Honour: The missing virtue of the State
Philip Pullman, infamous for his objection to the vetting of school visitors, such as writers, delivered a keynote speech on The Virtues of the State in February this year - around the time when his Times article on the subject was culled. He speaks of the missing virtue in State affairs - honour. Hat tip: Look for a Voice

G20: The truth behind the summit in Scotland
The Corbett Report interviewed Daniel Estulin, who revealed the behind-the-scenes details of the G20 Finance Minister's meeting in St. Andrews, Scotland in early November. Details were derived from actual G20 documents that his sources sneaked out of the meetings, despite heavy, unprecedented security, "even by Bilderberg standards", according to Estulin. (See BilderbergBook.com). Estulin says

RFID: How secure are your passcards?
Ethical hacker, Chris Paget, demonstrates a low-cost mobile device that surreptitiously reads and clones RFID tags embedded in passport cards and enhanced drivers' licenses. He can collect ID's, change IDs and collect complete identities by correlating passcard information with credit card information where both are RFID-chipped. Anyone with such equipment, costing less than £150, can do this.

The Christmas No.1?
It's time to move on.

Usury
The "usury" concept, the practice of charging financial interest in excess of the principle amount of a loan, is loosely interpreted as interest above the legal or socially acceptable rate, these days. In times past when coined money was actually worth something, usuary was considered an abuse, most particularly on the poor. Today, an interest rate of 40% on money which is based on nothing but