INFOSEC / Trail-Running / Military / Whatever Else I Choose: 07/01/2005

31 July 2005

"Yeah Buddy!" -Brak

Yesterday Carla and I did the full trail (all 14 miles of it). Though we did a lot of walking, it was very enjoyable save for that moment when an invisible tree root conspired with gravity and fatigue to introduce my full body-mass to the ground at near terminal velocity. I hit the ground so fast and with so much "umph" that I was dazed for a moment. At the instant that I hit the ground, I heard a loud pop. Since I came down hard on my right wrist, I feared the worst. After 15 seconds or so there was no throbbing pain so I figured the popping was something non-calcium related. After climbing back to my feet, Carla pointed out the stick that I had landed on and broken in two. Disaster averted. I went back out today and did a quick 5 miler from the Tyson Park end of the trail (the "harder" end). This time I was alone, and was able to run at my own pace. I ran the full 5 in 50 minutes! That's pretty good for me these days (and quite respectable on that portion of the trail). I am so looking forward to getting back to where I was (and then continuing to improve from there) but running 10's on that end for 5 miles is good progress. I also had a conversation with a fellow at a party this afternoon who clued me into another trail just across the Meramec from the Chubb trail. I'll update once I've found out a name and location. Well, I guess that's it...I hope this finds all who read it doing well.

28 July 2005

"Where there is oppression, there is bound to be resistance." -Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jung-Il's father.

I recently finished "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" by Kang Chol-Hwan, a terrifying read if ever one was written. I have, until now, never comprehended the effectiveness of totalitarian communistic rule. I now understand, thanks to Chol-Hwan's bravery and dedication, the fundamentals of such oppression and their application in North Korea. In a country of approximately 20 million people, the death rate from starvation has reached and surpassed epidemic proportions by any measure.

North Korea seems to be ignored to a great extent by the international community. Discovery Times (a British arm of the cable based Discovery Channel) aired an incredible documentary on North Korea entitled "The Children of the Secret State". I obtained a copy of this video, and watched it three times in succession. In it Ahn Chol (an assumed name), a North Korean defector who often sneaks back across the border to film the realities of NK using a hidden camera,

provides some of the most devastating footage ever seen on the current state of life in NK. His film only confirms the testimony of thousands of NK defectors who have managed to escape with their lives. Hundreds of thousands of children are orphaned on the streets, their parents having starved to death. There are scenes that, in a rare moment of vulnerability I must admit, brought me to tears. A young girl who looked so much like my beautiful daughter sitting in the mud collecting the most horrid water in an attempt to quench her thirst. Ahn Chol walks up to her in an attempt to convince her not to drink the water. He asks her name...age...home. She simply looks at her feet, to broken to communicate. To hungry to move. Lifting a plastic baggie proves difficult enough as to cause her to tremble. Adults walk past, ignoring her as they themselves try to stay alive. She is most certainly dead now...some sickform of relief to a person having had to witness her suffering.

North Korea is destitute. Their factories all closed. Their economy has shut down. The entire country is starving to death under the rule of a single crazed dictator; Kim Jung-Il, who has no qualms about being the last man standing in the entire bloody country. He sits idly by while the entire populous dies of starvation. Hunger is so bad that cannibalism is rampant. Human flesh is sold on the black market. One woman testifies in a separate documentary about her neighbor aborting her baby so that her family can eat. I am sorry to even type such a thing, but for heaven's sake, we need to understand what is happening here. We send aid in the form of corn and rice and it only makes it as far as the elites (NK is a "class society" where people are assigned a particular class and they and all generations to follow are locked into that class). Peasants will either be starved or worked to death. Anyone going to a prison camp is virtually guaranteed death. Those who survive will be assigned to a peasant class once released. Only in Pyongyang is any semblance of an intact society portrayed, and poorly portrayed at that. The thin facade of civilization is almost comical in it's inadequacy.

What can you or I do? Man...I have no idea. But I see that little girl in my dreams at night. I see my daughter in her place. Alone. Delirious with hunger and thirst. Her body riddled with disease. Her blackened toes literally rotting off of her feet. In my dreams there is nothing I can do. This is not a dream however, there must be something I can do. My God, help us help these people. All the while our world leaders meet with this maniac that is Kim Jung-Il, the people under his tyranny are dying horrible deaths at a rate that makes Stalinist Russia seem humane. Something has to happen...but what? God, take away the vision of that little girl, for it is more than I can bare.

Please, if ANYONE wants to borrow this video...just ask. I will be happy to provide it. Please educate yourself. Read the book I metioned. Learn. Exercise the freedom of education that we have that so many others do not. Don't take Madeleine Albright at her word; North Korea is not a modern "Candy Land" full of happy children dancing their days away under the protecting hand of their "Dear Leader". It is a place where death reigns supreme, second only to the insane dictator that is Kim Jung-Il.

"Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."--Psalms 82:3-4

26 July 2005

"I thought we agreed to stop encouraging him." -Brak's Dad

I was just doing some googling when I came across one of my own posts. How funny is that...I answered my own question a year ago. Anyway, for any of you that have Vonage Voice over IP service (which if you don't, you should)...this is a pretty cool trick that I discovered. I posted it to a security thread back in July of 2004. The original posting follows below.

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I just sent Kevin an e-mail to this effect, but for anyone else interested here's more info:

**Portion omitted**

Vonage has "fixed" their CID spoofing problem (at least in some switches), but in the process has created a new "feature". Try this:

1. Call a party. When they answer, flash over to a new dial-tone (as if to initiate a 3rd party call). Dial the new third party (who has been instructed not to answer the call coming from your phone number) and after a couple of rings hang up the phone. Rather than the initial call ringing back to you as it should, it will ring forward to the third party. A nifty way to put your friend in CA in touch with your friend in NY with no long-distance charges even when they don't use Vonage.

2. Let a party call you. Flash over to a new line and dial a 3rd party. Repeat process above and you can effectively "transfer" the call out of your phone system with no toll charges.

In both cases, your Vonage line is free to make and receive calls as soon as you hang up and you're routing the call entirely over VoIP infrastructure so there's no charges being incurred by any party including the provider.

Thanks, and keep up the great writing!!!

Egon Rinderer
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This brings back memories of the "good ole days" (mid to late 80's) when phreaking (the term commonly used to describe phone hacking) was a consuming obsession of mine. And no, "hacking" is not a bad word to describe bad people. The bad guys (that break into systems and mess things up or steal information) are called crackers. The term "hacker" was coined by the MIT Model Train Club in 1959 and was used to describe the curious types who would pick apart code or systems to figure out how they work so that they could improve or customize them. The media has taken "hacker" and bastardized it to mean "cracker". Lesson over.

ER

25 July 2005

"Lemme tell you 'bout the one joy in my life. I like to take and fill my pants up with pudding..." -Brak

Well, my AT (2 week annual Reserve commitment) is over. What a blast! I honestly believe that we have one of the best units, if not the best, at the St. Louis Reserve center. We get things done and we still manage to have fun. The past couple of weeks have included several runs at the Chubb with a number of members of the unit. Check out Slatton's blog for a handful of pics if you're interested. This was Slatton's first time out (and second time since we went twice), and I think he enjoyed it. I got a good laugh at his expense since he was wearing VERY worn out road shoes that were nearly smooth on the bottom. The lack of tread combined with the slightly muddy conditions lead to a lot of slipping and sliding as well as a few near misses. Everyone who had run the trail before seemed to have learned quickly, as they showed up this time with "Camel Packs". Wise move. When the heat backs off a bit (predicted heat index of 115 today) I've got to get back to doing the trail at least 3 times per week, as I was really feeling it when we ran the trails last week.

Slatton and I also spent a good bit of time playing with some INFOSEC tools. Given that he had no experience whatsoever with them, I was impressed with how quickly he not only figured them out, but figured out improvements to other peoples tips and "HOWTOs". We also did a bit of war driving around the base/airport just to see if there was any "leakage" from anywhere on base. Came up clean. Slatton's a very bright kid (which I can call him since he's ten years my junior) and I have no doubt that his future holds a great deal of success. Now, if I can just turn him into a runner we'll really be getting somewhere.

Well, enough babbling. Since I really don't have much else to talk about I suppose I just post some pics.

I've written about "The Hill" before, as well as the "alter" that sits atop it.
Here, my fellow runners take a break after having gained a more
solid appreciation for hill running.

I thought this was a really cool picture as it gives a great
representation of what the trail landscape is like. Under the
canopy of the forest, the vegetation is very lush.

07 July 2005

"I think he's talking to you." -Homer Simpson

As everyone is aware, London was bombed today (07JULY05). 7 devices believed to have been detonated. 2 devices failed to detonate. 40 plus dead at this time. Over 1,000 injured. Al Qaida has taken responsibility. It is now 21:30 the night of the attack, and I've yet to hear a single word of outrage, condemnation or indignation from the likes of Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Dick Durbin et al. They must have worn themselves out screaming about our "torturing" (turning off the AC, leaving the lights on all night, playing Britney Spears 24/7) those people we've captured and imprisoned that do the very thing that was done in London today. Who's worse; those who hate America and overtly attack us with bombs and guns, or those that hate America yet pretend to be concerned all the while undermining our democracy and military through the positions of power that they've oozed into?

04 July 2005

Ward Churchill advocates military personnel "fragging" their officers.

se·di·tion: Conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of a state.

Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado, Boulder professor who not long ago stated that the people killed in the 9-11 attacks "deserved" what they got and compared them to Nazi's is now advocating, supporting and encouraging the support of enlisted fighters "fragging" (killing with a grenade) their officers. No doubt he's referring to the two instances where just such a thing has taken place since the begining of our military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will not elaborate, for lack of words. Here's a video clip from The O'Rielly Factor with the audio and transcription of Churchill's statement. Please watch, and pass it along. The direct link to the video (for copy/paste pourposes) is:
http://blindrodent.com/churchill_frag.wmv

In other news, Professor Churchill just received a 2.3% raise from U.C. Boulder.

Click here for the latest news stories on Churchill's "frag your officer" campaign.

US CODE

TITLE 18--CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I--CRIMES

CHAPTER 115--TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES

Sec. 2388. Activities affecting armed forces during war:

(a. continued) Whoever, when the United States is at war, willfully causes or
attempts to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of
duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or willfully
obstructs the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, to
the injury of the service or the United States, or attempts to do so--
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty
years, or both.

INFOSEC / Trail-Running / Military / Whatever Else I Choose