Crapaganda.com

Your cellphone can already tell you where to find the nearest Starbucks or the most convenient subway station. But it might soon be smart enough to alert you to a toxic threat during your morning commute or coffee break, thanks to a new plan from the Department of Homeland Security.

The last time we heard about cellphones and terrorism, it was an appeal from the NYPD to shut off cell communication during an attack. Now, Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate want to use cellphones to detect the very threats that might be coordinated using wireless chit-chat. Their new program, called Cell-All, would embed inexpensive, chemical-sniffing microchips into cellular telephones. If a dangerous level of air-based toxin is detected, the phone would issue a warning ring (or vibration) to alert the owner and send a message to a centralized military monitoring station.

And, since the vast majority of Americans carry cellphones wherever they go, the program would use aggregated reports of toxin detection within a small area. If hundreds of cellphones in one location start flooding the alert system, the military knows they’ve got a serious threat to contend with. Detection, transmission and analysis would take around 60 seconds, according to a press release from the Directorate.

Given that terrorist attacks are usually launched in highly populated areas — subways, malls, office buildings — the idea of crowdsourcing the detection of  toxic terror threats makes a lot of sense, and using a built-in cellphone app would give the military the ability to detect threats in every corner of the country.

Except that, for now, the program’s manager is describing the initiative as “opt-in.”

“Privacy is as important as technology,” Stephen Dennis said. “After all, for Cell-All to succeed, people must be comfortable enough to turn it on in the first place.”

That’s good news for privacy zealots and conspiracy theorists, but bad news for the program’s potential effectiveness, given that crowdsourced intelligence depends on knowing that there’s a crowd to be sourced in the first place.

The Directorate is already in research-and-development talks with Apple, IG, Qualcomm and Samsung, and anticipate having 40 different cellphone prototypes within a year.

Source: Wired.com

Source: OregonLive

When Robert J. Ekas decided to exercise his right to free speech, he didn’t open his mouth.

He hoisted his middle finger.

His single-digit protests, aimed at Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies last year, resulted in verbal showdowns, traffic tickets and, ultimately, a federal lawsuit.

Giving a police officer the finger may be a rude and ill-advised gesture, but it is not against the law, legal experts say.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that speech may not be prohibited simply because some may find it offensive,” said Ira P. Robbins, a law professor from American University in Washington, D.C. “Virtually every time someone is arrested for this, assuming there’s no other criminal behavior … the case is either dismissed before trial or the person is convicted at trial and wins on appeal.”

Ekas, who represents himself, sued the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and three of its employees, seeking corrective action and unspecified damages. Assistant County Counsel Edward S. McGlone III declined comment on the lawsuit.

Ekas, 46, a retired Silicon Valley systems analyst turned mathematician who lives in the Clackamas area, claims the traffic stops were acts of retaliation that violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights. He also wants the court to rule that the Sheriff’s Office fails to discipline employees who “chill citizens’ … free speech rights.”

Ekas gave the finger to a deputy in July 2007 while driving near Clackamas Town Center, according to the lawsuit. With the deputy in pursuit, Ekas said he opened his sunroof and again extended a middle finger. The deputy turned on his flashing lights. Ekas stopped and was cited for an illegal lane change and improper display of license plates. He was acquitted of the charges.

In August 2007, Ekas flipped off another deputy. Ekas again was detained but not issued a citation. He claims he was harassed and intimidated by the deputy and a sergeant who was dispatched after Ekas requested a supervisor be sent to the scene.

Ekas said his actions are a political statement and a protest of police violence.

“They kill unarmed people. That bothers me,” Ekas said of police officers. He cited the deaths of James P. Chasse Jr. and Aaron Campbell at the hands of Portland police and the fatal shooting of Fouad Kaady by Clackamas County officers.

“What I am expressing is the right to dissent. That is to say, ‘Look, the policies that you’ve implemented … the things you’ve done in our community are offensive to me. Here’s my response to that offense,’” Ekas said.

“I did it because I have the right to do it,” Ekas said. “We all have that right, and we all need to test it. Otherwise we’ll lose it.”

Robert Ekas on KATU News

Ekas’s method of expressing himself has a long history.

The ancient Romans called it “digitus impudicus” — the impudent finger.

Police have been known to retaliate with traffic tickets or making arrests for disorderly conduct, but criminal charges are routinely dismissed. Criminal law “generally aims to protect persons, property, or the state from serious harm. But use of the middle finger simply does not raise these concerns in most situations,” Robbins wrote in a law review article, “Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law.”

A Pittsburgh man, David Hackbart, won a $50,000 settlement last year after being cited for disorderly conduct for flipping off an officer. The charge was “retaliatory” and violated his constitutional rights, a federal judge ruled.

The officer’s “response to Hackbart’s exercise of his First Amendment right” was to charge him with a crime, said U.S. District Judge David Cercone.

In West Linn, Police Chief Terry Timeus took a more diplomatic approach.

After a man’s run-ins with police escalated from giving officers the finger to following them on patrol, accusing them of retaliation and shining his headlights on them during traffic stops, Timeus stepped in to try to defuse the situation.

The police chief met with the man and told him the pattern of confrontation and harassment “isn’t going to accomplish anything.”

Reached at his home, the man said he suffers from anxiety and depression and asked not to be identified. He acknowledged his history of confrontation and grievances with police but said he wanted to move on.

“Chief Timeus has made a difference,” the man said, “and I don’t want to jeopardize that.”

For more on your legal rights and “The Finger” read:
Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and the Law byIra P. Robbins (pdf)

The House of Delegates is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would protect Virginians from attempts by employers or insurance companies to implant microchips in their bodies against their will.

It might also save humanity from the antichrist, some supporters think.

Del. Mark L. Cole (R-Fredericksburg), the bill’s sponsor, said that privacy issues are the chief concern behind his attempt to criminalize the involuntary implantation of microchips. But he also said he shared concerns that the devices could someday be used as the “mark of the beast” described in the Book of Revelation.

“My understanding — I’m not a theologian — but there’s a prophecy in the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times,” Cole said. “Some people think these computer chips might be that mark.”

Read more at: Human microchips seen by some in Virginia House as device of antichrist (Washington Post)

The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.

As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”

Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included (Wired)

DARPA Wants to Override Evolution to Make Immortal Synthetic Organisms (Popular Science)

In South Carolina, if you are interested in overthrowing the US Government you need to register first.  The SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES REGISTRATION ACT is now a law in the State of South Carolina. The law says:

Every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States, of this State or of any political subdivision thereof by force or violence or other unlawful means, who resides, transacts any business or attempts to influence political action in this State, shall register with the Secretary of State on the forms and at the times prescribed by him.

and

Any organization or person who violates any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars or imprisonment for not more than ten years, or by both fine and imprisonment.

Soon you might see the sign at the border reading, “All prospective terrorists must possess a permit”

Apply for your permit here (pdf)

Please submit in duplicate with $5 processing fee.

No joke: South Carolina now requires ’subversives’ to register (Rawstory.com)

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military, have a bizarre new job ahead of themselves. They are planning to produce an entirely unmanned, automatic ghost ship to cruise the oceans of the world for months or years on end without the need of any human contact.

They are calling the new project Anti-submarine warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), and intend to assemble “an X-ship founded on the assumption that no person steps aboard at any point in its operating cycle”. The uncrewed vessel would be capable of amazing range and endurance.  It could go for “global, months long deployments with no underway human maintenance”, criss crossing oceans largely without any human input .

US plans crewless automated ghost-frigates (The Register)

When planning for the reelection bid of President Richard Nixon, his aides plotted the “seduction” of Frank Sinatra, who was viewed as a source of “massive financial resources,” and a man who “controls a great number of celebrities, entertainers and other public figures.”

According to memos released by the National Archives,  the plan to woo Sinatra was detailed in a confidential “eyes only” October 1971 memo from Charles Colson to H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff.

The several month long campaign worked like a charm. Not only did the Tricky Dick and Ol’ Blue Eyes enjoy a fateful first date, their on-again, off-again romance lasted for years.

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