Page 62 – scaredpoet.com

Conservativism != Conservationism

9/27/2005scaredpoet

“Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.”
— Dick Cheney, 2001

“If it makes sense for the citizen out there to curtail nonessential travel, it darn sure makes sense for federal employees. We can encourage employees to car-pool or use mass transit, and we can shift peak electricity use to off-peak hours. There’s ways for the federal government to lead when it comes to conservation.”
— George W. Bush, 2005

Don’t blame me if the gas tanks run dry.

Oh, and don’t blame the horse whisperer if things went bad in Louisiana. Because it was everyone else’s fault but FEMA’s.

Doggy Deep Throat

9/26/2005scaredpoet

OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW!!!!!!

First e-mail spam, then blog spam, and now? Bum-Spam

9/23/2005scaredpoet

Yes, it WOULD be seedy web-entrepeneurs often known for their spam (namely, shady online poker sites) that would use bums as advertising, and it’s here to stay. What did the fine homeless chap above get from the kind bum-spammer? Why, the princely sum of $5, a package of Fig Newtons, and bottled water, according to the Seatlle Post-Intelligencer:

Now several times a week [Ben Rogovy, poker site entrepeneur] steps into his four-door Mercedes, dressed in a button-down shirt, and goes hunting, as he puts it, for “good, consistent beggars.” Then he makes an offer — a bit of food and water, plus $1 to $5, according to each panhandler’s relative value, a determination Rogovy calculates in his head, based largely on traffic patterns. In the past month, he has hired about a dozen vagrant sign-holders.

“I am fascinated by these people, out there from dawn to dusk,” he said. “It was so much untapped labor. Some of them were working longer days than I was.”

So is he helping the homeless by giving them a li’l cash, some water and maybe a morsel to feed on? Or is he exploiting them for cheap advertising, inciting vagrants to fill the landscape with his “irl spam” as they stand out in the hot sun instead of seeking shelter? I’ll let you be the judge of that one. But I have to say, the fact that guy has no qualms about “valuing” a homeless person as low as a dollar is pretty damned rough. Make you wonder what kind of sweat shop conditions this guy would want to impose if he were your boss.

How to be a cyber-dissident (and get away with it?)

9/22/2005scaredpoet

Cyber Diisident Guide

Reporters Without Borders is working to help ensure that every determined blogger in a speech-oppressed nation has a guide to keeping their blog “censor-slippery,” or to put it more bluntly, to be able to say and report on what you want (i.e. stuff that might be critical, report on atrocities and civil rights violations, and other “disloyal” items), while getting the content past government censors, from China to Iran.

The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents, published in several languages and available for free download (English version is a 1.7MB PDF file) is a comprehensive guide that teaches the ambitious commando-web activist everything from blog basics, to how to set up an account and use the correct blogging tools while using pseudonyms and proxies to avoid traceability and detection. There’s even a section on ethical reporting principles, and techniques for getting your blog linked by search engines.

Launched at the Apple Expo Computer Show in Paris (because we all know that the real hip bloggers are Mac users, right?), the guide focuses on using circumvention technologies to slip content past government-imposed internet filters. It also makes clear the penalties for being caught using these technologies, should you foul up and have your identity umasked. As such, running a “renegade” blog to report on the things the “mainstream” press won’t is still the domain of the brave at heart.

Of course, every web news site is abuzz about this guide. But not a single major news site I’ve come across actually links to the document itself. Why?!

This also begs the question: how long until the governments of the target nations (*ahem* Iran *ahem* China) filter out the Reporters Without Borders site for disseminating such “contraband?” I’m guessing the organization hopes that other bloggers might link to local copies to ensure availability. Whoops. 🙂

Why, what fine skin you have!

9/21/2005scaredpoet

Healthy looking skin is a universal constant, regardless of culture. And as Chinese cosmetic firms take advantage of global trade and expand into European markets, their products are making waves. Not because the prodcuts are good, necessarily, but because of what’s in them:

A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation by the Guardian has discovered.

Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company’s products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is “traditional” and nothing to “make such a big fuss about.”

Ancient Chinese secret, huh? Well, traditional Chinese Cuisine calls for things like fish eyes and “phoenix claw.” They also have that thing they do… oh, what is it called again? Oh, Maoism, right! And I’m sure Maoism, chicken feet, and slathering dead-prisoner skin on oneself are just fine for their culture and society, but it isn’t really something the rest of us want to do, I’m sorry to say.