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TEHRAN (FNA)- The new documents leaked by Edward Snowden through Germany’s Der Spiegel show that the National Security Agency (NSA) and its allies have been preparing for ‘internet wars’, and that the NSA and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) feel they are so far ahead in the game, they’re laughing about it.
The documents show that the NSA surveillance programs were only the beginning of their efforts to create sophisticated digital weapons for their internet war efforts. One of the goals included is to be able to infiltrate and disable computer networks, thereby giving them the ability to disrupt utilities and other infrastructure.
The US is already capable of launching complex digital attacks that can cause physical harm, such as a computer virus known as Struxnet that was deployed in a joint operation between the US and Israel. It sought to destroy Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility and its nuclear centrifuges. However, now the NSA has begun to boast of having newer and more powerful digital weapons.
A major theme of the new documents involves ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence, or the ability to exploit the methods of its adversaries. Basically spies spying on spies. The NSA calls this capability ‘fourth party collection’.
Apparently fourth party collection is so successful, the NSA and GCHQ have been making jokes about it. In one presentation, they quoted a famous line from the 2007 movie, There Will Be Blood… “I drink your milkshake.”
It’s reported that in another presentation, the GCHQ details how it exploits ‘leaky mobile apps’ with a tool called ‘BADASS’. Spy agencies can, “glean personal information from metadata sent between users’ devices and mobile ad networks and analytics firms—data that’s not supposed to contain personally identifiable information.” Several of the slides are titled, “Abusing BADASS for Fun and Profit,” and another slide boasts, “We know how bad you are at Angry Birds.”
“It’s absurd: as they are busy spying, the spies are spied on by other spies,” Der Spiegel writes. “In response, they routinely seek to cover their tracks or to lay fake ones instead. In technical terms, the ROC lays false tracks as follows: After third-party computers are infiltrated, the process of exfiltration can begin—the act of exporting the data that has been gleaned. But the loot isn’t delivered directly to ROC’s IP address. Rather, it is routed to a so-called Scapegoat Target. That means that stolen information could end up on someone else’s servers, making it look as though they were the perpetrators.”
SOURCES:
Doctorow, Cory. Boing Boing. Jan 18, 2015.
Sottek, T.C. The Verge. Jan 17, 2015.
WorkerAnt#11. Investment Watch. Jan 18, 2015.
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TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian researches from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in association with their counterparts from University of Malaya, Malaysia, studied the effect of presence of nanoparticles in increasing the efficiency of cooling devices used in various industries, including power plants, petroleum industry, gas, and petrochemicals.
The cost of energy consumption can be decreased using the results of the study.
Energy saving is the most important plan in various industries. Therefore, this project was defined for the optimization of energy consumption in two-phased thermal pipes. To this end, a new fluid has been synthesized with high heat transfer efficiency. The fluid has a multi-layered graphene base that is synthesized through microwave method.
According to the researchers, the project tries to increase the power of heat transfer and can reduce the price of two-phased thermal pipes or reduce the number of pipes. On the other hand, thermal cycles can be operated at lower temperatures, which definitely results in reduction of energy consumption.
Water and many important fluids have very low heat transfer coefficient in industrial processes. According to the evaluations carried out by the research group, multi-layered graphene has very high heat transfer coefficient, and its combination with water can overcome the weak point of water in heat transfer. The problem in the application of graphene is its unwillingness to be homogenously dispersed in aqueous media. Proposed methods to overcome the problem have so far been very time-consuming and costly. In this research, the edges of graphene have been combined with hydrophilic agents through microwave method, and a homogenous fluid has been produced, which has very good performance in heat transfer even in low weight concentrations.
Results of the research have been published in Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 92, issue 1, 2015, pp. 322-330.
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The man whose allegations of VIP sex parties are at the centre of a police inquiry last night claimed to have witnessed a boy being murdered by a Tory MP.
Known only as ‘Nick’, the witness said the horrifying experience of being assaulted by an alleged VIP paedophile ring of MPs, spy chiefs, military and legal officials had haunted his life.
Around 1980, he recalls being driven by a chauffeur to a luxury London townhouse with a terrified 12-year-old boy who he claims was then strangled to death by a Tory MP.
The man told the Sunday People: ‘I knew we were being taken somewhere to be sexually abused by powerful men. But I had no idea of the true horror of what was about to happen.’
He also claims a Tory Cabinet minister and another Tory MP raped him and other boys aged between ten and 14, who were chauffeur-driven to parties across London in luxury cars.
One of the addresses where the alleged parties took place was in Dolphin Square, a prestigious Pimlico complex popular with MPs.
Nick believes he was taken there at least ten times for ‘abuse parties’ between 1975 and 1984.
In 1979, he says he saw an unknown member of the paedophile gang run over a boy of ten or 11 in south-west London as a ‘warning’ to other victims not to speak out. Then, in 1981, he alleges a third child was murdered in front of a Tory Cabinet minister.
After received counselling for the abuse he suffered, Nick contacted the Exaro investigative website in May before deciding to go to police. His claims are being investigated by Scotland Yard.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2837175/MP-told-police-VIP-paedophile-ring-s-parties-26-years-Labour-s-John-Mann-claims-handed-evidence-abuse-Scotland-Yard-investigation-shelved.html#ixzz3SS7SUgBF
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Customers First
Encyclical 14: Is Yoga Exercise?
To the Sacred Clergy and Pious People of our Sacred Metropolis,
My brethren,
A key feature of ourtime is the confusion observed in various aspects of human life. A characteristic example of this spiritual and existential confusion is the fact that yoga is fundamentally a religious technique of Hinduism, advertised in our country, in Europe and in the United States as an exercise-fitness solution which is offered to release us from the numerous problems stemming from a stressful lifestyle.
But what is yoga? The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj which means to "unite", meaning the union of the individual soul with the impersonal Absolute One of Hinduism (see P. Schreiner, Yoga: W?rterbuch des Christen-tums, 1995, p. 1376). This union is considered a liberation and redemption of mankind from karma, that is, from the consequences that result from our choices and actions in supposedly previous lives.
Moreover, concerning the term yoga, we must stress that it is used as a qualifying term of one of the six classical orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy (see H. Baer, "Yoga", in the Lexikon der Sekten, Sohdergruppen und Weltanschauungen, 7th Ed, 2001, pp. 1166-1174).
But is yoga exercise? Can one isolate the practical exercise from its religious content and background? Can one ignore the purpose for which it is used? Unquestionably no.
And what about the claim of various centers, institutes, schools, groups, journals and gyms, that present it as lacking a religious nature, alleging it to be a "scientific" psychosomatic practice, or a practice for a simple existence and spiritual self-knowledge? Without doubt these assertions are inaccurate. They oftentimes misinform and confuse using an extremely attractive vocabulary (see R. Hauth, (Hrsg), Kompaktlexikon Religionen, 1998, p. 366).
On the contrary, yoga is a religious systematic theory, technique and method that evolves in stages and practices, one of which is meditation, which leads those who use it, with the guidance of a teacher (guru), to a singular life joined to the impersonal Absolute of Hinduism. In this way a person is redeemed and atones for the errors and mistakes made during the source of all supposedly previous incarnations.
From the above, therefore, we observe that the view of yoga simply as an exercise is incorrect. And this 1) because it is a fundamental feature of the Hindu system, 2) it cannot be stripped of its religious character according to the conditions of the content and purpose of exercise, 3) it is intrinsically linked to the anti-Christian concept of reincarnation, and 4) because it constitutes a humanistic effort towards redemption through techniques and exercises.
Why are the various techniques of yoga dangerous? The answer is given to us in an article on yoga from an authoritative encyclopedia Δο*μή. It says there: "It is known that the practice of yoga creates for the individual not entirely physiological properties - and parapsychological - because it reverses certain physical and mental functioning" (Δο*μή, vol. 4, p. 199).
To conclude this brief offering of ours on whether or not yoga is exercise, we must again remind all of the obvious. The value of our identity as Orthodox Christians is incompatible with the use of Hindu religious practices in any aspect of our lives.
The salvation of man which is freely housed within the Church, is the work and offering of the love and grace of our Christ. For us does Paul say with all gravity: "So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Gal. 3:26-27), and: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14-15).hide...
I have a hard time identifying with people that wear a torture device around their necks.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaj0cMkZn9c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTM7mSubxj0
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp8gjhWaPjw
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