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YOUR WATCHDOG IS A PENGUIN

PHOTO: Courtesy A.P.

The New Front Line In THE WAR ON TERROR....VIDEO GAMES.

Where’s Osama? Well, not unlike the “Where’s Waldo” game of yesteryear - Osama (apparently) can be found everywhere, everyplace at every time….Fear not, good Americans, our Government is here to protect you regardless of the cost in blood and treasure. Regardless of those pesky “civil liberties” laws . Regardless of the fact that we have now invaded 2 Country’s , incarcerated thousands (with no trial, access to legal council , or even an opportunity to be told exactly what they were charged with) Tapped countless phone calls and “e-transmissions” and built up the newest Government Bureaucracy “Homeland Security” (Drum Roll, Please) to our largest and most expensive “branch” (yes, I feel they are a separate branch) of our great United States.

Well, all that time and money and we still haven’t a clue where the Evil Nemesis of our “freedom” could be hiding….Yes, we know he requires being hooked to a Dialysis Machine due to Kidney problems, so we know he needs electricity......

Electricity = Computers…. Computers = Video Games.

I think we may be on to something now (my, how simple. Why hadn’t we thought of this before?) Osama Bin Laden can be found (like Millions of others) playing World Of Warcraft.

A new Government project, Reynard (Translated from a French “tale” regarding the exploits of a fox and meaning Trickster) now aims to spy on Online Gamers in MMO’s (Massivly Multiplayer Online Games) such as World of Warcraft, Everquest 2 and Age of Conan. They will be seeking “suspicious behavior”, “collecting data” and implementing new software which will automatically be able to detect “persons of interest” due to their “in game” actions…..

I am a gamer who has spent a lot of time in the World of Norrath (Everquest 2) and I am appalled at this latest breach of our privacy in the name of the “War on Terror.” If the Terrorist really “hate our freedom” as we are so often told- The Terrorist have won. Our Government now needs to spy on me in a Video Game to keep me safe? Our Government needs to read the Chat Logs of the RPers (Role Players) as they Cyber (don’t ask….) and battle with the Denizens of Darkness in order to obtain that “Uber” sword. Our Government will have “Undercover” Paladins joining our guild’s, befriending us, hanging out (camping) at spawn spots and speaking “leet” speak as if they are “one of us.” They will battle by our side as we help them level their “toons” and never will we know that they are SPYING on us. We pay $15 a month to play these games- The “spy’s” will be paid $15 an hour or more (thank you Mr. Taxpayer) to play alongside us.

All I have to say is “How can I get that job”? And then I have to throw up. Welcome to the “new” FREEDOM.

"Reynard is a seedling effort to study the emerging phenomenon of social (particularly terrorist) dynamics in virtual worlds and large-scale online games and their implications for the Intelligence Community."

"The cultural and behavioral norms of virtual worlds and gaming are generally unstudied. Therefore, Reynard will seek to identify the emerging social, behavioral and cultural norms in virtual worlds and gaming environments. The project would then apply the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world."

From the recently Declassified "DATA MINING ACT"

A Rhode Island school district has announced a pilot program to monitor student movements by means of radio frequency identification (RFID) chips implanted in their schoolbags.

The Middletown School District, in partnership with MAP Information Technology Corp., has launched a pilot program to implant RFID chips into the schoolbags of 80 children at the Aquidneck School. Each chip would be programmed with a student identification number, and would be read by an external device installed in one of two school buses. The buses would also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) devices.

Parents or school officials could log onto a school web site to see whether and when specific children had entered or exited which bus, and to look up the bus's current location as provided by the GPS device.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has criticized the plan as an invasion of children's privacy and a potential risk to their safety.

"There's absolutely no need to be tagging children," said Stephen Brown, executive director of the ACLU's Rhode Island chapter. According to Brown, the school district should already know where its students are.

"[This program is] a solution in search of a problem," Brown said.

The school district says that its current plan is no different than other programs already in place for parents to monitor their children's school experience. For example, parents can already check on their children's attendance records and what they have for lunch, said district Superintendent Rosemary Kraeger.

Brown disputed this argument. The school is perfectly entitled to track its buses, he said, but "it's a quantitative leap to monitor children themselves." He raised the question of whether unauthorized individuals could use easily available RFID readers to find out students' private information and monitor their movements.

Because the pilot program is being provided to the school district at no cost, it did not require approval from the Rhode Island ethics commission.

AND SO IT BEGINS.... Rhode Island Schools Begin Microchipping Students.

Personal Computer (PC) Repair Technicians in the State of Texas are now required to obtain a P.I. (Private Investigator) license to continue in their field, reports Extreme Tech, a trade journal for the “tech savvy”.

A Criminal Justice degree must be obtained by those working or seeking work in the PC repair industry to avoid a hefty $4000 fine and/or year in jail. Interestingly enough, anyone who dares have someone work on their PC who is NOT licensed will also be penalized with those same fines and/or incarceration.

Is this just another uncannily ignorant law, OR is something nefarious at foot? It is common knowledge that your PC’s hard drive is often “combed” through whenever service is required and commonly the “big box” stores even have a policy regarding your “privacy” (lack thereof) that will be listed in your service contract that in essence gives them the right to poke around in your personal files and data.

We can only wonder if this is coming soon to a State near you.... We think so.

Is your Computer Technician a Dick?????

Please allow me to apologize that the site was not opened as promised, however we had many unforeseen issues and a lapse of judgment along with a small streak of bad luck which has hindered our progress.

I am now back to reality for a moment (I hope) and working with haste on the technical issues we have been having. With a little luck and if (it’s a big IF) I don’t toss this computer out the window with complete frustration- We should have the site fully up and running by Monday.

Our Message Boards and Chat Room are experiencing problems beyond our control (it’s a third party service) and hopefully they are back online tomorrow 6-3-08... We have also been informed that all posts and information on those boards may not be recoverable. The point here, is that I should have backed things up. Lesson learned.

I am slowly going to be posting original content to keep things interesting, but the bulk of my time is going to be spent on fixing the issues which are keeping us from opening the fully functional website.

DarkPenguin.NET

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