A DAY OF BACON
Rhett and Link test Google’s new Bacon Number algorithm and find out that just about every actor in the world receives a “2,” but they only manage a “3” rating. Should they be depressed? Offended? Or just disregard the exercise as one big meaningless game. Get the low-down on Good Mythical Morning.
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The catchphrase of 2012 — “That Really Rustled My Jimmies”– has origins tied to candy sprinkles and a gorilla mascot that appeared on a cereal box. The Internet scientists from Know Your Meme unravel the mystery so you can relax and get unrustled.
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Reason TV’s Nick Gillespie interviews Rebecca MacKinnon, author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom. MacKinnon, a former reporter for CNN, based in China, touches upon that nation’s “great firewall” that blocks out all web content the government finds potentially dangerous. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are all unavailable in China, although the country has its own internal versions of these web platforms.
Besides censorship issues, MacKinnon also addresses how your privacy can be invaded, say if you post “drunken party pictures” on your Facebook page. Threats loom from both government agencies and overreaching corporations.
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Why has Andrew Hussie’s webcomic series Homestuck achieved cultlike status? What’s with the red and orange horns worn by followers? And what do they mean when they say, “Let Me Tell You…About Homestuck.” Internet scientists provide some clues in this installment of Know Your Meme.
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“When something on the Internet is too good to be true, it’s probably not true, it’s probably Spam,” explains Fafa, as the Glove and Boots puppets wage the good fight against the most pervasive of all scourges on the Web. The history of Spam, they say, is inextricably linked to the spread of misinformation, first on town squares, then via mail, the telephone and now the Internet to reach a larger audience than ever. Mario proves a sucker for the Spam, but Fafa tells how to prevent it — before it even happens.
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Note the picture of Terry Jones on Mario and Fafa’s wall. Classy touch!
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Internet scientists Sarah and Alison refute the meme: “There are no girls on the Internet.” Of course, the web remains a mysterious and sometimes deceptive place, where girls might be boys, and where children might be FBI agents.
Sarah and Alison offer tips for women who want to go slumming in Chat rooms without disclosing their sexuality. For instance, the UserName “DiamondPonyKiss” is a dead giveaway you’re a girl. The alternative suggestion: “BisonWarlock69.” H/T Know Your Meme
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Link goes through an identity crisis and the pains of withdrawal when he learns he might have to go three days without Internet service. On this edition of Good Mythical Morning, he lays out the predicament for his long-time buddy Rhett. Link’s conclusion: “When you lose the Internet, you learn about yourself.” Visit Rhett and Link’s YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/RhettandLink
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The Republic of Korea, otherwise known as South Korea, takes the Internet more seriously than perhaps any other nation. Ninety percent of South Koreans have broadband service. Cities boast free web kiosks on the streets. Teens flock to ubiquitous PC gaming clubs called “bangs.” One of the top-rated TV shows, League of Legends, pits the best gamers against each other. The show has a diehard fan base. It’s watched as religiously as Westerners follow football or baseball.
Yet this crazy fascination with the latest technological fads has a dark side to it. South Koreans were shocked recently by the death of a three-month-old baby, left unfed and neglected by game-addicted parents. Teens have required hospital treatment after going on binges, playing the real-time computer strategy game, StarCraft, as many as four or five straight days without taking a break.
Even more dangerous to South Korea’s survival as a nation, its enemies in North Korea have assembled 3,000 techno-soldiers to wage cyberwarfare against the South. Military and government installations have blocked the attacks, but a South Korean bank wasn’t as successful, losing its ability to service 30 million customers for an entire week. The North also attempted to plant a virus to take down the computer systems used by Incheon International Airport.
Reporter Mark Willacy from ABC Australia visits South Korea, assessing its Web superiority as well as the weak points. H/T Journeyman Pictures
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And, as long as we’re touring South Korea, we couldn’t resist taking a little detour to the North to follow The Adventures of Kim Jong Un, courtesy of CollegeHumor.
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Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, sees storm clouds rising as governments around the world impose more pervasive and invasive controls and regulations to limit Internet freedoms. As an example, Wozniak cites the shutdown of Megaupload and efforts by US prosecutors to bring charges against its founder, Kim Dotcom. He also discusses WikiLeaks, the Arab Spring, hacktivism, net neutrality and many related topics in a far-ranging interview with RT, the Russian global TV network.
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AntiLeaks, led by a shadowy hacker calling himself DietPepsi, is circling the wagons to thwart arch-nemesis — Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks. From August 3 through August 13, the WikiLeaks website was driven offline as a result of a massive denial of service attack that DietPepsi claims to have coordinated. WikiLeaks remained out of commission until a US-based content delivery network, CloudFlare, agreed to disseminate the website. Saving Wikileaks’ hide won’t sit well in certain quarters, but CloudFlare has been embroiled in controversy before, having previously provided similar services for the hacking group LulzSec, as well as for the Turkish government.
Julian Assange at New Media Days, 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
“We don’t discriminate against customers based on a political belief of what’s good or bad,” says CloudFlare’s CEO Matthew Prince, out of San Francisco. “We try hard not to play censor.”
With CloudFlare’s support, WikiLeaks re-emerged from Internet oblivion, but the US-based DietPepsi wrote the Des Moines Register vowing this wouldn’t be the end of the story. “WikiLeaks web server is now hidden behind five CloudFlare servers. CloudFlare isn’t actually hosting WikiLeaks content itself but acts as a reverse web proxy. This makes it especially difficult to attack WikiLeaks, as each CloudFlare server can handle 10gb/second,” DietPepsi said in an email to the Register. “”I am in the process of finding the actual IP address of WikiLeaks web server. I have a couple of leads and believe I will be able to do it, however it will take some time.”
To emphasize AntiLeaks’ resolve, DietPepsi claimed, via Twitter, that the group had taken down two other websites — one belonging to RT, the Russian global TV network, which has carried extensive favorable coverage of Assange, and a second website belonging to Bambuser, a Stockholm, Sweden-based firm that provides livestream video services for individuals to broadcast directly over Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. The specific target in the Bambuser outage is believed to have been a “citizen-journalist” feed by a James Albury, who has been broadcasting from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Assange has been holed up since June, fighting extradition to Sweden.
Here’s some of the banter on Twitter today:
Meanwhile, WikiLeaks ally Anonymous issued one of its patented YouTube threats against AntiLeaks, promising, “We do not forgive. We do not forget. Aunty Leaks we request you dessist (sic) in your activity or you will Expect us.” Unbending, DietPepsi shot back on Twitter, “Semper fi. Expect us.” Earlier, he denied any connection with the US government, although WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson from Iceland has implied that such a linkage exists.
For visitors wanting more on this geeky battlefront, here’s an appearance by CloudFlare’s Prince, last fall on Bloomberg Television, explaining how his company has improved its web security services by building a better paradigm to thwart DDoS attacks, drawing upon its experience of deflecting the barrage stirred up against LulzSec.
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And here is RT’s broadcast report about its website going down in the DDoS attack claimed by AntiLeaks.
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