February 10 being the day when Anonymous take to the streets of RL to protest against Scientology activities. Honestly, I think this is the phase that’ll end in tears. It shows some serious balls, but… I have my doubts about the efficacy and advisability of this phase. That said, the Rules as laid out in this video are incredibly… sensible? Some intelligence is being applied to this. Again, I’m very impressed by this video guide to protesting.

And, no, I won’t be involved. One is no good at Anonymous when one now gets recognised in the street from time to time. Right now, I’m just studying the phenomenon with amusement.

Clothing designs by my friends at Ego Assassin. Photography by Chad Michael Ward, model Aradia Ardor.

• Doomsday cult leader beaten up
  “Doomsday cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov has reportedly been beaten up in the mental hospital where he is being held.”
  (tags: cult crime)

(original)

(Which could also have been titled “Samantha Blackmire Is Fucked In The Head,” because this line is going to haunt me in all the wrong ways –)

“I made you in my basement out of rhinoceros cunts. Yet, you are curiously dry.”

Six-page preview here.

“Public Domain is a 145-page collection of Channel Zero “extras”… test pages, character sketches, short stories, unused artwork, photography… all material I generated while creating the Channel Zero world but that never saw print in the graphic novel. It was created, deliberately, very old school and low fi, using mostly a photocopier and a glue stick, the results being grainy and choppy and, in my mind, an accurate representation of how I used to work when I first started making comics.”

“A teacher at a Tokyo school was arrested on Monday for making a group of boys undress at knifepoint and stealing their underpants, Kyodo news agency reported.”

(I’m tempted to create a new standing head: “Japan: Just Fucking Stop It Now.”)

• French Scientologists Arrested in Italy
  Three French members of the Church of Scientology, suspected of holding a fourth person against their will, were arrested Monday in Nuoro, Sardinia
  (tags: crime cult)
• The Most Hated Woman In America: Twisting the gospel
  ” Canada is doomed, too. I was so thankful to get out of your sick country. It has no hope.”
  (tags: cult mad)
• Argentinean courts confirm boy was killed in satanic ritual
  “Last week Beguiristain confessed to killing “Ramoncito,” a street boy who the cult leader said “had agreed to sell his soul to the devil.”"
  (tags: crime cult)
• Simplify Media – Connect Your Music
  “Our software connects people directly from within their favorite desktop applications, without having to upload and download files via a website or learn a new user interface.”
  (tags: web)
• BBC NEWS | England | Essex | Historic forest gets 50,000 trees
  An historic forest in Essex is to be boosted by 50,000 extra trees: “We want to make Essex the greenest county in the country and protecting our natural environment will help us achieve this.”
  (tags: eco finally+some+good+news yes+i+am+an+essex+man)
• Dolittle
  (tags: music)
• Chaos Approved
  “Chaos Approved is an online radio station, curated by Lee Chaos, started as an extension of his club night JUDDER and companion to the record label Wasp Factory Recordings.”
  (tags: radio)

The partner of designer and COILHOUSE co-creator Mildred Von has been arrested in Dubai for carrying melatonin. This, apparently, gave them the excuse to declare without testing that a few fragments of dirt in the bottom of his bag were hashish. Everyone’s hoping that they’ll be forced to release him in another seven days but the Dubai authorities, as you might expect, are behaving like monsters.

Details are here. Please read them before asking questions. Mil’s contact details are in that post too. We might get lucky and they might bounce him out when it turns out there’s nothing to hold him on, but, really, that doesn’t sound like Dubai. If you think you can help, please do get in touch with Mil. Thanks.

“Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by US researchers… using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or “claytronic”, robots, which they are testing on small groups of more primitive, pocket-sized machines.”

Freaky video ahoy:

Reports from users of carbogen, an oxygen/carbon dioxide mix apparently sometimes described as a “panicogen”:

After 26 breaths, subject uttered in a profound tone, “Death is very personal.”

Apparently, this stark and gleaming wisdom from The Other World was worth also experiencing “every cell in his body dying.”

From Wednesday in North America, from Thursday in the UK and elsewhere:

Jamais Cascio:

Geoengineering involves humans making intentional, large-scale modifications to the Earth’s geophysical systems in order to change the environment. These can include sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide in the oceans, changing the reflectivity of the Earth’s surface, and pumping particles into the stratosphere to block a fraction of incoming sunlight…

But geoengineering presents more than just an environmental question. It also presents a geopolitical dilemma. With processes of this magnitude and degree of uncertainty, countries would inevitably argue over control, costs, and liability for mistakes. More troubling, however, is the possibility that states may decide to use geoengineering efforts and technologies as weapons…

Needs

Originally uploaded by NebulaskiN.

• Ancient bones suggest cavemen wore boots – being-human – 27 January 2008 – New Scientist
  Toe bones from a cave in China suggest people were wearing shoes at least 40,000 years ago.
  (tags: history)
• Twitter Balloon Badge visualizes Tweets
  crap, yet amusing
  (tags: web twitter)
• Man ‘badly mauled by his own dog’
  A man has been left with serious head injuries after a dog, believed to be his own, mauled him in the street.
  (tags: it+begins the+dog+is+the+enemy+of+the+human I+warned+you+all)
• ThothWeb – Unity Mitford and ‘Hitler’s baby’
  (tags: unity)
• Unity Mitford – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (tags: unity)
• Cyprus divers to dig out ancient ship – Yahoo! News
  Marine archaeologists will begin work in June to uncover the sand-buried hull of a 2,300-year-old ship thought to have been ferrying wine when it sank off the coast of Cyprus
  (tags: history)

One of the things fascinating me about these video communications from Anonymous — aside from the obvious, an anonymous organisation of internet users communicating only through YouTube, which has implications and resonance of its own — is the sense of foreboding they manage to create. Contrast that to, say, the Yippies and the retarded gibberish they spouted every time they got near a camera. There’s a sense of control here, and, clearly, of threat.