From Elonka:

While I was giving my talk at CIA Headquarters in October, I managed to obtain some rubbings of the mysterious Kryptos sculpture in the main courtyard. Three of the four encoded sections on that sculpture have been cracked, but the last 97 characters are still unsolved. If this is something you're interested in working on, check this link for more information about the sculpture, as well as scans of the rubbings that I did.

CIA Kryptos Sculpture

] You are a member of the Settlement Group if you are a
] person (or entity) in the United States or its
] Territories and Possessions who purchased prerecorded
] Music Products, consisting of compact discs, cassettes
] and vinyl albums, from one or more retailers during the
] period January 1, 1995, through December 22, 2000.

The music industry might owe you $20, no joke.

] Twas the night before Christmas, and deep in IE
] A creature was stirring, a vulnerability
] MS02-066 was posted on the website with care
] In hopes that Team eEye would not see it there
]
] But the engineers weren't nestled all snug in their beds,
] No, PNG images danced in their heads
] And Riley at his computer, with Drew's and my backing
] Had just settled down for a little PNG cracking
]
] When rendering an image, we saw IE shatter
] And with just a glance we knew what was the matter
] Away into SoftICE we flew in a flash
] Tore open the core dumps, and threw RFC 1951 in the trash
]
] The bug in the thick of the poorly-written code
] Caused an AV exception when the image tried to load
] Then what in our wondering eyes should we see
] But our data overwriting all of heap memory
]
] With heap management structures all hijacked so quick
] We knew in a moment we could exploit this $#!%
] More rapid than eagles our malicious pic came --
] The hardest part of this exploit was choosing its name

Nice. Love the XMass poem.

A faulty image can execute code. Only Microsoft...

eEye: PNG Vulnerability in Microsoft *

] Steganography, and whether or not terrorists are using it:
] http://elonka.com/steganography/

Bruce Schneier has included the URL for Elonka's talk in the latest issue of the Crypto-Gram newsletter.

PhreakNIC hits the big time! Maybe you can get Schneier to show up next year and give a keynote speech.

Also, this URL should be updated to include a link to MemeStreams.

For that matter, someone needs to get Elonka on MemeStreams.

Counterpane: Crypto-Gram: December 15, 2002

] Reuters is reporting that AOL has cut 300 jobs at
] various offices, including Mountain View, California,
] where the offices of Netscape are located. It is expected
] that this is only the first wave of layoffs, targeting
] "areas that are no longer core to the company's new
] strategy".
]
] Daniel Glazman has confirmed this FuckedCompany report
] and notes that "Netscape is badly impacted". Netscape
] developer Andrew Wooldridge also notes that "today has
] been a really bad day" but doesn't elaborate.
]
] Even though Mozilla is a seperate company, the majority
] of its developers work at Netscape. It's still a
] developing story, but If Netscape is impacted, one would
] expect Mozilla to be impacted as well. It's too early to
] say how though.

Blogzilla: AOL Cuts Impact Netscape

(3) the social environment in which thoughts originate and evolve, and mindsets develop.

MemeStreams is not Yet Another Web Site.

Beyond 'Couch Potatoes' | First Monday

] New Jersey's brewing gang war is no longer a gang vs.
] gang battle for turf.
]
] It pits "supergangs," such as the Bloods and Crips
] and the Chicago-based Latin Kings, against a growing
] army of Garden State gang investigators, task-force
] members and intelligence gatherers.
]
] The Internet has allowed the tentacles of the supergangs
] to extend deeper into suburban neighborhoods, according
] to Keith Bevacqui, a New Jersey State Police detective
] sergeant and gang investigator.
]
] But there is something else that has fueled their
] emergence.
]
] "There's a lot of denial of gang activity," said Sgt.
] William Paglione, deputy commander of the Middlesex
] County Violent Gang Task Force.
]
] "Nobody wants to admit we have a problem, and the truth
] is every town in America has a problem," said Assistant
] Middlesex County Prosecutor Cindy Glaser. "It's
] everywhere. It's just that epidemic of a problem."
]
] About two dozen gangs, including the Bloods, La Mugre,
] Almighty Latin King/Queen Nation, 18th Street, MS-13, and
] three motorcycle groups affect that county. Some are
] stronger than others, but all are considered active,
] task-force members said.
]
] The Latin Kings, the Wild Chicanos, MS-13, Bloods and
] Netas are among the gangs operating in neighboring Union
] County, according to Manahan. They're committing a
] spectrum of crimes everything from drug peddling to
] murder.
]
] Local police, however, do not routinely mention whether a
] crime was gang-related. And the State Police are pushing
] for increased reporting.

Asbury Park Press | NJ is battleground in supergang war

] New Jersey has become a garden spot for the
] international drug trade.

"become" ??? Just the wording of this proves to me that most of this state in in denial..

] Marijuana is trucked in from Mexico and Canada. Cocaine
] and heroin, largely from Colombia, arrive in cargo
] containers at seaports. Ecstasy pills are smuggled from
] Europe by passengers landing at airports.
]
] The common thread, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement
] Agency, is that most drugs are distributed through
] ethnically oriented channels: local Dominican and
] Colombian organizations supplying Puerto Rican, black and
] white street gangs who then sell directly to users from
] Camden to Newark.
]
] "You've got an ethnic melting pot, which has lasted
] hundreds of years, and you've got easy access to
] important transportation routes," said Newark-based DEA
] agent Mark Moger, explaining why drugs are prevalent in
] New Jersey. "It's logical that it's easier to get heroin
] here than in Pittsburgh."
]
] Heroin, in particular, has become a significant problem
] in the Garden State, Moger said.

"become" used again... s/has become/is/g

] Sold in $10 packets and locally marketed under such
] chilling brand names as "Drop Dead," "Overdose" and "Bin
] Laden," the heroin peddled to users in Newark, Paterson,
] Camden and other cities is strong, he said.

The heroin problem in Jersey has been compltely out of control for years now. A friend of mine pointed out last night that he knew at least 30 people who have died (not OD'd, died) in the past 5 years due to heroin. Hell, one of the high schools in the area I grew up in is commonly referred to (by students, parents, teachers, and police) as "Heroin High".. Its really sad.

What really shocks me is every time I see this mentioned in the local media, its as if its a "new thing".. This state is in denial. It makes me feel sick inside.

Considering you hear so much about AIDS, lung cancer, etc.. You figure I'd know at least one or two people dead due to them. Don't hear too much about heroin other then that its "become" a problem. Maybe its because most of the people who wind up riding the horse are kids noone gives a shit about.. This problem is social, and this is a very sick corner of society.

Asbury Park Press | NJ, drug central

I can think of a few people who could use this to save some desk space. Pretty cool..

Computer and music keyboard combo

] All the world's products in one place.

Watch out PriceWatch, here comes Google.

Froogle Google