Howdy y'all!

Your gal Freija has been a busy bee! I intend to do full write-ups on both projects but for now here's a teaser.

PROJECT 1
How I turned 16 ceder fence pickets, four 2x4s and a few feet of crown molding into a rustic farmhouse curio display hutch. There's a few minor things left to do but it is 99% done.

Started by cutting out the main parts


And ended up with this


PROJECT 2
Baby gots new shoes! Started with this PC.


I've had this case for at least 10 years and have done several builds in it. Current guts: Asus Rog Strix X470 Gaming motherboard, Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, Nvidia RTX 3060 ti graphics, 32 GB DDR4 3600 memory, 2 TB NVMe drive, 1 TB NVMe drive, 2 TB Hard drive, two 1 TB hard drives. System is super fast and plays all the games I have on the highest settings.

So, with the intention of upgrading to the latest cutting edge stuff later this year, I decided to break up the costs by upgrading the chassis first, moving to water cooling and replacing the two 1 TB mechanical hard drives with a 2 TB SSD. Used my existing motherboard, graphics card and power supply.

Here's how she looks with no power


And when powered on! First with the old system then with the new.


Crazy stuff, right? Yes, among other things I am a nerd.

Detail on each to follow when I have time.

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When Texas joined the union it did not give up it's right to self protection. Neither did the other states... I am proud Texas is bringing the problem to the forefront and fighting back against the idiots in charge (IIC) in Washington.

I know - this isn't in the proper forum (more on that below just to prove you wrong!   ). But seeing "Man Made Disasters" while scrolling made me stop in my tracks and think: "YUP!"

(the quiet part out loud)

Quote:“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

Quote:We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.

Quote:Nixon’s invention of the war on drugs as a political tool was cynical, but every president since — Democrat and Republican alike — has found it equally useful for one reason or another. Meanwhile, the growing cost of the drug war is now impossible to ignore: billions of dollars wasted, bloodshed in Latin America and on the streets of our own cities, and millions of lives destroyed by draconian punishment that doesn’t end at the prison gate; one of every eight black men has been disenfranchised because of a felony conviction.

Quote:Over the past 40 years, the United States has spent more than $1 trillion combatting illicit drug trafficking across the globe, focusing on tactics of eradication and interdiction. Despite the high economic and human cost of these policies, drug use has remained relatively stable and drug revenues continue unabated. Estimates vary widely, but the Organization of American states says $320 billion is generated annually by the illegal drug trade.

While the environmental impacts of drug crop cultivation have been discussed in policy circles — the United Nations Office of Drug Control (UNODC) recognized that the herbicides and fertilizers used to grow and process coca are damaging to the environment, and more than 700,000 acres of forest were lost to coca crop cultivation between 2001 and 2013 — there has been little discussion about how drug policy itself is driving environmental degradation.

Some from stupidity, some from bad luck, and some just had a really bad day and ended up dead.


there are many more vids if interested

Interesting facts and figures:

Quote:The United States and China are in the middle of one of history's largest naval arms races right now. In 2020 the Chinese Navy surpassed the US in the overall number of warships for the first time…on the other hand the US fleet is more advanced and has far more tonnage. But US Naval leadership has seen the writing on the wall and attempted to kick the Military industrial complex back into high gear. What new warships, weapons and tactics will they acquire over the next decade and will it be the correct ones needed to keep China in check?

Firstly, yes, I'm still alive.
Second, I still watch movies.
Thirdish, Spoiler, or not, I love Jason.

That said, here's pretty much the only movie I've looked forward too in the last 6 months, or maybe even a year, hollywood is doneso.

Not much of a lead up to this, it's classic action, classic Statham, pretty much cut and dried or the last half dozen of HIS films and certainly of the popular genre of the one man army style films.

It's, not bad, but you can see how even this old formula is being infiltrated by some of hollywoods current DEI/trash themes, but I think there is still a good message underneath it and some action fun to be had.

It's a fun romp, with a likable lead, doing the things that need to be done(killing the wealthy/powerful/parasites of the modern world).

It's what we all aspire to/hope to have happen, even if it seems it's always the parasites themselves that keep putting out movies like this, no doubt to quell any chance of actual resistance to their destruction of our lives.

I'd give it a 6 out of 10 for current day action films, probably a 4 or 5 for a Statham film. Worth a free download and less than 2 hours of your time for sure.

Even though I live in the same country as the famous fictional Detective Sherlock Holmes inhabited back
in the 1900's, a mystery arrived at my door late last year that I'm still in a puzzle about.

My son's girlfriend -who I will call 'Jill', lives with him in another town, but her parents live quite close to
my home. The whole estate has different styles of houses, but they all adhere to a certain modern approach.
Jill's parents own a garden where they keep Koi carp in a pond. Their home is at the end of a cul-de-sac.

The diagram below may assist.
The pond is situated near the end of their garden. A seven-foot fence divides their property from a narrow
footpath or walkway and other properties. the pond has a three-or-four-foot brick stone wall around it with
paving slabs on the top of the wall.

The grey in the diagram is an old wooden decking with outdoor seating against the high fence and a
similar high fence that separates them from another property. there is a grassed lawn between the pond
and the house and a large shed in the other corner of their garden.


.................................

Some time late in 2023, I was told that the female of the home had looked out of her window at around
10.30am and checked that all was well. She was aware that sometimes, one of the fish takes it into its head
to jump out and enjoy a flopping on the grass. Apparently, this had happened about ten times since they got
them.

Not long after, she looked out to her garden and sure enough, a flabby tail was wearliy flapping for assistance.
Approaching the land-loving carp, she saw that more than one of them had left their lily-decorated home and
were now laid quietly on the lawn. However, all the Koi were laid in the grass and many of them were dead.

Closing the distance, the woman saw many of the fishes had been ripped to pieces or at the very least, had
a lethal bite taken out of them.
.................................

Recently, otters were seen on the river that passes our area and I've seen a fox regularly patrol a footpath
near my own home. During the telling of this tale, my son suggested mink were the culprits of this unseen
slaughter. I can only say I've never heard of any neighbours -many who are daily dog-walkers along the river
side, relate any account of daring mink invading the quiet suburb of Boy In A Dress.

So I guess the question is, what animal in the north of England can haul heavy -and willing, fish from a five
-foot wide deep pool surrounded by a wall in broad-daylight and situated close to humans and then be brave
enough to consume their flesh in a place surrounded by fences?

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Electric vehicles, wind farms, solar power, etc etc and a world where TPTB say we can not burn fossil fuel; what could possibly go wrong if this prediction comes true ?

Skip the first 4 minutes to avoid the advertisement .... The video is about dreaming and even precog dreams...

Quote:Lucid Dreams & Nightmares: Ever Dream This Man? For thousands of years, we’ve pondered the meaning of dreams. Dreams offer insight into our subconscious. Dreams help us process emotions and organize our memories. Most of us live our waking lives giving a sort of performance. Whether through dishonesty, embarrassment, or simply being polite, there are thoughts we do not share.**Dreams have intrigued us for thousands of years. They provide a peek into our subconscious. They aid in managing emotions and arranging our memories. We often perform in our awake state. We might be dishonest, embarrassed, or just polite. Thus, we keep some thoughts to ourselves.** Dreams, on the other hand, offer a platform where these suppressed thoughts can freely roam. They are the uncensored version of our minds, a place where our deepest desires, fears, and secrets can come to light without the fear of judgment or consequences. Dreams also serve as a mirror, reflecting our inner state of mind. They can hint at unresolved issues, unfulfilled desires, or even potential future scenarios. They can act as a guide, helping us navigate through the labyrinth of our thoughts and emotions. Moreover, dreams can be a source of inspiration. Many artists, writers, and scientists have reported getting brilliant ideas from their dreams. They can stimulate our creativity, encourage problem-solving, and even help us prepare for future events. In conclusion, dreams are not just random images that appear during sleep. They are a powerful tool that our mind uses to process information, manage emotions, and explore the infinite possibilities of our imagination. They are an essential part of our cognitive and emotional well-being. While you sleep, your inhibitions disappear. And you’re left with the raw, unforgiving truth. The real you. But dreams can be more than that. Some claim dreams are the realm between ours and the spirit world. Some dreams can predict the future. Studies have shown that dreams can be shared between people. Lucid dreaming is when you – not your dreaming self, your conscious self - controls the dream. You are, literally, a God. The universe is your playground. It’s exhilarating and powerful. But there is a dark side. What if: while lucid dreaming, you weren’t in control of the dream? But, someone else was? That’s no longer a dream; it’s a nightmare. And it’s no longer a playground – it’s a prison. Every night, the lights go out, you close your eyes, and he’s waiting for you.

If we weren't in the 2020s I would not believe it...

Quote:U.S. Internet Leaked Years of Internal, Customer Emails

February 14, 2024

The Minnesota-based Internet provider U.S. Internet Corp. has a business unit called Securence, which specializes in providing filtered, secure email services to businesses, educational institutions and government agencies worldwide. But until it was notified last week, U.S. Internet was publishing more than a decade’s worth of its internal email — and that of thousands of Securence clients — in plain text out on the Internet and just a click away for anyone with a Web browser.

Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minn., U.S. Internet is a regional ISP that provides fiber and wireless Internet service. The ISP’s Securence division bills itself “a leading provider of email filtering and management software that includes email protection and security services for small business, enterprise, educational and government institutions worldwide.”



Roughly a week ago, KrebsOnSecurity was contacted by Hold Security, a Milwaukee-based cybersecurity firm. Hold Security founder Alex Holden said his researchers had unearthed a public link to a U.S. Internet email server listing more than 6,500 domain names, each with its own clickable link.



A tiny portion of the more than 6,500 customers who trusted U.S. Internet with their email.

Drilling down into those individual domain links revealed inboxes for each employee or user of these exposed host names. Some of the emails dated back to 2008; others were as recent as the present day.

Securence counts among its customers dozens of state and local governments, including: nc.gov — the official website of North Carolina; stillwatermn.gov, the website for the city of Stillwater, Minn.; and cityoffrederickmd.gov, the website for the government of Frederick, Md.

Incredibly, included in this giant index of U.S. Internet customer emails were the internal messages for every current and former employee of U.S. Internet and its subsidiary USI Wireless. Since that index also included the messages of U.S. Internet’s CEO Travis Carter, KrebsOnSecurity forwarded one of Mr. Carter’s own recent emails to him, along with a request to understand how exactly the company managed to screw things up so spectacularly.


Individual inboxes of U.S. Wireless employees were published in clear text on the Internet.

Within minutes of that notification, U.S. Internet pulled all of the published inboxes offline. Mr. Carter responded and said his team was investigating how it happened. In the same breath, the CEO asked if KrebsOnSecurity does security consulting for hire (I do not).


[Author’s note: Perhaps Mr. Carter was frantically casting about for any expertise he could find in a tough moment. But I found the request personally offensive, because I couldn’t shake the notion that maybe the company was hoping it could buy my silence.]

Earlier this week, Mr. Carter replied with a highly technical explanation that ultimately did little to explain why or how so many internal and customer inboxes were published in plain text on the Internet.

“The feedback from my team was a issue with the Ansible playbook that controls the Nginx configuration for our IMAP servers,” Carter said, noting that this incorrect configuration was put in place by a former employee and never caught. U.S. Internet has not shared how long these messages were exposed.

“The rest of the platform and other backend services are being audited to verify the Ansible playbooks are correct,” Carter said.

Holden said he also discovered that hackers have been abusing a Securence link scrubbing and anti-spam service called Url-Shield to create links that look benign but instead redirect visitors to hacked and malicious websites.



“The bad guys modify the malicious link reporting into redirects to their own malicious sites,” Holden said. “That’s how the bad guys drive traffic to their sites and increase search engine rankings.”

For example, clicking the Securence link shown in the screenshot directly above leads one to a website that tries to trick visitors into allowing site notifications by couching the request as a CAPTCHA request designed to separate humans from bots. After approving the deceptive CAPTCHA/notification request, the link forwards the visitor to a Russian internationalized domain name (рпроаг[.]рф).


The link to this malicious and deceptive website was created using Securence’s link-scrubbing service. Notification pop-ups were blocked when this site tried to disguise a prompt for accepting notifications as a form of CAPTCHA.

U.S. Internet has not responded to questions about how long it has been exposing all of its internal and customer emails, or when the errant configuration changes were made. The company also still has not disclosed the incident on its website. The last press release on the site dates back to March 2020.

KrebsOnSecurity has been writing about data breaches for nearly two decades, but this one easily takes the cake in terms of the level of incompetence needed to make such a huge mistake unnoticed. I’m not sure what the proper response from authorities or regulators should be to this incident, but it’s clear that U.S. Internet should not be allowed to manage anyone’s email unless and until it can demonstrate more transparency, and prove that it has radically revamped its security.