Move over Willy Wonka—Nestle’s museum in Mexico City.
Nestle Chocolate Museum
January 24, 2009
Today Anorak’s been reading
Kyrgyzstan is under a massive denial of service attack
Not many readers of Anroak in Kyrgyzstan. But there may be more then one reason:
Last week IWMP received a phone call from a colleague in Central Asia. Apparently, Kyrgyzstan is under a massive denial of service attack. Three of four ISPs have been taken down, and their upstream providers in Russia, and Kazakhstan are refusing to pass traffic because of the scale of the attacks. At this stage, the motivation appears to be political, and follows several political/mass media websites which have been blocked in the past two weeks by Kyrgyz authorities. The suspicion is that the current DOS attacks are commercial — commissioned and similar to those we reported back in 2005. IWMP will investigate these attacks to see if we can establish any similarities between these attacks and those used against Estonia and Georgia ( as this would indicate the use of commercial botnets). Separately, the blocking of major websites in Kyrgyzstan suggests that IWMP should probably move this country up the relative scale of importance for monitoring cyberwar around the world.
Bring back the pigeons…
Support Park Dae-sung
Another restraint on freedom:
Park Dae-sung, a 31-year-old blogger who shook up officialdom with his economic predictions, was indicted yesterday on charges of spreading false information through the Internet.
Park used the ID “Minerva” as he flooded the Internet with dire predictions on the economy and sharp criticism of the Lee Myung-bak administration.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office charged Park with violating the nation’s electronic communication law in two of his 280 postings.
Obama: The light of the new age is here
Oprah for Obama:
Actor Forest Whitaker summed it up for Oprah: “The light of the New Age is here.” Oprah pal Gayle King passed along her agreement with a message that “Not only does he hear us. He feels us. That when I hear Barack Obama, they said, he talks to my soul.” Whitaker also strangely claimed “we’re not used to seeing” a president and a First Lady who love each other, but the Obamas have signaled “it’s okay to love.”
The Blue Monday myth
Ben Goldacre looks at the Blue Monday myth - Januray 19th, the day when we all want to be anywhere but here and now:
The Sun say “it is officially the most depressing point of the year. The misery of “Blue Monday” was worked out by psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall.” The Express loved it. The Mirror too. “Experts have worked it out” said Channel 4. CBBC fed it to children: “Researchers say the third Monday in January is when people are more unhappy than at any other time in the year.”
When I last criticised Arnall in 2006 (he also has a formula sponsored by Walls for the happiest day, which is in June), Cardiff University wrote to the paper, asking us to point out that he had only been a part-time tutor at the university, and left in February. These efforts to distance themselves from their famous child felt slightly disingenuous since they were also, at the same time, quoting Arnall’s ridiculous appearances proudly in their monthly roundups of the good work done by Cardiff press office to spread scholarship to the people.
I hope they are busy disabusing everyone else this year, including the Daily Mail, of course: “Today - January 19, 2009 - is the most depressing day in HISTORY, say experts. Psychologist Dr Cliff Arnall has devised a mathematical formula that pinpoints today as Blue Monday.”
Meanwhile Martin Hird, a senior lecturer in mental health and psychological therapies at Leeds Metropolitan University, told the Telegraph: “I would guess there is something in it based on the daylight hours and people’s social circumstances.” Right. You’d guess…
In the Daily Mail it’s Blue Monday every day…
The RBS mess
Want a job at £75,000 a year for for a commitment of around two days month?
The nine independent directors of the Royal Bank of Scotland which were supposed to safeguard and check the bank’s operation was safe, legal and correct got just that.
In the Forums…
Barcelona will not respect the Jews
Normblog spots this spot of nonsesne:
An obscenity to fit the zeitgeist and a novel chapter in the never-ending book of lamentations to the effect that criticism of Israel isn’t necessarily anti-Semitic (although it often plainly is):
The Catalunya government has called off the ceremony marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was scheduled to take place on January 27, citing the Israeli offensive in Gaza as the reason.
…..
The overwhelming public support for the Palestinians has prompted the government to cancel the Holocaust Remembrance Day service. This was to be the only public event marking the day, and was scheduled to take place in Barcelona’s central piazza.
“Marking the Jewish Holocaust while a Palestinian Holocaust is taking place is not right,” a local City official told Barcelona’s La Vanguardia newspaper.
This is how it begins.
Gigapan at Obama’s inauguration: spotted
The Gigapan project - up close:
