Van's Hardware Journal

A 38-year old Dutch man drove his black Suzuki Swift into the Dutch royal parade, narrowly missing an open topped bus carrying the 71-year old Beatrix and her adult children. The man struck several onlookers, killing five and injuring twelve.

Upon questioning, the driver stated that his attack was directed at the royal family. The man is in critical condition after his car collided with a large, stone obelisk.

The Dutch royal family has close ties to the secretive Bilderberg Group, an organization seen by many as a major command component of globalism. Prince Bernhard was one of its founders, and the Bilderbergers maintain their headquarters in the South Holland town of Leiden.

The U.S. Government, the corporate media and the WHO -- three globalist organs -- continue to under-report the number of Mexican Influenza cases and underplay its lethality.

At the same time, the WHO and the U.S. Government are deploying higher and higher levels of pandemic controls.

Monday's conveniently timed buzzing of "Ground Zero" New York by one of the President's 747s flanked by two fighters was almost certainly a psyop intended to blunt public attention away from the flu, where the first line measure of shutting down the U.S.-Mexican border has still not been taken.

It appears that the Mexican Flu is virulent and spreading rapidly. The number of existing cases appears to be significantly higher than what is being reported. When the true numbers are finally released, they will probably be accompanied with unprecedented measures from our federal government.

While no cases of the flu have been detected in pigs yet, Egypt has already announced that it will slaughter its entire hog population.

New Egg is running a sale on the Cooler Master HAF full tower computer case. I have one of these at home, and it is an outstanding case that I highly recommend. Kathy paid Fry's $160 my HAF. New Egg is selling them for $124.99 with promo code EMCLRPL24.

With the HAF and Sniper cases, Cooler Master is probably producing the best mid-priced enthusiast cases right now. The Antec Twelve Hundred has its high points, but it is not tool-free, has limited front panel connectors and the case fans do not have motherboard connectors.

My Cooler Master HAF recommendation comes with two caveats: 1. It's a huge case. 2. It doesn't have filters.

Although the Cooler Master HAF features three huge 230mm fans, only one is lit by LEDs. These fans do not have external speed controls, but are very quiet. Cool Master should also implement hot swappable SATA drive bays like those on Zalman's case.

As the music industry decides what its next medium for mass marketing shall be the music file industry has been a runaway train. I have been writing and testing PC-related products for almost 6-years now for http://www.madshrimsps.be/ among others, and recently have re-discovered my once favorite hobby. No its not surfing 25-ft swells in late September off Marconi Beach State park on Cape Cod Massachusetts, its High End Audio. When I suffered a spinal injury some years ago racing MTB bikes I was forced to liquidate all my High End Audio gear long before my humility would allow me to collect Social Security Disability (although this is an earned income everyone pays into). As I sold all that stuff, Futterman NYAL OTL prototype amps, panel speakers, a Sony x777 CD player (their $3k audiophile model) and thousands in cables, I realized I had begun several years before as a pure music lover and by that time I had actually lost that passion. I began after hearing a High End system running out and buying every CD I could find and by the time I sold everything I had just two CD's I considered Audiophile quality recordings. I wasn't listening to music, I was listening to the nuances in hardware.

I had spent well over $10k on my own system which consisted of Dealer Demo "bargains" and then spent years siting in front of over one hundred different types of loudspeakers. I was isolated, and frustrated in my perfectionism. High End Audio cost money and to reproduce a true 20Hz ~ 20kHz costs big money. When you want Joni Mitchell in the room it costs about as much in High End Gear as it would to have her perform live at your home. Its a world onto its own and a absolute pleasure for the electronics hobbyist with a open bank book. When it comes to Affordable High End what we have is another misnomer like PC-Audio.

PC-Audio has always been driven by multi-channel affairs which were designed for Gaming, hence surround sound. Recently this has begun to change. Influences from High End Audio are slowly influencing PC-Audio. When I was into High End separates were the rule. Isolate and specialize each function, purifying it. Instead of a CD-player you have a transport and separate DAC and then a distinct power unit for that device. Now the digital cable between transport and DAC becomes an industry onto itself. From the DAC's Analog outputs we now need silver wire kapton insulated interconnects. Then the pre-amp and if there's a phono-stage this is separate with separate power supply. Now we have the interconnects from Pre-amp to stereo a,p or monoblocs. Either way once again the laws of physics meet engineering as an art form. For example read this little gem about a pair of "vacuum" sealed interconnects which cost $14,900 per 1m pair, Tara Labs Zero interconnects. I understand the science, I understand the potential for why they"sound" better, I also understand that's what I spent on my entire system in 1992. In that Tara Labs article the Reviewer's speakers are my 10.0 drool factor, in the mbl 101E Radialstrahler loudspeaker costing a mere $44,900 or about the same as a P-Class Mercedes (P=Poor). And the mbl 101E are still considered a value given what some other High End models cost.

So, is there a silver solder trickle down effect in High End Audio? Erm maybe, the current trend are chinese assembled integrated tube amplifiers, especially single ended Pentode and many incorporating USB fed (or TOSLINK) DACs. This new breed of Audiophile quality Plug and Play integrated amps with on-board D/A conversion are made for use with the modern PC or Laptop, a first. This transforms your PC's HDD into an instant music file server and provides access to thousands of free streaming Audio websites the world over. My favorite has been Deezer.com which offers one of the "cleanest" signals especially in their high quality stream Chanson Francaise. There you'll find many live studio recordings, those which allow a a system capable of 3D imaging to come into its own. There many strong acoustics and clear vocals as well as rock, and some funky folk. Rare in the annals of High End I recently auditioned a Single Ended Pentode integrated amp with on-board Burr Brown USB DAC, from Tecon. Their Model 55 reviewed here cost a mere $389 shipped in the USA and all that's required is a PC and passive speakers. I mated the Tecon to the venerable Lovecraft Designs, Abby also reviewed by me, although at $2k this defeated "affordable" at least relative to what "we" might conisder. In the High End world some wouldn't make this purchase out of some discombobulated sense of pride. An ideal match for the Tecon Model 55 would be the affordable Tekton Model 6.5 which cost just $350 and Tekton makes models as low as $200 or as high as $3,300. Basically $600 will get you one of the best sounding systems you've ever owned if your an owner of mass-market mid-fi. And very respectable, accurate and their ability for three dimensional imaging will certainly launch your High End Audio love affair.

Undoubtedly the gradual decline of the CD will not necessarily go the way of vinyl, vinyl still has in its favor a true analog signature and will be favored by a large majority of the Purist Audiophile Crowd so long as they continue to press it. Except for the Compact Discs sitting on shelves, the future is the music file albeit Lossless, Mp3, Mp4 etc.

Britain has begun screening all airline passengers arriving from Mexico for Mexican Influenza.

Although the United States announced a public health emergency yesterday with domestic Mexican Flu cases now reaching around 20, Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security, dismissed similar measures for American airports. Napolitano also failed to take any action to tighten US-Mexico border security, exposing Americans to further infections from our southern neighbor where panic is causing many people to flee infected areas.

A criminal investigation is underway at the U.S. Army infectious disease research center in Fort Detrick, Maryland where infectious disease samples have apparently vanished.

Fort Detrick was the source of the anthrax bioweapon material used during the anthrax attacks soon after September 11th, 2001. Bush and his staff were already on ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic that is commonly used to treat anthrax infections, at the time of the attacks which eventually killed five people and sickened seventeen.

U.S. federal representatives declared a public health emergency today as more Mexican Flu victims have been identified within the country. The official count of domestic Mexican Flu cases has risen to 20 with one requiring hospitalization. Among the emergency measures taken by the Government are plans to "release a quarter of its 50-million-unit strategic reserve of antiviral medications" to areas sustaining flu cases.

Notably absent were any plans to lock-down the United States' border with Mexico, an obvious measure that would impede the disease's migration northwards. This stands in contrast with actions already taken by countries like Japan who are discouraging if not outright restricting travel to and from Mexico.

As we reported yesterday, evidence suggests that the disease is already widespread in the U.S., but with flu awareness and fear exploding over the last few days, case numbers are likely to escalate rapidly as people with flu symptoms flock for medical treatment.

So the soaring numbers of U.S. Mexican flu cases over the next week will produce the illusion that the disease is spreading rapidly, when in actuality we are only gaining insight on the true, existing prevalence of the disease.

The Mexican Flu has several characteristics that suggest it might be a man-made bioweapon. Perhaps most concerning of all is that the disease has pig, bird and human flu components, suggesting that it not only targets humans hosts, but pigs and perhaps birds as well. From the CDC's recent press briefing:

We know so far that the viruses contain genetic pieces from four different virus sources. This is unusual. The first is our North American swine influenza viruses. North American avian influenza viruses, human influenza viruses and swine influenza viruses found in Asia and Europe.

That particular genetic combination of swine influenza virus segments has not been recognized before in the U.S. or elsewhere. Of course, we are doing more testing now and looking more aggressively for unusual influenza strains. So we haven't seen this strain before but we haven't been looking as intensively as we are these days.

The viruses are resistant to amantadine and rimantadine anti-viral drugs but they are sensitive or susceptible to oseltamivir and zanamivir, the newer anti-viral drugs for flu. And at this time we don’t know exactly how people got the virus. None of the patients have had direct contact with pigs.

You can get swine influenza without direct contact but it's a bit more unusual. And we believe at this point that human-to-human spread is occurring. That's unusual.

Russia has already halted pork imports from Mexico and several U.S. states. In my post yesterday, I mentioned the potential impact of the flu to hog farmers. If birds become infected as well, the U.S. Government might also slaughter chickens and turkeys throughout the country.

A new, hybrid flu strain containing pig, avian and human flu components has struck Mexico, killing up to 68 and sickening at least 1,000 others. Given Mexico's impoverished third-world status and with the country currently coming apart at the seams, the real number of infections is probably at least a hundred times higher.

The infection count north of the border continues to rise with two confirmed cases in Kansas to add to the nine already identified in Texas and California. A private Christian school in Queens, New York is suspected to have been hit by at least eight additional cases.

The two Texas flu victims originate from San Antonio, but we are aware of several severe flu cases in Austin from early this month that have the hallmarks of the new, deadly strain. In all likelihood, the Mexican Flu has probably already established a firm foothold in America with hundreds of unreported or misidentified cases.

The Mexican Flu has unusual characteristics that suggest that it might be man-made. The timing of the Mexican Flu outbreak also follows closely behind the recent distribution of a Baxter flu vaccine contaminated with live avian flu virus.

With America already under siege from a carefully constructed economic attack, a manufactured flu pandemic would serve as the second prong of an offensive made to weaken and then pacify our country. I anticipated this tactic in my predictions for 2009.

If indeed the Mexican Flu is the second stage of the globalists' war against the U.S., the fear and chaos the corporate media nurtures will probably be leveraged to further the NAIS initiative and serve as an excuse to slaughter hog populations throughout the country. This will decimate many small farmers. Along with new, so-called "Food Safety" measures, these steps will will allow the federal government, now largely a proxy for globalist interests, to seize control of the nation's food supply.

Additionally, the crisis will allow the President's emergency powers to be grossly extended, setting the stage for random and warrantless "health safety" searches of Americans and their homes. Travel regulation, gun seizures, forced relocation, forced inoculations and troop deployment for police actions throughout the country are also likely to follow.

In fact, Mexico has already enacted many of these measures. From the CNN article linked above:

Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Saturday issued an executive decree detailing emergency powers of the Ministry of Health, according to the president's office.

The order gives the ministry with the authority to isolate sick patients, inspect travelers' luggage and their vehicles and conduct house inspections, the statement said.

The government also has the authority to prevent public gatherings, shut down public venues and regulate air, sea and overland travel.

The main intention of this second prong of attack would be to deploy the control mechanisms that the globalists need to pacify uprisings in this country that might otherwise awaken and unite our very powerful nation against them.

If you are aware of extant Mexican Flu cases in the U.S., it is important that you quickly disseminate that information in order to defuse the groundswell of panic that the corporate media and the globalist controlled WHO appear to be nurturing. Moreover, take precautions and limit exposure to yourself and your family. The recent, suspect flu cases in Austin were severe, although everyone recovered.