Twitter is sometimes too surreal:
That just flashed by on my screen. This is what’s happened, apparently (from Bleeding Cool, more at link):
Details are sketchy, but it appears that one person wearing a Harry Potter shirt was stabbed in the face with a pen because they refused to swap seats, during a Marvel Studios presentation. A stretcher was needed and blood was spilled.
Wasn’t I just grumbling to myself that I wish I’d gone to SDCC this year again? Too much nerdrage for my blood.
On the very same day that Blizzard Entertainment announced that in several months they would require all “message board” posters to post under “real names” as covered by Slashdot here, we see a news report that the same ‘real name’ system in-game has already been proven easy to crack and exploit real names.
On a lark, I stuck the names of various Blizzard executives into Google. Without any effort, I found the political contribution history and satellite photos of their various private homes online. I now know how much one of the Blizzard founders paid for their rather nice family residence, and know which schools their children go to. They have a nice swimming pool out back.
How easy to find? Trivial. Click here, for example. A major figure from Blizzard Entertainment lives somewhere on that photo, but I won’t say who or where exactly. All that from a trivial public records search, and all done in less than two minutes. Why does Blizzard want to expose all their players this way?
If this goes through, the moment a single player is hurt “in real life” because of it, I can pretty much guarantee that some zealous fan will post all the information I didn’t here about basically all the Blizzard staff in payback. Who wins if this goes through? More proof this is a bad idea: video game fanatic stabs other player in real life after hunting them. Blizzard is stupidly playing with fire here.
Next morning update:
Apparently, any mention of this USA Today story is being excised from the Warcraft forums, that confirms Blizzard now has some sort of contracted financial deal to integrate Battle.net into Facebook.
The main complaint thread on Warcraft is now 21,000+ posts long, with duplicates and repostings (and who knows what else) being trimmed off. It’s over 1,000 pages long. There are similar threads in all the major non-English language Warcraft threads. I suppose that’s what happens when you piss off 12,000,000 players, and let the media dictate the discussion. It’s also now hit Facebook.
Amazing failure of management.
Genesis 1:3: At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.
Yeah, you’ve heard of cheezburger, and you has had it. But I Can Haz Cheezburger is not when cats evolved into ruling mankind — the history of the Internet and cats, as of 2010, is ten years old. It all began way back in the late 1990s, but nobody knows for sure exactly when. We don’t know when the first Internet Cat was made, but we know the first one known by man:
Example flyer posted in cat ghettos.
At some point in the 1990s, Bay Fly Magazine from Portland, Oregon printed that, spreading religious intolerance of cats like a demented anti-kitten Chick Tract. Someone scanned the flyer, and began sending it around in e-mail when the World Wide Web was still just a deformed fugly beast populated by Blink Tags that dwelled in the hearts of the Mosaic Web Browser. It wouldn’t be the last time people would call for the mass execution of kittens at human hands. It wasn’t long before we began to enslave and grow Bonsai Kittens in the year 2000.
Grown at MIT, man's first attempt to understand cats.
Next came the Punk Kittens on Rathergood, who began to preach their new religion free of man’s bottling influence:
Preaching through music.
But we weren’t done with the kittens yet, and that old hate from the 1990s was coming back in full force. Later in 2002, the people at Fark.com stopped their persecution and intolerance toward North Carolina’s higher education system (Duke sucks) long enough to turn their bigotry on kittens and human sexual expression, when this old hateful language resurfaced, combined with Japanese religious iconography.
The dark days of Japan's Kitten Purge, before the coming of Maru.
At some time in 2005, 4chan began the high holy day of Caturday, which then then got spread onto Livejournal, and finally had it’s own Caturday Livejournal group in 2006.
Caturday, before open religious expression was possible.
At this point, Caturday was still underground. You had to know a cat, be on 4chan, or know someone who knew someone. That all changed for the world on the day that Happycat was discovered, sometime around 2004. While Caturday was an underground religion, the world was about to get the Good Word, because the kitty messiah had been busy out wandering the desert that is Something Awful from 2003 onwards, unknown by the wider world. Behold, Happy Cat.
He was happy.
Then this happened, and Happycat came down from the mountain bearing the words of Ceiling Cat…
At last, thanks to his message, humans paid attention to the Internets.
Icanhascheezburger.com has registered in January, 2007, and the rest was history. But lest anyone ever forget, Icanhascheezburger.com is just a site. The Happycat was the Moses of the Internet Cat. Icanhascheezburger.com and their empire of related web sites, while nice, are like the Mormons of the Cat World: later generations that just keep coming.
Happycat–his name was Frank, before he took on the role of a prophet–passed away in 2007 and returned to Ceiling Cat, but his teachings remain, and if you look here you can see that the disciples of Happycat are legion, and humans are learning their secret gnostic tongue.
The word of Ceiling Cat has even spread to the East, under the Church of Maru in Asia.
Here’s a documentary filmed in 2010 on the history of the Internet, sung as a kitty devotional by Joel at Rathergood, who created the Punk Kittens:
And there, we see, is ten years of the scientific and religious evolution of cats online.
They see me rollin
If you’re worried about someone reading your e-mail, here are some basic steps to get around the problem. You should do all of these things. They’re not that hard and are a completely reasonable response to any fears or concerns about your online privacy. What would it truly take? What do you have to do to keep the government out of your e-mail?
This is what it takes to keep them out.
If your hardware security can't stop this guy, you fail.
Passwords:
You thought I was going to skip this section, didn't you?
Secret anagram for "Central Intelligence Agency".
Your social practices:
See? Totally reasonable, and that’s what it truly takes, but I may have missed something else that could be a security hole. The safest bet is to avoid anything that runs on electricity.
Without a doubt, this is one of the singularly most awkward web advertisements I’ve yet seen. The scrolling text is supposed to look like a 1995-era AOL chat room. The first line is “How long u been Mormon??” It then scrolls into this as you’re watching the chat unfold:
I mean, it’s a step removed from lolcats… I can haz salvation?
Wikileaks has disclosed it all: http://collateralmurder.com/, that I talked about last month.
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
The video, Wikileaks says, was taken from a US Apache helicopter on July 2, 2007, in Baghdad, which shows the killing of civilians and Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying since then to get the video released without luck, but Wikileaks had it leaked to them in an encrypted format, and had it decrypted. Now it’s literally all over the Internet.
Let’s see how long it takes the national US news media to really chase this down. Or, if they do… and how long until the Wikileaks staff are targeted now?
I was just assaulted by this web advertisement, which also reminded me to turn on my various Ad Blocker Tools for Firefox.
Did they really intend to have a scary looking man peering at me? This had the net effect of making me not want to go back to school, if it would involve him in any capacity.
While reading a gaming news site I stumbled across this so-called “advertisement”. Seriously, what?
For the probably whole lot of you that have no idea what Wikileaks is, read this.
OK, done? Next read this:
I just received an email from Wikileaks editor Julian Assange that’s pretty wild. It accuses the U.S. government of deliberately trying to take down the whistle-blower site PDF two years ago.
As proof, Wikileaks has posted a 32-page classified document PDF from the Department of Defense Intelligence Analysis program, dated March 2008, which details “the counterintelligence threat posed to the US Army by the Wikileaks.org Web site.” It reads:
“The possibility that a current employee or mole within DoD or elsewhere in the US government is providing sensitive information or classified information to Wikileaks.org cannot be ruled out. Wikileaks.org claims that the ‘leakers’ or ‘whistleblowers’ of sensitive or classified DoD documents are former US government employees.”
The document, attributed to the Army Counterintelligence Center and titled “Wikileaks.org — An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups?”, cited the leaking of classified Army materials as the chief reason Wikileaks is harmful to national security.
Basically, Wikileaks–I used to read it sometimes, but couldn’t make heads or tails of half the things I was looking at–became a massive clearinghouse of all sorts of leaked, useful information. It got a foreign bank to sue them in the United States for some nonsense of impeding trade, which was finally thrown out in court after the the bank was humiliated. If I recall right, Wikileaks just kept leaking their stuff right out during trial, so they gave up. With this, the government under Bush’s administration actually looked into ways to take them down. Well, tonight it looks like, on top of the above mentioned news, they’ve apparently really pissed off the US intel orginization this time–I’ve never seen commentary like this from them before. From their twitter:
WikiLeaks is currently under an aggressive US and Icelandic surveillance operation. Following/photographing/filming/detaining. about 1 hours ago
If anything happens to us, you know why: it is our Apr 5 film. And you know who is responsible. about 1 hours ago
Two under State Dep diplomatic cover followed our editor from Iceland to http://skup.no on Thursday. about 1 hours ago
One related person was detained for 22 hours. Computer’s seized.That’s http://www.skup.no 44 minutes ago
We know our possession of the decrypted airstrike video is now being discussed at the highest levels of US command. 32 minutes ago
If you know more about the operations against us, contact https://secure.wikileaks.org/ 31 minutes ago
We have been shown secret photos of our production meetings and been asked specific questions during detention related to the airstrike. 27 minutes ago
We have airline records of the State Dep/CIA tails. Don’t think you can get away with it. You cannot. This is WikiLeaks. 23 minutes ago
Even when the heat is on, someone leaks them CIA airline records from the investigation? Yes, someone will call bullshit, but they do I think have a reputation for being bullshit-free. Looks like the Internet has finally caught up with the Old World of governments, and the governments are pissed they can’t control the Internet. Too bad.
More at: http://www.wikileaks.org and http://twitter.com/wikileaks.
Update: apparently, it’s got something to do with this…
Original Dutch news article: Amerikaanse autoriteiten pakken Wikileaks aan
Translated on InfoWars (if you hate Alex Jones, here’s the Google translation): WikiLeaks Monitored by U.S., Icelandic Authorities Over Pentagon Murder Video
It looks like Wikileaks may have evidence of some sort of murder carried out by the US military or possibly the CIA (sorry for the bad translation):
On April 5 to Wikileaks at a meeting of the National Press Club in Washington a video showing an attack by the U.S. Air Force. It would involve a murder carried out by the Pentagon. The staff of the site also draw on information from CIA aircraft have as supporting evidence.
If that’s true, it implies that the airstrike–I have no idea what airstrike this is about–violated either domestic or international law and/or was an outright murder versus a legal military action. If their claims of being detained and followed overseas by United States officials and the CIA are true, then they’ve definitely got their hands on something the State Department, Pentagon or CIA don’t want out there. I wonder what?
Is this about the Kunduz airstrike in Afghanistan from September 4, 2009, when a US F-15 caused the deaths of dozens of civilians? Or is it about, as rumored online, an assassination of journalists by the military that was recorded–which Wikileaks alluded to on February 20th, 2010?
Finally cracked the encryption to US military video in which journalists, among others, are shot. Thanks to all who donated $/CPUs.
More here on Technorati: Is WikiLeaks.org Being Tailed By Government Ops?
April 5, 2010 update:
Wikileaks has disclosed it all: http://collateralmurder.com/
WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.
Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
So is it just me, or is everyone else sick and tired of the constant acai berry advertisements featuring this girl’s face? I have no idea what she’s originally from–is this a clip from an actual television show? A film? Something else? Who is she?
Her face at this point is literally advertising everything. Here she is on Facebook hawking PS3s:
I’ve seen that same image photoshopped any number of times into any number of advertisements (but usually for those damn berries) on any number of sites that feature advertisements. I wonder if she even has any clue that her face is constantly out for everyone to see online.
UPDATE: Thanks to Bernie on my site and Sigma7 over on Livejournal, it’s Mélissa Theuriau, a French news reporter:
Mélissa Theuriau
I still wonder if she has any idea how many things she’s “advertising”.
Four Ways Facebook is Slowly Destroying You | Gunaxin Gadgets
Apparently, Facebook will make you socially retarded, rewire your brain, get you fired/keep you from getting a job, and give you cancer in the end of your suffering. I guess it sucks that there are about 250,000,000 of us world wide on the site. Facebook as the new bubonic plague? Zuckerberginia pestis?
I remember when it was just random people strictly limited to connections from .edu domain names, and it was just the annoying little cousin of TOTALLY AWESOME websites like Friendster.com. Now it’s going to wipe humanity, but I’m sure the dog will outrun the status updates and live.
Banned in China: what the regime doesn’t want its people to see – Telegraph Blogs
In case you had no idea what China bans it’s one billion people from seeing:
More details here, and that’s just the stuff we know about. Even more:
This website is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s an insanely bizarre news hybrid of weird far right, weird far left, and just… odd. I’m probably misreading it because some of it’s over the top, but it reads to me at times like the Weekly World News doing hard political news almost at times:
BATBOY FOUND IN OVAL OFFICE WITH SECRET KENYAN 9/11 FILES!
A random hodgepodge of crap I just clicked into, as a preview: “A little discussion about Revolution and the Declaration of Independance.”
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Quoting the Declaration of Independence? Sure, we’re off to a good start. We could be heading up the crazy train to Wasila, Alaska for a Tea Party, or we could be heading for a rousing and soul-baring discussion of what it means to be American.
The question is not if they are allowed to continue, as they have violated the Constitution for the majority of the last 100 years. There is historical validity to eliminate the government we currently have.
The question, is who will fire the first shot?
I think someone fired up the steam engine on this train. But maybe that’s nothing…
Bow down to your masters, for you are not my countrymen. Lick the hand that gives you scraps, for they are your masters and betters. Bring not your insults or provocations before me, for I will not bow to any man, for I am a Free and Sovereign Individual with no preconceived notion, that any are better than I, or my fellow man.
Wait, what? That’s not Tea Party talk. Did this train derail heading from Wasila to Zion in the fucking Matrix?
If you worship socialism so much I am sure the People’s Republic of Korea has a nice big bowl of oppression warmed up for you to gobble down.
Hey, that’s better! The guy who posted that, “av8r007″–does he write Glenn Beck’s monologues? I think this train was headed for Wasila all along. Maybe it’s right where I’m expecting things to be:
The colonists only fought back after the English marched to disarm the militias at Lexington and Concord. If blood must be shed, it should be clear that the Govt fired the 1st shot. If we start the shooting war we’ll be branded as terrorists and radicals. If the govt shoots 1st we can claim self defence.
Oh hell, apparently it is One Of Those Crazy Discussions, as now scenarios are being bandied about on how to make it look like the United States government is going to incite an armed revolution against Obama. And here I was worried for nothing. Reasonable commentary, right? Far out, Right? Get it? I kill myself.
But, before you think it’s all just “Let’s overthrow the Evil Black President’s Shadow America,” we get discussions about 9/11 Congressional reports being lies; Christian missionaries trapped in Haiti–but only the “posers, pretend Christian wannabees going on exotic vacations and calling it mission work“; and various areas to explore ATS Skunk Works, Secret Societies, New World Order, Space Exploration, Aliens and UFOs, Paranormal Studies, Cryptozoology & Mythical Beasts, and finally a section for simply the hoaxes rather than the real studies and scholarly research (like my above quoted discussion about the merits of freedom versus tyranny).
These guys aren’t just thinking that Obama is a dethawed socialist Manchurian Candidate bred in a 1941 German cloning facility outside of Dusseldorf, AKA Kenya. Hell no–this is like Fox Mulder’s personal online message board.
It’s like a supermarket of awesome.
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