December 23, 2006

This New Year’s Eve, at midnight on the dot, hundreds of millions of pages of U.S. government secrets will be revealed. Or at least they’ll no longer be official secrets — it may actually take months or more for the National Archives and Records Administration to make those pages available for public consumption. The NARA is already dealing with a multi-million page backlog.

But in theory if not in immediate practice, what was set in motion by the Clinton administration in 1995 is coming to fruition. Executive Order 12958 declared that in 2000, every classified document 25 years of age or older would be automatically declassified unless the classifying agency had already sought and received that document’s exemption (anything that could cause an “identifiable” risk to national security, would violate a person’s privacy or involves more than one agency is exempt). After two three-year extensions granted by the Bush administration in response to cries from the CIA, FBI, NSA and other agencies that they didn’t have the manpower to review all of their papers in time, the final deadline has arrived. And President Bush is enforcing it.

Scholars of history, conspiracy theorists and freedom-of-information activists everywhere are doing a happy dance like none you’ve ever seen. We’re talking about a treasure trove of historical documents, secrets that have been kept for decades, suddenly stripped of its Top Secret, Secret or Confidential status. According to Michigan State University, the trove can include letters, telegrams, background checks, reports from war zones and cabinet-level meeting minutes, for a start.

Any government agency that has classified documents is involved in the declassification process. Organizations that deal in secrets, like the FBI, CIA, NSA and Department of Defense are releasing the largest volumes of paper: The FBI alone will be declassifying 270 million pages. The NSA is declassifying at least 35 million.

So what can we expect to learn when these pages become accessible to the public? We’re not talking about small secrets here. Experts says the documents will tell us about the inner workings of such events and periods as World War II; the Cold War; the McCarthy-era search for Communist sympathizers in the United States and the very real presence of Soviet spies in the U.S. government’s upper ranks; the Cuban missile crisis; the Vietnam War and the government’s anti-war-protestor activities including surveillance and penetration of activist groups; the CIA’s secret experiments with LSD; the Camp David Accords that resulted in a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt; the Iran hostage crisis in 1979; and the Soviet Union’s attack on Afghanistan that same year.

What we won’t be finding out about are specific war strategies, information on weapons of mass destruction, spy identities and other documents that would put specific people or the United States at risk.

Before this Executive Order for automatic declassification, scholars and the general public had to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act for a specific document to be declassified after its classification status had run out. If no one filed a request, a document remained secret even though technically it was no longer classified.

For more information on declassified government documents and related topics, check out the following links:

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Tis bullshit that LJ doesn’t allow linking to video sources other than from YouTube.
(once it opens the page up, click the screen to start)

Urbanized Acrobats
http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1729490

and if that wasn’t enough to fill your goat…..I give you the MsPaint masta
http://www.collegehumor.com/moogaloop/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=1728017

After spending weeks attempting to obtain a wii and PS3, I believe I’ve discovered the best ways of getting a wii or PS3. Below I share the ten secrets that I have discovered with you guys. Feel free to add more…

An animation of Wulf’s classic anti-war story, Don’t Go!
Right click and save if you wish. (around 31 MB)

Feel free to distribute it and post this link on other websites.

Download the PDF of Don’t Go!
Print out as many as you want and distribute them everywhere you can. (597 KB)

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In order to celebrate LP’s birthday, we are releasing a video history of the Libertarian Party. It explores some of the rich tradition of the LP, including some exciting conventions, campaigns and commercials.

http://www.youtube.com/v/MYQRzXd1UvQ

What better day could there be to provide the Libertarian Party with your most generous contribution. If you ‘re a member of the Libertarian Party, simply click here to leave us a birthday donation. If you’re not yet a member, please consider joining today.

http://www.lp.org/35th.shtml

Is SPINS truly to be closed after all these long years?!?!

http://community.spins.us/viewtopic.php?t=49502
http://community.spins.us/viewtopic.php?t=49602

Is Adam serious on this one???

It ain’t exactly nowhere near April Fool’s Day, so that’s out of the question.

Nevertheless, considering all the shit-talking and wrangling that’s taken place in his mysterious hiatus/absence, I can see why he might be a little tainted, particularly if he’s been mad busy in his personal/professional life.

Honestly though, it would be tragic to lose such an infinitely valuable resource to the North Carolina EDM community, even if it is just small potatoes balanced against the overall scheme of things. I have been actively involved in Spins since its inception, so I am confident that such a loss would hurt the already severely injured EDM scene in NC, even if it is but a simple website/forum.

Jonna, you down for assuming Admin rights?

I’m not too good yet with MySQL databases, CSS and the like, so I’m really not sure what help I would be in completely administering the site, at least for now. I have a basic understanding of it all, but not enough to take on such a gorilla of a project so soon. I certainly can help with expenses, if need be to further facilitate such a transfer and migration, yet it may still be too early to know what precisely his motivations are.

Any ideas/suggestions/thoughts……ANYONE?

[SEO=Search Engine Optimization]

There are so many SEO/SEM firms cropping up that talk a good game but don’t deliver results. This is in part because there’s so much information that is freely available about search engine optimization. On the surface, SEO sounds easy — and it really is — once you’ve had a number of sites to experiment with. What’s even easier than SEO, however, is discussing SEO as if you know what you’re actually doing (when you don’t)!

Here are 10 signs to watch out for that may very well indicate that your potential SEO is a quack. Please note that one of these individually may not be bad, but if you notice more than 2 or 3 of these when speaking with any SEO company, you may just want to head for the hills!

1. Your SEO company talks about Meta tags and Google PageRank (PR) as if they are the magic bullet to high rankings.

For the most part, there’s no reason to even bring up the keyword Meta tag nor toolbar PR in a discussion about what needs to be done to get better search engine exposure for your site. Both of them are issues that quack SEO companies will talk about because they actually believe they are the key to SEO success. They are not. I’ve discussed in previous articles the Meta keyword tag’s lack of importance, so I won’t go into that again here. In regards to PageRank, increasing the little green bar graph’s number should never be the ultimate goal of a professional SEO campaign. A good campaign will automatically increase your real and true PageRank (as measured by Google) without your specifically setting out to increasing it on your own.

Since PR doesn’t bring you traffic and sales (nor rankings), increasing it should not ever be the main goal of your campaign. This fact is of course lost on SEO quacks.

2. Your SEO company’s site (or those of their clients) has the same Title tags on every page.

Sounds crazy I know, but I’ve seen this more than once! I once got a client who had previously used a very major SEO company that most people have heard of. They had been with this firm for a whole year, and yet the Title tags on every page of their site were all the same (the name of the company). Since Title tags are probably the most important (and easiest) thing to change on a site, any SEO company that can’t do this one basic thing for their own site or their clients’ is most definitely a quack!

3. Your SEO company talks only about optimizing for the “long tail.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with long-tail keyword phrases, as they can bring a lot of traffic when all is said and done. But you don’t need an SEO company if those are the only phrases you’re interested in — you can do it yourself just by writing articles. Your SEO company should not be afraid to optimize for the actual keyword phrases that most people would use at the engines to find your site. Yeah, it’s gonna take time and money to go after the most competitive keyphrases, but there’s usually a happy medium. Most sites have plenty of phrases that are somewhere between long tail and highly competitive. Those are the ones you definitely want to target.

4. Your SEO company tells you it’s ALL about links (or ALL about content).

SEO isn’t ALL about anything. It’s about lots of things all added together to make the perfect combination for your site. A linking campaign alone will never be as effective if you neglect your on-page content, and vice versa. Be sure that your SEO company looks at your site from all angles and makes sure all your bases are covered. Otherwise, they’re probably a quack!

5. Your SEO company tells you that you need a linking campaign even though you already have tons of links and are a well-established popular site in your niche.

Not every site needs every SEO service out there. Just because your SEO company likes to sell link-building doesn’t mean you actually need it for your site. Why should you pay for something you don’t need? The same thing goes for sites that already have great, well-written, optimized content. If you’ve got that, perhaps you just need a linking campaign to help boost your traffic and sales. Don’t allow an SEO quack to fix what isn’t actually broken.

6. Your SEO company is almost surely 99% quackish if they tell you that they can rank your brand-new site in Google for keywords that will bring you traffic within a few months. In fact, if they claim they can do it in less than 9 months, they’re either inexperienced or lying. Google has an aging delay that is most certainly related to the age of the site, as well as a certain trust factor. It is only the very rare and wonderful site that can get around this delay. But if your site is like most, you’re going to have to look to the long term for your Google results, regardless of what the quacks might try to convince you of.

7. Your SEO company never mentions that they may very well need to redo your site architecture so that your important pages are prominently featured within your site navigation. In this case it’s very possible you’re dealing with an inexperienced, quack SEO. This is usually something that is not a quick fix, so most quacks are reluctant to discuss it with you (if they even know it’s important). But if your site architecture is not search-engine-ready, everything else you do will have much less impact.

8. Your SEO company can’t provide you with any quality references.

This one pretty much goes without saying, but do be sure to get references, and do be sure to actually call them. Yeah, a reference may very well turn out to be their cousin, but you should be able to get some feel for the company you’re choosing if you can at least talk to some references.

9. Your SEO company tells you that you have to have a DMOZ listing or your site will never be able to get high rankings.

Sure, a DMOZ listing is great, but it’s a link just like any other. Submit and forget about it. If you don’t get in, it’s no big deal — there are plenty of other links you can get instead.

10. Your SEO company’s site mentions that they’ll get you high rankings in AltaVista, Fast, Inktomi, Lycos, Excite, HotBot and the like. If it does, you are 100% positively dealing with a quack! ‘Nuff said!

So a couple weekends ago I’m out and about just innocently washing some clothes (@ the laundromat) with my son when guess who’s mugshot I witness plastered all over the TV screen at http://www.wsoctv.com,……..

WSOC was broadcasting a news story about (local) sexual predators who are utilizing online social networking sites (like myspace.com) as a stealthy & sickening way to prey on younger victims, sometimes offering very personal information and graphic pictures of themselves in the process. They were also making the public aware of a new program they will begin in 2007 which will begin tracking the state’s worst sex offenders with GPS monitoring technology.

Lo and behold, John M Iannarone, found HERE and HERE, previously was a roommate of one of my best friends whom I’ve known since I was but a young chap.

What’s scary is that we used to visit their apartment occasionally (with my son, no less) to swim, etc., before my best bud moved to Boston to get away from this disgusting freak for other abusive reasons that I won’t be publishing here. However, we obviously never knew the extent to which this pedophile had gone to showcase his detestable habits.

Here is the information pulled from the registry site:

Conviction Date:

06-15-2000

Release Date:

09-30-2002

NC Statute:

14-202.1 INDECENT LIBERTY WITH A MINOR

Sentence Imposed:

CONFINEMENT: 2Y8M

Court County:

BROWARD , FL

To have that kind of record………2 years and 8 months in prison………he must have committed a GRIEVOUS OFFENSE. This wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill perp caught in the legislative absurdities of GovCO circumstances, where he may have been convicted of a being a sexual predator to someone he may actually currently be married to. (What actually qualifies someone as a sexual offender/predator anyways, besides this particular obvious case of a 31yo violating someone under the age of 15?)

The WSOCTV (channel 9) video shows a reporter actually rushing his apartment door recently and questioning him while showcasing printouts of his graphic myspace page (cannot seem to find it suddenly, go figure), along with explicit pictures on that page, and his conviction record from Florida.
http://www.wsoctv.com/video/10406319/index.html

Luckily, just today, I came across this:
MySpace Ups Effort Against Sex Offenders

MySpace.com has partnered with an online identity and background verification company to root out sex offenders from the popular social network.

MySpace.com, which is owned by News Corp., said Tuesday it plans to identify and delete the profiles of registered sex offenders based on a database that is to be built by Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. Information in the data store would be compiled and updated frequently from records kept by federal and state law enforcement agencies.

MySpace.com plans to employ a 24-hour dedicated staff to check profiles against convicted sex offenders’ names, ages, physical descriptions, and distinguishing features such as scars and tattoos. The Sentinel database is expected to contain information on the 550,000 registered sex offenders in the United States.

MySpace.com has testified before Congress in support of a law that would require convicted sex offenders to register all of their e-mail addresses in a national database, which would make it easier to prevent them from joining sites like MySpace.com, which has a large base of teenage users. Under the proposal, failing to register e-mails would constitute a violation of offenders’ parole or probation, which could land them back in jail.

Child advocacy groups have criticized MySpace.com for failing to do enough to protect users younger than 18. In response to the dangers of teenagers becoming victims of sexual predators, the site in June launched security measures to protect 14 and 15 year olds. In addition, MySpace.com hired Hemanshu Nigam as chief security officer. Nigam is a former federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Nevertheless, child advocacy groups maintain that among the biggest problems of social networks remains their failure to reliably determine the age of people joining the site, in order to separate children and adults. In fact, sex offenders could simply lie when registering at an e-mail carrier, making it possible for them to circumvent new security measures.

Basically, my advice to you is this;
Be sure you have an inquisitive nature towards acquaintances you know who are of an unsavory nature (or not) and above all be sure to check your local sex offender registry, like the two I’ve listed below for my area.

North Carolina Sexual Offender Registry Search
http://ncregistry.ncsbi.gov/(S(ilcbgomtotxx5y45a0epdfbz))/search.aspx

Charlotte, NC – Mecklenburg County Child Predatory Registry Search
http://mcsowebsvr.co.mecklenburg.nc.us/pasom/search.aspx