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Hollywood tries hacking tactics
Friday, July 26, 2002
The new hacking threat is from Hollywood.
A bill introduced in the US seeks to allow the industry to hack into personal computers to search for illegal material.
It could also allow technology to be used to disrupt or disable computers known to be trading in copyrighted films or music.
I think the backlash to this will hurt the entertainment industry far more than actual piracy.
Music Bill Is Bully on IMs
Along with making it open season on individual users, open-source programs, and decentralized networks, the bill also gives a free pass to chat applications run by the very media companies that would most benefit from open-source networks being shuttered.
AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger -- which each have specific file-trading options built into their systems that enable millions of users to trade their share without fear of electronic attack -- will continue to flourish. The recording industry and movie studios have largely ignored those three chat applications, which have financial ties to the major record studios and movie studios, in their litigation and anti-piracy activities.
I find that just a tad hypocritical, don't you?
In other anti Fourth Amendment news:
Your Grocery List Could Spark a Terror Probe
As John Ashcroft's Citizens Corps spy program prepares for its debut next month, it seems scores of American companies have already become willing snitches. A few months ago, the Privacy Council surveyed executives from 22 companies in the travel industry—not just airlines but hotels, car rental services, and travel agencies—and found that 64 percent of respondents had turned over information to investigators and 59 percent had lowered their resistance to such demands. In that sampling, conducted with The Boston Globe, half of the businesses said they hadn't decided if they'd inform customers of the change, and more than a third said outright that they wouldn't. Only three said they would go public about the level of their cooperation with law enforcement.
These people worry me far more than terrorists ever will.
Face recognition fails in Boston airport
Test runs of the Visionics (now Identix) magical face-recognition terrorist finder at Boston's Logan Airport have failed miserably, as expected.
So far, biometrics is looking like the new high tech snake oil. We can do nothing to stop it because by God, the feds will make sure these systems end up everywhere, regardless of whether they violate our privacy or actually work.
Japanese shore crabs invade Atlantic seaboard
Saturday, July 20, 2002
Another invasive alien species is causing problems, though it's hasn't had the media coverage that the infamous snakehead fish has.
I was amused by this Washington Times article.
Their brand of ignorant jingoism even applies to fish. Sheesh!
ISSG's Global Invasive Species Database
My personal favorite is Solenopsis invicta, advancing like a ravenous horde towards my hometown. I guess my days of walking around barefoot in the yard will soon be over.
Sonar OK'd for U.S. Navy
Friday, July 19, 2002
Bush administration approves whale killing sonar:
Whales are particularly susceptible to sonar interference because they rely on sound for communication, feeding, mating and migration. According to the Navy, each of the sonar's 18 speakers transmits signals as loud as 215 decibels, equivalent underwater to standing next to a twin-engine F-15 fighter jet at takeoff.
Personally, think we should get the wildlife hating President of the United States to stand next to said F-15 and see how much he likes it. On the other hand, what are the odds that it would cause any more brain damage than he already has now?
Thanks, Unknown News :)
Navy Cleared To Use a Sonar Despite Fears of Injuring Whales
Much of the problematic noise comes from commercial shipping and underwater oil and gas exploration, but Navy sonar has also proven to be deadly.
That became clear after the March 2000 stranding of 17 whales and dolphins in the Bahamas. The Navy initially denied its sonar caused the subsequent deaths of six beaked whales, but later acknowledged responsibility after unusual tests -- made possible by the freezing of several dead whales -- showed the animals had suffered internal injuries from the noise.
US Postal Service Refuses to Participate in 'TIPS'
Thursday, July 18, 2002
The Postal Service has decided not to take part in a government program touted as a tip service for authorities concerned with terrorism, but which is being assailed as a scheme to cast ordinary Americans as "peeping Toms."
Yeah, we all hate the post office for burying us in tons of junk mail and raising the price of stamps every quarter, but I'll cut them some slack for this.
Which Jhonen Vasquez Character Are You?
Thursday, July 18, 2002
I'm Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
Why am I not surprised? I feel like this every single morning.
Signs That You May Be a Homicidal Maniac
Note: if you link to your personality type from the webpage, the image won't show up because the people who run Geocities are a bunch of jerks who don't allow off site image linking.
May they burn in hell for all eternity. :)
Interesting Ideas
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Outsider and roadside art, plus an idea barn to boot.
Many thanks to Plep for the link, who never fails to amaze me with shear numbers of fascinating links and tick me off at the same time because I'll never be as good at weblogging. :)
Sassafrass Log
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Just read it, it's good!
I did have to delist Ribbit today, which has been devoid of life for quite some time. R.I.P.
State officials want Bush to act on global warming
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Attorneys general from 11 states criticized President Bush Wednesday for failing to adopt a comprehensive policy to combat global warming, urging he "rethink" his response to climate change and enact a cap on greenhouse gases.
You can find a copy of the letter here.
GM crop DNA found in human gut bugs
Thursday, July 18, 2002
The British government says not to worry. After all, if we can't trust our respective governments, who can we trust?
Ebola virus could be synthesised
Yikes!
Scottish salmon in "extinction vortex"
Wild salmon population continues to drop like a lead balloon.
2002 FMARS Field Season
Thursday, July 18, 2002
The Mars Society's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station mission is now well underway on Devon Island, Canada.
Another good resource is arctic-mars.org.
Boy Bands A Viable Launch Vehicle For Space Tourism?
Thursday, July 18, 2002
I'm so conflicted that I refuse to comment further.
Bush's niece jailed over drugs
Thursday, July 18, 2002
Hmmm. Does drug addiction, coke snorting and drunk driving run in this gene pool? It could be.
If anything, it may generate popular sympathy for a man sometimes seen as aloof from the real world.
One would hope that the citizens of Florida aren't quite so dim.
No doubt Noelle Bush will get the kid gloves treatment that all famous and/or rich criminals get. Not so for the tens of thousands of politically unconnected Americans rotting in jail for drug possession who can't buy their way out of enforcement of unjust and hypocritical drug laws.
(Did you know that 55% of federal prisoners are incarcerated for drug charges? That's over 88,000 people.)
Canada Warned Not To Relax Drug Laws
"We have great respect for Canada and Britain as well, and if they start shifting policies with regards to marijuana it simply increases the rumblings in this country that we ought to re-examine our policy," said [DEA Director] Hutchinson. "It is a distraction from a firm policy on drug use."
Democratic debate and open discussion are evil, I guess.
Lawmakers Addicted To The Quick Fix
You don't say!
Welcome to Scifilist
Monday, July 15, 2002
Click on the sign for a excellent sci fi/fantasy/horror art gallery, mostly from pulp magazines. Now you know where Princess Leia's brass bra came from.
When It Rained Corpses - Best. Title. Ever!
US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies
Monday, July 15, 2002
The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report "suspicious activity".
Thanks for a nation of finks.
Be warned, the McCarthyists are alive and well and looking to lock your ass up these days. Think about that America, as you happily flush your rights down the toilet in the mythical pursuit of order and security.
Operation TIPS - Terrorism Information and Prevention System
Operation TIPS, involving 1 million workers in the pilot stage, will be a national reporting system that allows these workers, whose routines make them well-positioned to recognize unusual events, to report suspicious activity. Every participant in this new program will be given an Operation TIPS information sticker to be affixed to the cab of their vehicle or placed in some other public location so that the toll-free reporting number is readily available.
I have a simple and obvious counterstroke to this. Borrowing an idea from Changing the Climate, I think we should superglue big stickers with the word SNITCH on it to those vehicles.
Invader Zim Wallpaper
Sunday, July 14, 2002
Invader Zim ROOOOOOOOOCKS!
"The Madness" is my current wallpaper.
Bonus: Invader Skoodge, who conquered Blorch: Home of the Slaughtering Rat People and was promptly shot out of an cannon due to his lack of tallness. I can relate.
Irkens can be real bastards that way.
Invader Zim WAVs
I love the little tacos. I love them good.
Supersonic jet model crashes in test
Sunday, July 14, 2002
A launch failure has killed a test of a Concorde sucessor.
Robot planes the future of warfare, military officials say
It's another stake in the heart for manned military aircraft.
The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots. And as you go forth today remember always your duty is clear: To build and maintain those robots.
Hollywood summit on drugs 'realism'
Sunday, July 14, 2002
Don't think for yourselves, let the DEA do it for you:
The man leading the United States' war on drugs has met Hollywood executives to make sure movies and television portray drug enforcement in an "accurate and responsible" way.
The meeting marks another step in co-operation between Hollywood and US authorities after a series of similar summits on how the entertainment industry could do its bit in the war against terror after 11 September.
Nevada Voters to Consider Marijuana Legalization
Boomers' Little Secret Still Smokes Up the Closet
First Federal Medical Marijuana Conviction
DEA Director Criticizes Marijuana Ballot Measure
Things Other People Accomplished At Your Age
Monday, July 8, 2002
At age 32: Alexander the Great conquered almost the entire known world.
Can I do that in the next eight months? Maybe, but it will involve me leaving the house a hell of a lot more than I do now.
From The Earl Vickers Museum of Conceptual Art.
Land of the twee
Monday, July 8, 2002
You may never have heard of Thomas Kinkade but he is one of the most successful artists in the world. He is America's most collected living painter, known to his admirers as "the Master of Light". His work hangs in one out of every 20 American homes. More than 350 galleries in the US are dedicated entirely to his work. The income from his painting last year was more than 0m (£99m). And now he has created a housing development based on the idyllic fantasy world of his art.
If there was a housing development based on the art playing nonstop in my skull (which I can't get on paper or canvas because I don't have the talent), would anyone want to live there? I guess not. The other question that I've been obsessed with lately: does one have to be a whore to be a successful artist? I think so because it has to sell or shock to get any attention.
Thanks, Arts Journal
South Bay Producer of Feel Good Scenes Reaps Millions
Another creepy thing, his website has descriptions of his work, but only images of the frames! I guess that's why the catalog cost nine bucks. That's a great bit of conceptual art as far as I'm concerned.
Zen Gardens
Friday, July 5, 2002
Something to contemplate as the oppressive summer heat slowly pushes me toward madness. I hope I can make it to September.
The Constitution of the United States of America
Thursday, July 4, 2002
The Fourth of July. It's the kind of holiday that thrills the White House, Congress and others who like to wrap themselves in the flag as they erode the Constitution in the supposed name of patriotism.
I encourage all of my fellow citizens to read this and think very carefully about it. In the past year we have seen damage done to the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments.
The greatest threat to the destruction of the Constitution does not come from terrorists and those who hate us, but instead from an more dangerous internal threat of those who believe that you and I are far too stupid and cowardly to think and act for ourselves.
If the U.S. becomes a police state, there's no one to blame but us.
If that happens, than the terrorists truly have won.
I needed to get that off my chest.
Federal funds dry up for toxic waste cleanup
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
The Bush administration is gutting toxic waste cleanup funds. More corporate welfare, less money to clean up their deadly mess.
Who's really surprised by that?
Bush slashing cleanup aid to 33 toxic-waste sites
Superfund program budget dwindling
DEET products superior for fending off mosquito bites
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
This should be of interest if you, like me, are extra delicious to those winged bloodsuckers. I can't stand still outside for two minutes without being bitten repeatedly.
I wonder if there is some inherited genetic component to this.
My mom gets eaten alive. My dad never ever gets bitten.
Have I mentioned how much I hate summer?
Mosquitos are one huge reason why.
Percy for Congress!
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
A dog will run against Katherine Harris for a congressional seat.
I'd vote for him.
In fact I'm trying to convince my dog Cheyenne to run for our local congressionial seat against our good 'ol boy scum congressman who recently said the following:
You could put me in a pine box and run the pine box and I'd win going away. Cass Ballenger, NC 10th District (R)
The sad truth is that he's right. Adolf Hitler could have gotten sixty percent of the vote here as long as he was the Republican nominee.
I'll keep you notified as to Cheyenne's intentions.
Japanese whaling program targets endangered species
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
Opponents say Japan's research programme is really commercial whaling in disguise, because the government sells the whale meat to restaurants and supermarkets to pay for the project.
There is no doubt in my mind that the wholesale destruction of worldwide fish stocks that the Japanese government decries, is caused by both legal overfishing and illegal poaching that is encouraged by an explosion in demand from consumers who are ignorant of these problems, not by whales.
If you love seafood, than I ask that you read Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch page. Let's make sure that we preserve seafood stocks for the future and hold producers and sellers responsible for their actions. Thanks!
Patriot Revolution?
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
Over the last three months, the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge, Northampton and Amherst and the township of Leverett, as well as the town of Carrboro, N.C., all passed resolutions that call the USA Patriot Act a threat to the civil rights of the residents of their communities.
As I've been saying, you better take a stand for your civil liberties right now, while you still have them.
Thanks, Random Abstract :)
The Presidents UFO Web Site
Tuesday, July 2, 2002
I was looking for a picture of Nixon playing golf, because I had this flashback to a collection of Life magazine photos that I once saw. I think it must have been triggered by the Nixon bowling photo from The Big Lebowski.
Very few people are aware of Jackie Gleason's interest in UFOs.
According to Gleason's second wife, Beverly McKittrick, Gleason apparently had done more than talk and golf with his friend Richard Nixon while in Florida. McKittrick stated that one night Gleason had returned home very shaken. It was during the Nixon February 1973 visit to Florida. She related that President Nixon had taken Jackie to a heavily secured area at Homestead Air Force Base where he had viewed the remains of small aliens in a top secret repository.
In any case, it's an interesting bit of UFO folklore and I would argue that if any president knew about alien conspiracies, it was Tricky Dick!
By the way, I recommend Elvis Meets Nixon to those of you who haven't seen it. It's not some heavy handed and obvious farce and that's what makes it work.
What do I know? I'm an Elvis fan.
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