Research Philosophy

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fbenario
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Research Philosophy

Unread post by fbenario »

While I had never considered our work/research in the context of the 'hacker' mentality, I thought these paragraphs summed up very nicely my personal views on uncovering the truth, and my thoughts on how our efforts will benefit the world. The establishment clearly doesn't want us to succeed in any kind of meaningful way - but why would they think we care what they want? They are the ones doing the censoring, lying, controlling - and murdering. Screw'em all.

WikiLeaks and Hacktivist Culture

It has long been an ethical principle of hackers that ideas and information are not to be hoarded but are to be shared.In 1984, when Assange turned 13, Steven Levy described this attitude in his book Hackers. After interviewing a number of hackers, he distilled a "hacker ethic," which included, among others, the following two maxims: (1) all information should be free; (2) mistrust authority and promote decentralization.

These sentiments were poetically expressed by a hacker named The Mentor, in an essay titled "The Conscience of a Hacker." It was written shortly after his arrest, and appeared in the important hacker publication Phrack in 1986.

"We explore?and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge?and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias?and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like."

http://www.thenation.com/article/154780 ... st-culture

Any thoughts on this, guys?
nonhocapito
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Unread post by nonhocapito »

fbenario 4 Sep 19 2010, 07:26 PM wrote: While I had never considered our work/research in the context of the 'hacker' mentality, I thought these paragraphs summed up very nicely my personal views on uncovering the truth, and my thoughts on how our efforts will benefit the world.
If only most of valid hackers didn't end up working for corporations and intelligence agencies... or tried to put up big scams like wikileaks... sorry but they have not much of my sympathy. Too many teenage secrets, too little transparency, too much double-talk.
Since the beginning of the first movie 'The Matrix', I had no sympathy for either Neo or Morpheus. That is NOT the way truth --or a rightful path-- manifests itself to me...
simonshack
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Unread post by simonshack »

fbenario 4 Sep 19 2010, 06:26 PM wrote:
Any thoughts on this, guys?
Yes, Fbenario - I have these thoughts:

Firstly, let me say that our grassroot activity (and philosophy) has zero kinship with that of Wikileaks. To even hint at a parallel between the Wikileaks gang and our lot is quite frankly offensive. Wikileaks is a comedy of a gatekeeping operation designed to gather an 'underground', youthful popular fan base. It is said that 'Chinese and Australian dissidents' are behind it - yet Wikipedia tells us that "the creators of WikiLeaks have not been formally identified"...Oh, right: so we're asked to believe that Wikileaks can hack tons of classified Pentagon documents, or even upload damning videos of American combat choppers zapping Reuters news reporters and whatnot...and all this while the worldwide Intelligence apparatus remains helplessly unable to find out WHO THE WIKILEAK FOUNDERS ARE? :rolleyes:

Gimme a kind, merciful break.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiLeaks

Evidently, Wikileaks is ultimately designed to "highlight the perils of irresponsible young hackers which may compromise the safety of the valiant troops fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan" - and so forth. Expect a crackdown on independent internet infos justified by the "Wikileaks security threat" precedent. The tacky sex-scandal media hype around that bleak Assange fellow are ample proof of this sleazy affair being just another low-life propaganda stunt.



As for Wikileaks' stand on 9/11, well let's talk about it. As you may recall, their "big 9/11 scoop" was their release of 'half-a-million' pager text messages. Anyone who had the patience to scour them will have noticed the many text messages to the tune of "Hey, Jim! I just saw a plane crashing into the World Trade Center" - and so on and so forth... Now here are some excerpts of an article published on the Wikileaks site (about the pager text messages - but also about the "horrific" TV coverage):


FROM THE WIKILEAKS WEBSITE

By Matt Gurney

"The [pager] texts make for fascinating reading, and provoke some good discussions of the cliched, "Where were you when it happened?" variety. But a source I've found even more interesting, if chilling, is the Sept. 11 Television Archive ( http://www.archive.org/details/sept_11_tv_archive).Here, you can watch television coverage of the event as it happened, starting even before the attacks began. The videos cover the major American broadcasters -- CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox --as well as the BBC. The passage of time has not dulled the horror. It's still as much a kick in the gut as it was eight years ago."

"There are other fascinating moments in the footage. The very genesis of many of the wackier 9/11 conspiracy theories can be found in the confused, panicky broadcasts (Was it a bomb? A missile? No, it was a plane, but a small plane!). It's also interesting to compare how the anchors responded to the attacks. CBS's Bryant Gumbel seems completely overwhelmed, unable to grasp that the collisions were deliberate, despite detailed reports from eyewitnesses who make it clear that the planes manoeuvred directly into the towers."


http://wikileaks.org/wiki/The_morning_o ... ad_changed

As you know, Fbenario, I actually tried to publish that important TV coverage of all those networks on Youtube ("SYNCHED OUT"). No cyber-hacking involved whatsoever: it was all public domain material from the TV archives. Yet, it was promptly banned by Youtube for no valid motive. Has Wikileaks ever had their "top secret and security-threatening" material banned from the internet?

Enough said.
http://www.septemberclues.org
fbenario
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Unread post by fbenario »

Sorry about that, Simon. I didn't mean to imply that I took Wikileaks seriously (especially since I posted on my blog, and on Facebook, long ago that it was a CIA-front), but I can see how my post above was misleadingly minimal in setting forth my thoughts.

What caught my attention about the article was this quote:

"We explore?and you call us criminals. We seek after knowledge?and you call us criminals. We exist without skin color, without nationality, without religious bias?and you call us criminals. You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals. Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like."

which is very similar to my own 'give the perps hell' attitude.

I apologize for posting something that takes Wikileaks seriously.
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Unread post by simonshack »

fbenario 4 Sep 20 2010, 11:34 PM wrote:
I apologize for posting something that takes Wikileaks seriously.
Serious or not, the Wikileaks/Assange chit-chat is right up there in the mainstream news media, day after day. And just as the recently emerging "new Bin Ladin" (played by the "Anwar Al-Awlaki" character), one has to wonder what the heck is the deal with that.

Here's the Wikileaks "master-hacker" and Wikileaks representative, Jacob Appelbaum:
Image
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Appelbaum

"Jacob Appelbaum co-founded the San Francisco hackerspace Noisebridge with Mitch Altman."



Now, who is Mitch Altman? Ever curious, I looked him up:

Image
"Mitch Altman (Born December 22, 1956) is a San Francisco-based hacker and inventor, best known for co-founding 3ware
(with J. Peter Herz and Jim MacDonald), his pioneering work in Virtual Reality at VPL Research and inventing TV-B-Gone."

Interesting. Virtual Reality? Is Altman an authority in that kind of stuff?

"Altman is widely regarded as a pioneer of Virtual Reality.
He worked at VPL Research with Jaron Lanier. Altman left VPL Research when it started getting military contracts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Altman

Oh-ok. So when military contracts started flowing in - he ran away. Cool.
http://www.septemberclues.org
fred
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Unread post by fred »

Wikileaks is an obvious front and a complete farce.

http://Wikispooks.com actually looks kind of interesting. It may generate some useful ideas, but I haven't tested it and can't vouch for it.
nonhocapito
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Unread post by nonhocapito »

fred 4 Sep 21 2010, 09:44 AM wrote: Wikileaks is an obvious front and a complete farce.

http://Wikispooks.com actually looks kind of interesting. It may generate some useful ideas, but I haven't tested it and can't vouch for it.
One interesting website, which has also a lot of material about Wikileaks itself, is Cryptome.org.

I still haven't made up my mind about Cryptome... well-meaning citizens who collect and publish almost-secret documents? a CIA front? The material they provide seems to be very good anyhow.

The website founder, John Young, is a NYC based architect: alas, he defends the official story of the WTC implosion...! But aside of that he seems to have a clear mind about the mission of a website that just provides documents from institutions and corporations in the name of transparency.
So far i kind of liked how he handled the Wikileaks scandals, even when journalists, including an italian one, tried to set him up to promote Wikileaks via him...
He seems to having taken up one simple task with his website, collecting hidden and unknown documents about security, spying and whatnot. He sticks with it, which is something... I still have to find a suspicious pattern in the timing of his leaks (but I am not saying there isn't or there'll never be, I am always ready to be disappointed).
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Unread post by hoi.polloi »

Hackers are interesting. I appreciate their philosophy, even if I can't 'endorse' it as such. Their language walks a fine line. I suppose ours does too. Actually, anyone could be mistaken for something they aren't. Bush probably has a perfectly slick sounding reason for his sick behavior. We all witnessed their mentality when Clinton fiddled with the word "is" to avoid getting pinned lying.

Comparably, this guy ...

Image

is a blatant puppet. The illusion is even built into the picture. Observe the limp hands supported by white beams. Funny design in the photo! Maybe misleading, but anyway ... funny.

I am less concerned about Mitch Altman ... whose speeches give me the impression that he is a rare man of integrity and worthy of respect. Interesting how these people cross paths isn't it?

The daughter of a MITRE employee is an admirably audacious environmentalist-feminist who challenges him on his status there and urges him not to exist in the "mentality" of that CIA crowd. That's life. Not all connections are cooperative ones. Even families fight about this. Probably best friends too.
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Unread post by fbenario »

simonshack 4 Sep 20 2010, 07:50 PM wrote: Image
Altman appears to have colored the hair on the left side of his head to match the colors of the ribbon he is wearing around his neck. What's up with that? An intentional signal/symbol of some sort? Is he sending a message to someone?

I dye my hair platinum, but I didn't do it to match my clothes (I think platinum clothes faded away with the disco movement, anyway).
nonhocapito
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Unread post by nonhocapito »

Something recent by Mitch Altman

http://thetransistor.com/2010/09/take-o ... isode-one/

...seems interesting and decent.
reel.deal
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Unread post by reel.deal »

best ever warren cuccurello 5 minute no-plane rant...
(apologies for) paula gloria (who doesnt say a word!)
til warren pauses for breath... 0:00 > 5:05-ish...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y2IbUiJMRw

what is a paula gloria? me no comprende? in a rabbit hutch?

FFW to 20:38 to see bonus ultra-kitsch dead anna-nicole smith
painting of anna-nicole smith's dead son...
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Unread post by ozzybinoswald »

Paula Gloria annoys. She's brainless. Every word and idea has to be explained to her as if she just arrived on the planet. And then she only feigns understanding like a sociopath displaying emotion.
fred
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Unread post by fred »

She certainly does annoy. My own take is slightly different: I believe that she is a cynical, clever spook who has a "pseudo-enlightened dumb blond New Age hippie" routine that rivals Jeff Hill's drunken Canadian everyman. Jeff is a better actor. When rattled a little bit Paula tends to step out of character in exasperation. She lacks the skill required to play Andy Kauffman, but she puts in a good effort.

The viewers of soporific Manhattan News Network won't notice. Her show is part Wayne's World and part Popular Mechanics.

Paula Gloria, according to her official biography, runs a foundation. Where does the money come from? What is the Concordia Foundation really?

She, we are told, made a fortune in Cellular Spectrum Bandwidth Auctions, an absurdly implausible explanation for how dumb blond New Age hippie came into unexpected wealth.

She, we must accept on faith, has very little money to spend yet enjoys a constant flow of house guests at her fashionable Manhattan apartment.

She is a regular participant in King of All Media Howard Stern's "Wack-pack", where she works covertly, one presumes, with the son of a Majestic 12 Scientist Super-hero. Said son also happens to be the cousin of the White House Chief of Staff, and the cousin of a notorious Hollywood Super-Agent, so naturally he has a non-speaking part as a toilet-joke writer for Howard Stern. Hmmm.

Case Officer Paula Gloria's most noteworthy duty in her visible role seems to be to kook-ify 9/11 TV Fakery research. No planers, she claimed on broadcast TV, are twitchy and paranoid.

I believe that she serves as a cut-out between the White House and the wq2rx shill operation.
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Unread post by ozzybinoswald »

fred @ Sep 30 2010, 09:54 AM wrote: She is a regular participant in King of All Media Howard Stern's "Wack-pack", where she works covertly, one presumes, with the son of a Majestic 12 Scientist Super-hero. Said son also happens to be the cousin of the White House Chief of Staff, and the cousin of a notorious Hollywood Super-Agent
ie. Stern writer Benjy Bronk


I'm not sure, but I think Majestic 12 brain scientist Detlev Bronk is his grandfather or his grandfather's brother. Some such relation.
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Unread post by simonshack »

fred 4 Sep 30 2010, 08:54 AM wrote:
Case Officer Paula Gloria's most noteworthy duty in her visible role seems to be to kook-ify 9/11 TV Fakery research. No planers, she claimed on broadcast TV, are twitchy and paranoid.

Yes Fred, that's indeed the tag they so desperately try to stick on us. I discussed this topic some time ago with an Italian friend:




Exchange between Simon Shack and Italian friend (who prefers to remain anonymous)

luglio 2010

Amico italiano: Ehi, ho trovato questo video oggi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_rgGs9cdo ma che diavolo ? questa cosa?? Ace Baker commette suicidio in diretta radiofonica? Ma Ace non era un tuo ‘collega’, quello del video “Ghostplane”?
Simonshack: haha, oddio sì - quella era una penosa performance come tante altre destinate a screditare i ricercatori ‘no-plane’ e farli tutti passare per matti o squilibrati? Come sai, periodicamente se ne inventano una nuova, qualche melodramma scemo - uno scoop insomma - e tutti a dire “eh lo vedi, son tutti pazzi questi ricercatori”?
Amico italiano: ah ah non ci posso credere! Ma allora possiamo aspettarci di tutto nel futuro, che ne so, qualche tua collega che ad un tratto giura di conoscere un vicsim, magari di famiglia sua?.?
Simonshack: si, dobbiamo aspettarcelo prima o poi - è solo una questione di tempo. Vedrai che qualche ‘collega’ di lunga data tirerà fuori una cosa del genere? o magari che qualche suo familiare viene ucciso in circostanze drammatiche in qualche incidente - e noi dobbiamo tutti fargli le condoglianze!
Amico italiano: haha e scommetto che sarà tutto riportato alla grande nei media !!
Simonshack: esatto ? ;)


(English translation)

July 2010

Italian friend: Hey, I just found this video today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj_rgGs9cdo what the hell is this all about? Ace Baker commits suicide on a live radio show? But wasn’t Ace a ‘colleague’ of yours, the one of the “Ghostplane” video?
Simonshack: haha, omg yes ? that was a pitiful performance like many others designed to discredit the’ no-plane’ researchers and make them look mad or deranged?As you know, they periodically invent some new stuff, some silly melodrama ? in other words a scoop ? and everyone goes “heh, you see, all those researchers are plain crazy”?
Italian friend: ha ha unbelievable! So we can expect just about anything in the future, what do I know, like one of your colleagues that suddenly starts swearing that he knows a vicsim, maybe in his own family?...
Simonshack: yes, we’ll have to expect that sooner or later - it’s just a question of time. Expect some longstanding ‘colleague’ to pull off something like that - or maybe one of his own family members gets killed in dramatic circumstances in some accident..and we’ll all have to offer our condolences !
Italian friend: haha and I bet it’ll all be covered by the media in a big way!!
Simonshack: exactly? ;)


In all likelihood, there must be a great deal of fuming brains at work at this very moment, frantically plotting to come up with some 'genius move' to discredit the Vicsim research in one way or another. Let's wait and see - I expect it to be hilarious and well worth the wait!
http://www.septemberclues.org
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