BattyMcDougall
Douglas Rushkoff: The Web’s Dirtiest Site
Where do the Internet’s most deadly viruses, filthiest porn, and sophomoric pranks come from? The Daily Beast’s Douglas Rushkoff goes inside the underground site Web giants can’t kill.
When AT&T recently blocked access to a hugely popular hackers’ Web site, 4chan.org, many of us Internet old-timers froze in place. It was like one of those bad Westerns, when an arrogant newcomer sits down in the saloon, and then insults the baddest, most trigger-happy gunslinger in the county. People move to the side of the room, climb under tables, and wait for the shots to fly.
The 4Chan community—a diehard, if ever-changing assortment of the Net’s most-desperate, most-anonymous, and most-wanted, well, punks—smelled censorship, top-down control, and an evil corporation trying to keep down the world’s last squat for hackers. They went batshit. The site’s founder posted a note telling his minion’s to write and complain to AT&T, and the dog whistle having been…
Roger Ebert: The Quantum Theory of Reincarnation
Very good essay by Roger Ebert. Contains a clip of Robert Anton Wilson in Maybe Logic.
If you want to see fear in the eyes of a quantum physicist, mention the word “measurement.” — Folk saying
Is reincarnation possible from a scientific, rationalist point of view? For my purposes today I’m going to argue that it is. We will never, however, be aware of it, and indeed “we,” as we like to think of ourselves, will be completely out of the picture. I’m going to approach the problem from the point of view of quantum mechanics — a field about which I understand almost nothing, although discussing it permits others to assume I have gone mad.
Let’s begin, for the sake of argument, by saying that when you get right down to the bottom — under the turtles — everything, and I mean Everything, consists of quantum particles. These particles can as well be…
Henry Lincoln to set the record straight on new blog
Let the man speak!
“For the past thirty-plus years, my work has attracted a great deal of public attention. However, I am by nature a private individual. Like all, I hope, normal people, I cherish that privacy as well as my space for thought, reflection and writing.
But the world, I’m afraid, is filled with obsessive ‘nut-cases’, some of whom seem prepared to go to enormous lengths to track down people such as myself. On one particularly un-amusing occasion, a person appeared, with suitcase, intent on moving in. I have also, more than once, had to change my (ex-directory) telephone number.
I am sure that most sane and sensible people realise that the Rennes-le-Château story attracts more than its fair share of such cranks and crack-pots and that my life would become intolerable did not I attempt to build some sort of protective fence.
Exxon, Dow Slam New Yes Men Film
ExxonMobil and Dow Chemical spokespersons have lashed out out at award-winning new documentary “The Yes Men Fix the World” in an interview with the Reuters press agency, shortly before the film’s U.K. theatrical opening.
“We think it is a serious matter when people willingly misrepresent themselves,” said a spokesperson for the world’s largest oil company, responding to the film’s airing on HBO last week. The film will be in theaters in the U.K. beginning this Friday, August 7, and in U.S. theaters in October.
Larry Flynt: ‘Grow a Pair, Obama.’
President Obama: You have proven to be a great campaigner. You have yet to demonstrate your ability to govern. Who needs the Republicans? They don’t know what compromise is. They’re just out to derail your presidency. Bitch slap ’em at every opportunity and put them in their place. They lost; you didn’t.
Douglas Rushkoff — The ESPN Porn Scam
On the Internet, there’s no currency more readily accepted—and exploitable—than a few pixels of porn. This week’s leak of a video, apparently taped illegally, of ESPN star Erin Andrews changing in her hotel room has kept her fans busy downloading torrents, and the gossip sites busy generating chatter and speculation.
But the Andrews video has also fueled the spread of highly toxic computer viruses, and quite probably financial thievery and terrorism, by hackers who know the real law of the Internet: The closer an Internet user is to a set of videotaped breasts, the more likely he (and 99% of those who fall into this trap are male) will be to click on whatever he’s told to.
Douglas Rushkoff – The ESPN Porn Scam
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Erin Andrews Al Messerschmidt / Getty Images The scandal surrounding the illegal nude video of ESPN star Erin Andrews has reached your computer. Douglas Rushkoff on how an army of hackers is using porn to break into your bank account.
On the Internet, there’s no currency more readily accepted—and exploitable—than a few pixels of porn. This week’s leak of a video, apparently taped illegally, of ESPN star Erin Andrews changing in her hotel room has kept her fans busy downloading torrents, and the gossip sites busy generating chatter and speculation.
But the Andrews video has also fueled the spread of highly toxic computer viruses, and quite probably financial thievery and terrorism, by hackers who know the real law of the Internet: The closer an Internet user is to a set…
The Pirate Bay: Distributing the World’s Entertainment for $3,000 a Month
Much has been written in recent weeks about the future of The Pirate Bay, as well as about BitTorrent piracy in general. The sale of the site spooked some, while others are hoping to transform the new Pirate Bay into a legitimate, multimillion-dollar business. One aspect that has been largely overlooked is that the current Pirate Bay, due to the nature of P2P, is actually a relatively small and cost-efficient operation. The site’s trackers facilitate countless downloads of Hollywood blockbusters and music albums, but according to an insider, running these trackers could cost as little as $3,000 per month.
The implications of a number like that are huge. Not only does it mean that anyone with a medium-sized checkbook could replicate The Pirate Bay’s infrastructure in a heartbeat, but it also casts shadows over the hopes of anyone thinking about selling digital content online. Music fans were not longer willing to…
BeyondTalk.net
The Yes Men are at it again. You can help them, and the world…
Tired of hearing about climate change? Then do something. Now.
December 7-18, 2009, the world’s leaders will meet in Copenhagen to decide what to do about climate change.
If this meeting were held today, it would produce an agreement – but it wouldn’t be strong enough to do much good.
In order to bring global CO2 back to the safe zone, we need to make massive emissions cuts now. There’s only one way we can achieve that: we need to turn the political heat way up.
40 Years After Apollo 11: What’s Our Next Step?
The first footsteps on the moon — made by Armstrong on July 20, 1969, on the mission known as Apollo 11— came 3½ years before the last ones. Since then, astronauts have been stuck close to the Earth, mostly circling a few hundred miles overhead in a spacecraft that’s little more than a glorified cargo truck.
So now what?
That question preoccupies NASA and worries the Obama administration. The president said in March that NASA is beset by “a sense of drift.” Even some of the men who once walked on the moon are divided on how to proceed. Options could include going back to the moon, landing on an asteroid, shooting for Mars or even ending human exploration of space altogether.
We Choose the Moon
We Choose the Moon is a site that tracks the activities of the Apollo 11 mission as it happened 40 years ago. The transmissions from the spacecraft, CAPCOM, and the lunar lander are cleverly published to and pulled in from Twitter.
That is of course, whether you believe we landed on the moon…
What Can DNA Tell Us? Place Your Bets Now!
From Newton to Hawking, scientists love wagers. Now Lewis Wolpert has bet Rupert Sheldrake a case of fine port that: “By 1 May 2029, given the genome of a fertilised egg of an animal or plant, we will be able to predict in at least one case all the details of the organism that develops from it, including any abnormalities.” If the outcome isn’t obvious, then the Royal Society will be asked to adjudicate. Watch this space…
Crusading British Journalist Combats Stupidity
Aaronovitch explains that the reason some of us qualify as stupid is that we assume conspiracy when an event is really the result of accident or chance. Such beliefs are harmful because they distort reality and lead to “disastrous decisions.”
The book doesn’t really break new ground. The author’s role is commentator. He provides the wise insight we stupid people lack on what’s normal and conventional, along with overviews and updates on the conspiracies he selected for inclusion. Among those are the Protocols of Zion as endorsed by Henry Ford, the Commies-under-the-bed scares that implicated most everybody including the Boy Scouts, JFK and RFK assassinations, world government as the aim of international bankers, Masons, Catholics, Zionists, Communists and whoever else, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Di, alternative histories of ancient civilizations founded by extraterrestrials, and 9/11, and the Da Vinci Code.
Transhumanist Salvation or Judgment Day?
We’re starting to brush up against real robots, real nanotech, and maybe even the first real artificial intelligence. But will emerging technologies destroy humankind — or will humankind be saved by an emerging transhumanism?
And which answer is more liberating?
If anybody knows, it’s R.U. Sirius. The former editor in chief at Mondo 2000 (and a Timothy Leary expert) has teamed up with “Better Humans LLC.” They’re producing a new transhumanist magazine called h+. But can he answer this ultimate question? Terminator Salvation played with questions about where technology ends and humanity begins.
But what will we do when we’re confronting the same questions in real life?
Ondi Timoner’s New Movie — ‘We Live In Public’
On the 40th anniversary of the Internet, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC tells the story of the effect the web is having on our society, as seen through the eyes of “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of,” visionary Josh Harris. Award-winning director, Ondi Timoner (DIG!), documented his tumultuous life for more than a decade, to create a riveting, cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world inevitably takes control of our lives.
Josh Harris, often called the “Warhol of the Web,” founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network during the infamous dot-com boom of the 1990s. He also created his vision of the future: an underground bunker in NYC where 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days over the turn of the millennium.
Errol Morris: Bamboozling Ourselves
Why do people believe in imaginary returns, frauds and fakes?
Bernard Madoff, A.I.G., W.M.D.’s … How did this happen? Do we believe things because it is in our self-interest? Or is it because we can be manipulated by others? And, if so, under what circumstances?
Last year, two different books on that subject appeared within months of each other. Not only did both tackle the question of fakery, they were both about the same man: Han van Meegeren, arguably the most successful art forger of all time. Edward Dolnick’s “The Forger’s Spell” was released first (Edward Dolnick’s wife is on the board of The New York Times Company), followed by Jonathan Lopez’s “The Man Who Made Vermeers.” The titles provide a clue to the different goals of the authors — Dolnick’s interest in the nature of the trickery, the spell that Van Meegeren cast; Lopez’s interest in the nature of the man…
Lost In Space
What really happened to Russia’s missing cosmonauts? An incredible tale of space hacking, espionage and death in the lonely reaches of space.
There are those who believe that somewhere in the vast blackness of space, about nine billion miles from the Sun, the first human is about to cross the boundary of our Solar System into interstellar space. His body, perfectly preserved, is frozen at –270 degrees C (–454ºF); his tiny capsule has been silently sailing away from the Earth at 18,000 mph (29,000km/h) for the last 45 years. He is the original lost cosmonaut, whose rocket went up and, instead of coming back down, just kept on going.
Video Game Girls Burlesque
Every gamer’s wet dream came true at Bordello on May 9 as Devil’s Playground presented Video Game Girls burlesque. The dancers arrived armed and outfitted for an arcade battle, and included Super Mario Bros. Princess Peach, Metroid’s Samus Aran, Street Fighter’s Chun-Li, The Legend of Zelda’s Link and Princess Zelda, and BloodRayne’s Rayne. See how they ranked by costume, skills used and execution.
When Joan Collins Thought She’d Met Banksy
To Joan Collins it must have seemed an unexpected honour too good to refuse — the chance to meet the world-famous, and notoriously secretive, graffiti artist Banksy.
Not surprisingly, she readily accepted the invitation to host a dinner party for the mysterious artist in a grand country home, with other excited celebrities in attendance to share the unique experience.
