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Hurrah! LibertyThink Lives Again!
All: After some savage down-time, LibertyThink.com has been rescued from oblivion. A great site devoted largely to Privacy issues, and which becomes part of the SiaNews.com/FriendsOfLiberty.com network.
Pass on the news, please.
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Happy One Year Anniversary sTaRe
From 1988 to 1992, a xerox document was circulated among the underground xerox/mail-art networks by a small group of folks linked into xerox distribution nexus such as Xexoxial Endarchy and other strange mail-art networks, such as the type found in High Weirdness by Mail. One such nexus was a place known in the annals of legendom as , Infinite Regress, in Chicago. Not much is known about IR, outside of a surviving xerox of the zine, Regress Press, that a few are said to have and some fuzzy memories of wine, hash and spaghetti dinners with Chicago literary, experimental radio and sound-art luminaries holding court around a long dining table. The aforementioned document set was eventually to be known generically as, The INCUNABULA.
In 1992, a small BBS in San Francisco, linked into FIDONET, run off of a Mac SE, with a 9600 Baud modem, started up. This BBS was called KAOS, and was devoted to disseminating text documents about all things weird, strange, hackerish, arty and cool. In 1994, KAOS became a forum on the WELL and the most popular of the KAOS documents, The INCUNABULA moved out to gopher and FTP sites around the world. Usenet picked it up and many other BBS systems, like our friend Wayne's popular coffee house network, SFNET. Many other BBSes picked up INCUNABULA as well and off it went, across the world.
In 1995, imedea.com came on-line, with a section devoted to INCUNABULA and Deoxy's IRC came alive as well. imedea.com was eventually changed to incunabula.org and print, radio, television and Internet sources began to pick up INCUNABULA (now also referred to generically as Ong's Hat) with increasing frequency and in new mediums.
In August, 2002 we made the switch to a blog format as our primary interface, after testing a few formats under the covers for several months. We now celebrate this, out first year anniversary of a new branch in a long and winding journey.
In the last year, sTaRe (originally named incuBLOGula) has been privileged to serve 1, 782, 349 unique IPs (a more accurate indication of actual people than hits), and we have shown a steady growth curve every month. In the last 2 months, a growing number of our readers have become those who use RSS aggregators to subscribe to our XML news-feed (currently about 36% and growing). We have been picked up by 4 major news-feed distributors and our geographical distribution has increasingly become evenly spread across the world, with slightly heavier skews in the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Greece, SE Asia, China (when they can get around the government block), and South America. (In that order). We have even picked up mention on NPR, been the beneficiary of a few Slashdot effects and been covered in other major broadcast and print sources. (Imagine that!?)
Happy one year to us and our readers. We've enjoyed all the feedback and kudos and we are looking forward to growing into something new and unsuspected again and again.
-The Management
P.S.: Shout-outs to all of the Posse! Without you, we're nada!
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Machinima Approaches The Mainstream
Machinima, just look what people are doing with your games. The homemade movie phenomena, Machinima, took a step closer to the mainstream media attention that it craves (and deserves) recently with the production of this 22 minute film by STV in the UK.
The program tells the story of the birth of Machinima, a new upcoming art form that sees individuals and backroom production companies making movies using game engines (such as Quake and Half-Life) instead of actors and cameras. All the action takes place inside the computer and the footage is edited and cut together in a computer.
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Circuit design evolving in distributed digital world
A digital simulation of natural selection, taking place in scores of internet-linked personal computers, is being used to evolve superior electronic circuits.
The calculations used to improve circuit design would normally be performed on a single powerful computer or a large cluster of machines. But Miguel Garvie, a research student at the University of Sussex in the UK, has developed software that lets ordinary computer users contribute their spare processing power to create a virtual evolutionary environment for the project.
Such "distributed computing" is already providing cheap but substantial computer power to the search for alien messages in radio signals from space and to the quest for the largest prime numbers.
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Data Dump Required Before Flights
The Transportation Security Administration on Thursday revealed details of the newest version of a computerized system designed to prevent terrorists from boarding airplanes by checking passengers' backgrounds against several databases.
The second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, or CAPPS II, as outlined in a notice to be published Friday in the Federal Register, will rate every passenger by checking dates of birth, home addresses and phone numbers against commercial databases and the government's terrorist watch lists.
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Alchemy is Alive and Well
Turns out that Alchemy is not so much about transmutation as it is about producing and using ORMES. ORMES are two atom molecules of the elements in the platinum group: cobalt, copper, gold, iridium, mercury, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, and silver. The atoms exist in a high spin state that makes them very stable; they do not break down like conventional molecules during spectrum analysis. Since analytical chemistry relies on the ability of spectrum analysis to detect the presence of all elements, chemistry has not been able to accept the existence of ORMES. Conventional science doesn't want anything to do with ORMES because the first steps would be:
- Rewrite all the chemistry text books.
- Admit that spectrum analysis is a fraud.
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The funny people, they look so SMALL!
Zoo42 Productions, the writers behind UK's "The Graham Norton Show" and "Johnny Vaughan Tonight" have launched "Comedy Zone", which allows mobile users with video-equipped handsets to enjoy sketches from some of the UK's best known stand-up comedians::
The company has teamed with mobile content payment specialist Bango.net to roll out the service across all networks, with users able to access Comedy Zone", according to Netimperative.
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Two-thirds of adult music downloaders don't care about copyrights
Two-thirds of Internet users who download music don't care whether they're violating copyright laws, according to a new survey that highlights the uphill enforcement battle facing the recording industry.
The survey published Thursday by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project estimated that roughly 35 million American adults use file-sharing software, about 29 percent of Internet users. Those figures were generally consistent with other estimates of 60 million American users across all age groups.
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A one-minute promo piece for GHOST IN THE SHELL: INNOCENCE.
MPEG promo for GHOST IN THE SHELL: INNOCENCE.
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Waiting for the worm to turn up
With all the black clothes and fatalism, security researchers here might as well be attending a conference on late Russian authors.
The black clothes go with the security territory at the Black Hat Security Briefings; the fatalism comes from waiting for a worm writer to take advantage of a widespread Windows vulnerability.
The vulnerability, in a component of Microsoft's operating system that allows people to remotely access certain functions on a computer--such as printing and file sharing--was made public by the software giant on July 16. Nine days later, a hacking group in China and an American security researcher released code that exploits the flaw.
Also see: U.S. says Windows vulnerable to attack
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Recent discoveries in the world of Engrish
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Ten Thousand Monkeys Issue #55, August 2003
Hot diggity shebangers! We hit the mother load of monkeys! Welcome to the 55th issue of Ten Thousand Monkeys (M10K for short) or as I'm calling it, our something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue issue. (OK, partially because some good friends of mine are finally tying the knot, but also causea the current demographic of our contributors.)
Something old: Monkey 67, Quintus, and Compline keep on cranking out the good stuff. Something new: Monkeys 87-89, need I say more. Something borrowed: the artwork of Monkey 88 which I stumbled onto buried out there on the web somewhere. And finally something blue: Monkey 14, as in appearing out of the ... And were glad to have him back.
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DefCon, Black Hat: Action required
More serious vulnerabilities have been discovered in the past month, highlighting the fact that security hasn't improved despite strong talk from government and industry. Security experts are gathering for two conferences in Las Vegas hoping their solutions won't fall on deaf ears.
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Temporary Intimacy Zone
In the context of the TIZ, I use the term "zone" to describe the irruption of private communication spaces within public space. As mentioned earlier, these kinds of spaces were once architecturally defined, such as with the classic British Red Phone Box -- literally a "communication room" built into public space. With mobile technologies, this architectural referent disappears, and the "zone" created by switching your attention from a social public space to a private call or message is defined by product design and gesture -- neither of which have effectively replaced architecture as a commonly understood social protocol.
"Zone" also describes the cell-like structure of mobile phone networks themselves. This technological boundary is more fluid than physical architecture, moving dynamically with you as you walk between zones. Yet it can still be used as a way to locate the user within physical space.
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The Mind of an American Specialist in Nanotechnology
The word ‘nanogram’ means one-billionth of a gram. Nanotechnology penetrates within nanograms and rearranges atoms. If the atoms in coal are rearranged, it becomes a diamond (a mediaeval alchemist’s dream). Such are its civilian uses. As for its military uses, Mark Gubrud of the University of Maryland has posted on a Web site his 18-page paper, "Nanotechnology and International Security,” for the Fifth Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
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PORN KING LARRY FLYNT EYEING CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR RECALL ELECTION
Porn king Larry Flynt is eyeing the California governor recall election.
The publisher of Hustler magazine has paid the 35-hundred dollar fee required to make the run. He says he'll think about spending more if his candidacy is taken seriously.
Flynt is one of dozens of aspiring politicians who have paid the non-refundable fee. More than 200 people statewide have taken the very first step of filing the necessary paperwork with county officials.
Also see: Market Calls Calif. Guv a Goner
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Listen: Interviews with Net Luminaries
Chris Lydon has been doing audio interviews with some top Netfolk. They're on his blog, and all are worth a listen. This is how the Web's reach expands.
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Efforts to Stop Music Swapping Draw More Fire (NYT)
The recording industry's stepped-up pursuit of online music swappers faced two new challenges yesterday, as SBC Communications questioned the constitutionality of the industry's tactics in a lawsuit and Senator Norm Coleman opened an inquiry on whether the anti-piracy campaign is violating the privacy rights of innocent people.
Also see:Record labels win round against file-swapping students- An Australian university will have to hand over its backup tapes, as record labels continue their crackdown on unauthorised music sharing Criticism of RIAA Mounts in US Senate, Investigation Possible The RIAA's New Music Jihad: The Devil's Music Industry Pac Bell Sues RIAA Over File-Sharing Subpoenas Senator Wants Answers From RIAA European firms threaten mass P2P lawsuit
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LibertyThink rescued ("valis" ain't getting off THAT easy)
I couldn't bear to see LibertyThink.com offline indefinitely; and as "valis" needs a break, I offered to buy his site, content, domain-name and all, with an option for him to return as owner/manager in six-month's time; "valis" has accepted the offer.
LibertyThink.com will be back up shortly. FYI.
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The Best and the Weirdest
What is science writing? What can it be? And what should it be?
The answer depends on who you ask. Jesse Cohen, the editor of the Best American Science Writing annual collections, put the question to Oliver Sacks, and his answer seems to be a good-natured wink and nudge. Or in other words: Whatever turns you on.
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The Marree Man -- GPS Art
For those of us who missed the hubbub the first time around:
it's a gigantic man-thing, carved into the earth!
Witness the space photo.
Woo!
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Operation Air Conditioner
The US economy continues to swirl toward the bottom of the toilet bowl, giving off a heady scent. The government opts for several expensive wars. With your extra cash, you can send an air conditioner to Iraq for the troops.
Or maybe try another option instead.
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Another Alien Video?
This photo was sent into DarkPlanet anonymously (of course) with the following short statement:
Last week I had a bit of insomnia and stepped out for a breath of fresh air. I saw "someone" walking in the distance illuminated by our street lights and as the figure came closer I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I ran inside, grabbed my video camera and set it on the step with the tripod to start filming. I was suddenly overcome with the urge to shake the creatures hand and quite calmly I did just that. The "meeting" we had lasted what seemed like hours but after watching the tape it was more like five minutes. I'll send you the footage after I take care of a few things.
Obviously this one frame of video could be hoaxed but it certainly is entertaining. I'll keep you posted if anything new comes my way.
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Htaccess Project Draft Released - Comments Wanted
Purpose:To block MPAA, RIAA and third-party enforcement, discovery and research affiliates from entering websites which oppose their presence.
License:Open-source. License to be determined by the development team. There will be no charge for this technological measure, as we are striving to freeze out the RIAA, MPAA and third-party enforcement, discovery and research affiliates from the WWW.
Legal Mechanism:Digital Millenium Copyright Act - which states that "...since the fair use doctrine is not a defense to the act of gaining unauthorized access to a work, the act of circumventing a technological measure in order to gain access is prohibited." The use of an .htaccess screening method is a long-established technological measure which cannot be circumvented without violating the DMCA. Sites which experience a violation of this policy by the above parties after implementing this technological measure may wish to pursue legal options.
Distribution:A centralized distribution system, where quality and integrity of files can be deemed acceptable.
Process:
- Collect IP ranges and addresses submitted by users and via other reporting methods to block out networks known to have been utilized by the RIAA/MPAA and third-party enforcement, discovery and research affiliates.
- Verify to the best of the development team's ability that the addresses do belong to the parties listed above.
- Add to the existing list of offending addresses, once verified.
- Provide a contact for those who, though every attempt will be made to avoid doing so, may be blocked unintentionally.
- Implement version control and changelog, as well as file issuance dates.
- Provide communication channels for users of the technological measure.
- Promote the furtherance of this "internet death penalty" to other website owners and operators.
Join in and discuss here
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File-Sharing: It's music to our ears
File-sharing has enabled music fans from around the world to build the largest library of recorded music in history. While this should be cause for celebration, large record labels have spent the last three years attacking peer-to-peer (P2P) technology and the people who use it. But neither user-empowering technologies nor consumers' desire for easy access to digital music are evil.
Read about what EFF is doing for P2P
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Canada's Fastest Computer Simulates Galaxies, Black Holes
"An essential element of modern astrophysics is the ability to carry out large-scale simulations of the cosmos, to complement the amazing observations being undertaken," said Professor Peter Martin, chair of astronomy and astrophysics and a CITA investigator. "With the simulations possible on this computer, we have in effect a laboratory where we can test our understanding of astronomical phenomena ranging from the development of structure in the universe over 14 billion years to the development of new planets in star-forming systems today."
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Hormel fights to protect SPAM trademark
While the legal brouhaha is steeped in the arcana of trademark law -- upper-case SPAM vs. lower-case spam, and generic or descriptive use of the term vs. applying a trademark to a particular product -- this is all about a World War II generation icon butting heads with the sassy, New Age cyber-lingo. Seventy-percent of SPAM's U.S. sales are to people 45 years old and older, according to Hormel.
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I Think, Therefore I Communicate
For the past 15 years, researchers have been trying to develop BCIs to tap into the brain waves of individuals who are unable to communicate with the outside world. The goal of all BCI research is to create a direct link between computers and the electrical signals in the brain of these so-called "locked in" individuals so they can operate devices like wheelchairs or use simple word processing programs to express their wishes.
While no actual BCI products are currently on the market, researchers are making progress. Interfaces are being developed that can control basic environmental factors (such as the temperature of a house or a light switch), answer yes-or-no questions, and operate a word processor at slow rates (about one to two words a minute).
Present-day BCIs attempt to discern the intent of the user through two approaches -- by reading electroencephalogram signals off the scalp with the help of a skullcap or by interpreting neural activity as recorded by electrodes implanted directly on the brain. These signals are then translated into commands that can direct a computer display or some other device.
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The RIAA Hit List - A Pattern Emerges?
After looking at 50 or so subpoenas, the suspicion of a pattern grew more confident. While an individual wouldn't necessarily get subpoenaed for just having a Busta Rhymes song, it was the combination of Busta and additional artists that triggered the bot. Slyck hopes to obtain the entire database to more conclusively examine and reveal this potential pattern.
It seems the RIAA's search is not random, as certain songs and artists are used as triggers.
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BuyMusic.com Ripping Off Artists?
"My name is Jody Whitesides, I'm an artist that is about to be brought to the Apple iTunes Music Store. Of course I recently heard about BuyMusic so I decided to point my Mac browser at it (with Javascript turned off you can see the site)." Jody ran into some trouble with BuyMusic that is very troubling: they're ripping him off. Dig Deeper for the whole story.I did a search for one of my old CD's that will be going onto iTunes and It turns out my CD was there on BuyMusic.com. As were the CD's of several other bands that I'm friends with. All of whom were not contacted about being placed for sale there.
Here's what I've deduced... BuyMusic.com (which I will refer to as BM) got their "vast" music library of 300,000 plus songs from a company called the Orchard. The Orchard is a distribution company that has consistently shafted artists by not paying them for CD's sold nor returning unsold CD's or cancelling contracts. So, without the express consent of what is likely lots of the Orchards catalog, BM has put it up for sale at the bargain price of $.79 a song.
So now, they can tout they're selling tracks at $.79 and they can say they have a library of music of over 300,000 songs. But what they don't tell you is that it comes from musicians/bands that were not asked for permission, and who will likely not see a penny of any sale made through BM. By their very own site policy they are committing copyright infringement. They have done this to lure PC/windows users to their site in hopes to sell the few major label aquired songs they do have, at a price that is much higher than Apple's $.99.
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RIAA will take 2191.78 years to sue everyone
READER MICHAELA STEPHENS says that if the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is right and that 60 million US folk are file sharing, it's going to take the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a mighty long time to get round to them all.
She said: "I pulled out my calculator to see just how long it would take the RIAA to sue all 60 million P2P music file traders at a rate of 75 a day. 60,000,000/75 = 800,000 days to subpoena each person or 800,000 days/365 days in a year = 2191.78 years to subpoena each person".
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Meet Mumbleboy!
Mumbleboy (aka Kinya Hanada) doesn't work with audio like most of the ADR artists, instead he is known mostly for his animation as a Flash artist. His animations are featured prominantly on The Audio Dregs site, his own site, and many others. Now they are also included as CD-ROM portions on some ADR releases. Kinya is based in NYC.
Here's your five-minute Flash break for the day: (flash player required)
Dim Dim, Recorderman
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AI, Aye?
While people are able to see problems from different angles, even the smartest computers are still pretty inflexible. Artificial-intelligence researchers need to combine logic with probabilistic reasoning, game theory and a host of other ideas. While the Pentagon's project to record and catalog a person's life scares privacy advocates, researchers see it as a step in the process of getting computers to think like humans. Developers want realism in their games. Sony's new EyeToy and other innovative peripherals take that desire to a new level by actually putting players in the game. In the world of video games, it's all about control. Maths pinpoints cause for faulty computer simulations.
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Secret networks protect music swappers
They are the country clubs of the file-sharing world, exclusive Internet networks that require knowing the right people and having a wealth of content on your hard disk to get into the clique.
These private file-swapping networks have surfaced just as the music industry has been granted dozens of subpoenas seeking the names of those who trade copyrighted material on popular services such as Kazaa, Imesh, and Gnutella.
The private networks are open to smaller groups of perhaps 20 to 30 people who liberally share music, television shows, movies and computer programs. Members of such networks believe they can avoid legal consequences because their identities and actions are masked with the same technology used to protect online credit card transactions.
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Music and Death - hand in hand
AOL Time-Warner is one of the remaining major label record companies and owns Atlantic, Elektra/Sire, Asylum, Reprise, Warner, American, Maverick, and others. It also owns AOL, which is involved in a co-venture with Hughes Electronics Corp called DirecTV. Hughes is owned 100% by General Motors. Hughes merged with Raytheon to form Hughes subsidiary Raytheon Industries. Raytheon Industries makes bombs.
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Cyborg Liberation Front
Inside the Movement for Posthuman Rights
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
Yeats's wish, expressed in his poem "Sailing to Byzantium," was a governing principle for those attending the World Transhumanist Association conference at Yale University in late June. International academics and activists, they met to lay the groundwork for a society that would admit as citizens and companions intelligent robots, cyborgs made from a free mixing of human and machine parts, and fully organic, genetically engineered people who aren't necessarily human at all. A good many of these 160 thinkers aspire to immortality and omniscience through uploading human consciousness into ever evolving machines.
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U.S. media still REFUSES to mention Bush sexual assault lawsuit that Texas woman continues to pursue
A Texas woman continues to pursue a lawsuit she filed last December against George W. Bush alleging that the White House inhabitant sexually assaulted her.
Contacted by phone at her home in mid-July by this writer, plaintiff Margie Denise Schoedinger said I was one of the first media members to attempt to contact her about the case. In case you're counting, that's more than seven months after she filed the legal brief in a Fort Bend County court.
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Cyber sleuths hunt file-swappers
They have been described as Hollywood's digital detectives and they have a warning for anyone illegally trading music or movies: "You can run but you can never hide."
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Yet another flood gate opens, blogging
So many writing too much with nothing to say
Not too long from now, AOL is going to enable all of its 34 bizillion or so members to become bloggers. (For AOL users, bloggers are people who maintain or participate in weblogs, publishing their thoughts to anyone on the internet who cares to find and read them.)
That most people only have a thought worth sharing with the world, say, three or four times in their entire lives seems to be, at least from AOL’s perspective, beside the point.
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Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida
Edward Leedskalnin was a 100 pound - 5 foot tall man, an eccentric recluse, quoted as saying, "I have discovered the secrets of the pyramids, and have found out how the Egyptians and the ancient builders in Peru, Yucatan, and Asia, with only primitive tools, raised and set in place blocks of stone weighing many tons!"
Within his castle walls, built of coral blocks weighing approximately 15 tons each, he had a 22-ton obelisk, a 22-ton moon block, a 23-ton Jupiter block, a Saturn block, a 9-ton gate, a rocking chair that weighed 3-tons, and numerous puzzles. A huge 30-t on block, which he considered to be his major achievement, he crowned with a gable shaped rock. [MORE]
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All The News That's Fit to -- WTF???
i suppose commentary is pointless:
Pentagon Prepares a Futures Market on Terror Attacks
The online market would allow anonymous speculators to bet on forecasting terrorist attacks, assassinations and coups.
- QUOTATION OF THE DAY -"Can you imagine if another country set up a betting parlor so that people could go in -- and is sponsored by the government itself ó people could go in and bet on the assassination of an American political figure?"- SENATOR BYRON DORGAN, Democrat of North Dakota
NY Times. Registration required. Current content is free.
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Human Spontaneous Involuntary Invisibility
In the summer of 1994, I became aware of a very strange phenomenon, human spontaneous involuntary invisibility, which was apparently happening to people in the U.S. When I checked with other researchers and discovered that a number of them had also heard of such cases, I decided to place an inquiry letter in several well-known journals, asking other researchers and the general public if they had any experiences of this nature that they would like to share with me. Besides the publication of my inquiry letter, my inquiry was placed on several Internet bulletin boards. The letters began pouring in, giving me a broader picture of this phenomenon. I want to share a few stories with you and pass on some of the information I have come across during this past year.
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The Internet under Surveillance
Obstacles to the free flow of information online
With an introduction by Vinton G. Cerf: "Truth is a powerful solvent. Stone walls melt before its relentless might. The Internet is one of the most powerful agents of freedom. It exposes truth to those who wish to see and hear it. It is no wonder that some governments and organizations fear the Internet and its ability to make the truth known. The phrase "freedom of speech" is often used to characterize a key element of democratic societies : open communication and especially open government. But freedom of speech is less than half of the equation. It is also vital that citizens have the freedom to hear and see. It is the latter area in which many governments have intervened in an attempt to prevent citizens from gaining access to information that their governments wish to withhold from them."
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MARTIN REES: EdgeVideo
"All these multiverse ideas lead to a remarkable synthesis between cosmology and physics...But they also lead to the extraordinary consequence that we may not be the deepest reality, we may be a
simulation. The possibility that we are creations of some supreme, or super-being, blurs the boundary between physics and idealist philosophy, between the natural and the supernatural, and between the relation of mind and multiverse and the possibility that we're in the matrix rather than the physics itself."
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Unauthorized Psychosurgery - 43 Implants in X-Ray
Unauthorized Psychosurgery - 43 Implants in X-Ray
As a victim of unauthorized human experimentation at 14 & 16 yrs. of age, on Dec. 9, 1969 and Jan. 27, 1972, at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, I am still horrified by what took place, and the intrusion of these 43 implants in my brain (X-ray right) without informed consent.
Since Terry's page 3 with the large x-ray image has "exceeded its allocated data transfer" at GeoCities, I've put it here.
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Governor's race draws unconventional candidates
Now that the election to recall California Gov. Gray Davis is official, the state famous for eccentric residents may be getting a few unconventional candidates to fill his shoes.
Among those floating their names as possible replacement candidates in the October 7 election are a freeway rest stop caretaker, a teen who couldn't get elected to his school's student congress and a woman selling thong underwear bearing her campaign slogan.
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The Invention of AIDS
Boyd E. Graves, J.D. -- Do people with HIV/AIDS owe royalties to the patent holder of the AIDS virus? In April 1984, Dr. Robert Gallo filed a United States patent application for his invention, the HIV/AIDS Virus. Normally when a patent is filed and approved, as Dr. Gallo's was, anyone who uses the product or invention owes a royalty payment to the inventor. The scientific evidence is complete and compelling, the AIDS Virus is a designer bi-product of the U.S. Special Virus program. Thus, holding the intellectual property laws to their fullest interpretations, one must only wonder why Dr. Gallo has yet to file a lawsuit seeking to recover damages from the usage of his invention? more...
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Eric Margolis Nails It: Terms of Engagement - Herewith, Definitions to Keep on Top of Current Events
* Liberation - Invasion.
* Coalition - The U.S. and British invaders, plus some troops from rent-a-nations like Romania and Poland. In the past, "the coalition" would have been called imperial forces and mercenary auxiliaries.
* Dictator - A ruler you don't like, or who does not cooperate.
* Statesman - A cooperative dictator.
* Stability - when things go the way Uncle Sam likes, ie., the status quo.
* Instability - when things don't go the way Unc Sam wants, ie., when trouble-makers try to change the status quo.
* Iraq reconstruction - a process whereby big firms that contribute to the president's re-election campaign obtain contracts to rebuild the damage caused by U.S. bombing. [more]
Language is the unseen front, and I've believed for a while now that the number one thing anti-propagandists need to do now (or top of the list anyway) is set up a central clearinghouse for the deconstruction of official word lines--because when news outlets and the general unsuspecting unconsciously parrot their word lines, a majory victory for Karl Rove and his language-perverting cronies is already won. Do not repeat "re-election," because George Bush was never elected. Do not repeat "Iraq war" because it wasn't one; it was an invasion. Etc. To this end, Eric Margolis has moved the resistance along considerably. Use this guide as a key. And resist with your words, as well as your actions.
Also, I'd like to point out that even if I didn't have the slightest compassion for anyone else in the world other than myself and my immediate circle (i.e., a Republican), I would still loathe Karl Rove and his group for what they do to the English language on a daily basis. That ain't English, folks. That's English turned inside out with shackles on and a big, fat-assed hook lying hidden underneath. Eat their language uncritically and you are instantly zombified.
American Samizdat: We Fight Zombies.
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How to Rig an Election - The Source Code Revealed
I am writing to because we want your help. We have just broken what may become one of the biggest stories on the Internet and we want your assistance and attention.
To cut to the chase, Scoop has just revealed security holes in the U.S. Electoral system. The details follow below and are at the following two links- with pictures.
Inside A U.S. Election Vote Counting Program
a link to the full 40,000 files from the Diebold ftp site
This story is extremely sensitive and potentially explosive. There can be no doubt whatsoever that powerful commercial interests will be acting swiftly to either put a lid on this story, neutralize it via misinformation or law suit. It is vital therefore that it receive as much exposure as possible as quickly as possible.
Here is what I am asking you to do.
If you are a columnist or reporter: Please either write about this yourself - perhaps linking to our source materials - or bring this to the attention of your editor(s) and attempt to get your news organisation to carry a matching or followup story. If you are a webmaster: Please either repost the stories linked below and included at the foot of this email, or post links to them. If you are a list owner: Please post an item on this to your list and encourage your list members to further distribute this story; If you are a programmer: Go look at the code and evaluate what is happening.
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little stalker boy is tired
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you are a wretched malformed mutant and God hates you [Flash]
you are a wretched malformed mutant and God hates you [Flash]
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Magick Sunday
WELCUM 2 THEE ILLUMNAUGHTY How come all Thelemites look alike?
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Sunday Radio- Harry Shearer: Le Show
Hear today's show, but also check out the archived: An interview with Mort Sahl
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Squid and Cuttlefish - RUsquid2 ??
Squid Sensitivity
The more electrophysiologist William Gilly learns about these mysterious denizens of the deep, the more they seem like an alien intelligence...
RUsquid2 ??
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Bush desecrates the flag
United States Code: Title 4, Chapter 1
Section 8: Respect for the flag
No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America;
the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it,
nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
United States Code: Title 18, Part 1
Crimes and Criminal Procedure: Chapter 33: Emblems, insignia and names
(a)(1) Whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or tramples upon any flag of the United States shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.Update:
A Political Wire reader writes to say Bush is within his rights to change the rules: "Any rule or custom pertaining to the display of the flag of the United States of America, set forth herein, may be altered, modified, or repealed, or additional rules with respect thereto may be prescribed, by the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, whenever he deems it to be appropriate or desirable; and any such alteration or additional rule shall be set forth in a proclamation."
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 Ong's Hat: The Beginning |
| "I got really into this "time-travel cult" called Ong's Hat when a computer-game programmer I know told me she was contacted by a physics scholar who said that a bunch of her recent games reflected their canon. This dude told my friend that someone from Ong's Hat had befriended her and inspired her to create certain games without her realizing it. Whoa, right?" - Jane Magazine |
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