T.S.A. : Birth of A Monster, Coup Against American Rights, F.E.M.A. Started and D.A.R.P.A. Finished,

All credits go to SpartanKingLeonidas a member of Above Top Secret forum.

Everyone knows that organizations like the Tranportation Security Administration cannot exist without terrible circumstances, but little does it happen to come across many peoples minds to consider an inside plot twist so corrupt, so vile, and so enigmatic that many levels of Government collusion are entwined without those people working for each agency knowing of the actual conspiracy except as something which has been a wet-dream for each of them to make their menial jobs far easier, if not for the citizens rights standing in the way of what they perceive as their job.

Quote from : Wikipedia : Transportation Security Administration

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security responsible for security in all modes of transportation in the U.S.

The TSA was created as part of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act passed by the U.S. Congress, and signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 19, 2001.

Originally organized in the U.S. Department of Transportation, the TSA was moved to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 25, 2003.

I am of course asking you a few select question which should spark your mind into a wildfire.

After the events of September 11, 2001, who in fact had the most to gain, the most to lose, and who exactly profited off of this disaster likened to the events of World War II wherein Pearl Harbor was struck by the Japanese, if we in fact are the people being felt up in the line to go into line to get onto an airplane, if our security has been tightened, yet other countries security is still a joke?

Like lambs, or in this case, cattle being lead to slaughter, we are ushered into the herd.

Forget for a moment, if you will, the how of the events of the day of 9/11.

And focus instead upon the why of the event, the ultimate question, more easily answered.

Before you complain, whine, or bitch about the T.S.A. Security Measures, or compare it to the Nazi’s, think about a few things instead as to what lead us to this impasse, this Mexican Stand-Off, if you will, through the ignorance of the populace in their materialism focused eyes, their bread and circuses focused hearts, and the lacking of understanding within society as a whole in the leverage being placed upon society thanks to the Security Theater being played out upon the world stage as well as the national stage where we as citizens are the actors, even against our own wills.

Quote from : Wikipedia : Security Theater

“Security theater” is a term that describes security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.

The term was coined by computer security specialist and writer Bruce Schneier for his book Beyond Fear, but has gained currency in security circles, particularly for describing airport security measures.

It is also used by some experts such as Edward Felten to describe the airport security repercussions due to the September 11 attacks.

Security theater gains importance both by satisfying and exploiting the gap between perceived risk and actual risk.

Before the events of 9/11 our security at the airports was what I would call a sad joke.

Even now it is still what I would classify as a sad joke but not due to negligence.

But due to the reasoning behind the millimeter wave scanners really intend for us.

Not as a security screening measure, but as a blackmail leverage point, for us to accept something else, far more sinister if we want to opt out of being scanned by a scanner potentially linked to cancer, and as well if we want to opt out of being felt up by trained security personnel who do not see their frisking us as the next step towards a total Police State through totalitarianism.

If we balk at being fed up with the invasive procedure we have to comply or be arrested.

If we decry State-Sanctioned Molestation we are fined and told we are at falt.

The real purpose of this through security theater is for the psychodrama which unfolds.

Quote from : Wikipedia : Psychodrama

Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients are encouraged to continue and complete their actions through dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation.

Both verbal and non-verbal communications are utilized.

A number of scenes are enacted, depicting, for example memories of specific happenings in the past, unfinished situations, inner dramas, fantasies, dreams, preparations for future risk-taking situations, or unrehearsed expressions of mental states in the here and now.

These scenes either approximate real-life situations or are externalizations of inner mental processes.

If required, other roles may be taken by group members or by inanimate objects.

It is mostly used as a group work method, in which each person in the group can become a therapeutic agent for each other in the group.

Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, psychodrama has strong elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where props can be used.

The audience is fully involved with the dramatic action.

Audience involvement is either through personal interest in the concerns of the leading actor, called the protagonist; or through playing some roles of the drama which helps the protagonist; or taking the form of some of the other elements of the drama, which can give voice to the rest of our wild universe; or through active engagement as an audience member.

Psychodrama’s core function is the raising of spontaneity in an adequate and functional manner.

It is through the raising of spontaneity that a system, whether an internal human system or an organizational system, can begin to become creative, life filled and develop new solutions to old and tired problems or adequate solutions to new situations and concerns.

A psychodrama is best conducted and produced by a person trained in the method or learning the method called a psychodrama director.

Psychodrama training institutes exist in many countries around the world.

So, which role has your actions taken on, in this little theatrical production?

The frightened citizen too scared of terrorism to know better demanding protection?

The skeptic too wrapped up into conspiracy theories to actually do something?

The willing and patriotic citzens denying the actions of Government involvement?

Or the person pulling the strings apart of the official story to find out the real story?

Tuning fork vibrations in super slow motion

The Twin Towers were hit one after another like an inexperienced man using a tuning fork.

First one hit, then another, tuning us all into the psychodrama unfolding through security theater.

Making all of society suscpetible to the message being put out about tighter security needs.

If in fact the events of 9/11 were an inside job then a few things are obvious.

1) A coup against the American populace, the U.S. Constitution, and two branches of Government.

2) The creation of not only the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, and a vital restructuring of all functionary organizational structure of the entire inefficient Government, to streamline the entire system.

3) Side-stepping corporate interests of airlines and airports to force Government assimilation.

4) Giving deniability to certain interested parties trying to force their secret agenda.

5) Using all of this to make us uncomfortable to demand a better solution.

I am of course referencing the implementation of the R.F.I.D. chip process.

If you do not want to feel like a piece of meat you have a choice and a simple one.

SUBMIT.

If you do not want your pictures broadcast across the Internet you have a choice.

SUBMIT.

If you want the right to concealed carry permits without intrusive scans of your body?

SUBMIT.

It is my supposition that if you want to see who created this nonsense you have but one choice.

Look in a mirror.

Instead of putting the pieces together as a community we fight amongst ourselves.

The left-wing/right-wing, Official Story/Government Involvement, terrorists/False-Flag Operation argument has grown old, instead we should be focusing on working together, put aside our egos, come together and put pieces together in such a way as to recognize each others for our achievements for our fellow man or woman, yet we are just as competitive, banal, trifling, small-minded, petty, and childish as those people within Government seem to think when they utilize such measures as divide and conquer, racial hatred, or even sending in an Agent Provacateur amongst us.

Instead of arguing over explosives being planted look for better evidence.

Instead of arguing over plane or predator drone hitting the Pentagon look for better evidence.

Instead of claiming Israeli involvement through Mossad look for better evidence.

What about those corporations within the building themselves?

Quote from : Wikipedia : List of World Trade Center Tenants

This is a list of the major tenants of the New York World Trade Center at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Three World Trade center was a hotel owned by Marriott.

One World Trade Center included the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Marsh USA, Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, and Windows on the World.

Two World Trade Center included Verizon, the New York Stock Exchange, Morgan Stanley, and Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, and Aon Corporation.

Four World Trade Center included Deutsche Bank and the New York Board of Trade.

Five World Trade Center included Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley.

Six World Trade Center included the United States Department of Commerce and the United States Department of Labor.

Seven World Trade Center included Salomon Smith Barney, the Securities & Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Secret Service.

An awful lot of bankers were hit on that day including the New York Stock Exchange offices.

If money is collapsed where do you think the solution will come from?

Something as insignificant as say perhaps the cashless society through bargaining?

You walk through devices at Wal-Mart which you are oblivious of until the cashier screws up.

Yet the infrastructure has been around decades and decades and ties back to WWII.

IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation

Booklist : Amazon Review :

The publisher has ordered a print run of 100,000 copies, indicating that they expect high demand for this contentious expose.

The author asserts that a collusion existed between IBM Corporation and the government of the Third Reich, wherein IBM supplied the technology enabling Nazi authorities to systematize their persecution of European Jews.

Expect much discussion in the press and on the street about this very controversial book.

Brad Hooper
Copyright ©

American Library Association.

All rights reserved

Starting at this point.

The Nazi Punch Card

Leading to this point.

Tattoos From Auschwitz Reunite Survivors

And eventually on to this.

FIRST AND SECOUND PLANE HIT THE TWIN TOWERS

Like a tuning fork to get our attention and ready for this eventuality.

IBM RFID Commercial – The Future Market

This is not to say that only the banks had the ability to profit but organizations as well.

Two specific organizations though have the means to pull off this heist.

Because 9/11 was essentially a high-stakes bank robbery from the Treasury.

Quote from : Wikipedia : Federal Emergency Management Agency

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially created by Presidential Order on 1 April 1979.

The primary purpose of FEMA is to coordinate the response to a disaster that has occurred in the United States and that overwhelms the resources of local and state authorities.

The governor of the state in which the disaster occurs must declare a state of emergency and formally request from the president that FEMA and the federal government respond to the disaster.

FEMA also provides these services for territories of the United States, such as Puerto Rico.

The only exception is when an emergency and/or disaster occurs on federal property or to a federal asset, for example, the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or the Space Shuttle Columbia in the 2003 return-flight disaster.

While on-the-ground support of disaster recovery efforts is a major part of FEMA’s charter, the agency provides state and local governments with experts in specialized fields and funding for rebuilding efforts and relief funds for infrastructure, in conjunction with the Small Business Administration.

FEMA also assists individuals and businesses with low interest loans.

In addition to this, FEMA provides funds for training of response personnel throughout the United States and its territories as part of the agency’s preparedness effort.

…and of course…

Quote from : Wikipedia : Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military.

DARPA has been responsible for funding the development of many technologies which have had a major effect on the world, including computer networking, as well as NLS, which was both the first hypertext system, and an important precursor to the contemporary ubiquitous graphical user interface.

Its original name was simply Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), but it was renamed to “DARPA” (for Defense) in March 1972, then renamed “ARPA” again in February 1993, and then renamed “DARPA” again in March 1996.

DARPA was established during 1958 (as ARPA) in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik during 1957, with the mission of keeping U.S. military technology more sophisticated than that of the nation’s potential enemies. From DARPA’s own introduction,

DARPA’s original mission, established in 1958, was to prevent technological surprise like the launch of Sputnik, which signaled that the Soviets had beaten the U.S. into space.

The mission statement has evolved over time.

Today, DARPA’s mission is still to prevent technological surprise to the US, but also to create technological surprise for its enemies.

DARPA is independent from other more conventional military R&D and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA has around 240 personnel (about 140 technical) directly managing a $3.2 billion budget.

These figures are “on average” since DARPA focuses on short-term (two to four-year) projects run by small, purpose-built teams.

Think about it for a minute because money was not the only goal but information access.

And our information is just as valuable as monetary gain if not more so.

Quote from : Wikipedia : Information Awareness Office

The Information Awareness Office (IAO) was established by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in January 2002 to bring together several DARPA projects focused on applying surveillance and information technology to track and monitor terrorists and other asymmetric threats to national security, by achieving Total Information Awareness (TIA).

This would be achieved by creating enormous computer databases to gather and store the personal information of everyone in the United States, including personal e-mails, facebook details, credit card records, phone calls, medical records, and numerous other sources, without any requirement for a search warrant.

This information would then be analyzed to look for suspicious activities, connections between individuals, and “threats”.

Additionally, the program included funding for biometric surveillance technologies that could identify and track individuals using surveillance cameras, and other methods.

Following public criticism that the development and deployment of these technologies could potentially lead to a mass surveillance system, the IAO was defunded by Congress in 2003.

However, several IAO projects continued to be funded, and merely run under different names.

This is nothing more than a means of bypassing our 4th Amendment Rights.

Quote from : Wikipedia : Information Awareness Office : History

The IAO was established after Admiral John Poindexter, former United States National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan and SAIC executive Brian Hicks approached the US Department of Defense with the idea for an information awareness program after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Poindexter and Hicks had previously worked together on intelligence-technology programs for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

DARPA agreed to host the program and appointed Poindexter to run it in 2002

The IAO began funding research and development of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) Program in February 2003 but renamed the program the Terrorism Information Awareness Program in May that year after an adverse media reaction to the program’s implications for public surveillance.

Although TIA was only one of several IAO projects, many critics and news reports conflated TIA with other related research projects of the IAO, with the result that TIA came in popular usage to stand for an entire subset of IAO programs.

John Poindexter?

That man?

Quote from : Wikipedia : John Poindexter

John Marlan Poindexter (born August 12, 1936) is a retired American naval officer and Department of Defense official.

He was Deputy National Security Advisor and National Security Advisor for the Reagan administration.

He was convicted in April 1990 of multiple felonies as a result of his actions in the Iran-Contra affair, but his convictions were reversed on appeal in 1991.

More recently, he served a brief stint as the director of the DARPA Information Awareness Office for the George W. Bush administration.

The same man who controlled this man?

Kind of makes you wonder does it not?

Just who exactly is controlling all of these pieces of the puzzle?

A few books that were dug through for source material other than I.B.M. and the Holocaust.

The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power

Amazon Review :

The Bush years have given rise to fears of a resurgent Imperial Presidency.

Those fears are justified, but the problem cannot be solved simply by bringing a new administration to power.

In his provocative new book, The Cult of the Presidency, Gene Healy argues that the fault lies not in our leaders but in ourselves.

When our scholars lionize presidents who break free from constitutional restraints, when our columnists and talking heads repeatedly call upon the “commander in chief ” to dream great dreams and seek the power to achieve them–when voters look to the president for salvation from all problems great and small–should we really be surprised that the presidency has burst its constitutional bonds and grown powerful enough to threaten American liberty?

The Cult of the Presidency takes a step back from the ongoing red team/blue team combat and shows that, at bottom, conservatives and liberals agree on the boundless nature of presidential responsibility.

For both camps, it is the president’s job to grow the economy, teach our children well, provide seamless protection from terrorist threats, and rescue Americans from spiritual malaise.

Very few Americans seem to think it odd, says Healy, “when presidential candidates talk as if they’re running for a job that’s a combination of guardian angel, shaman, and supreme warlord of the earth.”

Healy takes aim at that unconfined conception of presidential responsibility, identifying it as the source of much of our political woe and some of the gravest threats to our liberties.

If the public expects the president to heal everything that ails us, the president is going to demand–or seize–the power necessary to handle that responsibility.

Interweaving historical scholarship, legal analysis, and trenchant cultural commentary, The Cult of the Presidency traces America’s decades-long drift from the Framers’ vision for the presidency: a constitutionally constrained chief magistrate charged with faithful execution of the laws.

Restoring that vision will require a Congress and a Court willing to check executive power, but Healy emphasizes that there is no simple legislative or judicial “fix” to the problems of the presidency.

Unless Americans change what we ask of the office–no longer demanding what we should not want and cannot have–we’ll get what, in a sense, we deserve.

…and…

The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11 and the Loss of Liberty

Amazon Review :

Since 9/11, the world has become more and more aware of terrorism.

It has become a part of our daily lives.

We are constantly shown acts of terrorism on the news, reminded to fear the terrorists, and that we are fighting a war on terror.

To that end, the US Government has used its official conspiracy theory for 9/11 to substantiate the actions of war and the continued disregard for liberties-all in the name of fighting terrorism.

This theory concludes that nineteen suicidal Middle Eastern Muslim hijackers, their hearts full of hatred for American freedom and democracy, hijacked four airliners.

Reportedly, two planes were crashed into the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed in rural western Pennsylvania after its passengers fought with the hijackers.

This whole “Mission Impossible” operation, able to defeat the United States’ four-hundred-billion-dollar defense system, reportedly was under the total control of a zealous Muslim cleric using a computer while hiding in cave in Afghanistan.

In The Terror Conspiracy: Deception, 9/11 and the Loss of Liberty, the world’s leading conspiracy theorist, Jim Marrs, unmasks the facts about 9/11 and the New World Order.

Using primarily mainstream media and government reports, Marrs offers a more realistic and better-supported conspiracy theory.

He has crafted the definitive journalistic account of these events, describing the full history behind the overt and covert causes, and exposing the likely complicity of the Bush administration in the 9/11 attacks.

Jim Marrs asks those question few have been willing to discuss since that fateful day.

His analysis goes far beyond 9/11, enabling us to understand the motivation behind American foreign policy that resulted in war in Afghanistan and Iraq, our now perpetual War on Terrorism, and the continuing loss of freedom in America.

The book also contains the explosive essay The Pentagon Attack Papers – Seven Hours in September : The Clock that Broke the Lie, by Barbara Honegger, M.S.

Barbara Honegger is Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School (1995-present), the Navy’s advanced science, technology and national security affairs university.

Honegger served as Special Assistant to the Assistant to the President and White House Policy Analyst (1981-83); was the pioneering Irangate author and whistleblower on the October Surprise.

…and…

No Place To Hide

Amazon Review :

George Orwell envisioned Big Brother as an outgrowth of a looming totalitarian state, but in this timely survey Robert O’Harrow Jr. portrays a surveillance society that’s less centralized and more a joint public/private venture.

Indeed, the most frightening aspect of the Washington Post reporter’s thoroughly researched and naggingly disquieting chronicle lies in the matter-of-fact nature of information hunters and gatherers and the insatiable systems they’ve concocted.

Here is a world where data is gathered by relatively unheralded organizations that smooth the way for commercial entities to find the good customers and avoid dicey ones.

Government of course too has an interest in the data that’s been mined.

Information is power, especially when trying to find the bad guys.

The mutually compatible skills and needs shared by private and public snoopers were fusing prior to the attacks of 9/11, but the process has since gone into hyperdrive.

O’Harrow weaves together vignettes to record the development of the “security-industrial complex,” taking pains to personalize his chronicle of a movement that’s remained (perhaps purposefully) faceless.

Recognizing the appeal of state-of-the-art systems that can track down a murderer/rapist with heretofore unimaginable speed, the author recognizes, too, that the same devices can mistakenly destroy reputations and cast a pall over a free society.

In a post-9/11 world where homeland security often trumps personal liberty, this work is an eye-opener for those who take their privacy for granted.

The above books are by no means the limit of my research but only the tip of the iceberg.

Source: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread631948/pg1

This is your brain undergoing cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance has entered the vernacular as shorthand for what people experience when they hold two contradictory opinions at once. But, within psychology, it describes a somewhat distinct process, where people are forced to reject an item they actually like. Given this bit of awkwardness, people are prone to dealing with it in a fairly simple manner: they conclude that they never really liked the item that much in the first place. This finding, which implies that behavior can drive belief instead of the other way around, has remained controversial, but researchers are now claiming to have identified the neural activity that drives cognitive dissonance.

The first scientific description of cognitive dissonance dates to 1956 although, as the authors of a new paper on the subject note, it can be said to date back to Aesop’s fable of the fox and the grapes (where the fox decides the grapes were probably no good after it determines that it can’t reach them). It is typically demonstrated using a rate-choice-rate process, in which subjects are given the chance to rate a number of similar items. Afterwards, they are forced to choose between two items that they rated identically. After this choice, another round of rating will typically show improved scores for whichever item was chosen, and falling scores for the rejected one.

Recently, some researchers challenged this interpretation, arguing that most rating systems can’t capture preferences that accurately, and people may not rate things that carefully. Both of these factors obscure a “true preference” that remains unchanged, and is only revealed when the subjects are forced to make a choice. To support this argument, the researchers used a rate-rate-choice process, and showed that ratings shift in the direction of the choice even before it is made.

So, is cognitive dissonance real? In the new work, the authors claim to have figured out ways of demonstrating it exists. For starters, they created a group of subjects that, instead of being given the choice of two items, were forced to watch as a computer decided for them. Then, once that choice was made and a rerating occurred, the subjects were given the option of having their own choice registered. Finally, they claim to have used functional MRI to identify brain activity associated with cognitive dissonance.

As expected, the authors are able to demonstrate cognitive dissonance in action: once an individual has chosen against an item, their ratings of it plunge. This effect was much, much smaller when a computer made a choice for an individual, although the later personal choice offered these subjects restored a bit of its impact. So, the researchers have confirmed both the previous work on cognitive dissonance and that of its critics: some fraction of the effect seems to be driven by people actually having stronger preferences than they state, but not all of it.

How does this play out in the brain? The authors focused on the striatum, which has been associated with rewards processing. In all but the cognitive dissonance condition, activity in the striatum increased when the subject was deciding on a final rating. When subjects are rating the choice they rejected, however, activity in this brain region plunged. They also saw increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex that correlated with how strongly a subject exprienced cognitive dissonance. These results convince them that they’ve nailed down a neural basis for the phenomenon, and thus that it must exist.

Read more: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/12/this-is-your-brain-undergoing-cognitive-dissonance.ars

H1N1 vaccine linked to 700 percent increase in miscarriages

(NaturalNews) Recent data presented to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Children’s Vaccines has revealed some shocking information about the effects of the H1N1 / swine flu vaccine on pregnant women. According to the report, the rate of miscarriage among pregnant women during the 2009 H1N1 / swine flu pandemic soared by over 700 percent compared to previous years, pointing directly to the vaccine as the culprit — but the CDC denies the truth and continues to insist nobody has been harmed.

According to the CDC, nearly 50 percent of all pregnant women were vaccinated with the H1N1 vaccine during the 2009 / 2010 influenza season. Those whose physicians instructed them to get a seasonal flu shot were three times more likely to get it, while those instructed specifically to get the H1N1 shot were ten times more likely to get it. And the numbers clearly show that along with the rise in vaccinations due to the H1N1 scare came the sharp increase in miscarriages, including a slew of actual reported adverse events.

But the CDC does not seem to care about the facts, as numerous reports indicate the agency has failed to report any of this vital information to vaccine suppliers. In fact, when presented with the data for the third time, Dr. Marie McCormick, chair of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Vaccine Risk and Assessment Working Group, actually had the audacity to claim that there were no vaccine-related adverse events in pregnant women caused by the vaccine.

“This baseless and fallacious assessment by the CDC assessment group has given the green light to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to continue their recommendation to give the 2010/11 flu shot to all people, including pregnant women,” explained Eileen Dannemann, director of the National Coalition of Organized Women, presenter of the information.

“This upcoming 2010/11 flu vaccine contains the same elements that are implicated in the killing of these fetuses, the H1N1 viral component and the neurotoxin mercury (Thimerosal). Additionally, it contains two other viral strains — a three-in-one shot for all people.”

Overall, the number of vaccine-related “fetal demise” reports increased by 2,440 percent in 2009 compared to previous years, which is even more shocking than the miscarriage statistic. Meanwhile, the CDC continues to lie to the public about the vaccine, urging everyone, including pregnant women, to get it.

To read the report for yourself, visit: http://www.progressiveconvergence.c…

Sources for this story include:

http://www.guerillahealthreport.com…

http://thepopulist.net/?p=6630

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030657_vaccines_miscarriages.html#ixzz17YYs7zGZ

4chan rushes to WikiLeaks' defense, forces Swiss banking site offline

The forces of Anonymous have taken aim at several companies who are refusing to do business with WikiLeaks. 4chan’s hordes have launched distributed denial-of-service attacks against PayPal, Swiss bank PostFinance, and other sites that have hindered the whistleblowing site’s operations.

A self-styled spokesman for the group calling himself “Coldblood” has said that any website that’s “bowing down to government pressure” is a target. PayPal ceased processing donations to the site, and PostFinance froze WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s account. The attacks are being performed under the Operation: Payback banner; Operation: Payback is the name the group is using in its long-running attacks on the RIAA, MPAA, and other organizations involved with anti-piracy lawsuits.

The initial attacks against PayPal were substantially ineffective; the PayPal blog was taken offline, but the main PayPal site wasn’t harmed. The attacks against PostFinance, however, have resulted in the bank’s website being unavailable for more than 16 hours. It remains unavailable at the time of writing. The latest target is the site of the Swedish prosecutors in Assange’s sexual misconduct trial. This too appears to be offline. Twitter has also been named as a future attack target, due to its claimed censorship of the #wikileaks hashtag.

Read more: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/12/4chan-rushes-to-wikileaks-defense-forces-swiss-banking-site-offline.ars

Holograms Deliver 3-D, Without the Goofy Glasses

“The hologram is about the size and resolution of Princess Leia in the movie,” said Nasser Peyghambarian, an optical scientist at the University of Arizona and leader of a research team that recently demonstrated the technology, reported in the Nov. 4 issue of Nature.

The holograms aren’t as speedy as those in Hollywood. The images move a lot more haltingly, as the display changes only every two seconds, far slower than video sailing past at 30 frames a second.

But unlike science fiction, these holograms are actually happening and in close to real time: a fellow is filmed in one room, the computer-processed data is sent via ethernet to another room, and then laser beams go to work. Voilà: His holographic telepresence appears and moves, albeit somewhat jerkily, in apparently solid detail (until you try to put a hand through him).

Innovative research in holography is going on at labs and companies worldwide, said Lisa Dhar, a senior technology manager at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who is an expert in holographic materials.

“Groups are deploying new materials and methods to create compelling work” of both still and moving holograms, Dr. Dhar said.

The work has implications beyond the lab, she said. We may need to wait a decade before watching holographic movies at home. But even before the technology is practical for games and entertainment, it promises applications in advertising, the military, architecture and engineering.

Zebra Imaging in Austin, Tex., sells holographic prints that at first glance look much like ordinary 2-by-3-foot pieces of plastic — until an LED flashlight is shined at them. Then the patterns, burned into the plastic with high-power laser beams, come to life, said Al Wargo, chief executive. Out of the surface springs a model of a complicated building or an intricate network of pipes and mechanical equipment.

No special eyewear is required to view the holographic prints, which typically cost $1,000 to $3,000 each. The company has also demonstrated moving holographic displays in prototype at conferences, Mr. Wargo said. (It introduced color holograms in September.)

Zebra’s main customer has been the Defense Department, which sends data in computer files to the company. Zebra then renders holographic displays of, for example, battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Businesses are also Zebra customers, including FMC Technologies in Houston, which uses holograms of oil field equipment for sales and training.

Adam Andrich, global marketing manager for fluid control at FMC, says holograms are handy substitutes when the company wants to demonstrate its 50,000-pound equipment at trade shows.

“The holograms are a lot lighter,” he said, and they create a striking effect as they rise in shimmering volume in the air. “They are so realistic that every time we show them, people try to grab them,” he said.

Holographic prints may also find use among architects and engineers. Tina Murphy, a project engineer at HNTB in Indianapolis, says she already uses extensive 3-D computer modeling to plan before construction, but holograms can also help to communicate, particularly with a group. “We can show them to plant operators, lawyers, regulators and engineers,” she said. “With this one visual image, we can all communicate.”

The holograms are an inexpensive alternative to bulky, often fragile physical models of wood or polystyrene, says Jared Smith, a senior vice president at Parsons Brinckerhoff in Seattle, an engineering, planning and architecture firm.

“Slip them into a portfolio case and carry them,” he said. “Then shine a light on them and up leap these buildings in three dimensions.”

At the University of Arizona in Tucson, Dr. Peyghambarian created his displays using 16 cameras. Software rendered the images in holographic pixels, and laser beams directed by the software recorded the information on a novel plastic that can be erased and rewritten in two seconds. Dr. Peyghambarian says that the group is working on speeding up the rate and expects versions to be in homes in 7 to 10 years. Slower versions may be useful far sooner, for example, for long-distance medical consultation.

To help make those long-distance connections happen, Keren Bergman, a professor of electrical engineering at Columbia University in New York, is working on ways to send holograms not just from room to room, but also from Arizona to New York on the Internet. Dr. Bergman and Dr. Peyghambarian are collaborating as part of joint research financed by the National Science Foundation.

One day, she may summon people to her lab by holographic telepresence, just as Alexander Graham Bell once summoned Thomas Watson (“Come here!”) with a historic telephone call. To introduce that memorable moment, maybe she will find a good quote from “Star Wars.”

E-mail: novelties@nytimes.com

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/business/05novel.html?_r=1

Volkswagen Launches $600 Single Seater Car

– It will cruise at 100-120 Km/Hr with an unbelievable 0.99litre/100Km (258 miles/gallon).
– Better than Electric Car – 258 miles/gallon: IPO 2010 in Shanghai. This will beat all the low fuel consumption cars in the world.
– From conception to production: 3 years and the company is headquartered in Hamburg , Germany.
– Gas tank capacity = 1.7 gallons
– Speed = 62 – 74.6 Miles/hour
– Fuel efficiency = 258 miles/gallon
– Travel distance with a full tank = 404 miles