Scylla Rhiadra

Yeah, thank god for incompetence. But at least it's cheap, automated incompetence: you'd have to pay someone truly prodigious sums to be as wrong about the stuff that gets posted on my FB feed as these algorithms are.

Wow, the spam here is . . . impressive. No wonder this place is an echo chamber now: who can be heard over THIS? Mind you, it seems pretty fertile ground for a feminist. I'm sure that our Mumbai pimp is paying close attention to his posts, just waiting for an intelligent discussion about the sex trade in developing nations . . . :matte-motes-big-grin-evil:

Thanks Storm. Just a quick visit on a slow morning is all. :-)

I'm sort of suffering from outrage fatigue myself. And this is, I suppose, pretty small potatoes compared to what we know about the NSA and really big players like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Ultimately, how much safer is our privacy if it is only Silicom Valley that is mining our data and turning us into marketable algorithms? Should we trust huge unaccountable corporations more than we trust a government that is, at least in theory, responsible to the people it represents? I don't really have an answer for that: they both seem vile. What IS a bit surprising is that this occurred under Rosedale's watch. Rosedale was supposed to be the great libertarian, remember? How the hell did HE reconcile this with what SL supposedly stood for?

For all intents, most of us are.

I kind of like the idea of a furry from the NSA unknowingly cybering with a vampire from MI5, perhaps while an operative from Interpol uses a tiny to alt-click and watch. SL worked very hard, at one point, to sell itself to the military as a good place for training and planning. So, yeah, this is only a little new.

Ugh. Creepy. But again, perhaps, unsurprising. University research (and teaching, for that matter) is only "important" nowadays if it produces something that the government can use, or that can be patented and monetized. These are much more valuable than, you know, "educating people." I do wonder how that one got through an ethics review board, though. You'd have thought there'd have been some eyebrows raised, at least. Sadly, for me, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Agency seems uninterested in funding work in either literature or feminist discourse. But I've learned to live with disappointment. Too bad about the forums. The format here is better for establishing a community (even if a bickering one) than feeds. I wonder if this will get pulled for impugning the good name of Cory and SL?

You can expect me to disappear again shortly, Pe . . . I mean, Rudy. This is just a brief excursion. :-) I ran across this story in the Guardian this morning, and found it interesting. It's not, as I note, very surprising, but I'm interested in the connections between the corporate internet and surveillance, so . . . On another note . . . Kind of a ghost town around here now, isn't it?

Well, well, well . . . "In 2007, as the NSA and other intelligence agencies were beginning to explore virtual games, NSA officials met with the chief technology officer for the manufacturer of Second Life, the San Francisco-based Linden Lab. The executive, Cory Ondrejka, was a former Navy officer who had worked at the NSA with a top-secret security clearance. He visited the agency’s headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., in May 2007 to speak to staff members over a brown bag lunch, according to an internal agency announcement. 'Second Life has proven that virtual worlds of social networking are a reality: come hear Cory tell you why!' said the announcement. It added that virtual worlds gave the government the opportunity 'to understand the motivation, context and consequent behaviors of non-Americans through observation, without leaving U.S. soil.' Ondrejka, now the director of mobile engineering at Facebook, said through a representative that the NSA presentation was similar to others he gave in that period, and declined to comment further." I knew that there was something fishy about that bisexual furry skunk. http://www.propublica.org/article/world-of-spycraft-intelligence-agencies-spied-in-online-games

Perrie Juran wrote: Seeing her name mentioned again I had to control my gag reflex. She even trashed her best friend Scylla here on one occasion. She was the epitome of something I've known for a very long time, there is no such thing as a compassionate communist. Wait. Suspiria was my "best friend"???? And she TRASHED ME????? The B*TCH!!! :matte-motes-agape: (And yeah, Suzy was no communist. That'd be me. Well, socialist, but I know we all look alike to you neoLiberals :matte-motes-oh-rly:)

RikThistle wrote: Someone warned me Scylla was back, but I didn't realise she had been on a technical course during her absence. I protest! Not only am I not "back," but I resent the implication that my spelling and grammar are anything LIKE this good.

Thanks, Canoro, for the very sweet reply! I'm not, of course, actually looking to "get banned." This was really a sort of ham-fisted satire on a current and developing . . . um . . . "situation." I'm also not really "back." I just pop in from time to time, and, as I had a bit of spare time, I thought I'd post this. I'm sure I'll continue to turn up here on occasion, like the proverbial bad penny, when time permits or the mood strikes.

I'm sorry, would you mind repeating that slowly? Thanks!

Amaranthim Talon wrote: Damn- I was reveling in the whole Friday Thread feel of this and couldn't help the chill of grammar ghosts past~ Hello folks, from beyond the sands of time... Wow! /me waves . . . er, waives . . . to Amara!

i recent the sugestchun that my misteaks are deliberate!! wut misteaks? and wut dos this haf to doo with geting me banned?

There was, at one point, a memorial chapel at Four Bridges for those who had died in RL (I believe). Might I suggest that you contact millay Freschi in-world, and she should be able to provide some more information on it.

Ceka Cianci wrote: Yew spelled tachments rong.. OMH ROFLCOPTER ...U ned more learn if Yew spect peepoll two unnerstan yew more.. thats a reelly funny way of saying "peeple" do you mind if i use it too?

Perrie Juran wrote: plop scrape plop scrape plop scrape plop scrape plop scrape plop scrape THUD. WOW!!! thats just like one of the questchuns that was asked!!! did U get banned too?

kk cool!!!!! ive got all my atatchments reddy so if it happens and then im with those other peeple im all reddy to goooo! :-) how do you do that chain sound btw??? its veeerry cool!

kaithanx but ive never impersonated a linden cuz ive never reelly met one R they evin aloud to be impersonated? im pritty good at that i think -- at leest ive never had a compliant!!!! *giggle* but ive never evin seen a nakid linden yet a lone one getting impersonated.

So . . . yeah. im not shure if this is rite plase for this but ill poste it hear any ways and U can tel me if im rong kk?? so . . . im at this plase rite? its a bit embarassing but its a plase wehere sum guy is doing lessins in . . . well U no, lessons in how to U no, bee like "initimate" in SL like with a guy rite? giggle!! well its not like i reelly NEED lessins cuz ive bin a round a bit U no? *blush* but U no its kinda fun to here that stuff and i DO lern new stuff too! ANY WAYS -- so the guy gives his tok on how to, U no, "do it" in SL -- and then he says "Are there any questions? I'd like to open this up for a general discussion now, so that we can all learn from each other." (i think there is lots of speling airors in that but i just coppied from chat so its NOT my fahlt! *giggle!) and like IMMIDATELY their R all these questchuns and sum of them were pritty good!!! ;-) but at last this guy asks a questchun -- "What if I want to **** with my gf while she is ****? How do I do that?" and the guy whos giving the lessins says that that questchun is not aloud, and is rude and immorel, and HE BANS THE GUY WHO ASKED THE QUESTCHUN!!! so kk i think thats kinda wierd but its his plase, rite? so i dont say any thing then this time a girl asks a questchun -- "I really enjoy being ****** by *****, while doing a *******. Do you know if there is an animation for that?" and the guy whos giving the lessins says "I won't have that kind of kink discussed here! It's disgusting, and you should be deeply ashamed at having even asked about it." and then SHE gets banned toooo! soo this gos on for a wile longer and by the time hes done the questchuns, hees banned 5 PEOPLE!!!! I thot that REELLY suxed!!! and the peeple who were left were mostly the reelly boring ones who didnt have much to say any way i think that plase sux now and i wont go there agin to lern stuff cuz U cant ask the good questchuns with out U getting banned ANY WAYS the questchun i wanted to ask hear is how do i get banned too? cuz the guys who were banned sounded like they were WAY more fun, and I want to go wear they all went *giggle!!!!!!* thanx!!!!

LOL :smileyvery-happy: Sorry, nothing else to add.

Thanks Ceka! Great tune . . . and important message.

Thanks Snugs. It's frightening, sometimes, how close satire sails to reality. *shudders*

In memory of all of those hundreds of millions -- soldiers and civilians -- who have perished in the last century through the all-too-human illusion that anything is ever solved by war. Time to put the "same old lie" to rest. This is by Wilfred Owen, who died in action on the Western Front on November 4, 1918, "Dulce Et Decorum Est" Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, – My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.