SP Conference, Part Four

We ran up to Hudson's Hamburgers for lunch (famous burger joint, but it gets really crowded!) and then stopped back by the hotel to rest up. After lunch, Steve Elwart spoke on Cyber Security and Terrorism. Because of another friend, we'd heard alot of what he had to say about personal security online. Basically, nothing you do anywhere online is completely secure. It can be hacked, the only question is how long will it take. For us, the new and interesting part was in discussing international cyber securities. Did you know that Israel shut down Iran's nuclear thingymabob? And left a calling card? :-) Don't think I heard that one in the news... but everybody was expecting them to do something... Did you know that nearly everything (not sure what wouldn't be...) in our national infrastructure can be shut down with a bug? Dams, electricity, water, traffic... the stuff of movies is eerily accurate. Remember a few years ago when a HUGE chunk of the Northeast was blacked-out? That was a mistake, but it gives an example of how scary things could get. And they knew the grid was coming back up. In the case of an attack- it could take a tragically long time. Did you know that deep sea oil rigs are not anchored to the sea floor? They are balanced using computers. One mistake can send a rig crashing... and end up with a similar disaster as that we've seen the past months in the Gulf. Anyway- lots of details, with a basic point. Do NOT let yourself consider us "safe." We have many enemies, and since we have a serious future coming up (read- energy + credit crisis) with many players involved, who knows who will decide to push the first "key."

Chuck Missler rattled my brain next... literally. I had a hard time staying awake, simply because I got completely lost very quickly (and I have listened to this stuff at least 3 times before!). He jumped into the known errors in astronomy, which of course are still being taught in colleges around the country today. Then he slid into quantum mechanics... "non-locality"... plasma.. zero point energy.... Truthfully? I understood most of what he said. I even could tie it together. But could I get it? No. It's fascinating, but I can't recall most of it to tell you about. However, Gabe loved it :-) So ask him! My summary? God is awesome. The creation is awesome. I cannot begin to comprehend how it works. But I certainly appreciate it's... complexity. :-)