But there’s something they seemed to be missing… with the occasional exception of replica watch spam or penis enlargement spam, almost all spam is an advertisement for controlled substances… without the state making it illegal to conduct such transactions out in the open, it wouldn’t be necessary to broadcast this crap to as many people as possible in order to make money. It would be more economical to setup shop just like any other business. Thus, without the state, such spam would not exist.

…just a random thought…

And that’s it… Pretty easy. More info can be found here.

No need to log into thirty different websites to track your ex-boyfriend - Spokeo will do it for you! Start by giving it the username and password to your GMail account (not at all implying this is a good idea), and Spokeo will automatically show you all of your friends and all of your friends’ accounts on other services. Think your ex-boyfriend might have an account on sites that you don’t know about? Problem solved. Need more Stalk Data on your friends? Just give it more login credentials for the other websites you have accounts on… it’ll do the work.

Of course, when Spokeo’s servers are compromised, the attacker will have ALL of your login credentials for just about every account you have.
Spokeo says they don’t store your passwords, but since they don’t use SSL, they can’t stop others from sniffing the login credentials you give them.

Rest in peace, Shawn Lonsdale.

Click here if you can’t see the video.

Check out some random episodes I was able to find around the web:

War on Drugs

Recycling

PETA
BULLSHIT!!! (PETA Episode)

By the time you’re reading this, some of those episodes may have been taken offline. However, you can still click here to download seasons one through four via BitTorrent. The whole thing is rather large, but most sane clients will allow you to download one file at a time. Trust me, it’s worth your time.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Real ID program has a real challenge on its hands from California. DHS had said it will only grant extensions from the Real ID rules taking effect on May 11 to states that apply by March 31 and promise to implement Real ID by 2010. California requested an extension but would not make the latter promise. DHS buckled and said, in effect, “Good enough.” Perhaps they realized that trying to slap giant California around is qualitatively different than doing the same to New Hampshire.

Click here for the full article.

This is a graph of the Consumer Price Index from 1800 to 2007:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which part of this is more stable.

Table of Contents

1. Instructions for Mac OS X, Linux, or *BSD
2. Instructions for Windows
3. How it Works

Instructions for Mac OS X, Linux, or *BSD

1. Add T-Zones to your calling plan, if you haven’t already.
2. Sign up for a free shell account at SilenceisDefeat.org (instant activation is a one-time fee of $1)
3. Setup tethering, if you haven’t already.
4. From a terminal, issue the following command:
   ssh -p 143 -D localhost:1080 username@ssh.silenceisdefeat.org
   Of course, you need to replace “username” with the username you picked in Step 2. The password to use was emailed to you when you completed Step 2. If there are any problems, check the support channel.
5. You can change your default password by using the psswd command once you’ve logged in. You now have a local SOCKS5 proxy with no restrictions. Just configure your browser to use it. For Firefox, (Click Edit > Preference > Advanced > Network > Settings > Manual proxy configuration; At SOCKS Host put in localhost and for the port, use 1080.)

Enjoy the freedom!

Instructions for Windows

1. Add T-Zones to your calling plan, if you haven’t already.
2. Sign up for a free shell account at SilenceisDefeat.org (instant activation is a one-time fee of $1)
3. Setup tethering, if you haven’t already.
4. Download and run PuTTY
5. For hostname, enter ssh.silenceisdefeat.org. For Port, enter 143, like this:
   
6. On the left site, in the Category box, click over to Connection > SSH > Tunnels. Click the second check box, enter 1080 for the Source Port, click the Dynamic radio button, and click Add. Make sure it looks like this before you click Add:
   
7. Now go back to the Session screen (at the very top in the Category box), under Saved Sessions, type “Silence is Defeat” without quotes, and click Save. This will allow you to re-use these settings in the future without having to enter them again.
8. Now click “Open” to start the session. You’ll be prompted for a password, which should have been emailed to you when you completed Step 2. If there are any problems, check the support channel.
9. You can change your default password by using the psswd command once you’ve logged in.
   You now have a local SOCKS5 proxy with no restrictions! Just configure
   your browser to use it. For Firefox, (Click Tools > Options >
   Advanced > Network > Settings > Manual proxy configuration; At
   SOCKS Host put in localhost and for the port, use 1080.)

Enjoy the freedom!

How it Works

The T-Zones APN, wap.voicestream.com, has a proxy available at 216.155.165.50 on port 8080 that used to allow most HTTP traffic to any server, but as of late it blocks normal websites. However, the APN still allows unrestricted traffic on ports 25, 110, 143, 465, 587, 993, 995, and 8080 for various reasons. ssh.silenceisdefeat.org accepts SSH connections on ports 80, 143, 465, 443, and 587. So, we’re just connecting to Silence is Defeat on port 143 and then tunneling all of the traffic from our local SOCKS proxy to Silence is Defeat, where there are no traffic restrictions. This can be used for the web, IRC, instant messaging, and just about anything else.

If you like this trick, please consider donating to Silence is Defeat via paypal at sdpaus@gmail.com, as they are footing the bill for the bandwidth required to do this. Also, check out their chat room. Enjoy!

Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain’s most senior police forensics expert.

Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.

THE US economy lost the title of “world’s biggest” to the euro zone this week as the value of the US dollar slumped in currency markets.
Taking the gross domestic product of both economies in 2007, the combined GDP of the 15 countries which use the euro overtook that of the US when the European currency surged to a record high of more than $1.56 per euro overnight.

“The curious outcome of breaching this latest milestone is that the size of the euro zone’s annual output has now exceeded that of the US,” the economics department of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, said in a note to clients.

Taking official estimates of 2007 GDP, $US13,843,800 billion ($14,726,000) for the United States and 8,847,889.1 billion euros for the euro zone, the economy of the latter passed the US once converted into US dollars, shortly after the euro topped $1.56.

The US dollar sank to $1.5688 per euro late in European trading hours overnight, at which rate the euro zone’s 2007 GDP equates to $13,880,568.4 billion.

The 2007 GDP estimates are as published by the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis and provided to Reuters on request for the euro zone by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office.

Opponent: “You know what? If you support Ron Paul, then you need to support my young primary opponent. Because he’s a Ron Paul Libertarian, 100%! Go to his webpage, and everything he stands for is right there! I call him Ron Paul Jr. because that’s what he is.”

He’s talking about B.J. Lawson, congressional candidate in North Carolina’s 4th congressional district. Dr. Lawson, a medical doctor turned entrepreneur has been inspired by Ron Paul to defend our rights, but he can only do it with your help.

Disadvantages:

• It’s much bigger
• No MMS (picture messaging)
• No third-party app support and no Java - you’re stuck with the software that came with it
• No voice recording
• No video recording
• No cut-and-paste
• Can’t assign personal music tones
• No AIM/iChat
• No voice tags for voice dialing
• Semi-difficult to unlock
• No memory card slot

Advantages:

• It looks pretty
• Better browser
• Wi-Fi (but since there’s no support for third-party applications, there’s no way to run Skype or VoIP)

As far as the iPhone’s other claims to fame — MP3/video player, Google Maps, a working web browser, and YouTube — that stuff existed in other phones long before the iPhone came out.  Frankly, I think the reason it sold so well is that it looks really cool and Americans were largely unaware of what cell phones could already do.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not criticizing Apple for coming out with it, I just wish they incorporated some basic cell phone features.

I’ll give the iPhone a shot, but it’s hard to imagine going without some of these standard features.

Please understand: There is no point in having elections when the voting machine source code is a secret (aka. Closed-Source).  No point whatsoever.

How much faith would you have in a system where everyone passed their ballots under the door of a dark closet where one man is trusted to announce the results at the end?

Would that make sense to you?  Would you trust that man to be honest?  Would you still bother voting?

Of course not.

However, this is exactly what closed-source voting machines are.  There are a handful of guys who write the code and then keep it a secret.  That code is then used to tabulate the results, and then we just trust whatever it says.

Doesn’t anyone realize how bat-shit-insane that is?!?

Think I’m nuts?  Watch this video:

Want to watch someone actually rig a random voting machine? Watch the last half of Hacking Democracy:

Here’s a short clip about a different Diebold model, although it’s not documented as well as the video above:

Here are some excerpts:

Banking experts say there is one thing that will save your money if your bank goes under. That’s FDIC insurance. “It’s the gold standard,” says banking consultant Bert Ely. “The FDIC has ample resources. It’s never been an issue,” he says.

As loan delinquencies rise, and bank failures increase, the FDIC is shoring up its reserves.

That’s fascinating, because last I checked (about five minutes ago), the FDIC had in its assets about 1.2% of the deposits it claims to “insure”.

If your bank bites the dust, there’s nothing to fear according to the FDIC. A healthier banking institution normally buys the failed bank according to Barr. “There is little or no interruption to the consumer,” he says. “If you go to bed one night as a customer of a bank, and you wake up as a customer of a new bank, there is nothing you have to do.” Your checks will still clear, you can still use your ATM card.

See? Bank failure isn’t even a bad thing!

Article I, Section 10, Clause 4 of the United States Constitution:
“No State shall … coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts;”

(Note that on every unit of paper money the U.S. government asserts without apology: “This note is legal tender for all debts public and private.”)

Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 25, Section 486 of United States Code:
“Whoever, except as authorized by law, makes or utters or passes, or attempts to utter or pass, any coins of gold or silver or other metal, or alloys of metals, intended for use as current money, whether in the resemblance of coins of the United States or of foreign countries, or of original design, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”

So there you have it… The Constitution says gold and silver are the only valid forms of legal tender. The Congress now says, use gold or silver as money and go to jail. How could it get any more black-and-white than this?

The founding fathers understood that giving the government power to print money out of thin air was a bad idea. They knew it would lead to incredible inflation at the expense of almost every American, which it has. They knew the government wouldn’t be able to fabricate gold and silver out of thin air, so they made it law that legal tender must be in the form of gold and silver.