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nose-bandaid · 4 years

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Pentagon as Students

trying something new today! i hope you enjoy it, i had a lot of fun writing this:)

~based on the different kinds of people i’ve witnessed at my high school~

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JINHO

- that one kid that actually has their shit together

- though on the inside he’s in a constant state of panic

- knows (and meets) all the deadlines and works when he’s supposed to

- but he’s secretly watching his classmates goof around at the same time

- hands in perfect projects, does well on tests, gets good grades,,, others are jealous of him

- probably had the homework done 3 days before it was assigned tbh

- teachers love to have him in their class

- and it’s totally not because they sometimes rely on him to help keep track of important dates

- when he does make a mistake though, he’ll get clowned for it for the rest of the year

- but that’s just cause people are happy he’s not good at EVERYTHING

- and even though he seems like a teacher’s pet, he always does his class a solid and never reminds the teacher of the homework they had

- makes good study notes and people end up leeching off of him cause he can’t say no

- never brings food to class but always steals some from others

- so if your bag of chips is suddenly empty, you know why

- was a bus monitor when he was in elementary school and is still damn proud of it, mentions it whenever he has the opportunity to

- people know him, but he doesn’t know them so he’s always like ??? when random people keep on saying hi to him

HUI

- loud. what else can i say?

- raises his hand at almost everything just to ask the teacher a lot of questionable things

- but once in a while he comes up with a really good question that shocks everyone so we take our chances and listen to him

- doesn’t sit on his seat properly but that’s ok because honestly who does?

- he falls off the chair every other day though, so some teachers are concerned of this habit of his

- delivers some of the BEST presentations

- like the kinds of presentations that are good because everyone is excited to see what that person has to offer this time

- when the teacher walks in, he’s that one kid who asks them how they’ve been so that he can delay class

- likes to make conversations with the teacher on unrelated topics when he’s supposed to be working

- always manages to get the teacher really involved in their conversation though, so they don’t even notice that he’s not working

- is distracted like 70% of the time but tries his best

- hands his work in at the absolute last minute

- like if it’s due at midnight, it’s coming in at 11:59 pm

- can be found in almost every single club and no one knows how he manages to do it

HONGSEOK

- we already know that he’s the sporty kid like that’s a given

- is a part of pretty much all the school teams so he’s constantly leaving class to go to tournaments and whatnot

- teachers are so used to him being absent that sometimes they forget he’s even in their class

- the one who offers to carry things whenever the teacher says they need help

- holds the door open to look cool

- he’s never seen studying but he always comes out of tests with a pretty decent grade

- no one knows if it’s actually because he’s big brained or if it’s because he’s really lucky

- sleeps during first period, eats his lunch during the period right after lunchtime

- defends his actions with the fact that he’s busy with his clubs but he was probably just walking around school doing random shit during lunchtime

- the kind of person who would jump to tap the ceiling or the top of a doorframe just to “casually” flex

- doesn’t change out of his sport clothes half the time to once again, “casually” flex

- everyone in the school knows him for a very wide range of reasons

E’DAWN

- the quiet yet loud kid

- would just sit there (not doing his work) being an unbothered king for most of the time

- but when it’s his time to shine oH boy

- everyone has to brace themselves cause they know they’re in for a hell of a ride

- no one knows what to expect when it comes to his presentations

- one time it ended up with Hui duct taped to the wall along with five broken chairs and an angry janitor

- shouts randomly along with hui

- would say some of the oddest things when the teacher asks a question

- on his phone listening to music for the entirety of class, the headphones never come out, even if you’re talking to him

- when the teacher walks by he always has to rush to close/switch his tabs

- is a boss at that move though, and the teachers never suspect him

- asks to go to the bathroom but just takes a walk around the school instead

- makes a funny face every time he passes by a class with his friends in it

- if you walk down the halls during lunch, you might find him sleeping in a little hiding spot in the hallways

- if not, he’s probably running around outside creating a scene

SHINWON

- known for being the embodiment of chaos in classrooms, so classes are always 10x better when he’s in it

- borrows notes from jinho the most

- will copy your homework in the morning if he didn’t do it the night before

- and will proceed to get a higher mark than you, despite writing the exact same thing

- he actually does his work and hands in it on time for the most part, but no one seems to pay attention to that fact

- sits with his chair facing the opposite way if you can imagine what i’m getting at here lol

- really good at sneaking snacks into class but he always chews too loudly so all his efforts end up going to waste when the teacher finds out

- takes long bathroom breaks and no one knows what he’s even doing in there, or if he even went to the bathroom in the first place

- he’s always seen with delivered take out during lunch and people get jealous cause they want to eat fast food too

- has to fend off the hoard of kids that come his way and is pretty good at it by now

- cause he has to save the fries for when he needs to bribe jinho for notes again

- the one that keeps on standing up during class and walking around to bother people

- like he literally just stands up at random times and walks up to someone on the other side of the room and strikes a conversation that’s completely unrelated to the class

- no one knows what motivates him to do that and he just keeps on standing up no matter how many times he’s sent back to his seat

YEO ONE

- minds his own business, is in his own world

- watches the others along with jinho and tries to not be involved in their shenanigans

- always ends up involved in their shenanigans

- is oddly chaotic, new people would be shocked when they see how chaotic he could be, but everyone else is used to it by now

- has a fat crush that his whole friend group knows about

- and now they all feel obligated to get them together so they’re always nagging him

- on that note, a bunch of people fall for him but he’s just too oblivious to notice

- i know this is oddly specific but he actually washes his hands for the correct length of time

- student body president because everyone loves him, does his job very well

- especially with school spirit !! participates fully in those, and tries his best to convince others to join in as well

- buys food from the cafeteria religiously even though the food’s a little subpar

- “i need to support this school in every way i can”

- has a part time job, people strive to be hardworking like him

- honestly this guy’s pretty neutral, he just exists and makes the world better with his presence it’s as simple as that:)

YANAN

- corner seat kind of guy, so that he can sneak in naps and just be hidden in general

- doesn’t speak unless called on

- listens to EVERY single thing being said around him, so he’s loaded with gossip

- has blackmail, will use it

- like he films people when they’re presenting,,, what is he going to do with that video? we do not know

- always bringing his coat into class, no matter how bulky it is, and just doesn’t use his locker at all

- but he has all of his friends’ locker codes saved on his phone for some reason

- eats his lunch at the wrong time too, but unlike the others (who just go with a full 3 course meal during class), he scarfs it down within 10 seconds and moves on like nothing happened

- emits soft boy energy but people fear him

- class is always hyped when it’s his turn to go up to the board and no one really knows why, that’s just how it works

- maybe it’s because his personality and confidence just skYROCKETS and everyone loves seeing that side of him

- the whole class just hypes him up on a daily basis by now

- doesn’t share anything with the others no matter how much they beg, whether it’d be for notes, tools, or food

- “snitches get stitches, bitch”

- “you know that’s not the correct saying right?”

- “i said what i said.”

YUTO

- always takes the seat near the back

- not necessarily because he’s emo (though part of it is because he is emo) but also because he is a modest boy™

- tosses a ball back and forth with his friends in the locker bays during his free time, ultimately posing as a threat to the rest of the student body

- has almost hit a teacher by accident once with a baseball, but we overlook that event

- silently rages during every single competition (especially when he falls down the rankings in Kahoot!) but hides it well

- he holds the reputation as a student who does their work when they’re supposed to, but one time you walked by his laptop and he was watching anime so now you’re not so sure

- once thought that a project was due a week before the actual due date

- had a small breakdown but was able to get over it

- he had many other close calls though, so he relies on kino or jinho to keep him in check

- has all the school equipment you could possibly need with him at all times

- so people are constantly borrowing things from him

- do they give it back? usually

- but he will get salty and hold grudges with the people who supposedly “lost” his items

- or if they say, use his entire glue stick despite it being brand new when he gave it to them

- if you hear some music down the halls, it’s probably him playing the guitar

- fully reads the club posters on the wall so he’s one of the few people who are actually aware of what’s going on

KINO

- always keeping up with the new trends

- the “i’ll help you with your work! :)” kind of guy

- always answering questions in the group chat i don’t know what the others would do without him

- he gets sad if people don’t reply to his messages properly though

- the only person on jinho’s good list because he’s actually diligent with his work

- goes a full 200% on any project that has any artistic aspect in it, even if it doesn’t count for marks

- is the one who reminds others of the due dates so some people have a love-hate relationship with him

- somehow knows almost everyone in the school

- if you want to walk to class with him, you gotta be prepared to take like 50 stops along the way cause he’s gonna hug everyone he knows and strike a conversation with them

- is popular simply because everyone loves him

- you can find him dancing in the hallway occasionally, probably making tiktoks

- decorates his friends’ lockers on their birthday with pictures of them

- the kid that offers to help the teacher complete tasks almost 100% of the time

- volunteers at the other school nearby to help take care of the little children

- always supporting club events

WOOSEOK

- puts memes in his slideshows (and is very good at finding the perfect meme for every occasion)

- plays games on his phone when the teacher’s talking, somehow doesn’t get called on

- instead like, yuto gets called on for searching something up on his phone

- the kid who constantly yells out random answers (or just yells in general) during Kahoot! to mess other people up

- the kind of student who casually looks over at the person beside him during a test

- defends himself by saying that he just wanted to see how far they were on the test

- has a tough time during locker clean out because there were just too many things in there

- at one point there was an ant infestation after he accidentally left his lunch there overnight, but he took care of that quietly and doesn’t mention it ever again

- asks obvious questions into the group chat and tries to argue his point only to figure out where he went wrong after reflecting on his messages

- random shouter number 3

- him, hui, and e’dawn can sometimes be seen after school trying to summon their very late school bus with their screams

- it never worked though, unfortunately

- runs a business where people pay him to go to the store nearby and buy snacks for them

- he actually makes quite a bit from it

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quick disclaimer: ofc i think the boys would've been good students at school so this is just something written based on the chaotic energy i’ve watched them emit throughout my time stanning them:) this is just for entertainment purposes!

~ tiny

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coolestqcumber · 6 years

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The Loser (Jinho - Pentagon)

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Word Count: 2k

“In front of love, I’m always a loser.” - Shine by Pentagon

Your school had always been considered peculiar due to its lack of school uniform. However, you adored the freedom of being able to wear comfortable jeans to class each day rather than the ridiculous skirts and formal blazers most kids your age were required to wear.

Most of your fellow classmates also loved the lack of dress code. Especially the guys. While most dressed sloppily, others loved to show off their wealth in the form of cashmere sweaters and ugly (but expensive) loafers.

Jinho, your adorable and clumsy chem partner, was neither of those. Instead, he and his friends seemed to purposefully dress in the most ridiculous ways possible. Their good looks might’ve been enough to offset their weird clothes, but their strange personalities repelled most of the girls at your school. You didn’t really know what attracted you to Jinho, the smallest and liveliest boy of the bunch, but you felt yourself gravitating towards him whenever you were in his presence.

Jinho was a mess. He brushed a lock of hair underneath his faded cap and peered at his appearance in the restroom mirror. His eyes roamed from his black jeans to his white hoodie and finally the hideous scarf tied at his throat so that the remaining fabric spilled down his back like a cape. Jinho wished he could dress normally, but Hui and Edawn had told the rest of them that this was the only way to protect themselves. Better to be considered a weirdo rather than a loser.

Each of the boys were poor, having come to the city themselves and could barely afford tuition. The rich students of the school would’ve looked down upon them and bullied them mercilessly like they did with the other poor students. Jinho was still bullied, but he knew he would’ve been picked on more if it weren’t for his strange appearance. People stayed away from him for the most part. No one wanted to be associated with a weirdo; not even the bullies.

Suddenly, Jinho was shoved out of the way. His elbow collided with the wall and he winced, already feeling a bruise blossoming across his skin. A boy with perfectly gelled hair sneered at him and Jinho’s cheeks burned with embarrassment as he realized he had been zoned out in front of the sink, blocking the boy’s way.

Sighing, Jinho hastily exited the restroom. In his hurry, he nearly bumped into you. You swerved to the side to avoid dropping the heavy box you had been carrying. You frowned and Jinho, but quickly smiled when you realized it was him. He sheepishly grinned in return, and then noticed the box you were holding. “Can I help you carrying that?” Jinho asked, already rolling up his sleeves and reaching for the box. You groaned in relief as you handed him the box, “Yes please. Thank you so much, Jinho.”

Jinho felt a tingle rush down his spine when you said his name. His voice cracked as he replied, “It’s no problem.” Your brows furrowed when you noticed the bruise on his elbow. “You’re hurt,” you said quietly and gently touched is arm. “Let me carry it.” Jinho felt another shiver ripple down his back when your hand made contact with his skin and he quickly tightened his grip on the box. “No, I’m quite alright. You need some help too sometimes, class prez.” He said and gave you a reassuring smile.

With a final rustle of paper, the paperwork assigned to you was finally sorted and filled out. You glanced down at you watch and saw that there was still an hour of chemistry left. You rushed down the hall to your classroom, not so much anticipating the class but rather who you would see in the class.

You poked Jinho’s arm and whispered, “Can I borrow a-” He handed you a pen without looking up from his notes. Smiling to yourself, you flipped your notebook open to the next clean page. But the teacher concluded the lecture before you had written a single letter on the page and announced it was time to move on to lab. You let out a loud exhale and tried not to tear out your own hair in frustration.

You heard a small laugh and Jinho slid his notebook across the table towards you. “Here, you can copy mine.” You tried not to stare at the sight of his easy smile and hurriedly began to scratch words into your own notebook. Half an hour later, the bell rang and you groaned, still having not been able to copy all the notes. You sighed and held out Jinho’s notebook to him. Instead of taking it, Jinho pushed the notebook back towards you. “Take it and finish copying the notes tonight. You can come give it to me tomorrow.” You gulped, feeling your heartrate kick up a notch, and tilted your head down so that your hair covered your burning cheeks. You murmured a quick ‘thank you’ and bolted from the room before you could say anything dumb.

“Why do we need to do this again?” Wooseok complained, trying to write as neatly as possible on the rough surface of the picnic table. The boys were hanging out on the roof of the school during lunch, like they always did. And sometimes Hui would come up with cheesy group activities to “build stronger bonds of friendship.” Today, the mastermind decided it was a good idea to write each of their heart’s greatest wish on a paper, fold it into an airplane, and launch it off the roof. Something about “giving ourselves hope.” Jinho had rolled his eyes at Hui’s lame idea but respected the younger boy for being optimistic.

The boys all shut their eyes and concentrated on their wish. Hui counted to three and they all launched their paper airplanes off the roof. Jinho watched as his airplane glided through the air for a few seconds before getting tangled within the branches of a tree in the school’s courtyard. Around him, his friends laughed as they watched the other paper airplanes skitter to a stop in the grass below or fall into puddles. Shinwon clapped in delight when his plane blew into the face of the math teacher.

You huffed and picked up a piece of paper from under the tree. Kids these days, such litterbugs! You peered around for a trashcan to the paper into but couldn’t find any in sight. The paper seemed relatively clean, so you tucked it into your pocket to dispose of when you could.

However, it wasn’t until later that night when you rediscovered the paper in your jacket pocket. You pulled it out thinking it was probably an office pass you had received earlier today to excuse you from class. While you were startled to find the paper wasn’t a pass, the contents of the paper surprised you even more.

The letters were scrawled neatly but shakily, as written on a rough surface. Still, you were able to make out the unmistakable words:

I wish Y/n would like me too.

The handwriting looked familiar but you couldn’t remember who it belonged to. You shook your head and put the paper aside, pulling out your homework to do. You took out Jinho’s notebook to finish copying the notes you had missed. You flipped to the most recent page he had written on and froze. Shakily, you reached for the paper you had picked up in the courtyard and compared the handwriting to the one in the notebook. It was a match.

Jinho shivered under the glare of the taller boy. He didn’t know what he had done to piss the valedictorian off, but when Jinho tried to exit the room, Darren blocked his path. Jinho nervously picked at the edge of his cape, “Can I help you?” “Back off of Y/n loser. Someone like you isn’t worthy of her attention,” Darren spat, the jealousy evident in his tone. “I’ve seen you trying to get with her, carrying things for her and letting her copying your notes. But do you seriously think doing those pathetic things will make her like you?”

Jinho didn’t respond. He just tilted his head down, allowing the shadow of his cap to disguise how insecure Darren’s comments made him feel. Yes, he knew you were terribly out of his league. Yes, he knew you probably would never like him the way he liked you. And yes, he was too afraid to even ask you. Afraid of rejection. Afraid that you would laugh in his face, even though he knew you would never do that. But still, deep down inside of him, he hoped for a possibility of you returning his feeling.

Jinho was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn’t realize Darren hit him until he was already lying on the ground with a bleeding nose. Jinho stood shakily, feeling anger course through his body.

You tapped your fingers idly on the tree next to you. You and Jinho had agreed to meet in the courtyard after classes so you could return his notebook. However, it was already 10 minutes after the last bell had rang and you were beginning to wonder if he’d forgotten about you.

Suddenly Kino ran up to you, eyes filled with worry. “Class prez! Please come quick, it’s Jinho. He..he got into a fight.” You instantly became tensed with worry and hurriedly followed Kino into the school and to where Jinho was.

“Stop! Stop! What the hell are you doing to him?” You pushed yourself between Darren and Jinho, shielding the smaller boy’s injured body with your own. Darren sneered, “Let him go Y/n. A loser like him doesn’t belong with you. I’m just teaching him a lesson.” You stood and gave Darren a shove. “Who do I belong with? Some trash like you? Let me make this very clear, I don’t like any part of you at all. I would rather die than ‘belong’ with someone like you. Now, you will already get suspended for pulling a stunt like this. Try anything else and I will personally make sure you are expelled with a permanent record that even your daddy’s big bucks can’t fix.” Darren straightened his clothes, gave you one more icy glare, and left. The rest of the crowd trickled out of the classroom too.

You squatted down next to Jinho’s hunched form and gently shook his shoulder. “Jinho? Are you alright?” You heard him draw in a shuddering breath and he slowly sat up before saying, “Why did you come?” Wordlessly, you drew the paper you had picked up in the courtyard and handed it to him. “Did you write this?” Though his face was obscured by his cap which he had pulled low over his eyes, you noticed the tips of his ears turning red. He stood suddenly, “Why does it matter? As much of an a$$ Darren is, he’s right. You’re way out of my league. I was a fool for being hopeful.” Jinho ducked his head and turned to leave. “Wait.” He turned back around to face you, and you moved so that you were directly in front of him. “You were right about being a fool, but wrong about everything else.”

You wrapped your fingers around the drawstrings of his hoodie and used it to pull him closer. He was slightly shorter than you were, so you tilted your head slightly down and kissed him. There was no ‘slowly leaning in’ build up to brace yourself for the erratic beating of your heart that blocked out all your other senses.

Doubts quickly cloud your mind and you hastily pull away. However, they quickly vanish when Jinho’s arms loop around your waist and presses his lips against yours for another kiss. His hands travelled from your waist upwards to your arms, firmly grasping them as if to make sure you were real.

Your hands rose up to grasp his face and he broke away with a gasp of pain. You then realized that you had just touched one of his newly acquired bruises. You winced sympathetically, “Sorry.” Jinho just smiled cheerfully and rose up on his tiptoes to press a peck to your lips. “It’s okay.” And yes, everything was okay.

#pentagon #pentagon scenarios #kpop #kpop scenarios #pentagon jinho #pentagon jinho scenarios #jinho #jinho scenario

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newstfionline · 6 years

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Nobody’s Cellphone Is Really That Secure

By Bruce Schneier, The Atlantic, Oct. 26, 2018

Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that the Russians and the Chinese were eavesdropping on President Trump’s personal cellphone, and using the information gleaned to better influence his behavior. This should surprise no one. Security experts have been talking about the potential security vulnerabilities in Trump’s cellphone use since he became president. And President Obama bristled at--but acquiesced to--the security rules prohibiting him from using a “regular” cellphone throughout his presidency.

Three broader questions obviously emerge from the story. Who else is listening in on Trump’s cellphone calls? What about the cellphones of other world leaders and senior government officials? And--most personal of all--what about my cellphone calls?

There are two basic places to eavesdrop on pretty much any communications system: at the endpoints or during transmission. This means that a cellphone attacker can either compromise one of the two phones, or eavesdrop on the cellular network. Both approaches have their benefits and drawbacks. The NSA seems to prefer bulk eavesdropping on the planet’s major communications links, and then picking out individuals of interest. In 2016, WikiLeaks published a series of classified documents listing “target selectors”: phone numbers the NSA searches for and records. These included senior government officials of Germany--including Chancellor Angela Merkel--France, Japan, and other countries.

Other countries don’t have the same worldwide reach that the NSA has, and must use other methods to intercept cellphone calls. We don’t know details of which countries do what, but we know a lot about the vulnerabilities. Insecurities in the phone network itself are so easily exploited that 60 Minutes eavesdropped on a U.S. congressman’s phone live on camera in 2016. Back in 2005, unknown attackers targeted the cellphones of many Greek politicians by hacking the country’s phone network and turning on an already installed eavesdropping capability. The NSA even implanted eavesdropping capabilities in networking equipment destined for the Syrian Telephone Company.

Alternatively, an attacker could intercept the radio signals between a cellphone and a tower. Depending on which flavor of encryption the system uses, it ranges from very weak to possibly strong. Don’t think the attacker has to put his eavesdropping antenna on the White House lawn; the Russian Embassy is close enough.

The other way to eavesdrop on a cellphone is by hacking the phone itself. This is the technique favored by countries with less sophisticated intelligence capabilities. In 2017, the public-interest forensics group Citizen Lab uncovered an extensive eavesdropping campaign against Mexican lawyers, journalists, and opposition politicians--presumably run by the government. Just last month, the same group found eavesdropping capabilities in products from the Israeli cyberweapons manufacturer NSO Group operating in Algeria, Bangladesh, Greece, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, South Africa--45 countries in all.

These attacks generally involve downloading malware onto a smartphone that then records calls, text messages, and other user activities, and forwards them to some central controller. Here, it matters which phone is being targeted. iPhones are harder to hack, which is reflected in the prices companies pay for new exploit capabilities. In 2016, the vulnerability broker Zerodium offered $1.5 million for an unknown iOS exploit and only $200 for a similar Android exploit. Earlier this year, a new Dubai start-up announced even higher prices. These vulnerabilities are resold to governments and cyberweapons manufacturers.

Some of the price difference is due to the ways the two operating systems are designed and used. Apple has much more control over the software on an iPhone than Google does on an Android phone. Also, Android phones are generally designed, built, and sold by third parties, which means they are much less likely to get timely security updates. This is changing. Google now has its own phone--Pixel--that gets security updates quickly and regularly, and Google is now trying to pressure Android phone manufacturers to update their phones more regularly. (President Trump reportedly uses an iPhone.)

Another way to hack a cellphone is to install a backdoor during the design process. This is a real fear; earlier this year, U.S. intelligence officials warned that phones made by the Chinese companies ZTE and Huawei might be compromised by that government, and the Pentagon ordered stores on military bases to stop selling them. This is why China’s recommendation that, if Trump wanted a security, he should use a Huawei phone, was an amusing bit of trolling.

Given the wealth of insecurities and the array of eavesdropping techniques, it’s safe to say that lots of countries are spying on the phones of both foreign officials and their own citizens. Many of these techniques are within the capabilities of criminal groups, terrorist organizations, and hackers. If I were guessing, it would be that the major international powers like China and Russia are using the more passive interception techniques to spy on Trump, and that the smaller countries are too scared of getting caught to try to plant malware on his phone.

It’s safe to say that President Trump is not the only one being targeted; so are members of Congress, judges, and other senior officials--especially because no one is trying to tell any of them to stop using their cellphones. (Although cellphones still not allowed on either the House or Senate floor.)

As for the rest of us, it depends on how interesting we are. It’s easy to imagine a criminal group eavesdropping on a CEO’s phone to gain an advantage in the stock market, or a country doing the same thing for an advantage in a trade negotiation. We’ve seen governments use these tools against dissidents, reporters, and other political enemies. The Chinese and Russian governments are already targeting the U.S. power grid; it makes sense for them to target the phones of those in charge of that grid.

Unfortunately, there’s not much you can to improve the security of your cellphone. Unlike computer networks, where you can buy antivirus software, network firewalls, and the like, your phone is largely controlled by others. You’re at the mercy of the company that makes your phone, the company that provides you cellular service, and the communications protocols developed when none of this was a problem. If it doesn’t want to bother with security, you’re vulnerable.

This is why the current debate about phone privacy, with the FBI on one side wanting the ability to eavesdrop on communications and unlock devices, and users on the other side wanting secure devices, is so important. Yes, there are security benefits to the FBI being able to use this information to help solve crimes, but there are far greater benefits to the phones and networks being so secure that all the potential eavesdroppers--including the FBI--can’t access them. We can give law enforcement other forensics tools, but we must keep foreign governments, criminal groups, terrorists, and everyone else out of everyone’s phones. The president may be taking heat for his love of his insecure phone, but each of us is using just as insecure a phone. And for a surprising number of us, making those phones more private is a matter of national security.

#phone security #phone privacy #phone surveillance

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vskpop · 7 years

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My 30 favourite songs of 2017

YouTube playlist ⋅ Spotify playlist

30. Don’t Recall – KARD

I’m upset with myself that last year I didn’t put Oh NaNa in my best of 2016 list because, reader, it was: it ended up as my second most played song of 2017. I didn’t listen to the follow-up Don’t Recall quite as much, but it was the song that cemented my love for KARD’s hip-hop/dancehall/pop jumble. Whoever is selecting their songs has such a flair for dance songs with a melancholy vibe, and Don’t Recall is unparalleled so far. It’s still too rare to get proper idol groups that are mixed gender, and it’s almost impossible for them to succeed. I’m so pleased that international success has been enough to keep KARD alive, even though their numbers are still abysmal at home. Live: M Countdown 17/07 – Yu Huiyeol's Sketchbook 30/08 Other songs of note: Rumor – Trust Me

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29. Heaven and Earth – Laboum

I went through a phase in which I found Laboum adorable, and then for some reason I stopped liking them as much (the reason is that ZN gets on my nerves, I’m sorry, I know). I still listened to their album Miss This Kiss for the nostalgia effect – and because lead single Hwi Hwi is damn good – and I just fell in love with 천지차이. As far as I can tell, it was never performed live, or at least not in venues where it was filmed. I hope that this kind of song keeps being given to them, and that eventually it becomes their lead single. They deserve to take a break from the cuteness. Other songs of note: Hwi Hwi

28. Tomorrow, Today – JJ Project

I realise that I already said it when JJ Project made their comeback a few months ago, but Bounce is a modern classic in the trashiest way possible. The styling and sound that Jinyoung and JB went for in 2017 are completely different from their origins, but just as great. Tomorrow, Today is what I love about GOT7’s Fly with a dash of my favourite JYP group, DAY6. They get to show off the vocal skills they developed since we last saw them as a duo and, most of all, their range of wistful looks. Also, I love that for once they didn’t have to sing about love and how right a girl is, but rather about having to face tough decisions as they grow up. Live: M Countdown 17/08 – Genie showcase Other songs of note: Coming Home – On & On

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27. Palette – IU ft. G-Dragon

I don’t know why, I’ve never been a huge fan of IU until I watched Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo and found a sudden connection with her that I had never felt before. Her most recent album has helped bringing together my love for actress IU with singer IU. In an industry where being honest and clever is nobody’s priority, she manages to sound real and in control of what she does without abandoning her pop roots. I’m not sure many artists would manage to make an introspective song sound so pleasant and calm. Live: Inkigayo 23/04 – Music Bank 28/04 Other songs of note: Can’t Love You Anymore ft. Oh Hyuk

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26. Archangels Of The Sephiroth – Stellar

If there had to be a swan song for Stellar, I’m glad it was Archangels Of The Sephiroth. With two members having already left and the other two on the way out, this was 100% the last single they put out with the formation we knew and loved, and we can’t even blame them for leaving. It’s a fact that this doesn’t have anything to do with their previous concepts, but I love the pseudo-satanic, pseudo-mystical vibe and I would have loved for them to keep going on this path. Archangels Of The Sephiroth gets more interesting with every listen, and the video is creepier with each view (bathtub of blood anyone?). As the song says, we really did love them till the end. Live: Inkigayo 09/07 – Music Bank 07/07

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25. Signal – Twice

Signal is by far the best Twice song ever – it’s interesting, kind of weird, and not necessarily super cute. Obviously the majority of the public hated it, and back to Likey we went. I love the bassline pushed right at the front, the dissonant harmonies, the fact that some of the mute members finally got to sing. Of everything they’ve released in 2017 (four comebacks is a lot for anyone) this is the only choice that doesn’t feel safe and completely within their sexy baby wheelhouse. They even get to have a proper storyline in the video, which is a rarity. Live: Show Music Core 03/06 – Inkigayo 21/05 Other songs of note: Knock Knock – 24/7

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24. Wake Me Up – Taeyang

It’s kind of sad to think that this could be the last Taeyang single for years and years. At least it’s a ballad, so we will be able to all cry together when we listen to it after he’s enlisted.This album felt properly his – something that he created and composed, rather than something that was given to him to perform. Not that he’s ever lacked emotion, but Wake Me Up has a depth that is only second to Eyes Nose Lips. Live: Inkigayo 20/08 – Fantastic Duo 03/09 Other songs of note: White Night – So Good

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23. Move – Taemin

This is possibly (definitely) the sexiest song of 2017. Taemin has such an eye for taking trends from the West and making them current for Korean audiences, as well as constantly changing his image while staying true to himself. I can’t get enough of the elegant electropop of Move, with the bass and the voice parts creating one of the sexiest musical combinations of 2017. Taemin carries a song that could have been much less interesting in the hands of an artist with less expressiveness. I don’t know if it’s the thought of the choreography, but this song always makes me blush a little. Live: Seoul Fashion Week – M Countdown 19/10 Other songs of note: – Rise – Day and Night

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22. Untitled 2014 – G-Dragon

If a ballad from Taeyang was expected, it certainly wasn’t from G-Dragon. I’m not sure how much truth there is the gimmick of titling the album with his real name and saying that he was finally stepping away from his persona, but Untitled 2014 feels painfully raw and real. Whatever happens from now on – after all the members of Bigbang enlist and eventually return to music – this album and this song will be a milestone in his career, and the perfect summary of what he’s done in the past eleven years. Live: ACT III M.O.T.T.E in Taipei 08/10 Other songs of note: Bullshit

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21. Change Up – Seventeen

You could take any random combination of Seventeen members and they would be able to put up an incredible show for you. This has been proven over and over by them, but I think that the Change Up subunit – the leaders of the standard subunits – has proven this definitively. I wouldn’t have thought of this song for them in a million years, yet they perform it convincingly and make it the catchiest Seventeen song of this year. Also, who knew that Woozi could have such swagger? Live: Mnet showcase Other songs of note: Don’t Wanna Cry – Clap – Habit – Rocket

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20. Rollin’ – Brave Girls

Every time I say “tropical house”, I add “drink!”. It has been so omnipresent in k-pop this year that it has been impossible to avoid. I skipped over Rollin’ the first few times I stumbled upon it because there were enough marimbas in my life, but I gave into the hype and this ended up being one of the most played songs of my year. As of last year, Brave Girls have an entirely new line-up – and yes, they did deserve a new name – and I hope that they will be the new bastion of sexy concepts now that there is no real mid-point between Laysha and cute concepts. Live: M Countdown 03/09 – Show Champion Ep. 219

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19. Never – Produce 101/Wanna One

This technically doesn’t count as a Wanna One song, but I’m pretty sure that if there is a song that symbolizes Produce 101 and the rise of the nation’s boy group, it’s Never . Written by Hui of Pentagon, another of my favourite groups, this song starts quietly, and slowly adds more elements until it gets to one of the best chorus drops of 2017. It made me wish that they had kept it for the final group instead of using it during the programme, and I wasn’t surprised at all when it was re-recorded by the final formation. Live: Wanna One version at KCON LA Other songs of note: Energetic – Burn It Up

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18. Singing In The Rain – Jinsoul (LOONA)

Looking at the sheer amount of material that pre-debut group Loona have released this year gives me palpitations. A million members and subunits filled each month of 2017, and almost all the releases have been excellent – overall, they probably were the best group of the year. Jinsoul’s Singing In The Rain was my favourite song released – not by far, though, seeing the overall quality. I was especially impressed with how they managed to have Jinsoul sing and rap seamlessly, and how the song manages to be sexy without being inappropriate for a very young girl. And, of course, it’s a banger. Other songs of note: Loona released dozens of songs this year, so this is just a tiny selection of my favourites. Eclipse (Kim Lip) – new (Yves) – Sweet Crazy Love (Odd Eye Circle) – Loonatic (Odd Eye Circle) – Sonatine (1/3)

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17. Body Talk – Red Velvet

To me, this is one of the best songs by Red Velvet ever. Only a company like SM could waste it and have it relegated to the b-sides of their mini albums; it’s a fantastic mid-tempo track that showcases the best vocal skills of the group, and allows them to sound about fifteen years older than title track Rookie. At least, in the arc of their three thousand 2017 comebacks, they managed to go from the childish image that they had patented in 2016 to the sultrier “velvet” image they have abandoned ages ago, even if it’s still paired with a “red” song. Other songs of note: Peek-A-Boo – Red Flavour – You Better Know – Would You – Talk To Me

16. Circle’s Dream – Subin (Dalshabet)

Dalshabet haven’t had the best luck in their career. Subin is yet another amazing soloist that was in a group when she released a song, and has now left the label and disbanded her girl group. Seeing her solo by itself, it’s actually had to imagine her as part of bubbly Dalshabet: she is sensual, allusive, and her music is weird and enthralling. I love her voice and I love the ideas she has for herself – ideas that are far removed from traditional k-pop. The elements of this song are few, but she manages to create such a clever repetitive, circular structure with them, echoing the themes of the lyrics and capturing the listener. Subin is technically a solo artist now, so I am hoping we will get to hear much more of this.

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15. Yes No Maybe – Suzy

What makes me mad about Yes No Maybe is that nobody heard it. I can’t imagine how well it would have done if the now officially defunct Miss A would have released it, instead of Suzy now that her popularity is entirely tied to her acting and advertising career. It’s also true that she has always been my favourite Miss A, so it was delightful to see her come out with a debut album that does something interesting and doesn’t package her as the sexy ingenue character that she’s had since the beginning of time. Yes No Maybe strikes the balance between being Latin, dancey song and a more introspective pop piece. Unlike half of her former group, Suzy has signed a new contract with JYP. Here’s hoping she gets to do more excellent, slightly left-field pop music. Live: &Live

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14. A Girl Like Me – Gugudan

It is still surprising that I don’t find the awkward beeping samples in the song insufferable, but the truth is that I love the weirdness and how it’s amplified by the singing parts. I already knew in February that this would be one of my favourite concepts of the year, and it is: there aren’t enough songs about how great the girls are, as opposed to their love interest. It’s not female empowerment, but I have the feeling we can’t get much closer. I love it even more considering how terrible their following comeback was . Live: Music Bank 03/03 – SBS Korea Music Festival

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13. Island – Winner

It goes without saying that Winner is my favourite group in current k-pop, and they can hardly do any wrong in my eyes. However, this entire year could have been a disaster: they had to come back from losing a member who was the main singer and composer for the group. Island has the tropical (drink!) elements of their 2017 hit Really Really, but it’s a bit less conventional, and the video is delightful and incredibly romantic. Live: Inkigayo 06/08 Other songs of note: Really Really

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12. As If It’s Your Last – BLACKPINK

While I find most complaints against YG idiotic, it is absolutely true that having Blackpink release one single song in an entire year is ridiculous. The only good thing is that the song was brilliant, and I’m still not bored of it after having seen it performed at least fifty times. When it came out I found it really frankensteiny, but at this point the structure seems perfectly reasonable and linear to me (Stockholm syndrome at its best). Live: SBS Gayo Daejun – Show Music Core 01/07 Other songs of note: So Hot (Wonder Girls remix)

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11. Cactus – A.C.E

Every year I end up falling in love with one rookie group that will probably not see their third birthday, and in 2017 it was the turn of kings of thighs A.C.E., who singlehandedly resurrected early 90’s eurodance with their debut single Cactus . It was the one of a kind title of their song that attracted me, the weirdness of the thigh dance that drew me in, and everything else that made me stay. They are great singers, charismatic performers and can stand the most high-intensity dance of 2017 without blinking. I am so attached to A.C.E (and Dreamcatcher, full disclosure) that I broke my promise to never watch a survival show again and I am following Mixnine for them. Live: Music Bank 02/06 – Music Bank 26/05

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10. Dinosaur – AKMU

What I love about AKMU is that when they try different genres, they always put so much of them into the song: nobody else could sing Dinosaur apart from them. It’s so simple, yet so full of detail; it’s true that it has EDM elements, but it’s not even remotely a club song. I’m still shocked every time I hear Suhyun hit those dolphin-high notes. The Stranger-Things-y video is still one of the most beautiful releases of this year. Live: Dingo Music Other songs of note: My Darling – Reality

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9. Beautiful – Monsta X

This is yet another song of a overcrowded production that I am totally in love with. The bleeps and bloops leave plenty of space for the members to show their skill – especially Kihyun, who could sing literally anything to me at this point. Just like All In , Beautiful feels like the refined version of the chaotic, loud concepts Monsta X began with. There are raps and aggressive parts, but they are striving for a higher concept than “street urchins” now, and it’s reflected in their music. Live: 2017 MAMA in Japan – Show Champion Ep. 226 Other songs of note: Dramarama – Now or Never – Shine Forever – I’ll Be There

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8. Runaway – Pentagon

Pentagon have already done a lot for being a group that has debuted just over a year ago. Of all these releases, Runaway is my favourite without any doubt: for me it strikes the right balance between the trendy elements that Hui has been carrying over from his Produce 101 successes, and the rougher concepts that Pentagon had to begin with. I find it hooky without being too in your face, and moody without being full-on tragic. Live: Inkigayo 03/12 – Inkigayo 26/11 Other songs of note: Critical Beauty – Violet – Like This – Get That Drink

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7. Boy – EXID

EXID are my everything. I feel bad for choosing Boy as my favourite song they’ve produced this year, when Night Rather Than Day was such a classy, unusual choice for them and Boy is just another dance song. Unfortunately, it’s just monstrously catchy, and my love for it eclipses (get it?) everything else they’ve released. Live: M Countdown 13/04 – Show Champion ep. 224 Other songs of note: Night Rather Than Day – DDD

6. Chase Me – Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher are my rookies of the year. After scrapping the cute concept and adding a couple of members, they spent twelve months delivering a series of metal-inspired, horror-themed comebacks that managed to showcase the members’ talents. While all their singles are amazing, there is something special about Chase Me and its chorus, mixing hammering instrumentals and creepy falsettos. There is no doubt that the only way from here is up, and there is nothing gives me as much joy as a girl group with a non-cute concept being (relatively) successful. Much bigger groups and bigger companies have refrained from embarking on international tours but Dreamcatcher have left survival show Mixnine to go on one. I can’t wait to see what these queens do in 2018. Live: M Countdown 19/01 – Music Bank 03/02 Other songs of note: Fly High – Wake Up – Sleep Walking – Good Night – Lucky Strike (Maroon 5 cover)

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5. Love & Affection – Seohyun

Seohyun’s solo came and went almost unnoticed at the beginning of this year: it was smothered by Taeyeon’s releases and the inevitable run-up to SNSD’s tenth anniversary. It really saddens me to no end that, now that Seohyun has left SM Entertainment, she seems to be going for an acting career, when she is such an amazing vocalist with such unique colours. With even her lead single receiving little attention, there was no hope for her b-sides. But Love & Affection is a masterpiece, with a booming chorus and a surprise ending, and what I hope to see if she ever decides to make more music under her new label.

4. I Would – DAY6

There is only one criticism that I have for JYP and DAY6: there must be something else they want to do that’s not singing about love and heartbreak in pretty conventional ways. For the rest, there are only good things to say about the 25 songs they put out this year. It was hard to pick just one song to put in the list, and to be honest there are two or three other candidates I feel kind of guilty for cutting out. Live: EBS Space 11/05 – Kiss The Radio 04/08 Other songs of note: DAY6 released 25 songs this year, so this is just a tiny selection of my favourites. Goodbye Winter – You Were Beautiful – How Can I Say – I Wait – Lean On Me

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3. Good Thing – NCT 127

Despite the complete chaos that surrounds NCT at all times, I keep loving most of their releases (except Cherry Bomb , which I hated): they were my #1 and #3 most played song on Spotify with Good Thing and Limitless respectively. I love Good Thing in itself, but I also wish that NCT didn’t keep circling around that pseudo hip-hop, trappy, appropriative concept they’ve been given a million times and they did something brighter, poppier, that sets them apart from the three hundred hip-hop concepts that are going around without slipping into Astro territory. Live: M Countdown 05/01 – Show Music Core 07/01 Other songs of note: Limitless – 0 Mile – Back 2 U (AM 01:27)

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2. Tendae – Bobby

In an excruciatingly adorable interview for MTV Japan, Bobby says that with his debut album he wanted to show that he can do more than rap, and reveal his romantic side. I had already become obsessed with Bobby’s sing-rapping a long time ago, so Love And Fall gave be nothing but joy. His lyrics show that he’s capable of putting complex emotions in words, and most of all he is also completely able to translate that in his singing. 텐데 is sweet, heartbreaking, sexy. Bobby is one of the best performers of his generation, if not the best. Other songs of note: Runaway – In Love

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1. Gashina – Sunmi

If there is one thing that Sunmi has taught us this year, it’s that there is a life after girl group disbandments. She came back singing about heartbreak and vengeance with dark humour and double entendres, a super-sexy choreography and a vibe that couldn’t be more far from the current sugary girl group trends. Everything about Gashina is iconic, from the song itself to the lyrics to the costumes to the choreography. Sunmi was without any doubt the queen of 2017. Live: Inkigayo 10/09 aka the iconic genderswapped performance – MAMA 2017 ft Taemin – Inkigayo 27/08

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alexsmitposts · 5 years

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The Secret War on Iraq, It’s 2003 All Over Again There is a war on Iraq, really a continuation of the war on Iraq that began in 1991 and renewed in 2003, despite the version of events fed the public. Iraq had oil, had power and if Saddam were removed, would be ruled by a Shia majority quite possibly loyal to Iran, a nation that in 1979, had overthrown a US backed dictatorship. The wildcard here is the Kurds and the other, Israel. As has become clear under Trump, Israeli influence, all those stories about the ADL and AIPAC, the Epstein-Maxwell blackmail rings, the MEGA billionaires, are only the tip of the iceberg. This will not be a story of Israeli influence in Washington or of changing goals as the Cold War ended and American became ripe for radicalization. The real backstory here is Iraq and the key player, the hidden history of Iraq’s Kurds. I had the pleasure of serving in Iraq from 2005 to 2007, representing the Economic and Social Council of the UN. One cannot serve with the Kurds without loving the Kurds and the people of Iraq. Then again, as we look at today’s landscape, we see the Kurds being tossed into the fray again, perhaps as fodder in a broader conflict, one even broader than that the public sees, the war between Israel and Iran where even the US is a proxy. We begin. On August 23, 2019, Nouri al Malaki issued a warning to Israel. Israel had attacked Iraq on August 19, four days earlier and the stories about this attack had been circling the globe, their implications far beyond the wildest imaginings of pundits and advisors. Let me explain. Here are the stories, and there are so many: Israel bombed Shiite militias affiliated with Iran to an extent anyway, using American built F35 aircraft but doing so using American call signs and transponders, communicating with Iraqi air defenses as though they were American pilots on a mission authorized by Baghdad.In response, the Baghdad government grounded all American air operations over Iraq, a murderous loss of credibility for the American military one reminiscent of the Israeli downing of a Russian military aircraft by hiding behind a civilian airliner.A key Israeli defense official then leaked that Israel had launched the attack from within Iraq, at an air base they maintain in partnership with the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil.OK, let’s look at just these things right now. First of all, Iraq is a majority Shiite nation with extremely close religious relationships with Iran and, in the Middle East, such relationships are of immense importance. Then we have Erbil and the KRG government there, one that has always been close to the US and subject to Israeli influence. It isn’t a coincidence that ISIS chose Mosul as its capitol as Mosul is also the announced capitol of “Greater Israel,” and a center of Israeli influence in Iraq since the fall of Saddam, publicly, but for decades before as well. Additionally, Israel, as a nation whose underlying politics are and have been largely Bolshevik, something seldom publicly spoken of, helped found the Kurdish PKK with precursors in Turkey, Iraq and Iran well into the 1960s. The Kurds have always been a “wild card” against Israel’s potential enemies, a stateless people with a history of being used and discarded. From the UK Telegraph: “Since becoming part of Iraq in the settlement after the First World War, the Kurds have suffered a turbulent history. It is worth remembering that the Treaty of Sèvres, backed by the UK, had originally promised a Kurdish state that would have mirrored the boundaries of the present-day state envisaged by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Such hopes were dashed, however, by the Treaty of Lausanne, which did away with this promise and brought the incorporation of the three Kurdish provinces into a centralised Kingdom of Iraq. In this regard, I have always felt that Britain in particular has owed a debt to the Kurdish people, especially when considering its role in shaping the borders of the modern Middle East as part of the Sykes-Picot agreement.” Saddam’s retribution against the Kurds came in two phases, the first in 1988 as the Kurds sided with Iran in the Iraq-Iran War. Do note that the tepid response by the West to this first slaughter was largely due to the fact that Saddam was acting as an American proxy, gassing Kurds with weapons supplied by the US and Germany, through American companies that investigations have tied directly to the brother of then American President George Herbert Walker Bush. From the Pak Tribune: “On March 16, 1988, as many as 5,000 Iraqi Kurds, mostly women and children, were killed when deadly gas was released on the northern town of Halabja by Saddam Hussein’s forces. AFP remembers the massacre, believed to have been the worst-ever gas attack targeting civilians. In the final months of the eight-year Iraq-Iran war, ethnic Kurdish fighters who sided with Iran capture the large farming town of Halabja in Iraq on March 15. Home to more than 40,000 people, the town is in the Kurdistan region and just 11 kilometres (seven miles) from the Iran border, while 250 kilometres from the Iraqi capital. Saddam’s army retaliates with artillery and air strikes. The Kurdish fighters and most of the town’s men withdraw to surrounding hills, leaving behind the children, women and elderly. The following day, Iraqi fighter planes circle above the area for five hours, releasing a mixture of toxic gases. The slaughter is quickly revealed: the fighters who come down from the hills give the alert and foreign journalists are soon on the scene. By March 23, the first images are broadcast on Iranian television. Corpses scatter the streets with no obvious sign of injury, although witnesses say later some had blood around their noses.” We then reach 1991. The US had called on all groups opposing Saddam to rise against his rule, backed by guarantees by the United States. The two areas that broke from Iraq as the US crushed the Iraqi Army and Revolutionary Guard were the Shia in the South and the Kurds in the North. As in 1988, the Kurds were to suffer from broken promises. From National Interest: “On March 3, 1991, commander of UN coalition forces, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, met with Hussein’s generals at the Safwan Airfield in Iraq to discuss the terms of the ceasefire, focusing on the lines of demarcation between opposing forces, the mechanisms for exchanging prisoners of war, and an order by Schwarzkopf that Iraq not fly fixed-wing aircraft. During the discussion, an Iraqi general asked Schwarzkopf for permission to fly helicopters, including armed gunships, to transport government officials over the country’s destroyed roads and bridges. Believing it a legitimate request, and acting without Pentagon or White House instructions, Schwarzkopf replied, “I will instruct the Air Force not to shoot at any helicopters flying over the territory of Iraq where our troops are not located.” The memoir, coauthored by Bush and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft, succinctly summarized what happened next: “Saddam almost immediately began using the helicopters as gunships to put down the uprisings.” The Iraq Air Force fixed-wing aircraft, however, were never employed to defeat the Kurd or Shia uprisings, as U.S. military officials refused to allow the planes to even be “repositioned” within the country because they might attack coalition forces. On one of the few occasions that an Iraqi aircraft violated Schwarzkopf’s edict—a SU-22 Fitter flying out of Kirkuk to avoid the Kurds, not attack them—it was shot down by an American F-15C. The U.S. military’s demonstrated readiness to shoot down violators of this as-yet-undefined “no-fly zone,” and the general unwillingness of the Iraqis to test Schwarzkopf’s order, suggests that a similar pronouncement may have deterred Iraq from using helicopters as a counterinsurgency tool. While patrolling southern Iraq, U.S. F-15s watched Iraqi helicopters attack Shia insurgents; using the fighter aircraft to down the helicopters would have been a simple and straightforward mission. In the end, Saddam Hussein’s regime, using only helicopters, long-range artillery, and armored ground forces, brutally counterattacked the uprising, killing 30,000-60,000 Shias in the south, and some 20,000 Kurds in the north. Though the United States had enormous military capabilities in the Persian Gulf, the Bush administration provided no assistance to the uprisings, fearing, variously, the “Lebanonization of Iraq,” Iranian-backed Shias assuming power in Baghdad and more U.S. soldiers dying in “another Vietnam,” as then-Secretary of State James Baker described it. The Bush administration also actively restrained the uprisings by refusing to provide captured Iraqi weapons or munitions stockpiles to the insurgents, but rather chose to destroy them, return them to the Iraqis, or transfer them to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. By early April 1991, Hussein’s regime had completely crushed both Shia and Kurdish resistances. By mid-April, American, British, and French planes began enforcing a comprehensive no-fly-zone above the 36th parallel in northern Iraq, which they would sustain for the next dozen years.” The Oil Factor Iran recently announced plans for a gas and oil pipeline system from Iran’s fields, through Iraq and Syria, perhaps entering Lebanon but ending at the refineries on the Mediterranean inside Syria. If that pipeline system jetties into the Mediterranean, as does the Baku-Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline that it parallels, the world will change in ways unseen. Baku, in Azerbaijan, is a major source of oil for Western markets. Iran also has Caspian oil fields that it shares with its close neighbor, Azerbaijan. This is worth noting. The primary regional pipeline skirts the Iran border, enters Turkey but then is joined by an Iraqi pipeline from the South that serves the Kirkuk Oil Field, the largest single oil field in the world supply light-sweet crude. That oil field is in an area the Kurds see as their traditional capitol, an area Saddam excluded them from, inserting instead his backers, members of his own Sunni tribal group, in place of local residence, thus ethnically cleansing the area of Kurds. At one point I did an assessment of oil fields there, valuing them based on reserves, quality of output and serviceability. There is a complex formula for distribution of oil revenue there, not only between the KRG in Erbil and Bagdad but Sunni and Shia tribal militias as well. The conferences related to asset distribution were at times heated and challenging. Here is how things might change. First of all, we look at sanctions. With Iraq and Iran’s oil output potentially blended, sanctioning an entire region of the world would inevitably end in conflict, certainly closing the Persian Gulf. It would also end the oil flow from Azerbaijan whose pipeline through Turkey exists under the thumb of the Iranian military, a fact long hidden. We then look at Turkey, whose income, with its Israeli partners, another secret, from revenue based on pipeline transit fees and port fees at Ceyhan are vital. Not only is this a major source of revenue for Turkey but key families that hold together Turkey’s fragile political balance have long privately profited from these pipelines, families long close to the CIA and British intelligence and key oil companies, mainly British Petroleum and Exxon. Do note that the 1953 overthrow of Iran was driven by a request from British Petroleum for a government more amenable to corruption. Thus, the US supplied terror bombings, assassinations, regime change and a 40-year terror rule under the Shah. Entering other forgotten or rather censored arenas, one might also add that the Baku-Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has had other historical issues as well. Starting in 2003 with the control of SOMA Oil, the Iraqi national oil company, being turned over to Bush officials, oil flowing out of Iraq through the Kirkuk fields in the North and Baku fields in the South and Persian Gulf, a form of informal taxation began to be enforced. The deal was this, only 40% of oil was ever paid for. The rest was stolen with payoffs to key American officials, members of Turkey’s military and intelligence services and the American appointed “patsy” Sunni families that, in 2014, backed ISIS. Their financial ties, after 1991, had moved to Dubai and Saudi Arabia and, as we now see with the changed relationships in the area, Israel as well. Thus, the Sunni-Shia balance that held Iraq together, one that left the Kurds, often as not, “odd man out,” disintegrated leading to the creation of the Islamic State. In January 2014, I met with regional officials in Baghdad, as head of a delegation of regional defense experts, to discuss the security implications of a plan they thought would offset Iranian influence. I told them their methodologies were unsound. Within a few short months, most of those I met with had been beheaded by ISIS. Returning to the issue at hand, oil and gas transit, one must also note that other initiatives, the Nord Stream by Russia, the Russia-Turkish southern gas corridor and the pipelines in various levels of execution servicing Pakistan, India and China, rewrite the traditional playbook of “big oil” and the arms industry that has dominated the new game afield, fake color revolutions driven by “big data” and AI firms, as was almost exposed during the American investigation of alleged “Russian” influence. Behind this, of course, is the Silk Road overlay that would eliminate the resurgence of neo-colonialism driven by traditional hydrocarbon markets and easily manipulated regional rivalries. Who do we blame? Trump? Israel? Colonial Britain? A beginning is by telling the truth, getting history “out there,” as Agent Mulder might well say and let it do its work.

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jurassicjarrah · 7 years

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Eastern Europe - Autumn 2015

Croatia:

Here we go again – off to Eastern Europe to visit our Croatian Crew and to set out for new horizons. Lucky, we left Germany when we did, because as it turned out at the border Jarrah had fewer days in the Schengen left than we had calculated. While the Slovenian side of the border was perfectly fine with that we somehow found ourselves confronted with a cranky young wench wanting to bite our heads off at the Croatian side. Obviously, no one had told her that Croatia is OUTSIDE of the Schengen borders and that therefore it made perfect sense for Jarrah to be travelling this way. Later, we found out that this lady has quite the border Nazi reputation throughout Eastern Europe, spanning from Croatia all the way to Bulgaria and Romania!

Our timing to get to Buzet couldn't have been more perfect as its famous Subotina Festival was on when we arrived. This 3-day festival had a lot to offer, including a free open-air concert, as well as two separate street fairs in the new and old town respectively. We learnt that the festival marks the start of the white-truffle season, but at least the main event in the old town looked more like a medieval fair.

Lots of people dressed up in traditional costumes performing traditional crafts such as forging iron or old-school carpentry. The event gave us the opportunity to finally try some of the local truffle produce, which strangely enough did not give us any clarity AT ALL as to whether we fall within the truffle 'lovers' or 'haters' camp. The taste is just too ambiguous, strangely appealing and revolting at the same time. Weird...

In any case, thanks to our good friend Dean who hooked us up with tickets to partake in this event!

On this trip we were stepping it up in the grown-up world, staying with beautiful Enna, Gogo and their son Malik in their apartment in Pazin. Unsurprisingly, this bunch turned out to be exceptional hosts – good company, good climbing, good vibes, what more could we ask for? They also introduced us to a Slovenian crusher Klemen Becan and his wife Anja (which was also when we learned that Istrians and Slovenians somehow manage to magically communicate with each other using different languages- say whaaaaaat?!):

http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/klemen-bean-runs-out-of-hard-routes-in-slovenia-bolts-new-ones-in-croatia-%7C-the-slovenians-ep-1/600408

We tried to climb on the wall mentioned at the end of this clip, but were shut down on its lowest graded climb. Oh well, back to sending all the nemeses that we'd left on the last trip instead. I also found a new perfect project called Asylantin (23), which I literally sent at the very last minute before driving further east. Happy days!

When we didn't climb, we either pulled the classic – let's party like we're 20 again – all-nighter at our favourite youth club, BUM, in Buzet, went to the beautiful seaside in Rovinj, or explored the area. During one of these trips our friend Luka took us hiking up the Ćićarija mountain range, adding another unforgettable Istrian adventure to our list.

Oh, how we love these Istrian folks; their kindness, generosity and unbelievable hospitality! Not to mention the world class climbing destination that lies right at their doorstep! This is why we're happily missing out on other planned Eastern European destinations on every trip and had we not made prior plans with Chris in Bulgaria, we'd probably still be in Croatia! Thank you Enna, Gogo, Malik, Antonio, Melani, Dean, Noan, Luka, Marin, Ivana, Klemen, Anja and everyone else I forgot to mention for showing us your beautiful part of the world – you guys are AMAZING!

Bulgaria:

After once again saying goodbye to our Istrian friends, we raced off to Bulgaria to meet our Australian friend Chris in Sofia. On our way, we caught up with our previous couchsurfing host Dario in Osijek. You can probably see a repeating theme here – i.e. us visiting all of the great people from the first trip once again! It is thus not surprising that we decided to add Vladimir in Sofia to that list, who was happy to have all three of us surf his couch (or rather hand over his bed in classic hospitable Eastern European fashion).

Jarrah and I did our best to pick up Chris from Sofia airport on time, but there were some complications. First, our tyre burst in the middle of the highway somewhere between Belgrade and Nis. Lucky we had brought a spare, so that was an easy fix. However, what we were not able to do was to turn back time – yes, as it turns out there is a one hour time difference between Serbia and Bulgaria. Damn! Of course, this was also the first time during our trip where there was a big line-up at the border. Poor Chris learnt a lesson that day, that is 'don't trust vagabond travellers with time'. Luckily, Vladimir was there for the rescue and gave Chris a hand in navigating his way around Sofia and after a small city search we actually found Chris right in front of Vlads apartment. After that we pulled an all-nighter involving way too much Rakia for those of us with a competitive edge driving them 'to drink like the locals'.

In retrospect, it would have been advisable to listen to Vlad who did mention that some Bulgarians have a habit of 'choosing beer as a hangover cure and for sobering up'! You spew you learn...

Thanks Vlad for having us and helping us out with new tyres, logistics, etc. - you are a living legend!

Vratsa: Being one day behind schedule, we finally made it to Vratsa, where we spent a few days climbing before the rain chased us out.

We were in good company with a bunch of other climbers being out and about, which made for good evening get-togethers. Amongst them was an older English guy who seemed genuinely committed to the dirt-bag climbing lifestyle, which is good to see for those of us that just don't want grow up... yet! :)

Prohodna Cave: Following the same path as on our last Bulgaria trip we escaped the rain in Vratsa and made our way to Prohodna Cave, which offers a dry, outdoor climbing despite heavy rain. That is, unless you're planning to climb directy into 'the eyes of god' or 'Oknata' in the middle of the cave's roof. Chris and Jarrah sent and on-sighted a few amazingly hard and beautiful climbing routes here, and I, well I tried really hard to do the same continuously falling off the wall with a hint of terror. Hopefully, the mental training will pay off eventually, fingers crossed!

Of course, Ivan the crazy cow Shepard was also out and about, greeting us with his cows' bells every day.

The three of us managed to build a pretty good rain shelter for our tent at the foot of the cave, so we stayed cozy and dry at night. Chris had moved into our tent at this point, which left me sleeping next to two smelly, snoring boys - thank god there is wine! To be fair we probably all stunk after trying really hard every day in an ever wettening cave, with the rain being too damn cold to shower in it. Showers are overrated anyway...

We had good company during our time here. First, there was a group of cavers exploring the area; then Jarrah made some new Romanian friends while Chris and I had passed out in the tent from exhaustion (I swear it was not a wine-exhaustion), and finally we ran into Yavor and Katharina from Sofia like on our last trip. Those two were indeed a lucky encounter for Chris in particular, because without them he he might have had to walk back to Sofia. As it happens when you go somewhere rural in Eastern Europe, the infrastructure can be a bit of a navigational challenge. In our scenario the problem was that the train station that was supposed to get Chris back into Sofia just wasn't there. Yes, there was a sign for it; and yes it lead us down an albeit very questionable path; and there even were train tracks at the end of it; but unfortunately for Chris that was it. So instead of getting Chris to jump the train Wild Western style he enjoyed a nice and cozy ride with Yavor and Katharina to Sofia. Thanks for another good trip Chris, always a pleasure to catch up!

Romania:

Bucharest: Upon invitation of our new Romanian friends Andrei, Catalina and Ania we decided to have a stop-over in Bucharest. As so many times before on our journey we let the people guide our path to the next destination and – you guessed it - good people make for good experiences. Andrei was super generous and left his brand new apartment to us as a place to crash. From this base we explored the city and its people with our new friends. We even went on a guided city tour to quench our thirst for historical knowledge of which you find so much of in Europe. We might not remember it all, but a view fun facts always remain. So we learned that engineers managed to roll entire churches to saftey to preserve Bucharest's architectural heritage for generations to come when Nicolae Ceaușescu redesigned the city in the 80s. We also learned that Bucharest's Palace of Parliament is the 2nd biggest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon and that there were many inappropriate jokes going on after 9/11 when all of a sudden Bucharest had the biggest one intact. Lastly, we learned that Michael Jackson may have been the 'king of pop' but a 'peasant of geography', which he proved in 1992 when he came on stage in Bucharest screaming to his fans “how are you doing, Budapest?” Apparently, he is not alone, so just to reiterate:

Of course, we also did a little bit of climbing, however, back in Bulgaria where we found a very questionable ARMED saint sculpture embellishing the entrance of a country church and crossed an even more questionable bridge under construction across the Danube. I guess the Bulgarian's are honest about organised religion and total safety is overrated when crossing a 'tiny' river, we can all swim right?!

We really enjoyed our time in and around Budapest,... eh I mean Bucharest. It's a lovely city with lovely people, beautiful old buildings, nice surrounds and very chaotic traffic (although our friends insist that there is method to this madness).

Thank you Andrei, Andrei's mum (for all the good homemade Ajvar), Catalina and Ania you made our stay AWESOME!

Brasov (Kronstadt): Next stop in our Romanian adveture – Brasov! Here we stayed with Florin, another last-minute couch-surfing saviour. Jarrah was determined to find some bears in the forests surrounding Brasov, but instead we found beautiful mountainside, covered in lush, green grass and trees with stunning views. I'm sure there were bears around somewhere, but due to our constant habit of 'forgetting the bear spray' I'm kind of glad we did not encounter them. We also had a look at Bran castle (more commonly known as Dracula's castle), which is nestled in a beautiful little country town, however, decided to give the inside of this major tourist attraction a miss. We figured if Vlad Țepeș aka 'Vlad the Impaler' (1448-1476) who was Bram Stoker's historical inspiration for his Dracula novel could give it a miss, so could we.

Instead we had yet another free city tour where we learned about Brasov's German colonist origins as Kronstadt and more about good old Vlad the Impaler. Apparently, Vlad was held hostage in the Ottoman Empire when he was a kid, just to return the favour by massacring tons of Turks with their own punishment of choice (i.e. longitudinal impalement – yes it is what you think it is) later in life. We were told that he erected posts of impaled humans along the path of invading soldiers to break their spirit and weakening their strength. Dracula seems like an angel in comparison. Another fun fact about Brasov is that to this day you will find the letters 'ALIN' imprinted into the forest surrounding the city - a tribute to Joseph Stalin after whom the city was renamed in the early 1950s, when Brasov became Orașul Stalin.

Through the Carpathians on the Transfăgărășan road : When we left Brasov, I was a little confused by Jarrah's constant peaking into the forest instead of keeping his eyes on the road. I was just about to yell at him to regain his focus, when it dawned on me that Jarrah had never seen a beautiful autumn forest and this one was particularly beautiful. A good time to swap drivers, but not for long... cause there it was - the crazy Transfăgărășan road, also known as Ceaușescu's Folly. This picturesque mountain road with it's many twists and turns is every racer's dream – so you guessed it we swapped spots again! I was glad Jarrah's 'race car' was a VW Polo and not a Porsche 911, although he probably thinks otherwise. No wonder the English TV-show Top Gear used this road in one of its episodes. A stunning road with stunning views indeed and definitely a must-do when travelling in Transylvania. Also, if you do it towards the end of the season a nice 'ice bath' awaits you at the top which I definitely had to take advantage of (to cool down from JT's driving mostly). While we did not see any bears here either, we were rewarded with the most beautiful fox I've ever seen for our persistence in spotting wildlife along the way. What a killer of a day, which ended with us camping somewhere on a field just outside Sibiu in classic gypsy fashion.

Arad: The last stop on our trip was Arad, which we mostly picked due to its proximity to the Hungarian border to shorten our trip back home to Germany. Here Jarrah had his first church experience when it turned out that our couch-surfing hosts were practising Seventh-day Adventist. I wish I could describe to you the look on Jarrah's face when our CS Benji greeted us by letting us know that 'he would go to church now and that we were welcome to join'. It was hilarious. Jarrah quickly realised that he would not understand a word anyway and so experienced his first church service at almost 30. Not sure what to think of this church, but the people were very nice and accommodating, plus there was free food!

Benji, his brother Pratricius and his wife Eunice, as well as the rest of the family turned out to be amazing hosts. We got a couple of insider city tours, one of which included a special visit to Arad's Administrative Palace, where we literally got to sit in the mayor's chair. Benji also took us to a local hot spring to soothe our battered bodies from weeks of travelling and climbing which was just what we needed. Upon learning that we were vegans, Benji's mum decided to stay behind that day to cook us up a vegan feast, of course this happened without our knowledge – still it was good!!! Benji had many talents and his piano playing just blew us away. According to him, the trick to success in many areas of his life was to have had very strict parents. Interesting...

Before we left, Benji showed us his little (or rather big) work shed where he restores old bikes and as a perfect end to a perfect stay we cruised around the city at night on our stylish bikes. Thank you family Lazar for our amazing stay with you guys!

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SpaceX details plans to release lots of internet satellite

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SpaceX details plans to release lots of internet satellite

In November of 2016, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a license to operate this constellation of non-geostationary satellites (NGS). And earlier this week, the US Senate Committee on Commerce. Science and Transportation convened a hearing to discover this thought for subsequent-generation telecommunications services.

The hearing was titled, “Investing in America’s Broadband Infrastructure: Exploring Ways to Reduce Barriers to Deployment”. In the course of things, the committee heard from representatives of presidency and enterprise who spoke approximately the high-quality methods to provide streamlined broadband get admission to (especially in rural areas), the necessary infrastructure, and how to encourage personal funding. Of those the committee heard from, Ms. Patricia Cooper – VP of Satellite Government Affairs for SpaceX – turned into accessible to underscore the business enterprise’s vision. As she said:

“SpaceX sees the widespread call for high-speed broadband in the United States and international. As the Committee is aware, tens of millions of Americans outside of limited city areas lack primary, reliable access. Furthermore, even in urban regions, a majority of Americans lacks extra than a single constant broadband issuer from which to select and can are searching for additional competitive options for the high-velocity provider.”

How Strong are MotoSat High-Speed Internet Satellite Antennas? If you purchase an antenna for High-Speed Internet there is simplest one famous corporation available which makes a reliable one for motor homes and that is MotoSat. Fortunately, I changed into one of the first Beta Testers of the MotoSat Broadband Motor Home Internet High-Speed Satellite Systems and we put it on top of our Company’s Mobile Command Center and traveled to every metropolis inside the Continental United States with it.

Recently, I did every other Beta Test, you would possibly name it a wind-tunnel test. I unnoticed to position my antenna down and drove a hundred and fifteen miles at about 55-miles according to an hour. This is the equivalent of setting the antenna in a wind tunnel with 55 miles consistent with hour winds. Luckily and to my pride, the antenna went unscathed and consequently if you are wondering how sturdy are that antenna, you would possibly suppose extra in terms of Tropical Storm or Gail Force Winds, in place of your regular storms.

Boy, I sure am satisfied I picked MotoSat for my antenna, I very tons doubt the alternative corporations, which make the lesser fashions can compete with this reliability. No wonder they’re so picky with which RV Centers are allowed to end up their sellers. Well, this is my motorhome tip for the day. So in case, you are asking yourself; How Strong are MotoSat High-Speed Internet Satellite Antennas? Well, the solution is strong sufficient. Consider this in 2006.

Beta Testing First Mobile Internet Satellite Broadband, Part I Being on the street has its benefits; the liberty is the largest one. One drawback turned into the Internet Service, but having achieved lots look at at the mobile Internet Satellite Systems and future technology; I was capable of growing to be a beta tester of the MotoSat device in 1999. I have used the device ever since.

My business enterprise, the Car Wash Guys had joined forces with a Strategic Alliance of GM Hughes Satellite Division to beta check the First Fully Self contained, absolutely Networked Mobile Corporate Office, taking advantage of the newest in WiFi technology. We have been the primary in the global to have this powerful skills which at the time almost blew away the Pentagon’s Performance with their seventy-seven million dollar investment and Iridium Bailout.

Mobile Corporate Offices are the Wave of the future, where Network Centric Warfare (Net-Centric) within the market mixed with strategic cellular command centers used to create a community of networks, in an effort to in the end dominate all of their market sectors. Corporate Giants are slowly getting to know the sport is converting. And we are the ones coaching them. We are the leaders in technology and they will learn the hard way. Car Wash Guys are main everybody’s enterprise this time. As some distance as the auto wash industry is involved we left them inside the dust a decade in the past. Today we use 20 instances less water, a 3rd of the hard work and spend much less than a tenth of the capital to do it. We now have an awful lot larger fish to fry as we move for the gold. To work with this era you must flow your enterprise at the rate of the idea.

We at our Bravo studies group of WashGuys had been studying the latest in satellite technologies. Most of our recent research have been on satellite records transmissions and as many of you understand we’ve got emerge as very informed over the years with satellite tv for PC communications, I took place to stay round the corner in Malibu from a physicist who worked at the Rockwell Research Center in Thousand Oaks CA. First, we would love to talk about simply facts transmission speeds and troubles related to relays and problems of safety of information while records jump from satellite to satellite tv for PC or from satellite tv for PC to floor. Also with the issues of the relay where any and all records can be recorded. As everybody knows the Pentagon bailed out the Iridium challenge, which is right seeing that we’ve learned so much from this. The 75 million dollar settlement helped pay the payments of seven million a month which include the 40 million according to a year to Boeing who flies the satellites. Iridium turned into satisfactory in that it included the whole Earth, all oceans and far off areas, with spare satellites equipped just in case. Iridium had sixty-six satellites in orbit in use at approximately 485,000 up. Very close and facilitates with records lag related to satellites that are usually a half of 2d or greater. The statistics can be transmitted at 1Mbs, that is sluggish considering the Wash Guys statistics transmission skills of 10-12.265 Mbps upload and the 1Mbs download, faster than that of the USA Department of Defense. The other problem we see with their gadget is the relay in Tempe, AZ home of Motorola, that is risky because of the most up-to-date wave of feasible terrorist devices together with the briefcase digital impulse devices which work from constructing tops and could easily break its relay station. This is why other structures, which don’t voice structures and generally net primarily based and records use satellites are an awful lot better which include the Globalstar System.

With Globalstar, that is in debt and filed financial ruin, due to a small quantity of debt to Qualcomm who’s also in trouble and Loral, it can cease to exist. Eurocom has a neat machine, that is used in the shipping enterprise and there is an exciting article in Professional Mariner this month approximately them and a few others. It is just like Inmarsat and supports PBX and PABX structures on ships. Of direction, the bent pipe approach by means of GlobalStar is really worth thinking about its forty-eight operational satellites and the 4 spares. The only actual hassle is the range of 70 tiers north to 60 levels south. And also the gaps in case you let’s assume within the center of the ocean at sea stage within the South Atlantic and or center of the Pacific. Several satellites can transmit the coded sign however not like the Iridium device the Satellites do not communicate to themselves. But all in all Global Star records transmissions are still about nine.6 KBPS and in fact barely much less than the Iridium gadget, which does not have the lapse in service.

The Iridium of the route is the Arthur C. Clark theory in exercise and is worth of note; the massive trouble proper now with information transmission is the issues with direct sight to the satellite, which we’ve got encountered. Hard for submarines, and under decks on vessels or in buildings. Good for catching awful men who have to go out in the open to use the cell phone, they do not work in caves either. Iridium like every of Microsoft software has triple redundancy and makes use of CDMA technologies to gateway the statistics from transmission point into the terrestrial device. Inmarsat Systems include the I-4 gadget, which can transmit facts at 432 MBPS turns out to be notable for such things as video conferencing. The latest satellites by using Inmarsat are said so that you can 10 times greater communications than the present day ones. Since the Inmarsat satellites are at 22, three hundred miles up 3 satellites cover the Earth with 3 lower back-ups. But recollect with that altitude there may be a time delay. You will be aware this whilst you see the video feed from the Middle East Wars on stay pronounces on TV, CNN.

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