Day: 09/15/2016

Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report – The World Trade Center

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The following content is from an in-depth investigation of the conspiracy theories surround the attacks of 9/11, which was published in the March 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics. That cover story was expanded and published in August 2006 as a book titled Debunking 9/11 Myths. The fully revised and updated 2011 edition of the book is now on sale.

Violent Collapse: Pancaking floors—not controlled demolition—expel debris and smoke out South Tower windows.

The World Trade Center

The collapse of both World Trade Center towers—and the smaller WTC 7 a few hours later—initially surprised even some experts. But subsequent studies have shown that the WTC’s structural integrity was destroyed by intense fire as well as the severe damage inflicted by the planes. That explanation hasn’t swayed conspiracy theorists, who contend that all three buildings were wired with explosives in advance and razed in a series of controlled demolitions.

WIDESPREAD DAMAGE

Claim: The first hijacked plane crashed through the 94th to the 98th floors of the World Trade Center’s 110-story North Tower; the second jet slammed into the 78th to the 84th floors of the 110-story South Tower. The impact and ensuing fires disrupted elevator service in both buildings. Plus, the lobbies of both buildings were visibly damaged before the towers collapsed. “There is NO WAY the impact of the jet caused such widespread damage 80 stories below,” claims a posting on the San Diego Independent Media Center Web site (sandiego.indymedia.org). “It is OBVIOUS and irrefutable that OTHER EXPLOSIVES (… such as concussion bombs) HAD ALREADY BEEN DETONATED in the lower levels of tower one at the same time as the plane crash.”

FACT: Following up on a May 2002 preliminary report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a major study will be released in spring 2005 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a branch of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST shared its initial findings with PM and made its lead researcher available to our team of reporters.

The NIST investigation revealed that plane debris sliced through the utility shafts at the North Tower’s core, creating a conduit for burning jet fuel—and fiery destruction throughout the building. “It’s very hard to document where the fuel went,” says Forman Williams, a NIST adviser and a combustion expert, “but if it’s atomized and combustible and gets to an ignition source, it’ll go off.”

Burning fuel traveling down the elevator shafts would have disrupted the elevator systems and caused extensive damage to the lobbies. NIST heard first-person testimony that “some elevators slammed right down” to the ground floor. “The doors cracked open on the lobby floor and flames came out and people died,” says James Quintiere, an engineering professor at the University of Maryland and a NIST adviser. A similar observation was made in the French documentary “9/11,” by Jules and Gedeon Naudet. As Jules Naudet entered the North Tower lobby, minutes after the first aircraft struck, he saw victims on fire, a scene he found too horrific to film.

“MELTED” STEEL

Claim: “We have been lied to,” announces the Web site AttackOnAmerica.net. “The first lie was that the load of fuel from the aircraft was the cause of structural failure. No kerosene fire can burn hot enough to melt steel.” The posting is entitled “Proof Of Controlled Demolition At The WTC.”

FACT: Jet fuel burns at 800° to 1500°F, not hot enough to melt steel (2750°F). However, experts agree that for the towers to collapse, their steel frames didn’t need to melt, they just had to lose some of their structural strength—and that required exposure to much less heat. “I have never seen melted steel in a building fire,” says retired New York deputy fire chief Vincent Dunn, author of The Collapse Of Burning Buildings: A Guide To Fireground Safety. “But I’ve seen a lot of twisted, warped, bent and sagging steel. What happens is that the steel tries to expand at both ends, but when it can no longer expand, it sags and the surrounding concrete cracks.”

“Steel loses about 50 percent of its strength at 1100°F,” notes senior engineer Farid Alfawak-hiri of the American Institute of Steel Construction. “And at 1800° it is probably at less than 10 percent.” NIST also believes that a great deal of the spray-on fireproofing insulation was likely knocked off the steel beams that were in the path of the crashing jets, leaving the metal more vulnerable to the heat.

But jet fuel wasn’t the only thing burning, notes Forman Williams, a professor of engineering at the University of California, San Diego, and one of seven structural engineers and fire experts that PM consulted. He says that while the jet fuel was the catalyst for the WTC fires, the resulting inferno was intensified by the combustible material inside the buildings, including rugs, curtains, furniture and paper. NIST reports that pockets of fire hit 1832°F.

“The jet fuel was the ignition source,” Williams tells PM. “It burned for maybe 10 minutes, and [the towers] were still standing in 10 minutes. It was the rest of the stuff burning afterward that was responsible for the heat transfer that eventually brought them down.”

PUFFS OF DUST

Claim: As each tower collapsed, clearly visible puffs of dust and debris were ejected from the sides of the buildings. An advertisement in The New York Times for the book Painful Questions: An Analysis Of The September 11th Attack made this claim: “The concrete clouds shooting out of the buildings are not possible from a mere collapse. They do occur from explosions.” Numerous conspiracy theorists cite Van Romero, an explosives expert and vice president of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, who was quoted on 9/11 by the Albuquerque Journal as saying “there were some explosive devices inside the buildings that caused the towers to collapse.” The article continues, “Romero said the collapse of the structures resembled those of controlled implosions used to demolish old structures.”

FACT: Once each tower began to collapse, the weight of all the floors above the collapsed zone bore down with pulverizing force on the highest intact floor. Unable to absorb the massive energy, that floor would fail, transmitting the forces to the floor below, allowing the collapse to progress downward through the building in a chain reaction. Engineers call the process “pancaking,” and it does not require an explosion to begin, according to David Biggs, a structural engineer at Ryan-Biggs Associates and a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) team that worked on the FEMA report.

Like all office buildings, the WTC towers contained a huge volume of air. As they pancaked, all that air—along with the concrete and other debris pulverized by the force of the collapse—was ejected with enormous energy. “When you have a significant portion of a floor collapsing, it’s going to shoot air and concrete dust out the window,” NIST lead investigator Shyam Sunder tells PM. Those clouds of dust may create the impression of a controlled demolition, Sunder adds, “but it is the floor pancaking that leads to that perception.”

Demolition expert Romero regrets that his comments to the Albuquerque Journal became fodder for conspiracy theorists. “I was misquoted in saying that I thought it was explosives that brought down the building,” he tells PM. “I only said that that’s what it looked like.”

Romero, who agrees with the scientific conclusion that fire triggered the collapses, demanded a retraction from the Journal. It was printed Sept. 22, 2001. “I felt like my scientific reputation was on the line.” But emperors-clothes.com saw something else: “The paymaster of Romero’s research institute is the Pentagon. Directly or indirectly, pressure was brought to bear, forcing Romero to retract his original statement.” Romero responds: “Conspiracy theorists came out saying that the government got to me. That is the farthest thing from the truth. This has been an albatross around my neck for three years.”

SEISMIC SPIKES

Claim: Seismographs at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., 21 miles north of the WTC, recorded the events of 9/11. “The strongest jolts were all registered at the beginning of the collapses, well before falling debris struck the earth,” reports the Web site WhatReallyHappened.com.
A columnist on Prisonplanet.com, a Web site run by radio talk show host Alex Jones, claims the seismic spikes (boxed area on Graph 1) are “indisputable proof that massive explosions brought down” the towers. The Web site says its findings are supported by two seismologists at the observatory, Won-Young Kim and Arthur Lerner-Lam. Each “sharp spike of short duration,” says Prisonplanet.com, was consistent with a “demolition-style implosion.”

Fine Lines: Revisionists say sharp spikes (graph 1, above) mean bombs toppled the WTC. Scientists disprove the claim with the more detailed graph 2 (below). (Seismograph readings by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University: Won-Young Kim, senior research scientist; Arthur Lerner-Lam, associate director; Mary Tobin, senior science writer)

FACT: “There is no scientific basis for the conclusion that explosions brought down the towers,” Lerner-Lam tells PM. “That representation of our work is categorically incorrect and not in context.”

The report issued by Lamont-Doherty includes various graphs showing the seismic readings produced by the planes crashing into the two towers as well as the later collapse of both buildings. WhatReallyHappened.com chooses to display only one graph (Graph 1), which shows the readings over a 30-minute time span.

On that graph, the 8- and 10-second collapses appear—misleadingly—as a pair of sudden spikes. Lamont-Doherty’s 40-second plot of the same data (Graph 2) gives a much more detailed picture: The seismic waves—blue for the South Tower, red for the North Tower—start small and then escalate as the buildings rumble to the ground. Translation: no bombs.

WTC 7 COLLAPSE

Claim: Seven hours after the two towers fell, the 47-story WTC 7 collapsed. According to 911review.org: “The video clearly shows that it was not a collapse subsequent to a fire, but rather a controlled demolition: amongst the Internet investigators, the jury is in on this one.”

Fire Storm: WTC 7 stands amid the rubble of the recently collapsed Twin Towers. Damaged by falling debris, the building then endures a fire that rages for hours. Experts say this combination, not a demolition-style implosion, led to the roofline “kink” that signals WTC 7’s progressive collapse. (Photograph by New York Office of Emergency Management)

FACT: Many conspiracy theorists point to FEMA’s preliminary report, which said there was relatively light damage to WTC 7 prior to its collapse. With the benefit of more time and resources, NIST researchers now support the working hypothesis that WTC 7 was far more compromised by falling debris than the FEMA report indicated. “The most important thing we found was that there was, in fact, physical damage to the south face of building 7,” NIST’s Sunder tells PM. “On about a third of the face to the center and to the bottom—approximately 10 stories—about 25 percent of the depth of the building was scooped out.” NIST also discovered previously undocumented damage to WTC 7’s upper stories and its southwest corner.

NIST investigators believe a combination of intense fire and severe structural damage contributed to the collapse, though assigning the exact proportion requires more research. But NIST’s analysis suggests the fall of WTC 7 was an example of “progressive collapse,” a process in which the failure of parts of a structure ultimately creates strains that cause the entire building to come down. Videos of the fall of WTC 7 show cracks, or “kinks,” in the building’s facade just before the two penthouses disappeared into the structure, one after the other. The entire building fell in on itself, with the slumping east side of the structure pulling down the west side in a diagonal collapse.

According to NIST, there was one primary reason for the building’s failure: In an unusual design, the columns near the visible kinks were carrying exceptionally large loads, roughly 2000 sq. ft. of floor area for each floor. “What our preliminary analysis has shown is that if you take out just one column on one of the lower floors,” Sunder notes, “it could cause a vertical progression of collapse so that the entire section comes down.”

There are two other possible contributing factors still under investigation: First, trusses on the fifth and seventh floors were designed to transfer loads from one set of columns to another. With columns on the south face apparently damaged, high stresses would likely have been communicated to columns on the building’s other faces, thereby exceeding their load-bearing capacities.

Second, a fifth-floor fire burned for up to 7 hours. “There was no firefighting in WTC 7,” Sunder says. Investigators believe the fire was fed by tanks of diesel fuel that many tenants used to run emergency generators. Most tanks throughout the building were fairly small, but a generator on the fifth floor was connected to a large tank in the basement via a pressurized line. Says Sunder: “Our current working hypothesis is that this pressurized line was supplying fuel [to the fire] for a long period of time.”

WTC 7 might have withstood the physical damage it received, or the fire that burned for hours, but those combined factors—along with the building’s unusual construction—were enough to set off the chain-reaction collapse.

It’s Official: European Scientific Journal Concludes 9/11 was a Controlled Demolition

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15-years after the attacks on September 11th, the European Scientific Journal, a publication of the European Scientific Institute (ESI), published an article titled “15 Years Later: On the Physics of High-Rise Building Collapses,” in which they analyze the collapse of all three World Trade Center buildings. The results of their findings continue to indicate that the WTC towers were destroyed by controlled demolition, and the fact that this controversial topic was covered by a publication that boasts an editorial committee from reputable colleges and universities around the world (despite the article’s disclaimer), can be considered yet another small victory for 9/11 Truthers.

The study was written in collaboration by Steven Jones of Brigham Young University (now retired), Robert Korol of McMaster University – a Mechanical Design Engineer in the aerospace industry, Anthony Szamboti, and Ted Walter of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. The highly-sourced study breaks down the scientific evidence while revealing the discrepancies in NIST’s official report, and we suggest our readers – especially the skeptics – read it in its entirety.

One of the most important testimonies on the collapse of the World Trade Towers that was brought to attention in the study comes from the head structural engineer of the towers, John Skilling. It is apparently not enough for skeptics to take the findings of thousands of architects and engineersseriously, but should a skeptic choose not to at least consider the expertise of one of the men who built the WTC towers, then they are purposefully remaining blind.

Every sort of catastrophe that can happen to a high-rise building has to be taken into consideration during the design and construction processes, including the impact of an airplane. According to a 1993 report from The Seattle Times, the Trade Towers were analyzed years ago, after concern was raised over a case where an airplane hit the Empire State Building. It was concluded at the time that the Trade Towers could withstand the impact of a Boeing 707.

In a statement made to The Seattle Times by Skilling:

It’s Official: European Scientific Journal Concludes 9/11 was a Controlled Demolition

“We looked at every possible thing we could think of that could happen to the buildings, even to the extent of an airplane hitting the side, however back in those days people didn’t think about terrorists very much.” He continues, “Our analysis indicated the biggest problem would be the fact that all the fuel (from the airplane) would dump into the building. There would be a horrendous fire. A lot of people would be killed. The building structure would still be there. However, I’m not saying that properly applied explosives – shaped explosives – of that magnitude could not do a tremendous amount of damage. I would imagine that if you took the top expert in that type of work and gave him the assignment of bringing these buildings down with explosives, I would bet that he could do it.”

 

As stated in the study: “In other words, Skilling believed the only mechanism that could bring down the Twin Towers was controlled demolition.” It should be pointed out, as well, that a steel-framed high-rise building has never completely collapsed from fire. And yet on September 11, 2001, three buildings supposedly collapsed in this manner, one of which wasn’t even hit by a plane.

It was on this latter point that the authors concluded their study. They state:

“It bears repeating that fires have never caused the total collapse of a steel-framed high-rise before or since 9/11. Did we witness an unprecedented event three separate times on September 11, 2001? The NIST reports, which attempted to support that unlikely conclusion, fail to persuade a growing number of architects, engineers, and scientists.”

CDC confirms lemon eucalyptus oil as effective as toxic DEET for repelling bugs

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DEET, while amazingly effective at warding off mosquitoes, comes with its own dangers.

It’s a neurotoxin.  Found in most conventional, over-the-counter insect repellents, it can enter your bloodstream if it comes into contact with your skin.  Children with DEET toxicity have reported lethargy, headaches, tremors, involuntary movements, seizures, and convulsions.

It is, then, a refreshing admittance that lemon eucalyptus oil is as effective as this toxin in repelling mosquitoes.

“Oil of lemon eucalyptus [active ingredient: p-menthane 3,8-diol (PMD)], a plant- based repellent, is also registered with EPA. In two recent scientific publications, when oil of lemon eucalyptus was tested against mosquitoes found in the US it provided protection similar to repellents with low concentrations of DEET,” according to the article on Mattermore.

Finding natural solutions and substitutions for heavy chemicals and toxins is extremely important and being able to research them on the internet has allowed us to swiftly rectify any time this is the case.  Businesses and organizations have begun selling lemon eucalyptus oil repellents and the non-toxic movement has taken off.

Watching porn can make you religious

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Talking about porn and religionin the same breath may offend a lot of people but a recent study has brought forth a vivid connection. According to the study, watching porn once or twice a week may actually boost your faith.

 It is commonly believed that since religious groups disapprove of pornography, believers are less likely to watch it. The believers argue that pornmay actually make them lose their faith.

While researchers haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact reason, they have linked it to the hidden feeling of guilt among people who watch porn. The study said, “Recent research suggests that more frequent porn consumption, especially for religious persons, is associated with guilt and embarrassment, potentially diminishing one’s interest in religious or spiritual activities while also potentially creating feelings of scrupulosity that may draw individuals away from religious community.”

 As part of the study, Dr Samuel Perry, assistant professor of sociology and religious studies at University of Oklahoma, studied a group of more than 1,300 Americans over six years (between 2006 and 2012) to understand how porn watching affected their religious belief over time.
In comparison to those who watched less porn, it was observed that those who watched porn weekly or more in 2006 were found to pray more often by 2012; they had higher prayer frequency and worship attendance.

It is commonly believed that since religious groups disapprove of pornography, believers are less likely to watch it. The believers argue that pornmay actually make them lose their faith.

While researchers haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact reason, they have linked it to the hidden feeling of guilt among people who watch porn. The study said, “Recent research suggests that more frequent porn consumption, especially for religious persons, is associated with guilt and embarrassment, potentially diminishing one’s interest in religious or spiritual activities while also potentially creating feelings of scrupulosity that may draw individuals away from religious community.”

 As part of the study, Dr Samuel Perry, assistant professor of sociology and religious studies at University of Oklahoma, studied a group of more than 1,300 Americans over six years (between 2006 and 2012) to understand how porn watching affected their religious belief over time.
In comparison to those who watched less porn, it was observed that those who watched porn weekly or more in 2006 were found to pray more often by 2012; they had higher prayer frequency and worship attendance.

The Darknet: A secret world of snuff porn, drugs and guns

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The-Dark-Web-entered-public-consciousness-in-2013-when-the-FBI-shut-down-Silk-Road-a-notorious-Darknet-website-that-that-allowed-anyone-to-buy-or-sell-drugs-Shutterstock-image

Videos of women torturing and killing animals such as cats and rabbits while simultaneously having sex, lethal weapons like the Walther PPK 9mm pistol being sold for a few Bitcoins, and groups that offer “rape and murder services”. This and much more are available in the Darknet, a shadowy part of the internet. You can’t access the Darknet through search engines like Google or Bing — and even the world’s most powerful security agencies can rarely crack its clandestine activities.

The Dark Web entered public consciousness in 2013 when the FBI shut down Silk Road, a notorious Darknet website that that allowed anyone to buy or sell recreational drugs, and made over $8 million a month. Silk Road founder Ross William Ulbricht aka Dread Pirate Roberts was sentenced to life imprisonment. The website allowed users to trade in Bitcoin, a crypto-currency completely disconnected from banks and thus offering completely anonymity.

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Silk Road which was shut by FBI was notorious for selling illicit drugs.Indian cyber security experts believe criminals and terrorists in the country could already be using the Darknet for their activities because law enforcement agencies simply don’t have the wherewithal to track such activities.

“The Dark web is something that you can’t figure out unless you get into it yourself,” said senior technology journalist Prasanto Roy. “Unfortunately, our government is clueless.”

That may be true, but 8 of the 857 websites that the government asked ISPs to block recently are Darknet websites, characterised by their telltale .onion URLs. They include Agora Market, a Silk Road clone that also specialises in selling illegal drugs.

View image on Twitter

Pavan Duggal, cyber law expert and author of “Darknet and Law” said , “Law enforcement agencies and governments round the world don’t even acknowledge the presence of the Darknet because they are incapable of tracking activities.”

Just this week, the Interpol’s Cyber Research Lab formed a private dark web network to reverse engineer its technologies in order to better understand how criminals use it.

A study done last year by the University of Portsmouth’s computer science researcher Gareth Owens found that 80% of the traffic on the Darknet was to websites hosting child pornography. After a six-month study of the hidden services and websites that can be accessed through the Tor browser, Owen found that sites offering drugs and contraband made up the single largest category within the Dark Web.

 “Before we did this study, it was certainly my view that the Darknet is a good thing,” Owen was quoted as saying by the media. “But it’s hampering the rights of children and creating a place where paedophiles can act with impunity.”

Despite its depth and complexity, accessing the Dark Web is not very difficult. Most websites on the Darknet cover their tracks by using Tor, short for The Onion Router. People surfing the Darknet too can cover their tracks by using the Tor browser.

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Military-grade weapons being sold on the Darknet.Tor was initially a worldwide network of services developed by the US Navy that allowed people to anonymously browse the internet. Now, it’s an open-source project that hides a user’s identity on the web by encrypting a computer’s unique IP address and bouncing it across several volunteer servers, known as “nodes”, around the world so that it’s virtually impossible to trace the user.

A Kolkata-based professional, who used Tor to access sites on the Darknet while he was a student in Karnataka, said he used Silk Road and Evolution, a marketplace for contraband, to order banned drugs.

“These websites change their IP every 12 hours, and I found a blog that had the latest address. I then got some bitcoins from my Australian friend by transferring money to him through my bank account,” he said.

“I ordered twice from Darknet sites — once, blots of acid (LSD) and Ecstasy the second time. The acid was delivered in the form of small pieces of paper that had been dipped the drug and hidden within a stamp album. The ecstasy was delivered in a lipstick.”

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Professional hitman services being offered on the Darknet.People sometimes confuse the Darknet with the Deep Web, which too cannot be accessed by search engines. But a lot of the material on the Deep Web could be innocuous, such as the academic databases of universities and educational institutions, libraries or even material on internal servers of the Hindustan Times.

Despite its reputation, the Dark Web does have a few bright spots. During the Arab Spring, activists used Tor to anonymously pass on messages. Around the world, political dissidents and journalists have taken to the Darknet to cover their digital tracks for oppressive regimes.

“Indians are increasingly going on the Darknet after the revelations by (whistleblower) Edward Snowden about government surveillance and because non-state actors such as hackers groups could be watching their activities,” Duggal said.

“The Indian nation has not even woken up to the reality of the Darknet. We are still in the medieval age as far as our laws are concerned. We need to update tools and sensitise law enforcement agencies to this new challenge for India, which has the potential to destabilise security,” he added.

Over a million people using Facebook on ‘dark web’

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According to Facebook, the growth of Tor over the past few years has been “roughly” linear, noting that some 525,000 people who accessed the service via Tor in June 2015 rose to more than one million in April this year
More than one million people are now connecting to Facebook through Tor “dark web” — which maintains privacy and leaves no digital trail — every month, media reports said on Saturday.

According to Facebook, the growth of Tor over the past few years has been “roughly” linear, noting that some 525,000 people who accessed the service via Tor in June 2015 rose to more than one million in April this year.

“This [Tor] growth is a reflection of the choices that people make to use Facebook over Tor, and the value that it provides them. We hope they will continue to provide feedback and help us keep improving,” TechCrunch quoted Facebook as saying.

Tor allows anonymous web browsing by sending data through multiple encrypted steps rather than making direct connections that shields the identity of its users.

Facebook created a dedicated address for Tor access in October 2014, making it easier for users to connect via Tor and give them privacy.

 

Facebook also expanded its Tor support at the start of this year by rolling out support for the Android Orbot proxy, giving Android Facebook users an easier way to use Tor. Apple’s iOS platform still does not have Tor support.

Confirming Facebook’s claim, a spokeswoman for Tor said in a statement: “When using Facebook website over Tor, Tor Browser is in charge of that data, so it is anonymous. Of course, someone may post a status update saying that they are at some restaurant, for instance, and that would de-anonymise them.”

Tor could be used in countries where internet access or use of Facebook is blocked or censored, the Tor statement added.

“Many people use Tor in countries where the internet is censored, not in order to be anonymous. Tor allows them to access the uncensored internet, including reaching Facebook. In Iran, for instance, Facebook is blocked. So people use Tor to get onto the internet and browse and from there they can reach Facebook,” it read.

Privacy activists, hackers, activists and journalists use this “dark web” to communicate securely.

In a first, drug trafficking reported in India through Darknet, Bitcoin

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Anti-narcotics agencies have detected drug-trafficking perpetrated through ‘darknet’ and unregulated currency Bitcoin.

Anti-narcotics agencies have detected drug-trafficking perpetrated through the cryptic ‘darknet’ and the clandestine and unregulated currency Bitcoin.

The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), chief law enforcement and intelligence agency responsible for fighting drug trafficking and abuse of illegal substances, has interdicted two such syndicates operating in the country.

“For the first time, we have detected drug traffickers using the darknet and Bitcoin for running the illegal drug racket in India. I can tell you that our investigations have shown that some of these operatives are based in the country. We are probing them,” NCB director general RR Bhatnagar told PTI.

While ‘darknet’ is a clandestine internet network that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations and authorisation and is difficult to track by the usual communications protocols and ports. Bitcoin is referred to as a cryptocurrency that allows consumers to make electronic transactions by skipping the legal banking channels.

The NCB boss said the two syndicates interdicted by them were prima facie seen indulging in trafficking of party drugs.

 The usage of such ultra-secret measures over the internet in drug crimes is worrying but we are enhancing our capabilities to detect these instances, he said.

Bhatnagar, while talking about the drug trafficking scenario in the country, said the cross-border availability of heroin has decreased.

“Our estimate is that due to effective clampdown by the agencies tasked to check the drugs menace, there has been a 30% decline in trafficking in Punjab,” the DG said.

At a review meeting of the agency recently, Bhatnagar had informed the Union home ministry that drug addicts in Punjab were gradually getting attracted to medicine-based concoctions following the clampdown on peddling of traditional narcotic drugs.

The official data for 2015 show that Punjab accounted for the maximum seizures of opium and heroin nationwide.

The latest trends suggest that synthetic drugs are now replacing the natural and semi-synthetic products that have been abused for several decad

Archaeology dig in Spain yields prehistoric ‘crystal weapons’

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Even in modern times we are fascinated by crystals – from the diamonds we use as a sacred symbol of partnership, to the plethora of ‘healing’ gems that can be found in a New Age gift shop. So we can only imagine how ancient people viewed these transparent rocks with hidden structure.

Evidence of the esteem in which crystals were held can be found in a “remarkable set” of ‘crystal weapons’ found in the megalithic tombs of southwestern Spain. At the site of Valencina de la Concepcion, archaeologists have uncovered crystal arrowheads, an exquisite dagger blade, and cores used for creating the artifacts, that date to the 3rd millennium BCE.

The Montelirio tholos, excavated between 2007 and 2010, is “a great megalithic construction…which extends over 43.75 m in total”, constructed out of large slabs of slate. At least 25 individuals were interred within the structure , along with “an extraordinary set of sumptuous grave goods…the most notable of which is an unspecified number of shrouds or clothes made of tens of thousands of perforated beads and decorated with amber beads”. Additionally however, a large number of crystal arrowheads were found together, which be suggestive of a ritual offering at an altar. The arrowheads have the characteristic long lateral appendices of flint arrowheads from the area – but investigators remarked that “even greater skill must have been required to produce these unique features when using rock crystal.”

Structure 10.042-10.049 is another large two-chambered megalithic construction made from slate slabs. In the second chamber archaeologists found the body of a young male aged between 17 and 25 lying in the foetal position along with a large set of grave goods. These included an undecorated elephant tusk laid above the young man’s head, a set of 23 flint blades, and numerous ivory objects. Additionally, red pigment made from cinnabar had been sprayed over the body and the objects surrounding it. The “remarkable crystal dagger blade”, however, was not found with these grave goods, but instead in the upper level of this chamber.

The rock crystal dagger blade appeared in the upper level of Structure 10.049 of the PP4-Montelirio sector, in association with an ivory hilt and sheath, which renders it an exceptional object in Late Prehistoric Europe… The blade is 214 mm in length, a maximum of 59 mm in width and 13 mm thick. Its morphology is not unheard of in the Iberian Peninsula, although all the samples recorded thus far were made from flint and not rock crystal…

The manufacture of the rock crystal dagger blade must have been based on an accumulation of transmitted empirical knowledge and skill taken from the production of flint dagger blades as well from know-how of rock-crystal smaller foliaceous bifacial objects, such as Ontiveros and Montelirio arrowheads… It was obtained from a large monocrystal at least 220 mm in length and 60 mm in width. Given that these single crystals are hexagonal, they would have a similar width along all their different axes.

The rock crystal source used in creating the crystal weaponry has not been pinpointed exactly at this stage, though analysis suggests two potential sources, “both located several hundred km away from Valencina”.

Objects studied in this paper. A: Ontiveros arrowheads; B: Montelirio tholos arrowheads; C: PP4-Montelirio dagger blade (Structure 10.049); D: Montelirio tholos core; E: PP4-Montelirio knapping debris (from UE-345 on the left and UE-919 on the right); F: PP4-Montelirio micro-blades (from Structure 10.015 on the left and Structure 10.043 on the right); G: Montelirio tholos microblades.

Given the technical skill and difficulties involved in creating the objects from crystal, rather than flint, researchers believe the motives behind their construction must have been very specific. They note that while crystal objects were found throughout the site…

The more technically sophisticated items, however, were deposited in the larger megalithic structures…As such, it is reasonable to assume that although the raw material was relatively available throughout the community…only the kin groups, factions or individuals who were buried in megaliths were able to afford the added value that allowed the production of sophisticated objects such as arrow heads or dagger blades.

Dagger blade from Structure 10.049 (PP4-Montelirio sector). Microphotograph
showing A: Main polishing; B: Retouching and polishing of the reverse; C: Final
retouching of the edge, without polishing

In this respect, however, it is important to note that, paradoxically, none of the most sophisticated artefacts studied in this paper can be ascribed to any particular individual: the rock crystal dagger from Structure 10.042-10.049 was found in the upper level of the main chamber (10.049) in which no human bones were identified; in Montelirio, neither the core nor the arrowheads can be ascribed to any on 20 individuals found in the main chamber; lastly, in the case of Ontiveros, the only available publication offers no evidence that
the 16 arrow heads were associated to any particular individual.

It seems therefore reasonable to suggest that rock crystal may have had a dual significance for the Chalcolithic society of Valencina. On the one hand, it had a social significance due to the exoticism of the material and the fact that its transformation required very specific skills and probably some degree of technical specialisation. These objects would have had a “surplus value” based on the exoticism and rarity of the raw material, the techno-economic investment of their manufacture (a know-how limited to very few people) and their use linked to the world of beliefs and funerary practices. They probably represent funerary paraphernalia only accessible to the elite of this time-period.

On the other hand, rock crystal must have had a symbolic significance as a raw material invested with special meanings and connotations. The literature provides examples of societies in which rock crystal and quartz as raw materials symbolise vitality, magical powers and a connection with ancestors In her analysis of European Neolithic religion, Marija Gimbutas linked the ritual and votive use of white quartz nodules to a symbol of death and regeneration often associated with funerary spaces. Quartz and rock crystal were even portrayed as rocks with great supernatural powers in European Christian tradition. In his Lapidarium, King Alfonso X the Wise of Castile (1276-1279 CE) emphasised its power to connect human beings with the spiritual world, as well as its ability to protect them from danger.

Interestingly though, despite being found relatively frequently in burials of the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE, crystal implements disappear from later funerary monuments in the Early Bronze Age (beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE) – a “truly striking” development, researchers say, as it would seem “the use of this raw material as grave goods was almost entirely abandoned”, although the reason remains a mystery.

Heroin, pills and weapons on sale: Discovering the dark side of the web

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Cyber crimes cost India Rs 24,630 crore in 2013.

For years, one needed to be a hacker to enter the dark web, a shadowy part of the internet so shrouded in secrecy that it was accessible only through special browsers and untraceable even by the world’s most sophisticated security agencies.

Not anymore. Once considered the sole domain of hackers, coders and black marketeers, the deep web can now be cracked by anyone within minutes. Thousands, even in India, are surfing the web’s dark underbelly at any given time, shopping for drugs, guns, and prescription pills.

Posing as an eager buyer for a variety of products, including drugs such as heroin, prescription pills such as anti-anxiety medication Xanax and weapons such as guns, this correspondent went on to dark web marketplaces such as AlphaBay, UK Guns, and Drug Marketplace. These websites require invites that used to be difficult to come by. However, in 2016, these invite links are available on websites like PasteBin that can be found even through an elementary Google search.

On a site that looked like eBay, buyers rate sellers by ‘trust level’’ — speed of delivery, quantity and quality of products. Some of the shops that shipped to India had stellar reviews. A customer named COX50 said of one shop: “Best H (heroin) I’ve ever got off the net.”

Secure in their online anonymity, sellers converse easily and openly with buyers. “Thank you for thinking of us. Yes, we ship H to India, no limit on the buy. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions,” one of the shops replied to a query. It wouldn’t be their first time, they added.

According to Tor, a software maker whose browser is used to access the Darknet, more than 20,000 Indian use it daily. But, the company counts only direct connections to its servers.

“People also set up virtual private networks (VPNs) cloaking their location. So, this number is indicative of the Darknet’s popularity in India,” said Rahul Sasi, co-founder of Machine, an internet security company that monitors the dark web.

Heroin is “sent in small packages” in “the safest way of shipping,” the shop assured. “It takes 5-10 days to ship to India. The seller revealed they use snail mail that one “would not have to sign for”.

This method would be nearly undetectable by customs officials, said additional commissioner of customs, Vinayak Azaad, who has been working in contraband control since 1994.

Azaad said sniffer dogs were of limited use. “They only sniff for one thing at a time. At airports, it is explosives, weapons.” Even when dogs are trained to find narcotics, he added, “thousands of packages come every day. Searches are random. So, unless the police has prior information, it is very difficult to find the correct shipment.”

The Indian youth is no stranger to the dark web either. “It used to be 100% coders, but now 70% people are coders and 30% normal folks,” said Sasi.

 “Last year I ordered some blotters (LSD) from it. The package came in a week — a CD with my drugs packed inside,” a 23-year-old banker said.

But the Darknet has its brighter side, too.

During the Arab Spring – the Tunisian mass uprising that sparked similar revolutions in other countries — activists used Tor to anonymously pass on messages. Political dissidents and journalists across the world have also been using Darknet to cover digital tracks to escape persecution by oppressive regimes.

Earlier this year, Facebook told a technology news portal that a million of its users accessed the social media network through Tor.

“Women use Tor to research family planning info while domestic violence survivors browse the web while staying anonymous and untracked by former or current abusers,” a Tor spokesperson said.

However, it is difficult to control the dark web. In 2013, after a drug market called Silk Road was busted, many sites cropped up in its place, some even by the same name. The website’s founder Ross Ulbricht is serving life sentence for murder in the US. Similarly, child pornography sites such as PedoEmpire continue to operate chatrooms and serve content despite its founder Mattew David Graham being jailed in Australia since March 2016.

“It’s about demand and supply. If you take away the moral angle, this is capitalism at its purest,” said digital ethnographer Angad Chowdhry.

A Glock-17 semi-automatic pistol and ammunition could be purchased for $500, a gun seller on the dark web said. Glocks are legally priced at $590 with $100 per magazines. For prescription pill dealers, three out of four sellers list India as country of origin. Drugs such as Tramadol, which are legal in India but banned in the US and other countries are big moneymakers.

“It is very difficult to book people (carrying prescription pills) under the Customs Act except for carrying commercial quantities…. (but) there is no hard and fast rule for that (what constitutes a commercial quantity),” Azad said.

Cybercrime is big business in India. According to a report filed by Delhi Police, cyber crimes cost India Rs 24,630 crore in 2013. “Criminals have always been more savvy than law enforcement agencies and in this day of digitalisation, there’s scope for improvement in technology given to police,” said Azad. In the meantime, crooks have never had it so easy.