Parker's Blog

So You’ve Missed Your Favorite TV Show.

You’re hoping to watch a BBC show you’ve heard about – like, for example the Power of Nightmares which I’ve written about.

So what do you do?

It’s easy.

1. First, you click here in order to download a small piece of software called MicroTorrent.
2. Install the software – just go with the default. If you’re like me, allow it to run when your computer starts up.
3. Now all you need to do is find what ever it is that you want to download.

Some great sites to use for searching (for anything) are:

• For television shows: goto TvTorrents.com
• A compendium of other good sites: Ten Most Used BitTorrent Sites Compared

Once you’ve found something you want … continuing with the example above, let’s say that you’ve gone to BTjunkie.org and have done the search for ‘power of nightmares’. You’ll see a link with this image… like this one . When you click on it … you should get a pop up box asking if you want to download the “Torrent” using uTorrent (or MicroTorrent). You should say yes. Here’s an example link to The Power of Nightmares torrent.

Now you’re on your way to torrenting.

How do I use torrents?
What is bittorrent?
I can’t get my torrent to download

A parent who seeks to educate their children should be applauded.

A mom, who having traveled half way around the world with her family to a third world country, and then leaves leaves her daughter behind to be ‘watched’ by a tour guide … now that person needs to at least have her head checked.

A man suspected of having raped the 15-year-old British teenager Scarlett Keeling found dead on a beach in Goa last month, was arrested by Indian police Sunday evening, as second autopsy revealed the fact that Scarlett’s death could be foul play.

The suspect, identified as Samsung D’Souza, 25, was arrested and accused of raping Scarlett Keeling a few hours before she was found dead on the beach, with many bruises on her body and partially clothed, senior police official Bosko George said.

…snip…

Witnesses say that they had seen Keeling at a bar with a group of Indian men, one of them being D’Souza. Witnesses said that later the British teenager and D’Souza were seen on the beach in an alleged compromising position.

“Irrespective of whether the sexual act was in consent or not in consent, the rape case stands as Indian law treats sexual intercourse with minor as a rape,” state Inspector General of Police Kishan Kumar had said. He added that “The same person we charged for rape can be charged for murder.”

It sounds like the English’s legacy laws have been held in place … and that on the books, jurisprudence is alive and well.

At first police alleged that the girl accidentally drowned because she was drunk, but Scarlett’s mother claimed that the police are trying to cover-up a murder, and called for a second autopsy. The doctors found more bruises on her back, shins and feet, her mouth stuffed with sand, and there was not enough water in her lungs to indicate drowning, Reuters reports.

“It was our main objective to get the police or somebody to acknowledge that she’d been murdered, as I knew in my heart that she had been,” Fiona MacKeown, Keeling’s mother, told British Broadcasting Corp. television. “I’m convinced that they were covering it up.”

Ooops, the initial autopsy didn’t notice SAND IN HER MOUTH but did notice too little water in the lungs to drown… but stipulated drowning due to intoxication? Hmmm… something smells fishy.

D’Souza is due to appear in court on Monday, according to the Indian law.

Or according to common sense.

Now this is the section that we’ve all been waiting for.

Scarlett Keeling, of Bideford, Devon, was on a six-month holiday in India with her mother, Fiona MacKeown, her mother’s boyfriend and six other children. When Scarlett was found dead, on February 18, her family was traveling to a neighboring state. Scarlett stayed with a tour guide in Anjuna.

Here’s where the Indian’s – once the alleged killer has his day in court – could really teach idiotic parents worldwide that RESPONSIBILITY to your MINOR CHILD means NOT leaving them with some random person, and prosecute her (at least a fine).

I can’t imagine going to Chicago with a 15 year old, and leaving my child behind while the rest of my family took a trip to, say, Pennsylvania.

“Are you an idiot?” runs through my mind.

Why?

Well, having lived in China – China, not Taiwan (let’s not mince words) – I have had some experience with the concept of ‘critical mass’ as well as ‘population explosion’ amongst other terms.

When I was living there (2002 – 2004) I was told by a friend (who’s boyfriend was on the police force – in a senior level) that there were “more than” 40,000 Internet police in China.

Let’s break that down, shall we?

China PRC’s population (is in excess of): 1,321,000,000 people
USA population (is in excess of): 301,000,000 people.

That is 4.3x more people than are in the USA. You should be thinking A TON OF PEOPLE.

So… can you imagine 10,000 Internet police in the USA? The censorship levels in China are insane – people literally go to jail for blogging.

So, there are a ton of people.

Playing on the web. Surfing the web. Getting arrested for what they type on the web.

So back to the beginning. Before I copy paste text … let’s agree that we’ll READ the verbs as they are intended. The NICE thing about English is that we have a LOT of verbs.

So here is the first quote from the article:

Computer network intrusions at the Pentagon and other U.S. agencies, think tanks and government contractors last year “appeared to originate” in China, according to the report.

Intrusions = undesired entries / access to
They are saying that Chinese nationals penetrated some systems at the Pentagon. Hey, maybe the systems were ‘honeypots‘ or maybe they weren’t. Who knows. Government money only goes so far.

Next sentence:

In addition, computer intrusions in Germany, apparently by Chinese hackers, occur daily, along with infiltrations in France and Britain, the Pentagon said. Last year, British intelligence officials alerted financial institutions across the country that they were targets of “state-sponsored computer network exploitation” from China.

Agreed that they US or UK governments don’t have a lot of credibility anymore … but they don’t often have France and German joining ranks.

What I love as a political junkie, and hate as an anti-Politically-Correct flunky is the language used:

The Pentagon report does not directly accuse the Chinese military or government of the attacks but says the incidents are consistent with recent military thinking in that country. David Sedney, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for East Asia, said cyber-warfare was an area of growing concern and he called on the Chinese to clarify their intentions.

“The techniques that are used, the way these intrusions are conducted, are certainly very consistent with what you would need if you were going to actually carry out cyber-warfare, and the kinds of activities that are carried out are consistent with a lot of writings we see from Chinese military and Chinese military theorists,” Sedney said.

U.S. military officials believe that Chinese cyber-warfare advances, coupled with China’s increasing skill at neutralizing information-transmitting satellites and other capabilities, is part of a military objective of crippling potential foes, even those that may be militarily superior such as the United States, in the event of an international crisis or confrontation.

So, are these “script-kiddies” (do the Google search on that term; it’s a derogative term for hackers) that are performing these “intrusions” to their networks? How exactly does a non-technologically trained person hack their way in to the Pentagon (or any NATO government’s website / computer systeem)? Of course the people doing it do so with the governments knowledge. The 40,000 plus internet cops aren’t stupid. They know how to watch ports, they know exactly which PCs in China are accessing any server or network in the world (due to their firewall logs). It is only possible for a person in the PRC to go on the Internet with out the government knowing where they’re accessing by using a CELL PHONE and dialing up to another country; and even that wouldn’t guarantee privacy.

Do hackers REALLY access them, or is this marketing? One has NO IDEA.
Am I a seditionist because I can’t believe that we don’t put GOOD MONEY into stopping this? I know we sometimes put good money after bad in OTHER areas, but allowing Chinese hackers to enter military systems?

Okay, so you’re thinking “Parker is an idiot”. You’re right assuming you can explain this:

“Pentagon officials admit that they lack a clear understanding of China, despite its status as America’s second-largest trading partner. During nearly every U.S. official visit to China, military officials press Beijing to disclose details of its spending plans and explain why it is building up its military capabilities.

“The lack of transparency in China’s military and security affairs poses risks to stability by increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation,” the report says. “This situation will naturally and understandably lead to hedging against the unknown.”

Beijing announced plans today to increase its military budget this year by 17.6% to $59 billion. This follows a record 17.8% hike last year. But Western observers suspect that China’s actual military budget is much larger.”

First of all, EVERY country in my opinion lies about its TRUE military budget; we do.

Do some research, as the PRC has pushed SO MUCH MONEY towards military (like Reagan at the beginning of his run) such that other governments may WANT to keep up, but if they try (like the USA) they will bankrupt themselves in the process.

Interesting reading = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

So, is PRC trying to hack the world? Of course they are. It’s in they’re vested interest.

War is a state of mind. We should, at least, always be WORRIED about warfare. The strange part of war is that one NEVER knows when it starts – and the idea of PREDICTION is a fallacy. We never know. So the FEAR of war should keep us on our toes.