With SARS terrorizing Hong Kong, the slogan the HK Tourist Board chose for their ads in such mags as Cosmopolitan and Conde Nast Traveller seems pretty unfortunate — Hong Kong will take your breath away. oops! (the Guardian)
Month: April 2003
“There’s even dialects of ‘english’ military jargon. An ex-general giving analysis on Sky (TV) commented that during the last Gulf War, confusion was caused because when a US commander said they’d ‘cleared’ a town they meant they’d gone past it, but when a british commanders said he’d ‘cleared’ a town he meant he’d dealt with most pockets of enemey and there was no signifigant resitence left in it and it was now ‘safe’ for occupation.
The two confusions caused american comanders to wonder what a british comander was still doing in a town he’d said he’d ‘cleared’, and british troops wondering who the hell was shooting at them out of towns the americans had said they’d ‘cleared’.” (via Barbara Barrett on the forteana list)
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p>Nice one! ‘Friendly fire’ reaches the nadir! The USAF have just dropped a bomb on John Simpson and a convoy of US special forces
(RealAudio report):Simpson: ‘So there are Americans dead. It was an American plane that dropped the bomb right beside us – I saw it land about 10 feet, 12 feet away I think. This is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles on fire. There are bodies burning around me, there are bodies lying around, there are bits of bodies on the ground. This is a really bad own goal by the Americans. We don’t really know how many Americans are dead.’
Presenter: ‘John, just to recap for the viewers, an American plane dropped a bomb on your convoy of American special forces – many dead, many injured?’
Simpson: ‘I am sorry to be so excitable. I am bleeding through the ear and everything but that is absolutely the case. I saw this American convoy, and they bombed it. They hit their own people – they may have hit this Kurdish figure, very senior, and they’ve killed a lot of ordinary characters, and I am just looking at the bodies now and it is not a very pretty sight.’
(context: John Simpson is one of the BBC’s top reporters in the field. Apparently, Ted Koppel would be roughly equivalent in stature in the US.)
Sarah Carey notes some interesting aspects of the NYTimes coverage of the incident:
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This article is placed 27th on their full listing of international headlines. The top headlines are all concerned with the victories in Baghdad and Basra and the likely format of post-Saddam government. The only reason I found the article was because I deliberately went looking for it.
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Note how many quotes are from wounded Kurds insisting that they do not blame the Americans.
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They say that one American was wounded when the live BBC reports conclusively stated that American soldiers were killed.
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They neglect to mention that the BBC translator was one of those killed.
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Finally, and most insultingly, they give one short quote from John Simpson, the BBC World Affairs Editor, pointing out how US soldiers treated the wounded. It neglects to mention the … quotes he also provided in his report (see above).
Unsurprisingly, the rumour mill reports that the British ‘Desert Rats’ are now painting the stars and stripes on their vehicles, to avoid yet more ‘friendly fire’ incidents…
Propaganda: FARK’s Photoshop Phriday this week is on the theme of how Fox News would have covered events in history. Some hand-picked works of genius:
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Kent State Shootout; Ohio National Guardsmen Victorious in Savage ‘Hippy’ Onslaught
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Terrorism in Boston Harbour – King George: ‘They Hate America’
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finally, best of all, Operation: Liberation Carthage; ‘Resistance unexpected but we will prevail – Legion Commander Donatus Feldatus’.
Brilliant. (via boingboing)
I’ve been getting a very wierd attack on my sites recently, including this blog, the SpamAssassin websites, and http://jmason.org/ , whereby some luser is sending lots of requests, using made-up URLs in the referral field. Initially, I thought it was some kind of underpowered retaliation for SpamAssassin, but if that’s the case, they need to bone up a bit more on how these things work ;)
Alternatively, it could be an attempt to gain Googlejuice, by getting links from public referrer logs (my ones are).
Up ’til about a month ago, it was all porn sites. Recently, though, it’s been a selection of real domains that sound like they were put together by combining dictionary words or something.
All the attempts have come from IP address 216.127.68.58, owned by Everyone’s Internet, Inc. in Houston, TX:
216.127.68.58 – – [31/Mar/2003:00:01:53 +0100] “GET / HTTP/1.1” 200 72143 “http://www.aircheckfactory.com” “User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0)”
Here’s the domains in question:
- AIRCHECKFACTORY.COM
- ALTOTECHNOLOGY.COM
- BAIDYANATHINDIA.COM
- NXTCENTURY.COM
- TIMEART.NET
- WOTEVA.COM
Perhaps they’re recent lapsed domains which the spammer has picked up. Otherwise, what’s the connection between Baidyanath (a manufacturer of Ayurvedic products in India, thx Suresh) and ‘woteva’ (which sounds like ‘whatever’ in a UK english accent)?
I’ve whois’d them all, and they all seem to share two things: the name ‘Robert Woodley’ (or its initials), and the number (772) 594-2421. Area code 772 is — guess where — Florida. They should just cut to the chase and put ‘The Spammer State’ on their numberplates.
The pages on those sites are automatically-generated using what looks like USENET postings and google image search results, with a link to Commission Junction.
None of the names are in ROKSO, it seems. Do they ring a bell with anyone reading?
Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2003 13:20:06 -0800
From: (spam-protected) (Justin Mason)
Subject: whois details on referrer spam
Registrant: Michael Lewisham RW Internet PO Box 4723 Grand Cayman, 8621 Cayman Islands Registered through: ozwebsites Domain Name: AIRCHECKFACTORY.COM Created on: 03-Jan-03 Expires on: 03-Jan-04 Last Updated on: 03-Jan-03 Administrative Contact: Lewisham, Michael (spam-protected) RW Internet PO Box 4562 Grand Cayman, 7238 Cayman Islands (772) 594-2421 Fax -- Technical Contact: Lewisham, Michael (spam-protected) RW Internet PO Box 4562 Grand Cayman, 7238 Cayman Islands (772) 594-2421 Fax -- Domain servers in listed order: NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM Registrant: Michael Lewisham RW Internet PO Box 4723 Grand Cayman, 8621 Cayman Islands Registered through: ozwebsites Domain Name: ALTOTECHNOLOGY.COM Created on: 29-Dec-02 Expires on: 29-Dec-03 Last Updated on: 29-Dec-02 Administrative Contact: Lewisham, Michael (spam-protected) RW Internet PO Box 4562 Grand Cayman, 7238 Cayman Islands (772) 594-2421 Fax -- Technical Contact: Lewisham, Michael (spam-protected) RW Internet PO Box 4562 Grand Cayman, 7238 Cayman Islands (772) 594-2421 Fax -- Domain servers in listed order: NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM Registrant: Robert Woodley Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 401 Grand Cayman, 7651 Cayman Islands Registered through: Go Daddy Software (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: BAIDYANATHINDIA.COM Created on: 09-Jan-03 Expires on: 09-Jan-04 Last Updated on: 09-Jan-03 Administrative Contact: Woodley, Robert (spam-protected) Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 4634 Suite 205 Port Vila, 8621 Vanuatu (772) 594-2421 Fax -- (772) 594-2421 Technical Contact: Woodley, Robert (spam-protected) Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 4634 Port Vila, 8621 Vanuatu (772) 594-2421 Fax -- (772) 594-2421 Domain servers in listed order: NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM Registrant: Wanker Engineering PO Box 9816 Auckland, 3522 New Zealand Registered through: Go Daddy Software (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: NXTCENTURY.COM Created on: 21-Mar-01 Expires on: 21-Mar-04 Last Updated on: 21-Mar-03 Administrative Contact: Engineering, Wanker (spam-protected) Wanker Engineering PO Box 9816 Auckland, 3522 New Zealand 3530912167 Fax -- Technical Contact: Engineering, Wanker (spam-protected) Wanker Engineering PO Box 9816 Auckland, 3522 New Zealand 3530912167 Fax -- Domain servers in listed order: NS1.LYNXWEBHOSTING.COM NS2.LYNXWEBHOSTING.COM Registrant: Robert Woodley Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 4634 Port Vila, 8621 Vanuatu Registered through: Go Daddy Software (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: TIMEART.NET Created on: 16-Mar-01 Expires on: 16-Mar-04 Last Updated on: 16-Mar-03 Administrative Contact: Woodley, Robert (spam-protected) Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 4634 Suite 205 Port Vila, 8621 Vanuatu (772) 594-2421 Fax -- (772) 594-2421 Technical Contact: Woodley, Robert (spam-protected) Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 4634 Port Vila, 8621 Vanuatu (772) 594-2421 Fax -- (772) 594-2421 Domain servers in listed order: NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM Registrant: Robert Woodley PO Box 4573 Grand Cayman, 871251 Cayman Islands Registered through: Go Daddy Software (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: WOTEVA.COM Created on: 16-Mar-00 Expires on: 16-Mar-04 Last Updated on: 16-Mar-03 Administrative Contact: Woodley, Robert (spam-protected) Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 4573 Grand Cayman, 87125 Cayman Islands (772) 594-2421 Fax -- (772) 594-2421 Technical Contact: Woodley, Robert (spam-protected) Robert Woodley Internet PO Box 4753 Suite 205 Grand Cayman, 87125 Cayman Islands (772) 594-2421 Fax -- (772) 594-2421 Domain servers in listed order: NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM NS4.MYDOMAIN.COM
The first suit, against Avalend and Intermark Media, alleges infringement of the Habeas trademark, including infringing use of the Habeas trademark in email in order to help ensure its delivery. The second lawsuit, against Heller, Stuchinski, Clickbank and Keynetics, includes a breach of contract claim against Heller, based on the signing of a Habeas license and then using the Habeas trademark in email which did not comply with the Habeas license. The companies advertised in Heller’s email are named as co-defendants.
Sweet. Sounds like the first two are alleged to have out-and-out forged the mark without a license, and the latter three are alleged to have gained a license and breached it. Habeas’ business model relies on successful enforcement, and actively being a threat against spammers who attempt to abuse their mark. I hope this goes well for them.
BTW, for folks who cannot countenance the idea of paying for a mark to send bulk mail: Habeas’ model is just like that of Underwriters Laboratories, which performs (physical) product safety testing, and provides a mark to certify that a product has passed those tests — and can therefore be judged ‘safer’ than products that do not have the mark. In Habeas’ case, instead of a product’s safety, they vouch for a mail’s non-spamminess.
It’s not a ‘mail protection racket’ — it’s a way for you to send a mail saying ‘this trustworthy agency has vouched that this is not spam’. And if I trust Habeas, it allows me to extend that trust to you, even if I’ve never heard of you before.
The Guardian notes the latest bizarre phraseology to emerge from the White House — Calibrate me, Dick:
From Donald Rumsfeld – the man who brought you known unknowns and unknown unknowns – comes a phrase so disorienting in its weirdness that even seasoned Rumsfeldologists have been taken aback by its increasingly frequent use at Pentagon briefings. Uttered one way, it sounds combative like Dirty Harry; uttered another, camp like Austin Powers.
In fact, it appears to be just a hi-tech, precision-guided version of ‘correct me if I’m wrong’, the Dick in question being General Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Worryingly, ‘Calibrate me’ is also the name of a song by the scary indie rock group Atombombpocketknife: could Rumsfeld be a fan?
Typical recent usage: ‘The Republican Guard has – calibrate me, Dick – they pulled south in the north and they went north in the southern portion of the country.’
Context in which it almost certainly did not occur, circa 2002: ‘Calibrate me, Dick, but I really don’t think we’re going to need all that much heavy infantry to take Baghdad, are we?’
Reporters From Portuguese Television Tortured By US Military Police (Indymedia):
Two Western journalists have arrived safely back in Kuwait City after being arrested, beaten up and deprived of food and water in Iraq — by members of the US Army’s military police. ….
Despite possessing the proper ‘Unilateral Journalist’ accreditation issued by the Coalition Forces Central Command, both journalists were detained. …
Castro and Silva entered Iraq 10 days ago. They had been to Umm Qasr and Basra and were traveling to Najaf when they were stopped by the military police. According to Castro, their accredited identification was checked and they were given the all clear to proceed. ‘Suddenly, for no reason, the situation changed,’ Castro told Arab News. ‘We were ordered down on the ground by the soldiers. They stepped on our hands and backs and handcuffed us.
‘We were put in our own car. The soldiers used our satellite phones to call their families at home. I begged them to allow me to use my own phone to call my family, but they refused. When I protested, they pushed me to the ground and kicked me in the ribs and legs.’ ….
After being held for four days, they were transported to the 101st Airborne Division to be escorted out of Iraq.
So it looks like Sarah Carey, a good friend of me mate Lean, has a blog, and it’s a great one too! Excellent. Added to the Irish blogroll on the right.
In other news, Simon Boyle got in touch to mention that the Saddam’s top tips for tourists interview in the Fermanagh-based Impartial Reporter was actually written by an contemporary of ours at TCD by the name of Maria Rolston. Apparently she’s good mates with my mate Wooder, too. Simon notes:
She’s the intrepid impartial reporter who wrote the story (and who’s had it reprinted minus attribution all over the world now). Oh the joys of being a first year reporter on a small local paper…
While we’re talking about small local papers, might as well note – tangentially – that Ireland’s local press has a long history of bizarre stories. One favourite, in particular, has gone down in journo legend (and Ulysses): the 19th-century editorial from The Skibbereen Eagle, which solemnly told Lord Palmerston that it had ‘got (its) eye both upon him and on the Emperor of Russia.’ Classic.
Forbes: A Patent On Porn. It seems Acacia Research, an intellectual-property ‘shell’ company, has a bunch of crappy software patents on streaming media (to go with their patent on the ‘V-Chip’, remember that?).
Things haven’t been going too good recently. Apparently, they decided to ‘monetize’ these streaming-media patents — in other words get all Sopranos on a bunch of small players, namely 700 porn site operators, sending some legal threats to ‘pay up — 1-2% of gross — or get sued’ their way.
What happened? Did the pr0nsters roll over and cough up? Not a hope.
Eight firms (of 700) agreed to Acacia’s terms. But 40 didn’t, and Acacia promptly slapped them with lawsuits. Rather than buckling, though, several of the porno sites joined together and stood their ground. Now Acacia is in the fight of its life and may even face a shareholder revolt as a result.
the (discuss) links are back, and about time too, things were getting quiet. Anyway, it’s a unified comments forum now. All posts go into one forum, instead of creating a new forum for each weblog posting. Having comments pages for each story just didn’t work for a small-scale blog — and it was impossible to see if there was any new posts for all those individual forums.
Take a look at the BitTorrent bandwidth graphs if you get a chance. The BitTorrent release of Red Hat 9 resulted in a nice smooth ramp up to 1.4 gigabits per second of download traffic, which has been trailing off slowly over the following 20 hours… wow.
Artprice/artlist: winners of the address-scraping spammer speed record
Wow. A spammer has already scraped my blog and caught that one-use cdt_comment_go address I posted a week or so ago. That has to be a record. Ah well, Bayes and the SBL are catching it nicely…
The spammer in question is artprice.com, aka. artlist.com, aka a bunch of unrepentant spammers who’ve been out-and-out spamming for years, from France. Nothing worse than a full-time spamhaus. My consolation is that if they do this after August, I can prosecute them for it, since France is in the EU ;)
Just for reference, if anyone finds this on a Google search: the address was a one-use disposable job, for comments on a survey, posted once, and never used for sign-ups or even to send a single mail message. This is 100% spam, through and through.