Archive for the ‘not ninja-worthy’ Category

Get Angry, Onion!!

An ordinary onion… raised on anger…

Unemployment Riots (on Sky News)

(autoplay video removed)

.::via -> Steve Quayle’s World

Anti- Biters Campaign

Why are we doing this? There are hundreds of web sites where you can find lyrics to today’s popular songs. In relation, there are very few real-live people who actually transcribe them. Transcribers do this for the sake of sharing their passion for the music. Think of it as a contribution or a public service. No one gets paid to do this, so "fun" is the motivating factor here.

This is not to imply that crediting the "source" means the individual or site "owns" the lyrics. "Crediting" has simply come to identify the individuals who took the time to transcribe and share the result with the world. That’s all.

When individuals come and steal (ie: bite) other people’s lyric transcriptions, then spread them all over cyberspace improperly, it becomes quite annoying. More importantly, it takes the fun out of it. Remove the fun, transcribers will start to disappear. No more transcribers, the lyrics start to disappear. No more lyrics, lyrics sites start to disappear!

So do your part in the battle against lyrics stealing and stop these people from getting a free ride. Send them email and and respectfully tell them you’d like to see them list sources. It’s such a simple thing. Simple as "ABC". SUPPORT The ABC. Recognize!!!

Crowd Surfing in China

^Two years ago, Chinese President Hu Jintao called on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to a€oeassert supremacy over online public opinion, raise the level and study the art of online guidance and actively use new technologies to increase the strength of positive propaganda.a€A

After Hu’s speech, Communist Party officials and the State Council issued an official call for a€oecomrades of good ideological and political character, high capability and familiarity with the Internet to form teams of Web commentators … who can employ methods and language Web users can accept to actively guide online public opinion.a€A

The CCP has hired thousands of freelance Internet propagandists whose job is to infiltrate chat rooms, message boards and comment areas on the Internet posing as ordinary users to voice support for the agenda and interest of the CCP. They praise Chinaa€™s one-party system and condemn anyone who criticizes Chinaa€™s policy on Tibet. They comment aggressively on news reports about Chinaa€™s food-safety problems, relations with Taiwan, suppression of bird-flu and AIDS information, Internet censorship, jailing of dissidents, support of Sudana€™s military in Darfur and other sensitive topics. Comments applaud the Chinese government and slam its critics, all using scripts and lines approved by the party.

The BBC calls these freelance propagandists China’s 50 Cent Party. The Guardian newspaper calls it the 50 Cent Army. (50 Cent isna€™t a rapper in this case, but a reference to the pay: 50 Chinese "cents" per post, which is equivalent to about 7 US cents). Other names include a€oered vestsa€A and the a€oered vanguard.a€A

Some estimates claim that the 50 Cent Army includes a whopping 300,000 people. If thata€™s accurate, China’s freelance propagandists exceed in number the total populations of 47 countries.

Article can be found -> itmanagement.earthweb

Amateur Night at the Apollo

To quote Mr. Sean, who may have unwittingly supplied this link: "this guy probably can’t even sing the vocals part in guitar hero."

Patriot Act

Ever wonder what that term means?

Bush signs Patriot Act into law (above).  Allegedly, no ninjas were present.

SEC. 207. DURATION OF FISA SURVEILLANCE OF NON-UNITED STATES PERSONS WHO ARE AGENTS OF A FOREIGN POWER.

(a) DURATION -

(1) SURVEILLANCE- Section 105(e)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1805(e)(1)) is amended by-

(A) inserting `(A)’ after `except that’; and

(B) inserting before the period the following: `, and (B) an order under this Act for a surveillance targeted against an agent of a foreign power, as defined in section 101(b)(1)(A) may be for the period specified in the application or for 120 days, whichever is less’.

.::Read it -> educate yourself at Epic!

affairs guaranteed?

…"guaranteed" is one of those words that is easily misspelled…
..or misspoken.AA So, when I heard on the radio that this site, ashleymadison.com, was offering "affairs guaranteed" I thought that I had stepped into a culture warp (which turns out not to be entirely untrue).

Ashely Madison’s (that’s the name of the licentious luxury service, apparently, not a pen name for Paris Hilton and no relation to James Woods’ 20 year old chick) whole shtick is that it provides affairs for people who are trapped in relationships that don’t satisfy their carnal and/or emotional, but uh, mostly carnal, needs.AA It functions, I would imagine, as a pairing service that charges a fee, at least from what I understood from the advert.

My Ninja, Please!AA It seems like we should have known it would eventually come to this, with the popularity of craig’s list casual encounters and what have you, but it still seems weird that this would be so normalized.AA OK, I mean, I don’t mean to be puritanical, and I’m generally known to fight against the forces of the sex police in our society, but all I was trying to do was hear the new Lil Wayne single at 3PM on Monday afternoon, like every other 12 year old girl.AA That made me wonder about whether there was something inherently wrong about this… or at least about hearing the surreptitiously (or, not so) suggestive soundbite on the radio.AA I mean… what if I was in the car with my mama?AA I’m not saying my mama in particular, but, some of ya’ll peoples’ mama’s have been known to be all up on craig’s list.

I’m just saying… take it as you will.AA Even click one of the links… if you’re on that sort of grind [ both of the site name links take you different places ].

What was also interesting is, they cover up for their users, too. If that site charges your card for credits purchased, something else like AML Labs will show up on the credit card bill, and they have a whole division dedicated to throwing suspicious spouses off the track of what the charges are for. In essence; they have a division whose whole purpose is to lie for their clientele. [link]

Microsoft Ads Made on a Mac

This is old news, but still hilarious: the audio and video of the recent "I’m A PC" ads that Microsoft put out in response to Apple’s [getting tired] commercials with John Hodgman was DONE ON A MAC. Awesome.

After dumping its $10 million contract with Jerry Seinfeld after just three ads (only two of which even aired) Microsoft has created new ad copy where regular people and a few celebrities say, a€oeIa€™m a PC!a€A One problem with the campaigna€™s credibility: the ad work was created using Macs.

Flickr user LuisDS found that metadata on the creative copy of the a€oestereotyped PC usera€A and other photos appearing on Microsofta€™s a€oeIa€™m a PCa€A website revealed that they were produced using Macs running Adobe Creative Suite 3. One might expect that Microsoft would use Windows PCs running its own Microsoft Expression Studio software, which as the company advertises, a€oetakes your creative possibilities to a new level.a€A

Apparently, neither Windows PCs nor Expression Studio are up to the task of taking on Apple and destroying its globe enshrouding a€oeGet a Maca€A campaign. The image of John Hodgman as a troubled PC struggling with Vista-related problems has pushed Microsoft to defend itself with a $300 million campaign to take control of the a€oeconversation about Windows,a€A using Macs as needed to get the message produced.

.:Microsofta€™s a€Ia€™m a PCa€™ Ads Created On Macs -> via

Spying on Americans Abroad

A top secret NSA wiretapping facility in Georgia accused of spying on Americans illegally was hastily staffed with inexperienced reservists in the months following September 11, where they worked under conflicting orders and with little supervision, according to three former workers at the spy complex.

"Nobody knew exactly what the heck we were doing," said a former translator for the project, code named Highlander, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We were figuring out the rules as we were going along."

Former Army Reserve linguist Adrienne Kinne, who worked at the facility at Fort Gordon, won new attention this week for her year-old claim that she and her group intercepted and transcribed satellite phone calls of American civilians in the Middle East for the National Security Agency. Senate intelligence committee chair Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) opened a probe into the alleged abuses after ABC News reported on them Thursday.

Threat Level spoke with Kinne extensively last year about the alleged systematic surveillance of Americans and others operating in the Middle East following the 9/11 attacks. She provided a number of details about some of the calls and how the operation was conducted.

.::Read the rest at -> WiredAA

Wow, I feel so… safe…