Phreak out the Robocallers

In 1957 a phenomenon was started by a whistling blind child later to be known as phreaking - a portmanteau of phone and freak. Basically, this has to do with hacking telecommunication systems.

The first time I ran into this was in college where a fellow student demonstrated how he was able to make free long distance phone calls by playing back selected tones into a pay phone receiver on operator assisted calls. Each tone signaled the insertion of a coin into the phone thus tricking the system into thinking he was paying for it.

Much of the traditional techniques used by phreaks have become obsolete and nowadays and phreaking has moved to the internet, practiced by descendants that call themselves "the 2600" - the frequency that the 7 year old Joe Engressia accidentally whistled into his receiver that resulted in ending a dialed phone recording.

Today there is still a way to use tones to hack the phone system that is useful to those who have had the misfortune to be the target of debt collection automated calling - or robocalls.

Simply record this tone as your message greeting and the computer dialing your number will flag it as no longer out of service. It really works.

Call to Scrap all Montana Traffic Fatality Markers

As I blogged earlier, when traveling in Montana, you can see these little white metal crosses along the roadsides at the site where there has been a traffic fatality.

These so called roadside markers have been placed by the Montana American Legion since 1953 who explicitly state that they are NOT meant to be memorials, but that they are "safety" markers that call attention to a dangerous road condition.

Who are they trying to kid?

A white cross is universally recognized as a Christian symbol used as a memorial for the dead and it's no coincidence that they are treated as such by the public. The Legion knew this from the start but dishonestly represents them as a safety markers in order to dissipate reaction from political interests that may object. In a state that is 82% white christian, it doesn't take much to quash any dissent. Once you erect a "memorial" regardless of where it is, it can be very difficult to remove due to perceived sacrilege to the person it is attached to.

Roads used to be dangerous in places, but nearly all roadways now conform to strict safety standards that have been thoroughly researched. If there is any potential danger on a stretch of road, there are always big yellow signs that alert drivers of the problem. Is a little white cross really more effective than a big reflective sign that has a symbol and a warning like "Slippery when wet"? Road safety is effectively addressed by the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) which was created in the United States by NHTSA (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to provide an overall measure of highway safety, to help suggest solutions, and to help provide an objective basis to evaluate the effectiveness of motor vehicle safety standards and highway safety programs. These little crosses may sound like a "good idea" to some people but probably only from an emotional point of view. There is no data that suggests that they are effective in any way as a safety device. The reasoning put forth for placing them was completely arbitrary. Safety engineering is supported by statistics and not from perceived good intentions.

3. According to the NHTSA most highway accidents are not due to dangerous roads but to driver impairment. How is a little white cross supposed to keep people from drinking too much, texting while driving or getting better sleep?

4. Highways are for driving and doing so safely. Memorials to the dead belong in cemeteries - and if the victims families consider it so important to proclaim to the public where Uncle Joe drifted of the road perhaps they can petition the state so that they can be permitted to bury his body along the roadside where he died so that the safely message is even more meaningful.

As a safety device, these crosses are ill conceived and at the very least obsolete, but as an territorial marker they may be effective. The reality here is that the Montana American Legion has been exploiting the deaths of accident victims and their families in order to proselytize for the cause of Christian Dominionism whose aim has always been to preserve the state of Montana as a racial and religious enclave. The only thing these little "markers" accomplish is to signal to travelers: "All you colored folk, Atheists, Mexicans and Muslims can just keep on drivin". The only way you could make their message any clearer is if you set them all on fire - like the KKK likes to do.

These objects of propaganda should be made illegal, removed and scrapped.

The Catholic School Gambit

I grew up in a family that was tethered to a Catholic parish. The 5 kids all went to parochial school, the whole family to church every Sunday, the boys were "servers" (the most dangerous job a boy can have) and my mother was always doing volunteer work at the church. If it weren't for her interest in art, she may never have had any other exposure to the world outside the parish community. At some point in my development, this began to bother me and by my sophomore year in high school, I decided to opt for a public education and to not go to church anymore. My parents wisely accepted this.

It so happens that there are two Catholic households across the street from my home that send their children to parochial school. As I have observed them for many years, I have noticed that their lives appear to be completely immersed in their Catholic world. I decided to investigate what these people have to commit to in order to maintain this protective bubble for their offspring which is essentially what my own parents were burdened with.

A google search shows the Worker Bee family mentioned in a local parish, so I went to the parish website the Church of St. Mark and the St. Marks School. Here is what I found.

Tuition at St. Marks School K-8:

Standard Rate: $4625/child.
Parish Rate: $3600/child.
Materials fee: $100/child
Technology Fee Gr 6-8: $200/child
Family registration fee: $200

These prices look fairly mainstream for a typical Catholic grade school. Of course we are in vited to experience the "St. Marks difference" which is kind of a crock because everything about any Catholic school is all about soul crushing sameness. The "difference" usually means that your little darlings won't have to share their school with poor minorities - especially the black children.

The "parish rate" applies to "each child who is a member of a registered, active parish family."

The requirements state that "after careful consideration, Saint Mark's Parish has determined that families qualify for the Parish Investment by meeting all of the following criteria:

• Registered member at Saint Mark's Church
• Attends Mass regularly
• Volunteers time and talent in parish ministries or activities
• Pledges/honors an annual stewardship commitment

Families who do not qualify for the Parish Investment pay the Standard Tuition Rate."

Meeting these criteria means that the family:

1. Tithes to the minimum 10% of their annual gross income.
2. Attends weekly brain washing sessions.
3. Proselytize.
4. Work for the Vatican syndicate for free.

Let's look at the syndicate burden for the worker bee family.

Say the drone makes $50K a year at the grist mill and his queen makes $15K part time at repetitive task industries. Together they take home $65K/year. They have three of Gods little larvae. They already pay taxes for perfectly good public schools but they won't have any of that.

Extortion money to the Vatican Syndicate (Tithing): $6500
Family registration education fee: $200
Tuition x 3 parish rate: $10,800
Material Fees x 3: $300
Technology fee x 2: $200

Total Catholic financial burden for this famblie: $18,000/year.

That's 1/3 of their gross income and probably 1/2 of their take home pay! Since the breeders are completely committed to raising their brood and working free for the Vatican syndicate, they have no time or opportunity to have experiences and meet people outside the organization. They may never realize that they are being exploited and their kids may not either. They will probably be doomed to follow the same path never discovering some of their hidden talents or uncovering the wealth of mysteries of life because the syndicate has already programmed them to be who they are and their parents saw to it that nothing interfered with this process.

Being a Catholic, like all religions, is like carrying a parasite. You don't really need it, but since it's always been there, you assume it belongs as a part of you. It drains away your energy but won't kill you. It limits and prevents you from making the most of yourself because someone else has told you who you should be. You are essentially a slave to this paradigm by virtue of a centuries old scam that has over time finely crafted effective methods of manipulating whole populations - and it's generational - you never stood a chance.

If one is fortunate enough to be endowed with the skeptical gene, they may break through the Vatican syndicate's imperial conditioning to begin a lifelong journey of deprogramming and discovering the valuable things they missed along the way. They may ultimately end up spending valuable time that would otherwise be spent dusting gaudy statuary, getting to know themselves better and living fuller, happier lives.

Survivors guide to buying Box Wine

Recently I returned two boxes of Hardy's wine to the Liquor store because they went bad quickly or were bad when I opened them. Box wines usually seem to last for weeks after I break the seal, but this was the first time I have ever been met with bad wine - either from a bottle or a box.

At the store I asked about why this was happening. The sales person didn't seem to know, but he checked the remaining boxes on the shelf and they were all a year old. He removed them all. So I looked at all the other box wines in the store - most of them were around a year old and some had dust on them. Were they all bad then?

So I did some research on the internet and here is what I found.

First of all, it can be difficult to get real facts about wine - it is sold on the basis of snob appeal and there is a lot of disinformation out there put out by biased sources intent on preserving their markets. Wine is sold in a box or a bottle or a "Tetrapak".

The Bottle

The bottle can have a natural or plastic cork or a screw top. The screw top sounds like it is actually superior to a cork and a plastic cork may be better than a natural one. Although a natural cork is the least practical, it has immense snob appeal and many winerys won't change for fear of losing business or looking cheap. After all, Gallo has has a screw cap for
years. The biggest problem with corks is that the seal is vulnerable to being breached due to temperature and pressure changes during storage and shipping. Keeping oxygen out of the wine is critical since it starts breaking down rapidly once this happens. A properly sealed bottle maintains a hermetic seal that can prevent oxygen from reaching the wine almost indefinitely. Once opened, a bottle of wine will start to degrade and each time you pour a glass over succeeding days or a week will begin to taste more or less like vinegar.

The Box

The box is a plastic bladder housed in a cardboard box. The wine is aged before it is packaged. However, plastic is permeable to oxygen so once the wine is packaged, it slowly begins to decay letting minute amounts of oxygen through the plastic membrane over the preceding months it is stored. Therefore, it is important to purchase box wine as early as possible to ensure the freshest wine. Once you break the seal on the box, it is much less critical how quickly you drink it up because the plastic bladder shrinks with the wine content preventing any new air to be introduced into the product. If you bought a fresh box, it should stay that way for weeks after you open it unlike any bottle you pop open. Boxes are more economical to purchase because they weigh less and are cheaper to ship as well as allowing the consumer to purchase more bulk.

TIP: When it seems you have tapped your last glass from a box wine, remove the bag from the box and cut off a corner so you can pour out any remaining wine. Often there can be an extra glass full that is caught inside that won't come out of the spigot.

The Tetrapak

The Tetrapak is made out of paper and a waxy coating. You know this more commonly as a "juice box". The advantages over a glass bottle is that it is lighter, unbreakable and recyclable. This packaging is more common in Europe. Like the bottle, you must drink up. I haven't seen any of these at the store around here to date, but then in Minnesota, we are just waking up to the idea of buying our liquor in the grocery store.

Transportation and Storage

Once wine leaves the winery, it has to be transported and stored in a stable environment. Wine is alive and is very sensitive to changes and excesses in temperature, pressure and humidity. Heat can "cook" the wine, changes in temperature and pressure and humidity can break seals allowing oxygen through. Ultraviolet light can damage it as well.

If the wine from your local store has not been handled and stored properly, you are buying damaged goods. It may be a bit off and may be hard to tell or it can be noticeably bad. This is particularly true with the box wines since they may tend to be the cheaper varieties and may be transported by less experienced or conscientious haulers. Some box wines have a package date, but others have a "best before" date so you don't know really how old they are.

A Brief History of Some Crops

Most people do not realize how much mankind has altered food crops since Neolithic Revolution and beyond when societies made their way from subsistence foraging and hunting to agriculture and pastoralism.

Corn

Selective breeding has altered corn, also known as Maize, from a spindly whip to a burgeoning cob. Corn has its origins in Mesoamerica about 6300 years ago or perhaps earlier. It did not reach Europe until the 16th century.

The Banana

A few years ago, Televangelist Ray Comfort offered up the modern banana as an example of how his god designed food for man's uses. Later he was somewhat humbled when biologists provided evidence of how man has selected the fruit to its present form.

Edible bananas originated in the Indo-Malaysian region reaching to northern Australia. They were known only by hearsay in the Mediterranean region in the 3rd Century B.C., and are believed to have been first carried to Europe in the 10th Century A.D. Early in the 16th Century, Portuguese mariners transported the plant from the West African coast to South America. The types found in cultivation in the Pacific have been traced to eastern Indonesia from where they spread to the Marquesas and by stages to Hawaii. To the left is a wild banana which is what our present day grocery store variety looked like thousands of years ago.



Wheat

Wheat seems to be the genesis of what we call the agricultural revolution and started out as a wild grass. It originated in the area known as the Fertile Crescent in Western Asia approximately 11,000 years ago. The cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent and did not reach Europe unil about 5000 years ago. At right is an example of how the grains have been changed over the Millennia.

Apples

The center of diversity of the genus Malus is in eastern Turkey. The apple tree was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated,^[7] and its fruits have been improved through selection over thousands of years. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Asia Minor in 300 BCE; those he brought back to Macedonia might have been the progenitors of dwarfing root stocks. Winter apples, picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia, as well as in Argentina and in the United States since the arrival of Europeans. Apples were brought to North America with colonists in the 1600s, and the first apple orchard on the North American continent was said to be near Boston in 1625. In the 1900s, irrigation projects in Washington state began and allowed the development of the multi-billion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading species. Carbonized remains of apples have been found by archeologists in prehistoric lake dwellings in Switzerland, dating back to the Iron Age. There is also evidence to show that apples were eaten and preserved by slicing and sun drying during the Stone Age in Europe. The apple has a rich comtemporary history going back to greek and roman times, however I cannot seem to find much information about its origins and how it has changed. However, in future, scientist believe apples will look more like this:

Tomatoes

The tomato is native to South America. Genetic evidence shows that the progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous green plants with small green fruit with a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru.^]Apparently there is no history that the tomato was cultivated or even eaten in Peru before the Spanish arrived. These early species diversified into the dozen or so species of tomato recognized today. One species, was transported to Mexico where it was grown and consumed by prehistoric humans. The exact date of domestication is not known. Evidence supports the theory that the first domesticated tomato was a little yellow fruit grown by the Aztecs of Central Mexico who called it xitomatl , meaning plump thing with a navel, and later called tomatl by other Mesoamerican peoples. Aztec writings mention tomatoes were prepared with peppers, corn and salt, likely to be the original salsa recipe.

Possibly, Spanish explorer Cortez may have been the first to transfer the small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtítlan, now Mexico City in 1521. Also Christopher Columbus, may have taken it to Europe, earlier in 1493. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who named it pomo d’oro, golden apple.

Aztecs and other peoples in the region used the fruit in their cooking; it was being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas by 500 BCE.it probably looked more like these small yellow cherry tomatoes.

As a new plant in the 1600's the tomato was believed to be poisonous in England and the colonies and was used for decoration, but this myth had largely passed by the 1700's. Yet some people still insist on believing this.


Cotton

Cotton comes from a living lamb attached by its navel to a short stem rooted in the earth. The stem, or stalk, on which the lamb is suspended above the ground is flexible enough to allow the animal to bend downward, and graze on the grasses within its reach. When all the grass within the length of its tether is eaten the stem withers and the lamb dies. This plant-lamb has bones, blood, and delicate flesh, and is a favorite food of wolves, though no other carnivorous animal will attack it. This wonderful plant which bares living lambs for its fruit, grows in the area of Tartary. Since no one knows who cultivated it or where it originated from, the only explanation must be that it was placed onto the earth by God to used by his children how they see fit. Except of course, one shall not lie with the plant lest he be smote.

Beans

This is a bowl of runner beans we just extracted from their cases. They grow on vines and are actually kind of sweet. I learned that beans are originally from Peru, and some, like these and pintos, are toxic and can cause gastric upset so they must be soaked before cooking. We discovered that these turn green when they are cooked. They taste very good.

An Atheist visits Montana

The Rev just came back from an unholy retreat undergone to escape banality and stuck-in-a-rutism. My travels led me, among other western destinations, to Montana. To the Rev, this is a state that spurs visions of armed get-off-a-my land mountain survivalists waiting for Armageddon against waves of black ghetto refugees armed with 38 specials marauding the country side looking to rape and steal television sets. Of course, Montana was also home to Ted Kaczynski the Unabomber up near Lincoln MT.

First of all, Montana is an eye-poppingly spectacular place. The western end has verdant mountain gorges, wildlife and terrain that makes for some great hiking and off-roading.

The thing to keep in mind about Montana is that it is overwhelmingly white and christian. That's 88% white non Latino and 82% christian with 18% nonreligious making any other faith less than 1%. Oddly that makes atheists possibly the second most common "affiliation" in the state! In fact throughout my travel through North Dakota and Montana I did not see one Black, Asian or Latino individual. Even the Wal-Marts are chock full of wholesome looking Caucasians!

I found myself after a long days drive making my way in to the Absaroka Mountains just north of Yellowstone and found a great national forest campground that was free and I was fortunate to enjoy it all to myself. However, the area was dotted with camp grounds, ranches and no less than 5 christian retreats. In fact driving along the gravel roads you could see one of the areas most natural fauna - christian teenagers in tie-die T-shirts branded with religious nomenclature walking listlessly along the roadsides.

Butte has "Our Lady of the Rockies" - an unbelievably tacky 90 foot tall Madonna statue perched upon a local mountain top overlooking the city that they promote as a "miracle" and an inspiration. Sections were apparently lifted into place with the help of a national guard helicopter. She looks homely and fat. It keeps the Jews out I suppose.

Somewhere western Montana I came upon a huge sign along the highway that said "Jesus is Lord in this Valley" - a somewhat creepy way to suggest that unless you are white and christian, keep on moving.

A chamber of commerce brochure for Big Timber has "You know you are in a small town when - you don't show up for church, they send you a get well card" - which makes me wonder what they do to you when you NEVER show up for church.

I think about the most bigoted thing I experienced was the result of The Montana American Legion White Cross Highway Fatality Marker Program. "The Montana Highway Commission... approved the program in 1953, with the blessing of governor of Montana, J. Hugo Aronson"... and the Montana American Legion to place white crosses at the site of every car accident victim on Montana highways.

This is billed as a "safety" program, but it seems more like a ruse to proselytize the christian faith by placing memorials along the roads thereby alienating non-christians and preserving the dominion of white christian supremacy and control in the state. This has been the legacy of the American Legion all along.

Larry Stroklund, the Montana American Legion White Cross Chairman, claims "In many cases a cluster of these white crosses has been the impetus to get a section or curve on a highway re-engineered and/or re-constructed. The white crosses are a very worthwhile program and save lives."

I wonder if he has any data on that claim? Surely, highway fatality data and "Drive Carefully" signs would be more effective than these so called "markers" that happen to look exactly like the christian symbol of faith. We have churches for practicing superstition, cemeteries for memorializing the dead and roads for traveling.

However, this tactic is one of the mainstays of the Christian Dominionist movement - in the attempt to establish their notion that the US is a christian country where those with their beliefs have more rights than others, they aim to place symbols of their faith in public places and claim freedom of speech or that they have another purpose or meaning.

Stroklund also states: "Due to a federal ruling, white crosses are not allowed along interstate highways." But they are - there are many of these crucifixes along interstate 94 making the Montana American Legion possibly guilty of violating federal law.

If you are ever traveling through Montana, I recommend that when you see one of these "markers", stop the car, go yank it out of the ground and chuck it into the tall grass or bushes. They actually come out pretty easily.

Overall, my time in Montana was a good one. The state was beautiful, clean and the folks were pretty friendly, and as long as no one noticed my "No Gods, No Masters" bumper sticker, they could plainly see that I am white and just assume that Jesus is my personal savior.

Idaho was similar to Montana.

Oregon, by the way, was really cool in almost all respects. So much so that I think I may focus my job search there from now on because they just moved my old job to Detroit and there is no way I am moving there.

The Demise of Cable, Satellite and Broadcast TV

I have been paying for cable TV for like 8 years. A couple of years ago, we switched from Comcast to Dish Network mostly because Dish had a better way of surfing through the piles of stinking garbage flowing into my set top box. While Comcast was making surfing harder by shoving ads into the selection screen, dish was expanding it and allowing the viewer to create custom lists to surf with.

This helped immensely and we were happy - for a while. But then shows that we used to sit and watch with blank expressions as the drool fell out of our mouths became gradually irritating causing us to fidget in our womb chairs and swallow our saliva with gusto. The remote became something you could not place out of sight for a moment.

Then came the DVR. It was like heaven. Record the stuff you couldn't watch at 3:05 AM, skip through commercials. A Billy Mays ambush attack was practically a thing of the past. But after a while, we found that we could not even finish many of the meals of film that were served to us.

We had taken to downloading torrent movies and watching Youtube. Then one day I realized: I am now going through my customized channel list SEVERAL TIMES before settling on something banal enough to drool to and the red eye TCM and IFM films I used to record just weren't the gems in the rough they once were.

It was time to cut the umbilical.

I called Dish Network and canceled my service while investigating alternatives.
We spent the next 3 weeks watching the mostly tepid content that had accumulated on the DVR while ominous robot messages pleaded with us to RETURN OUR DVR IMMEDIATELY or we will do something to your credit card.

The DVR has just left the building.


So now its going to be Youtube, Netflix and what ever we find on the internet using our laptops to drive the 52" TV monitor. (it's not a "TV" anymore since it can't use the airwaves or cable anymore).




What is happening here?

Are we getting bored with life? Have we seen all the good movies and TV programs already? Perhaps, but I think more likely that cable TV had been deteriorating. News shows have turned to muck, the movies are forgettable and public programming is corporate soup for baby boomers souls. If the quality of program offerings have declined, so has the whole paradigm of media. The computer has spawned a population of folk that are used to hunting and gathering for content rather than choosing from the menu. Copyright laws and advertising don't work anymore and the amount of media in existence is staggering rendering any media unit insignificant and more difficult to sell. The computer has seized TV and is now eating its head off and I am using moistened towellettes instead of Viva to clean the drool from my keyboard.

Update1:

We watched our first streaming movie through my laptop with our free trial from Netfix - "Deliverance". There were a few jitters in the film and the picture quality ported to our 52" screen wasn't that great, but it was a good experience. No commercials, no surfing or editing.
We spent the rest of the time researching and discussing the film. Priceless.

Update2:

I just built a dedicated computer for entertainment. The Video is connected to a 52" big screen for movies and video while a smaller monitor serves as a standard computer interface. Audio is routed via optical link to an AV receiver for 5.1 sound. Now our remote is literally a wireless keyboard and a mouse.

add: Liketelevision, Hulu and ALLUC with new sites emerging all the time.