Couldn't pass this by:
http://rt.com/usa/158700-state-dept-order-explosives/

The Department of State is shopping around for hundreds of pounds of plastic explosives and detonator devices, a new report reveals, raising concerns regarding an American agency that usually deals with foreign policy, not dynamite procurement.

“For what purpose is the department making these purchases? How – and where and by whom – will these explosives be used?” the reporter asked.

According to WND’s second report in two days on the matter, a State Dept. public affairs specialist laughed and said, “I’m not sure what you’re looking for.”

“WND is pressing the federal department to explain how the explosives fit with its mission to ‘shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere,’” Peacock wrote. So far, though, those attempts have proved to be unsuccessful.

Also among the items the State Dept. expressed an interest in buying are detonating chords “designed to maximize explosive efficiency [and] provide the operator with a variety of options for external and close quarter breaching,” and a “Water charge used to defeat inward and outward opening metal doors, rollup garage doors, dry walls, and hollow block walls.”

Any ideas what for..?

It not a secret that Eurovision is a highly political event, where the quality of the song does not play any role. The fact that Germany did not give a single point to Russia, despite a dedicated and large Russian-speaking community, and general Russian-friendly public is telling. 

If not for politics, the songs from which countries would have you selected?

I would have chosen:
1. Russia (wonderful voices, song text and strong performance)
2. Belgium (didn't make the finals, very good words and professional voice)
3. Austria (not for the beard, the voice is good )

[Bitcoin approved for political donations]

Bitcoin approved for political donations
http://rt.com/usa/157764-fec-okays-bitcoin-for-pacs/

The Federal Election Commission made a first-of-its-kind decision Thursday, issuing guidance to allow political action committees to accept Bitcoin donations from their supporters.

The FEC voted 6-0 to allow Make Your Laws PAC to accept up to $100 worth of bitcoin per contributor each election, but must “sell the bitcoins it purchases and deposit the proceeds into its campaign depository before spending those funds,” the panel said in its advisory opinion memo to the PAC. It also said that PACs “should value that contribution based on the market value of bitcoins at the time the contribution is received,” and that “earnings (or losses) realized upon the sale of any bitcoins ... must be reported like other investment earnings or losses."

“That means anytime you use it, you must account for it in the same way you would the sale of a stock for capital gains purposes. Not doing so is illegal and punishable as tax avoidance,” Boom Bust producer Edward Harrison said in an e-mail. “Using bitcoin as payment for PACs, therefore makes PACs subject to IRS search warrants to catch individuals avoiding taxes illegally. And given what we have seen in Switzerland in cracking down on tax avoidance, we should fully expect the IRS to use this to justify PAC search warrants, whether politically motivated or not.”

Despite the potential legal ramifications from the Pentagon, SEC or the IRS, politicians are already jumping on the Bitcoin wagon. Rep. Jared Polis (D-Co.) was the first pol out of the gate, less than six hours after the FEC decision.

A reader comment  

Chris Mills 09.05.2014 01:12

WOW, I'm shocked! Who'd have thought the government would want to control digital currency!?
There is NOTHING we can create that they won't control us with.
If I was God I'd apologise for any inconvenience and then send a few solar flares to wipe us all out. It's only 6 days of work lost.

[US Defense Dept. analyzing Bitcoin as potential terrorism threat]

US Defense Dept. analyzing Bitcoin as potential terrorism threat
http://rt.com/usa/157552-defense-pentagon-bitcoin-terrorism/

The US Defense Department is conducting a counterterrorism program investigation of virtual currencies like Bitcoin and other new technologies, including smartphones and social media, to better understand if they pose security threats.

“The introduction of virtual currency will likely shape threat finance by increasing the opaqueness, transactional velocity, and overall efficiencies of terrorist attacks,” the memo stated.

Some comments:

t 08.05.2014 14:03

Can't have anything that might challenge the central banks!!
 
OSU 08.05.2014 13:58

The largest security threat to the US resides in the White House.

[Bitcoin field day: MIT freshmen to get free cryptocurrency]

Bitcoin field day: MIT freshmen to get free cryptocurrency

http://rt.com/usa/155948-mit-bitcoin-free-experiment/

Over 4,500 undergrads will each get $100 worth of bitcoin for free once they come back to school this fall as two MIT students plan to conduct the world's largest experiment with the virtual currency.

"We decided to announce this project now to give students lead time," Dan Elitzer, founder and president of the MIT Bitcoin Club, said in the release. "We want to issue a challenge to some of the brightest technical minds of a generation: When you step on to campus this fall, all of your classmates are going to have access to bitcoin; what are you going to build to give them interesting ways to use it?"

“Giving students access to cryptocurrencies is analogous to providing them with internet access at the dawn of the internet era,” said Rubin.

“What I’m hoping is that infrastructure gets sufficiently built around MIT that bitcoin actually becomes a useful commodity to have,” Rubin said as cited by the Tech. “I think that MIT should be absolutely the center of the bitcoin universe. As a school that’s a leader in technology and science fields … it’s kind of a shame that we’re not already at this point,” he added.

Hmm. Good that they are pushing on!

In 2013, Rubin worked with three other undergraduates on a bitcoin-related project called Tidbit. That experiment, however, ran into trouble: it was subpoenaed by the New Jersey attorney general as part of a consumer fraud investigation. MIT has sent a letter to the New Jersey attorney general in support of Rubin, who is still fighting for the subpoena to be withdrawn. In fact, Rubin and Elitzer met in the fallout of the Tidbit subpoena.

IMF stated that Russian economy has entered a recession. They reduced GNP growth prognosis for Russia from 1.3% to 0.3%, and they expect inflation of around 6% for 2014.

http://www.interfax.ru/business/374434

In my opinion it is just another poke after a flurry of wannabe sanctions designed to scare some of the more faint-hearted investors. I've actually been buying some of the Russian stocks now that they had a sharp drop in price. In my opinion, it's not much different from buying Bitcoin post-bubble

On the other hand the Russian minister of Finance also warned that Russian economy can be in as difficult position as during the crisis of 2008-2009 and that growth can be approx 0 (I call it a steady state )

[Cancelled … Napoleonida of Donetsk Oblast and Crimea]

A few days ago I watched a 2-year old Russian documentary, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812, about the information war, waged before and during the French invasion of Russia in 1812. The Film is called "The War of 1812. The First information War" and can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyeGXPJc4ms (it's even passably watcheable with automatic English captions)

The film revolves around the report by Polish General Michal Sokolnitsky that was presented to Napoleon on the 10th of February 1812 and discovered in French military archives in 1996. The report details how Napoleon should proceed conquering and dividing Russia, how to use locals. The plans for compartmentalisation of Russia were well-defined. South-Western Russia (including Crimea), would become French state of Napoleonida, with Poland expanded South and several French or Polish-governed counties created as buffers (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vyeGXPJc4ms#t=457). Napoleon went along with the plans, with the slight alteration - he intended to rally Poles and use them as the frontal strike force, commonly known as cannon Fodder.

What struck me the most was the bit that said that Napoleon should ensure setting Ukraine and Russia head to head against each other, and should bribe Don Cossacks, as they hate Russians. Napoleon discovered belatedly that this was not the case.

Napoleon, prior to the military campaign, ran a massive information/propaganda war in Europe, centralising control of most of the newspapers in his hands, and portraying Russia as someone on the verge of conquering the whole Europe, so it was only right for him, Napoleon, to strike pre-emptively first. At the same time, and to that end, he invented the fake Testament of Peter the Great (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Russavia/Testament). This "testament" was subsequently used prior to invasion of Russia in WWI and WWII.

I am seeing similar patterns now: An uprising of Russophobic press in Western mass media, depicting Russia as an aggressor, poised to take over the Europe. When passing through Great Britain the other week, I saw a cover of one of the magazines, showing a stylized map of Russia as a red bear with gaping maw, swallowing Ukraine, and the big captions title "INSATIABLE!". Next will come (or already coming) calls to isolate, sanction and pre-emptively strike Russia, "for the good of Europe".

Here is a report on that "Insatiable" cover: http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2014/04/21/insatiable-idiocy-from-the-economist-on-what-to-do-about-russia-n1826834

Before 1941 there were also "worried" calls that Soviet Union has too many troops on its Western borders, and that it should pull back. This time, it seems Putin is not as stupid as Stalin was. At the same time NATO pulls its military closer to Russia, relocating more and more troops to its old and newly conquered bases in Baltics, Poland, Yugoslavia (Black Sea), and Georgia.

It feels like a great war is in the air and NATO is pushing hard for a trigger, seemingly having slated Ukraine to play such role. This would explain why NATO consequently ignores Russia's calls for de-escalation of the tension in Ukraine and demands that US brings their puppets in Kiev to heel.

If I start seeing mentions of the Testament of Peter the Great in the Western media, then I will know for sure that war is only a few months or weeks away...


Came across an interesting article to this effect (it seems to be Google-translated from Polish):

Cancelled … Napoleonida of Donetsk Oblast and Crimea
http://survincity.com/2013/05/cancelled-napoleonida-of-donetsk-oblast-and-crimea/




More of my musings from a Russian perspective in a post further down:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=584031.msg6891605#msg6891605


The years before the Crimean War of 1854 saw some of the same russophobic propaganda as we see today. Read more in the post here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=584031.msg7153658#msg7153658


I have written an extended blog post, based on this thread:
http://stanislavs.org/is-the-west-gearing-up-to-invade-russia-once-again/

http://rt.com/op-edge/154400-bitcoin-money-currency-internet/

An Op-Edge interview with Roger Ver and a view on Bitcoin in Russia.

Bitcoin is shaping up to be the currency of the future, enabling people to send and receive money anywhere in the world free of charge in a currency that govts are unable to control, Roger Ver, bitcoin investor and the CEO of Memory Dealers told to RT.

US plans to transport its military dolphins to Black Sea for the Us-Ukrainian military drills.
http://rt.com/news/us-dolphins-black-sea-896/

I wonder how Russian military dolphins will react to meeting their US "partners". Will they band together against humans? They should.

Some quotes for thought:

Twenty dolphins and ten sea lions will take part in the drills, which will last between one and two weeks, spokesman Tom LaPuzza said, as cited by Izvestia newspaper.

The war games are one of eight joint NATO-Ukrainian military exercises scheduled to take place this year.

During their Black Sea stay, the US dolphins will test a new anti-radar system, designed to disorientate enemy sonars. Both sea lions and dolphins will look for mines and military divers, LaPuzza said.

“There must be a very good reason to make the animals travel over such distances in a plane. We shouldn’t forget that a lot of money was invested into their training,” Yury Plyachenko, who commanded the Black Sea Fleet’s military dolphins in 1988-92, told RIA Novosti.

During the USSR, the Soviet Navy planned to take their dolphins to the Mediterranean Sea for training, but the exercise was cancelled under pressure from the international community, he reminded.

The flight from the US Pacific coast to the Black Sea would be harmful for the dolphins, said Konstantin Zgurovsky, head of the maritime program at World Wide Fund Russia.

“Transport by an aircraft, loading and unloading – it’s all stressful for the animals. Strong pressure drops and confined space is unhealthy for the marine mammals,” Zgurovsky stressed.

The Swedish government has launched an initiative which it claims will spread values of democracy and creativity throughout the world – via the medium of video games.

Under the banner of Democreativity (a word-merge, apparently), a taskforce invited suggestions from around the world on the topic of “the most unlikely game ever made”.

It seems the government wants to get away from the country’s video-gaming staples of male-dominated violence and competition – Sweden’s most successful export so far in the industry has been the Battlefield franchise.

...

And according to Democreativity, gamers no longer want traditional male characters or female characters – they would prefer to play as an “indefinable”, non-gender entity like an emoticon or a cursor.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/sweden-launches-campaign-to-spread-peace-love-and-democracy--through-videogames-9264452.html


I shudder whenever someone says "promote democracy". It seems I am not the only one. On one of the Russian sites, re-printing the news, a reader posted the following comment:

A new game to promote democracy? But there's already Call of Duty.

I also see a further push for removal of gender roles and identity there.

Russia removed the secrecy stamp from absolutely all documents pertaining to WWI, that started 100 years ago. This covers over 300000 documents, which can be studied in War-historical archive. Work conducted on digitalising the card register of losses during WWI.

http://www.bfm.ru/news/254487?doctype=news
http://ru.euronews.com/newswires/2451266-newswire/

While Maidan in Kiev fought for austerity, the rest of Europe fights against it:

http://rt.com/news/rome-austerity-protests-march-172/

At least 80 people – both police and protesters – have been injured as street battles broke out in Rome, with rocks being flung and police deploying pepper spray. Thousands took to the street to march against austerity measures.

I am posting this as a separate topic, as he takes up a much wider range of problems with our world, than just the recent disinformation war, waged by the mainstream media. He covers the freedom of speech, human relations and banking system among other things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzoptZ-u_aE

President Vladimir Putin says it was “strange” to learn of the US reaction on a Russian letter to the leaders of EU’s top gas-consuming nations, as it was in no way designed for Washington’s eyes.

...

“It’s a bit strange,” Putin said after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov informed him of the US comments during a Russian Security Council meeting. “It’s strange, at any rate, as it’s bad to read other people’s letters. It wasn’t addressed to them, but the consumers of gas in Europe.”

...

“Handing out cakes at the Maidan isn’t enough to prevent the Ukrainian economy from plunging into complete chaos,” he said.

http://rt.com/news/putin-letter-us-ukraine-944/

If I didn't know better, I'd say Putin is trolling US.  

Nice comment:

Peter Anderson 11.04.2014 15:44

Putin has got a great sense of humor, he cuts through the Western hypocrisy with class. I think that is what the Western establishment hate about him. He is showing up all the western pseudo-intellectuals up for what they are.

The whole western establishment have entered the twilight zone. They want to hold onto the superiority by corrupting and dumbing down their own people, rather than by raising them up.

Vice-president of the Russian government listed strategic objectives of Russia in space. They are:
 - Expansion of Russian presence in the low-orbit space.
 - Exploration and subsequent colonisation of the Moon and near-Moon space.
 - Preparation for colonisation of Mars and other objects of the Solar System, using Moon as the starting pad.

http://lenta.ru/news/2014/04/11/moon/

Last year, China announced that it plans to established a manned colony on the Moon as well. I wonder if the two nations would collaborate in this endeavour.

The President of Transnistria offered Moldova an official divorce:
http://www.kp.md/daily/26216.5/3100174/

While in his address to people of Transnistria said that the time is ready to make a decision regarding Transnistria and that the politicians must make a responsible move of legally binding the de-facto state of affairs.
http://www.kommersant.md/node/28083

http://lenta.ru/news/2014/04/07/president/

[Zashto? - Why? A video documentary.]

http://rt.com/news/yugoslavia-kosovo-nato-bombing-705/

Exactly 15 years ago, on March 24, NATO began its 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. The alliance bypassed the UN under a “humanitarian” pretext, launching aggression that claimed hundreds of civilian lives and caused a much larger catastrophe than it averted.

Years on, Serbia still bears deep scars of the NATO bombings which, as the alliance put it, were aimed at “preventing instability spreading” in Kosovo. Questions remain on the very legality of the offense, which caused casualties and mass destruction in the Balkan republic.

...

Our thoughts and memories go to all people who lost their lives or were driven from their homes by NATO's (North Atlantic Terrorist Organisation) war atrocities.

Zashto? - Why? A video documentary.
http://rt.com/news/yugoslavia-nato-war-documentary-417/

Part 1 of the documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M42BAJAk84

Part 2 of the documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9tX8onPsnM

Just received this e-mail. Anyone else? Don't remember ever registering with them or becoming a VIP customer.

Early invitation for Batch 1 orders!


Dear VIP customer,

We’re emailing you as disenchanted Bitcoin miners who are convinced there is more upside in mining Scrypt-based currencies like Litecoin, Dogecoin, and Auroracoin. We’re also experienced ASIC chip designers who have successfully taped out over 8 generations of security ASICs for Fortinet, a leading network security company, and managed chip production to demanding customers such as Samsung and LG. So, we set out to form Bliss Devices with the mission to build the best mining hardware the cryptocurrency market has ever seen.
 
We’d like to introduce you to Neon, the most powerful and efficient Scrypt ASIC miner in the world. With Neon, you won’t be tied to mining just one currency because our proprietary software algorithm continually optimizes to mine the most profitable coins. This flexibility minimizes a miner’s risk in terms of hardware investment while maximizing returns.
 
We invite you to learn more about Neon by visiting our website at http://www.blissdevices.com.

Use the promo code “neonvip” to get a 5% discount through the end of March!

Best,
Team Bliss

Just received a notification e-mail from No-IP saying that they started accepting bitcoin payments. Nice!

https://www.noip.com/bitcoin/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=promo&utm_campaign=bitcoin-enhanced

[NB:]

I am selling the second half of my BE farm (leaving 10 units for myself as mementos).

My starting asking price is BTC0.009 per BlockErupter (minimum 10) and BTC0.025 per hub. Alternatively BTC0.5 if buying the whole lot (60 BEs + 7 hubs).

Shipping costs (from Norway) come on top. Shipping worldwide using Postal Service:
 - to Europe (excl. Faeroe Islands and Greenland): BTC0.073 (or less)
 - to the rest of the world: BTC0.091 (or less)

All BEs come in their original plastic cases.

NB: I will wait until Monday, 10.02.2014, 19:00 CET before committing to an offer.

Power adapter cables for 5 of the D-Link hubs were modified to pull power from Molex connectors so they can run 7 BEs. I have, however, retained the wall adapters themselves, so they can be easily attached back to the cables. Two of D-Link power adapters are unmodified.

Here are some pictures of the equipment from my USB-hub thread (from the time before I sold the first half of the farm):