Archive for March, 2009
Warner Bros. Acquires The Pirate Bay
Ben Jones, TorrentFreak, April 01, 2009: After years of hostility, lawsuits, police raids and heated invective between the two groups, the Pirate Bay has today announced they have settled their differences with US media conglomerate Warner Bros. The largest BitTorrent tracker has sold out to Hollywood and the two have agreed a deal.
The deal, worth over $13 billion (10 billion euros) came about after the recent performance at the Pirate Bay trial gave strong indications that the judgment would go against Warner Bros. For the Hollywood movie studio, it seems that acquiring The Pirate Bay was the only option left.
In the press release, both groups gave a positive outlook to the deal. “The Pirate Bay team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Warner Bros’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Jim Kjeyzer, Chief Executive Officer of Warner Bros.”
Pirate…
we20 — The People’s G20
we20, the people’s answer to the G20 group of nations, announces the launch of its website at we20.org, enabling individual people and groups anywhere in the world to host their own G20 summits and formulate plans for economic recovery. In the run-up to the London G20 summit — and amid fears of street violence as protesters vent their feelings on the global economy — we20 offers a refreshing alternative: large-scale community involvement in planning the world’s economic revival.
People visiting we20.org can organise their own meetings, in their own communities, to draw up action plans — local, national or international — to fix economies. We20 plans are voted on at we20.org and the top we20 plans have the chance of appearing on the official G20 London Summit website.
The Conficker Worm: April Fools or Fowl?
Computer Worm Could Receive New Instructions On April 1
60 Minutes: The Internet is infected. Malicious computer hackers have been creating more and more weapons that they plant on the Internet. They call their weapons viruses and worms — they’re creepy, crawly toxic software that contaminate our computers without our ever knowing it. You can be infected by simply visiting your favorite Web site, or just by leaving your computer on, overnight while you’re asleep.
And the problem is growing, exponentially. Last year the number of infections tripled. And an entire industry of computer security professionals is in a race to keep the hackers from their goal, which is usually to steal your money.
One of the most dangerous threats ever, a computer worm known as “Conficker,” is spreading through the Internet right now. By some estimates, 10 million computers have been infected worldwide.
Florida Town Refuses to Air Ozzy’s New TV Show
A Florida community has banned the Osbournes’ new hour-long variety TV show, ruling it is too lewd for viewers
“Osbournes: Reloaded,” which premiers tonight across the U.S. except for Panama City, features the foul-mouthed rock clan in unusual situations pulling their usual dysfunctional family antics.
The show, to air after “American Idol” will feature audience pranks and stunts, in addition to more traditional sketches and musical performances.
Matriarch Sharon Osbourne said they have brought the variety show up to 2010 with such sketches as having a grandmother strip or watching Ozzy hose down the audience.
Fox network affiliate WPGX general manager David Cavileer in Panama City said he felt the show was not keeping with community standards. Programmers will replace it with episodes of “The Simpsons” instead.
This from Flori-duh.
Colleges Accepting More Idiot Offspring of the Rich
Great, let’s accept the less-qualified kids of the rich, so they can get their college degrees, and hopefully, one day go into finance where they can screw up the entire economy all over again…
KATE ZERNIKE, NY Times: In the bid for a fat envelope this year, it may help, more than usual, to have a fat wallet. Facing fallen endowments and needier students, many colleges are looking more favorably on wealthier applicants as they make their admissions decisions this year.
Institutions that have pledged to admit students regardless of need are finding ways to increase the number of those who pay the full cost in ways that allow the colleges to maintain the claim of being need-blind — taking more students from the transfer or waiting lists, for instance, or admitting more foreign students who pay full tuition.
Private colleges that acknowledge taking financial status into account say they are even more…
Why Fire GM’s CEO But Not Bank CEOs?
David Sirota: The Associated Press reports that “General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will step down immediately at the request of the White House, U.S. administration officials said Sunday.” I’m not sure that’s a good or bad thing, but I am curious about why the White House would make such a bold demand of a car company the federal government is lending to, but not a similar demand of the banks the federal government partially owns?
What I mean is — how is it that the White House is requesting the resignation of GM’s CEO while not doing the same of, say, Bank of America’s CEO? In fact, not only is the president not demanding the resignation of bank CEOs, he’s actually hosting them for photo ops at the White House. Sure, I know some bank CEOs resigned a few months ago under shareholder pressure, but the Obama administration…
The History of the Federal Reserve in Under 10 Minutes
Remember, the Federal Reserve is as “Federal” as Federal Express:
Reverend Billy Talen Declares Victory Over Bloomberg’s Censor Squad
Favorably Settles 1st Amendment Lawsuit Against NYPD
City Hall was brought to heel last week by Mayoral Candidate and televangelist gadfly Reverend Billy Talen, as they paid out $23,000.00 to settle the wrongful arrest of the Rev in Union Square on June 29, 2007.
The First Amendment-violating arrest, which occurred while Talen was actually reciting the 45 words of the First Amendment, received coverage in the world press including Europe, Russia and China. The New York Times, among many news outlets, quoted Civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel’s irrefutable assertion that “Reverend Billy has the First Amendment right to recite the First Amendment.”
Over 30,000 people have viewed the YouTube footage of the arrest, that occurred within a week of Independence Day when Americans celebrate their country and constitutional freedoms.
Occulture: The Magickal Revival 2009
The return of the original esoteric festival! A superb London arts venue with speakers & performers on two stages, ritual, music, performance bar, stalls. A modern mystery rite unfolds in the heart of Hoxton…
Occulture are proud to be hosting the UK premiere of the new film from Disinformation, 2012 Science or Superstition. The film will be introduced by Raymond Wiley and Austin Gandy, co-hosts of the Disinformation Podcasts.
Patrick Swan on Michael Jackson
Brilliant Slam Poetry from Patrick Swan about media, celebrities and our culture:
Danny Mendlow: Socially Critical Spoken Word
Live from the Zeitgeist Mixtape Release Party:
Glenn Beck Rises Like A Meteor
The New York Times looks at the phenomenon of Glenn Beck, whose two-month-old FOX News show has caught on fire, now typically drawing 2.3 million viewers.
Beck’s show consists of a combination of “moral lessons, outrage, and an apocalyptic view of the future,” with crying and long stares into the camera mixed in. The Project for Excellence in Journalism likens Beck to Depression-era radio evangelists, “[when] people were frustrated and frightened. There are a lot of scary parallels now.” Prior to being on air at CNN and FOX, Beck’s experience mostly consisted of work as a comedian and FM morning show DJ; he is the first to admit, “I’m not a journalist, I’m just a guy who cares.”
Adulters Caught On Google Maps
According to the U.K.’s Sun, cheating lovers are being caught left and right via Google Maps’ Street View. Apparently one irate British wife filed for divorce after spotting her husband’s car parked outside her friend’s house (which she had been spying on via Street View). His Range Rover was instantly recognizable by its “blinged-up hubcaps.”
And, that’s not all! A top lawyer says that as he “was talking about the Range Rover case…another divorce lawyer came up to say his firm was dealing with the same sort of thing. People are getting caught out on Google.”
Pimp Pays Hooker Girlfriend in Chicken Nuggets
An Australian man pimped out his girlfriend to have sex with men and then paid her in chicken nuggets.
Boobs, Dicks, and Stem Cells
In the world’s sexiest stem cell rant, a science editor tells us:
– Breast augmentations could be performed naturally using fat stomachs via stem cells…
– Testes cells can become stem cells…
– “And meanwhile, I’ve got $50 out for the first performance artist who sucks down a few stem cell or two on stage and calls the piece ‘Cannibal’.”
Boobs, dicks, and stem cells
In the world’s sexiest stem cell rant, a science editor tells us:
- Breast augmentations could be performed naturally using fat stomachs via stem cells…
- Testes cells can become stem cells…
- “And meanwhile, I’ve got $50 out for the first performance artist who sucks down a few stem cell or two on stage and calls the piece ‘Cannibal’.”
Five Held Over Suspected Plot to Disrupt G20 Summit with Explosives Stunt
Suspected plot to disrupt G20 summit follows warnings by police that protesters are planning to bring London to standstill.
Five people have been arrested in connection with a suspected plot to use explosives made from fireworks to disrupt the G20 summit.
The three men, aged 25, 19 and 16, and two women, both 20, all live in Plymouth and the surrounding area. They are political activists unaffiliated to any terrorist organisation, and were arrested at addresses in Plymouth. They are being held under terrorism legislation. The explosive devices were made from simple fireworks, police said.
Paul Netherton, Devon and Cornwall assistant chief constable, said imitation handguns and an imitation Kalashnikov, as well as devices made from fireworks, had been seized. The deactivated weapons were “not major” and “probably not even lethal”.
Officers said they were investigating the possibility the group planned to attend the G20 summit, which they described as an “obvious line of…
The Past Decade for Global Banks
Steven Bernard, Jeremy Lemer, Helen Warrell, Cleve Jones, Peter Thal Larsen and Simon Briscoe, Financial Times: Global banking is in turmoil. The worst financial crisis since the second world war has not only forced governments across the western world to step in and rescue giant institutions. Amid the turmoil, there has also been a dramatic shift in banking’s centre of gravity.
A decade ago, a list of the world’s largest financial institutions was dominated by banks from the US and UK. Today, just a handful of the top 20 have their headquarters in the US, still the world’s largest economy. HSBC, at heart an emerging markets bank, is Britain’s sole representative.
Use this graphic to examine the trends. Move the slider to see how the ranking of the top twenty financial institutions, according to market capitalisation, has changed over the last 10 years. Click on a bank to trace its particular experience. Hover over…
Guess Who’s Making Money in this Market? Short Sellers!
If you don’t know what short selling is, watch this Daily Show clip. The practice of short selling used to be illegal. Check out this jackass broker in this clip who even admits to short selling the city of Manhattan, a place where he works and likely lives.
