Modern Security:Encryption...

I have found that I have too many passwords to remember so I have put to work Truecrypt which is a great encryption package. 
Another benefit is that I can save important info like my resume and all my contacts on my computer, cellphone, work computer and pocket thumbdrive.  That way if I have a fire at home, a flood at work, have my wallet stolen then I still have all of my information yet no-one but me has access to the information.  It is also a legitimate excuse to have porn, see if you can guess how... (hint you might need to use it a few times first!).

Truecrypt is freeware but it is so good that I have actually donated to them, Scrooge that I am.
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Get it, use it.  Be safe from forgetfulness, theft, tornados, flood, fire and computer glitches.  Keep your encoded data in multiple locations for proper protection.

Man not killed in Cinema.

How could this happen??!!  A man goes into a cinema and starts shooting everyone and yet no in the audience in a country "awash with guns" shot back?

The victims, despite seeing their loved ones getting killed and seeing the gunman's gun jam do not jump him and choke him into unconciousness??!!

Citizens interviewed later about whether the gun laws should be tightened say that what they really want is the current laws enforced.  Good on them.  Perhaps their nanny stae will put cops everywhere at once to enforce the law 'cos there's no way the citizens are going to do it themselves!  Listen folks, when there isn't a doctor around then it's up to you to do the first aid.  Except the doctors won't let you have the instruments or the drugs.

“All weapons he possessed, he possessed legally. All clips he possessed, he possessed legally. All ammunition he possessed, he possessed legally,”said Aurora's mayor.  Aurora is the only district in Colorado that has tried to ban concealed carry of firearms by qualified citizens.  In the rest of Colorado this killer could have been taken down by a shot from the gun of an otherwise normal looking citizen.

Holmes appeared drugged when he attended court.  Hmmm, just like Martin Bryant.  I wonder who knows about this.

Kudos to the cops for working out Holmes wasn't a SWAT member.  He might have gotten away with it otherwise.  Seems like the cops managed to get there in a hurry too.

Make your blade shaving sharp!

There are lots of gadgets to sharpen knives.  Why?  Because most folks don't know how to do it without the gismos so the marginal improvement the thingamabobs do seems like magic.
To do it right you need three things: your blunt knife (derp!), a two sided sharpening stone. a sharpening steel.  There are alternatives that work almost as good like I have often sharpened a blade using wet and dry sandpaper.
So, firstly your abrasive, Use a 2 sided carborundum (silicon carbide) sharpening stone.  Place it flat on a suitable surface or hold it in your hand.
Place the side of the blade against the rough side of the stone.  Lift the back of the blade just off the stone.  The correct angle is when the centre of the blade is 11 degrees to the surface of the stone.  Work the blade and stone against each other being very careful to keep the blades angle constant at all times.  It does not matter which way you work the blade.  Round and round, back at forth or along the blade they will all work in this stage of the process.  This stage is the most labor intensive but don't worry: the other stages are much shorter and the whole process will be quicker next time.
As you remove metal from the blade there is also the wearing away of the carborundum.  These worn, gritty substances wear down the edge you are trying to create.  The standard solution is to wet the abrasive with oil and such.  I recommend not using oil or kerosene as it allows the grime to work its way into the pores of the abrasive.  I use a steady stream of water or regular dunking of the stone in water.  You want to wash away the grime not lubricate the abrasive.

The most important thing in this stage of the process is to keep the blade at 11 degrees.  Any less and you are wasting your time and trying to remove, very slowly, a large amount of metal which is the side of your blade.  Any more and you will be rounding the edge which will compound in the later stages of sharpening to a stumpy, rounded edge instead of the fine, thin edge you are after.
Do not swap over to the other side of the blade until you can feel a burr along the entire edge.  This burr is felt on the non honed side of the edge and feels like a find wire sitting along the edge.  To feel the burr run your finger from the side of the blade to the edge and off the edge.  If you run your finger along the edge or from the edge to the side you risk breaking the burr off prematurely, cutting yourself and imbedding the burr in your finger.  Metal splinters are not what we are trying to achieve here.

When you can feel the burr along the entire length of the edge it is time to hone the other side of the blade at 11 degrees.  It is important to not go above 11 degrees even if you feel that you could get rid of the burr faster this way.  Stay at 11 degrees!  Keep honing on this side until you can feel the burr along the length of the other side of the edge.  You should have spent this entire time on the coarse side of the stone (or a sheet of 80 grit wet and dry carborundum paper laid flat on a flat hard surface).

Now for the easy bit where we are going to be really careful and gentle!  Switch to the fine side of the stone (or switch to 240 grit or finer paper) and carefully apply the burr side of the edge to the abrasive at 23 degrees.  Keeping it at this angle move the blade in the direction of the edge (edge first) as if you were shaving the stone.  Only apply gentle pressure and lift the edge between strokes for two strokes only.  Turn over the blade and repeat the two gentle strokes on the other side.

Your blade is now SHARP!  Try and shave some hairs from the back of your wrist.

To get sharper than this can try 1) use a harder metal for your blade, 2) a finer smooth abrasive like jewelers rouge on a sheet of glass, 3) a harder surface for the smooth abrasive like a diamond hone.

Commercial razor blades are sharpened either using electroerosion or ultrasonic honing against a hard surface like glass in a jeweler's rouge suspension.

These are the dudes looking after your security...

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
http://www.zdnet.com/oz-govt-loses-stay-smart-online-user-details-via-australia-post-7000000398/
Imagine - whoever made this blunder goes home and tries to make sure their kids are safe online.
I laughed when they included in their apology advice on how to protect yourself online.
At least it was followed up by a reporting team that covers and reports in Australia.  What is the bet that this doesn't make it to the mainstream media?

Australians control the world's weather.

As of the 1st of July this year Australia has adopted a "Carbon Tax"
The price of carbon under this scheme is set at $23AU (about the same in Euro and $US, about 15 pounds Stirling) per tonne.  Other carbon schemes in the world price carbon at $5/T.
So how does Australia control the weather?  Well calculations show that in 300 years the effect of the tax will reduce the heating effect of atomospheric carbon dioxide by 0.2 degrees centigrade.  All for the bargain price of $300 million per year!
The opposition party, the Liberals (it's just a name, it doesn't mean the believe in liberation) promise to remove the carbon tax if it gains office at the next election.  The problem is that if they get in then the removal of the sweeteners of increased benifits for the sheep and increased tax free threshold for the productive class will be immensly unpopular.  I forsee another broken election promise.
Should the carbon tax remain for any reason the next problem will come in 2015 when the $23 per tonne is ditched and the market opens up to international trade.  If the world price is still around the $5/T mark the the government will run out of money (just like Greece except much faster).
Hooray for our intelligent and noble masters!  The world is once again a safe and enjoyable place to live!(TWITS!)

Stolen from Bigpond.com

and reproduced here due to concerns that this article could also be censored:
<<
Google has reported a 'troubling' rise in requests from governments to remove political blog posts and videos from search results, and hand over user information.
The search engine said it continued to see an increase in requests to take down 'political speech', as it released its fifth Transparency Report, covering the last six months of last year.
Dorothy Chou, Google's senior policy analyst, said: 'It's alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect - Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.'
Countries including Germany, Spain, the UK and Canada all asked Google to take down content. The amount of requests from the US more than doubled compared to the previous half year.
Ukraine, Jordan and Bolivia showed up for the first time on the list of countries out to have online material removed, Google said.
A total of 640 videos were removed by Google amid official complaints that they encouraged terrorist activities.
In the UK, Google closed five user accounts that the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) alleged were promoting terrorism.
The company acceded to a request to block more than 100 YouTube videos in Thailand which allegedly insulted its monarchy - a crime in the country.
Around 93% of requests from the US were successful, according to Google's figures.
But the company stressed that not all requested content is removed.
Canada's passport office asked for a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet to be removed, Google said, adding: 'We did not comply with this request.'
And an appeal from the government of Pakistan to take down six clips that satirised the country's army and senior politicians was not followed through, the company added.
From the start of July to the end of December, Google's figures show it complied with an average of 65% of 467 court orders, and 47% of 561 more informal requests.
'We realise that the numbers we share can only provide a small window into what's happening on the web at large,' Ms Chou said.
'But we do hope that by being transparent about these government requests, we can continue to contribute to the public debate about how government behaviours are shaping our web.'>>

To some extent Google complys.  I don't think they have changed their motto from"Do No Evil".  Who gets to decide what is evil anyway?

Telstra whoring off all their customers information.

Telstra is the major Australian communications carrier with telephone, mobile (cell) phone and is also an ISP (Internet Service Provider).  All new email accounts are being hosted by Windows Live.  All current account holders are being rolled over to Windows Live too.  Do they get a choice?  No!  Customers (and slaves) are sold. 
Who the hell do they think they are allowing a conglomerate form overseas to handle all their Australian customers information?
I'm sure Obamanation grubbimint loves having all the "Ossie" emails going through the CIA proxy "Macrohard".
FFS, if you want some privacy, or at least the illusion of privacy you'd have to stay offline.

Cops will never have aerial attack drones...

The military's surveillance and attack drones are expensive and cops cannot afford them... or : perhaps this will change your mind

Fitted with your choice of :Tazer, Rubber bullet or Chemical munitions.
If you were a cop would you want to put yourself in danger unnecesarily?

Advice NOT from your local Police.

Running and screaming from an attacker I would do if I thought it was the best thing to do.  I don't.
In an attack you may find that running is not an option due to health problems, a previous injury or the attackers being everywhere you want to run and younger and fitter than you.  Don't rely on the chance you can run faster or for longer than your attackers or their accomplices with a convenient vehicle.  The attacker's plan might be to get you to run in a direction they have already selected for you.
Carry something to even the odds in your favor.  I think you know what I mean.  You can work out the rest for yourselves.  Why not? Police did.

Mind Maps now.
(Another diamond plucked from the pain of my existance...)
Wikipaedia says what I would like to say, only better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Sure, you could find this stuff out for yourself, but, save yourself the trouble of searching through the gravel of all the rest of the dross on the net (and on wikipaedia).

Brush your God damn teeth!

Facing the facts: Oral Hygiene.
You are often told to brush your teeth but not how or why.
Today I will remove the veil of poor information transference.
The main reason to CLEAN your teeth is NOT to remove remaining scaps of food.  Although this is a good thing the main reason to clean your teeth is to remove plaque.  If there is plaque and carbohydrates in your mouth the plaque will use the carbs as their food.  One of the waste products from the plaque digesting the food, the plaques wee and poos if you like, is acid.  The acid dissolves the affected tooth starting from a small pit or some previous damage.  The presence of food particles, particularly starch, helps to keep the acid against the tooth and stops it from dissolving in your saliva and being swallowed.  Think of bits of starch as being sponges soaking up acid and keeping it against your teeth.
Perversly, if you had candy instead of something starchy to eat, like bread, then when you have finished eating the sugar would dissolve and leave your mouth and the acid production would stop. Not so with the starchy food.  Starch is good at sticking onto your teeth and staying there without dissolving.
When you brush you teeth properly the plaque is almost totally removed.  It takes quite some time for it to build back up again, particularly if there is no food for the plaque to use for energy.
Brushing your teeth the wrong way stresses your gums,wears your teeth away and forces food in between them.
To clean your teeth propery first let us consider flossing.  Your molars have 2 of is 5 exposed sides inaccessable to your brush.  To clean them you want to gently drag a piece of floss between your teeth and then, if possible, get it a bit further below the gum line.  The next step is to pull it hard against the side of the tooth and drag it off the tooth.  Each gap will need to have the floss drawn into it twice, once for the tooth on each side.  The idea is to saw it gently in and drag it out hard against the tooth with no sawing motion on the way out.  Think of it like you are garrotting the plaque or taking it out with a wire cheese slicer.
Once each gap has been flossed then it's time to brush.
Prepare your brush by wetting it.  This stops the liquified toothpaste from working its way into the roots of the bristles and wearing out your brush.  It also stops yucky food particles from building up in the bristle roots.
Apply a bead of toothpaste along the tips of the bristles.
DON'T!
Don't brush with an in-out action. The bristles will be following each other and will wear a groove at the gum line.  Brushing this way also pushes your gums away from the teeth exposing the dentine of the roots.
Instead, brush by applying the bristles to the gum and drag them up the side of the tooth and off the crown.
To clean the crown brush acrosswards (is that a word?) NOT IN AND OUT!
Brush for 2 minutes, this gives plenty of time for plaque removal and just enough time for the fluoride to harden the enamel.
Now rinse and spit.
Brush after breakfast and brush and floss before bed every day.
The idea is to remove plaque.  If you can't feel where it is then chew a dye tablet and concentrate on the pink bits.  Having done it with the dye a couple of times you will be able to feel the difference with your tongue and work out where the plaque remains without the dye.
Look after your teeth.  One day the dentists may all be gone. (See Below)

Our wierd sun and how it's going to kill you.

Today's Link...

The sun has been very quiet for the past decade.  This is not normal.
Normally it fluctuates on an eleven year cycle.  But not anymore.
Sunspots, like the one pictured above are the subduction zones on the suns surface.  The sun is made of plasma, a superconducting, superhot phase of matter where the majority of the atoms are ionised having lost at least one electron.  In a normal sun, or the one we have become accustomed to, the hot plasma rises slowly from the hotter lower layers in cells.  At the edge of the cells the plasma pluges downwards and is reheated.  At the solar maximum these black spots form and the relatively cooler plasma migrates deeper.
This circulates more hot plasma to the surface in the cells.  This gives a sun that gives of marginally more heat.

What is abnormal is what has been happening during the last few years.  The sun was supposed to be in solar maximum in 2008 but was remarkably clear.  It has had a very low number of sunspots since.
This spot cluster pictured above is the biggest for many years.

What will happen next?  There are three expected outcomes:
1) The sun will limp along with these unpredictable symptoms, life will continue as it is.  It will either end up "normal" again or switch to the following 2 modes.
2) The lack of sunspots could be indicative of a lack of heat being generated from underneath.  This will result in a cooling of the earth due to less heat.  There earth would also be cooled due to the reduction in the solar wind which blows away most of the cosmic particles that seed our clouds.  More seeding particles, more clouds and less sunlight getting to the surface.
3)  The lack of sunspots could be due to a distruption in the normal circulation of plasma.  Over the last 10 years the heat could be building up.  This much higher heat within the sun could convect to the suface in a vast flare.  Normally flares are short lived affairs and most often do not occur when the earth is in the way.  If this predicted, long-lived flare occurs then the sun will become a sprinkler spewing radiation on a previously unseen scale.  The sun would spew its radiation from its equator into the ecliptic plane where our own earth spaends all its time.  Once hit we could then count on getting hit again in 24 days time as the sun rotates around to have another go, and maybe again in another 24 days...

So, having another ice age is survivable.  We came out of our last one 11715 years ago.  The normal state of the earth is "ice age".  Enjoy your warmth and easily found fresh water while you can.  In our ice planet the oceans are hypersaline and tiny.  The sea level can drop 1500m.  All the excess water ends up as polar ice cap and the rain guage stays dry.  Makes global warming look like a GOOD thing!

The effect of the earth getting strafed with a solar flare can be guaged by the occasions when a small bit of the planet got hit by a quick blow.  In 1859 there wasn't much in the way of electric technology around when the earth got hit by one.  It caused a few telegraph stations to catch fire.  Link.  Another hit happened in 1989 and affected Canada.  Link.  These were "minor".  If the sun behaves as per scenario 3 then the whole earth will be affected.  As well as widespread damage to electrical items there would be the danger of penetrating ionising radiation similar to what you would get in a nuclear war.  A minor plus would that it could be safe to venture out of your radiation shelter at night time.  The auroras would make it worth the risk.

Get yourself a radiation meter and maybe some snowshoes too.  Just don't tell anyone or else they will think you are crazy.  You don't want anyone to think you are crazy now, do we?

Immigration...

Immigration.  Because we need more customers. Immigration is bad for Australia on so many levels:
1) They will need to be housed but housing is at a premium.
2) They will need water but the country is a dry one with unreliable rains.
3) They will need to be fed but we maek money exporting food.
4) They take up more space on our roads, in our trains, in our schools and universities.
5) They take little notice of laws here as they did in their old country with its corrupt and inept law systems.

Immigration will continue unabated despite what the voting public wants.  This is because immigrants become customers.  The industrys that serve these customers bankroll the election funds of the elected parties.  What do they care where they get the money from?
If they get their money from crime then the businesses make more by supplying repairs and extra security to the crime victims.
If they get their money from CentreLink then it comes from the taxpayer.
It's the government who screens the incoming immigrants.  I'm sure they select immigrants based on their likely voting preferences.  I would expect a liberationist immigrant would be one they would exclude.

Illegal immigrants still are accepted into the country depite not abiding by our legal system.  Why don't they just stop at the first country they come to and apply at the Australian embassy there?  Why risk themselves coming all the way here?  Perhaps Australia needs impatient, self selected, risk taking, rejects who cannot think of logical ways of tackling problems in their homelands.

Lost of immigrants who have been here for a few years I ask what they think of immigration.  Without fail they repond that Australia is full and immigration should stop immediately.

Bunny Boots

If your boot looks like this on the inside then you have genuine bunny boots.
Don't step into an iced over puddle in anything else.
Your feet are your lifeline to getting out of Dodge LOOK AFTER THEM!

Here's the outside view and site link.

Here's the Wiki info on them.

You will definitely want a pair if you have to stand around in the snow all day.

If anyone knows of other good sources of vapour barrier clothing then please let me know.

Marathon running for the lazy

run like this

Don't land on your heel if you can help it.
Don't take your knees forward past your hips until you are used to this technique.
Keep level, don't bounce.
Use your calf muscles to keep your heels just off the ground.
Use your hamstrings to propel you.
You will run at about 2/3s your normal fast running speed and your legs will have to oscillate about twice normal running speed but you will be able to run all day like this without tiring.
Test it for free!  I am NOT a runner but I would be totally wrecked if I had to run in a normal gait for 2 kilometres. However with this gait I could run for 2 hours.
This is a handy thing to know for when you do have to run.

BTW, ever notice how children can run any old how but if you saw an adult running and they were not wearing the appropriate sports gear then you would automatically assume there was an emergency somewhere or they were a criminal making a getaway? Go figure.

Aged stealing from the young with government help.

Get off my lawn you darn kids!
Oldies/Baby Boomers get government(taxpayer) handouts while the younger generation never had it so bad.

Wonder why you can't afford a house?  The oldies have bought them for investments.  This has pushed up prices so if you can't afford to buy if you don't want to rent one off them.

Do you think all those old aege benefits will still be there when you are old enough to retire?  Trick question... You will never retire because the retirement age will just keep rising.

It's like getting aged benefits is a special club where they are trying to prevent new members from joining.

How to stop knife crime.

Knife crime stopped in shopping centre.

This is how it's done, ladies and gentlemen.
Just imagine if this guy was around on 26th April 1996 at Port Arthur.
Fortunately we do not need for law abiding citizens in this country to be able to protect themselves and each other. A policeman is as close as your mobile phone - the one with the flat battery and the bad reception that the phone company is unwilling to rectify, and of course we are always aware of an accurate description of the address, including the nearest cross street of where the incident is located, and depite the fact that it takes 6 months training to get a pistol license and a license holder must shoot at least 6 times a year and the cops get to open carry after only 6 weeks of training and only practise twice a year (if time permits) we can feel so much safer in our country.

Safe, safe Australia, where there are so few guns now it's only the thugs who have them now.

Here come the anti survivalist psy-ops.

The lesson here is do not tell anyone of your preparations.
USA Today
LA Times
Otherwise the government kills your family to blame it on you so they can persevere with their campaign to vilify those who would look after themselves.  If you could look after yourself then some people might think that the government was superfluous.

Note that at no point in the articles did they mention any problems he may have had with his family.
These are being fabricated and will be released soon.  There will be no conflicting views as all the witnesses are conveniently dead.
Also note how all the responders to the articles swallow the antisurvivalist angle hook, line and sinker.
Think carefully about the news you are allowed to see.  See more.

July 2012 food riots to come.

July 2012 food riots predicted.

This link thrashes out the statistics. As food prices rise and availability drops do you want to be relying ONLY on your government's good sense and ability to keep you and your family fed or do you think that now would be a good time to stash away at least 40kg of food for each of your family members?  I've seen how disorganised and inefficient a government can be so don't say I didn't warn you!

Death of a Legend

A very good friend of mine died yesterday.
Although not my father he was like a father to me, his guidance and inspiration will be surely missed.
He sucessfully overcame being a war refugee, moving to a new country and assimilating.  He created two sucessful businesses and raised sucessful children.  Yet he was prone to depression.  He had so many unfulfilled dreams despite achieving so much.
The lesson to be learned from from the example of his life is to act on your best judgement and take heart in the possibilities of the future.
Jack was not afraid of death and had no illusions that it would be anything more than simple nothingness... that is unless we meet again on Riverworld.

So this is post number 1.
I haven't decided yet what to post but I wanted to be able to respond to fellow blogger Vault-Co so I was required to get this blog for varification.
To ensure anonimity I have obtained this blog through a yahoo email account.