Infinite Unknown

Experts say the computer virus found in a nuclear plant is the work of a foreign power

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits one of Iran’s nuclear plants, which have come under attack from the virus

Computers can go wrong, and everyone is used to it. But that’s at home. We assume that the machines controlling the infrastructure that makes everything tick – power stations, chemical works, water purification plants – have rock-solid defences in place to deal with unexplained crashes or virus attacks by malicious strangers.

Now, though, a new kind of online sabotage has reached its zenith with a self-replicating “worm” that started on a single USB drive and has spread rapidly through industrial computer systems around the world.

So sophisticated that many analysts believe it can only be part of a state-sponsored attack, the Stuxnet worm – or “malware” – is the first such programming creation designed with the specific intention of causing real world damage. And if the experts are right, it could herald a new chapter in the history of cyber warfare.

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Tags: Computer, Cyber Attack, Global News, Iran, software, Stuxnet

Stuxnet computer code designed to infect industrial plants created by well-funded hackers, says Symantec Corp expert

Graph shows concentration of Stuxnet-infected computers in Iran as of August. Photograph: Symantec

A powerful computer code attacking industrial facilities around the world, but mainly in Iran, was probably created by experts working for a country or a well-funded private group, according to an analysis by a leading computer security company.

The malicious code, called Stuxnet, was designed to go after several “high-value targets”, said Liam O Murchu, manager of security response operations at Symantec Corp. But both O Murchu and US government experts say there is no proof it was developed to target nuclear plants in Iran, despite recent speculation from some researchers.

Creating the malicious code required a team of as many as five to 10 highly educated and well-funded hackers. Government experts and outside analysts say they haven’t been able to determine who developed it or why.

The malware has infected as many as 45,000 computer systems around the world. Siemens AG, the company that designed the system targeted by the worm, said it has infected 15 of the industrial control plants it was apparently intended to infiltrate. It is not clear what sites were infected, but they could include water filtration, oil delivery, electrical and nuclear plants.

None of those infections has adversely affected the industrial systems, according to Siemens.

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Tags: Computer, Global News, Iran, software, Stuxnet, Symantec

Hmmmh.

- Life on this Earth Just Changed: The North Atlantic Current is Gone

- Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico Has Stalled From BP Oil Disaster!

First snowmen of the season spotted as surprise cold snap sweeps across Britain

Winter wonderland: Hill walkers enjoyed the crisp clear weather, with snow crunching underfoot

Britain has received its first autumn snowfalls for the year as a surprise cold snap sent millions reaching for the central heating controls this weekend.

Summer made a particularly swift exit from the Highlands as the first sprinklings of snow paid an early visit to the north of Scotland.

The last time Britain saw a September cold snap as severe as this current one was in 2003, when much of northern England was below freezing.

Two Scottish weather stations recorded record lows: Tulloch Bridge recorded a temperature of -4.2°C, and Tyndrum -4.4°C – the coldest temperatures recorded since the two stations opened in 1982 and 1990 respectively.

For the people of the Cairngorms particularly,  it was a wintry end to September.

Snow fell on the Scottish mountain range overnight, and hill-walkers had to wear their winter woolies and specialist equipment as they enjoyed blue, sun-filled skies with slippery conditions underfoot.

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Tags: Global News, Scotland, Snow, U.K.

World’s biggest gold coin

- Gold Extend Rally to Record as Dollar’s Slump Spurs Demand From Investors (Bloomberg)

Gold rose to a record for the eighth time in two weeks as the dollar dropped to the lowest level since early February, boosting investor demand. Silver extended gains, reaching the highest price since 1980.

Prices jumped to an all-time high of $1,311.80 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Futures are up 19 percent this year, heading for the 10th straight annual gain and the longest rally since at least 1975. The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies, including the euro and yen, to the lowest level since Feb. 3.

- Is Silver the New Gold? The Rise of Precious Metals ( ABC News):

With stocks in the dumps and government deficits spiraling, Americans are increasingly turning their attention to precious metals like silver, which has doubled in price since the recession hit in 2008.

Silver hit a 30-year high of $21.47 an ounce Monday, up from under $9 when the financial crisis began, rising 35 percent so far this year.

The high price of gold — the metal has also more than doubled in price over the past two years — has sent investors scrambling for cheaper silver as a way to protect their assets. Silver has gained 21 percent in price versus gold this year.

Tags: Dollar, Economy, Gold, Silver, U.S.

BoE’s Charlie Bean got it right! Spend, spend, spend!

Buy gold, silver, food, a remote farm and guns!

Prepare for collapse and become self-sufficient!

See also:

- UK Food Inflation Could Hit 7 Percent By Year’s End (Telegraph)

- Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warns that Britons face higher inflation for longer (Telegraph)

- UK Food Prices Soar Up To 58 Percent In Just 3 Years (Daily Mail)

- UK: Food Inflation May Rise 10 Percent Before Christmas (Telegraph)

- Bank of England’s Mervyn King Warns Over High Inflation (Telegraph)

Bank of England deputy Charlie Bean says spend, spend to save economy

Interest rates are being held down to discourage savers, financial chief admits

The Bank of England deputy Charles Bean admitted interest rates were being held down to spur spending Photograph: Graham Barclay/Getty Images

Britons should go out and spend to help invigorate the UK’s economic recovery, the deputy governor of the Bank of England has urged. In unusually unguarded comments for a banker, Charlie Bean yesterday discouraged people from building up cash savings which generate little income due to historically low interest rates.

Bean, who sits on the Bank’s monetary policy committee that set the base interest rate, admitted it was being held down in the hope families would use their cash and thereby help reflate the economy.

Low interest rates could persist for several years, he said. They have been at 0.5% for a year and a half. The next monthly rate-setting decision is due next week.

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Tags: Bank of England, Economy, Global News, U.K.

Neanderthal man may have been wiped out 40,000 years ago after a volcanic eruption

European Neanderthals may have been wiped out by a catastrophic volcanic eruption over 40,000 years ago, according to new research.

A new study says that a massive explosion caused the onset of a ‘volcanic winter’ that devastated their population.

Researchers led by Liubov Golovanova of Russia’s ANO Laboratory of Prehistory in St. Petersburg report that volcanic dust deposits found in a cave in the Caucasus show that an ecological disaster was responsible.

Very few plants existed in the volcanic dust layers, the researchers discovered.

The loss of plants would have affected the population of large mammals, which were the Neanderthals’ main source of food.

The Neanderthals were replaced about 30,000 years ago by modern-day humans.

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Tags: Environment, Global News, Science, Volcano

And the justification for that is that dumb Americans don’t need to know what they eat, or what?

(NaturalNews) As the FDA stands poised to approve genetically modified (GM) salmon safe for public consumption, the next logical question concerns how GM salmon would be labeled. Would the fish come with a large red warning that says, “Genetically modified salmon”?

As it turns out, no. In fact, the FDA has already gone on the record stating it will not require any special labeling of genetically modified salmon. You, the consumer, just have to take a wild guess because you’re not allowed to know what you’re really eating.

The biotech industry takes this absurdity one step further by claiming that labeling GM foods would just “confuse” consumers. David Edwards, the director of animal biotechnology at the Biotechnology Industry Organization, explained it in this way: “Extra labeling only confuses the consumer,” he says. “It differentiates products that are not different.”

Except that they are different. If they were really no different, then AquAdvantage company wouldn’t be growing them. The whole point of genetically modified salmon is that they are modified with extra growth hormone genes to make them grow more quickly. I don’t know where David Edwards is getting his information, but in the rest of the world, when something is different, that means it’s different.

If it’s no different, then why are so many GM salmon processes patented? If it’s no different, there would be nothing to patent. The entire purpose of a patent is to make a legal claim that “we invented something different” and we own the monopoly rights to it.

The GM salmon industry can’t have it both ways, you see. They can’t claim it’s so unique that their technologies and animals should be proprietary or patented, yet when it comes to food labeling, they claim there are no differences. It’s either different or it isn’t, and in the case of GM salmon, only an outright liar would look you in the eye and claim GM salmon is identical to regular farmed salmon or wild-caught salmon.

FDA insists on keeping people in the dark

The FDA, for its sad part in this saga, claims that it would be against the law to require the honest labeling of GM foods. This agency claims that since GM salmon is identical to regular salmon (it’s “no different” once again, they say), they can’t require it to be labeled any differently.

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Tags: FDA, Fish, Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO, Government, Health, Politics, Salmon, U.S.

A police officer has been suspended for staging a fake arrest of a 15-year-old boy after discovering the teenager was having sex with his stepdaughter.

The motorcycle officer, who was in uniform and armed, went to the boy’s home in San Jose, California where he handcuffed him and lectured him for more than five minutes.

He told the boy, who had been seeing the 14-year-old girl for some time, that he was going to face criminal charges of having sex with a minor.

The officer said: “It does not bode well for you. Do you know what that means? No? Not a good thing that the person you had sex with is a cop’s daughter. The district attorney will probably file charges.

“A cop’s daughter is not somebody you mess around with. You’re stupid.”

One of the boy’s parents videoed the incident and complained to police.

The case sparked a national debate in the US about whether the officer had abused his position, or was simply acting as a concerned father.

Tony Boskovich, a lawyer for the boy’s family, said: “Applying force, applying handcuffs, threatening the young man with things such as rape in prison, he acted like a cowboy. He lost it, he came in and he abused his authority.”

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Tags: Global News, Police, Police State, Sex, Society

Aliens have landed, infiltrated British nuclear missile sites and deactivated the weapons, according to US military pilots.

A Minuteman missile at Malmstrom Air Force Base in the 1960s Photo: AP/USAF

• Update: Aliens are sabotaging British and US nuclear missiles, US military pilots claim

• Aliens ‘tried to warn US and Russia they were playing with fire during Cold War’

The beings have repeated their efforts in the US and have been active since 1948, the men said, and accused the respective governments of trying to keep the information secret.

The unlikely claims were compiled by six former US airmen and another member of the military who interviewed or researched the evidence of 120 ex-military personnel.

The information they have collected suggests that aliens could have landed on Earth as recently as seven years ago.

The men’s aim is to press the two governments to recognise the long-standing extra-terrestrial visits as fact.

They are to be presented on Monday 27 September at a meeting in Washington.

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Tags: Global News, Military, Missiles, Politics, U.K., U.S., UFO

• Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega speaks out against devaluations

• Economists fear increasing currency volatility and instability

A Chinese bank teller counts notes in Beijing. China has kept the yuan weak to boost exports and has resisted US pressure to allow it to rise Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

The world is in the midst of an “international currency war” according to Brazil’s finance minister as governments force down the value of their currencies to boost their struggling economies.

The comments are the first public admission made by a senior policymaker about a practice which has become increasingly widespread since the global economic downturn.

Many countries, notably China, have been deliberately weakening their currencies by selling them on foreign exchanges or keeping interest rates artificially low to make their exports cheaper.

Economists fear that such moves are resulting in increasing currency volatility and instability. Increasing competition among individual countries to devalue also makes it harder to mount a co-ordinated policy response to the economic downturn, particularly amid fears of a renewed slowdown.

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Tags: Brazil, Economy, Global News, Government, Politics