It’s a Strange World Out There

CNOOC wants to buy Unocal Corp. and LUKOIL has started selling gas in our local area.

CNOOC of course is based in Communist China and buying Unocal means selling a company from a Democracy to a company that is Communistic. Joe McCarthy would be rolling over in his grave.

LUKOIL is a Russian based company and almost all of the local Mobil gas stations in our area are now Lukified.

What better way for China to win a war, the economic and final war. I ask you this; would China allow U.S. based companies to buy out critical Chinese owed companies?

So far in recent months IBM Personal Computers and Maytag have been targets, who’s next after Unocal?

For more information on CNOOC:
http://www.transactioninfo.com/cnooc/about.php

For information about LUKOIL:
http://www.lukoil.com/

Supreme Lunacy

Well once again the Supreme Court has convince me that they are out of control and are no longer part of the checks and balances created by our founding fathers but have now set them selves up as above all else. There latest ruling “that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development” only serves to prove my point.

Coming soon to the Supreme Court nearest you is the Ten Commandments, one of which starts by saying: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house!


For additional information see:
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050623/D8ATDSD80.html

Sooner or Later I’m Gonna Get Ya!

Well it looks like another company spilled the beans or should I say had a Big Fat Security breach (about 40 million worth of info) concerning credit card information.

While not much detail is available, apparently CardSystems Solutions Inc., “CardSystems is a registered agent for Merrick Bank Corporation, South Jordan, Utah and The Provident Bank, Cincinnati, Ohio. “ of Atlanta, GA. Is working with the FBI to investigate how this occurred.

The two most common types of security breaches according to many security experts are caused by ‘Hackers’ and inside personnel.

If your company is connected to the internet then sooner or later a hacker is gonna get ya. In plain terms if your computer is connected to anything other than a wall outlet then your exposed. If you are required to store or ship data media then it should be password and encryption protected.

Yes you can tout how your company uses the latest security tools, but lets face it those tools are all defensive in nature which gives the hacker the advantage because they are offensive and always finding new ways to accomplish their goal.

So like many of us I called my credit card company(s) and was assured that they did not use CardSystems and was not affected, one card issuer is still investigating. So I guess I may have dodged the bullet this time, but did you? Call your card issuer and find out!

Time Forgotten

Eastern War Time, the early beginning of Daylight time. Railroad Time, each railroad set its own time based on location and destination. The International Date Line “the imaginary line on the Earth that separates two consecutive calendar days”, which if you could stand precisely in the middle of, you would be neither in yesterday or tomorrow.

What they haven’t named yet is ‘Airline Time’, you know the time lost waiting in line, flight delays, sitting on the runway, circling for a landing and finding your luggage. And last but not least ‘Blog Time’, you will notice this blog has never received any comments and therefore the blog time is nearly indeterminate.

For more information see:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/us_tzones.html
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/d.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/international_date.html
http://www.fremo.org/betrieb/timezone.htm