Das Buch Wer mitmacht, hat Recht!

It looks like the fifth submarine cable has been cut.

Are there still people out there calling this a conspiracy or accidents?
I hope not.

Take my advice: Stop Now, People Start Noticing!

<sarcasm>
The terrible techno-terrorists have no internet.
The war on terror is won!
Everyone go back to bed.
Your government is doing a great job.
</sarcasm>

Who’s next in line?
Any takers?
North Korea?
Anyone?

From what I hear, the demand for people experienced in cutting submarine cables is quite high at the moment.
I smell big business.
Joint ventures with submarine cable repair companies would be win-win.
I’m sure the US can supply plenty of contractors to mess up the job.

It’s becoming obvious that this is not a coincidence.

Reports of the FOURTH submarine cable that got cut just came in.
Who’s trying to make ANYONE believe this is just a mere coincidence or unlucky accidents?

DOHA (AFP) — An undersea telecoms cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged, disrupting services, telecommunications provider Qtel said on Sunday, the latest such incident in less than a week.
The cause of the damage is not yet known.

Of cooouuurrrssseee, yes! just! another! coincidence!

Tell that to whoever you like.
But this is beyond conspiracy, this is just too statistically improbable to not be deliberate.

There have also been reports that there were NO ships present at the time the cables were cut.
And even better, no one’s gonna fix it any time soon, because of the bad weather.

I was just posting how Iran got conveniently (partly?) cut off the Net four hours ago.

But now there’s even more!

Here’s the stuff to fuel the conspiracy:
US plan to launch Cyber Storm 2 early March.

Just let me quote some of the nicer key points of Cyber Storm 2:

• Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers and even reporters.
• Multi target attacks:
  1. Hacker break-ins at an airline
  2. stolen commercial software blueprints
  3. problems with satellite navigation systems
  4. trouble with police radios in Montana
  5. school closures in Washington
  6. Miami and New York
  7. computer failures at border checkpoints

What has this to do with Iran?

I sincerely hope nothing at all.
But be aware of the fact that on 9/11 there were large terrorist attack drills² happening during the attacks that “confused” the officials.
Coincidence! You say.
Well, there also were mock attacks staged during the 7/7 London bombings³.

9/11, 7/7, 3/x ?

Now they’ve scheduled a large cyber war drill for early March this year, and conveniently, just in time, Iran is offline.
No chance of grass-roots reporting, blogging, direct and unfiltered news from Iran.

If there were something to happen that seems like terrorist attacks and the government later uses it to start something ‘funny’...
...Come back and read this post.

History repeating.

¹ Politblog.net – Das Internet unter Beschuss

² 9/11 drills

³ 7/7 drills

Update! There’s possibly more to this story, read the follow up article.

Update! According to a comment Iran isn’t offline.
The problem seems to be local, since the University in Tehran is indeed still reachable.

It’s not just one or two¹ submarine cables being cut affecting the browsing experience in Egypt, India, etc.
No.
It’s three².

And it’s not Egypt and India you should be worried about…
No.. Not at all.

It’s Iran³ (local copy).
Iran is as of now completely cut off the internet.

Weird coincidence, isn’t it?
Who would gain anything from kicking Iran off the Net?
Well… think for yourself…

¹ FLAG Europe-Asia Cable & FLAG FALCON Cable cut

² 3rd FLAG Cable cut

³ Internet Traffic Report Asia (local copy)

The recent panic about lithium batteries being banned by the TSA/DOT is most likely totally overrated.

All Li-Batteries are banned?
No more spare MP3 player or camera battery on planes?

Wrong!

Read the whole article for some facts and simple checks to see if you’re batteries are fine.

German news website heise online reports:

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) wants to see a timely end of the current discussion on the proposed tough anti-terror laws proposed by Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU).

The key points of the new law are

• Online search and seize of computers using the so-called “Federal Trojan Horse”
• Use of information gained from autobahn toll collecting for law enforcement
• Fingerprints as part of biometric passports and national ID cards
• Additional storage of biometric data at the local registration office (“Meldeamt”, where citizens have to be registred)
• Even more possibilities for computer-aided search / investigation

German newspaper WELT ONLINE reports (German language source) on the latest development of German Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble.

He’s raising the question whether Germany is able to defend itself against the growing terrorist threat using the current tools available to law enforcement. He’s especially worried about “sympathizers of the criminal networks” and “jeopardizers” (He keeps making up fuzzy fake words like that in German, too.)

He’s thinking about implementing similar anti-terror laws as the United States.
For instance he wants to establish the punishable act of “conspiracy” in the same way.
Or maybe one could treat those “jeopardizers” like enemy combatants” (He used the lean-word “Kombatanten” instead of “Kämpfer” (combatants) in his German statement, which is not in general use in Germany and thus sounds like “nothing” to the broad public.)
As if this wouldn’t be enough already, he also suggest to deny “extremists” (no clear definition of the term) the use of mobile phones and internet to communicate. (I’m wondering what ridiculous new laws, taking away our civil liberties, he would have to get passed to make this possible.)

i’m taking a break from packing my bags right now, having some delicious chinese take-out my landlord bought and a beer that helps me cope with the hot sauce.
yes, you read correctly, i’m having problems with a hot sauce.

my landlord was wondering why they didn’t include the hot sauce by default, always forcing you to ask for it.
now he knows.
the sauce has to be almost pure habanero paste, it has the distinctive fruitish smell and flavor and excessive heat of habaneros. and it’s the spiciest hot sauce i’ve ever had.
i’m seriously having problems dealing with it.

in other news, back to topic.
it’s my last day in the states, my flight from SFO is scheduled to take off at 8:40am tomorrow morning.
packing my bags seems to be more difficult than it was when i got here half a year ago.
i blame this partly on the rainy weather, it’s rather depressing, making you feel like going back to bed and spending the whole day sleeping.
people keep telling me it hasn’t been raining like this in california for years.
right now “downpour” is the only word that kind of describes what’s happening outside.

nevertheless i got up at 5:30am today to drive my friends, which whom i spent the last two weeks of roadtripping with, to SFO so they could get their flight back to the netherlands.
on the way back, having no more rental car and thus being forced to use public transportation, i fell asleep on the BART. thank god i have to get off at the final stop of the line and don’t transfer in between.

i had to tie up some loose ends today, too. mostly finishing some paperwork at work (i love the shredder) and closing my checkings account at boa.
surprisingly i still have some money left after the last two weeks that have been kinda heavy, expense-wise.

as i mentioned before, i was on the road, all over california and nevada.
joined by a friends and one of his coworkers, we’ve been driving from san francisco santa barbara, on to los angeles, further down to san diego, back to los angeles and over to las vegas, back to los angeles again and finally to san francisco.
i’ve been driving most of the time putting a rough 2200 miles under my seatbelt.

the part i enjoyed most was definitely highway 1.
i’m not exaggerating when i say it’s one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen.
if you ever get the chance of getting driving down hwy 1, DO IT! it’s worth every inch, cent, and gallon.
it just blows you away, the so un-american curvy road, the awesome views especially at sunset, and constant smell of the ocean breeze, ... i could go on for hours.

santa barbara was awesome, too. it’s just beautiful. our motel was almost right at the beach (yes, sand) and it had a very nice inner courtyard.
i could have stayed there for at least one more day, just lying on the pool chair, enjoying the sun on my skin (and the laptop with wireless internet on my lap, of course).

los angeles was kind of a bummer, i didn’t like it at all.
we ended up staying in some dodgy motel in venice beach (let’s call it a quentin-tarantino-moment).
the city just sucks, the traffic is horrible, there’s lots of ghetto, and so on.
one of the nice things i remember is the warner brothers vip studio tour. it might sound like a very touristy thing to do, and it really is, but it’s also very interesting and gives you a good look behind the scenes of the movieindustry.

the next day got us down to san diego where we spent the whole saturday with the guys from “sd shakedown” (they have a live show on jungletrain.net).
rfx even showed me now to beat-match two records. fun!

after a quick drive-by in los angeles we went on to lost wages.
the city kinda sucks, but it’s yet nice in a weird way (even the hotel engineer told us he’s prefers lower pay at the place on the strip over working in downtown and getting killed).

anyways, after yet another stop in El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula in a better motel with a great view of downtown (yes, we have pictures) we went back to san francisco, the best city ever.

this kind of sums up the last two weeks.
i think i’ll finish up packing and go to bed, tomorrow’s gonna be hell.

there it is.
the last day at work.
it’s been raining for the past three days, the weather’s kinda depressing. listening to phil collins’ discography doesn’t help that either ;-)

i can’t believe that six months went past just like that.
guess i have to really take care about not showing up for work on monday :D

i’ve heard there are some weird guys doing a roadtrip the next two weeks
complete with picture and video documentation, real geek style.
should be pretty cool, give it a try!

i have to add another item to my “successfully ignored sports happenings to my list”

- super bowl 2007 – any soccer game that ever happened – any soccer worldcup that ever happened

ignorance can sometimes be pure bliss ;-)