Sometime in the Past: Mr. X makes $1 million sending spam—hundreds of millions of e-mails for porno and college degrees and what-have-you; all your favorites, doubtless.
Sometime more recently: Mr. X buys a Porsche celebrating his newfound vocation (above).
Even more recently: Mr. X loses Porsche through his newfound vocation (still above).
The Future (?): Previous spam-victim of Mr. X wins Porsche in a raffle run by AOL.
(via BBC News: Spammer’s Porsche up for grabs [March 30, 2004])
https://www.swordbilled.com/a-timeline-of-sweet-sweet-revenge-true-story-so-far/
Maybe. Possibly.
It’s well and good to stay informed, but sometimes news is nothing so much as arterial spray: here one minute, gone the next, and what the hell can we do about it anyway? E.g., the blogfolk at Pandagon are thorough and tend to very often bring up salient points, but the problem is kinda the oftenness, i.e., they write too damn much.
But whatever. That’s actually not my point. (Or it is—part of my point, anyway—but it’s not the meat of my point.) My point is that it’s good to read something that has merit in&of itself, that doesn’t hinge on your ability/inability to act on the knowledge presented to you.
So, my point is you should read White on rice or Elephant, two excellent and short posts at the somewhat inexplicably labeled onepotmeal. Why should you read these two posts?
I’ll let you come up with the reasons.
https://www.swordbilled.com/news-as-arterial-spray-likely-isnt-the-most-brilliant-metaphor-ive-ever-devised-but-it-works/
“The United Nations opened a global environment summit Monday, warning about the growing number of ‘dead zones’ in the world’s oceans but painting a picture of a greener planet with an increase of vegetation in many regions.
…
“But so-called ‘dead zones’ – oxygen-starved stretches of ocean that are devoid of life – topped UNEP’s list of emerging environmental challenges.
…
“There are nearly 150 dead zones around the globe, double the number in 1990, with some stretching 27,000 square miles.”
(via the San Diego Tribune: “U.N. environment summit opens, targets ocean ‘dead zones’ but sees greener earth” by Hans Greimel, AP [March 29, 2004])
https://www.swordbilled.com/greener-planet-deader-ocean/
World Press Review is always a good place to see what kinds of things are getting printed in newspapers around the world (often including pieces translated into English from other languages, which is helpful in revealing a wider range of perspectives than might otherwise come across). The newest feature on their web site is a sampling of editorials from Arab newspapers in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
https://www.swordbilled.com/perspective-on-violence/
There’s really no way to make an educated guess as to what this formula refers, and even though you’d almost certainly be better off not knowing, I’m going to tell you anyway:
Yes, high heels.
Why? Why? Why?
https://www.swordbilled.com/when-the-question-isnt-how-or-what-but-why/
So it turns out, maybe, that smoking and stupidity are not only linked by correlation, but also by causation, i.e., smoking makes you stupider. Dig? Dieses Artikel ist auf deutsch; wenn Sie es auf englisch brauchen, Google hilft (ein bisschen).
https://www.swordbilled.com/truth-be-told-you-smoke-yer-brains-out/
Which of the following captions goes with this picture? Don’t worry, it’s not a trick question: one of them actually does fit the picture, believe it or not.
A) Like many redbone coonhounds, Cal is eager to try out new things;
B) Jesus said that we should help others and that means our parents too, so I have chores to do around the house like mowing the yard and keeping my room clean;
or C) Are you desperate to avoid mowing your own yard? Don’t let this happen to you! Call Hollis Landscaping now!
(Sorry, there’s not really a prize, unless you consider the pursuit of knowledge a prize in and of itself. Besides, how would I know you didn’t just click on the link to the answer without guessing first? I wouldn’t, is the sad truth. So there. Hope you had fun guessing.)
(via memepool)
https://www.swordbilled.com/pick-the-right-caption-win-a-prize/
(1994) dir. Roger Avery – w/ Eric Stolz, Julie Delpy, Jean-Hughes Anglade, and a bunch of wholly insignificant figures, most of whom die (particularly one who plays a stupid American)
Synopsis: A bank-heist in France. You know how it is: one last job before everyone buys his own private island, resting in the lap of luxury, etc. Surprise, something goes wrong! Imagine that.
Review: Not exactly a standard-issue heist film. Sure, things go wrong. Sure, there are a number of standard-issue heist film elements. Fortunately for this movie (and for you), things go wrong in sometimes unexpected ways, and the outcome is never entirely certain. Also, there are interesting detours and digressions that the film takes; interesting side-conversations and the like. Drugs, sex, and violence are prominent. The violence especially so, in fact; you could probably cue in on this by realizing that the director, one Roger Avery, also happens to have co-written Pulp Fiction (which is still vastly, vastly better than Killing Zoe. Sorry, but it just is.). All in all, KZ is mildly to moderately refreshingly different, if sometimes poorly done and aimless. Yeah.
Rating: [•••] out of [•••••]
https://www.swordbilled.com/killing-zoe/
Blood!
A new report (*.pdf – requires Acrobat Reader) produced by the Fritz Institute and Reuters Foundation’s AlertNet paints an interesting picture of the relationship between media coverage and humanitarian crisis. Most of the findings are hardly surprising (more press coverage = more private donations? incredible!!!), but the report is significant in that it’s (apparently) “the largest, most comprehensive survey ever undertaken of this symbiotic relationship [between journalists and humanitarian aid organizations].”
So maybe it’ll make people think.
The report’s called “Toward New Understandings: Journalists and Humanitarian Relief Coverage.”
It has lots of interesting points (which I’m hardly going to cover—read the story on AlertNet for an overview of the study’s findings if you’re interested in a quick summary), but one of the most interesting sections details What Makes A Humanitarian Crisis News. Some of the things mentioned:
There are a thousand things I could say about this, but the thing that comes to mind first is: what is it about a high death toll that makes it captivating to us? It seems so obvious so as to be self-evident, which is part of the problem.
The problem of 1,000 people being killed in the space of a day being so much more compelling to us than 1,000 people being killed, gradually and subtly, over the course of the year.
The obvious response is, but these things are different.
But are they?
The report brings up interesting points far above and beyond this; go read it if you have a chance.
(via AlertNet: “Charities face dilemma: food parcels or press releases” by Mark Jones [March 3, 2004]; and Fritz Institute/Reuters Foundation: “Toward New Understandings: Journalists and Humanitarian Relief Coverage.”)
https://www.swordbilled.com/what-makes-a-good-story/
At least we’ll know what the dragonfish look like before we wipe them off the face of the planet.
Good luck little guy.
https://www.swordbilled.com/first-the-good-news/