military and financial support from the U.S., “torture and police brutality in Egypt are endemic and widespread. The police use brutal methods mostly against common criminals to extract confessions, but also against demonstrators, certain political prisoners and unfortunate bystanders.”

Remember this fall when Secretary Clinton was flying all over the world, "apologizing"? Maybe they had an idea as to the political impact these cables might have on specific countries, Egypt included. These statements make more sense now, doesn't they?" Excerpts:

“This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests,” said Clinton. “It is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity.”

“It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems,” she told reporters at the State Department.

Clinton would not comment on the specific contents of the cables but said the administration “deeply regrets” any embarrassment caused by their disclosure. Many of them contain candid and often unflattering assessments of foreign leaders, both friends and foes.

Speculation has already started as to who gets credit for starting the Egyptian revolution; Bush or Obama. Fuck the actual Egyptians. They only did all the work and shed all the blood.. But if I were to guess, I'd say Julian Assange had more motivational influence on Egypt than either one of our last two Presidents. He's the only one to tell the people of Egypt the truth.

Pick Up That New File Marked: Global Revolution; Yemen And Hand It Here, Please..

Thousands in Yemen Protest Against the Government Excerpts:
Yemen, one of the Middle East’s most impoverished countries and a haven for Al Qaeda militants, became the latest Arab state to witness mass protests on Thursday, as thousands of Yemenis took to the streets in the capital and other regions to demand a change in government.

The scenes broadcast across the Arab world were reminiscent of demonstrations in Egypt this week and the month of protests that brought down the government in Tunisia. But as they climaxed by midday, the marches appeared to be carefully organized and mostly peaceful, though there were reports of arrests by security forces. Predictably, the protests were most aggressive in the restive south.
And:
While the marches were not marked by violence, the potential for strife in the country is difficult to overstate. It is beset by a rebellion in the north and a struggle for secession in the south. In recent years, the regional Al Qaeda affiliate has turned parts of the country, a rugged, often lawless swath of southwestern Arabian Peninsula, into a refuge beyond the state’s reach. Added to the mix is a remarkably high proportion of armed citizens.
..
He said a phrase often heard these days is that Yemen faces “tatasawmal” — the Somalization of a country that witnessed a civil war in the mid-1990s.

Part of Mr. Allaw’s worries sprung from the inability of the opposition to forge a unified message. Some are calling for secession, he said, while others are looking to oust the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, through popular protests. Yet others, he said, simply wanted Mr. Saleh to undertake a series of reforms before elections in April.

Khaled Alanesi, a colleague of Mr. Allaw’s at the human rights group in Sana, said: “The opposition is afraid of what would happen if the regime falls. Afraid of the militant groups, Al Qaeda, the tribes and all the arms here.”

And the reason Yemen's demonstrations might have the least effect..

The demonstrations on Thursday followed several days of smaller protests by students and opposition groups calling for the removal of President Ali Abdallah Saleh, a strongman who has ruled this fractured country for more than 30 years and is a key ally of the United States in the fight against the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda.

The next few days will bear watching throughout the entire region. Discontent transitions from simmer to boil. How quickly, and how far, will that discontent spread?

Breakthrough promises $1.50 per gallon synthetic gasoline with no carbon emissions

Great news! Corporate lawmakers will have to work overtime to kill this one.. But they will try. Excerpts:

UK-based Cella Energy has developed a synthetic fuel that could lead to US$1.50 per gallon gasoline. Apart from promising a future transportation fuel with a stable price regardless of oil prices, the fuel is hydrogen based and produces no carbon emissions when burned. The technology is based on complex hydrides, and has been developed over a four year top secret program at the prestigious Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford. Early indications are that the fuel can be used in existing internal combustion engined vehicles without engine modification.

According to Stephen Voller CEO at Cella Energy, the technology was developed using advanced materials science, taking high energy materials and encapsulating them using a nanostructuring technique called coaxial electrospraying.
And:
Professor Bennington, Chief Scientific Officer at Cella Energy said, “our technology is based on materials called complex hydrides that contain hydrogen. When encapsulated using our unique patented process, they are safer to handle than regular gasoline.”

No carbon emissions, stable fuel prices, a worldwide economic/ political alteration of power, influence and dependence, and you don't have to modify your car! All possible from Science! Thank you, Science! Does this prove you don't really hate America?

Even with all the instability and major unknowns in our collective, immediate futures, advancements like this prove how exciting this time is in relation to what could be: Provided we don't kill ourselves first.

If The World Wasn't Imploding, This Would Be Huge News..

Georgian President Lauds Moscow Terror Attack as ‘Payback’ for 2008 War Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili rockets to the top of the "Crazy and suicidal enough to fuck with Putin/ Medvedev" chart today. I guess the President outgrew his "Tie-eating" phase(The kooky starts at 1:01).. Look for escalation at the Russian/Georgian border shortly. First link excerpts:

While most of the world reacted with the predictable combination of shock and eagerness for more security measures in the wake of Monday’s suicide bombing in the Moscow Domodedovo Airport, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is openly cheering it.
According to Saakashvili, the bombing was “payback” for the brief Russo-Georgian War of 2008, and that he had recently told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that he would face “payback for his country for supporting separatists.”

Wow. Saakashvili really enjoys starring in his own International/ Political version of Kenny Rogers Jackass.. From The Independent/ UK

Mr Saakashvili and the Russian leadership have exchanged regular insults since the 2008 war between the countries over the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but his comments are likely to enrage Moscow, coming so soon after the blast at Domodedovo Airport that killed 35 people.
..
"I discussed this personally with Vladimir Putin a while ago. I said to him that the payback for his country for supporting separatists would be that violence would come back to hit them as well," Mr Saakashvili said. "Putin said, 'No, if anyone tries anything against us, we shall crush them like cockroaches,' while jabbing and twisting his thumb on the table in front him."

Before his interview with The Independent, the Georgian President made similar comments in a televised question-and-answer session. "Russia has a political mentality which is on the level of a reptile, like a crocodile ready to swallow you up," Mr Saakashvili said. There is a well-documented personal enmity between Mr Saakashvili and Mr Putin. The Georgian President once said that talking to Mr Putin was "like somebody standing with an axe at your head and saying: "Don't worry, everything's OK, close your eyes and relax.'"
And:
Yesterday, Mr Putin said preliminary investigations into Monday's blast suggested that the bomber did not come from Chechnya. It was unclear whether he meant he had no links to the North Caucasus, or was from a neighbouring republic such as Dagestan. He also ruled out negotiation with terrorist groups.

Saakashvili's almost gleeful remarks not only requires Putin to respond, but is, if not this close to an admission of Georgian involvement, or at least facillitation to the bombing. Or, maybe not.. And Putin just ruled out Chechnya. On purpose or not, President Saakashvili now has the complete attention of Vladimir Putin; again.

I wonder what flavor of tie goes with Provoked Russian Invasion, Winter, 2011?

This Doesn't Sound Good..

Dugway Army Base On Lockdown: Zombies? Aliens? Chemical/ Biological/ Nuclear? Cheney's Super Soldiers run amok? Excerpts:

The U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground was on lockdown Wednesday evening as part of "an ongoing security operation," according to spokeswoman Paula Thomas.

Reports of nearly 1,000 employees stranded at the base, some in their cars, went unconfirmed but Dugway Proving Ground Commander Col. William E. King, IV, said food and beverages were being brought in.

"As you know measures like these (lockdown of our gates) are not taken lightly," he said. "No one is in immediate danger but these steps are required." King said he would open the gates "as soon as I can."

Even if this turns out to be nothing, at the moment, this story is Sensational. Really? No other news organization thinks so? No other news organization thinks an unplanned lockdown of a military base, restricting workers to the place they were when Lockdown occurred even.. No one else thinks that might be worth a look?

That is.. Confusing. Sure.. Confusing.

Revolution Roundup, Egypt Edition - Day Two

Protesters in Egypt defy ban amid crackdown Excerpts:

CAIRO Clashes erupted again Wednesday in downtown Cairo, where riot police had used rubber bullets and water cannons overnight to disperse a huge anti-government demonstration. Hundreds of protesters defied a government order and gathered in Cairo and other cities, vowing to topple the U.S.-backed authoritarian Egyptian regime even as momentum appears to have dissipated since the first wave of demonstrations.

The Egyptian stock market plunged Wednesday as investors reacted to rumors of an impending revolution.

Skirmishes between protesters and security forces broke out at two small gatherings - in front of the lawyers' and journalists' union offices - but columns of riot police prevented crowds of more than a few hundred from amassing anywhere downtown. One chant that rose from a group of protesters posed the question of the hour: "1, 2, Egyptians, where are you?"

The modest turnout, just a day after demonstrations of a size unseen since the 1977 bread riots, raised serious doubts as to whether Egyptians will seize the moment and demand a new government. Large-scale protests planned for after midday prayers Friday will be a key test of the opposition's ability to turn widespread frustration into real street power.

Egypt Tightens Security in Cairo to Prevent Further Rallies Excerpts:

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Egyptian authorities banned protests and tightened security overnight to prevent demonstrators from repeating the rally of Jan. 25, when thousands took to the streets of Cairo and major cities to denounce President Hosni Mubarak, inspired by the revolt that toppled Tunisia’s leader.

Truckloads of riot police were deployed yesterday in central Cairo after demonstrations in which at least three people were killed, sending Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 index tumbling the most since November 2009. Security forces clashed with several hundred protesters outside the country’s lawyers’ association and restricted access to Tahrir Square, the scene of the largest protests the previous day.
And:
Egyptian police detained 860 protesters during two days of anti-government demonstrations, the Associated Press reported, citing officials who weren’t identified by name. About 2,000 people gathered late yesterday in central Cairo, with some saying the protests would continue. A Facebook page with more than 405,000 members that called for the Jan. 25 protests has called for another mass outing on Jan. 28.
And:
Egypt, Algeria and Yemen all rank in the bottom half, well below 59th-placed Tunisia, in Berlin-based Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index of 180 nations. All Arab countries except Lebanon and Iraq are classified as authoritarian regimes in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2010 Democracy Index.

Risks of global instability are rising as governments cut subsidies that help the poor cope with surging food and fuel costs to ease budget crunches, the head of the United Nations’ World Food Program said three days ago.

“We’re in an era where the world and nations ignore the food issue at their peril,” Josette Sheeran said in an interview at the agency’s Rome headquarters.

Secretary of State Clinton only pretends to be neutral..

Egypt Protests LIVE Updates: Mubarak Protestors Fill Cairo's Streets Excerpts:

There were signs that the crackdown on protesters was taking a toll on Egypt's international standing. In Washington, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs would not say whether President Hosni Mubarak, the target of demonstrators' anger and a close U.S. ally, still has the Obama administration's support. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the government should allow peaceful protests instead of cracking down.

A Manifesto for Change in Egypt by Mohamed ElBaradei Read this, please, but here's the excerpts:

Then, as protests built in the streets of Egypt following the overthrow of Tunisia’s dictator, I heard Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s assessment that the government in Egypt is “stable” and “looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people”. I was flabbergasted—and I was puzzled. What did she mean by stable, and at what price? Is it the stability of 29 years of “emergency” laws, a president with imperial power for 30 years, a parliament that is almost a mockery, a judiciary that is not independent? Is that what you call stability? I am sure not. And I am positive that it is not the standard you apply to other countries. What we see in Egypt is pseudo-stability, because real stability only comes with a democratically elected government.

If you would like to know why the United States does not have credibility in the Middle East, that is precisely the answer. People were absolutely disappointed in the way you reacted to Egypt’s last election. You reaffirmed their belief that you are applying a double standard for your friends, and siding with an authoritarian regime just because you think it represents your interests. We are staring at social disintegration, economic stagnation, political repression, and we do not hear anything from you, the Americans, or for that matter from the Europeans.

So when you say the Egyptian government is looking for ways to respond to the needs of the Egyptian people, I feel like saying, “Well, it’s too late!” This isn’t even good realpolitik. We have seen what happened in Tunisia, and before that in Iran. That should teach people there is no stability except when you have government freely chosen by its own people.

Egypt: Truly, a nation on the brink. Can this form of change be instituted peacefully? More importantly, can the Mubarak regime stop this movement of change even remotely peacefully? I don't think they can. And now, the world watches..

The New Webbot Report Is Here! The New Webbot Report Is Here!

Clif High's latest webbot report, The Shape Of Things To Come, is now available. (The "Webbots" explained here. Ten dollars for a download. Kind of terrifying and slow to read, but worth every moment invested. I bought one this evening, so I'll be reading tonight. No more posts.
Goodnight!

While We Looked Elsewhere, Egypt Decided To Stage A Revolution..

Cairo erupts as Egyptian protesters demand Mubarak resign. From Raw Story. Excerpts:

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Egypt Tuesday, facing down a massive police presence to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in protests inspired by Tunisia's popular uprising.

Gamal Mubarak, son of President Hosni Mubarak, had fled the country along with his family, according to the Adnkronos International news service.
..
Chanting "Down with Mubarak" -- in reference to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who has been in power for three decades -- they broke through several police cordons and began marching towards Tahrir Square, in scenes seldom witnessed in Egypt.

Others shouted "Tunisia is not better than Egypt" as the crowds began to swell.

A security official told AFP that at least 20,000 to 30,000 police had been mobilized in the center of the capital alone, and that the area housing the interior ministry had been sealed off.

And, as per the 21st century revolution suppression handbook, Twitter is down..(Same article)

The US-based microblogging service that allows people to use mobile phones to broadcast short text messages was out of service in Egypt on Tuesday, according to the herdict.org tracking website recommended by Twitter.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on what was causing the service outage in Egypt.

"Egypt is going wild and I'm not sure we'll really have a sense of it until the dust clears," Digital Democracy's Mark Belinsky told CNET. "Hard to say whether or not it's just getting overloaded though...(physically severing) Internet was done in Burma after a while but it usually leads to international uproar. What they generally do is slow down the signal to a crawl, as they did in Iran, which they can then say was infrastructure failure or any other made up excuse."

Cairo knows how to rock! Video here:
Man stand up to a bus/water cannon.
Protestors chasing police!

That was an active Day One. I wonder what tomorrow holds for both Egypt and the region?

Australian Flooding Update: It's Still Happening..

'Amazing' Australian floodwaters enter new towns Excerpts:

Surging floodwaters broke levees in disaster-hit Australia on Monday to inundate more properties in the southeast, as residents sandbagged homes against the spiralling crisis.

Swollen rivers in the southeastern state of Victoria have created a flood zone measuring an estimated 90 kilometres (56 miles) long and 40 kilometres wide, the State Emergency Service said.

"This area has seen unprecedented flooding," SES spokesman Kevin Monk told AFP. "This is just amazing."

As the floodwaters rushed towards the Murray River, evacuation alerts were issued late Sunday and early Monday for the small communities of Pental Island and Murrabit West, home to about 400 people each.

In an emergency alert the SES said that levees around Murrabit West were failing, warning that the area would be inundated in the next 12 hours.

Australian province map for reference..
Descriptions of an "inland sea" aren't an exaggeration..
Meanwhile, in other parts of Australia..

Widespread inundation is still occurring across the north-west and west of the southern state of Victoria. Further north, floodwaters from Queensland are heading downstream to threaten towns and farms in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales.

More torrential rains, of the kind that have deluged parts of Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia in recent weeks, are possible over the next few months because of the prevailing La Niña weather pattern. So far, 33 deaths have been attributed to the flooding and nine people are still missing in the Lockyer Valley—just west of Brisbane, the Queensland capital—where homes, vehicles and their occupants were swept away in flash flooding.

Now that the water has started to subside in Queensland(Just.. Queensland, mind you..), the adjustments and the adjusters and the assessments for this monumental disaster begin to begin.. And already, the bidding begins high..

So, when the food price crisis occurs, here's a "negative outcome" scenario to chew on, provided by the Huffington Post.

More rainfall is predicted. Much more.

The world's coolest nationalities: Where do you rank?

From CNN Go Spoiler alert: The United States is fifth, behind Mongolia, Jamaica, Singapore, and Brazil. And yes, Brazil does make sense when you stop and think about it..

Hi: Remember Me? I'm Stuxnet. We Met Back In July..

Flaws in Stuxnet Worm Deflect Suspicion From US, Israel. From The Epoch Times. Poorly thought out interpretation of events. Excerpts in italics:

The New York Times published an article on Jan. 16 shining more light onto the issue. It stated that Israel built nuclear centrifuges identical to those in the Bushehr plant to test a computer worm, and had cooperation from the United States. Although there is still no direct proof that the United States or Israel were behind Stuxnet, the two countries were the main suspects to begin with.

Despite accusations that Stuxnet was a U.S.-Israel project, there are flaws in the worm that suggest it was created elsewhere. Black Hat DC conference on digital exploits and cyberattacks on Jan. 18, security consultant Tom Parker analyzed Stuxnet’s code.

Parker “presented a compelling case that Stuxnet may be the product of a collaboration between two disparate groups, perhaps a talented group of programmers that produced most of the code and exploits and a less sophisticated group that may have adapted the tool for its eventual use,” states a report from Threat Post, the security news service of anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab.

"This was probably not a Western state. There were too many mistakes made. There's a lot that went wrong," Parker said, according to Threat Post. “There's too much technical inconsistency. But, the bugs were unlikely to fail. They were all logic flaws with high reliability." In simple terms, there were technical shortcomings, but the virus was still highly reliable.

Nate Lawson, a cybersecurity expert with Root Labs, analyzed Stuxnet in a Jan. 17 blog post, stating, “I really hope it wasn’t written by the USA because I’d like to think our elite cyberweapon developers at least know what Bulgarian teenagers did back in the early ’90s.”

Funny, but probably not. Here's a differing opinion:

The “Stuxnet” computer worm made international headlines in July, when security experts discovered that it was designed to exploit a previously unknown security hole in Microsoft Windows computers to steal industrial secrets and potentially disrupt operations of critical information networks. But new information about the worm shows that it leverages at least three other previously unknown security holes in Windows PCs, including a vulnerability that Redmond fixed in a software patch released today. (The article was last updated September 22, 2010)

..Experts say the worm was designed from the bottom up to attack so-called Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, or those used to manage complex industrial networks, such as systems at power plants and chemical manufacturing facilities.

The worm was originally thought to spread mainly through the use of removable drives, such as USB sticks. But roughly two weeks after news of Stuxnet first surfaced, researchers at Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab discovered that the Stuxnet worm also could spread using an unknown security flaw in the way Windows shares printer resources. Microsoft fixed this vulnerability today(possibly September 22), with the release of MS10-061, which is rated critical for Windows XP systems and assigned a lesser “important” threat rating for Windows Vista and Windows 7 computers.

In a blog post today, Microsoft group manager Jerry Bryant said Stuxnet targeted two other previously unknown security vulnerabilities in Windows, including another one reported by Kaspersky. Microsoft has yet to address either of these two vulnerabilities – known as “privilege escalation” flaws because they let attackers elevate their user rights on computers where regular user accounts are blocked from making important system modifications.

Anti-virus researchers also discovered that Stuxnet leverages a Windows vulnerability that Microsoft patched back in 2008. Roel Schouwenberg, a senior anti-virus researcher at Kaspersky, said initially it wasn’t clear why the worm’s designers included such an antiquated vulnerability, which would almost certainly set off alarm bells inside of any organization using common intrusion detection and prevention tools.

But Schouwenberg said the inclusion of that 2008 vulnerability made more sense when he learned that most industrial control system networks do not employ these defensive tools or even basic network logging, as is common in most corporate networks. Consequently, he said, Stuxnet behaves differently depending on what type of network it thinks it is running on. Stuxnet performs some rudimentary checking to see whether it is on a corporate network or a control systems network: If it detects that it is running on a corporate network, it won’t invoke the older 2008 vulnerability, Schouwenberg said.

What can't Bulgarian teens from the 90's do? They must be amazing in person!

Returning to the first link for more.. Tenuous-ness..

Like Parker, Lawson states that the Stuxnet worm is full of holes. Among the shortcomings are “the Stuxnet developers seem to be unaware of more advanced techniques for hiding their target,” and “It does not use virtual machine-based obfuscation, novel techniques for anti-debugging, or anything else to make it different from the hundreds of malware samples found every day.” (Go back and re-read the previous link)

Giving it credit, Stuxnet was highly effective and accomplished at what it was likely set loose to do—destroy Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. It was also incredibly clean and was free of any digital fingerprints that could trace it back to its creator.

The worm has no potential for monetary gain, which made the United States and Israel prime suspects.

And:

The larger issue currently at hand is that the code behind Stuxnet is now freely available. A virus, which likely took millions of dollars to create, that can physically control moving parts of infrastructure, and can access systems even if they are not connected to the Internet, is on the loose. (With more variants TBA, ASAP..)

A quick Google search reveals that Stuxnet is readily available for anyone to download via file sharing websites and links on message boards. Stuxnet has the potential to cause massive damage, and the main risk is possible alterations that hackers, terrorists, or foreign governments could make to the virus.

Think of Stuxnet as the cyberweapon equivalent of an improvised explosive device (IED). It is easily attainable and can cause huge damage, but the world now knows how to spot it. (Except that targeted networks sometimes don't even use the software to identify the particular(and specific) entry, which could change locations with each new version..)Like an IED, the real potential is in the alterations that can be made to make it more damaging and harder to spot.

Stuxnet is Low-Tech sophisticated, effective in its mission, has/had two points of entry not immediately addressed by Microsoft, cost millions to produce, and is essentially "public domain," now available for upgrades and remixes by.. Just about anybody! This event, and all related consequential behavior sounds a lot more advanced and strategic than it portrays itself. Which is a reflection of Stuxnet's creators.

The first Sons of Stuxnet should be arriving anytime now..

So.. How about that Super Bowl?

Ron Paul, Ralph Nader agree on ‘progressive-libertarian alliance’

More encouraging news regarding what should be (and will, hopefully..) the political direction for 21st Century America. From RawStory. Excerpts:

In this corner, a libertarian, tea party hero who ran several campaigns as a candidate for US president on the Republican ticket. And in that corner, a progressive icon of the left who also ran several campaigns for the US presidency but on the Green Party ticket. One might think the two men, seemingly ideologically opposed to one another, would rather argue than help one another.

However, on Wednesday's broadcast of Freedom Watch on the Fox Business channel, Judge Napolitano sat down for an amiable interview with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Ralph Nader to discuss a progressive-libertarian alliance in the 112th session of respective chambers in Congress.(Video courtesy Mox News from Fox News)
And:
"I believe in coalitions," Rep. Paul echoed. "They talk about we need more bipartisanship, and I say we have too much bipartisanship because the bipartisanship we have here in Washington endorses corporatism."

Paul added that he agreed with Nader on a host of issues, such as cutting the US military's budget, ending undeclared US wars overseas, restoring civil liberties and civil rights by dumping from the Patriot Act, and withdrawing from the NAFTA and World Trade Organization agreements.

"I think we should come together and work together, and I think we can," he said, noting that the coalition had previously worked on deficit financing solutions.

This needs to grow and become cohesive, and quick. I hope they understand(and I think they do) that time is of the essence, and the time is now. Now.

Holy Crap! Is Indonesia Really Sinking?

Indonesia's land mass has been sinking for several years now, but seems to have accelerated in the last two weeks. Check this shit out(Some freaky ass 2012 like video at the link..), and you tell me what's happening here. This thread sums up The Scary nicely, although some will be turned off by the "Planet X" reasoning. Personally, I am not. I don't know what the hell's happening, but Nibiru can't be ruled out.

And where's the Mainstream Media? Oh yeah; right here.. In other words, no where to be found regarding anything Indonesia.. Huh.

Greece As 6 Million Dollar Man..

"She's breaking up! She's breaking up!"(heh..) The question remains: Can we rebuild him?? Suddeutsche Zeitung: EU prepares for Greece to declare bankruptcy Short, and not sweet excerpts:

According to EU sources in the European capitals it is already running the preparation on Greece to declare bankruptcy, German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung announced.
..
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance denied preparing an emergency plan for Greece.

Not that Greece isn't going bankrupt, mind you, it's just that France doesn't have an emergency plan in place. Already gone (and probably not ever coming back) is Greece's refugee/asylum system, at least from the German perspective.. Excerpts:

Berlin announced this week that it is halting deportations to Greece for a year, despite European Union rules stating that the first country a refugee arrives in is responsible for processing any asylum request.

Germany's Interior Ministry announced on Wednesday that the new measure is aimed at reducing the burden on Greek authorities, who are struggling to deal with the volume of refugees reaching the country's shores and borders.
And:
Humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), have voiced concern about the conditions that asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are forced to endure in Greece, with overcrowded detention facilities and a dysfunctional and overstretched system of assessing asylum claims.

Kind of like their banking system! Speaking of which, the Finance Minister says that Greece won't try debt re-structuring(read; anything new) as it might worsen the country's financial situation. Instead, they'll continue to follow the EU/IMF approved directives for their bailout. Although they wouldn't mind to(unofficially) stretch those payments out a little..

Hell, it's worked really well so far!

Uh-Oh.. That Sunspot Wasn't There Yesterday..

From Spaceweather: Sunspot Activity. (Sunday, Jan. 23, 2011) Excerpts:

New sunspot 1149, circled below, is crackling with C-class solar flares. This spot didn't exist barely a day ago, but now it is a growing sprawl more than 100,000 km across.

The magnetic field of sunspot 1149 is jumbled, with positive (+) polarity pressing against negative (-) polarity in many places. This could set the stage for magnetic reconnection and solar flares; NOAA forecasters estimate a 10% chance of strong M-class eruptions during the next 24 hours. Readers with solar telescopes are encouraged to monitor the region for explosive developments.

(Note: There was no mention if these potential flares would be earth directed or not.)

Couple the webbot data with Patrick Geryl's theory of "Solar Winding" on precisely the day predicted. If a big flare pops off, the possibility of forecasting sunspots becomes a bit clearer, and a little more concrete.. And a little ominous. If Geryl and the webbots are correct, solar activity is about to begin a serious uptick.