Lyme Disease - the Secret Pandemic Sweeping America - Part 6.

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Where can the truth be found?

It has been eight months since I was first diagnosed with "possible" Lyme disease. My last report in June discussed how the conditions had settled in with swollen joints, numb hands, odd behavior from my neurology system and frustration finding the truth about the bacteria.

As for the treatment, nothing seemed to be doing anything more than keeping me from getting worse so I then turned to the Eastern and ancient medical treatments and I found a 76 year old Chinese Doctor who has been practicing traditional Chinese medicine for over 55 years.

Dr. Shi-hua Wu, CMD, OMD is a professor of Traditional Chinese medicine, a US licensed Acupuncturist & Herbologist and a Clinical Consultant in Acupuncture & Herbology, quite a list of credentials for the diminutive doctor from China who works out of Chinatown in Washington, DC.

According to the professionals who came to my rescue in late November, Dr. Wu probably saved my life because unbeknownst to me, at the time I found him after several months of no progress in getting better, the weakness throughout my body was causing my organs to begin failing. That was in late September.

The numb hands led to nerve problems and two areas of pinched nerves in my spine which started after I got the disease and left me with occasional problems standing, walking and climbing steps. By October it had been months since I was in public and I had no intention of being seen as I looked like a drunken sailor trying to walk and I didn't even drink.

Dr. Wu formulated an extra-ordinary herbal tea for my condition using 24-28 Chinese herbs and requiring me to follow a full page of preparation instructions taking several hours to make a weeks supply. He also began twice a week acupuncture at his Chinatown office. He would study my condition each visit and put in 35-65 needles depending on what he found. He also gave me some other herbs to take daily.

If you know ancient Chinese medicine, to over simplify it, the intent is to restore your body to full functioning by bringing your body into balance. With a history of 2000 to 3000 years, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has formed a unique system to diagnose and cure illness. The TCM approach is fundamentally different from that of Western medicine. In TCM, the understanding of the human body is based on the holistic understanding of the universe as described in Daoism, and the treatment of illness is based primarily on the diagnosis and differentiation of syndromes.

The TCM approach treats zang--fu organs as the core of the human body. Tissue and organs are connected through a network of channels and blood vessels inside human body. Qi (or Chi) acts as some kind of carrier of information that is expressed externally through jingluo system. Pathologically, a dysfunction of the zang-fu organs may be reflected on the body surface through the network, and meanwhile, diseases of body surface tissues may also affect their related zang or fu organs. Affected zang or fu organs may also influence each other through internal connections. Traditional Chinese medicine treatment starts with the analysis of the entire system, then focuses on the correction of pathological changes through readjusting the functions of the zang-fu organs.

Evaluation of a syndrome not only includes the cause, mechanism, location, and nature of the disease, but also the confrontation between the pathogenic factor and body resistance. Treatment is not based only on the symptoms, but differentiation of syndromes. Therefore, those with an identical disease may be treated in different ways, and on the other hand, different diseases may result in the same syndrome and are treated in similar ways.

The clinical diagnosis and treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine are mainly based on the yin-yang and five elements theories. These theories apply the phenomena and laws of nature to the study of the physiological activities and pathological changes of the human body and its interrelationships. The typical TCM therapies include acupuncture, herbal medicine, and qigong exercises. With acupuncture, treatment is accomplished by stimulating certain areas of the external body. Herbal medicine acts on zang-fu organs internally, while qigong tries to restore the orderly information flow inside the network through the regulation of Qi. These therapies appear very different in approach yet they all share the same underlying sets of assumptions and insights in the nature of the human body and its place in the universe. Some scientists describe the treatment of diseases through herbal medication, acupuncture, and qigong as an "information therapy".

The work performed by Dr. Wu became far more important as October rolled around and there were strange environmental factors that came into play. A persistent but undetected propane leak filtered into my house over several months and the silent gas, which cannot be smelled, poisoned me. At the same time a year of extreme rain had left the area filled with mold from the standing water and the fact the Potomac River was running at extremely high tides since early spring. Yet another complication for my weakened state.

Then there was the torrid heat wave starting when I got sick last May and extending through the entire summer meaning constant air conditioning in a closed in house that was contaminated by leaking propane and mold spores. Add to that the tragic death of my 250 pound Irish Wolfhound after two weeks of infection whose cause has never been identified, an infection so powerful it caused a 107 degree fever and stopped my dog from being able to stand in spite of the best treatment possible from his vet. After nearly two weeks in which I had to treat him, move him and feed him by trying to shove his massive weight around as I was too weak to lift him, he died in my arms.

By that time I was unable to even stand from the sheer exhaustion and dual emotions of fighting my own serious health problems while trying to save my best friend and protector. When he died it was the lowest point I can remember in my life. Though Dr. Wu was keeping me alive, the new environmental issues and death of Coolin magnified everything that was going wrong.

Sensing my rapidly weakening condition just before Thanksgiving my brothers came out from Kentucky and took me back for extensive treatment that would finally help me turn the corner and start healing. Once in Lexington and under the care of Debbie Alsheimer, a functional medicine practitioner and founder of Prospect Health Solutions.

It is the belief of people like Debbie that diet, nutrition and exposure to environmental toxins play a central role in the function of the body because they may predispose your body to illness, provoke symptoms and modulate the activity of biochemical mediators. What does that mean? Here is my lay person interpretation of what Dr. Debbie does after spending three weeks under her intensive care.

She uses a very sophisticated bio-feedback machine with the ability to analyze 10,000 frequencies in the cells of your body. It is based on earlier work of Nikola Tesla and Royal Rife in using electrical frequencies to destroy invasive cells in our bodies and bring our bodies back into balance. Her work involves the extraordinary combination of Eastern Traditional Chinese Medicine with Chinese herbology, acupuncture, Western Medicine and Intuitive analysis.

The result is a microbiologic analysis of the cell structure identifying cells and organs that are damaged or corrupted and then developing a protocol to return your body to balance. Sickness or disease resulting from abnormal cell activity caused by bacteria, virus, fungi or parasites is her passion and specialty and there is none more mysterious than the Borrelia bacteria found in Lyme.

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are microscopic, unicellular, and cell-cluster organisms. This includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes. Viruses and prions, though not strictly classed as living organisms, are also studied. Microbiology typically includes the study of the immune system, or Immunology. Generally, immune systems interact with pathogenic microbes; these two disciplines often intersect which is why many colleges offer a paired degree such as "Microbiology and Immunology". Microbiology is a broad term which includes virology, mycology, parasitology, bacteriology and other branches. A microbiologist is a specialist in microbiology and these other topics.

Previous articles I have written on the subject have detailed the difficulty of Western Medicine in identifying Lyme, the common misdiagnoses of Lyme as one of the 100 or so diseases it can mimic, and the failure to recognize and destroy the parasites that protect the Lyme bacteria from antibodies. I have also written about the incredible explosion of drug resistant cells now attacking our bodies as a result of the failure of our immune systems to operate properly due to the inability of Western Medicine to protect us.

The very nature of life in America requires a broad based approach to the diagnoses and treatment of diseases, especially in light of the proliferation of drug resistant illnesses rapidly affecting Americans. Add to that the severe environmental deviations we may encounter including physical location, exposure to air and water pollution, long term effects of fertilizers and pesticides on food supply, radiation exposure from television, cell phones, cell towers, computers, x rays, MRI, Cat scans, and excessive prescriptions for antibodies and vaccination protocols.

That still leaves the biggest sin of all - our personal health in America - our lack of proper diet and healthy eating. Every one of these factors contributes to the destruction of our immune system and it would be nearly impossible to find someone with a fully functioning immune system. Because of the over-prescription of antibodies and other drugs our bodies have developed a resistance to traditional Western medical treatment for diseases and these drug resistant cells that evolve are the greatest danger yet to successful health treatment and health maintenance.

People like Debbie Alsheimer understand the changing nature of our microbiology and the need to attack the problem from multiple disciplines using the best of Eastern Chinese medicine and acupuncture along with ancient herbs and Western Medicine techniques if we are to have a chance to rebuild our immune systems and be healthy again.

As a result of her efforts and that of Dr. Wu I am finally reversing the trend and recovering. Both found that Lyme was not the only problem I had in spite of my relatively good health before I got sick. It had been 26 years since I last saw or needed a doctor.

The remnant nerve problems and some parasite presence are the last of the Lyme issues to resolve and both are being treated with Chinese herbs, acupuncture and physical therapy. My goal is to be completely free of Lyme and other problems detected within four months, to have restored my immune system to be much stronger than before I got sick, and to be back on the golf course by spring.

If you are a victim of Lyme, or have fallen sick from some unidentified disease or "bug", you should contact Debbie or Dr. Wu for help. Of course if you were really smart you would contact them before you get sick. Both have the ability to read signs of impending problems in your body before they are detectable by conventional medical exams. You can reach them at the following.

Dr. Shi-hua Wu
Phone (202) 789-5466

Debbie Alsheimer
Phone (502) 290-9070
Email http://www.prospecthealthsolutions.com

Finally, I have created a blog containing the complete Lyme Disease series of six articles I wrote so you can read them in one place. The link is

http://lymediseasesecretpandemic.blogspot.com /

and please share this link with anyone who might benefit from the series.
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Christmas Cheer with the Bud Clydesdale Horses

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What could be more American than the Bud Clydesdale horses and the great commercials over the years?  Here are some of the best of the Christmas and other seasons with the world famous horse team.

As you can see from the photos, when the Bud team was in Souhern Maryland recently I was able to get up close and personal with my photos and they are every bit as big in real life as they appear on TV.  Enjoy this presentation.



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Finding what is right with America - a Journey to the Bluegrass State of Kentucky

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I just returned from 3 weeks in Kentucky where I went to get help for my bout with Lyme disease and where I went to find people who in spite of the recession are working to resolve the problems caused by the political stalemate in Washington DC.

It was refreshing to find people who can ignore the chaos in our capitol and are diligently working to solve the problems others are ignoring. My intent is to report to you on all the good things being accomplished out in the real America in spite of the difficulties we all face.

It was a journey I made to find hope and I was pleasantly surprised to find it in many areas. A series of articles will follow telling you of breakthroughs in areas from teaching to medical advancements, from computer security to innovations that could help you find solutions to the many problems we face.

As a victim of the medical problems that are not being addressed which I discovered since being diagnosed with Lyme disease, I can tell you there are people who can help you. They are quietly working to help restore your health and they are not motivated by greed but by a desire to help people stop suffering and get well.

I apologize for not writing recently but I had to find positive stories to report and getting away from the Washington political and media circus helped me discover what I thought we had lost, the good old American desire to make a better life for every one. Our news is dominated with what is wrong but thank God there are many, many people who refuse to accept the news as being indicative of the true spirit of America.

I hope the next few articles will show you that there are souls out in Main Street America who reject the notion we are weak, people who are focused on fixing our problems and people who long ago knew that we are strong because of the people. Our leaders should take note of these innovators, should learn from them that tearing down each other accomplishes nothing, and that our greatness comes from the unselfish acts of kindness taking place throughout our great nation.

No trip to Kentucky would be complete without joining 23,000 fans at a UK basketball game which I did, watching the Wildcats beat arch-rival Indiana. While the state was being battered by frigid cold and snow we were inside the citadel of college basketball, Rupp Arena, in downtown Lexington, rocking as the Cats wore down the Hoosiers.

As we approach the sacred Holiday season I intend to tell you their stories about what is right with America and what is being done to help people. I hope you will share these stories with those who may benefit from the information.

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WizArmor™Avatar - Cyber Bodyguard for Youth Internet Computer Security - Unleashed on Internet

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Using fascinating new stealth technologies, algorithms never seen before and incredible futuristic cloning techniques, there may be hope for Internet users, especially the unsuspecting youth, from the WizArmor™Avatar cyber security techology.

Modern technology, especially the Internet, has opened a world of opportunity and wonder with incredible learning and skill development opportunities for our Youth.

At the same time, the Internet is unregulated by any government, beyond the control of any nation, cannot be censored for moral or crime prevention purposes. Children are often victimized by the most vicious and sophisticated criminals, hackers and predators in our history.

Our Youth, our Teens and Tweens, face very real but invisible Internet dangers including Predators, Pornography, Crime, Identity Theft, Child Porn, Scams, Sexting and Invasion of Privacy. In fact more and more Youth every day become victims of the "creepo" deviants seeking to entrap and victimize them.

The WizArmor™Avatar incorporates next generation computer security technology featuring unique patented techniques to create a clone of the user system and route all incoming traffic into the clone for testing, thus capturing all known and unknown malware before it can infect the user pc.

Upon identification of the invader the WizArmor™Avatar destroys the clone along with the invader and never allows the user computer to be infected. A new WizArmor™Avatar clone instantaneously replaces the destroyed clone.

The WizArmor™Avatar protects the individual user computer from all known types of malware such as viruses, worms, spyware and other techniques of invisible predators intended seek out and find potential victims without their knowledge.

WizArmor technology takes a new approach. It does not care how the potential offender “looks” – it does not depend on a database of known viruses or worms. Instead, when installed, the system builds a “clone” of your computer. All the potential offenders are directed into that “clone” and tested there. If the “clone“ is harmed – it is destroyed along with the offender and a new “clone” is immediately erected.

All computer users are painfully familiar with the first generation "legacy" security systems purportedly protecting their computers – the endless “patches” and the urgent updating for “newly discovered critical vulnerabilities”. And, of course, “scanning” – the most annoying activity of searching all your files for the known malware that has already infected and is hiding in their computers. We all know that this scanning usually comes at the worst time, ties up our computers for a long period, and usually is hopeless.

The reason for shortcomings in the first generation "legacy" computer security systems is the principle they are based on. These systems can protect only against known to the database offenders. How do these offenders become known to the database? Simple -- by infecting computers. In other words, when a new virus is released it is not known to the database, so it easily gets through all the defenses and infects computer. Then, if somebody figures out what happened, a “patch” is developed, and the virus is added to the database. But it’s too late; a lot of damage has already been done. Needless to say, maintaining the active virus database and developing “patches” is cumbersome and expensive, and the user eventually pays for it.

Is the threat real? On September 17, 2010 Congressman Chris Smith (R-N.J.) told a House subcommittee that stronger efforts need to be made to curb the scourge of child sex-trafficking, which has gained new fuel through the internet.

A 2009 National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, America’s Prostituted Children, conducted by Shared Hope International, found an estimated 100,000 U.S. minors are victimized annually with the average age of initial exploitation between 12-13 years old.

The US State Department’s recent annual report on human trafficking estimates that the number of “adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world” is 12.3 million.

Identity theft through malware and hacking results in the hijacking of bank, credit card and other personal information then used to victimize Young users and can lead to long term credit and other problems that can plague them for years.

The WizArmor™Avatar is your cyber bodyguard to protect our Youth from all such unknown attacks that infect personal computers. You can even watch the attacks in Real Time while your Avatar seeks out and destroys your enemy. For information please visit our web site at WizArmor.com and discover for yourself how the WizArmor™Avatar can protect our Youth while allowing Parents the knowledge that a powerful invisible Sentinel is always on guard defending our Children from harm.
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Wiz Enterprises of Virginia today released the first new generation of Internet Computer Security for our Youth, called the WizArmor™Avatar, designed to provide a cyber bodyguard to protect teen and tween users from the multitude of Internet predators seeking young victims on the Internet. Go to WizArmor.com and see.

Think You Had A Bad Day? Check out WGN News

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The news anchors on a morning show at Chicago's WGN certainly let out their (tongue-in-cheek) sadness and near-rage when a bridge that they had been training a camera on for minutes imploded the second they cut away from it. In fact, they nearly had a comic meltdown, banging their fists on the table, yelling, throwing and even eating the papers on their desks.



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Cyber Security - Kids in the Internet Age - an Opportunity or Tragedy? Computer Security Risks

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What a decision for parents, deciding how to let your teens and tweens use the Internet. I mean look at the pressures to give them free rein of the cyber world.

Modern technology, especially the Internet, has opened a world of opportunity and wonder with incredible learning and skill development opportunities for our Youth.

At the same time, the Internet is unregulated by any government, beyond the control of any nation, cannot be censored for moral or crime prevention purposes. Children are often victimized by the most vicious and sophisticated criminals, hackers and predators in our history.

Our Youth, our Teens and Tweens, face very real but invisible Internet dangers including Predators, Pornography, Crime, Identity Theft, Child Porn, Scams, Sexting and Invasion of Privacy. In fact more and more Youth every day become victims of the "creepo" deviants seeking to entrap and victimize them.

There are thousands of predator sites that use spam, viruses and malware to gain secret access to unsuspecting youth and they are masters at appealing to the lonely, outcast, curious, thrill seeking and just plain lack of common sense attitudes that may prevail when kids take to the cyber highways.

Most kids have no idea they have even become the victims of these cyber predators until they are too far along to face the embarrassment of admitting to their parents they no longer control their own destiny. If they have the inner strength and courage to ask for help it is there, but hundreds of thousands don't and they could get caught up in a world of darkness that may threaten their very lives.

It is estimated over 300,000 youth in America have gotten caught up in child prostitution because of the need for money for drugs or status symbols, or perhaps because of the need for personal attention. Never underestimate the ability of the professional predators to identify the weakness in kids and exploit it to their advantage.

Identity theft through bank, credit card or cell phone records that can be hacked can also cause severe financial distress and may even impact on our kids ability to get into college. And the unlimited and uncensored pornography rampant on the Internet is a big draw for those just coming of age and merely curious.

In addition to the silent and invisible threat on the Internet there is a second, almost as menacing a danger which will test the maturity of your young user, the social sites and their overpowering appeal to any kid who wants to be part of the Now generation. With texting and cell phone apps, applications to the older generation, kids can be wired into the Net 24-7.

We can ill afford to rely on the protection of current computer security systems to protect our youth and long ago the cyber thieves learned how to compromise the old security and parental controls of the current legacy security systems.

Every day there are headlines in cyber security telling of the hacking of files and security breaches in the most expensive, heavily protected systems in the world from banks and credit cards to the National Security sites of our top secret defense and intelligence agencies. If the top secret sites with the best possible security can't keep out the cyber thieves, what chance do our children have to be protected?

Internet use does open up untold wealth in the form of knowledge and learning to our youth. But there is risk involved - we must protected them from the harm on the Internet as well.

There are new generation security systems coming to the market that are designed to meet the needs of the future and the time is long overdue for security systems designed to protect us and our kids today and far into the future.

Using fascinating new technologies to enhance the stealth or invisible appearance of your records and personal information, using algorithms never before in existence and incredible cloning techniques that may only be found in the most technologically advanced intelligence and defense security systems, there is hope for Internet users, especially the unsuspecting youth who have become obsessed with the Internet.

We hope to be able to tell you about these exciting new technological breakthroughs any day now, as soon as the system is available to protect our youth. There are too many hypothetical solutions to our problems and not enough real ones. Too many are discussed in future terms when the problem is immediate.

Our children need effective help now. They need to be protected from the bad guys and their evil ways today. When we report on a breakthrough in Internet Security, we won't be reporting on some theoretical technique far into the future, we will report on something you can use now because hundreds of thousands of our youth will never get to experience their future if we don't act fast.

Stay tuned because there is a tsunami of change about to be available that is the result of some of the greatest minds with the most extensive and diverse experience in intelligence and security who have been working as part of an international team for many years to finally give us the security we deserve today to meet the demands of the future.

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Happy Thanksgiving from TSA

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And more...

All photos by Craig F. Walker/ The Denver Post

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Video of the Week -Horse in Car

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The video was taken by the Potter family of Osage City, Kansas as the family drove north on I-75 between Osage City and Topeka around 2:15 p.m. The Potters were going to Walmart.

Horse Riding In The Backseat Of A Car - Watch more Funny Videos

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Cyber Security - Stuxnet virus could target many industries

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By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press

WASHINGTON – A malicious computer attack that appears to target Iran's nuclear plants can be modified to wreak havoc on industrial control systems around the world, and represents the most dire cyberthreat known to industry, government officials and experts said Wednesday.

They warned that industries are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the so-called Stuxnet worm as they merge networks and computer systems to increase efficiency. The growing danger, said lawmakers, makes it imperative that Congress move on legislation that would expand government controls and set requirements to make systems safer.

The complex code is not only able to infiltrate and take over systems that control manufacturing and other critical operations, but it has even more sophisticated abilities to silently steal sensitive intellectual property data, experts said.

Dean Turner, director of the Global Intelligence Network at Symantec Corp., told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that the "real-world implications of Stuxnet are beyond any threat we have seen in the past."

Analysts and government officials told the senators they remain unable to determine who launched the attack. But the design and performance of the code, and that the bulk of the attacks were in Iran, have fueled speculation that it targeted Iranian nuclear facilities.

Turner said there were 44,000 unique Stuxnet computer infections worldwide through last week, and 1,600 in the United States. Sixty percent of the infections were in Iran, including several employees' laptops at the Bushehr nuclear plant.

Iran has said it believes Stuxnet is part of a Western plot to sabotage its nuclear program, but experts see few signs of major damage at Iranian facilities.

A senior government official warned Wednesday that attackers can use information made public about the Stuxnet worm to develop variations targeting other industries, affecting the production of everything from chemicals to baby formula.

"This code can automatically enter a system, steal the formula for the product you are manufacturing, alter the ingredients being mixed in your product and indicate to the operator and your antivirus software that everything is functioning as expected," said Sean McGurk, acting director of Homeland Security's national cybersecurity operations center.

Stuxnet specifically targets businesses that use Windows operating software and a control system designed by Siemens AG. That combination, said McGurk, is used in many critical sectors, from automobile assembly to mixing products such as chemicals.

Turner added that the code's highly sophisticated structure and techniques also could mean that it is a one-in-a-decade occurrence. The virus is so complex and costly to develop "that a select few attackers would be capable of producing a similar threat," he said.

Experts said governments and industries can do much more to protect critical systems.

Michael Assante, who heads the newly created, not-for-profit National Board of Information Security Examiners, told lawmakers that control systems need to be walled off from other networks to make it harder for hackers to access them. And he encouraged senators to beef up government authorities and consider placing performance requirements and other standards on the industry to curtail unsafe practices and make systems more secure.

"We can no longer ignore known system weaknesses and simply accept current system limitations," he said. "We must admit that our current security strategies are too disjointed and are often, in unintended ways, working against our efforts to address" cybersecurity challenges.

The panel chairman, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said legislation on the matter will be a top priority after lawmakers return in January.
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Cyber Security - U.S. Warns Of 'Huge' Cyber Threats

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Departments of Defense and Homeland Security are monitoring Stuxnet worm and China, among other critical infrastructure risks.

By Elizabeth Montalbano , InformationWeek

Officials from the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Homeland Security (DHS) this week warned that the prospect of a cyber attack remains imminent even as their agencies continue to monitor threats to U.S. critical infrastructure.

More Government Insights

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates said the future threat of a cyber attack is "huge," while there is a "considerable current threat."

"That's just the reality we all face," he said according to a transcript of his comments.

He said the DoD thinks it has adequately secured the .mil domain but is working to protect U.S. partners in the defense industrial industry so they are shielded.

National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center

Gates added that the DoD's recent agreement with the National Security Agency to work together more closely on cybersecurity also should help the federal government protect its websites from intrusion.

His comments came only a day before a report by a congressional commission unveiled that China Telecom diverted traffic for 18 minutes in April from U.S. government sites -- including those from the .mil and .gov domains -- away from normal traffic routing and through servers in China.

While the annual report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said it could not determine what China was doing with the traffic, a report by Northrop Grumman prepared for the same commission last year said that China is likely using the Internet to spy on the U.S. government in preparation for a future cyber attack.

If China isn't enough to worry about, there is also Stuxnet, a complex computer worm, which was discovered in July when it was believed to be targeting Iranian power plants.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs convened Thursday to discuss how to protect U.S. critical infrastructure in light of Stuxnet.

Testifying before the committee, Sean McGuirk, acting director of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center at the DHS, said that federal officials have considerable concern about Stuxnet because of the unique nature of the threat it poses.

Stuxnet, unlike other computer worms, is highly complex, containing more than 4,000 functions, which is comparable to the code in some commercial software, he said, according to a transcript of his testimony.

The worm also is difficult to detect because it "uses a variety of previously seen individual cyber attack techniques, tactics, and procedures, automates them, and hides its presence so that the operator and the system have no reason to suspect that any malicious activity is occurring," McGuirk said.

DHS officials also are concerned that the underlying Stuxnet code could be adapted to target a broad range of control systems -- such as the electricity grid and power plants -- in "any number of critical infrastructure sectors," he added.

To combat Stuxnet, the DHS has been analyzing and reporting on the worm since its detection and has briefed dozens of government and industry organizations, as well as advised the control systems industry about how to detect and mitigate an attack

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Cyber Security - America's Achilles Heel - Threatens People and Corporations

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For over 15 years I have been writing about the Internet and cyber security, in particular the sorry state of cyber security on the Internet. During that time internet theft, hacking and multi-billion dollar business losses have become the cost of doing business in our modern world.

The dot.com bust of 2000, just ten years ago, demonstrated how the booming Internet was way over-valued by the greed mongers on Wall Street and in less than two years Internet companies lost an astonishing 78% of their valuation sending many an investor in hot Internet stocks to the poor house.

It was the first real sign of the immaturity of the Internet corporate culture. After ten years of progress the business plans and expanded use of the Internet have been apparent, but the evolution of cyber security has been dismal. While processing power and software sophistication has been leaping generations ahead in recent years, computer security through legacy systems, those that have been around for years, remain stuck in first generation technology trying to meet a need far beyond the capabilities of the past.

The Internet, with it's lack of government regulation and no borders, has become the premiere and preferred method of crime in the 21st century extending from no holds barred pornography to forced child prostitution, from stealing music and movies to raiding bank and credit card accounts, from stealing proprietary corporate information to hacking into top secret government files.

So complete is the saturation of crime into the Internet that it reigns supreme in terms of bank, credit card and cell phone theft, pornography and child slavery, prostitution and illegal gambling, theft of music and movies to pedophiles stalking our children. Yet there have been no real innovations in computer security for nearly a decade. Then again, the legacy security providers are making billions of dollars selling virtually obsolete cyber protection so why would they change?

As General Motors and anyone involved long term in technology knows, the minute you rest on your laurels and rely on products of the past to meet future needs you become a technology Neanderthal.  Like GM, you then fall from number one in the world into the throes of bankruptcy.  In the world of cyber security, if you rely on older systems to meet new technological advances you become victims of the cyber criminals who have stayed one step ahead of existing security systems.

Are you or your children safe on the Internet? Of course not. Can you be safe with the right cyber security? Of course not if it is a legacy system because it is like trying to play a digital download on an old cassette recorder. Legacy systems were the first generation security and they are now technically obsolete. But there are new generation security systems coming to the market that are designed to meet your needs of the future, not just the past.

Using fascinating new technologies to enhance the stealth or invisible appearance of your records and personal information, using algorithms never before in existence and incredible cloning techniques that may only be found in the most technologically advanced intelligence and defense security systems, there is hope for internet users, especially the unsuspecting youth who have become obsessed with the Internet.

We have been made aware of impending announcements of historical new achievements in Internet or cyber security that will finally make the protection of computer users the first consideration instead of the last consideration in the evolvement of computer technology. You should watch for these announcements and check them out as it may finally give you the piece of mind that big brother and the cyber thieves may no longer control the Internet as our dependence on the Internet continues to grow at warp speed. There are new ways of protecting your rights and records on the immediate horizon.
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Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

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CERN

Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

This press release is available in French at end of story.

Geneva, 17 November 2011. The ALPHA experiment at CERN has taken an important step forward in developing techniques to understand one of the Universe's open questions: is there a difference between matter and antimatter? In a paper published in Nature today, the collaboration shows that it has successfully produced and trapped atoms of antihydrogen. This development opens the path to new ways of making detailed measurements of antihydrogen, which will in turn allow scientists to compare matter and antimatter.

Antimatter – or the lack of it – remains one of the biggest mysteries of science. Matter and its counterpart are identical except for opposite charge, and they annihilate when they meet. At the Big Bang, matter and antimatter should have been produced in equal amounts. However, we know that our world is made up of matter: antimatter seems to have disappeared. To find out what has happened to it, scientists employ a range of methods to investigate whether a tiny difference in the properties of matter and antimatter could point towards an explanation.

One of these methods is to take one of the best-known systems in physics, the hydrogen atom, which is made of one proton and one electron, and check whether its antimatter counterpart, antihydrogen, consisting of an antiproton and a positron, behaves in the same way. CERN is the only laboratory in the world with a dedicated low-energy antiproton facility where this research can be carried out.

The antihydrogen programme goes back a long way. In 1995, the first nine atoms of man-made antihydrogen were produced at CERN. Then, in 2002, the ATHENA and ATRAP experiments showed that it was possible to produce antihydrogen in large quantities, opening up the possibility of conducting detailed studies. The new result from ALPHA is the latest step in this journey.

Antihydrogen atoms are produced in a vacuum at CERN, but are nevertheless surrounded by normal matter. Because matter and antimatter annihilate when they meet, the antihydrogen atoms have a very short life expectancy. This can be extended, however, by using strong and complex magnetic fields to trap them and thus prevent them from coming into contact with matter. The ALPHA experiment has shown that it is possible to hold on to atoms of antihydrogen in this way for about a tenth of a second: easily long enough to study them. Of the many thousands of antiatoms the experiment has created, ALPHA's latest paper reports that 38 have been trapped for long enough to study.

"For reasons that no one yet understands, nature ruled out antimatter. It is thus very rewarding, and a bit overwhelming, to look at the ALPHA device and know that it contains stable, neutral atoms of antimatter," said Jeffrey Hangst of Aarhus University, Denmark, spokesman of the ALPHA collaboration. "This inspires us to work that much harder to see if antimatter holds some secret."

In another recent development in CERN's antimatter programme, the ASACUSA experiment has demonstrated a new technique for producing antihydrogen atoms. In a paper soon to appear in Physical Review Letters, the collaboration reports success in producing antihydrogen in a so-called Cusp trap, an essential precursor to making a beam. ASACUSA plans to develop this technique to the point at which beams of sufficient intensity will survive for long enough to be studied.

"With two alternative methods of producing and eventually studying antihydrogen, antimatter will not be able to hide its properties from us much longer," said Yasunori Yamazaki of Japan's RIKEN research centre and a member of the ASACUSA collaboration. "There's still some way to go, but we're very happy to see how well this technique works."

"These are significant steps in antimatter research," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "and an important part of the very broad research programme at CERN."

Full information about the ASACUSA approach will be made available when the paper is published.



By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Frank Jordans, Associated Press – Thu Nov 18, 8:03 am ET

GENEVA – Scientists claimed a breakthrough Thursday in solving one of the biggest riddles of physics, successfully trapping the first "anti-atom" in a quest to understand what happened to all the antimatter that has vanished since the Big Bang.

An international team of physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, managed to create an atom of anti-hydrogen and then hold onto it for long enough to demonstrate that it can be studied in the lab.

"For us it's a big breakthrough because it means we can take the next step, which is to try to compare matter and antimatter," the team's spokesman, American scientist Jeffrey Hangst, told The Associated Press.

"This field is 20 years old and has been making incremental progress toward exactly this all along the way," he added. "We really think that this was the most difficult step."

For decades, researchers have puzzled over why antimatter seems to have disappeared from the universe.

Theory posits that matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts at the moment of the Big Bang, which spawned the universe some 13.7 billion years ago. But while matter — defined as having mass and taking up space — went on to become the building block of everything that exists, antimatter has all but disappeared except in the lab.

Hangst and his colleagues, who included scientists from Britain, Brazil, Canada, Israel and the United States, trapped 38 anti-hydrogen for about one tenth of a second, according to a paper submitted to the respected science journal Nature.

Since their first success, the team has managed to hold the anti-atoms even longer.

"Unfortunately I can't tell you how long, because we haven't published the number yet," Hangst told the AP. "But I can tell you that it's much, much longer than a tenth of a second. Within human comprehension on a real clock."

Scientists have long been able to create individual particles of antimatter such as anti-protons, anti-neutrons and positrons — the opposite of electrons. Since 2002, they have also managed to lump these particles together to form anti-atoms, but until recently none could be trapped for long enough to study them, because atoms made of antimatter and matter annihilate each other in a burst of energy upon contact.

"It doesn't help if they disappear immediately upon their creation," said Hangst. "So the big goal has been to hold onto them."

Two teams had been competing for that goal at CERN, the world's largest physics lab best known for its $10 billion smasher, the Large Hadron Collider. The collider, built deep under the Swiss-French border, wasn't used for this experiment.

Hangst's ALPHA team got there first, beating the rival ATRAP team led by Harvard physicist Gerald Gabrielse, who nevertheless welcomed the result.

"The atoms that were trapped were not yet trapped very long and in a very usable number, but one has to crawl before you sprint," he told the AP.

Many new techniques painstakingly developed over five years of experimental trial and error preceded the successful capture of anti-hydrogen.

To trap the anti-atoms inside an electromagnetic field and to stop them from annihilating atoms, researchers had to create anti-hydrogen at temperatures less than half a degree above absolute zero.

"Think of it as a marble rolling back and forth in a bowl," said Hangst. "If the marble is rolling too fast (i.e. the anti-atom is too hot) it just goes over the edge."

Next, scientists plan to conduct basic experiments on the anti-atom, such as shining a laser onto it and seeing how it behaves, he said.

"We have a chance to make a really precise comparison between a matter system and an antimatter system," he said, "That's unique, that's never been done. That's where we're headed now."

Hangst downplayed speculation that antimatter might someday be harnessed as a source of energy, or to create a powerful weapon, an idea popularized in Dan Brown's best-selling novel "Angels and Demons."

"It would take longer than the age of the universe to make one gram of antimatter," he said, calling the process "a losing proposition because it takes much more energy to make antimatter than you get out of it."

French translation

Des atomes d'antimatière produits et capturés au CERN

Ce communiqué est disponible en anglais.

Genève, le 17 novembre 2011. L'expérience ALPHA au CERN1 vient de réaliser une avancée importante dans le développement de techniques pour comprendre l'une des énigmes de l'Univers, à savoir, ce qui différencie la matière de l'antimatière. Dans un article publié aujourd'hui dans la revue Nature, la collaboration annonce qu'elle a réussi à produire et à capturer des atomes d'antihydrogène. Cette avancée va ouvrir la voie à de nouvelles méthodes pour réaliser des mesures précises sur l'antihydrogène, et ainsi permettre aux scientifiques de comparer la matière et l'antimatière.

L'antimatière – ou plutôt l'absence d'antimatière – reste l'un des plus grands mystères de la science. La matière et l'antimatière sont identiques, mais ont une charge opposée. Elles s'annihilent au contact l'une de l'autre. Lors du big bang, matière et antimatière devraient avoir été produites en quantité égale. Or, nous savons que notre monde est constitué uniquement de matière : l'antimatière semble avoir disparu. Pour découvrir ce qu'il est advenu de l'antimatière, les scientifiques utilisent diverses méthodes qui ont pour but de déterminer si une infime différence entre les propriétés de la matière et celles de l'antimatière pourrait apporter un début d'explication.

L'une de ces méthodes consiste à prendre l'un des systèmes les mieux connus de la physique, l'atome d'hydrogène, constitué d'un proton et d'un électron, et de vérifier si son homologue dans l'antimatière, l'antihydrogène, constitué d'un antiproton et d'un positon, se comporte de la même manière. Le CERN, avec son installation pour antiprotons de basse énergie, est le seul laboratoire au monde où de telles recherches puissent être menées.

Le programme antihydrogène ne date pas d'hier. En 1995, les neufs premiers atomes d'antihydrogène produits en laboratoire l'ont été au CERN. Puis, en 2002, les expériences ATHENA et ATRAP ont montré qu'il était possible de produire de grandes quantités d'antihydrogène, et ainsi ouvert la voie à la réalisation d'études détaillées. Le nouveau résultat d'ALPHA constitue la plus récente des étapes de ce voyage.

Les atomes d'antihydrogène sont certes produits sous vide au CERN, mais ils sont entourés de matière ordinaire. La matière et l'antimatière s'annihilant au contact l'une de l'autre, ces atomes d'antihydrogène ont une espérance de vie très brève. Celle-ci peut toutefois être allongée à l'aide de champs magnétiques intenses et complexes qui permettent de capturer les atomes d'antihydrogène et ainsi d'empêcher qu'ils entrent en contact avec la matière. L'expérience ALPHA a montré qu'il est possible de conserver de cette manière des atomes d'antihydrogène pendant un dixième de seconde, un laps de temps suffisamment long pour pouvoir les étudier. Sur les milliers d'antiatomes produits par l'expérience ALPHA, 38, selon le dernier résultat, ont été capturés suffisamment longtemps pour être étudiés.

Pour des raisons que l'on ignore encore, la nature a exclu l'antimatière. Il est donc très gratifiant et assez impressionnant de savoir que le dispositif d'ALPHA contient des atomes, neutres et stables, d'antimatière, explique Jeffrey Hangst, de l'Université d'Aarhus (Danemark), et porte-parole de la collaboration ALPHA. Cela nous incite à poursuivre nos efforts pour découvrir les secrets de l'antimatière.

Toujours dans le cadre du programme antimatière du CERN, l'expérience ASACUSA a mis au point récemment une nouvelle technique pour produire des atomes d'antimatière. Dans un article qui paraîtra prochainement dans Physical Review Letters, la collaboration annonce qu'elle a réussi à produire de l'antihydrogène dans un « piège à étranglement », étape préalable indispensable en vue de la production d'un faisceau. ASACUSA envisage de développer cette technique afin de pouvoir disposer de faisceaux d'intensité suffisante et d'une durée de vie assez longue pour être étudiés.

Nous disposons désormais de deux méthodes pour produire et finalement étudier l'antihydrogène ; l'antimatière ne devrait donc pas pouvoir conserver ses secrets encore bien longtemps, estime Yasunori Yamazaki, du centre de recherche japonais RIKEN, et membre de la collaboration ASACUSA. Il reste encore du chemin à parcourir, mais nous sommes ravis de constater que cette technique fonctionne aussi bien.

Ces résultats représentent des avancées importantes pour la recherche sur l'antimatière, a déclaré le Directeur général du CERN, Rolf Heuer, et tiennent une place importante dans le vaste programme de recherches mené au CERN.

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