Continuing the tone of my previous post, here's a good section from a play that I found today while I was going through my data archives. Atom is a beautiful word.
TILLIE: He told me to look at my hand, for a part of it came from a star that exploded too long ago to imagine. This part of me was formed from a tongue of fire that screamed through the heavens until there was our sun. And this part of me - this tiny part of me - was on the sun when it itself exploded and whirled in a great storm until the planets came to be.
And this small part of me was then a whisper of the earth. When there was life, perhaps this part of me got lost in a fern that was crushed and covered until it was coal. And then it was a diamond millions of year later - it must have been a diamond as beautiful as the star from which it had first come.
Or perhaps this part of me became lost in a terrible beast, or became part of a huge bird that flew above the primeval swamps. And he said this thing was so small - this part of me was so small it couldn't be seen - but it was there from the beginning of the world.
And he called this bit of me an atom. And when he wrote the word, I fell in love with it. Atom. Atom. What a beautiful word.
5.12.05
6.11.05
I never post here anymore
If you want the Total Perspective Vortex experience, just ask Carl Sagan.
This is my favorite description of the solar system:
The Sun is on home plate at Shea Stadium.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are all between home plate and the pitcher's mound.
Jupiter is on second base.
Saturn is in the outfield.
Uranus is on the outfield wall.
Neptune is in the bleachers.
Pluto is in the parking lot.
Alpha Centauri is in San Francisco.
This is my favorite description of the solar system:
The Sun is on home plate at Shea Stadium.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are all between home plate and the pitcher's mound.
Jupiter is on second base.
Saturn is in the outfield.
Uranus is on the outfield wall.
Neptune is in the bleachers.
Pluto is in the parking lot.
Alpha Centauri is in San Francisco.
4.8.05
17.7.05
Delta Twelve [Black] Gamma Super Marines (X)
I for one am rather pissed at the Army's new advertising guy who feels that it is his job to make army recruiting methods sink even lower than they were before. Back in the day their commercials were like "Hey guys look at these super-trained Delta Twelve [Black] Gamma Super Marines (X) that are parachuting from a missle-laden blackhawk helicopter onto a carrier in the middle of the night! Don't they look like the coolest mother-fuckers ever? Don't you want to be like them? Cue some fucking rock music my friend let's go pop some ragheads! Yah!" Of course, it was really just hiding the under-lying message of "Don't you wish that you weren't poor as fuck? Sign up and take advantage of our life-insurance policy!" They were actually a lot of fun to watch, and signed some good artists so they had some good music that was at least entertaining.
But just a month or so ago a bunch of new commercials started airing that were just BLATANT about it. They start off by showing some awkward looking kid standing around waiting for their dad / mom / uncle / OMGIMPORTANTPERSON to show up. And once they get there an even more awkward silence ensues. Finally the important person is like "Wow, looks like the ARMY made you a better person, good thing too because I thought you were a worthless piece of shit. I think I could almost get near you now. Thanks Army. Other people ought to join too because God knows that they will treat you better then Uncle Meany." Or else the important figure is just super sketched out by the Army, and it is the poor patriotic kid who has to convince their ugly commie dad that it is okay to join up, after which point they are treated like an adult forever and everyone lives happily ever after.
What the fuck Army? When did it become okay to change your logo to "Hate yourself? Join up!"? How the fuck is the Army of all things going to help your self-esteem? Excuse me, but I've taken a psychology class, and being yelled at day and night for weeks on end wasn't part of the self-improvement regime. Isn't there some kind of forgotten ethics alarm that goes off when a government organization has to start lying to folks in order to convince them of things? What's next Army? The "Are you retarded, join the Army because we need SCIENTISTS!" campaign? How about paraplegic special operatives? Or maybe blind fighter pilots? Should we put out ads for THEM? NO! We shouldn't!
That said, they are some pretty compelling commercials. I could easily see them making me put my boots on if I lived in one of those families where you refer to your dad as "sir" and live in fear of dying without "making your father proud".
But just a month or so ago a bunch of new commercials started airing that were just BLATANT about it. They start off by showing some awkward looking kid standing around waiting for their dad / mom / uncle / OMGIMPORTANTPERSON to show up. And once they get there an even more awkward silence ensues. Finally the important person is like "Wow, looks like the ARMY made you a better person, good thing too because I thought you were a worthless piece of shit. I think I could almost get near you now. Thanks Army. Other people ought to join too because God knows that they will treat you better then Uncle Meany." Or else the important figure is just super sketched out by the Army, and it is the poor patriotic kid who has to convince their ugly commie dad that it is okay to join up, after which point they are treated like an adult forever and everyone lives happily ever after.
What the fuck Army? When did it become okay to change your logo to "Hate yourself? Join up!"? How the fuck is the Army of all things going to help your self-esteem? Excuse me, but I've taken a psychology class, and being yelled at day and night for weeks on end wasn't part of the self-improvement regime. Isn't there some kind of forgotten ethics alarm that goes off when a government organization has to start lying to folks in order to convince them of things? What's next Army? The "Are you retarded, join the Army because we need SCIENTISTS!" campaign? How about paraplegic special operatives? Or maybe blind fighter pilots? Should we put out ads for THEM? NO! We shouldn't!
That said, they are some pretty compelling commercials. I could easily see them making me put my boots on if I lived in one of those families where you refer to your dad as "sir" and live in fear of dying without "making your father proud".
18.6.05
ATTACK OF THE BOREDOM BAT!
School is over. Now is the time for doing all the things I never had time for when I was in school.
Only, there is a problem...
I always had time for things at school.
In fact: I was consistently bored.
Fuck.
Only, there is a problem...
I always had time for things at school.
In fact: I was consistently bored.
Fuck.
31.5.05
Why am I writing this when I should be writing my term paper?
This is quoted verbatim from my response to a Debate and Discussion thread on SA. A poll queried users as to their opinion of what the State's primary interest should be. The options and poll results at the time of this posting were as follows: Liberty (40%), Justice (18%), Equality (5%), Protection (11%), Social Security (8%), Economic (8%), Scientific (8%), and Other [tended to just be "all of them are important] (2%), with 361 votes. I was astonished and somewhat sad that the forums population (which tends to be liberal, intelligent, and progressive-minded) seemed to think so poorly of the concept of liberty. Perhaps it is merely outmodish:
Far too many people seem to have the conception that the government is an entity that exists to rule the people or otherwise further its own interests as a nation. This is foolhardy to the point of ignorance. A government whose main concern is the economy or science views its citizens as mere pawns to be used for the interests of this nebulous "greater good". A nation whose focus is protection is nothing more than a police state, focused on maintaining the power of the government despite the will of its people. A state that promotes justice, equality, or social security above all else is overly concerned in controlling its subjects and their actions, leading to the establishment of a "Father Know's Best" state that acts without regard to the desires of the people.
ANY government that believes itself to be superior to, and innately more wise than, the people it represents (by viewing the promotion of the products of society as more important than society itself) is doomed to collapse or some form of totalitarianism; both of which violate the basic tenant of government: to represent the people.
Liberty should be the foremost concern of any well-functioning government; insofar as assuring that its citizens are guaranteed the fullest degree of liberty possible without violating the freedoms of others (technically only other citizens). This is a never-ending process, as new technologies and events tend to infringe upon the civil liberties of those the government represents, and it is the responsibility of those in the government to uphold those liberties in the face of tyranny - and to trust in the capabilities of its free citizens to develop the economic, scientific, etc. abilities of said nation in their own interests for the betterment of society.
Any government that does not do this does not deserve the respect or support of its citizens.
28.5.05
[E/N] Why must I be so angsty OR Why LDRs suck.
This is a post by a forum member at SomethingAwful that I just found terribly funny and plan on using for some theatre monologue if I ever get around to getting back on stage. This is only made funnier (or more terrifying) by the fact that this anonymous user also lives in Corvallis, Oregon. My home town:
This is going to be totally e/n. Just as a warning to anyone who didn't notice the 'e/n.' tage attached to this thread, I don't think there is any way to describe exactly how angsty I am right now.
Every girl that I have dated in the past year or two has been from another fucking city. It doesn't matter if I eventually tried to move to that city, I'd always manage to find someone 60 miles away from me or the city that I am in. Over time I guess I've gotten used to it but it still feels fucked up. If I'm in Seattle, I don't hook up with a girl *from* Seattle, no she has to be from fucking Vancouver. If I'm in Portland I end up with a girl from fucking Boston. What the fuck is up with that? Then there's this long distance relationship shit. LDRs should be illegal. The government should restrict the number of long distance relationships that any 18-24 year old can have at any one time. Why? Because it fucks things up. The people who you find attractive, that are as horny as you are, that you could be *fucking* in your own *city* RIGHT NOW are probably online talking to their SIGNIFICANT OTHER in ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN or--worse--NEW DEHLI and being angsty about it. You know what? Fuck you. Fuck you and your fucking undying love for someone that you haven't seen since last August. Fuck you for telling me that though you'd love to party you have to call your boyfriend and whine to him about how you're so lonely, how much you miss him, and how you'll be able to see each other for TWO DAYS in JULY. Fuck you for waiting for a marriage that will never come.
The airfare isn't worth it. The driving isn't worth it. The phone bill isn't worth it. He'll never meet your parents, you'll never see the inside of his room, the best you can do is a cheap hotel outside the airport and endless chatlogs that would make either great case studies for emotional psychotherapists or a post on SomethingAwful.
Oh, fuck.
8.5.05
Google This!
I've been thinking a little bit about prescription drugs lately as they apply to mental health issues. This is what I think about it
8.4.05
Round 2: But How Much Does It Cost?
Literary disinterest continues, here's everyone's favorite Brit's:
ARTHUR: Old woman!
DENNIS: Man!
ARTHUR: Man. Sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven.
ARTHUR: I-- what?
DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven. I'm not old.
ARTHUR: Well, I can't just call you 'Man'.
DENNIS: Well, you could say 'Dennis'.
ARTHUR: Well, I didn't know you were called 'Dennis'.
DENNIS: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?
ARTHUR: I did say 'sorry' about the 'old woman', but from the behind you looked--
DENNIS: What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior!
ARTHUR: Well, I am King!
DENNIS: Oh, King, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. If there's ever going to be any progress with the--
WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh! How d'you do?
ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady? I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who's castle is that?
WOMAN: King of the who?
ARTHUR: The Britons.
WOMAN: Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR: Well, we all are. We are all Britons, and I am your king.
WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.
DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship: a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
WOMAN: Oh, there you go bringing class into it again.
DENNIS: That's what it's all about. If only people would hear of--
ARTHUR: Please! Please, good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that castle?
WOMAN: No one lives there.
ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?
WOMAN: We don't have a lord.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week,...
ARTHUR: Yes.
DENNIS: ...but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...
ARTHUR: Yes, I see.
DENNIS: ...by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,...
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: ...but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major--
ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh? Who does he think he is? Heh.
ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, how did you become King, then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
ARTHUR: Shut up, will you? Shut up!
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!
DENNIS: Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?
King Arthur and Peasants, Monty Python and The Holy Grail
6.4.05
I'm not a poet, and I do know it
As of late I've just not been in the right kind of mood for any kind of literary output, so I've decided I'll start throwing up some random monologues I've liked for a while. God knows what'll come next....
(Monty walks into the bathroom. He looks in the mirror.
In the bottom corner, someone's written 'Fuck You!')
Monty: Yeah, fuck you, too.
Monty's Reflection: Fuck me? Fuck you! Fuck you and this whole city and everyone in it. Fuck the panhandlers, grubbing for money, and smiling at me behind my back. Fuck squeegee men dirtying up the clean windshield of my car. Get a fucking job! Fuck the Sikhs and the Pakistanis bombing down the avenues in decrepit cabs, curry steaming out their pores and stinking up my day. Terrorists in fucking training. Slow the fuck down!
Fuck the Chelsea boys with their waxed chests and pumped up biceps. Going down on each other in my parks and on my piers, jingling their dicks on my Channel 35. Fuck the Korean grocers with their pyramids of overpriced fruit and their tulips and roses wrapped in plastic. Ten years in the country, still no speaky English? Fuck the Russians in Brighton Beach. Mobster thugs sitting in cafés, sipping tea in little glasses, sugar cubes between their teeth. Wheelin' and dealin' and schemin'. Go back where you fucking came from!
Fuck the black-hatted Chassidim, strolling up and down 47th street in their dirty gabardine with their dandruff. Selling South African apartheid diamonds! Fuck the Wall Street brokers. Self-styled masters of the universe. Michael Douglas, Gordon Gecko wannabe mother fuckers, figuring out new ways to rob hard working people blind. Send those Enron assholes to jail for fucking life! You think Bush and Cheney didn't know about that shit? Give me a fucking break! Tyco! Imclone! Adelphia! Worldcom!
Fuck the Puerto Ricans. 20 to a car, swelling up the welfare rolls, worst fuckin' parade in the city. And don't even get me started on the Dom-in-i-cans, because they make the Puerto Ricans look good. Fuck the Bensonhurst Italians with their pomaded hair, their nylon warm-up suits, and their St. Anthony medallions. Swinging their, Jason Giambi, Louisville slugger, baseball bats, trying to audition for the Sopranos. Fuck the Upper East Side wives with their Hermés scarves and their fifty-dollar Balducci artichokes. Overfed faces getting pulled and lifted and stretched, all taut and shiny. You're not fooling anybody, sweetheart!
Fuck the uptown brothers. They never pass the ball, they don't want to play defense, they take fives steps on every lay-up to the hoop. And then they want to turn around and blame everything on the white man. Slavery ended one hundred and thirty seven years ago. Move the fuck on! Fuck the corrupt cops with their anus violating plungers and their 41 shots, standing behind a blue wall of silence. You betray our trust! Fuck the priests who put their hands down some innocent child's pants. Fuck the church that protects them, delivering us into evil. And while you're at it, fuck JC! He got off easy! A day on the cross, a weekend in hell, and all the hallelujahs of the legioned angels for eternity! Try seven years in fuckin Otisville, Jay!
Fuck Osama Bin Laden, Alqueda, and backward-ass, cave-dwelling, fundamentalist assholes everywhere. On the names of innocent thousands murdered, I pray you spend the rest of eternity with your seventy-two whores roasting in a jet-fueled fire in hell. You towel headed camel jockeys can kiss my royal, Irish ass!
Fuck Jacob Elinski, whining malcontent. Fuck Francis Xavier Slaughtery, my best friend, judging me while he stares at my girlfriend's ass. Fuck Naturel Rivera. I gave her my trust and she stabbed me in the back. Sold me up the river. Fucking bitch. Fuck my father with his endless grief, standing behind that bar. Sipping on club soda, selling whiskey to firemen and cheering the Bronx Bombers.
Fuck this whole city and everyone in it. From the row houses of Astoria to the penthouses on Park Avenue. From the projects in the Bronx to the lofts in Soho. From the tenements in Alphabet City to the brownstones in Park slope to the split levels in Staten Island. Let an earthquake crumble it. Let the fires rage. Let it burn to fuckin ash then let the waters rise and submerge this whole, rat-infested place.
Monty: No. No, fuck you, Montgomery Brogan. You had it all and then you threw it away, you dumb fuck!
(He takes a breath and tries to rub away the words.)
-- Monty, 25th Hour
28.3.05
The Story of a True Capitalist
I came across this story as I was scanning the news after my spring break, and I could not resist imparting this little gem. On a different note, I'm starting to feel like my cute little Aunt who e-mails everybody all those chain letters or vaguely amusing websites with reckless abandon... maybe I am my aunt, isn't that a scary thought.
14.3.05
But where's the edge?
I'm not sure how many people are aware of the various internet trends that pulse through the system from time to time like a general and omnipresent malaise. While most people seem content to live meaningful lives that don't involve netcode and the semantic differences between a white hat cracker and a black hat hacker, there is also a whole other online world which can appear just as vibrantly alive despite its one's and zero's.
Today I bring you a bit of a story from the other side... (cue crazy temporal vortex effect sound bite)
Ever since the adoption of the internet, there have been those who wanted to use its broad demographic reach commercially. It began with random American online pornographers seeking to generate advertising revenue through dozens of click-throughs and grainy twenty second videos, but with the advent of automated HTML programming and cheap digital cameras more and more people tried to get into the (highly profitable) action. East Coast American women would grab a camera and put out a site earning money from American subscribers hungry to make a personal and sexual (and most importantly anonymous and safe) connection with another, while European pornographers would take advantage of the economic and legal differences and compete with the established Silicon Valley brands in putting out (more or less) quality porn for profit.
Meanwhile, spammers were losing their profits as their sites became lost in a sea of metatext competition, so they developed trojans to take control of unsuspecting computers across the world (mostly academic and corporate machines who had large bandwidth and relatively little personal ownership) and use those computers to distribute large quantities of spam advertising their porn sites to the ever growing amount of e-mail accounts. This in turn generated other profits, as spammers sold lists of valid e-mails (which were found using zombies searching webpages and Usenet), collections of compromised computers (or zombies; collectively known as botnets), and superior hacking programs, as well as creating off-shore ISP's in West Africa and Indochina that could host a plethora of spurious originating spam accounts without fear of legal ramification.
As the industry grew, it turned from just advertising for porn and invested in other popular areas of business - like medicine (viagra), debt counselling, credit cards, and other areas that can generate easy cash. This attracted more concerted organizations to get in on the money, and East European and Asian crime syndicates began using technology and spoofing to generate easy cash to support their activities, often hiring freelance Western hackers to develop software and run the operations. This led, among other things, to blatant identity theft from unsecured web-pages and stores of personal information held by corporate, government, and academic entities (often involved with insurance and payments), as well as the infamous Nigerian 419 scams that signified the '90's and sometimes ended in outright hostage taking and ransom.
Spam blossomed, and users turned to each other and their ISP's to produce anti-spam software that would limit the excess. This software would reject certain geographical IP strings, as well as certain commonly spammed words like "mortgage" in the subject, and was eventually incorporated into most mainstream e-mail services. Also, the commonly used HTML trick known as the "pop-up" that also generated so much click-through advertising money was being stopped by new and innovative software that was developed by the community to combat the increase in irritating webpages, and was incorporated into most browsers. Facing a loss of profitability in their activities, spammers turned to other programs that would search the internet for unsuspecting people that could afford to lose a bit of cash.
One such program is google. The advent of google and its immense (and for the most part vastly under-utilised) power led to a general public acceptance of the service. Millions of people used the program everyday, and "googling it" entered the public vocabulary, topping lists by various media sources as the top new vocabulary of the year after it was introduced. Suddenly achieving top ranking was not merely a matter of including as much meta-text as possible in your site, but in getting yourself linked to and talked about. The bubble has popped, but creativity still abounds: dozens of ideas surface for how to do this. Virus marketing occurs, catch-phrasing, site-chains, what amounts to search engine bribery, all sorts of things. However, much of this occured below the public's eye, away from its notice. Their only interaction was that first page of Google results (quickly licensed to most other search engines, ever used Yahoo? not lately).
With the introduction of blogging, this changed. Services like Livejournal and Blogger hosted personal sites for budding teens to explore their inner angst in front of millions of anonymous strangers (and if voyeurism becomes a more common activity in a few years, don't be surprised). After a few months of happy posturing, black hats began to take notice. Each site represented a tiny, mostly unregulated, percentage of google's page rank system. Combined with an anonymous commenting system common to most blogging services, and often HTML support, these unsuspecting teens became the target of a concentrated exploitation scheme. Scammers would go through these quiet websites one by one adding their advertising to be displayed below the latest terrible news from Pleasantville, and this would be found by the spidery Google bots that go to all sites on the internet finding links and catalogueing the results. And they would add up.
Suddenly strange sites were being found by Google. After some serious consideration this activity was found to be the cause (or at least one of them). Some automated software was developed, but it was not very effective. After a year, the international commission responsable for managing the internet created a new HTML tag called 'rel="nofollow"' that would tell the bots to not count the contents for ranking, and most blogger services have placed those tags around any publicly accessible sections. However, the effect of this new tag is yet to be seen. A little while ago, some bloggers decided to fight back. They have started an anti-gambling spam campaign that is working to ruin the efforts of gambling sites to promote their websites at the expense of the spammers. By voluntarily placing the link online poker on their webpage, the Google bots would associate the wikipedia page with the term "Online poker" and send aspiring poker players there, easily ruining the efforts of the gambling sites. The efforts have already been felt, the page is already ranked third in Google's list of terms regarding "online poker". Obviously, remarks to this somewhat controversial response have been mixed. Clearly, this story still has a few more chapters before it is finished, but it is safe to say that the effect the blogging community has had against the bloggers has been chilling. In an environment where the vast majority of web-surfers will only check the first few results of a query, driving sites from those all-important positions could serve as a powerful problem for the profit hungry spammers. Or it could be totally ignored. And it is all up to you, the consumer...
Come back next time for another exciting story from the online campfire - where spooky nerdiness comes to life (cue temporal vortex but this time mixed with a series theme with a nice C major chord at the end)
Today I bring you a bit of a story from the other side... (cue crazy temporal vortex effect sound bite)
Ever since the adoption of the internet, there have been those who wanted to use its broad demographic reach commercially. It began with random American online pornographers seeking to generate advertising revenue through dozens of click-throughs and grainy twenty second videos, but with the advent of automated HTML programming and cheap digital cameras more and more people tried to get into the (highly profitable) action. East Coast American women would grab a camera and put out a site earning money from American subscribers hungry to make a personal and sexual (and most importantly anonymous and safe) connection with another, while European pornographers would take advantage of the economic and legal differences and compete with the established Silicon Valley brands in putting out (more or less) quality porn for profit.
Meanwhile, spammers were losing their profits as their sites became lost in a sea of metatext competition, so they developed trojans to take control of unsuspecting computers across the world (mostly academic and corporate machines who had large bandwidth and relatively little personal ownership) and use those computers to distribute large quantities of spam advertising their porn sites to the ever growing amount of e-mail accounts. This in turn generated other profits, as spammers sold lists of valid e-mails (which were found using zombies searching webpages and Usenet), collections of compromised computers (or zombies; collectively known as botnets), and superior hacking programs, as well as creating off-shore ISP's in West Africa and Indochina that could host a plethora of spurious originating spam accounts without fear of legal ramification.
As the industry grew, it turned from just advertising for porn and invested in other popular areas of business - like medicine (viagra), debt counselling, credit cards, and other areas that can generate easy cash. This attracted more concerted organizations to get in on the money, and East European and Asian crime syndicates began using technology and spoofing to generate easy cash to support their activities, often hiring freelance Western hackers to develop software and run the operations. This led, among other things, to blatant identity theft from unsecured web-pages and stores of personal information held by corporate, government, and academic entities (often involved with insurance and payments), as well as the infamous Nigerian 419 scams that signified the '90's and sometimes ended in outright hostage taking and ransom.
Spam blossomed, and users turned to each other and their ISP's to produce anti-spam software that would limit the excess. This software would reject certain geographical IP strings, as well as certain commonly spammed words like "mortgage" in the subject, and was eventually incorporated into most mainstream e-mail services. Also, the commonly used HTML trick known as the "pop-up" that also generated so much click-through advertising money was being stopped by new and innovative software that was developed by the community to combat the increase in irritating webpages, and was incorporated into most browsers. Facing a loss of profitability in their activities, spammers turned to other programs that would search the internet for unsuspecting people that could afford to lose a bit of cash.
One such program is google. The advent of google and its immense (and for the most part vastly under-utilised) power led to a general public acceptance of the service. Millions of people used the program everyday, and "googling it" entered the public vocabulary, topping lists by various media sources as the top new vocabulary of the year after it was introduced. Suddenly achieving top ranking was not merely a matter of including as much meta-text as possible in your site, but in getting yourself linked to and talked about. The bubble has popped, but creativity still abounds: dozens of ideas surface for how to do this. Virus marketing occurs, catch-phrasing, site-chains, what amounts to search engine bribery, all sorts of things. However, much of this occured below the public's eye, away from its notice. Their only interaction was that first page of Google results (quickly licensed to most other search engines, ever used Yahoo? not lately).
With the introduction of blogging, this changed. Services like Livejournal and Blogger hosted personal sites for budding teens to explore their inner angst in front of millions of anonymous strangers (and if voyeurism becomes a more common activity in a few years, don't be surprised). After a few months of happy posturing, black hats began to take notice. Each site represented a tiny, mostly unregulated, percentage of google's page rank system. Combined with an anonymous commenting system common to most blogging services, and often HTML support, these unsuspecting teens became the target of a concentrated exploitation scheme. Scammers would go through these quiet websites one by one adding their advertising to be displayed below the latest terrible news from Pleasantville, and this would be found by the spidery Google bots that go to all sites on the internet finding links and catalogueing the results. And they would add up.
Suddenly strange sites were being found by Google. After some serious consideration this activity was found to be the cause (or at least one of them). Some automated software was developed, but it was not very effective. After a year, the international commission responsable for managing the internet created a new HTML tag called 'rel="nofollow"' that would tell the bots to not count the contents for ranking, and most blogger services have placed those tags around any publicly accessible sections. However, the effect of this new tag is yet to be seen. A little while ago, some bloggers decided to fight back. They have started an anti-gambling spam campaign that is working to ruin the efforts of gambling sites to promote their websites at the expense of the spammers. By voluntarily placing the link online poker on their webpage, the Google bots would associate the wikipedia page with the term "Online poker" and send aspiring poker players there, easily ruining the efforts of the gambling sites. The efforts have already been felt, the page is already ranked third in Google's list of terms regarding "online poker". Obviously, remarks to this somewhat controversial response have been mixed. Clearly, this story still has a few more chapters before it is finished, but it is safe to say that the effect the blogging community has had against the bloggers has been chilling. In an environment where the vast majority of web-surfers will only check the first few results of a query, driving sites from those all-important positions could serve as a powerful problem for the profit hungry spammers. Or it could be totally ignored. And it is all up to you, the consumer...
Come back next time for another exciting story from the online campfire - where spooky nerdiness comes to life (cue temporal vortex but this time mixed with a series theme with a nice C major chord at the end)
28.2.05
Kentucky Is Not Prepared For The Zombie Holocaust
I have to admit that sometimes I run across news articles that just leave me speechless and desperately needing to leave the States. The following is a set of excerpts from an online article from a Kentucky-based local TV station:
["My story is based on fiction," said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. "It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies."]
[Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.]
[On Thursday, a judge raised Poole's bond from one to five thousand dollars after prosecutors requested it, citing the seriousness of the charge.]
[Poole is being held at the Clark County Detention Center.]
24.2.05
Me, Myself, and Liberal Theory
I wrote this up for a debate and discussion thread on personal beliefs on a forum I frequent. The idea was to answer a series of topic prompts, and I figured I would crosspost it here. Oh, and a friend just came in and said it smelled like baseball season and that turned him on. I thought that might be important too.
Crime & Violence :: I believe in a system that focuses on inmate rehabilitation and reintroduction into society. I view criminal tendencies as a disease that should be cured, and the current system seems to be doing exactly the opposite. Vengeance-oriented criminal justice only perpetuates the cycle, and no one is helped. What is the point of spending millions of dollars on prisons if they just forestall the problem? I do not support the death penalty, though I do believe that less humane solutions (mindwipe, hypnotic suggestion) are appropriate when rehabilitation is impossible. I do not think that this can be determined simply from the nature of the crime. The current system desparately needs a revamping, and punitive sentences need to be done away with, for they are absolutely immoral. If you cannot rehabilitate them within a normal sentence then there is no reason to believe imprisoning them longer will help.
Taxes :: The current tax system is far too complex to continue. It needs to be simplified, if only to return the faith of the citizenry in the government. However, it could be done successfully in many ways. Overall, several groups need to work it over to create a system that encourages economic growth without abandoning the poor. I believe that as the wealthy benefit the most from our society they are also the most fiscally responsible, and this is not punishment for being rich but a sense of fairness and equality that needs to be returned to our society. I believe that estate taxes should be done away with and general taxes should be raised in compensation. I believe that both income and sales taxes are important parts of our tax system, but income tax more so.
Social Security :: Social welfare is a highly important part of our society. Doing away with it is incredibly dangerous both in terms of economic growth and general societal welfare. Privatization of social security is ridiculously stupid, you may as well not have it all if you privatize it. I believe social security can be maintained with a small degree of changes, principally a retraction of excessive medical benefits that enables old people to spend thousands of public dollars in order to perpetuate their self-aggrandizement. Our society needs to remember how to age gracefully, and paying to over-medicate oldsters is the exact opposite of that.
Censorship, the FCC, and Freedom of Speech :: Current levels of censorship are far in excess of what should occur. While I agree that media outlets need to adequately inform viewers of the degrees of violence, sex, or language extant in their productions, this can be better done via optional protective channels rather than censoring all media. However, I would agree with the courts that there are some types of speech which the state has a responsibility to prohibit, namely "fighting words" and unneccesarily offensive speech in certain mediums (like someone promoting the lynching of blacks in front of an MLK march, or screaming obscenities at children).
The Border :: Anyone should have the opportunity to gain American citizenship, and visas should be easier to get also. However, I believe that illegal border crossing should be prohibited, preferably in a nonviolent way. States have a right to police their borders.
Abortion :: Women have a right to choose. There is no more ethical reason to prohibit abortions than to prohibit any other kind of surgery. It is their body, their life, the state has no place in it. The anti-abortion rationale is horribly immoral, and stems from crappy religious nonsense. A fetus is not a human any more than a cheek swab is. Abortions should be allowed until the fetus can be assured a healthy life with the merest of medical attention, this means up to a few weeks prior to birth. Before you start going off about baby killing remember that delivering a child into the arms of a poor single mother with no way to support it is only guaranteeing it a miserable existence.
The Foreign Policy :: The US needs to become far more multilateral, and go back to supporting the UN. Let the US fight for all of its economic and political extras just like the rest of the world does, one vote at a time. The US has no right to impose its will on the rest of the world unilaterally, but it has a responsibility to help others in need. If the UN persists in shutting down US interests then become more isolationistic, creating wars is just going to bite us in the ass.
Poverty and Welfare :: Poverty is the inevitable result of capitalism. Taxation and welfare is the only just response so long as we continue using a system which profits on the backs of the poor and disenfranchised. While doing away with poverty is impossible, I believe that putting money into welfare systems will help generate growth far more so than corporate tax breaks and lowering the minimum wage. We need to stop letting our government only respond to corporate interests.
Birth Control :: The state has no place forcing families to have children or to abort them. On the other hand, overpopulation is a real concern. We need to promote a stable population through education and taxation if neccessary. Forcing it would never work.
Gun Laws :: I don't have a problem with people using guns. I do have a problem with people using guns to commit crimes and terrorize the community. Until someone makes a gun that can only shoot people legally I'm going to support gun laws. There is no reason to allow citizens to own assault shotguns or whathaveyou just because they think it's fun to play with, just like there is no reason to allow people to commit murder just because they think it's fun to do. Ban the private ownership of guns and replace them with effective nonlethal handguns and strictly monitored shooting-ranges and hunting preserves.
The War on Drugs :: Legalize and normalize. The war on drugs will never ever work. Furthermore, there seems to be little reason to ban most of these drugs than religious puritanism. If you legalize the private use of these drugs (not in public areas) as well as monitored distribution and education then the criminal elements will disperse and the problems with drugs will go away. If drugs were sold in servings then overdosing would also subside.
Religion :: I hate the stuff. If it weren't for my beliefs in the importance of free speech I would ban all forms of organized religion because I see it as being so destructive to a healthy free society. However, I am willing to tolerate their existence so long as they stay out of the government and stop recieving all those tax breaks and government funding for "faith-based initiatives" (read: organized conversion attempts). In other news I'm an antitheist.
Gay Marriage / Homosexuals :: The concept of marriage should be abandoned and replaced with civil unions that are open to everybody. Marriage is a purely religious phenomenon that has no place in law. Civil unions should not be limited by race, sexual orientation, or the number of those included. Only informed legal consent. The rights engendered by that union should be diminished, however, and bestowed upon all people regardless of marital status.
Animal Rights :: As the most developed species on this planet we have an ethical responsibilty to care for less developed species. This is no different from an adult caring for a child. Additionally, there is the matter of the environmental damages accrued by special extinction, which will eventually cause us significant problems. While I can accept the slaughter of animals in order to feed humans, I believe vegetarianism is the better answer, both ecologically and morally, and the state should support this opinion. Finally, said slaughter needs to be done in far more humane conditions than that now, and the state needs to ensure that this occurs.
The War on Terror :: This war is wrong on so many levels, it is hard to even know where to begin. There appears to be little ethical or rational reason to have begun this war in Iraq in the first place. At this point I believe that the best course is to finish what we have begun, and then take a long hard look at the vast number of mistakes made along the way, specifically regarding our policies of unilateralism and misinforming the citizenry. I believe that the current administration should be impeached for their misconduct regarding this war.
Me :: I consider myself liberal.
Crime & Violence :: I believe in a system that focuses on inmate rehabilitation and reintroduction into society. I view criminal tendencies as a disease that should be cured, and the current system seems to be doing exactly the opposite. Vengeance-oriented criminal justice only perpetuates the cycle, and no one is helped. What is the point of spending millions of dollars on prisons if they just forestall the problem? I do not support the death penalty, though I do believe that less humane solutions (mindwipe, hypnotic suggestion) are appropriate when rehabilitation is impossible. I do not think that this can be determined simply from the nature of the crime. The current system desparately needs a revamping, and punitive sentences need to be done away with, for they are absolutely immoral. If you cannot rehabilitate them within a normal sentence then there is no reason to believe imprisoning them longer will help.
Taxes :: The current tax system is far too complex to continue. It needs to be simplified, if only to return the faith of the citizenry in the government. However, it could be done successfully in many ways. Overall, several groups need to work it over to create a system that encourages economic growth without abandoning the poor. I believe that as the wealthy benefit the most from our society they are also the most fiscally responsible, and this is not punishment for being rich but a sense of fairness and equality that needs to be returned to our society. I believe that estate taxes should be done away with and general taxes should be raised in compensation. I believe that both income and sales taxes are important parts of our tax system, but income tax more so.
Social Security :: Social welfare is a highly important part of our society. Doing away with it is incredibly dangerous both in terms of economic growth and general societal welfare. Privatization of social security is ridiculously stupid, you may as well not have it all if you privatize it. I believe social security can be maintained with a small degree of changes, principally a retraction of excessive medical benefits that enables old people to spend thousands of public dollars in order to perpetuate their self-aggrandizement. Our society needs to remember how to age gracefully, and paying to over-medicate oldsters is the exact opposite of that.
Censorship, the FCC, and Freedom of Speech :: Current levels of censorship are far in excess of what should occur. While I agree that media outlets need to adequately inform viewers of the degrees of violence, sex, or language extant in their productions, this can be better done via optional protective channels rather than censoring all media. However, I would agree with the courts that there are some types of speech which the state has a responsibility to prohibit, namely "fighting words" and unneccesarily offensive speech in certain mediums (like someone promoting the lynching of blacks in front of an MLK march, or screaming obscenities at children).
The Border :: Anyone should have the opportunity to gain American citizenship, and visas should be easier to get also. However, I believe that illegal border crossing should be prohibited, preferably in a nonviolent way. States have a right to police their borders.
Abortion :: Women have a right to choose. There is no more ethical reason to prohibit abortions than to prohibit any other kind of surgery. It is their body, their life, the state has no place in it. The anti-abortion rationale is horribly immoral, and stems from crappy religious nonsense. A fetus is not a human any more than a cheek swab is. Abortions should be allowed until the fetus can be assured a healthy life with the merest of medical attention, this means up to a few weeks prior to birth. Before you start going off about baby killing remember that delivering a child into the arms of a poor single mother with no way to support it is only guaranteeing it a miserable existence.
The Foreign Policy :: The US needs to become far more multilateral, and go back to supporting the UN. Let the US fight for all of its economic and political extras just like the rest of the world does, one vote at a time. The US has no right to impose its will on the rest of the world unilaterally, but it has a responsibility to help others in need. If the UN persists in shutting down US interests then become more isolationistic, creating wars is just going to bite us in the ass.
Poverty and Welfare :: Poverty is the inevitable result of capitalism. Taxation and welfare is the only just response so long as we continue using a system which profits on the backs of the poor and disenfranchised. While doing away with poverty is impossible, I believe that putting money into welfare systems will help generate growth far more so than corporate tax breaks and lowering the minimum wage. We need to stop letting our government only respond to corporate interests.
Birth Control :: The state has no place forcing families to have children or to abort them. On the other hand, overpopulation is a real concern. We need to promote a stable population through education and taxation if neccessary. Forcing it would never work.
Gun Laws :: I don't have a problem with people using guns. I do have a problem with people using guns to commit crimes and terrorize the community. Until someone makes a gun that can only shoot people legally I'm going to support gun laws. There is no reason to allow citizens to own assault shotguns or whathaveyou just because they think it's fun to play with, just like there is no reason to allow people to commit murder just because they think it's fun to do. Ban the private ownership of guns and replace them with effective nonlethal handguns and strictly monitored shooting-ranges and hunting preserves.
The War on Drugs :: Legalize and normalize. The war on drugs will never ever work. Furthermore, there seems to be little reason to ban most of these drugs than religious puritanism. If you legalize the private use of these drugs (not in public areas) as well as monitored distribution and education then the criminal elements will disperse and the problems with drugs will go away. If drugs were sold in servings then overdosing would also subside.
Religion :: I hate the stuff. If it weren't for my beliefs in the importance of free speech I would ban all forms of organized religion because I see it as being so destructive to a healthy free society. However, I am willing to tolerate their existence so long as they stay out of the government and stop recieving all those tax breaks and government funding for "faith-based initiatives" (read: organized conversion attempts). In other news I'm an antitheist.
Gay Marriage / Homosexuals :: The concept of marriage should be abandoned and replaced with civil unions that are open to everybody. Marriage is a purely religious phenomenon that has no place in law. Civil unions should not be limited by race, sexual orientation, or the number of those included. Only informed legal consent. The rights engendered by that union should be diminished, however, and bestowed upon all people regardless of marital status.
Animal Rights :: As the most developed species on this planet we have an ethical responsibilty to care for less developed species. This is no different from an adult caring for a child. Additionally, there is the matter of the environmental damages accrued by special extinction, which will eventually cause us significant problems. While I can accept the slaughter of animals in order to feed humans, I believe vegetarianism is the better answer, both ecologically and morally, and the state should support this opinion. Finally, said slaughter needs to be done in far more humane conditions than that now, and the state needs to ensure that this occurs.
The War on Terror :: This war is wrong on so many levels, it is hard to even know where to begin. There appears to be little ethical or rational reason to have begun this war in Iraq in the first place. At this point I believe that the best course is to finish what we have begun, and then take a long hard look at the vast number of mistakes made along the way, specifically regarding our policies of unilateralism and misinforming the citizenry. I believe that the current administration should be impeached for their misconduct regarding this war.
Me :: I consider myself liberal.
22.2.05
Free Mojtaba and Arash Day
They said all I had to do was write "Free Mojtaba and Arash Day", so I figured I'd do a little extra.
I'm still waiting for my cookie.
I'm still waiting for my cookie.
18.2.05
Pot Kettle Black
I dunno if anyone has been following the story of the crazy mormon woman who sued two teenagers for leaving her cookies on her doorstep, but it sounds like it got a happy ending despite the court decision. For those of you not in the right cookie gossip circles the story was that these two junior mormon girls decided to bake a bunch of cookies for their neighbors and then deliver them at about 10:30 at night. They delivered them to about 8 people, as well as leaving one on her doorstep with a note "Love, The T & L Club" (their initials). While the other neighbors enjoyed delicious cookies the crazy woman decided that she was being attacked by the same neighbors who had attacked her 15 years prior, and called the police. She then went to the hospital in the morning because she thought she had a heart attack and racked up a bunch of bills, of which $900 was not covered by insurance. She then demanded compensation from the girls' families. The families offered to pay for the medical bills not covered by insurance so long as the woman signed a litigation waiver and provided proof of medical fees (on the advice of their lawyer). She declined and proceeded to take them to court "to teach them a lesson" and was awarded the $900 in question, which did not include the nearly $3000 in punitive damages she had asked for. It was quite a depressing story when I first heard about it, but apparently there is a bit of good in the world. People throughout their community and the rest of the nation have been calling their house non-stop in order to tell them what they think of her "lesson", as well as sending her boxes of cookie crumbs and the like. Finally she changed her number and has apparently been shunned by several members of her town. She blames the uproar on the girls for talking about the case and creating popular support, and hopes that people will stop leaving lovely little messages like "You are what is wrong with society." In other news the girls' families are getting a restraining order on Young's family for making harassing phone calls to their phones. The irony of which makes my mind explode. Talk about a litigious society.
2.2.05
Revival
Well, while this blog was originally created to enable me to expound upon my various opinions of this and that, I've decided to open it up to other types of writing just to get a bit more use out of it, as well as to have somewhere to publish stuff. For starters is a poem I wrote today while I should have been studying for a political science midterm. It's not that great, but then I've never been that great a poet:
untitled
I realized I lost today; but not yet, not yet.
I saw a little death today; but not yet, not yet.
I watched a dream collide today; but not yet, not yet.
I felt a heart collapse today; but not yet, not yet.
I held a shell together today; but not yet, not yet.
I tasted a sea of tears today; but not yet, not yet.
I could only fail a friend today; but not yet, not yet.
For today, tommorow only got a little closer.
untitled
I realized I lost today; but not yet, not yet.
I saw a little death today; but not yet, not yet.
I watched a dream collide today; but not yet, not yet.
I felt a heart collapse today; but not yet, not yet.
I held a shell together today; but not yet, not yet.
I tasted a sea of tears today; but not yet, not yet.
I could only fail a friend today; but not yet, not yet.
For today, tommorow only got a little closer.
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