Closer Than Ever To Paying With Our Fingerprints

If you’ve ever wanted to pay for groceries with the touch of a finger, look no further than the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Two locations – a coffee shop and convenience store – on the school’s campus recently began testing fingerprint purchasing technology that allows students to buy goods with their fingerprint. The technology is called Biocryptology, and not only does it identify a person’s unique fingerprint, but detects levels of hemoglobin, or the oxygen in red blood cells, to make sure the person has a pulse. Thus, criminals looking to fool the system with severed fingers will be unsuccessful (yes, the developers thought of that).

Fifty students and four faculty members have enrolled by providing their bank information, name, birth date, address, student ID, and of course, scanned fingerprints.

Though fingerprint technology isn’t new, this is one of the world’s first experiments using the extra security measure of hemoglobin detection. A more basic version of fingerprint purchase technology was introduced back in 2005 by a San Francisco-based company called Pay By Touch. Headed by John P. Rogers, he raised a whopping $340 million in venture capital for the company, signed deals with Albertson’s and Piggly Wiggly supermarket chains, hired more than 750 employees, and vowed to “change the way the world pays.”

But in 2007, the company suddenly went bankrupt. Rogers, it turned out, had a shady past – restraining orders and arrests, drug use, past business failures, and investors claimed he mismanaged the company’s finances and drove it the ground. In 2007 alone, the company lost $137 million.

Though the company went under, proponents insist it wasn’t the idea that failed. "If this company had been managed properly, it could have replaced major credit-card companies," Dodd Hyer, one of Pay by Touch’s investors, told the Start Tribune. "Someone, somewhere will do exactly that."

Today, that person may be Klaas Zwart, the owner of Spanish company Hanscan Identity Management who developed the technology being used in South Dakota. His colleague Al Maas patented the technology in the U.S. and launched Nexus USA, a subsidiary of Hanscan.

After the initial 60-day test, Maas plans to expand the service to rest of the campus, and then to the larger Rapid City community, hoping the town will become the first fully-biometric city in the world where residents and visitors won’t need to carry credit cards or cash. Maas asserts that the technology is highly secure and hacker-proof, as each finger scan produces a unique series of numbers that cannot be replicated, and will guard against identity theft in the future. “This could [prevent] any fraud ever again, and nobody has to lose their identity,” Maas said in a promotional video, “or their finger.”

Once people see that it works, says Maas, he sees major credit card companies signing on, and anticipates uses beyond paying for goods and services – including gaining access into buildings and cars. “We could have an ‘empty-pocket’ society, where you don’t have to carry your keys, cash, credit cards, nothing. You just have to use one finger.”

Read more: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/02/27/Forget-Credit-Cards-Swipe-Your-Finger-Instead.aspx#page1#ixzz2MJFcFNHg

PETRUS ROMANUS (Pt 18) The False Prophet And The Antichrist Are Here

Things move at a glacial pace, until the time comes…

 

Author and publisher Tom Horn has repeatedly revealed a wonderful talent for discerning events that are ripe for disclosure. In combination with the scholarly research talents of Cris Putnam, they are now bringing a major development into the light of day. Working behind the scenes in a world characterized by swirling currents of challenging information, they have discovered that certain obscure documents now have a startling pertinence.

From these, they have distilled a clear stream of scholarship. A dark prophecy has now been illuminated as a real and present event on the verge of springing into reality. A great unveiling seems near.

As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

In the pages of their new book Petrus Romanus: The Final Pope Is Here, you will be challenged by the assertion that the timing of a long-awaited event is about to crystallize before the unbelieving eyes of the world.

Something of gigantic proportion is shifting in the landscape. Institutions worldwide are discovering that their foundations are turning to sand. Everything is changing. There is a mad scramble for ascendancy.

One of those organizations, the world’s oldest continuing bureaucracy, the Roman Catholic Church, has reached a critical point…a crucial turn…that many among its ranks have quietly whispered about for centuries. The predicted time has arrived. Soon, as you read, you will find answers that have lain dormant for centuries.

By careful design, the Vatican stands as a monument to timelessness. Its theology nurtures thoughts of ushering in a Golden Age, in which the pontiff reigning in the end times welcomes Christ at His Second Coming and hands Him the keys to the Kingdom. Until that precise moment arrives, the Catholic hierarchy is obsessed with maintaining the status quo. It envisions itself as the guardian of the coming Millennium, and plans to be at the center of Christ’s earthly reign from the rebuilt Royal City and the Third Temple.

It takes the role of this guardianship quite seriously, regarding the world outside as its enemy, the devil. It sees itself as the pure, strong preserver of the faith. Its traditions, though often self-generated and recent in origin, are deemed rock-solid. It has built what is perhaps the world’s most convoluted, jurisdictional and bureaucratic barrier.

Its procession of popes, cardinals, and multileveled administrators extends back into the mists of the Dark Ages. Carefully, oh so carefully, it feels its way along as the centuries pass. Taught by the dramatic procession of passing eras, wars long and short, and delicate negotiations with the royal houses of Europe, its reflexes are finely tuned. It has perfected the art of camouflage, appearing as one thing while acting as another.

At the surface, it is a church with hundreds of traditions and beliefs. It is a teaching system with a global network of schools. Beneath that surface, it has a long history of manipulating power in ways that will accrue to its benefit.

Visually, the Vatican stands as an impassable monument to the religion of the Western world. Its labyrinthine archives are unequalled in historical scope. They are concealed beneath the layers of history…over a millennium and a half of history! Its libraries and laboratories are a maze of careful indexing and subterranean secrecy. It even maintains its own observatory, from which its directors issue occasional tantalizing announcements concerning the possibility that alien societies may soon visit Earth!

Viewed from the outside, the Vatican is implacable, inscrutable, and impenetrable. Those external to the faith see what the “Mother Church” wants them to see, and only that.

But on the inside, there are those who know. Institutionally, it is the originator of classified documentation, having invented the system that is known in our current parlance as “above top secret.” The place is an amalgamation of vaults, rooms within rooms, and arcane traditions, stolid and self-righteous. It is the vision of quiet composure.

One is allowed to view its inner secrets only on a “need to know” basis. It is well known that the spoils of many wars are stored in its lower levels. They occupy many sites and secret locations, going back to the days of Vespasian’s siege of Jerusalem, and the sacking of the Jewish Temple by his son Titus.

Near Capitoline Hill, and the Holy See of Vatican City, the Arch of Titus stands to this day as a memorial to the looting of Jerusalem in AD 70. Among other plundered items, it depicts the Temple Menorah in a triumphal parade through the streets of Rome. Illustrative of the Vatican’s penchant for concealment is the following episode:

In 1996, during the tenure of Pope John Paul II, Shimon Shetreet, Israel’s Minister of Religious Affairs drafted an official state letter, which was hand-delivered to the papal offices. In it, he asserted that he had uncovered clues in recent research from the University of Florence. He said that certain ancient documents had revealed that the Menorah and other valuable Temple artifacts were carefully and clandestinely stored in pristine condition, within the Vatican’s underground vaults.

The mind reels in the attempt to imagine what might be in long-term Vatican storage. It’s a certainty that there are scrolls from the first century, lying in nitrogen atmospheres where the temperature never varies by more than a fraction of a degree. Or, might there be cloth samples from robes once worn by the disciples? Paintings from the first century? Captured Hebrew scrolls that resided in Herod’s Temple? Original New-Testament manuscripts?

Its traditions are deep and complex, often verging into breathtaking mystery, punctuated by deceptive “leaks” that point in the wrong direction. Recent motion pictures have publicized the dark and secret nature of this ancient institution. The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons have placed a strong suggestion in the public consciousness. Something is about to be exposed!

As self-protective as the Vatican can be, it somehow never dampened the ancient twelfth-century prophecy of St. Malachy that spoke of a great evil that would spring forth one day from the Papal Throne—the final pope would appear, and with him, the events of the last days.

Petrus Romanus exists to throw a brighter light upon the famous prediction, along with captivating new information that makes sense in a chaotic world.

The future has arrived in a coalescing whirlwind of events which reveal a global background that seems aligned for the appearance of the prophesied pope. His mysterious figure appears on the brink of leaping full-blown into the modern world. When he does, he will be totally aware of the astonishing disclosures that are about to be laid wide open to the dumbfounded eyes of a naïve and deluded world.

Secrets from the vaults of history are about to erupt into a flood that flows through the streets of the world. Is this man of fundamental and solemn significance rising, even as the world is falling into moral, spiritual, and financial disorder? Some have called him “Peter, the Roman.”

Who is he, really? Read Petrus Romanus and discover his secret. His time seems to have arrived, and timing is everything.

RaidersNewsupdate.com

Dark Forces

Thousands of Iranian long-range missiles await enemies

Thousands of Iran’s long-range missiles will defend the Islamic Republic against its enemies, says an Iranian commander.

Deputy Head of the Operations Department of the Iranian Armed Forces General Ali Shadmani said on Thursday, “We are waiting for an order by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] to drop thousands of long-range missiles on enemies who have the evil thought of an invasion [of Iran].”

The enemies, equipped with advanced weaponry, seek an opportunity to carry out an act of aggression, but they even fear the idea of an invasion, the Iranian commander added.

The Israeli regime has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities based on the unfounded allegation that the Iranian nuclear energy program has been diverted toward military purposes.

Iran categorically rejects the allegation and says as a committed signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

Also on Thursday, Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami praised Iran’s achievements in its defensive capabilities and said the Islamic Republic was prepared to respond to ‘any power.’
Over the past years, Iran has attained self-sufficiency in producing important military equipment and systems.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly assured other nations, especially its neighbors, that its military might poses no threat to other countries, insisting that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.

The IRGC commander also stated that the Iranian nation has proved that it is invincible and that sanctions, threats, and economic war could not undermine its determination.

Salami said Iran’s enemy put psychological, cultural and economic warfare on its agenda after it was defeated in the military field. - See more at: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/01/291356/iran-missiles-ready-to-counter-enemies/#sthash.xQSTfjRh.dpuf

The Islamic regime’s Intelligence Ministry told WND that another terror team is about to enter the United States

The potential targets in the U.S. include high-voltage towers to create blackouts, cell towers, water supplies, public transportation and various buildings belonging to the Defense Department and military.

The source said six U.S. politicians who have promoted tougher measures against the regime are on the hit list, along with such targets as the Washington National Cathedral and Lincoln Memorial in D.C. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Two days of negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 countries (the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany) have just ended in Kazakhstan over Iran’s illicit nuclear program. The two parties agreed to meet again in March and April.

The source said an April deadline has been set for Iran to resolve issues over its nuclear program, one of which is to halt activity at Fordow and take concrete measures not to resume enrichment there. Iranian media are avoiding mentioning enrichment at Fordow in the wake of reports that explosions occurred there. The source said that proves explosions rocked Fordow and the West is now urging the regime not to restart enrichment at that site, which is deep underground and immune to conventional air strikes.

Read Reza Kahlili’s inside story of Iran, in “A Time to Betray.” Also look at the status of freedom in the repressive nation, in “A Cry From Iran: The Untold Story of Iranian Christian Martyrs.

WND exclusively reported the Jan. 21 explosions at Fordow, which have now dramatically altered the terms of the dialog between the 5+1 and Iran. Subsequent WND reports said dozens of scientists and technicians were killed in the blasts, scores more were injured, and that radiation leaks are sickening rescue workers and security personnel.

According to Fars News Agency, a media outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, the regime’s armed forces deputy chief of staff, Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, last Thursday stated that, “Al-Qaida groups and other services which operate for the interest of America will soon change the region of their operations and thereafter create new problems for America and Europe.”

Jazayeri warned that the operatives have technological resources to threaten America and that, “if the people of America and Europe do not confront the aggressive policies of their governments, they cannot then remain far from the possible future events (terror attacks).”

WND reported exclusively on Dec. 11 and Dec. 18 that Islamic regime terror teams are not only ready to attack France and Germany but also the U.S.

Iran has been training, arming and funding al-Qaida elements for years. The regime’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Quds Force commanders have held several meetings in Tehran with al-Qaida leaders in which a plan was devised to attack the West.

The source told WND that a six-member team, including an explosives specialist, is to join 10 Quds Force commanders who already have a cell of 50 terrorists in the U.S. Collaboration with al-Qaida serves Iranian leaders well, the source added, as al-Qaida attacks will not leave behind a link to Tehran.

This information has been shared with U.S. intelligence agencies, which have followed suspected terrorists through three countries so far. The source is working with U.S. authorities to verify the information, though it has yet to be validated.

While Israel and the West have set their eyes on covert operations and increased sanctions to pressure the regime into ending its illicit nuclear program, the regime has its eyes on completing its nuclear bomb program by overcoming the last obstacle of arming its ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, according to the source.

The plan is, the source said, that if in the next six months America does not accept Iran’s nuclear program and does not ease sanctions or a military confrontation occurs, the terrorist assets have been ordered to carry out their missions. The regime feels it must act by then because current sanctions, which have already had a serious effect on Iran’s economy, could spark civil riots.

The International Atomic Energy Agency indicated in its Feb. 21 report that not only has Iran refused to allow inspection of several suspected nuclear sites but also has begun installing new-generation centrifuges at Natanz, which currently has 10,000 centrifuges enriching uranium. It said the regime’s Arak heavy-water plant is set to become operational by 2014, which would provide Iran with a second path to nuclear weapons by providing it with the needed plutonium for bombs
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/u-s-warned-al-qaida-hit-squads-coming/#CExdIZ3ap8hbaUb0.99

Salinity Levels In Atlantic Ocean Are Off The Chart, According To NASA Instrument

The salinity level of the world’s rivers, lakes and oceans has been a growing topic in response to global climate change. As NASA’s Aquarius instrument has shown previously, seasonal salinity has been on the rise in oceans all around the world. This year, the picture is no less striking, with deep shades of oranges and reds, at least in the image above, filling a large swath of the Atlantic Ocean both to the north and to the south of the equator.

Launched on June 10, 2011 aboard the Argentine spacecraft SAC-D, Aquarius was specifically developed to study the salt content of the oceans’ surface waters. Variations in ocean salinity, one of the main drivers of ocean circulation, are closely associated with the cycling of freshwater around the world. The data collected from these measurements provide scientists with valuable information on how global climate change is affecting rainfall patterns around the globe.

“With a bit more than a year of data, we are seeing some surprising patterns, especially in the tropics,” said Aquarius’ principal investigator Gary Lagerloef, of Earth & Space Research in Seattle, Washington. “We see features evolve rapidly over time.”

Aquarius was designed to cover the Earth from an orbit that takes it over all the world’s ice-free oceans, taking a complete measurement of salinity levels every seven days. The detector on the instrument measures the top 1 inch of ocean water in 240-mile-wide swaths as it sweeps across the world overhead.

NASA has now received its first full year worth of data from Aquarius showing the varying salinity patterns around the globe.

By studying the data, the research team has revealed some key findings. The Arabian Sea, which sits against the Middle East, is much saltier than the Bay of Bengal, which is diluted by intense monsoons and freshwater discharges from the Ganges River, as well as others.

The Amazon, which releases large amounts of freshwater into the southern Atlantic, will either send a plume of freshwater toward Africa or bend up toward the Caribbean, depending on the seasonal currents. Freshwater also builds up against Panama’s coast, carried down from the central Pacific.

Some of the most saline-rich regions highlighted by Aquarius would be the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. As for the North Atlantic, it is the saltiest stretch of water anywhere in the open sea. This region becomes synonymous with the arid regions of the world’s deserts, which receive little to no rain and evaporation occurs rapidly.

An expedition launched by NASA, the Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS), sent researchers to the North Atlantic last fall to investigate these salt-rich waters and analyze the cause behind the high concentration levels. The expedition was also seen as a move to validate the measurements taken by Aquarius.

“My conclusion after five weeks out at sea and analyzing five weekly maps of salinity from Aquarius while we were there was that indeed, the patterns of salinity variation seen from Aquarius and by the ship were similar,” said Eric Lindstrom, NASA’s physical oceanography program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington, and a participant of the SPURS expedition.

Aquarius was designed to operate for three years, measuring the salinity of Earth’s precious oceans. But Aquarius project manager Gene Carl Feldman, from Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said “there is no reason to think that the instrument could not be able to provide valuable data for much longer than that.”

He said the salinity measuring tool has been “performing flawlessly and our colleagues in Argentina are doing a fantastic job running the spacecraft, providing us a nice, stable ride.”

Researchers plan to continue to use Aquarius for measuring the salinity of the world’s oceans but wish to fine-tune the readings and retrieve more data even closer to coasts and at the poles. Currently, land and ice emit very bright microwave emissions that block the satellite signal. And at the poles, an added complication is that cold polar waters require much larger changes in salt concentration to modify microwaves signals.

Still, Aquarius has been able to garner close coastal readings, producing valuable data for the NASA researchers, who are surprised to see how close to land those readings actually are.

“The fact that we’re getting areas, particularly around islands in the Pacific, that are not obviously badly contaminated is pretty remarkable. It says that our ability to screen out land contamination seems to be working quite well,” Feldman said in a statement.

Salinity readings can be further affected by intense rainfall. It does this by attenuating the microwave signal Aquarius reads off the ocean surface as it travels through a damp atmosphere. Rainfall also creates roughness and shallow pools of freshwater on the ocean surface, which can construe actual readings.

The team hopes to use another instrument aboard SAC-D in the future, the Argentine-built Microwave Radiometer, to gauge the presence of intense rain simultaneously to salinity readings. This could help scientists flag data collected during heavy rainfalls.

Ultimately, the team wants to combine the Aquarius measurements with those of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). This combination could produce a more accurate and finer-detailed map of ocean salinity.

The team is also set to release its first global soil moisture dataset, which will further complement measurements made by SMOS. This dataset release will be in collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“The first year of the Aquarius mission has mostly been about understanding how the instruments and algorithms are performing,” Feldman said. “Now that we have overcome the major hurdles, we can really begin to focus on understanding what the data are telling us about how the ocean works, how it affects weather and climate, and what new insights we can gain by having these remarkable salinity measurements.”


RedOrbit

Senators Press Resolution To Green-Light Israeli Attack

A joint resolution set to be introduced by Sens. Lindsey Graham (SC) and Robert Menendez (NJ), a Republican and Democrat, respectively, declares U.S. support for an Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear program. The resolution, which expresses the sense of the Congress, will be supported by the thousands of delegates to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee annual conference that will stream through the Capitol this weekend. With prominent liberal Democrats already signing on, AIPAC's lobbying heft will likely propel a bill that, in Congressional sentiment at least, commits the U.S. to active support of a potential Israeli attack that experts think could have consequences as grave as further destabilization in the region, adverse global economic consequences, and even a hardening of Iranian resolve to get a weapon.

According to a copy obtained by Open Zion, the resolution, while affirming increasingly harsh sanctions, also "urges that, if the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in self-defense, the United States Government should stand with Israel and provide diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence." Tempering some fears about the bill, the authors added that the resolution shouldn't "be construed as an authorization for the use of force or a declaration of war" by the U.S. Though the caveat will surely placate some members of Congress, it seems potentially at odds with a pledge of "military... support" in the event of an attack—language that, though unlikely for now, if actuated into policy could suggest the U.S. would be dragged into a war based on an Israeli decision to strike.

"Initiating a war is the gravest step any nation can take," said Columbia University professor Gary Sick, an Iran expert and former White House official. "This legislation would effectively entrust that decision to a regional state. Such a decision is an American sovereign responsibility. It cannot be outsourced."

While non-binding Congressional resolutions don't directly make policy, the language therein often manifests itself both in later, binding legislative efforts and, more frequently, in the public discourse. In this case, the resolution builds steam for a hawkish push against Iran at a time when the Islamic Republic and world powers are amid a negotiating process over the former's nuclear program, which is widely believed to be aimed at producing weapons.

In demanding the U.S. lend help to Israel should it strike, the new resolution goes even farther than a similar one languishing in the House. Introduced in late 2011 by Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and supported by 73 of his fellow Republicans, including Michele Bachmann (MN), that resolution eschewed talk of direct U.S. aid and only affirmed "support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary" against Iran. No Democrats signed on as co-sponsors, and a House Democratic aide e-mailed last night that they'd rejected this as "the Iraq —I mean, Iran War Resolution."

Like a previous Graham effort, the new resolution misstates U.S. policy as "to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon capability" (my emphasis)—phrasing the Senate overwhelmingly approved in another AIPAC-backed measure last September. The "capability" language sets a lower threshold for war than Barack Obama's stated policy to "prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," fullstop—a distinction at the heart of Obama's flap last autumn with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Graham floated the idea of introducing this latest resolution, with fellow Republican Sen. Mike Johanns (NE), during the Republican National Convention last August, explaining that "in the event Israel had to take preventive action, we would have their back." But in the heat of a campaign where support for Israel and hawkishness on Iran had become political footballs, the proposed resolution failed to get backing either from any Democrats or influential groups like AIPAC. The JTA's Ron Kampeas reported this week that AIPAC plans to make the resolution one of its "asks," pressed by thousands of delegates as they fan out to Congressional offices during the group's Washington confab. (Called for comment, an AIPAC spokesperson didn't respond by press time.) Now Menendez, a hawk on Iran matters, lent his name to the effort and other prominent Democrats are lining up to support it: a spokesperson for New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told Open Zion she planned on signing on as a co-sponsor.

"This could have several negative implications," said Alireza Nader, an Iran analyst with the RAND Corporation, of the Graham-Menendez resolution. "First, it could be interpreted as endorsing an Israeli preventive strike against Iran, which runs counter to U.S. strategy. The U.S. intelligence community judges that Iran has not made the political decision to create nuclear weapons. An Iranian nuclear weapons capability is not imminent, hence an Israeli military strike against Iran at this moment is not necessary or justified." Nader added that the measure "could also send the message, not only to Iran, but also the wider international community, including major powers like China and Russia, that the United States is not serious about solving the nuclear issue peacefully." The result might be for Iran "to pursue nuclear weapons more aggressively than ever before."

Not everyone is as concerned. Pointing to the on-going talks between Iran and world powers, a former senior C.I.A. official, who requested anonymity to characterize sensitive diplomatic discussions, said: "I don't think this resolution will confuse the message—whatever that message is—coming out of the Administration. The discussions between the Obama administration and the Israelis about potential military action on Iran have nothing to do with these kinds of resolutions."

But the resolutions are part of a long game. At my last job, AIPAC complained when a colleague wrote that the group's tactics were pushing the U.S. toward a new Middle East war. Make no mistake: though non-binding, this Graham-Menendez resolution—announced as an AIPAC initiative before being introduced in Congress—is a pro-war effort. During now-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's confirmation hearing, the nominee's years-old remarks about the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on Capitol Hill were seized upon: “Name one dumb thing we’ve been goaded into doing by the Israeli, Jewish lobby," one Republican demanded. If only Graham had given Hagel an extra few weeks to hand him this shining example.

- See more at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/28/senators-press-to-green-light-israeli-attack-on-iran.html#sthash.KmnQ49LF.dpuf