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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Google enhances encryption technology for email

Google enhances encryption technology for email
Google has enhanced the encryption technology for its flagship email service in ways that will make it harder for the National Security Agency to intercept messages moving among the company's worldwide data centers.

Among the most extraordinary disclosures in documents leaked by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden were reports that the NSA had secretly tapped into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world.

Google, whose executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, said in November that he was outraged over the practice, didn't mention the NSA in Thursday's announcement, except in a veiled reference to "last summer's revelations." The change affects more than 425 million users of Google's Gmail service.

Yahoo has promised similar steps for its email service by this spring.

Google and other technology companies have been outspoken about the U.S. government's spy programs. The companies are worried more people will reduce their online activities if they believe almost everything they do is being monitored by the government. A decline in Internet use could hurt the companies financially by giving them fewer opportunities to show online ads and sell other services.

"Your email is important to you, and making sure it stays safe and always available is important to us," Nicolas Lidzborski, Gmail's security engineering lead, wrote in a blog post.

Lidzborski said that all Gmail messages a consumer sends or receives are now encrypted.

"This ensures that your messages are safe not only when they move between you and Gmail's servers, but also as they move between Google's data centers — something we made a top priority after last summer's revelations," Lidzborski wrote.

The NSA has said it only focuses on targets with foreign intelligence value.

A secret Jan. 9, 2013, accounting indicated that NSA sends millions of records every day from Yahoo and Google internal networks to data warehouses at the NSA's Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters, according to documents released by Snowden and obtained by The Washington Post last year.

The NSA's principal tool to exploit the Google and Yahoo data links is a project called MUSCULAR, operated jointly with the agency's British counterpart, GCHQ. NSA and GCHQ are copying entire data flows across fiber-optic cables that carry information between the data centers of the Silicon Valley giants, the Post reported.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-enhances-encryption-technology-email-204813662--politics.html;_ylt=AwrBJSDBYCtT8U0AMuTQtDMD

Vatican library plans to digitise 82,000 of its most valuable manuscripts

Vatican library plans to digitise 82,000 of its most valuable manuscripts
A rare Roman manuscript featuring the poems of Virgil dating back to 400AD is among thousands of historic items the Vatican’s library plans to publish online.

Vatican Apostolic Library, founded in 1451 and considered one of the world’s most important research libraries, is hoping in the next four years to archive its entire collection of 82,000 manuscripts, comprising more than 41 million pages.

The €8 million (£7 million) project will mean that the Roman Catholic Church’s most precious documents will be available to the public for the first time.

The library announced on Thursday that it will work with experts from the Japanese IT systems specialist NTT Data Corporation, to digitalise 3,000 handwritten works by 2018. While the library has already begun to digitalise around 6,000 manuscripts, the collaboration is designed to enhance current archiving methods with special measures that will improve long-term storage and safekeeping. It will also speed up search methods and broaden access for academics and scholars.

The library was founded by Pope Nicholas V in the 15th century and has one of the finest collections of manuscripts, books, photographs, coins and medals in the world.

It inspired the Renaissance master Raphael and has been kept in the Vatican library, known as the “Popes’ library”, since 1600.

Toshio Iwamoto, the president of NTT Data at the Vatican, said the project would help “preserve valuable treasures of mankind”.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10712906/Vatican-library-plans-to-digitise-82000-of-its-most-valuable-manuscripts.html

Thursday, March 13, 2014

What do the Global Currency Revaluation (RV), Missing Malaysia Plane, & New IRS Rules Have in Common?

The Algorithmic Central Bankers
By JC Collins - 13 March, 2014

Algorithm  By JC Collins

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted today to include the 2010 IMF Reforms in the Ukraine aid bill.  It will now go to the Senate for vote.

If it passes there it will then be required to pass in the House of Representatives.

It is assumed that all of this will have to transpire by end of day Friday, which is when Congress goes on a short recess.

  Additionally, the referendum over Crimean annexation takes place this weekend.  The United States will surely want to make a statement before then.

The bill also includes weak sanctions on both Ukraine and Russia for violations of human rights against government protestors.  This is merely for distraction purposes.

With Europe slowly and quietly sidestepping in Russia’s direction, and Ukrainian officials themselves stating that there will be no response from them over the annexation of Crimea, this whole charade is beginning to have the same feel as Syria 2013.

Let’s watch for the slow withdrawal of this matter from the media as the slight of hand directs our attention away from Ukraine and towards another hot spot revolution or sovereign debt crisis.

Its not clear yet if the Internal Revenue Service’s proposed rule governing 501(c)(4) groups was included in the same bill.  This proposed rule has been attached to the IMF 2010 Reforms up until now and there is no reason to think that it still isn’t.

For those who don’t know yet, this IRS rule change will severely restrict freedom of speech in America in staggered time segments leading up to elections.  It will prevent non-profit groups from expressing opinions on politicians before elections.

What the IRS and Treasury have to do with the expression of political opinions is one which should unsettle most Americans.  See comments sections of SDR’s and the New Bretton Woods – Part Nine.

There is very little information or attention given to this proposed IRS rule change, which I find surprising considering the volume of web based political dissent taking place right now against the US government.

Perhaps some sites are not what they profess to be.  I will leave this area for others to research as I’m more focused on the IMF Reforms and the coming changes to the world financial system.

Once the IMF 2010 Code of Reforms are passed we will hear very little of it in the media, if any.  The shift or de-pegging of the worlds currencies and commodities from the US dollar and to the Special Drawing Right of the International Monetary Fund will be well hidden within the “solutions” to the sovereign debt crisis in the world.

The television will bombard us with opinions and pointless debate on how the governments of the world have  been irresponsible with debt creation.  Not once will they explain how debt creation actually works and how capital is injected into the economy.

A pattern I see unfolding over the coming years is one where an opinion of flawed governments is pushed upon the masses and the importance or economic genius of central banks is peppered about like so much other idiotic office banter.

Governments will be blamed for the sovereign debt and currency crisis and central banks will be kindly referred to as the solution providers.  Watch for the social status of central bank leaders to increase across all media forms.

Challenges_for_central_banks_wider_powers_greater_restraints

The so called crisis in the Ukraine is a perfect example of the Hegelian Dialectic Triad of problem/reaction/solution which we have been discussing on this site.  What we are beginning to see is a multi-level micro and macro Hegelian approach to implement the new multilateral financial system.

 We will shortly move to the next crisis and solution.  Watch for the trend of sameness in the solutions.  It will always be further centralization of the system at the macro level.

Interestingly enough, we will also begin to see more of the decentralization at the local micro level.  This will ensure a balance of both macro and micro levels of the emerging system.  The attempt is to restrict or self-limit the wealth transfer activities of the rent seeking elite.

 I would suggest readers have a good understanding of the previous articles on this site in order to fully grasp the complexity of what we are stating here.

This balance between micro and macro to restrict corruption will most likely only be temporary as a “corruption of the process” is a natural component of the human condition.

As with any new system, there is an algorithm or code which makes up its invisible structure.  As perfect as we make these codes, they also eventually corrupt.

The new multilateral financial system and its SDR pegging component must have one of the most incredible algorithmic codes ever written.  It must have taken years and countless minds to structure its intricacy and complexity.  This we can reason as a logical extension or required skeleton of any new financial system.

Think back on last year and all the stock market system faults and glitches.  Think of the length of time it would take to install this algorithm onto specific servers and run real time tests to ensure functionality.  Think of how all the stock markets are being purchased by ICE.  Think further consolidation and centralization.

As we are obviously getting closer to the implementation of this multilateral system, I would question the significance and coincidence of 20 employees of the company Freescale Semiconductor being on the Malaysian Airlines flight that is now missing.

Additionally, most, if not all of the banker “suicides” which have been taking place over the last few months have involved individuals who were directly involved in IT departments or other algorithmic points of contact within their respective banks.

My intention is not to promote conspiracy theories or distract away from the main theme of this site, but only to draw attention to a very interesting side piece to the implementation of this emerging multilateral system.  Life has taught me that coincidences are usually anything but that.

As always, lets keep our eyes in the 2010 Code of Reforms.  - JC Collins

Source:  http://philosophyofmetrics.com/2014/03/13/the-algorithmic-central-bankers/

It is among the largest object ever spotted in the Universe - and has a diameter more than 1300 times that of our Sun.

largest object ever spotted in the Universe
Dubbed a 'hypergiant', the yellow star was part of a unique double double star system, with the second component so close that it is in contact with the main star - making it look rather like a table tennis bat.

Astronomers say the find is unique - and could help explain how stars interact.
It was spotted by ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer, and is the largest yellow star — and one of the ten largest stars found so far.

Observations spanning over sixty years, some from amateur observers, also indicate that this rare and remarkable object is changing very rapidly and has been caught during a very brief phase of its life.
'The new observations also showed that this star has a very close binary partner, which was a real surprise,' says Olivier Chesneau, who led the research.

'The two stars are so close that they touch and the whole system resembles a gigantic peanut.'

The astronomers made use of a technique called interferometry to combine the light collected from multiple individual telescopes, effectively creating a giant telescope up to 140 metres in size.

Yellow hypergiants are very rare, with only a dozen or so known in our galaxy — the best-known example being Rho Cassiopeiae.

They are among the biggest and brightest stars known and are at a stage of their lives when they are unstable and changing rapidly.

Due to this instability, yellow hypergiants also expel material outwards, forming a large, extended atmosphere around the star.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2579525/The-yellow-hypergiant-star-Massive-object-1300-times-size-Sun-spotted.html#ixzz2vr5n4LUB