Watching You Through Walls In 3D

Wednesday, December 11, 2013 14:28

(Before It's News)

Technology could revolutionize gaming, fall detection among the elderly, and more Imagine playing a video game like Call of Duty or Battlefield and having the ability to lead your virtual army unit while moving freely throughout your house.
Gaming could become this realistic, thanks to new technology developed by Dina Katabi’s research group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) that allows for highly accurate, 3-D motion tracking. The new system, dubbed “WiTrack”, uses radio signals to track a person through walls and obstructions, pinpointing her 3-D location to within 10 to 20 centimeters — about the width of an adult hand.

Credit: Christine Daniloff, MIT

The researchers will present their findings during the Usenix Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation in April 2014. “Today, if you are playing a game with the Xbox Kinect or Nintendo Wii, you have to stand right in front of your gaming console, which limits the types of games you can play,” says Katabi, a professor of computer science and engineering and co-director of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing. “Imagine playing an interactive video game that transforms your entire home into a virtual world. The game console tracks you as you run down real hallways away from video game enemies, or as you hide from other players behind couches and walls. This is what WiTrack can bring to video gaming.”
Earlier this year, Katabi and her graduate student Fadel Adib unveiled WiVi, a system that detects humans through walls and can track the direction of their movement using WiFi signals. Based on this earlier work, Katabi and Adib developed WiTrack in collaboration with Rob Miller, a professor of computer science and engineering, and graduate student Zach Kabelac. In comparison to WiVi, WiTrack has significantly higher accuracy and can track both two-dimensional and three-dimensional movement using specialized radio waves, as opposed to WiFi signals.
WiTrack operates by tracking specialized radio signals reflected off a person’s body to pinpoint location and movement. The system uses multiple antennas: one for transmitting signals and three for receiving. The system then builds a geometric model of the user’s location by transmitting signals between the antennas and using the reflections off a person’s body to estimate the distance between the antennas and the user. WiTrack is able to locate motion with significantly increased accuracy, as opposed to tracking devices that rely on wireless signals, according to Adib.
“Because of the limited bandwidth, you cannot get very high location accuracy using WiFi signals,” Adib says. “WiTrack transmits a very low-power radio signal, 100 times smaller than WiFi and 1,000 times smaller than what your cell phone can transmit. But the signal is structured in a particular way to measure the time from when the signal was transmitted until the reflections come back. WiTrack has a geometric model that maps reflection delays to the exact location of the person. The model can also eliminate reflections off walls and furniture to allow us to focus on tracking human motion.”
In other motion-tracking systems, users must carry a wireless device or stand directly in front of the sensing device in order for the device to pick up movement. By using specialized radio signals, WiTrack frees users from wireless devices and allows them to roam spaces freely while still providing high-accuracy localization.
The system’s ability to track motion through obstructions could make it particularly useful not only in gaming, but also in tracking elderly patients at high risk of falling. Current approaches to fall detection require individuals to continuously wear sensors or install cameras in the person’s home. While WiTrack does not require individuals to wear sensors or install cameras, it can still detect falls with very high accuracy.
The team is currently working on advancing the WiTrack system so that it can track more than one person in motion at a time. The researchers believe the system should be easily adaptable to commercial settings. “The system is not expensive or time-consuming to produce and it could be miniaturized for easier production and use,” Kabelac says.
Contacts and sources:
Abby Abazorius
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2013/12/watching-you-through-walls-in-3d.html

Video: How to Check Which Government Agency is Spying on Your Smartphone

By 21st Century Wire

Global Research, December 11, 2013

21st Century Wire and We Are Change

Theme: Police State & Civil Rights

In our post-Snowden world, everyone almost accepts that some gov’t agency or another will be scanning their phone calls and data transmissions. Most people just accept this, and hope for that it’s not really happening.

Here’s a way to check, and see for yourself (instructional video below).
When blogger Alex Heid performed this simple check from his location in the United States, he quickly discovered that his phone was being routed through a British Ministry of Defence, most likely being analysed by GCHQ. Alex was using a pre-paid mobile/cell phone carrier.
Phone companies do not seem to be bothered at all about this. According to officials, because no ID is required upon purchase, then pre-paid mobile/cell phone users should have “no expectation of privacy”. Call your carrier and ask them for yourself. If you are on a contract phone, you can also do this same diagnostic and check who’s watching you.
To any customers who might challenge the phone companies on this, the party line they give you will be: “Nothing to fear. We are rerouting your traffic using ‘unused bandwith’ – like the DOD, or the Ministry of Defence – all to improve your user experience”. Of course they are.
Hat tip to Susan Duclos for this post…
By Susan Duclos
WereAreChange is joined by Alex Heid of HackMiami.org and FederalJack.com, who is a security consultant, to inform everyone how to determine what government agency is spying on your cell phones’ unique IP address. Amazingly, using his own Android phone, going through his settings and status he finds out who his phone is “talking to,” so to speak and looks it up to determine his phone is talking to DINSO, Ministry of Defence in the United Kingdom. Watch, learn, and use the knowledge to be aware of who is spying on your cell phone…

How to see what government agency is spying on your phone

One reader, Walter, tested out this procedure himself, and quickly reported that, “SPRINT routing me through:

DoD Network Information Center
Org ID: DNIC
Address: 3990 E. Broad Street
City: Columbus
State: OH
Postal Code: 43218
Country: US
“We have surrendered our freedom”, says Walter. He’s absolutely right.

21WIRE readers are welcome to check this for themselves, and then leave their findings in our comment section below.
Exposure is the best tool we have to preserve any remaining rights we have.

Skewed: Income Inequality in America

By Finance Degree Center

Global Research, December 11, 2013

Finance Degree Center

Region: USA

Theme: Global Economy, Poverty & Social Inequality

Opportunity in America: It’s shrinking
Except for the few
[% wealth held by percentile][4]
0-50th: 1.1
50-90th: 24.3
90-99th:40
99-100th:34.5
Lowest 60% of earners are making < the wealthiest 400 Americans:
$1.22 trillion vs. $1.27 trillion [6]
To put that in context: The average wealth of one of the 400 richest Americans is equal to the average wealth of 510,000 people in the bottom 60%
With the 1%’s wealth much more tied to the real estate, stock market
Note: The SNAP (food stamp) budget of $78 billion is less than the investing budget of 20 wealthy Americans[8]
CEO vs. Worker inequality 
The Average CEO makes 354 times what the average worker makes[3]
[year: ratio between worker/CEO earnings]
1982: 42:1
1992: 201:1
2002: 281:1
2012: 354:1
Differences in expendable income are staggering
The average nationwide 1 adult living wage is $19546.17. Here’s how that breaks down per quintile:
Per month:
20%– -$3188
40%– +$12641
60%– +$37655
80%– +$77751
90%– +$134,584
99%– +$487,006
Or:
20%– -$61.3
40%– +$243.09
60%– +$724.13
80%– +$1495.21
90%– +$2588.15
99%– +$9365.5
Per week.
With Strong Racial Correlates
The Average White household in 2007 had a net worth of $143,600
14 TIMES the average net worth of Hispanic or black households[7]
Myth: rich Americans don’t pay their taxes
But at least the super rich pay their taxes.
With the top 400 earners paying $16 billion in taxes.[5]
But that doesn’t help the 21.4% of children who grow up in poverty. [7]
Without greater income equality democratic ideals are a sham.

Now That Obama Is Allowing Chicken From China, What Will That Do To The Chicken Industry?

what's the plan folks ,we just gonna allow these fucks to just fucking destroy this Country ..that the plan huh ?

By Michael Snyder, on December 11th, 2013

 

Do you know what is in your chicken nuggets?  Thanks to Barack Obama, that is going to be a more important question than ever.  At the end of August, the Obama administration quietly decided to start allowing Chinese poultry processors to ship processed chicken into the United States.  For now, the meat must originate either in the United States or in another country where the poultry population has been certified to be safe.  What that means is that chickens from the United States will be shipped all the way over to China, processed in plants over there, and then shipped back across the Pacific Ocean for us to eat.  Only a limited number of companies are expected to take advantage of this, but according to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, a USDA report that Congress has seen indicates that China will likely be allowed to directly import their own chickens into this country "within a year".  What makes all of this even more disturbing is that a country-of-origin label will not be required on any of the chicken that is processed in China.  So in the years ahead you could be eating chicken processed in China and not even know it.
Each year, U.S. consumers spend about 70 billion dollars on chicken.  That is a tremendous amount of money, and the U.S. chicken industry supports a huge number of jobs.
So what is going to happen if cheap chicken from China starts flooding the market?
It shouldn't take too much imagination to figure out what is going to happen.  This is a movie that we have seen too many times before.  Over the past decade, tens of thousands of U.S. businesses and millions of good paying jobs have been lost due to "competition" from communist China.
Barack Obama continues to talk a good game about how he wants to "create jobs" for American workers, but just about everything that he actually does kills even more of our jobs.
Under tremendous pressure from both China and the beef industry, Obama decided in late August to open up the door for processed chicken from China.  The following is a brief excerpt from a recent Examiner article...

As early as next summer, chicken nuggets and other chicken products (such as canned soup, frozen chicken wings and breaded chicken patties) made from chicken processed in China could be sold in grocery stores around the country.
Under the proposal, chickens that are raised and slaughtered in the U.S. and Canada will be sent to China for processing and then returned to the U.S. for mass consumption.
This was a recent decision made by President Barack Obama to address a decade-long trade dispute. Since 2003, China has refused to import U.S. beef, citing concerns over mad-cow disease, so we're effectively trading chickens for beef in this quid-pro-quo political scenario. Obama has been widely criticized over this move.

This would be bad enough even if U.S. consumers were able to identify the chicken that is coming in from China.  But according to Politico, there will be no requirement that chicken processed in China be labeled as such...

Well, for starters Chinese-processed chicken will be allowed to skip the ‘Product of China’ label in several instances because the country of origin labeling law, or “COOL,” does not regulate cooked meat — and at least for now, the U.S. does not import raw chicken raised and/or slaughtered in China.

A lot of people are very upset about this because there have been some huge safety concerns about food coming from China.  Just check out the following examples included in a recent Huffington Post article...

Among those critics is Tony Corbo, a senior lobbyist for the advocacy group Food and Water Watch. “This is the first step towards allowing China to export its own domestic chickens to the U.S.,” he told the Times.
Corbo has reason to be concerned; in the last months alone, Chinese police discovered an illegal food smuggling plot to sell 46-year-old chicken feet treated with bleach, a criminal ring accused of selling rat and fox meat as lamb and abnormally high levels of cadmium, a metal that can cause cancer and other illnesses, in rice sold in Guangzhou restaurants.

And the safety incidents the Dallas Morning News recently discussed are more than a little bit alarming...

Tilapia and cod are raised in ponds and dosed with antibiotics and growth hormones. Imported Chinese apple juice reportedly contains three times the federal limit for arsenic in water. U.S. inspectors have also found tainted mushrooms and garlic.
The communist behemoth raised and shipped 80 percent of the tilapia consumed in this country in 2011, 51 percent of the cod, 49 percent of the apple juice, 34 percent of the processed mushrooms and 27 percent of the garlic.

-----

The European Union reported that China shipped potatoes infested with insects, ginger laced with salmonella, pumpkin seeds containing glass chips and frozen calamari contaminated by arsenic to Europe last year.
USDA officials halted imports of Chinese shrimp, eel, catfish and carp in 2007 because of high levels of illegal antibiotics and chemicals. Three years later, officials seized thousands of pounds of Chinese honey after finding illegal antibiotics. And this year, more than 500 dogs and a handful of cats died after eating jerky treats made of chicken, according to an investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

In light of all of these incidents, shouldn't U.S. consumers be able to clearly identify chicken that is coming from China?
Authorities tell us that we can expect to have chicken from China starting to show up on our store shelves this upcoming summer.  Apparently, the big advantage of processing chicken in China is the lower cost...

Processing chicken is a labor-intensive endeavor that can’t be done solely by machines and the “lower cost in China is the advantage,” Chris Hurt, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, said in a telephone interview. Those savings in labor costs can counterbalance the higher price tag to ship the end product, Hurt said.

And most Americans don't realize this, but China already sends 4 billion pounds of food to the United States every year.
So why don't we just go ahead and get it all over with and just send all of our jobs over to China right now?
After all, very few people seem to be concerned about the fate of average American workers at this point.  Things just continue to get even worse for them, and the middle class is being absolutely eviscerated.
Let's just go ahead and ship the rest of our good paying jobs over there and be done with it.  Then we can all cut hair, flip burgers and stock shelves at Wal-Mart.
And most Americans already know that something has gone terribly wrong with our economy.
According to a brand new Bloomberg National Poll, 64 percent of all Americans believe that "the U.S. no longer offers everyone an equal chance to get ahead", and according to a different national survey that was recently conducted 68 percent of all Americans believe that the country is currently on the wrong track.
We are a nation that is absolutely drowning in debt, that has a financial system that has been turned into a high stakes casino, and that has a middle class that is being systematically destroyed.
Personally, I am extremely concerned about this upcoming two year time period.  The conditions for a "perfect storm" are all coming together for 2014 and 2015.  I believe that this nation (and the world) will look far different two years from now than it does today.
Our system is failing and our politicians are only making things worse.
Buckle up and hold on to your hats, because the next couple of years are going to be a very bumpy ride.

Why John Boehner And Paul Ryan Should Immediately Resign

And it is being projected that the U.S. national debt will more than double during the 8 years of the Obama administration.  In other words, the federal government will pile more debt on to the backs of our children and our grandchildren during the Obama years than had been accumulated during all of the rest of U.S. history combined.  The federal government is literally destroying the future of America,

By Michael Snyder, on December 11th, 2013

 

Thomas Jefferson once said that “the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”  In other words, he believed that government debt was the equivalent of stealing money from future generations on a massive scale.  Right now, the U.S. government is stealing roughly $100,000,000 from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day.  And it is being projected that the U.S. national debt will more than double during the 8 years of the Obama administration.  In other words, the federal government will pile more debt on to the backs of our children and our grandchildren during the Obama years than had been accumulated during all of the rest of U.S. history combined.  The federal government is literally destroying the future of America, and what we are doing to our children and our grandchildren is beyond criminal.  If there was one thing that the Republicans in Congress were supposed to do, it was to do something about all of this debt.  These days Republicans can’t seem to agree on much, but the one issue that virtually all “conservatives” were supposed to agree on was the national debt.  The American people gave the Republicans control of the House in 2010 and 2012 for a reason.  Unfortunately, nothing has been done.  Our debt has continued to spiral out of control and now John Boehner and Paul Ryan are pushing a “budget deal” that will essentially give the free-spending Democrats virtually everything that they want for the next 10 years.  That is why John Boehner and Paul Ryan should immediately resign.
This “budget deal” actually increases the deficit in the short-term.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Overall, it is supposed to reduce the federal budget deficit by about 20 billion dollars over the next decade.  But even if the unrealistic assumptions that those numbers are based upon end up working out (which they never do), the “savings” will average just 2 billion dollars a year over the next decade.
And considering the fact that federal budget deficits will likely average well over a trillion dollars over that time span, that is a complete and total joke.
It is kind of like spitting into Niagara Falls and thinking that it will actually make a difference.
Even Paul Ryan is admitting that “this isn’t the greatest agreement of all time”, and in interviews he is complaining that the Democrats wouldn’t allow him to do more.
As if we are supposed to feel sorry for him.
Look – according to the U.S. Constitution the federal government cannot spend a single penny without the approval of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Democrats cannot force the Republicans to do anything.
So if the national debt more than doubles during the Obama administration it is the fault of both the Democrats and the Republicans.
Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul called the proposed budget deal “shameful“, and he was exactly correct.
It is utterly shameful that the Republicans believe that it is just fine to steal more than 10 trillion dollars from future generations of Americans during the Obama years.
It is utterly shameful that the Republicans believe that it is just fine that the U.S. government has accumulated more than 200 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities that will need to be paid in future years.
It is utterly shameful that the Republicans believe that it is just fine to keep running up a debt that is now more than 37 times larger than it was just 40 years ago.
But instead of doing something to fix this, House Speaker John Boehner is blasting those that are concerned about all of this debt…

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who ceded control of the budget talks to Ryan, likewise pushed back on outside groups’ attempts to influence lawmakers. “They’re using our members, and they’re using the American people for their own goals,” Boehner said, “This is ridiculous. Listen, if you’re for more deficit reduction, you’re for this agreement.”

The Democrats don’t even have to attack fiscal conservatives anymore because the Republican leadership is taking care of that job for them.
And John Boehner has got to be joking when he uses the phrase “deficit reduction” in relation to this proposed budget deal.  In fact, even CNN is admitting that it essentially does nothing to help our long-term debt problems…

It doesn’t really move the needle much on the country’s long-term debt trajectory. That’s because Ryan and Murray opted for pragmatism, explicitly ruling out wrestling over entitlement and tax reform in this round of negotiations.

Back on September 30th, 2012 our national debt was sitting at a total of 16.07 trillion dollars.
Today, it is up to 17.23 trillion dollars.
That means that we have added 1.16 trillion dollars to the national debt in a little more than 14 months.
This is a recipe for national suicide.
We were the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet, but that was never good enough for us.
We always had to spend even more.
Now we have accumulated the greatest mountain of debt the world has ever seen, and someday if our children and our grandchildren have the chance they will curse us for what we have done to them.
Anyone that has run up massive amounts of credit card debt knows that the ride up can be quite enjoyable.  At times, it can seem like the good times will go on forever and that there will never really be any consequences.
But in the end, a very painful day of reckoning always arrives.
The rest of the world is watching what is going on.  They can see us running up all this debt.  The can see the Federal Reserve wildly printing up money.
At some point the rest of the world is going to stop using our increasingly unstable currency to trade with one another and they are going to stop lending us trillions of dollars at super low interest rates.
When that time arrives, the consequences of decades of very foolish decisions will catch up to us very rapidly.
If only we had listened to our forefathers.
Thomas Jefferson once said that if he could add just one more amendment to the U.S. Constitution it would be a complete ban on all borrowing by the federal government…

I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution. I would be willing to depend on that alone for the reduction of the administration of our government to the genuine principles of its Constitution; I mean an additional article, taking from the federal government the power of borrowing.

How much better off would we be today if we had only listened to him?

GRACE HOPPER GOOGLE DOODLE

Posted by George Freund on December 9, 2013

Google honors an icon in computing today December 9th. Grace Hopper a former Admiral in the United States Navy, mathematician, and computer scientist gets the birth nod. Many of the connotations are straight and to the point. We have a data set that takes us into the dimensions of computer code and language in a unique way. If we look at the letters OOE, we get the computer term Out of Order Execution. This allows a computer to work on things outside of the manner in which they were entered. It allows us to skip sequence.

Grace earned her PH. D. from Yale and taught at Vasser. In 1943 she joined the Navy as a Wave. She had to get an exemption because she was under weight. She was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project at Harvard. There she worked on the Mark I computer. After the war she joined Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation on the UNIVAC project. It was prepared for the 1950 Census. In the McCarthy era the company was accused in the red scare. Company President John Mauchly was the suspect individual. UNIVAC was used in tabulating results for the 1952 Presidential election. Eisenhower 'won' I guess. Richard Nixon was his running mate. The company became part of Remington Rand and today is UNISYS. The Remington Rand Building is on Park Avenue in NYC. It was constructed in 1911 in case we need a 9/11 reference. UNISYS is the military industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about. They developed South Africa's national identification system. They operate the largest RFID system for the US military. They are ranked the 44th on the Top Corporate Criminals of the 1990's list. In 2006 they were investigated by the FBI for lapses in the DHS contract. The notorious Jack Abramoff was their lobbyist. They are currently working on cloud computing.



UNIVAC on CBS TV, election night, 1952

Grace developed the computer programming language COBOL COmmon Business-Oriented Language. She stayed in the Navy far longer than normal. When she was forced to retire it was with the rank of Rear Admiral. She was the oldest person in the Navy at the time 79 years, eight months and five days. She was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal at the time on the USS Constitution the oldest commissioned US naval vessel at the time August 14, 1986. She served 188 years, nine months and 23 days. She fought Barbary pirates and was in the Mediterranean Squadron a place still position by the US Navy. A ship bearing her name the USS Hopper is stationed in the Middle East. She departed Pearl Harbor September 6th.



I entered the ages of Grace and the USS Constitution on her retirement day into the search engine to see what it would tell me. The results were interesting. On MAPS as co-ordinates I was taken to a location around Manila, The Philippines even though those weren't the co-ordinates. When I changed east with west it made no difference. Admittedly there is no 188 degrees, but the search engine revealed this hand. I also got a quote from the Bible as well. Psalm 79 is most illuminating.


Psalm 79:8
1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)

8 Remember not against us the former iniquities, but make haste, and let thy tender mercies prevent us: for we are in great misery.



The end result of the doodle question is 107. Psalm 107 has a great deal to say too.


Psalm 107
1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)

107 1 The Prophet exhorteth all those that are redeemed by the Lord and gathered unto him, to give thanks, 9 for this merciful providence of God governing all things at his good pleasures, 20 sending good and evil, prosperity and adversity to bring men unto him. 42 Therefore as the righteous thereat rejoice, so shall the wicked have their mouth stopped.



Grace ended her career with Digital Equipment Corporation, but did she end? Is she living on? In a way yes. One of the world's most powerful supercomputers was named after her. It is a Cray XE6. It is the 5th most powerful in the world. It is located at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center NERSC formally known as the Controlled Thermonuclear Research Computer Center or CTRCC. Considering the revelvance of the Psalms that may be very pertinent. The sea referred to is The Red Sea. The Nimitz battle group is stationed there.

Grace passed away on New Year's Day 1992. New Year's Day is just weeks away. Will we see challenges in the Middle East or will our direction head towards Manila? I hope that they didn't transfer Grace's mind into the Hopper. With the work on Singularity nothing is out of reach.

“It is better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission.”

“A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.”

“Leadership is a two-way street, loyalty up and loyalty down."

(CBS 60 Minutes interview, March 6, 1983)”

“The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.”

“Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems.”

― Grace Murray Hopper

Google Bans Torrent Search Extensions For Chrome Over Piracy Concerns

• Ernesto
• December 11, 2013
• google

Google has removed several torrent search extensions from the Chrome Web Store because they could enable “unauthorized access” to copyrighted content. The decision, which may have come after pressure from the entertainment industry, is a peculiar one since the extensions are no more infringing than Google’s own search bar. “This is really a sad day for web freedom as Google has now taken the stance of guilty until proven innocent,” a disappointed site operator comments.
In recent years Google has been heavily criticized by media industry trade groups for facilitating online piracy.
Both the MPAA and RIAA have made repeated calls to the company to step up its anti-piracy efforts, and prevent users from accessing so-called “rogue” sites.
Thus far Google has refused to voluntarily remove results for entire domains from its search index, but in the Chrome Store it has now targeted several torrent-related browser extensions.
In recent weeks Google banned search tools linked to The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, Torlock, and several other torrent portals. According to emails sent to the developers, these extensions “encourage, facilitate or enable” copyright infringement.
“We don’t allow products or services that violate third-party terms of service, or products or services that encourage, facilitate, or enable the unauthorized access, download, or streaming of copyrighted content or media,” Google writes.
One of the sites that had its Chrome extension removed is Torlock. The extension in question allowed users to add a search box to the Chrome browser as a shortcut to search for torrents on the Torlock website. The search box was not any different from any others, and was not actively encouraging or enabling infringements.
When users searched for “Linux” for example, it would redirect them to a search page on the Torlock site that showed results for “Linux.”
TorrentFreak reached out to Jack, the owner of Torlock, who says he can’t comprehend why his extension was removed.
“I have no idea why Google would state that our Chrome extension was in violation as no evidence was given, just a generic response with the usual legal jargon. This is really a sad day for web freedom as Google has now taken the stance of guilty until proven innocent,” Jack tells us.
The decision to ban these torrent-related extensions is peculiar, since they do not encourage piracy any more than Google’s own search box. According to Torlock’s owner, Google would also have to remove its own search bar through which the exact same content can be found, and much more.
“Correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t Google’s own search bar on their front page do exactly the same thing they are accusing us of? All you have to do is know a name of copyrighted content and Google it and you can have it downloaded and on your TV in seconds,” Jack says.
“We hope Google realizes that they are in fact the biggest torrent indexer in the world,” he adds.
While something can be said for the argument that certain torrent sites are encouraging or facilitating copyright infringement, an extension that merely adds a search box doesn’t immediately fit this description.
Google’s actions suggest that the company sees the torrent sites in question as “infringing,” a decision it has thus far avoided making in regards to its search results.
According to Torlock’s owner, Google’s actions set a dangerous precedent and he hopes the company will realize this.
“Torrent sites are legal in most countries around the world, the fact that they are dictating what the user can and cannot see is something that should sound the alarm bells,” Jack says.
TorrentFreak reached out to Google for a comment but we have yet to receive a response from the company.

Pirate Bay Founder Held in Solitary Confinement Without a Warrant

• Andy
• December 11, 2013
• gottfrid svartholm,
  Julian Assange

Since his arrival in Denmark to face hacking charges Gottfrid Svartholm has sat in solitary confinement, denied free access to mail and denied access to his books. The situation has outraged Wikileaks’ Julian Assange who says Gottfrid is now a political prisoner. Meanwhile Gottfrid’s mother Kristina has written to Amnesty hoping that they will take notice of her son’s plight.
Following a failed last-ditch appeal to the Supreme Court in Sweden, Gottfrid Svartholm was extradited to Denmark last month.
The Pirate Bay founder stands accused of hacking into the mainframe computers of IT company CSC. In an earlier case in Sweden he was acquitted of similar charges.
Previously in Sweden and within the natural parameters of his detainment, Gottfrid had been granted various freedoms, including socializing with other inmates and the ability to receive mail. He also enjoyed access to books for his studies, an absolute must for someone with such an active mind but no computer or Internet. However, since arriving in Denmark things have been very different.
In a recent letter sent to Amnesty and shared with TorrentFreak, Gottfrid’s mother Kristina explains her son’s plight. She says that Gottfrid is being kept in solitary and treated as if he were a “dangerous, violent and aggressive criminal” even though his only crime – if any – is hacking.
Gottfrid’s lawyer Luise Høi says the terms of his confinement are unacceptable and are being executed without the correct legal process.
“It is the case that Danish authorities are holding my client in solitary confinement without a warrant,” Høi explains, noting that if the authorities wish to exclude Gottfrid from access to anyone except his lawyer and prison staff, they need to apply for a special order.
The theory is that the special terms of Gottfrid’s confinement are in place so that he is unable to interfere with the investigation, but Kristina doesn’t buy that excuse.
“[In Sweden] I visited him every week, unsupervised, sometimes with an additional person. He rang me daily throughout the fall and his letters etc were not checked. For a long time he has had every opportunity in the world to complicate investigations for the Danish police if he had wanted,” Kristina says.
The extradition by Sweden and current situation in Denmark has outraged Wikileaks‘ Julian Assange, a staunch supporter of Gottfrid who he describes as a ‘Wikileaks Consultant’.
“It is time someone says it like it is: Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is a political prisoner and Sweden has fallen off the map of decent nations in its treatment of him. Gottfrid has always been ideologically driven to inform the world; he worked tirelessly to help WikiLeaks expose the slaughter of civilians in Iraq by a US helicopter gunship and was responsible for an important part of our infrastructure,” Assange says.
“There are thousands of alleged cyber criminals, but instead of dealing with these cases, we see vast resources diverted yet again by the Swedish state into smashing Gottfrid. These attempts include the first trial of Gottfrid after US pressure (extensively documented in US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks), his subsequent rendering from Cambodia by the Swedish intelligence service SAPO, his months of incommunicado detention in Sweden, and now his irregular extradition to Denmark – for a charge he was just acquitted of.”
Today, Kristina will travel to see Gottfrid in Denmark, hopefully with more encouraging news to report on her departure.
Meanwhile in Russia, authorities there have ordered local ISPs to initiate a block on RuTor.org, a site whose domain is registered to the Swede. The site stands accused of distributing copyrighted material including the 2013 film ‘Stalingrad’.
Anyone who would like to write to Gottfrid is certainly welcome to try. For any chance of this mail eventually getting through people should ensure that letters contain only text, are not written in any kind of code or suggestion of that, and do not contain any discussion of the case.
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, 171084
Att: Jens Jørgensen
Politigården
1567 København V
Denmark

Are You Ready for Riots?

Daniel Ameduri December 11th, 2013 Future Money Trends

Editor’s Note: With America’s middle class being destroyed on a daily basis, and low wage workers seeing reduced hours and experiencing more difficulty with making ends meet, it is only a matter of time before people snap. We may think we live in a stable society, but as Daniel Ameduri of Future Money Trends points out below, no country is immune to civil unrest when the right conditions are met. And if you’ve been paying attention, it’s not that much of a stretch of the imagination to suggest the signs of discontent are starting to appear from sea to shining sea. As the situation continues to degrade in the United States we, too, will experience rioting and civil unrest, something the U.S. government has been actively preparing for. In the very near future, riots won’t just be some far-off event you watch on television from the comfort of your couch… They’ll be front and center, right outside your front door.

This article first appeared in the Future Money Trends Weekly Wealth Digest
This past weekend a country with one of the highest living standards in the world saw rioting in the streets!
According to Credit Suisse, Singapore ranks 8th in the world in terms of personal wealth. Since the year 2000, Singaporeans’ wealth has more than doubled.
It is clear that this is a very prosperous city state that is the gem of Asia. I know that when I have looked for offshore gold storage in the past, Singapore comes up as one of the top areas along with Hong Kong, Zuric, Perth, and Toronto.
However, on Sunday a riot was sparked in Singapore, the first one in more than 40 years. Long story short, an Indian national was struck by a bus and killed, the surrounding neighborhood went out by the hundreds to set fire to at least 6 police cars and the ambulance that responded to the young man who died.

Now I don’t know every detail of race relations in Singapore, but I do know from what I have read that about 25% of the workers are transient workers, the city state is made up of immigrants, of which about 8% are Indian.
The reason I bring this up is because sometimes just like an individual who snaps, so can a large group. ZeroHedge.com in their coverage of the incident titled their blog post, “Riots Break Out In Singapore; Think Your Country Is Immune?”
This is definitely something to think about living in the United States. Many people think that the U.S. is safe from mass riots across the country due to economic civil unrest, but I don’t think anyone should rule out widespread rioting in the streets.
America is like a pressure cooker as my friend Doug Casey has often noted. We have 49% of the population not paying taxes, 23% of the population not only not paying taxes, but being paid to live here in the U.S. No matter what you believe or how much money you have, our health care system is screwed up. Our welfare and warfare state is robbing the middle class, and the entitlement ponzi-schemes are robbing our young of opportunity.
A lot of these thoughts and more are weighing on Americans, will they snap one day and take their grievances to the street?
I think there is a good chance during this depression, with nearly 48 million people on government food stamps, long term unemployment near records, and real unemployment closer to 20%, anger and frustration is building up.
A recent poll by ABC News and the Washington Post revealed that the dissatisfaction with the U.S. government was at 80%.
There are a lot of legitimate grievances that can add a lot of pressure to people who are barely making it or who are literally sliding out of the middle class and into poverty.
I for one am very tired and extremely annoyed over all the fraud and waste I see on a daily basis. From the U.S. getting involved in everyones’ business around the world, to me paying taxes only to see millions of people cash out on MY money so they can live a lazy lifestyle. A welfare mom in New York for instance revealed that she collects just over $38,000 a year, this is more than the starting salary of a teacher in the state. Although the actual welfare queen state is Hawaii, where a person with two children can receive up to $60,590 per year in benefits.
Then we have the government workers…Not even going to go there.
My point in all of this is prudence, be prepared, especially now as the depression drags on destroying what was left of America’s middle class.

Is government aid a giant money laundering scheme?

Is government aid a giant money laundering scheme?

image source

Jon Rappoport
Activist Post

Remember something called the War on Poverty? The Great Society?

President Lyndon Johnson declared it and announced it in 1965. Since then, the federal government and state governments have poured staggering amounts of dollars into the program.

How many dollars? Does anyone know?

In his 1992 book, Paved With Good Intentions, Jared Taylor puts the figure (1965-1992) at $2.5 trillion. So, for the sake of argument, let’s accept that.

Yet, by 1992 (and to an even greater degree since then), poverty had accelerated in America. Had gotten much, much worse.

So the logical question was and is: where did all that money go?

This question doesn’t call for a general answer; it cries out for a compete and detailed and scathing investigation.

Dollar by dollar, inner city by inner city, program by program, outcome by outcome, for every month and every year since 1965.

How much of that $2.5 trillion never arrived at its destination? How much was utterly wasted, and how? How much was diverted from its assigned objectives, and to whom? And what did these thieves do with it?

Where is the record of all the canceled checks and money transfers, from point of origin to recipient? Where is the record of what each and every recipient did with the money?

Any organization, earmarking $2.5 for trillion (!) a specific purpose, would track it and report on it, and assess its results, in real time. Right?

But of course, when it comes to government…wrong.

Government proves it “cares” by dispensing money. What happens after that is anybody’s guess.

Foreign aid the US federal government sends abroad is a complete nightmare, because tinpot dictators with their hands out are involved, as well as side-bribes, and padded contracts to multinational corporations to do work in those foreign nations.

But here at home, you would expect a close monitoring of aid. Where are the reports? Where are the overall assessments of results? Where are the accounting books with their blow-by-blow details?

If you spend $2.5 trillion to solve a problem, and it gets worse, monumentally worse, you know you failed. You know more than that. You know huge sums were stolen. You know individuals facilitated that theft. You know individuals covered up the theft.

To now say this should be a criminal investigation headed by the Department of Justice is $2.5 trillion late and 17,520 days short.

Federal officials are interested in only one thing: putting enough layers between themselves and crimes to achieve plausible deniability. After that, they walk away.

But we can take this even further. In order to facilitate the failure of $2.5 trillion to achieve its stated objectives, you aren’t just talking about random diversions and occasional opportunists. Too much money is at stake. No, you have to be talking about preplanned thefts of enormous sums. Organized and coordinated thefts.

This isn’t Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton money. This isn’t just a state coordinator’s money. This isn’t just a limousine liberal’s money. This is HUGE money.

And therefore, there has to be a plan to hide the stolen money, to put it somewhere, to deliver it to places without being discovered.

Which is exactly what laundering is all about. Ask any drug cartel chief.

When government officials, asked about poverty in America, simply say, “We have to do more,” they’re not only obfuscating and lying, they’re accessories after the fact. They know. They’re not that stupid. They know enormous sums have been, and are being, carted away into the night.

Every presidential administration since 1965 has been complicit.

Suppose your baby, back in 1965, was suffering from diminished sight. You took him to an opthamologist, who told you, “This is very serious, we’ll have to hospitalize your child for treatment. The government will pay.”

Flash forward to 2013. Your child is now 48 years old. He’s been in the hospital all this time. A doctor now tells you: “We’ve spent $2.5 trillion on your son. He’s completely blind. He’s developed a life-threatening blood disorder and six brain tumors. He can’t stand up. We feed him through a straw.”

Would you suspect something criminal? Or would you blithely accept that the doctors have been doing everything they can to cure his problem?

The unpleasant truth is, most Americans would just say, “Well, they tried, but mistakes were made.”

However, you and I know better.

The Great Society is a money-laundering operation.

CU-Boulder Scientist: Society Should Prepare for Devastating Solar Flare (CME)

CU-Boulder Scientist: Society Should Prepare for Devastating Solar Flare (CME)

NASA Image

Activist Post

A massive ejection of material from the sun initially traveling at over 7 million miles per hour that narrowly missed Earth last year is an event solar scientists hope will open the eyes of policymakers regarding the impacts and mitigation of severe space weather, says a University of Colorado Boulder professor.

The coronal mass ejection, or CME, event was likely more powerful than the famous Carrington storm of 1859, when the sun blasted Earth’s atmosphere hard enough twice to light up the sky from the North Pole to Central America and allowed New Englanders to read their newspapers at night by aurora light, said CU-Boulder Professor Daniel Baker. Had it hit Earth, the July 2012 event likely would have created a technological disaster by short-circuiting satellites, power grids, ground communication equipment and even threatening the health of astronauts and aircraft crews, he said.

CMEs are part of solar storms and can send billions of tons of solar particles in the form of gas bubbles and magnetic fields off the sun’s surface and into space. The storm events essentially peel Earth’s magnetic field like an onion, allowing energetic solar wind particles to stream down the field lines to hit the atmosphere over the poles.

Fortunately, the 2012 solar explosion occurred on the far side of the rotating sun just a week after that area was pointed toward Earth, said Baker, a solar scientist and the director of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. But NASA’s STEREO-A, satellite that was flying ahead of the Earth as the planet orbited the sun, captured the event, including the intensity of the solar wind, the interplanetary magnetic field and a rain of solar energetic particles into space.

“My space weather colleagues believe that until we have an event that slams Earth and causes complete mayhem, policymakers are not going to pay attention,” he said. “The message we are trying to convey is that we made direct measurements of the 2012 event and saw the full consequences without going through a direct hit on our planet.”

Baker will give a presentation on the subject at the 46th Annual Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union held in San Francisco Dec. 9 to Dec. 13.

While typical coronal mass ejections from the sun take two or three days to reach Earth, the 2012 event traveled from the sun’s surface to Earth in just 18 hours. “The speed of this event was as fast or faster than anything that has been seen in the modern space age,” said Baker. The event not only had the most powerful CME ever recorded, but it would have triggered one of the strongest geomagnetic storms and the highest density of particle fluctuation ever seen in a typical solar cycle, which last roughly 11 years.

“We have proposed that the 2012 event be adopted as the best estimate of the worst case space weather scenario,” said Baker, who chaired a 2008 National Research Council committee that produced a report titled Severe Space Weather Events – Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts. “We argue that this extreme event should be immediately employed by the space weather community to model severe space weather effects on technological systems such as the electrical power grid.

“I liken it to war games -- since we have the information about the event, let’s play it through our various models and see what happens,” Baker said. “If we do this, we would be a significant step closer to providing policymakers with real-world, concrete kinds of information that can be used to explore what would happen to various technologies on Earth and in orbit rather than waiting to be clobbered by a direct hit.”

Even though it occurred about 150 years ago, the Carrington storm was memorable from a natural beauty standpoint as well as its technological impacts, he said. The event disrupted telegraph communications -- the Internet of the Victorian Age -- around the world, sparking fires at telegraph offices that caused several deaths, he said.

A 1989 geomagnetic storm caused by a CME from a solar storm in March 1989 resulted in the collapse of Hydro-Quebec’s electricity transmission system, causing 6 million people to lose power for at least nine hours, said Baker. The auroras from the event could be seen as far south as Texas and Florida.

“The Carrington storm and the 2012 event show that extreme space weather events can happen even during a modest solar cycle like the one presently underway,” said Baker. “Rather than wait and pick up the pieces, we ought to take lessons from these events to prepare ourselves for inevitable future solar storms.”

Press Release Source.

Scientists Warn of Worst Case Scenario: “Solar Flares… Will Short Circuit Satellites, Power Grids, Ground Communication Equipment”

Mac Slavo December 10th, 2013 SHTFplan.com

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder recently completed analyzing data from a Coronal Mass Ejection that took place in the summer of 2012. The CME, which was reportedly the most powerful electrical discharge ever recorded from the sun, narrowly missed earth. It was not “earth directed,” meaning the electro-magnetic mass was ejected by the sun when it was facing away from our planet. However, had it occurred just a week prior, the highly charged particles would have struck earth and, according to CU-Boulder Professor Daniel Baker, would have led to nothing short of a technological disaster across the globe.
The CME itself was massive… and its speed was unprecedented, clocking in at 7 million miles per hour.

While typical coronal mass ejections from the sun take two or three days to reach Earth, the 2012 event traveled from the sun’s surface to Earth in just 18 hours.
“The speed of this event was as fast or faster than anything that has been seen in the modern space age,” said Baker.

While early warning systems are capable of detecting CME’s and solar flares ahead of time, this particular event happened so quickly that it is unclear if monitoring groups at NASA’s Solar Shield Project would have been able to send alerts to emergency services teams in time.
Had it struck earth, says Baker, it would have caused damage so significant that modern electrical systems would have been fried.

Had it hit Earth, the July 2012 event likely would have created a technological disaster by short-circuiting satellites, power grids, ground communication equipment and even threatening the health of astronauts and aircraft crews.
…
We have proposed that the 2012 event be adopted as the best estimate of the worst case space weather scenario…
We argue that this extreme event should be immediately employed by the space weather community to model severe space weather effects on technological systems such as the electrical power grid.
I liken it to war games — since we have the information about the event, let’s play it through our various models and see what happens.
If we do this, we would be a significant step closer to providing policymakers with real-world, concrete kinds of information that can be used to explore what would happen to various technologies on Earth and in orbit rather than waiting to be clobbered by a direct hit.
Source: Colorado.edu via Activist Post

Most policy makers have not taken the threat of an earth-directed solar flare seriously, even though a senior member of the Congressional Homeland Security Committee recently warned that there is a 100% Chance of a Severe Geo-Magnetic Event Capable of Crippling Our Electric Grid.
If such an event were to happen Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, who has advised people to develop individual preparedness plans based on the threat of massive solar flares or electro-magnetic pulse detonations, says that it would take upwards of 18 months to bring the grid back online because of a decaying national infrastructure.

We could have events in the future where the power grid will go down and it’s not, in any reasonable time, coming back up. For instance, if when the power grid went down some of our large transformers were destroyed, damaged beyond use, we don’t make any of those in this country. They’re made overseas and you order one and 18 months to two years later they will deliver it. Our power grid is very vulnerable. It’s very much on edge. Our military knows that.
…
There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability. And, I think that those who can, and those who understand, need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing to move their families out of the city.

Urban Danger Trailer

If a solar kill shot were to occur and short out the electrical power grid, it has been estimated that some nine out of ten Americans would be dead within one year as transportation systems broke down, food delivery ceased, commerce systems no longer functioned, communications equipment became inoperable and utilities, such as water treatment plants, were incapable of delivery services.

The ramifications would be serious and almost immediate according to a 132-page NASA funded report on Understanding the Economic and Societal Impacts of Severe Space Weather:

To estimate the scale of such a failure, report co-author John Kappenmann of the Metatech Corporation looked at the great geomagnetic storm of May 1921, which produced ground currents as much as ten times stronger than the 1989 Quebec storm, and modeled its effect on the modern power grid.
He found more than 350 transformers at risk of permanent damage and 130 million people without power.
The loss of electricity would ripple across the social infrastructure with “water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, fuel re-supply and so on.”

If you’ve ever wondered what a massive electrical surge from an electro-magnetic pulse weapon, solar flare or cyber attack might look like, then take a look at this footage shot in Montreal.

Caught on Video Fireball Slams Into Power Lines!

Imagine a powerful X-class solar flare striking earth and sending a surge like the one above across the entire U.S. power grid.

Are you prepared for such an event?

EMP Threat: ‘Within One Year 9 Out of 10 Americans Would Be Dead’

Mac Slavo May 4th, 2010 SHTFplan.com

A spokesman for the Center for Security Policy says that the threat of Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) is real. With Iran developing multi-stage Space Launch Vehicles (SLV) the possibility of such an attack will become even more probable than ever before:

From WND:
And experts forecast if such an attack were a success, it effectively could throw the U.S. back into an age of agriculture.
“Within a year of that attack, nine out of 10 Americans would be dead, because we can’t support a population of the present size in urban centers and the like without electricity,” said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy. “And that is exactly what I believe the Iranians are working towards.”
A recent launch of an SLV by Iran has sparked renewed concern of an attack that could send an electromagnetic pulse powerful enough to wipe out computer controls for systems on which society has come to rely, officials say.
As the G2 Bulletin reported last week, Ronald Burgess, director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, revealed that Iran successfully launched a multi-stage SLV, the Simorgh. The device ultimately could be equipped with a nuclear bomb, which the U.S. intelligence community assesses Iran is developing.
Officials also report Iran has been testing detonation of its nuclear-capable missiles by remote control while still in high-altitude flight. The development makes a potential EMP attack on the U.S. more probable.

An enemy of the United States, be it Iran, North Korea or a terrorist organization, does not need to detonate a nuclear weapon on the ground.We believe this is the only reason why Iran would be testing SLV’s with in-flight detonations. With this kind of weapon, Iran (or anyone else) would simply need to strike first. Once the weapon goes off, it would be difficult to determine from where it came and to respond appropriately, as all forms of traditional communication would be wiped out.
A small-scale, five to ten kiloton weapon detonated 200 miles above Nebraska, or a few weapons detonated 50 miles or so above the eastern, western and central United States would do the job.
The effects would be nothing short of disastrous – literally the end of the world as we know it.
All unprotected and unhardened electrical devices would be left useless.
This means that everything, from the refrigerator in your kitchen to the semi-trucks that carry food across the country, would be non-functioning.
If an enemy of the USA wants to bring America to its knees without rendering the land completely useless, they could do so with an EMP weapon.
We’ve always believed that a mainland invasion of the United Stated would be difficult, if not impossible. But, if an EMP weapon were to be used, our country could effectively be invaded within a matter of months, as most of the population would be wiped out and the government and military infrastructures in disarray.
We consider EMP as one of the most significant threats out there. The recovery period from a collapse of this magnitude would be counted in decades, not years, thus, for those who are “prepping” for a worst-case scenario, consider long term sustainability planning when planning for an EMP SHTF scenario.

NASA Plans for Large Scale Failure, Power Grid is “Particularly Vulnerable to Bad Space Weather”

Mac Slavo June 7th, 2010 SHTFplan.com

For many it’s either tin foil conspiracy theory or an action packed Hollywood Armageddon flick. For the National Aeronautics and Space Administration it’s a serious threat, with the potential to wipe out the technologically driven lives we’ve become so used to.
Our sun is approaching a period of high turbulence, referred to as the solar maximum, with many scientists suggesting a peak in activity around 2013. The cycle occurs every 11 years, and the next time around it is predicted to be one of the weakest in decades. However, some contrary opinions hold that the next solar maximum may be stronger than we expect, citing a 26,000 year galactic alignment cycle, scheduled to occur on or around 2012, eerily coinciding with the end of the Mayan calendar.
One organization that isn’t taking any chances is NASA. As the sun begins to awaken, scientists are keeping a close eye on space weather:

“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”
The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.

A 132-page NASA funded report titled Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts, suggests that the right magnitude storm could be devastating:

The problem begins with the electric power grid. “Electric power is modern society’s cornerstone technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend,” the report notes. Yet it is particularly vulnerable to bad space weather. Ground currents induced during geomagnetic storms can actually melt the copper windings of transformers at the heart of many power distribution systems. Sprawling power lines act like antennas, picking up the currents and spreading the problem over a wide area. The most famous geomagnetic power outage happened during a space storm in March 1989 when six million people in Quebec lost power for 9 hours.
According to the report, power grids may be more vulnerable than ever. The problem is interconnectedness. In recent years, utilities have joined grids together to allow long-distance transmission of low-cost power to areas of sudden demand. On a hot summer day in California, for instance, people in Los Angeles might be running their air conditioners on power routed from Oregon. It makes economic sense—but not necessarily geomagnetic sense. Interconnectedness makes the system susceptible to wide-ranging “cascade failures.”
To estimate the scale of such a failure, report co-author John Kappenmann of the Metatech Corporation looked at the great geomagnetic storm of May 1921, which produced ground currents as much as ten times stronger than the 1989 Quebec storm, and modeled its effect on the modern power grid. He found more than 350 transformers at risk of permanent damage and 130 million people without power. The loss of electricity would ripple across the social infrastructure with “water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in 12-24 hours; loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, fuel re-supply and so on.”
“The concept of interdependency,” the report notes, “is evident in the unavailability of water due to long-term outage of electric power–and the inability to restart an electric generator without water on site.”

What if the May 1921 superstorm occurred today? A US map of vulnerable transformers with areas of probable system collapse encircled. A state-by-state map of transformer vulnerability is also available: click here.

The potential for major disruptions to our lives and our modern day just-in-time delivery systems could lead to total chaos in affected areas:

“A contemporary repetition of the Carrington Event would cause … extensive social and economic disruptions,” the report warns. Power outages would be accompanied by radio blackouts and satellite malfunctions; telecommunications, GPS navigation, banking and finance, and transportation would all be affected. Some problems would correct themselves with the fading of the storm: radio and GPS transmissions could come back online fairly quickly. Other problems would be lasting: a burnt-out multi-ton transformer, for instance, can take weeks or months to repair. The total economic impact in the first year alone could reach $2 trillion, some 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina or, to use a timelier example, a few TARPs.

Had the report(s) come from a random SHTF Planning and Preparedness site, we could understand skepticism from the general public. But, since the warnings are coming from NASA, we suggest that citizens interested in preserving their well being, safety and security take note.
While the Quebec incident was a short-term, nine hour down-grid scenario, the US power grid is very much susceptible to a cascading, domino effect across our electrical infrastructures. As suggested by NASA, this would not be limited to your inability to watch television or turn on the lights, but could be much more widespread, affecting critical utility and transportation systems that deliver our food and fuel.
It is quite reasonable to suggest that any significant adverse solar weather event could lead to mass chaos across the entire country as people scramble to acquire necessities like food, water, medicine and secure shelter.
And if the response from our federal, state and local government officials is anything like Hurricane Katrina or the BP oil spill, an event of such magnitude may take weeks, perhaps months to mitigate.