Month: June 2013

Pukh is like snow: Boza and I took a long walk today in Moscow, Russia. We came upon an area that looked like snow from a distance and the sky was almost a blizzard effect at times…

.

The ground as far as we could see was covered in the white cotton seeds. The air was so full that you had to squint your eyes at times to keep the seeds out. Poor Boza got them up his nose and sneezed twenty times.

Russians call the seeds topoliny pukh. This is also called pukh season in Moscow, a period when windows are closed and opening your mouth outdoors is an act of foolishness! (Also to stick your nose on the ground like Boza!)

Pukh – It is so beautiful…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 86 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered easy to read…

Skunk: Known as Polecats are mammals known for their ability to spray a liquid with a strong odor. Different species of polecats vary in appearance from black-and-white to brown or cream colored, but all have warning coloration…

I have been sprayed by a skunk and two of my dogs have been sprayed by a skunk. It is a very unpleasant issue and if it has ever happened to you, it is something that you will never forget…

Skunk – what does this have to do with Russia?

Well not much because I have never seen a skunk here and I am very thankful. I grew up in the world of skunks, living in the Midwest in America and skunks were a daily worry. As I talked about a couple of days ago – Poison Ivy: Not Around Russia…

There seems to be nothing like a skunk in Russia or at least the area that I frequent in Russia…

I asked Sveta had she ever met a skunk and she had a very blank look on her face. She had no idea about what I was talking about and believe you me if she had ever run into a skunk she would remember about that escapade. Skunks are one of those critters that you leave alone, just like you don’t go and kick a fire-ant mound and stand there picking your nose. For you will soon regret the fact that you did not leave soon enough…

So like looking for poison ivy as I travel Russia I also look for the polecat that will ruin your day as fast as a squirt can fly. Like the poison ivy I never find, so I never find the polecat in Russia…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 77.1 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly easy to read…

Hybrid power plant: Hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) are becoming popular for remote area power generation applications due to advances in renewable energy technologies and subsequent rise in prices of petroleum products. A hybrid energy system usually consists of two or more renewable energy sources used together to provide increased system efficiency as well as greater balance in energy supply…

Russia’s first hybrid diesel/solar power plant:

Russia launched a 140 kW plant (that utilizes battery storage, solar panels and diesel fuel) in the nature reserve located in the Altai Republic and it has been operating in test mode since March 1, 2013. It is expected to meet most of the electricity needs in the mountainous village of Yailyu where it is located, saving about 50 percent of current diesel consumption.

Solar power will account for 30-40 percent of the plant’s total kW output, with the rest supplied by its diesel generator. The generating plant will have a minimal guaranteed service life of at least 25 years…

This is a test run for future electrical needs all over the remote ares of Siberia…

It is a lot like a hybrid car that utilizes fossil fuels and batteries. Working together they make an efficient car and in the vast wilderness of Russia, these new hybrid power plants just make sense…

I found this interesting and it has to be good all the way around for everyone. Siberia is unbelievably remote and I am sure that more days than not, many villages in Siberia are without power. I know that is an issue with our little Russian Village that we have a home in and we are located only 400 km from Moscow…

This is a good answer to replace that aging infrastructure that is crumbling down from the Soviet era. In fact this is a great idea for all countries to look into and try to utilize renewable energy sources at the same time as we use fossil fuels…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 50.9 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly difficult to read…

Is there such a thing as a BRICS foreign policy? The quick and easy answer is “no.” At this point the BRICS do not have a unified and foreign policy agenda. However, the members find much common ground around the issues non-inference in the affairs of sovereign states, that the rule of international law should apply to all, and the use of force against a member of the international community should have the sanction beyond what is called the “Washington Consensus”. Russia’s view on Syria embraces all these tenets and encompasses a BRICS-like foreign policy approach.

Over the past two years we have been repeatedly reminded of “red lines”, as expressed by Washington, Tel Aviv, and European capitals when it comes to the crisis in Syria. What is lost in all of this is how Syria itself is a “red line” for international law and yet another example of how forced regime change pursued by outside powers is a dangerous exercise of the law of unintended consequences.

In the case of Syria, the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus is given warnings – sometimes in the most vague terms – of certain consequences of specific actions. The use of chemical weapons is the most outstanding “red line”. If Assad uses chemical weapons, we are told the West and its allies, particularly Israel, can do whatever they deem necessary against Assad (regardless of international law).

The only notable and evidential use of Syrian chemical weapons points to anti-regime rebels. Apparently, if rebels use chemical weapons, western-Israeli ‘red lines’ do not apply. Then there is the issue of legitimate self-defence.

Like Assad or not, he is the international recognised leader of Syria and he has every right to protect the sovereignty of his country. This is a policy area the BRICS and most of the world feel very strongly about. Russia has a history of selling weapons to Syria – all legal and sanctioned by internationally accepted contracts.

Russia’s commitment to remain within the bounds of the law is at the centre of its relationship with Syria and other countries in the region. Israel’s threat to intercept and apply force against Russian vessels carrying weapons bound to Syria in international waters is illegal under international law. Though this is not a “red line” for any one in Washington and Brussels.

Israel’s bombing of Syria is done with impunity. If a non-NATO country or a country not in sync with the “Washington consensus” committed such an act of naked aggression it would be considered a casus belli. If anyone of the BRICS attacked another country without warning while not at war with that country, the “Washington Consensus” would bristle with words of condemnation.

There are other double standards. This is at the same time the EU voted not to renew an arms embargo on Syria. Now independent EU governments can provide arms to groups in Syria as they please (though providing arms to non-state actors is itself illegal under international law).

We are probably witnessing the worse international crisis since the end of the Cold War and Syria is the epicentre. Sides have been taken. The US, the EU (for the most part), Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia (and its Gulf allies) demand regime change.

Additionally, whether they admit it or not, they back the Sunni from all over the region fighting Assad. Syria is the battlefield for this sectarian war. Does the West understand that it is a powerful enabler to a sectarian conflict that could last decades and result blow-back as we have witnessed in Boston and London. Does it understand that it is enabling some of the worst elements of radicalism that is so fundamentally alien to the vast majority of Muslims?

Add to this the unwillingness of Russia and other countries to allow the West to once again determine who has the right to rule. The US and is allies have destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. A better representation of international opinion (read: non-western countries like the BRICS) does not want to see Syria fall as the next victim of illegal regime change.

For the Syrian people what is happening in their country is now all about survival. The more outside powers involve themselves against Assad, the worse the situation becomes. Though beyond this horrific tragedy being played out on the ground is the hubris of others.

Syria is also an epitome of how the West continues to hijack and mismanage the global political order. The West and its allies claim the right to define a “red line” when it suits a geopolitical purpose and at the expense of international law. This is why Syria is a “red line” all of its own.

Countries like Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa simply will no longer idly watch a country be torn to pieces and a region dangerously destabilized. This is the beginning of a meaningful BRICS foreign policy.

BRICS view: The “red line” called Syria.

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 48.9 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered difficult to read…

Muslims that dreaded “M” word all over the world. Russia has a huge Muslim populace and I am sure with what is happening in the world and with the Olympics right around the corner, the pressure is on to ensure that the Olympics are stable and safe. But is this what it takes to make the Olympics safe?

About 300 Muslims were taken into custody in Moscow under a government crackdown on Islamic radicals ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, security officials say. The Federal Security Service said the Muslims, including 170 foreigners, were arrested Friday at a prayer room in Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin ordered the concerted effort to clamp down on Islamic extremists. He said, “We must fight back hard against extremists who, under the banners of radicalism, nationalism and separatism, are trying to split our society,” Putin told security officials at the Kremlin Friday. Putin also said, “The policy in the fight against corruption, crime and the insurgency has to be carried out harshly and consistently. The situation in the North Caucasus should be kept under particular control.”

Muslims Bad?

We seem to think so if we are from the west and I know that Muslim is an interesting word in Russia also. Russia has a large Muslim populace and has their own set of issues that is dealt with here, as France has, Britain has and so forth and so forth.  I am not sure about what is right or wrong on this and I will have to do some more studying. The Muslims comprise around 27% of the worlds total populace and that is a huge amount of people. I just know a few Muslims and they are good people, just like there are good Jews, good Russians, good Americans, good blacks, good gays and good everyone on the planet. Definable more good than bad, it is just a shame that we have to do anything such as rounding up any people…

Why can’t we all just get along and live in peace and harmony?

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 61.9 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered OK to read…

 

Poison Ivy that is something that I grew up with and dealt with many times in my life in America. I even had to steer Sveta away from the plant in America when she came and visited many years ago. She had never heard of it and was wanting to check out a healthy dark green vine of the dreaded plant of itching…

As Sveta and I walk around Russia, be it in Moscow or in the village or on one of our trips, I am always on the lookout for that plant. It is engrained in me as while I do not get it. I have had family members that have been hospitalized with sever cases of Poison Ivy. One case came from a wood fire that had Poison Ivy tossed on it to burn and the fumes got in their lungs…

Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac:

I have looked and do not find Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and nor Poison Sumac. I had all three when I lived in Missouri and getting rid of it was like try to get rid of fleas and ticks on your dog. If you live in the country it is a fact of life and you learn to deal with it, by avoidance…

So I have been trying to find if there is such a plant in Russia and as far as I can tell – NO!

Sveta has never seen it nor heard of it and had no idea what it looked like in America. That means that they do not have it and if they do, it is very minor and maybe down south Russia. It is the same thing as asking a Russian, “Do you know what a skunk is?”

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 79.4 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered easy to read…

Movie star Bruce Willis is watching you! As you sit in traffic in Russia, you feel someone watching you. You look around and see no one. Everyone is bored and unhappy as they sit in traffic for hours, but someone is watching you! Then you look up and realize that Bruce Willis is staring at you from a billboard, above the roadway, as he sells banking wares…

Then as you sit in traffic you realize that Depardieu is watching you as he sells home supplies and then you see many more super stars as they sell everything from baby food to high interest loans. Such is the world of Russia as you travel…

Traveling across Moscow will allow you to see Bruce Willis a couple of dozen times. Bruce has a face recognition factor that several banks are using in Russia to peddle their wares. I have no idea if Bruce makes money from these ads and I don’t care. I just know that I see him all over the place as you drive and that includes driving to the village…

Russians loves a movie star of old and they have “real time” recognition with all the actors that are being shoved out of Hollywood for the newer faces. I watch the press in the west as it crucifies actors that turn toward a fan base that still loves them. Steven Seagal is being shredded by the western press as he continues ties with Russia, Bruce Willis gets slaughtered as he makes movies in Russia, Depardieu is being treated as yesterdays day old meat, as he embraces Russia…

I have heard of people from the west talk about how terrible it is that Russians so blatantly use illegal images to promote products…

Movie Star promotion:

I have a better way to look at it and it makes a whole bunch more sense. Face recognition is a priceless factor. By the time I have driven across Moscow, Bruce Willis is embedded in my mind. His latest movie is gangbusters in Russia and why I even am writing an article about the subject of Movie stars on ads in Russia. That is how powerful the message gets across and that my friend, is why it is worth its weight in gold…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 70.1 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly easy to read…

It is way too soon to bet the house fortune on the reliability of reports by the Washington Post (Washington, DC) and The Guardian (United Kingdom) on President Obama’s data harvesting program, known for the moment as PRISM.

With the hot pursuit of mainstream media reporters underway by the US Department of Justice (Associated Press, for example); a US Corporate-State show trial of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange/Wikileaks (Obama has already stated they are guilty); the extraordinary cyberwar/hacking accusations against the Chinese government; and the shrill sound of cyber quackery from the Defense Science Board and its legion of security contractors, caution all around is the order of the day.

Indeed, the membership of President Obama’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NTSAC) reflects the close proximity of the President to critical cyber/telecom/ISP leaders who likely get advanced warning of the incoming nukes. Some of the NSTAC members include Verizon Business Group, Raytheon, AT&T, Vonage, Intelsat, Avaya, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin. And they did not know that their networks, switches, routers, and packets were being violated? Of interest is the presence of FireEye, a cybersecurity firm. One of FireEye’s Board members is Robert Lentz who has an excellent DOD/NSA pedigree. “Robert has served as a member of the board of directors since March 2010. He has served as the president of Cyber Security Strategies since October 2009. He served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber, identity, and information assurance in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Networks and Information Integration/Chief Information Officer from November 2007 to October 2009. Since November 2000, he has also served as the chief information security officer for the U.S. Department of Defense. He previously worked at the National Security Agency from 1975 to 2000, where he served in the first National Computer Security Center.”

The US national security machinery has stated time and again that the Internet and World Wide Web are fair game for military information support operations (MISO) and that means shaping the consciousness of individuals, organizations and governments to the benefit of America’s national interests. Viewed in this manner, it is possible to argue that PRISM would have a chilling effect on not only whistleblowers and their media handlers, but perhaps on practitioners of industrial espionage whether they are French, Chinese or Israeli’s.

The calculated pursuit of mainstream media by President Obama, the publicizing by the US corporate-national security machinery of PRISM, Stuxnet—and the takedown of BitCoin websites; and the entry of Cyber Command into the daily lives of Americans seems to suggest that a new order is afoot, or at least that the US Corporate State is trying to recover/wrest control of the US historical-current-future narrative from independent internal and foreign news/information sources.  Obama seems to have taken US presidential paranoia to new levels.

President Obama’s national security aides and political handlers appear to have adopted the John Haldeman—John Erlichman philosophy and practice of protecting Obama. According to the Telegraph, UK, “Vali Nasr, a university professor who was seconded in 2009 to work with Richard Holbrooke, Mr Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, records his profound disillusion at how a “Berlin Wall” of domestic-focused advisers was erected to protect Mr Obama.  “The president had a truly disturbing habit of funneling major foreign policy decisions through a small cabal of relatively inexperienced White House advisers whose turf was strictly politics,” reports The Telegraph.

Intelligence Agencies as Pollsters

Would it surprise anyone of some eager Obama aides decided to use data mined through a program like PRISM to figure out what American citizens are thinking? Forget Gallup and Pew. With the thoughts, pictures, video, travel records and expenditures of tens of millions of Americans harvested and interpreted by various machine programs and human analysts in the NSA, CIA, and DIA, who needs commercial pollsters. Talk about sample size! And thanks to many US Court decisions, data gathering is largely legal.

And would it not be a matter of national security for the President of the United States to know what Americans are thinking as the USA remains in a state of emergency since 911. Moreover the American nation is still at war and just steps away from lighting up Iran, Syria and Iraq (again). For the global carnage to proceed as planned, the US Corporate State must control the flow of information as it did in World War II (1939-1945).

Obama “is the boss” has a need for “the info” as Doctor Evil so eloquently put it the movie Austin Powers. PRISM data must be in his hands, particularly given that Obama can say with a straight face “civil liberties improve with this type of surveillance.” US Senators must have the info too. Senators like Diane Feinstein, John McCain and Lindsey Graham are “happy” to be monitored and, well, why not all of us. All four of these characters know that American’s will collectively shrug their shoulders and forget about the matter by immersing themselves in the celebrity breakdown of the day.

Perhaps the most unsettling aspect of US government data harvesting and analysis programs is that the all of the work is researched, developed, tested and deployed by for-profit companies like those belonging to NSTAC.  According to the Defense Security Service (DSS), “U.S. industry develops and produces the majority of our nation’s defense technology – much of which is classified – and thus plays a significant role in creating and protecting the information that is vital to our nation’s security… DSS has Industrial Security oversight and assistance responsibility for over 13,000 cleared facilities participating in the National Industrial Security Program and estimates that there are over 11 million classified documents in the hands of U.S. industry.” DSS, always understaffed but extraordinarily dedicated, do their best to keep US industry within a tolerable degree of greed.

 All PRISM’s are Not Created Equal

Email, voice, video capture would seem to rely on some sort of read-module within a switch. Analyzing it all—separating wheat and chafe—would appear to require some sort of autonomous machine language. Perhaps some of these PRISM’s are tangentially related to the NSA’s PRISM.

Over at Cryptome, a document from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) describes Protect, Respond, Inform, Secure, and Monitor (PRISM). According to DHS PRISM is composed of two primary components: Contora and ESRI ArcIMS. Additional and optional components include Message 911, Ensco Sentry, and Lunar Eye. These components have been tightly integrated into a single end-user application that provides a messaging, alerting, geo-referenced mapping, asset tracking, CBRN sensing, and public warning system. Lunar Eye is a GPS tracking suite.

A USAF “communications” dictionary shortens Programmable-Reconfigurable-Integrated-Switch and Multiplex to PRISM.

Alcatel-Lucent’s product PRISM/GORI manages SMS (text) messages. A sample of DOD’s DTIC search engine returns when PRISM is entered follows:  MITRE’s PRISM is a software program used to request intelligence collection on moving vehicles, aircraft, people and animals; PaRallel Inference SysteM–PRISM—a connectionist inference for developing machine language and autonomous network management programs; and RDTE Budget Note–PRISM to MAJIIC Interoperability Assessment: assessed that Planning Tool for Resource, Integration, Synchronization and Management (PRISM) and the interface to NATO Multi-Sensor Aerospace-Ground Joint ISR Interoperability Coalition (MAJIIC) was functional and ready for operations by demonstrating automated interoperability and exchange of intelligence requirements.

What’s the Big Deal?

David Bromwich at the Huffington Post sums it up best, “Even now, government aides are most concerned about “the magnitude of the leak.” The question that troubles them is not, How did we come to this? but rather, Shall we prosecute the whistleblower? The pattern is so galling and tedious, and its harms so invisible to all but a few, that we may be tempted to relax and wait for the next election. But remember again the language of the court order. On an ongoing daily basis. All call detail records. Including local telephone calls. The next president will inherit this. No names, no records of words (not yet), no inculpating or exculpating evidence (just “signatures”), but still: these are outlines of the communicative behavior of upward of a million persons, with similarly compelling orders out to the other telecoms. The aim is to capture by index the whole of the U.S. population. The amazing and routine FISA order is a blind command for the opening of a thousand eyes. The plainest rebuke to such procedures comes from the language of the fourth amendment itself.”

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

“By what right are the addressed envelopes of the spoken communications of 280 million citizens plucked from the air by government and filed away? Supported by whose oath and what affirmation? There is a simple force to the words of the fourth amendment after all. It says: we do not live by secret laws, and we will not abide by general warrants. And to the comfort offered by senators Chambliss, Graham, and Feinstein, who ask us to sleep well and sleep long, there is a simple reply. In what country do they think they are living, and under what constitution?”

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security matters. His latest book is Cyber Noodles (cyber security), Orphan Nukes and the Failure of the US National Security State. Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 37.3 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered difficult to read…

Russian Bees, a bee that collects pollen at even 38 degrees Fahrenheit or 3 degrees Celsius and endures hardships that only Russian Bees could understand. When winter is 7 months a year and pollen time is short, Russian Bees have to “get er done” or else. It seems that Russian Bees have adapted to such harsh conditions that they have become a super bee in many ways. They even produce as much honey, or even more honey in many cases, than their counterparts in the rest of the world. Could the Russian bees save pollination in the USA? Could the Russian bee save pollination in the rest of the world?

Russian Bees are tough and why?

1. Varroa mites, a tiny parasite that can infest beehives have been declared by the, “US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the single greatest cause of the dramatic decline in the US honeybee population, which has fallen from 6 million colonies in 1947 to 2.5 million today…”

It seems that many moons ago, the Russian Bees grew to adapt to these mites and have learned to live and thrive with them present. The American Bee is being decimated by these mites and the Russian Bees dance with them at night…

2. Russian Bees gather pollen when other bees are sitting by the fireplace and warming their wings. It can be almost freezing out and you will find Russian Bees happily flying around and gathering pollen off of those almost frozen flowers…

3. Russian Bees are – well – Russian Bees and that means they are tough. If you live in Russia, then you know that anything that survives a Russian winter is tough…

Honey is taken very serious in Russia. There are huge markets that travel around Russia and sell honey. There is more varieties of honey than there are people in Russia. Processed honey is a crime in the Russian eyes and a honey seller takes great pride in his product. Bee hives are everywhere and everyone has their special type of honey produced by their special bees and their special fields of flowers. Why we have many bee hives in our tiny Russian Village. The Orthodox Church has these hives for thir use. I call it “Pine Cone Honey,” as that is all that is around for pollen in our Russian Village…

Why am I bringing this up? Well in most of the world, the bee population is declining and with that decline the ability to reproduce food is dropping with the bee decline. Bees single handily pollinate the world and food is the result of that. One of the most important issues we are faced with in this day and age is the bee decline…

No bees – no food – no people! Russia has bees and they are doing great…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 69.1 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered OK to read.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, said Thursday their marriage is over, ending years of speculation about their relationship… 🙁

Nothing more needs to be said…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…