Just some of the thrilling tat which you, too, can find on
the net.
Click on the small images to view/download a slightly
larger version.
Big news on the Roswell "autopsy" footage: "On 22 August, Fortean TImes received an envelope containing three black and white prints showing someone touching up the head of an 'alien' with an airbrush and make-up paints. The head shows a remarkable similarity to the head in Santilli's film, but a close examination must be made before we jump to the conclusion that these pictures are proof that Santilli's film is a fake. They may equally be the product of a brilliant amateur model-maker who could not resist a challenge. We have no idea of the origin of these pictures or why they were sent to us." You can find the latest on this at http://alpha.mic.dundee.ac.uk/ft/ft.cgi?-1,ft. (A note: the picture you see here has been 'tweaked' very slightly for reasons of clarity. The original is a 1-bit black and white GIF.)
Some choice excerpts from the CyberAngel "manifesto":
"Curtis Sliwa has a daily talk radio show on WABC in the New York state area. Once he was online with an email address, he made the announcement over the radio, and his email address immediately started to receive letters telling stories of online harassment (stalking), hate mail, paedophiles trying to seduce children in live chat areas, and complaints from worried parents about the easy access their children had to hard core pornographic images. Realizing that there was a big issue at stake here, Curtis began discussing the Internet issues on his talk show, and as the debate raged daily, and the letters kept pouring in, we realized that perhaps we were being asked to DO SOMETHING.
"For example, parts of the Net are like a porno store on Main Street with the door wide open, and with no staff inside. Kids are walking by.... The only sign on the door says "Dont come in here if you are under 18". But there is no-one there to check what is happening. And naturally enough kids are wandering in and looking at the merchandise. This is not acceptable on the streets of our cities, and yet we are allowing this on the Net.
"Please send information about anything you find on the
Net which you believe to be unlawful, harmful, hateful, threatening
or constituting harassment, particularly if it relates to minors,
to Colin "Gabriel" Hatcher, Coordinator of the Guardian
Angels NetWatch Program at: ganetwatch@aol.com"
You know, some people might consider many of the suggestions made
elsewhere in this document to be "harmful, hateful, threatening
or constituting harassment". Just a thought.
The full text of the CyberAngel manifesto can be found HERE, along with some other stuff
they're sending out.
The forthcoming movie Hackers has, inevitably, a promotional web site on the go at http://www.digiplanet.com/hackers/index.html. Only - ohmigosh! - it's been hacked! Wow! Nobody could ever accuse this of being a lame publicity gimmick put together to drum up interest in a film that "is to every cyberpunk movie ever made what Kool-Aid was to Jonestown" (hey, they said it, not me).
From the 'hacked' page: "Hackers, the new action adventure movie from those idiots in Hollywood, takes you inside a world where there's no plot or creative thought, there's only boring rehashed ideas. Dade is a half-wit actor who's trying to fit into his new role. When a seriously righteous hacker uncovers MGM/UA's plot to steal millions of dollars, Dade and his fellow "throwbacks of thespianism", Kate, Phreak, Cereal Killer and Lord Nikon, must face off against hordes of hackers, call in the FBI, and ponder a sinister UNIX patch called a "trojan." Before it's over, Dade discovers his agent isn't taking his calls anymore, becomes the victim of a conspiracy, and falls in debt. All with the aid of his VISA card. Want the number?" Whoa! An-ar-chy!
To avoid horrible little geeks like you stumbling around the newsgroups on Usenet asking the same questions all the time, a great many groups have what are called FAQ files, which contain Frequently Asked Questions - stuff people are always asking. An enormous archive of these FAQ files can be found at rtfm.mit.edu in the directory /pub/usenet-by-group.
They vary from the enormously useful, like the alt.folklore.urban FAQ, which contains details on every friend-of-a-friend story you will ever hear, to the rampantly obscure. This is from the alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb FAQ:
"(1) alt.curious.format.originate.begin.enquire?
alt.other.newsgroups.name.name.dub.
alt.single.example.present.present.present:
'alt.beneficent.daemons.bless.curse.bless'.
alt.revered.original.persists.thrives.name
'alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork':
(alt.venerable.Jeff-Vogel.invented.created.newgrouped;
alt.local.distribution.failed.escaped.spread;
alt.amused.Vogel.watched.chuckled.laughed
alt.lasting.fame.enjoys.enjoys.enjoys)
alt.interesting.fact.note.observe.ponder:
alt.actual.formats.differ.differ.differ.
alt.further.examples.present.present.present:
'alt.barney.dinosaur.die.die.die';
'alt.icelandic.waif.bjork.bjork.bjork';
'alt.cows.moo.moo.moo'.
alt.further.details.search.elude.despair."
Finally, some on-line art. TS 4 - Telematic Sculpture 4 - is "a mobile sculpture (length 21,8 meters, weight 1800 kg), physically positioned in the austrian pavilion during the biennale of Venice. TS 4 is also positioned electronically in the WWW of internet... TS 4 is driven by the data flow in internet according to an equation comparing the world wide computer newsgroups versus world wide art newsgroups. According to this equation TS 4 will transcross the Austrian pavilion during the time of the biennale and break through the wall of the pavilion."
The sculpture is stopped whenever someone accesses its WWW page, which features video updates of its progress, along with an estimated time of impact. It's described as "an industrially manufactured conveyor belt at eye level with a railway track on it. A computer monitor is anchored on the screen side to the end of the track. The dimension of the sculpture corresponds in length to the length of the Austrian pavilion... In accordance with the data flow, TS 4 is kept in a state of continuous movement. This permanent movement - the central informational paradigm - on the one hand is determined by the movement of the information as an approximation of the absolute speed of light visible on the screen and, on the other hand, as a movement of the railway track as an approximation of motionlessness." So now you know.
Become art (and help save the wall of the Austrian pavilion) by pointing your browser at http://iis.joanneum.ac.at/kriesche/biennale95.html.
Have fun.
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