Trying out Freenet, finding the TimeCube theory, neonazi's and terrorist manuals?

Tonight I’m trying something called Freenet, (0.7) an anonymous encrypted network running over the Internet. I downloaded the 3MB file for Windows and ran the install. Then I removed the service following the instructions here:

• Take Control Of Freenet: Turning off Freenet auto-start in Windows (last updated 2008-03-25)

Freenet is slow, really slow. After turning off the auto-start and running from my desktop, I gave up after 20 minutes of waiting. But before that, when it was running as a service, I found some info.

Freenet blogs are called flogs.  What do people blog about on an anonymous encrypted network? Some of the more eye raising examples of flogs in the text index:

• Un oeil sur la Franc-Maçonnerie: French flog about freemasonry in France. (last updated 2008-11-21)
• Occam’s Razor: Articles on physics, relativity, philosophy. (last updated 2008-10-02)
• Joxo’s Evolution vs Creation Page: Arguments for evolution and against creationism. (last updated 2008-09-07)
• Liberation Group: Flog of an antispeciesist liberation group from Germany.
• The Monkey Wrench Gang: Classic novel about a gang of eco-saboteurs wreaking havoc in the US. (last updated 2008-07-06)
• Animal Liberation Front Diary 2008: List of direct actions taken against animal abuse. (last updated 2008-07-03)
• Child prostitutes at the White House: Press cuttings on the 1989 US government child prostitution scandal. (last updated 2008-06-28)
• Ozymandias Sabotage Handbook: A guide to sabotaging the machinery of eco-rapists. (last updated 2008-06-24)
• The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook: A guide to preparing poisons, written by Islamic jihadists. (last updated 2008-06-23)
• Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler: The Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s political autobiography. (last updated 2008-07-15)
• Setting Fires With Electrical Timers: Earth Liberation Front guide to arson using electrical timers. (last updated 2008-07-14)
• The Final Nail: Directory of US animal abusers. (last updated 2007-12-26)
• The Terrorist’s Handbook: A guide to explosives and other things (last updated 2008-04-20)
• Tibet protest photos: from March 14-17, 2008 (last updated 2008-04-05)
• UnSecureFlight: Guide to obtaining US DHS travel records from http://www.unsecureflight.com (last updated 2008-04-02)
• How to fake fingerprints: Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble’s fingerprint. (last updated 2008-03-12)
• Defend WikiLeaks!: Censored files leaked from a Swiss bank. (last updated 2008-03-10)
• Xenu’s Den: Scientology secret documents compiled by an opponent. (last updated 2007-09-17)
• Last Days Watch: Christian Bible Prophecy conspiracy theorists (last updated 2007-09-18)
• Freenet Pax Christi: International Catholic peace movement (last updated 2008-05-22)
• Time Cube: Crazy pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. (last updated 2008-05-16)
• Randomizer’s Security Site: Security information, e.g. lock picking. (last updated 2008-07-17)
• Unabomber Manifesto: Political manifesto of radical environmentalist Theodore Kaczynski, aka The Unabomber. (last updated 2008-07-17)
• Fuck The RIAA: Links to songs that the RIAA sued over. (last updated 2007-12-06)
• Publish!: Quick instructions for freesite insertion. (last updated 2008-03-24)

There were plenty of boring sounding blog titles too. The only one I visited was Occam’s Rasor. It runs in FireFox and looks like any other web page, but with a long URL pointing at your own computer.

I’ll check out the TimeCube if I get it working again, but then I’ll probably delete the whole thing since there is quite a bit of terrorist stuff.  I don’t want to support a network that helps people learn how to make poisons and bombs, obviously.

But the point is, this exists. And the way it works, you supposedly can’t track down who posted the stuff or who is reading it. This is only scary because we are still a morally primitive species.

Ah, the TimeCube site finally loaded. Mr. or Ms. Ray is paranoid and bigoted, but certainly someone who thinks outside of the box. Here is an interesting graphic from the site:

Gene writes:

You are not allowed to know truth – that in one rotation of Earth, there are: … There are 4 simultaneous 24 hour days  within a single rotation of the Earth.  You may be too damn evil to accept it. … I lectured and debated at MIT, and have 2 hour video  proof. You are but mindless dumb asses. – freenet

No need for freenet, you can find this on the regular Interent as well.

Gene, the Voyager spacecraft and many other probes would have registered the time distortion as they left the Earth’s time cube if your theory were correct. Please email me to arrange payment of my $1000. – Xeno

U.K. seeks to rein in Internet

Culture secretary mulls film-style ratings

The U.K. government is looking to impose tough restrictions on websites in the coming year .

Blighty’s culture secretary Andy Burnham said he intended to tighten controls on English-language websites and that he would negotiate with incoming U.S. president Barack Obama’s team to present a united front against indecency, violence, libel and copyright theft on the Web.

“The change of administration (in the U.S.) is a big moment. We have got a real opportunity to make common cause,” Burnham told U.K. newspaper the Daily Telegraph on Saturday. “The more we seek international solutions to this stuff — the U.K. and the U.S. working together — the more that an international norm will set an industry norm.” …

He said the freedoms hitherto enjoyed on the Internet may have to be constrained.

“If you look back at the people who created the Internet, they talked very deliberately about creating a space that governments couldn’t reach. I think we are having to revisit that stuff seriously now,” he said.

Keep kids safe, but as to the rest of your plans: Restrict this, buddy. No government or company owns the Internet. You may not regulate what is not yours.  If you or anyone else tries to constrain Internet freedom, you will be ignored or bypassed:

The third generation of peer-to-peer networks are those that have anonymity features built in. Examples of anonymous networks are ANts P2P, RShare, Freenet, I2P, GNUnet and Entropy.

…  in countries where very fast fiber-to-the-home Internet access is commonplace, such as Japan, a number of anonymous file-sharing clients have already reached high popularity…. Additionally all transfers are encrypted, so that even the network administrators cannot see what was sent to whom. Example software includes WASTE, JetiANts, Tor and I2P. These clients differ greatly in their goals and implementation. WASTE is designed only for small groups and may therefore be considered Darknet; ANts and I2P are public Peer-to-Peer systems, with anonymization provided exclusively by routing reach. –wiki

"First Contact With Inner Earth": Drillers Strike Magma

Magma is the liquid rock inside volcanoes. After it erupts from a volcano, magma is called lava.  Photo: uktv

A drilling crew recently cracked through rock layers deep beneath Hawaii and accidentally became the first humans known to have drilled into magma—the melted form of rock that sometimes erupts to the surface as lava—in its natural environment, scientists announced this week. “This is an unprecedented discovery,” said Bruce Marsh, a volcanologist from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, who will be studying the find.

Normally, he said, volcanologists have to do “postmortem studies” of long-solidified magmas or study active lava during volcanic eruptions.

But this time they’d found magma in its natural environment—something Marsh described as nearly as exciting as a paleontologist finding a dinosaur frolicking on a remote island.

“This is my Jurassic Park,” he said at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

First Contact

The find was made 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) underground during exploratory drilling for geothermal energy.

The crew hit something unusual during routine operations at the Puna Geothermal Venture, owned by Ormat Technologies, Inc., of Reno, Nevada.

When the workers tried to resume drilling, they discovered that magma had risen about 25 feet (8 meters) up the pipe they’d inserted.

The rock solidified into a clear glassy substance, apparently because it chilled quickly after hitting groundwater.

Scientists had long known that magma chambers must lie in the vicinity of the drill site.  …

In addition, researchers found that the magma is made of dacite, a type of rock that’s a precursor to granite, rather than the basalt that forms most of Hawaii.

“If we had hit basalt, that would not have been a big surprise,” said William Teplow, a consulting geologist at U.S. Geothermal, Inc., who is assisting on the project.

Scientists have long believed that dacite can separate from basaltic magma to form granitic rocks. But they’d never expected to see the process in operation.

“This may be the first time that the generation of granite has actually been observed taking place in nature,” Teplow said. “This is important because it’s the process that differentiates the continental granitic crust from the more primitive oceanic basaltic crust.” …  It might even be possible to do experiments inside the magma.

“This could be the first magma observatory in the Earth,” Marsh said. “This is a singular event of first contact with inner Earth, where magma lives.”

Economical Power

With an estimated temperature of 1,900°F (1,050°C), the magma is also valuable as a high-quality heat source for geothermal energy production. … – natgeo

Magma power is free clean energy. Let’s do it.

To extract energy from magma resources requires drilling near or directly into a magma chamber and circulating water down the well in a convection- type system. California has two areas that may be magma resource sites: the Mono- Long Valley Caldera and Coso Hot Springs Known Geothermal Resource Areas. – energy.ca.gov

Magma power is the production of electricity from shallow magma bodies. Before magma becomes a practical source of power, many engineering problems must still be solved. When they are solved, the most likely site for the first magma power plant is Long Valley, California, USA. In this paper, we examine the greenhouse benefits from developing Long Valley. By generating magma power and by curtailing an equal amount of fossil power, we estimate the expected mass and the expected discounted value of reduced CO₂ emissions. For both measures, the expected benefits seem to be substantial. – wiley

Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip continue – 28 Dec 08

For a second day, Israeli aircraft have pounded what they say are Hamas targets in Gaza. The death toll has risen to at least 280, among them women and children. Hamas has vowed not to cave in, but Israel’s operation could soon escalate. Tanks have massed at the Gazan border, and Ehud Olmert’s office says military reservists are being mobilised. The UN Security Council has demanded an immediate end to the violence, and Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire. But the airs raids are continuing… – yt

Stupid humans. If killing innocent people actually worked as a means to solve disputes, the Middle East would be the most peaceful place on the planet.

In my upcoming movie, Golden Rule, alien ships appear over the Earth in a gold ship for a period of seven years, during which time, due to advanced alien technology everyone gets what they intend to give. Anyone who pulls a trigger or pushes a button with intent to kill dies instantly, but they experience their own death in the manner they would have caused the other person to die.

This accomplishes a surgical removal of greed and murderous impulses from the human race and it gets our evolution on the right track again.

Supersonic fighters could snuff out hurricanes

A Russian professor at an Ohio university has applied to patent a method for snuffing out hurricanes by flying jet fighters around the eye of the storm at supersonic speeds. Professor Arkadii Leonov and his collaborator Atanas Gagov both of Akron Uni actually filed their patent application “Hurricane Suppression by Supersonic Boom” last year. It was unearthed by the New Scientist patents column this week.

Given their nature, supersonic booms are potentially very efficient in hurricane/typhoon suppression, mitigation and/or elimination. This is because, while not wishing to be bound to any one theory, supersonic booms destabilize and/or destroy the two major dynamic features of a hurricane/typhoon – steady maximum rotational speed in the eye wall area and the pressure deficiency located at/near a hurricane’s/typhoon’s vertical axis of revolution. For example, two F-4 jet fighters flying at approximately Mach 1.5 are sufficient, in one embodiment, to suppress, mitigate and/or destroy a typical sized hurricane/typhoon. Of course, larger or smaller hurricanes/typhoons may necessitate the need for more or less supersonic capable aircraft.

The profs don’t specify how long the two Phantoms would have to circle the eye in order to choke off the hurricane, but this could be a problem. Most supersonic jets need to use afterburners to go faster than Mach 1, which uses up their fuel very rapidly. There are a few planes, for instance the new F-22 Raptor (and the appropriately-named Eurofighter Typhoon) which can “supercruise” – fly supersonic without afterburner – but this still uses fuel quickly compared to subsonic flight.

Even if you had supercruising jets, they might not be able to stay fast for long at the altitudes required by Leonov and Gagov. Some at least of the proposed flight plans call for low-altitude work above the sea. A diagram attached to the patent app suggests that fighters might have to fly as many as six circuits of a storm centre, on an elliptical track 600 by 100 km in dimension. This does seem likely to mean that fuel endurance would be an issue.

Anyway, technical questions like this rather pale into insignificance beside the obvious one. Why patent such an idea, as opposed to say writing an academic paper? Do Leonov and Gagov hope to charge fees to governments using “their” proprietary hurricane-busting tactic? …

via Supersonic fighters could snuff out hurricanes • The Register.

I’ve read several things over the years about Russian weather weapons (earthquakes, lightning, tornadoes, etc.), but I don’t think any weather attack by one country on another has ever been proven. If there is enough energy to disrupt a hurricane, wouldn’t it follow that they could also start one?

Human Lungs Kept Alive Outside of Body

Click here to watch the video of a dead person’s lungs being kept alive and reconditioned for transplant into a living person.

Toronto XVIVO Lung Perfusion System

The donor lungs are carefully transferred to a protective, transparent bubble-like chamber. A series of precise steps are followed when connecting the donor lungs to the circuit–composed of a pump, ventilator and filters–which flow oxygen, nutrients and a special solution. The temperature is incrementally increased until it reaches 37 degrees Celsius over about 30 minutes, and ventilation of the lungs is begun during that time. Lung function is evaluated regularly on key indicators, such as how easily the lungs can exchange oxygen, airway pressure and lung compliance. – unh.ca

See: Physorg

Seeing someone’s lungs breathing outside of their now gone body, I can’t help but wonder just how far are we from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. We can transplant: “heart, kidney, liver, lungs, intestine, eyes, pancreas, bones, bone marrow, skin, connective tissue, middle ear, blood vessels” (link) … what is missing? An entire brain hasn’t been officially transplanted, but human brain cells have. Anus transplants are also possible and one was done by accident. What else? Scalp hair (yes). Middle ears (yes, but needs electronic device?)  Spleens (not yet).

Summary:  Advances continue, but we aren’t quite there yet. Give it 50 years.

…
2000: First Womb Transplant: Dr. Wafa Fageeh at King Fahad Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, transplants the uterus of a 46-year-old into a 26-year-old woman. The uterus produces two menstrual periods before it fails after three months and has to be removed.

2003: First Jawbone Transplant: Surgeons at Rome’s Istituto Regina Elena transplant a mandible from the body of a 39-year-old man into an 80-year-old man who has advanced cancer of the mouth.

2003: First Tongue Transplant: A team of Austrian doctors at Vienna’s General Hospital performs a 14-hour tongue transplant on a 42-year-old man suffering from a malignant tumor affecting his tongue and jaw.

2004: First Ankle Transplant: In August, a team of Italian surgeons led by Dr. Sandro Giannini, transplanted the ankle of a 17-year-old boy (who had died in a car accident) into Silvano Bordon, a 48-year-old rally driver, who had lost mobility of his foot in an accident in 1991.

2005: First Partial Face Transplant: On November 27, maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Bernard Devauchelle and a team of surgeons performed the world’s first partial face transplant at a hospital in Amiens, in northern France. They grafted a nose, lips, and chin onto a 38-year-old woman, Isabelle Dinoire, who had been disfigured by a dog bite received in May 2005.

2006: First Penis Transplant: Dr. Weilie Hu and surgeons at Guangzhou General Hospital in China performed a penis transplant on a 44-year-old man whose penis had been damaged in a traumatic accident. The donor was a 22-year-old man. Ten days after the surgery, the man had been able to urinate normally. However, the penis was removed two weeks later due to “a severe psychological problem of the recipient and his wife.” There had been no signs of rejection.

2008: First Double Arm Transplant: Between July 25 and 26, doctors at Germany’s Munich University Clinic spent 15 hours grafting a pair of arms onto Karl Merk, a 54-year-old farmer who had lost his arms just below the shoulder in the accident six years ago. By the time of a follow-up news item in October 2008, there had been no signs of rejection, and he could perform simple tasks, like opening doors and turning on light switches. – medhunters

Mistletoe extract fights cancer

… “For the production of Iscador, mistletoe plants are harvested in the summer — the stems and leaves — and in the winter — the stems, leaves and berries — and then are fermented with lactobacillus,” Renatus Ziegler, a research scientist at Institute Hiscia in Arlesheim, Switzerland, told Discovery News.

Various species of lactobacillus, a type of bacteria, are also used in the production of many foods and drinks such as yogurt, beer, wine and pickles.

Ziegler and co-author Ronald Grossarth-Maticek studied cervical and ovarian cancer patients to see how they might benefit in the long run if mistletoe extracts, such as Iscador, were added to their treatment regimes.

Ziegler explained that, “mistletoe is an old medical drug in Europe, particularly in Germany, and goes back at least to Hippocrates.”

“The exact mechanism of its (healing) actions are not known,” she said, adding that prior studies, both on animals and in the lab, have indicated it curbs the growth of cancerous tumors.

Holiday celebrants, however, should never just munch on mistletoe … Kienle told Discovery News, “There is good evidence that (Viscum album) improves the quality of life of patients, and moderate evidence that it prolongs life and can induce tumor remission using high dosage and local application.” – discovery

Isn’t it deadly if you eat it? Probably not.

In reality, studies show that mistletoe is not quite as hazardous as it is made out to be. The plant does in fact contain harmful chemicals like viscotoxins, which can cause gastrointestinal distress, a slowed heartbeat and other reactions.

But in studies of hundreds of cases of accidental ingestion over the years, there were no fatalities and only a handful of severe reactions. One study published in 1996 looked at 92 cases of mistletoe ingestion and found that only a small fraction of patients showed any symptoms. Eight of 10 people who consumed five or more berries had no symptoms, and 3 of the 11 people who consumed only leaves had upset stomachs.

Other studies have found similar effects, suggesting that while mistletoe can be toxic, its lethal reputation is not quite deserved.  –spi

Uses for Peppermint

Gas? Try peppermint.

Peppermint is widely used as a food, flavoring, and disinfectant. As a medicine, peppermint is most well known for its effects on the stomach and intestines. Perhaps you’ve tried the various “tummy teas” available for stomach upset. Peppermint is a tasty way to relieve gas, nausea, and stomach pain due to an irritable bowel, intestinal cramps, or indigestion.

Peppermint is a carminative — an agent that dispels gas and bloating in the digestive system — and an antispasmodic capable of relieving stomach and intestinal cramps. Peppermint can be used for too much stomach acid (hyperacidity) and gastroenteritis (nausea and stomach upset that we sometimes call stomach flu),… – hsw

Some researchers now advise consumers to eat a tablespoon or more of fresh peppermint, and other green herbs, daily….

“Most of the (effective) species are really from the family Lamiaceae, or mint family,” Pavel Kloucek, a scientist at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, told Discovery News.

Kloucek and his team analyzed several essential oils to see how well they could, in vapor form, kill the bacteria responsible for Listeria, Staph, E. coli, and Salmonella infections, and more.

While peppermint’s germ-killing powers have been previously documented, the new study is the first to report the antimicrobial activity of two other mint family members — Mentha villosa and Faassen’s catnip — along with another non-mint herb, bluebeard.

Essential oils for horseradish, garlic, hyssop, basil, marjoram, oregano, winter savory, and three types of thyme also showed potent bacteria-busting abilities.

The findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Food Control. – discovery

How to Increase Your Lifespan

Avoid dying in a car accident, etc. Also, you need the right genes, but no matter what the DNA lottery has given you, the following are keys to a long healthy life: Eat right, exercise, get enough sleep, meditate/relax, stay thin and have orgasms.

We know that increased insulin sensitivity is linked to a long healthy life. The ways to increase insulin sensitivity are also tips for extending life and improving health. Here are some adapted from diabitieslife:

1) Exercise: Regular physical activity such as aerobics and strength training increase your cells’ sensitivity to insulin. You should aim for 20-60 minutes of aerobic activity 3-5 days per week.

2) Diet: Avoid excess carbohydrates (especially low fiber, refined white grains and sugary foods/ beverages), but know your metabolic type and eat accordingly. Eat protein-rich foods (tofu, fish, chicken, lean meat, low fat cottage cheese, and eggs. Other good stuff: Eat a variety of whole grains, legumes, and vegetables (especially dark-green, leafy vegetables) every day.  omega-3 ( plus full-spectrum vitamin E to break it down), magnesium, cinnamon.

4) Don’t over eat. Get the right calories.  Calorie reduction (but not too much) can increase lifespan if you get adequate nutrients at the same time. Some eat 20 percent to 30 percent less than recommended, ( but these people always feel hungry, and have less sex drive, so they have a lower quality of life? ) In any case, avoid sugar, saturated fats and most dairy.

3) Don’t be overweight: Even as little as a 10 % reduction in weight can help improve your cells’ insulin sensitivity. To lose weight safely and effectively, reduce your total calorie intake by about 500 calories each day.

4) De-stress: Stress hormones (e.g. cortisol) increase insulin levels. Practice daily relaxation exercises.

5) Enough Sleep:   Inadequate sleep increases insulin levels, so get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Also, have orgasms. For men this is the best preventative care option for prostate cancer, and for both sexes, sex is extremely beneficial for our health. One key is that orgasms release oxytocin.

During the big moment, the hypothalamus releases extra oxytocin into your system. Called the “cuddle hormone,” oxytocin has been correlated with the urge to bond, be affectionate, and protect (new moms are drunk on the stuff). … The latest news is that this cuddle hormone might also be linked to our ability to trust. – yahoo

It also shuts down the brain, but only when real, not when faked.

Some other benefits of oxytocin adapted from the reuniting site:

– reduces cravings (Billings, 2006)
– has a calming effect (Agren, 2002)
– increases sexual receptivity and counteracts impotence. (Pedersen, C.A., 2002)
– counteracts the effects of cortisol, the stress hormone. (Legros, 2003) Less stress means increased immunity and faster recovery. [also] high levels of cortisol are the chief culprits in depression and anxiety disorders.

Have FOXO3A gene, live to be a centenarian

SCIENTISTS HAVE a discovered a ’long life’ gene amongst human beings, which triples the chances of living for 100 years.

The gene identified as FOXO3A has important implications on prolonging the life span of people. Researchers said that the gene not only ensures longevity amongst individuals but also ensures that they suffer less risk of age-related diseases and disabilities. – merinews

Long-lived men also presented several additional phenotypes linked to healthy aging, including lower prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular disease, better self-reported health, and high physical and cognitive function, despite significantly older ages than controls. Several of these aging phenotypes were associated with FOXO3A genotype. Long-lived men also exhibited several biological markers indicative of greater insulin sensitivity and this was associated with homozygosity for the FOXO3A GG genotype. – pnas, colinf

… The gene, labeled FOXO3A, was identified by Kuakini Medical Center and Pacific Health Research Institute investigators. They studied biological specimens and clinical data collected and maintained at Kuakini since 1965 on 8,006 Japanese-American men recruited for the Honolulu Heart Program and Honolulu-Asia Aging study.

… No other study has been done so long or in such detail on such a large group of men, Willcox said. About 1,000 are still living, ranging from 89 to 107 years old, he said. …

“We then calculated how the DNA bases found at three locations on each gene were correlated with a comprehensive set of health criteria, including chronic diseases, disability and insulin levels.”

The results were “very surprising and exciting,” he said.

One location on the FOXO3A gene stood out, he said. Of the four chemical bases in the DNA code – adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T) – most participants had the base T on both chromosomes at that location, he said.

But those who had the G base instead of T when they were originally examined had better health, he said. And 15 years later the G base was more prominent in men who averaged 98 years old than those who reached only an average age of 78, suggesting it was a factor in survival, Willcox said.

The researchers also found those who were carriers of the G allele (an alternative form of a gene) doubled their chances of living an average 98 years and some as long as 106 years. Men who had two G copies almost tripled their odds of living nearly a century and were healthier at older ages, according to the study. – starb

So really, what this study has found is that FOXO3A is a master regulator of the many little genes that have been implicated in ageing. Which was already expected based on homology, but it turns out this is really true in humans. And with a very strong correlation too – now we just have to investigate this further. Does it have this effect in women? Can we extend the lifespan of mice by genetic interventions, perhaps changing the alleles of this gene? And will this allow us to extend human lifespan past 100-120 years? – hplus

… the “survivor” version of the gene was associated with significantly lower fasting insulin and a reduced risk of heart disease. … maintaining good insulin sensitivity is a prerequisite for membership of the hard-core grey hair brigade…  researchers argue that FOXO3A probably influences life expectancy primarily through an effect on insulin regulation, which fits plausibly with its known role in the insulin signaling pathway. – sciblogs

This is all interesting, but what can we DO about it? In my next post I’ll investigate how to increase your insulin sensitivity.