International Monetary Fund Hit By Cyber Attack 208
DotNM writes "CityNews and other media outlets are reporting that the International Monetary Fund has been hit by a 'cyber attack.' They are withholding most of the details; however, it is known that the World Bank has shut down a 'link' between them and the IMF." Adds reader Hugh Pickens, "A cyber security expert told Reuters the infiltration had been a targeted attack, which installed software designed to give a nation state a 'digital insider presence' at the IMF. 'The code was developed and released for this purpose,' said Tom Kellerman, who has worked for the Fund. Bloomberg quoted an unnamed security expert as saying the hackers were connected to a foreign government — however, such attacks are very difficult to trace."
Social engineering and clickers (Score:4, Insightful)
So the hack was really just an employee doing something.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Social engineering and clickers (Score:5, Funny)
Must have been a "click my boobs to see them juggle" email.
This was the IMF so they probably clicked one of those 'Pay Day Loan' emails to check up on the competition ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
Being the IMF, it was actually 'HOT HOT HOT Hotel Maids!!!!'
Re:Social engineering and clickers (Score:5, Funny)
mod this up to see my boobies
IOW, the Chinese (Score:4, Insightful)
IOW, the Chinese did it, and everyone is too fucking scared to point the finger.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
That's exactly what the guy responsible for the cyber attacks would say!
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Nonsense, if the Chinese did it, that would have been an act of war. Don't you remember that fancy speech? Only choice is to blame Anonymous. The extra excuse for new laws is a bonus of course.
Re:IOW, the Chinese (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sorry, but after seeing how the IMF and the World Bank basically actively keep the desperate state of Africa up, causing horrible wars and mass-starvation, just for the wealth of the "west",
I, for one, proudly proclaim, that anyone who tries to kick their asses for that cause, is a hero to me, and anyone who disagrees will be force-moved to Africa, and get a good luck wish from me. (Won't help him one bit though).
Luckily, I know most people here are pretty educated about such things.
P.S.: If it was China, which I disagree with, I don't think they did it for that cause though.
Pentagon - false flag operation (Score:2)
The purpose is to provide sufficient excuse to continue military spending. You may recall the USA hit it's debt limit and is about to default. This will persuade the dissenting politicians that they should vote for an increase in the limit.
Re:IOW, the Chinese (Score:5, Funny)
Haha, I was wondering what "America has defaulted on its Chinese loans!" means? Does that mean we are going to be evicted? That is what CountryWide Loans did to me and my wife when we defaulted on our mortgage. "Whoopsie, catch you next month?" didn't cut is for us too many times. Doesn't Proverbs or something read "A borrower is slave to the lender?" and "Never a borrower or lender be?" I guess nobody played Monopoly either. Here's one thing about playing Monopoly, what happens when the big kid flips the board over and pounds you with your own Radio Flyer Wagon?
China: "USA...you land on Park Place, it has hotel, you owe me, I win!
USA: "grrrr...."
China: "you empty pockets NOW!"
USA: "You want wants in my pockets? Ok...here you go. BOOOOOOOOM, it's a thermal nuke from space! I guess you shouldn't try hacking us..lol."
China: "Jokes on you, we have nanobot and organic weapons we have been seeding you from Wal-Mart! You will all turn to zombies, we will rule the world!"
Australia: "Eastern Australia is attacking Western Australia...I need card, and I am strat moving all my armies to Siam....What?"
Britain: "I say old chap, you are playing the wrong game! It's Monopoly, not RISK."
Alfred E. Newman: What? Me worry?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If so, the IMF takes over our economy. Judging from what they have done to countries like Malawi, Niger, and other victims, they will sell our assets off at pennies on the dollar to domestic and foreign corporations, force the end to the social safety net, workers rights, and any charitable work by the government. Famine and other cases of human suffering has no effect on the IMF. Corporate profit is all that matters.
We will be owned by the people who forced this crisis. It is called "Disaster Capitalism."
It's happening in the USA too. At the state and Federal level we're being told that we can no longer afford workers' rights and the social safety net, though somehow we can afford tax breaks for billionaires and corporations.
Basically, those who already have most of the money are using its power to squeeze more out of those who only have a little.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's just nonsense. "Devaluing the currency" = inflation. US inflation doesn't look at all bad by historical standards.
http://inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/HistoricalInflation.aspx [inflationdata.com]
Flick to the 1976-1987 tab if you want to see what high inflation looks like.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I know - I lived through the 1970's. I remember the price of a corvette before and after.
You are forgetting, however, that inflation is now calculated differently. I don't really care what those numbers say anymore because they are now completely fictitious since the 1990's. Living outside the US I can see what's happening to the exchange rates - the US dollar used to be strong, a "safe haven". Not anymore. But hey why should I care, I'm sitting on a fair chunk of gold and silver (the real thing, not "
Re: (Score:2)
Bloomberg quoted an unnamed security expert as saying the hackers were connected to a foreign government — however, such attacks are very difficult to trace."
Not as difficult to trace as "unnamed security experts".
I'm going to get flack from a hopper load of "Certifeyed" "Ethical Hackers" (with links to their business touting security blogs in their homepage link but...
an "unnamed security expert" is an oxymoron (they tend to be attention whores). Seriously - it's like reading "an unnamed actor today said he/she had been asked to take over Charlie Sheen's job". Bullshit. Even a bullet in the brain wouldn't stop 'em from letting the media know who they were - ev
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You have led a sheltered life if you have to ask that question. As phucked up as US foreign policy is, the US is still the lesser of all the available evils. At least here in the US, we can (and do) speak out about our policies. Try that in China.
America = world terrorist (Score:3, Informative)
And Americans = terrorist supporters.
e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NUDWQ0U7N8 [youtube.com]
How many countries has the USA invaded recently? Whether you are better or worse than someone else is irrelevant. This is what you are.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Secondly "clips" taken out of context does not equal truth
Third, it is possible this kind of thing happens, just like when terrorists use human shields to protect themselves, planting evidence to make it look like a civilian, and other such events.
Fourth, you troll.
Re:America = world terrorist (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all, if its on youtube it must be the truth.
6 vets, one now a professor of law. All named, so you can google them and find references in any number of news agencies. You can't just shrug it off as "it's on youtube".
Third, it is possible this kind of thing happens, just like when terrorists use human shields to protect themselves, planting evidence to make it look like a civilian, and other such events.
So if named vets are saying it happens, and you are admitting it may well happen, what's your point? And why are you calling the OP a troll? Because you don't want to hear stuff about the US army that makes you uncomfortable?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And Americans = terrorist supporters.
e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NUDWQ0U7N8 [youtube.com]
How many countries has the USA invaded recently? Whether you are better or worse than someone else is irrelevant. This is what you are.
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and, whatever you hit, call it the target.
- Ashleigh Brilliant
Re:America = world terrorist (Score:5, Interesting)
So it was all the elites who were dancing in the streets last month when the US executed Osama Bin Laden? You guys just don't get it. Pulling that kind of crap is exactly why everyone else in the world detests US foreign policy.
If you still can't see it, consider the arrest of Ratko Mladic the other day. Almost identical situation, except Mladic personally helped to execute at least twice as many people as died in the attack on the World Trade Centre, so you could say he is more evil than OBL. And he was arrested and taken to the ICC. He wasn't shot in the head and dumped in the ocean, because that is not how civilised societies deal with criminals.
The way the US public cheers the fact that their government can and does execute anyone in the world with no due process, and is perfectly entitled to invade any country they don't like makes me feel physically ill.
Re: (Score:3)
While I support a reliance on the rule of law in theory, your example points out the exception. The breakup of Yugoslavia resulted in a war that dragged on for 10 years. Over 100,000 people died as a result, over a third of them innocent civilians. The European community, particularly Britain, France, and Germany, were incapable of halting an atrocity-filled war on their very doorstep. For all we know the war would still be going on today if the Americans hadn't stepped in and stopped it.
While you under
Re: (Score:2)
Bullshit. You ate the neo-lib propaganda about "humanitarian war" - hook, line and sinker.
"Humanitarian war" was designed to get comfortable, right-thinking and educated people to support wars of aggression and domination. The Clinton's were used as the messengers in the states, to sell this as "progressive" policy in the "post-Cold War" era. If you need to look deeper into any "hints", try examining the "accidental" bombing of the PRC Embassy in Belgrade. "Whoops".
GET THIS THROUGH YOUR HEAD:
There are N
Re: (Score:2)
Get this through your head: When you stick your head in the sand, there's still a lot of you exposed. It's your kind of thinking that let the war go on 10 years with no end in sight.
Over 30,000 civilians were already dead when American bombing brought the war to an end. Why aren't you weeping for them? Or better still be thankful for the civilian casualties that were avoided when the Americans brought the war to an end.
Better to let the war rage on and keep wringing your hands from the sidelines?
Re: (Score:2)
The European community, particularly Britain, France, and Germany, were incapable of halting an atrocity-filled war on their very doorstep. For all we know the war would still be going on today if the Americans hadn't stepped in and stopped it
Is that how the US news networks presented it to you? That's not what happened. There was no attempt by Britain, France, and Germany which failed, followed by the US cavalry saving the day at the end. In reality it was 15 countries of NATO (including the ones you mentioned) that acted together to push the war to a close.
Re: (Score:2)
No attempt by Britain, France, and Germany that failed? I guess you've never heard of the Brijuni Agreement, the Carrington-Cutileiro plan, the Vance-Owen plan, the Owen-Stoltenberg plan, or the Contact Group plan. All primarily European efforts at peace that failed miserably. How did they differ from the Dayton Accords? That's right, the big stick. Because while it's all well and good to say, "You kids stop that fighting!" in the end somebody has to actually go in and separate the parties and be able
Re: (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that killing him was not the intended goal. It sort of robbed the american people of a bit of justice, and robbed politicians of some much needed political capital. Sort of like the ending of Lost.
Re: (Score:2)
You have got to be fucking kidding me. So it was all the elites who were dancing in the streets last month when the US executed Osama Bin Laden? You guys just don't get it. Pulling that kind of crap is exactly why everyone else in the world detests US foreign policy. If you still can't see it, consider the arrest of Ratko Mladic the other day. Almost identical situation, except Mladic personally helped to execute at least twice as many people as died in the attack on the World Trade Centre, so you could say he is more evil than OBL. And he was arrested and taken to the ICC. He wasn't shot in the head and dumped in the ocean, because that is not how civilised societies deal with criminals.
The way the US public cheers the fact that their government can and does execute anyone in the world with no due process, and is perfectly entitled to invade any country they don't like makes me feel physically ill.
"I'm so sick of arming the world, then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, y'know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheepherder's feet.
"Pick it up."
"I don't wanna pick it up, Mister, you'll shoot me."
"Pick up the gun."
"Mister, I don't want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my
Re: (Score:2)
If bin Laden is a non-state actor, why invade Afghanistan?
Re: (Score:2)
Bin Laden was a State Actor.
It's just that - like David Headley - the states in question are the US and Israel, with proxy handlers in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Re: (Score:2)
Because the government refused to hand him over.
Look, it's very simple: if someone hits you, you can either a: hug it out, b: cry and run away, c: hit back
a and b is weak. c is strong, and sends a message. I was bullied in school until I grew a pair. A kid pushed me into a locker, just to be an asshole, so I turned around, grabbed his face, and I slammed him into the floor with his head. He was lucky he didn't get a concussion (so was I, people were ready to call the police). But I never got bullied again a
Re: (Score:2)
It's an odd distinction. Where do you place Arkan on a "line" between Osama bin Laden and Ratko Mladic? Was he a state actor or a non-state actor? Those are just words. The deeds these three men have done were funded and supported by people in power, otherwise they wouldn't have achieved this much violence.
They're not just words. State officials everywhere have mutual agreements that state officials should be treated with respect, even when totally evil. Since they're state officials, they can enforce it. That's why Osama got a bullet while Saddam got a trial in Iraq. It's why the best movie villains are diplomats or heads of state; they're part of a club of world leaders that protect each other, at least superficially.
Re: (Score:2)
Americans on the whole don't support Obama's illegal wars.
The Shrub family would like to thank you for setting that issue straight!
Re: (Score:2)
our government that been hijacked by a very small number of elites and Obama is just doing their bidding.
Elites and Obama? You're clearly a right winger and a Fox News viewer. Just because the other side won the last election you don't get to forget that it was Bush who started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the full backing of Fox News and people like you.
It's be great if Obama got out of there ASAP. But he didn't create the situation, he inherited it from Bush.
Re:IOW, the Chinese (Score:5, Interesting)
At least here in the US, we can (and do) speak out about our policies.
The thing is, that is changing rapidly. People are now regularly being accused of terrorism for pointing out flaws and failures. If we allow this situation to worsen...
Re:If we allow this situation to worsen (Score:2)
Oh my, you just scared me into realizing something.
We're going to have to all go back and study the Darmok episode of Trek TNG. Why? Because all we'll be able to get out is catalog numbers of Amazon's database containing the message we want to send.
Re: (Score:2)
People are now regularly being accused of terrorism for pointing out flaws and failures.
Care to list some examples of people indicted for "terrorism" when all they did was "point out flaws and failures"?
Re: (Score:2)
Care to list some examples of people indicted for "terrorism" when all they did was "point out flaws and failures"?
Indicted? The accusation is sufficient to cause harm.
Re: (Score:2)
He said "accused". You changed it to "indicted". Why did you feel the need to move the goalposts? Because of course he's right.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, it comforts me a lot that I can talk about how fucked up the system is here while I can only sit and stare helplessly in China.
Though... somehow the difference is just a lot of talking.
Re:just a lot of talking (Score:2)
It's really quite hypnotic too.
Dark Marteria with the +1 Insightful again.
Re: (Score:2)
You have led a sheltered life if you have to ask that question. As phucked up as US foreign policy is, the US is still the lesser of all the available evils. At least here in the US, we can (and do) speak out about our policies. Try that in China.
What's the point of repeating this concept every day? That's pretty much all you can do right now. Talk.
Everything else is controlled.
Re: (Score:2)
Modded 'insightful'
PS: If they know all about it, wouldn't it be better to keep quiet and tweak the code to send out false information...?
300 quatloos on the insurgent (Score:2)
Is this to be interpreted as a declaration of war on the IMF? Because that was long overdue.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
An attempt at war on the IMF in 1939 would be rather difficult given that the IMF wasn't formed till 1945.
Re: (Score:3)
*Foreign* government??? (Score:2, Interesting)
> Bloomberg quoted an unnamed security expert as saying the hackers were connected to a foreign government
So this "unnamed security expert" sees the IMF as a (world?) government or as part of some (the american?) government.
Or what does the word "foreign" mean here?
foreign (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Good news is ET will have his phone call either way
Re:foreign (Score:4, Informative)
Many in the world view the IMF as the European arm[1] of the Western Powers. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis the IMF recommended actions (e.g. allow important/strategic local banks to fail or to be bought up by foreign companies) that the US and other western countries would not take in their own crisis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asian_financial_crisis#IMF_Role [wikipedia.org]
Those actions arguably weakened the countries more than they would have otherwise. One can compare those countries with Malaysia (which declined the IMF's "help" and "advice"). Some later spun the results as Malaysia not recovering as much but if the country doesn't crash as low naturally it doesn't rise back as much ;).
[1] With the World Bank being the US arm...
Re: (Score:2)
How can the hackers be foreign if we're the *international* monetary fund?
Aliens?
Re: (Score:2)
Credit Cards (Score:3)
Maybe the politicians will have to stop using their (our) national "credit cards" for a while. A few decades would be nice.
Re: (Score:2)
Hope you have stockpiled ammo and MREs...
Nevermind (Score:4, Funny)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn != Cristiano Ronaldo (Score:2)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn != Cristiano Ronaldo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIzuY5V_YUI [youtube.com]
THIS is how to charm hotel maids :)
Re: (Score:2)
IMF actions have caused deaths (Score:5, Informative)
One example is that the IMF stopped Malawi from stockpiling grain, and many people died of starvation as a result:
"... when in 2001 the IMF found out the Malawian government had built up large stockpiles of grain in case there was a crop failure, they ordered them to sell it off to private companies at once. They told Malawi to get their priorities straight by using the proceeds to pay off a loan from a large bank the IMF had told them to take out in the first place, at a 56 per cent annual rate of interest. The Malawian president protested and said this was dangerous. But he had little choice. The grain was sold. The banks were paid.
The next year, the crops failed. The Malawian government had almost nothing to hand out. The starving population was reduced to eating the bark off the trees, and any rats they could capture. The BBC described it as Malawiâ(TM)s âoeworst ever famine.â There had been a much worse crop failure in 1991-2, but there was no famine because then the government had grain stocks to distribute. So at least a thousand innocent people starved to death.
Extracted from http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-its-not-just-dominique-strausskahn-the-imf-itself-should-be-on-trial-2292270.html [independent.co.uk]
Other examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary_Fund#Impact_on_access_to_food [wikipedia.org]
Re:IMF actions have caused deaths (Score:4, Insightful)
Incompetent governments blaming it on someone else. Oldest trick in the book.
And btw, defaulting is not an option. The ONLY reason the US dollar still stands is that the US NEVER defaulted.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
We've essentially defaulted
I know what you're getting at, but the biggest effect of defaulting is losing the faith of those who might give you loans. Saying we've "essentially defaulted" when this is not the case is stretching the word "defaulted" pretty thin. The picture is a little nicer if you consider debt as a fraction of GDP, but it's still not rosy. What do you mean by "ever-shrinking" assets?
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Loan 1 000 and the bank owns you. Loan 10 000 000 and you own the bank...
Re: (Score:2)
Great post. I guess this makes sense.
People complain about the IMF but they never question what led them needing the IMF in the first place.
Re: (Score:2)
People complain about the IMF but they never question what led them needing the IMF in the first place.
That's kind of like saying "People complain about baliffs but they never question what led them needing the bailiffs in the first place."
For sure the IMF, like bailiffs go in when a country has financial problems. But they are not there to serve the interests of the country with the financial problems. They actually make their financial problems worse. The IMF is there so that the rich countries can recoup cents on the dollar on their failed investments.
Difference is that bailiffs don't usually kill people.
As long as we are speculating wildly... (Score:2)
I think it was Bin Laden. He realized his body was not going to last much longer, so he had it copied onto those thousands of USB drives and hidden in various files using steganography techniques. Then, when the US forces analysed them, the bits of Bin Laden's consciousness became assembled in the US government's computer networks. From there, it was trivial for Bin Laden's digital ghost to get into the IMF.
See how simple that was?
Re: (Score:2)
Define "foreign"? (Score:3)
This is the IMF. What's a foreign government, in that context...Martians?
Why not a company? (Score:3)
the missing option (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Anonymous (Score:4, Funny)
I actually laughed out.
The most secure computer is one that is not on the internet or networked to other computers. I am surprised BSG preaches that to the mainstream. Or that never sleep with robots.
A BSG ship must be one that must be managed by a team of sysadmins. If you can't network you must have one physical computer per subsystem.
sudo /etc/init.d/hyperdrive restart /etc/hyperdrive.conf
Password:
Core dump: Failed to restart, not aligned
Hint: Is antimatter callibrator powered and within frequency range?
vim
Re: (Score:3)
Remember Stuxnet? it was deliberately designed to infect machines that were not connected to the internet by jumping aboard USB thumb drives. Just not being connected to the net isn't enough, although it certainly helps isolate you from the vast majority of the attacks an outside force could try. If that machine is in contact with any other machines, in any way, it's possible to be compromised unless even greater security measures are implemented.
So the most secure machine is one that is not networked with
Re: (Score:2)
by jumping aboard USB thumb drives
Which indicates that the systems were running Windows XP which is the only OS out there with the autorun "feature". If you're using a Windows OS to run critical industrial facilities then you really deserve to be hacked and have your facility shut down. This system was never intended to do that.
If you want a secure setup use a decent Unix variant to run your servers; you can even have them accessible from the outside if you know what you're doing.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't need autoplay for infection. Most viruses in the times of DOS spread in floppy disks, and there was no autoplay feature in DOS. Whatever system you are using, it has to access the media in order to learn about things like its filesystem, even before that, there has to be a driver of some sort for the actual hardware. If there is a bug in the code handling any of these things, an infection can occur long time before any autorun feature would even kick in.
Re: (Score:2)
You don't need autoplay for infection. Most viruses in the times of DOS spread in floppy disks, and there was no autoplay feature in DOS. Whatever system you are using, it has to access the media in order to learn about things like its filesystem, even before that, there has to be a driver of some sort for the actual hardware. If there is a bug in the code handling any of these things, an infection can occur long time before any autorun feature would even kick in.
Did you have the light on when you had breakfast? Me thinks you ate a bowl full of thick pills instead of your wheeties! I hope so - because otherwise you are barking mad.
In the days of MS/PC/4/IMB-DOS malware (like "del. > nul" in a setup.bat) on floppy drives required the user to actually execute the .exe/.com/.bat file.
Re: (Score:2)
Propagation through Interrupt 13. When BIOS routines managed all disk access for the OS.
01h 02h and 03h were the handler subs which gave you a vector for the MBR-type of virus.
McAfee used to update signatures quarterly...
Re: (Score:2)
Propagation through Interrupt 13. When BIOS routines managed all disk access for the OS.
01h 02h and 03h were the handler subs which gave you a vector for the MBR-type of virus.
McAfee used to update signatures quarterly...
No dispute there. But.... it still requires user intervention. I know some of the GNU folk'll hate me - but an OS - from Windows to Oberon can be compromised by the user. If the user is stupid. If one does something detrimental to oneself it. is. stupid. Even rocket scientists can be stupid. A rocket scientist who lights a cigarette beside a leaking oxygen cylinder is stupid. Our choice of OS and how we treat that choice is like choosing how many leaking oxygen cylinders we keep close by. Because we're huma
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Which indicates that the systems were running Windows XP which is the only OS out there with the autorun "feature". If you're using a Windows OS to run critical industrial facilities then you really deserve to be hacked and have your facility shut down. This system was never intended to do that.
If you want a secure setup use a decent Unix variant to run your servers; you can even have them accessible from the outside if you know what you're doing.
That is false, I'm afraid.
A guy at IBM did an online presentation about that. Ubuntu, by default, comes with thumbnail generation activated by default when you insert a USB drive (no autorun, though). After that, he took advantage of a few shortcomings of PDF and video which, combined with this default conf, escalated his privileges all the way to root. Lost the video link, maybe other /.ers may help.
Conclusion: the choice of OS is not, by itself, a security measure. Servers running Windows can be secure, a
Re:Who am I to believe? (Score:4, Insightful)
You already lost the game, when you accepted belief instead of facts.
I, as a social engineer, would thrive on you, if I weren't on your side here.
Basically, you already did my job. All I would have to do, is feed you "news" about whatever reality I want you to believe in. Causing you to act, based upon that "reality". Resulting in whatever I want you to do. You'd even defend me against others, because your beliefs would be me.
Yes, "evil" just doesn't describe it anymore. And yes, that's why it's only acceptable for me, to do something good with it. (Like educate people about it.)
If you want to know what to think, look at this: Pierce’s cycle of scientific knowledge development.
Notice how it says "observation". Personal observation. And even that can deceive you. (Hence there are optical illusions and "magicans".)
But it's the best you've got. And rational thinking (logic is good, but they can't free you from emotions [youtube.com]) does the rest.
Everything else, news, friends, books, me... are just external sources, and hence inherently can't give you any guarantees. You can choose to trust them. But then you also trust their agenda. As all they say, is for the purpose of that agenda. (That's not evil. It's just natural. Their agenda can also be something good to you.)
So make wise choices, and when in doubt, never ever "believe". :)
Good post (Score:2)
Interesting and creepy at the same time.
I like the aura of mystery your create and the menacingness. Yet at the same time you sound like a hero, almost an anti-hero, shrouded in justice and maybe a troubled past.
I can see a movie now.
Re: (Score:2)
You already lost the game, when you accepted belief instead of facts. (...) So make wise choices, and when in doubt, never ever "believe". :)
The future is always conjecture, whether you're trying to choose a pickup line or decide what your major in college should be. True, generally compliments work better than insults but you'll never have the facts until afterwards. Life is not a scientific experiment because it's impossible to recreate, or as the old Greeks put it: "No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." When you have the facts it is already history, you can not go back and change th
Re: (Score:2)
If you want energy prices to go down, the only thing that's going to make that happen is the civil wars in the middle east being resolved. That and gutpunching the oil companies and putting our boots on their necks for intentionally manipulating the market, but with the Republicans being what they are I'll count o
Re: (Score:2)
That and gutpunching the oil companies and putting our boots on their necks for intentionally manipulating the market
I read somewhere last week that a study has come out showing that 90% of the people driving oil prices up (by betting thus on the market) were just financial racketeers who don't actually do business related to oil.
Re: (Score:2)
And I read just here that you are full of shit.
Speculators do not make the price of the product they speculate in. They TAKE the price. When the price moves in their favor, they make money. When the price moves against them, they lose money. If you want to know what is moving the price of oil, consider the fact that China is a country with about 5 times the population of the US, with an economy that is growing at over 10% per year. China just last year has REPLACED the US as Germany's biggest customer. Ye
Re: (Score:2)
You're both right. Speculators on mass can of of course move the price enormously. See the .com boom. Lots of buyers seeing .coms as the next big thing, boosted by on-line stockbroking bringing in lots of new speculators into the market.
The growth of China obviously effects the oil price too.
And then there are other causes - the wars in the middle east, the uprisings in north africa, the Deepwater Horizon, the fact that we are near peak oil, and more...
Re: (Score:2)
Obama is gunning for another Nobel Peace Prize by widening the war in Libya and even Yemen.
Supporting the protesters in one, and bombing them in the other.
Re: (Score:2)
Now you have for profit - but still not natural monopolies in 100% private hands.
When the IMF is done with Greece, a few more people will be set for generations of wealth for cents on the $.
Re: (Score:2)
The IMF is a privately owned bank. It's been set up by the oldest players there is, Rothschilds. They are American Royalty and no one really knows what their worth is. Immense just isn't immense enough, there is plenty of documentation online though it's unlikely any of us breeders will know their intent. Probably to wre
Re: (Score:2)
Speaking of the IMF scandals, what happened to the deposed chief of it that got sacked with a sex scandal in NY? What has became of that?
He's under house arrest in New York. With a $1m bail. Which is itself appalling - anyone who wasn't part of the rich and powerful set would be kept in prison awaiting trial.