THIS IS THE VERY REASON WHY I RARELY EVER DO A *DEBIT* WHEN MAKING A TRANSACTION, RATHER I ALWAYS CHOOSE TO *CREDIT*, WHETHER IT’S ‘MY’ BANKS CARD OR A CREDIT CARD.

.credit one to my paranoia.

http://techweb.com/wire/security/181502468

The unfolding debit card scam that rocked Citibank this week is far from over, an analyst said Thursday as she called this first-time-ever mass theft of PINs “the worst consumer scam to date.”

Wednesday, Citibank confirmed that an ongoing fraud had forced it to reissue debit cards and block PIN-based transactions for users in Canada, Russia, and the U.K.

But Citibank is only the tip of the iceberg, said Avivah Litan, a Gartner research vice president. The scam — and scandal — has hit national banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Washington Mutual, as well as smaller banks, including ones in Oregon, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, all of which have re-issued debit cards in recent weeks.

“This is the worst hack ever,” Litan maintained. “It’s significant because not only is it a really wide-spread breach, but it affects debit cards, which everyone thought were immune to these kinds of things.”

Unlike credit cards, debit cards offer an additional level of security: the password-like Personal Identification Number, or PIN.

“That’s the irony, the PIN was supposed to make debit cards secure,” Litan said. “Up until this breach, everyone thought ATMS and PINs could never be compromised.”

Litan’s sources in the financial industry have told her that thieves hacked into a as-yet-unknown system, and made off with data stored on debit cards’ magnetic stripes, the associated “PIN blocks,” or encrypted PIN data, and the key for that encrypted data.

The problem, she continued, is that retailers improperly store PIN numbers after they’ve been entered, rather than erase them at the PIN-entering pad. Worse, the keys to decrypt the PIN blocks are often stored on the same network as the PINs themselves, making a single successful hack a potential goldmine for criminals: they get the PIN data and the key to read it.

In this case, Litan said, the thieves used the information to crank out counterfeit debit cards, then emptied accounts at ATMs. She estimated that they absconded with “at least a couple of thousand records, maybe more” and have cashed out to the tune of “millions already.”

The victim of the hack attack isn’t yet known, although some banks have pointed fingers at OfficeMax, which has denied that its system was penetrated.

Litan believes it much more likely that a third-party processor or terminal supplier was involved; the silence about the victim could point to a processor, she said, because they have the most to lose by the negative publicity.

Last summer, credit card processor CardSystems was hit with a massive breach that involved millions of accounts; CardSystems essentially sank under the publicity, and was later bought by Pay By Touch. In February 2006, the FTC reached a settlement with CardSystems that require it to adopt more stringent security measures, but the company remains open to consumer lawsuits that could mean millions in payouts.

No matter who is to blame, the bank industry is only about halfway through cleaning up the breach, said Litan. And more of the same is on the way.

“This will become a trend with criminals,” she bet. “Hackers will do this as much as they can” because it’s far easier to empty checking accounts at ATMs than to buy goods with purloined credit cards, then sell the goods to generate cash.

So what’s a consumer to do?

“Security is tight at the ATM, but point-of-sale is a whole other story,” said Litan. “Look at your [debit card] account on a regular basis, and don’t use a PIN-based debit card at point-of-sale,” she recommended. “I never do.”

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>……………
in other news……………..

THE EFF [& YOU] TAKES ON SONY
The settlement process has begun in The Electronic Frontier Foundation class action lawsuit against Sony BMG for the flawed digital rights management(DRM) that Sony BMG released in millions of CDs over the last several years.

DMusic has been working with EFF to notify as may people as possible so they can get some redress against Sony BMG pursuant to the class action settlement, or alternatively, choose to seek compensation against Sony BMG individual in their own lawsuit.

Music fans who bought the affected CDs can submit claims for clean music. Many customers are also eligible for extra downloads or a small cash settlement.

SO PLEASE CHECK OUT http://www.eff.org/sony/ for more details about the settlement, including a list of the CDs affected. AND MAKE sure you don’t stick an infected CD in your computer – it will plant malicious spyware that is difficult to remove!

—————————————————-

IF YOU NEED TO KNOW EXACTLY HOW TO CHANGE YOUR COMPUTER SETTINGS, SO THAT CDs/DVDs ARE NOT ALLOWED TO INSTANTANEOUSLY INSTALL HIDDEN ‘GEMS’ WITHOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE WHEN YOU PUT THEM INSIDE YOUR PC, CHECK HERE:
http://audiomind.livejournal.com/149551.html

where in the hell do you find this shtuff gattican?

PISCES is the OCEAN OF LOVE

Pisces is the last and most difficult [water] sign to understand. And there in lies the rub – we simply can’t understand Pisces. Pisces defies all mental activities of the rational mind. We can experience the wonders of Piscean waters only if we are willing and able to plunge into the cosmic sea of the ADHD Spirit. If not, we will be confused, deceived and endlessly chasing illusions.

The Piscean options are fairly clear cut – confusion or revelation, nebulous or numinous. To navigate Piscean territory we have to rise above the cloud cover of our belief systems and pierce the veil of our rational mind. We have to look beyond appearances, embrace authentic experience and perceive from untainted awareness. We must be willing to shift from denial to authenticity.

NAVIGATING PISCEAN WATERS

‘My’ focus needs to be on how to navigate mine own Piscean waters. If we insist on completely running our lives in our habitual “I am in control of my reality” mode, we could encounter situations that are at the least frustrating. We could also be brought to our knees in humble acceptance of the primal power of the Infinite.

In the rational mind, Pisces computes FOG. We cannot figure things out. We feel confused and out of control. We can’t find our center, reference points or an anchor. Pisces lovingly obliges us to find and be guided by our inner compass. Pisces makes it both possible and necessary to operate from intuitive and instinctual awareness. If we are willing and able to be present to the energetic waves of our emotional body, we can monitor our participation in the eternal ebb and flow of universal energies.

Silence and solitude are necessary to tune into the subtle levels of reality. We can’t think ourselves into feeling. We can’t command ourselves into awareness. We have to stop being distracted and start paying attention. We have to sit with ourselves, with the sole agenda of being present to our sacred self within. There is so much more than meets our normal eye, ear and mind. To expand our perception faculties, we have to turn our senses inward. We have to stop paying so much attention to events outside ourselves and turn our attention to how energy dances through our being.

Pisces teaches us that in order to evolve, we have to learn how to rely on our subtle sensory perception. In order to understand, we have to perceive hidden meanings. In order to be free, we have to live in uninterrupted connection with the Universe!

HOW TO KNOW THE UNKNOWN

Pisces territory is the invisible, the unknown and the non-physical. So the relevant questions are;

(1) How can we experience this reality?
(2) How can we navigate our lives in this reality?

We cannot effectively operate in Piscean waters without first actually being aware of the invisible dimension of reality. Our senses are conditioned to perceive physical reality. Our minds are programmed to deal with physical reality. Trying to deal with non-physical reality from our rational minds creates frustration and inexplicable anxiety.

When we are not consciously connected to the invisible power and infinite space of the Universe, we experience the lower vibrations of the invisible world – the collective unconscious, our own subconscious programming and the shadows of an eternal fog. If we aren’t ‘tuned in’, our disconnection manifests as a veil that separates us from our soul and the Infinite. We can become a victim of our own blindness and the master of our own undoing. We may think that hidden enemies are after us, that the world doesn’t love us or that we are unworthy of love. Disconnected from our own eternal essence and unaware of how our actions, thoughts and emotions create our reality, we may continue to perpetuate our familiar, limited reality.

In Pisces territory, we can also get lost in our inner fantasy factory. Lured by the escape route of the dream world, we easily loose our connection with our physical body and our mental faculties that make it possible to effectively operate in physical reality. Escapism, whether facilitated by drugs, alcohol, fanatical ideologies or simply the inability to be present, becomes our preferred mode of operation. Whether we recognize or repress our insecurities, in this state of helplessness, we project neediness.

The bottom line is that we have to become more conscious before we can deal with Piscean energy and the challenges that it presents, and before we can claim its sunken treasures. Cultivating creative consciousness requires disciplined training – not Pisces’ preferred cup of tea.

INVISIBLE DANGERS AND GIFTS

Both the dangers and the gifts represented by Pisces are invisible. The dangers lurk in our subconscious created by past and present life karma. The gifts can be hard to access because we first have to connect with who we really are. If we feel insignificant and unworthy and lack a sense of identity and purpose, we won’t have the keys to open our own treasure chest.

Until we are able to lift the veil between physical and non-physical realities and actually experience other dimensions, we are going to react to Pisces energy by being spaced out, lost, forgetful, confused and delusional. Our choices may lead us to a mental institution. To escape the challenges of physical reality, we may also head off to an ashram, monastery or the wilderness. The later does have its advantages over the former. If we choose the later and take advantage of the reprieve from the psychological warfare of modern society, we have a chance to use our perceptive faculties to zoom ourselves into this world.

Of course, most of us can’t just take off for extended periods of time. Our real choice is not where we will go physically, but how we choose to use our vast inner world. We can either drive ourselves nuts with our stories or we can devote time everyday to clearing and reprogramming our psyche. If we are willing to look inside, we can access a new playing field.

The heart has only one channel, which connects to the neutral mind. When we are in our neutral mind, our head is able to bow to our heart. Head and heart become one. Our personal wholeness opens the door to cosmic oneness. We have entered the elevated state of Pisces.

ACKNOWLEDGE OUR EVOLVING SOUL

To optimally operate in Piscean territory we have to acknowledge our spiritual nature and accept the past and present consequences of being an ever-evolving soul. This means specifically living from the facts that;

(1) Our past actions and lives have determined who we are and what we are here to learn this lifetime.
(2) Our choices this lifetime are at this moment determining the evolutionary course of our soul.

Shifting to an evolutionary soul perspective adds a whole new flavor and existential meaning to our lives. Instead of being satisfied with a glazed over consciousness, we become eager to find out more about ourselves. Waking up becomes much for interesting, essential and meaningful. Taking responsibility for our own lives becomes a welcome relief that can deliver us from daily drudgery and victim mentality.

Our tests and challenges are no longer acts of the evil hand of fate, but entrance exams that earn us access to the spiritual realm. Our heart becomes our Geiger counter directing us to the place inside where we experience courage, strength, beauty and love at a whole new level. ‘Deep’ no longer means depression. ‘Deep’ leads us to our hidden treasures. Spiritual aging becomes an asset; we have finally earned the right to our souls’ trust fund.

Pisces teaches us that opportunities are always available. We just have to make ourselves available to perceive them. Our gifts were always ready to be claimed. But we have to prepare ourselves to claim them. We have to be in our heart and in our body to be available and receptive.

EXPAND YOUR ABILITY TO TRUST

The cosmic vibration of Pisces makes it possible to surrender to and trust the Infinite. From time to time, some of us give lip service to the concept of “Letting Go.” However, most of the time, we act as though we have to figure everything out and do everything ourselves. We hope our prayers will be answered, only we don’t trust that they will. Usually what we call surrender is really giving up, only after we have exhausted our schemes. Pushed into a corner, we quit trying to manipulate events and hope that things will work out.

While in Pisces, we have an opportunity to expand our ability to trust. One major way our inability to trust manifests itself is as unnecessary worry about ourselves and others. The more we connect with universal energies, the more we realize that the universe really does take care of things and arrange karma to be paid off or rewarded. This realization can help release us from our need to control and to inappropriately take care of others. Everyone is connected to ‘Source’. The more we increase our awareness of this fact, the more we will be inclined to focus on our responsibility to cultivate our conscious connection. Everyone has their own path and has to figure this out themselves. Interfering in others’ evolutionary process is not a good idea. Our job is to learn to trust the Infinite and to trust ourselves.

To trust ourselves we can’t be in denial about our nature and about what we are doing to avoid relating that to our soul identity. To trust ourselves and the Infinite we have to have an experience of something we can trust – a knowing of an energy or presence that is always there. Trust comes from knowing. Knowing comes from experience.

BELIEF VS EXPERIENCE

Pisces says don’t believe me or anyone else. Find out for yourself. Belief doesn’t even compute when stacked against experience. When we can begin to distinguish between belief and experience, we have begun our journey from illusion to reality. Of course, not all beliefs are illusions. Some are confirmations of reality. But only through experience will we be able to tell the difference.

The simple truth is that there is more going on within ourselves and in the universe than any of us can ever imagine or experience. Our spiritual journey is about gradually cultivating an expanded awareness so we can tune into our soul and universal reality.

We can start by slowing down and shifting into neutral so we can look at life through a clear lens and listen without monopolizing our thought waves with chatter. The REALITY channel is available to everyone at all times.

Free of charge.

Check it out.

It is far more interesting, beneficial and enlightening than our stories. Life is precious. Experiencing every moment of life as it is, instead of how we wish it were or think it should be, is a sacred gift that only we can give ourselves.

“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.” – Howard Aiken

There were well more than 100 entries in this remix competition—and picking the winner was a tough-tough decision. It’s clear that the challenge of making music based on the sound of Hitachi hard drives failing was as much a reason to take part as winning the Tokyoflash Equalizer watch. So before announcing the winner, let’s review the highlights:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/announcements/hard-drive-dying-dance-track-winner-151666.php

Love, respect, and appreciation for music are easy to share with our children and build life skills at the same time. During the first years of our child’s life, musical skills build self-esteem and enhance expression. Musical rhythms spur motor development. Learning melodies and words stimulates listening capacity and help children develop receptive language. Specific areas of child development and learning are positively affected by exposure to and training in music. Preschoolers given piano and voice lessons, for example, have been found to improve dramatically in their ability to put together picture puzzles of animals. Playing the piano at the preschool age influences development of the cortex, the part of the brain used for thinking, talking, seeing, hearing, and creating. Music training contributes to the ability to learn or enhance mathematics skills.

Music clearly is a resource for living, growing, and learning and can be an integral part of our children’s growing experiences.

Music is controlled movement of sound, in time.

Music is three basic components: Sound + Rhythm + Melody = Music

To help children understand music, it is helpful to look at each component separately. First there is sound, one that we make or one from another source. A few examples of sound are a bird chirping, a teakettle whistling, and a child banging on a pot with a spoon. If music were compared to a painting, sound would be the background color. In our bodies, sound corresponds with our central nervous system. A pleasant sound opens and expands us. It can energize or calm us. A shrieking sound puts our nerves on edge. Like the background in a painting, sound is the first step in creating music.

Here are some ways to explore sound with our children.

- Have your children listen to the sounds around them. How many different sounds can they find in the kitchen or backyard?

- Encourage children to be creative making sounds. Have them use their voices or household objects to make sound. Allow them to make pretty, irritating, or silly sounds. They are all music if they reflect creative exploration or honest feelings.

The purpose for creating sound is not necessarily to make “beautiful music” but to foster self-expression and open up our children’s ears to the world around them.

The second component of music is rhythm. Rhythm defines and organizes the sound through a beat. For example, is the whistling of the teakettle long and steady or short and choppy? Is the child’s banging on the pot fast and upbeat or smooth and slow? In a painting, the rhythm would be the overall movement or flow of the composition. When you first look at the painting, where do your eyes go? Is the painting easy to look at or is it busy and annoying? This is its rhythm.

In our bodies, rhythm corresponds to our own internal body rhythm-our pulse and breath. If the musical beat is quick and steady, our heartbeat and body movements will mirror it. If we are tired, listening to African drumming can kick our body back into gear. On the other hand, if a two-year-old is running around out of control, slow rhythmic music like Bach or Vivaldi restores inner calm and slows most children down. Explore and add rhythm to the sounds that children make.

- Have your children play with different beats: fast, slow, steady, and erratic.

- Have them practice listening to the different rhythms around them, like the water dripping from the faucet or the ticking of a clock.

- Ask them if they can feel the vibration of a musical beat in their bodies, and if so, where? How do the different rhythms feel in their body? How do their feet want to move with the different beats?

- Try hand clapping to the rhythm of a poem and foot tapping to a favorite piece of music. These activities are every child’s favorite, free entertainment.

Finally there is melody. Melody corresponds to our emotions. It gives sound and rhythm its feeling and sensual quality. It is the part of music that expresses the hills and valleys of an individual’s experience. It goes straight to our heart and feeling center. Melody can uplift our spirit, calm us during times of stress, or move us to tears. Returning to the painting metaphor, melody would be the overall feeling that the painting evokes as we look at it. Does the painting draw us in and create a feeling of peace, excitement, distress, or discomfort? Introducing melody to the earlier sounds and rhythms will help children learn self-expression.

- Have them hum a tune or create a melody, adding emotion to sound.

- Experiment expressing sounds that are emotional: happy, sad, funny, etc.

Melody turns a sound into a personal and unique statement. By playing with sound, rhythm and melody our children discover a new vocabulary and tool to use for expression when words are hard to find.

We can use creativity and imagination to choose different styles of music by which our children can express their feelings, relax, stimulate their minds or allow their creative juices to flow. A variety of selections, rhythms, tones, and melodies allows children to develop their own musical tastes and sparks their natural curiosity to explore the world of music on their own.

And this……. http://donnaidh-sidhe.livejournal.com/594077.html ……my friends is why the modern feminist movement [feminazis] have/has traveled beyond the realm of sanity.

For simply presenting the facts, without even technically giving ‘the other side’ its just due, I am shot down by those raging, incoherent feminazi hormones…=…banned from commenting. No debate, no discussion, no rationality, just heated nonsense turned to shit.

tekanji is what they call the common cretin/dimwitted foot soldier of the modern movement, not seeing the forest for the trees, all the while screaming at the top of her lungs for none but herself to hear….(CHECK HERE TO WITNESS THE ASININE ‘BETE NOIRE’ YOURSELF = http://blog.shrub.com/) ….and though I did happen to respect donnaidh_sidhe‘s wit, that respect was lost along with the childish ban she put in place for me simply debating the true text of the original story and the brass tacks beyond (say for instance, the utter crap here ==> http://www.pleasureactivism.org/sex_pos_fem.html). please continue to silence those who disagree with your distorted POV and instinctively re-invent the straw man, just as the supposed ‘perpetrator’ leaves the building, if it suits your fantasies girls. Tis O.K., for whilst you jest and inadvertently poke fun at your own dull impotency, i’ll be safely navigating through your secret stash of Cheet-o crumbs in a successful attempt at escaping the cat-fit of your absurd premise.

THIS, MY FRIENDS, IS JUST ONE OF THE REASONS [along with the aggregating contradictions, amassing hypocritical dung and the eternal antagonistic victim role they embody] WHY I DETEST MOST MODERN [deluded] FEMINISTS.

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IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT THE ORIGINAL POST HAS BEEN PROTECTED (not deleted or private), WHICH, FROM MY UNDERSTANDING, CAN ONLY BE DONE BY AN ‘EMPLOYEE’ (so that noone can bear witness to the sheer nonsense), AND THAT THE ORIGINAL ENTRY IS NOT CACHED, BC HAS SOMEHOW IMPLEMENTED A ROBOT.TXT FILE THAT DOESN’T ALLOW ARCHIVING [unless LJ allows that somewherez?], which is a smart move i guess for her.

Error
You are not authorized to view this protected entry.

furthermore, tekanji has attempted to file a frivolous claim, through LJ’s abuse team, for me simply providing a link to her PUBLIC website where she PUBLICLY DISPLAYS HER PICTURES and HER REAL NAME.

Just another case of the feminist camp’s attempt at censorship?

Read on and you decide:
http://www.gabnet.com/lit/deich3e.htm

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for the record, my so-called biased statistics actually came from the same governmental statistics these same deluded feminists attempt to use as a weapon to humiliate the male species as a whole, much like i’ve witnessed for 10+ years now. if they actually took the time to examine those links, they would have found this out, but of course they refused to take the time out of their day to actually reside outside of their protective box.

besides, the fact of the matter is, is that this duplicitous, flame baiting, and somewhat sexist comment is why I posted in the first place ==> “…..I’m a little bit obsessed these days with the ways in which people routinely treat women as objects….”which we can freely conclude is a subtle way of taking a stab at men in general.

Here are yet two other examples of how I’ve end up a target of the feminist hordes:
http://spins.us/FORUM/viewtopic.php?t=37498 – My Opposition to the VAWA as it is written

http://spins.us/FORUM/viewtopic.php?t=39937 – PBS criminal complicity to feminist distortions and lies about Single Fathers who want JOINT CUSTODY OF THEIR CHILDREN.