A soft guitar leads the way into this cozy yet challenging refuge for the mind. Yes, at times this song feels like a shelter. At other times, the shelter is blown away and we’re left experiencing the storm in its unfolding furious beauty. The composition is diverse and the melody goes through several transformations during the song’s 8 minutes, always managing to keep the ear busy and satisfied.
“Jesus, here lies my brother
Tortured and blown
Stretch for the heavens and go
…I watch him go
Here it comes
[…]
And this one’s for the life
This one’s for the funeral in the rain
And if only for tonight
This one’s for the funeral in the rain
The day’s gone and the year’s gone
And I don’t know when I’m coming home
I can’t hold on to what I’ve had
When what I’ve had
There’s nothing left at all…”
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Thanks to climate-change skeptics, we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of talented, driven people doing great research that proves just how real and dangerous climate change really is. Unfortunately, even with the best of intentions, the media has turned the frequent updates from the scientific community into a deluge of climate change news, which led to the audience developing a sort of selective hearing when it comes to this topic. “Yeah, yeah, we’ve heard it all before”. However, here on Mentatul I need to address dozens of topics while keeping at roughly one post per week. This forces me to be very selective about what I post. So yes, this one is important.
Two articles are the reason for this post. The first one is about farts. Cow farts to be precise. The methane that they contain, to be even more precise, and how it affects global warming:
And then I read this other article^ that lead me to another, even better article, which provides a rather appalling prognosis for our future. And it’s not even “the worst case scenario”. I’m sorry to say, but given all the statistics I’ve seen recently, it seems to be that the following article is presenting a future that has a high probability of becoming reality. And I see very few governments do anything about it, especially when it comes to the world’s biggest polluters.
I am tempted to say that you shouldn’t read this if you’re currently feeling good with your life, because this piece is a real downer. But it is also one of the most relevant and well-written articles on climate change that I’ve come across in the past couple of years. This is an alarm bell made of pure gold:
I consider myself lucky to still have running water, electricity and generally healthy food available. In the same time, I feel it is almost disrespectful towards my child to enjoy all this without doing something about the immediate (speaking on a generational level) danger we’re in. I plan to do whatever I can to raise awareness about this topic. It’s never too late.
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Aliens came to Earth some years ago, descended upon Mexico City and, together with two talented musicians, created this little trip for us. It’s true! This is exactly the sort of music aliens are listening to when they sledge it around the galaxy in their party cruiser – mysterious spacey synths, excellent percussion and the all-conquering God-drum. This is a solid thumper that (in my not so humble opinion) shouldn’t be missing from any decent electronica collection.
It is said that “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. Well here’s one guy that did something about the mind poison that is racism (the illusion of separation, taken to the extreme). Some months ago, in the midst of racial tensions at the Air Force Academy, general Jay Silveria delivered a convincing and moving speech against racism:
I am extremely happy when I see that certain people in positions of power take a stand against infectious, debilitating ideologies. As a matter of fact, I’m so happy that I’m going to (almost) ignore the fact that this speech comes from a person that presides over an institution that trains people into the art of killing other people (which is sometimes erroneously called “defending the values we believe in”).
But who knows, maybe the good general will one day hold a lecture against the very concept of war. Judging from this speech only, this is an honorable man that is doing the best he can given the circumstances, which is really all that can be asked from soldiers!
Here’s the YouTube version, in case the other link expires:
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/02612-ImpressiveSpeechRacismJaySilveria-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Impressive Speech against Racism Delivered by American Air Force General’ desc=’Some months ago, in the midst of racial tensions at the Air Force Academy, general Jay Silveria delivered a convincing and moving speech against racism.’]
It’s difficult to make contemporary music work well with symphonic arrangements, but these guys pulled it off quite beautifully on this song. The orchestra is diverse, but used sparingly, increasing its charm and effect. Kelli Dayton’s voice is a pleasure to wrap the ear in. It’s quite hard to believe this song is already 20 years old.
“Straw spun from gold, she craves a tortured soul,
All doom and gloom, she plays an open wound,
She takes every scene they steal,
She fakes every pain they feel,
She must be a Thelma or Louise,
She must be a post-modern tease.”
YouTube (decent quality, longer version with acoustic overtones):
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/01753-SneakerPimpsBecomingX-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Sneaker Pimps – Post-Modern Sleaze’ desc=’Kelli Dayton's voice is a pleasure to wrap the ear in. The orchestra is diverse, but used sparingly, increasing its charm and effect.’]
Once upon a time, governments were major stakeholders in most large-scale technological and scientific ventures. Such projects were either built directly by the government, or by companies in which the people had a lot of say. But all that is far behind us. Now-a-days, government isn’t exactly “the people” anymore. And now, it’s corporations who build the telecommunication infrastructure for tomorrow:
I find it rather sad that as I’m typing this, I am pondering which is worse: having my digital life in the hands of corporations that will exploit it however they see fit, or (/and?) allowing governments to keep encroaching on our privacy and freedom? It’s becoming harder to distinguish between the two, especially as corporations have proven time and again that they can easily buy government.
It’s enough to look at how the political freak-show in the USA (not even a full year into its tragic, 4-years lifespan), is already spreading its tentacles across our civilization like a plagued octopus. The monstrosity is currently busy destroying what was left of “the land of the free”. Here’s how the American FCC (Federal Communications Commission) plans to eliminate the Net Neutrality^ laws that the Obama administration painstakingly managed to get through:
They call it “Restoring Internet Freedom”, and as the article above points out, the name is laughable. But then again, given the state of education worldwide (which leads to generalized compliance), governments can go on with passing draconian laws using these disgusting euphemisms.
Here are some even better law names that I’m putting forward so that governments can use in the coming decades:
“Labor Market Liberation” – a law to eliminate those pesky minimum wages.
“Nutritional Defense Initiative” – outlaws all ecological products, so that there can be no competition to industrialized, dangerous food.
“Empowering Citizen Security” – a law that allows citizens to spy on each other for as long as they report to a central authority. I bet they’re going to call that central authority the Situational Technical Assistance for Solidarity Initiative (STASI).
I can come up with more, but I think I made my point.
[ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/02607-HowCorporationsOwnInternet-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’How Corporations Get to Own the Internet’ desc=’Once upon a time, governments were major stakeholders in most large-scale technological and scientific ventures.’]
Throughout the past years there have been several high-profile occasions when apps were in the news for questionable tracking strategies. Even applications that do not use novel means of compromising our privacy are gobbling up increasing amounts of data while their creators cash in on the profits obtained from selling the user’s digital life^ to the highest bidder. At the receiving end of this deluge of spyware are we, the people.
Even for those of us that do read the list of permissions an app requests upon installation, it is hard to avoid installing certain apps because they come with other features that we need. It’s an old trick that is akin to the Trojan horse. This is how these dubious app creators get in our back yard: by offering something that is 90% useful and 10% spyware, but which must be accepted as a whole.
Devious solutions for the same old need
Smartphone espionage has gotten very clever as of late. Check these two^stories^ about ultrasonic tracking. According to one research, hundreds of Android apps with an install base in the millions include a library that is used for this purpose. The way this works is by listening to ultrasonic audio “beacons” implanted in advertisements. Humans can’t normally hear sound in this range, but smartphones’ microphones can.
When a user has one such application running and an advertisement that includes an ultrasonic marker plays on TV or anywhere around the user (for example radio or an ultrasound-emitting advertisement panel in a shopping mall), the app can make an association between the user and the played content. This can be used for simple tasks such as sending a unique ID back to a service which then sends a shop’s deals to a user, but it can just as well include a lot of other information about the device and its owner.
Some of the things this system can achieve are rather worrying. For example, it can be used for determining a user’s (approximate) location even if the GPS is turned off or out of range. This can be done by having a particular advertisement panel emit a unique ultrasound beacon. This can later be used to determine when the user is in its proximity. The system can also be used to track a user’s TV-watching habits without consent. Some of these uses are legitimate though, like pushing advertisement and coupons to somebody that has given their consent for using this “feature”. A few such apps disclose the tracking prominently. But this is usually not the case.
More recently, the Uber app was found to be capable to record portions of the iPhone screen^. The company defended itself saying that this was done in order to send images with maps to the iWatch (using the iPhone to render the map because the iWatch lacked the required performance). There’s a gazillion ways this can go wrong not if but when hackers manage to leverage this capability in order to steal passwords and other sensitive information. The feature was reportedly removed but it still shows exactly what the smartphone really is. And there’s no way to sugar coat this…
The smartphone is a surveillance device
Economically, it is used by corporations to mine data^ out of people and use it to manipulate them into buying products. The smartphone grew into a fascinating tool for mass surveillance because it comes with a bunch of features that users really want. I mean, it’s really nice to have a browser and a video camera available at all times, right? Except that all these “free” apps are just a gateway for companies that are tracking users ever since advertisers figured how to use our digital lives against us and our vulnerable minds.
Currently, the goal most of these companies have is to get us online for as much time as possible. As for the camera and the other (many) sensors inside a phone, we might end up not being the only ones controlling them. There are innumerable cases of this technology being used with criminal intent. There’s only need for one backdoor to take control of our devices and that backdoor’s existence is ensured by the producers of these devices.
Governments will of course not oppose this (they’ll even encourage it^) because the greatest concern of a government is to maintain its appearance as a legitimate organization. Investigative journalists^ and whistle-blowers^ have greatly damaged governments^ and corporations as of late. By increasing surveillance capabilities under various pretexts, governments and corporations hope to prevent the next public relations scandal. I’m not even blaming them; they’re just trying to survive^. But people who realize they’ve been sold behind closed doors won’t remain the loyal followers that these entities need in order to justify their existence.
To make things easier for themselves, governments will make sure they also have access^ to whatever technologies are deployed on these devices. One problem, however, is that the citizens of one country may use devices produced in another country. What is the percentage of electronics we manufacture in Asia? And then there’s this thing about hardware backdoors^.
Innocent bystanders
A few days ago I was waiting in line for an old lady that wanted to change the battery of her phone. It was a keypad phone of the kind considered modern 15 years ago. The image of her sitting there in front of the cashier will stay with me for a long time because, in an instant, my mind ran through the entire planned obsolescence racket^ and understood the inevitable verdict that will be given by the system this woman fell prey to.
In the past years I’ve become increasingly aware of the hideousness of hyper-consumerism^. But this situation has put a face on it. Of course, the shop couldn’t help her. The only option for the old lady was to switch to some other phone, most probably with a non-replaceable battery, so she can be forced to change it every few years. Not to mention she must adapt to new software every time it happens and probably be at the receiving end of automatic updates that will change features in her phone, which is exactly what an old lady wants from her device (not!).
With corporations making money from data and with governments drooling over the private lives of its citizens, it’s no wonder that phones with replaceable batteries have disappeared off the market (using “water resistance” as a cheap excuse). Yes, there is a likely connection between forcing people to upgrade their phones and the need to make sure that those people voluntarily carry around the latest and greatest in spying technology in their pocket. Hey, some people will even queue for days and pay outrageous amounts for these things.
Reasons & solutions
But why is it like this? The answer is terrible in its cruel simplicity. These are the rules of the Human Game^ at this point in time. What’s terrible is that even though we are directly responsible for creating and tolerating these rules, we also face an extremely powerful opposition to change them. The machine has grown into a huge, lumbering beast whose behavior harks back to our most ancient instincts, such as the imperious need to survive. Corporations need to earn money. They exist for this purpose and this purposealone. So it is no wonder they buy governments and do whatever it takes in order to survive in the jungle of a (stock) market^ that is the very heart of the machine.
Can this all change? Of course it can. And the solution is wonderful in its beautiful simplicity. We just need to change the criteria with which we purchase goods and services and with which we vote. It’s as simple as that. We need to change the rules of the Human Game. Stock market processes can be changed to encourage responsible and long-term investment. Governments can be encouraged to invest into research and education. Corporations will have no alternative but to transform themselves into entities that value the environment and respect their customers. Because otherwise, nobody will purchase what they’re peddling. There’s only need for one commercial entity in every field to prove that this works. This will generate a mass extinction of the old business model. And it’s us, the consumers, who can trigger and sustain this.
The very reason I write these words is because I strongly believe in this change. And what’s beautiful is that the change doesn’t even need to be sudden (and therefore potentially violent). Actually, it can’t be sudden because this modification in people’s mentality will not occur overnight. It will take time until more of us are ready to champion this cause and for it to spread. But it will happen. Of that, I am sure. I just wish that it will happen before another disaster strikes our civilization.
A lovely (even if sad) wordplay
In closing, here are a few other factoids from the war against privacy (I noticed that ZDNet has a pretty good section about all this):
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“The Consciousness of Love doesn’t understand
The white lies and the alibis of a wicked man
The purity of trust only seeks to find
The truth within the nothingness
Wants me in the oceans of the light
Fill my soul eternally
Solace brings the darkness of the night
And dances in the flame…
Of the consciousness of love
The consciousness of love
The consciousness of love is the patient calm
That stirs within the eye of the perfect storm
The fate of all the lights on the wings of a butterfly
That nothingness is calling
Take me where the ocean meets the light
Blowing in the ecstasy…
Solace brings the darkness of the night
And revels in the flame… Of the consciousness of love”
What happens when these sweet verses meet a vulnerable, honest voice to bless their words and a sprawling, effervescent electronic orchestration? The result is a tune that is absolutely… nutritious. The words are food for thought and the crunchy sound textures are like a shower for the eardrum.
When you’re in search for beautiful vocals coupled with uncompromising instrumentals and good lyrics, look no further than Delerium. One day, or one eternity outside time, I’d like to dance this song together with you. Yes, with you, You!
This Weekly Song entry has been brought from the FaceBook archive of Weekly Song^. This exploration was originally started through a FaceBook page, about 13 months prior to launching Mentatul. Slowly but surely, the entire FaceBook archive will be brought here.
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Whenever news comes in about some sort of data breach or hacked service, we’re often treated with pictures of the assumed perpetrators and how their office (bedroom? garage?) looks. Mentatul managed to get in touch with some of these unique people. They were happy that somebody is interested in their private lives and difficult working conditions.
Let us begin with Paul, a young man from Edinburgh who started hacking banks when he was 15 years old.
Paul
We asked Paul about why he decided to become a hacker and about his daily routine:
“I knew I am destined to be a hacker when I realized that simply by looking at a computer screen I could see zeros and ones fly out of it, along with words such as “password”, “identity theft” and “data security”. I then turned to the Hacker Fraternity and they told me only precious few have this talent, which they call The Gift. They told me I’m a natural.”
“But even with such talent, my job is very difficult. I always have to dress in a menacing yet stylish outfit. Wearing gloves makes typing difficult. The sunglasses force me to crank the screen brightness for my laptop all the way to the max. It seriously impacts battery life.”
Another interesting story is that of m4~, a housewife from Kansas who started hacking out of boredom.
m4~
“Watching cats and dogs videos on Facebook gets old after a while, so I took a course in hacking. Suddenly, whenever I was looking at computer screens, a blue mist enveloped me, and I could see passwords fly through it. After winning a recipe website hacking contest, the Hacker Fraternity awarded me with this special hoodie that makes me disappear when I’m hacking. The dramatic effect is important for online success. The only problem is that my son got scared a couple of times when he saw mommy disappear in a dark blue haze when she turned on her laptop.”
And then there’s Ulf, the boy-wonder from Switzerland who makes a living by stealing Bitcoins from rich.
Ulf
“One day I found this special magnet that attracts Bitcoin straight from the wireless networks of the rich. During the usual two-hour ride in my black van throughout the priciest neighborhoods in central Switzerland, I make about $4000.”
Through our correspondent in New Zealand we got to know The Grewsome Crew, two siblings from Auckland. We asked them to tell us if they know of any good hackers that are able to do their job without this natural gift of seeing ones, zeros and cryptic symbols when they touch a keyboard.
The Grewsome Crew
“Not really, no. Only those with The Gift can make it out there,” said the brother using a vocal distortion filter. His sister filled in: “It’s very tough competition. Sometimes the only thing that makes the difference is the hoodie. It also helps if you have a map of the Earth in your secret bunker. It’s good for geotagging victims.”
Then there are those that, in addition to The Gift, have additional Gifts, such as p00r 0wn3r. He called us through a network of crypted relays and refused to give his location but judging by his English accent, we can safely assume he’s from a French-speaking area of the world.
p00r own3r
“You see, I was born with a severe eyesight handicap, so I learned Braille. Soon after finishing gymnasium I realized that I can come up with the correct password simply by touching text boxes on the screen. It’s called “tactic decryption” and there are very few of us that have this gift.”
Concluding our series of interviews, we discussed with one of the unfortunate hackers who do not have The Gift. Meet Ovidiu from Moldavia.
Ovidiu
“Not having The Gift complicates my life. I must always use fancy lights and a fog machine to be even able to bypass the simplest security measures. If I wear an expensive suit in combination with a thick balaclava I can look threatening enough to manage some simple weekend heists. I’ve been kinda depressed due to all this.”
Mentatul, be careful what you’re writing. This is your first warning from S3Kr3T. I uploaded a picture of me to warn you that I can own this website whenever I want.
That’s all folks, a glimpse into the unique lives of those that force you to change passwords every now and then, and sometimes even manage to siphon money from your bank accounts.
If you want to see more pictures with hackers, just follow this simple Google search:
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This is one little marvelous dark gem. It serves its goods on the same plate with pinpricks of lighter, lively sounds, but these are only offered to emphasize the overall somber mood. Without any lyrics to tell stories about the motorcycle cop, distorted male voices, the occasional siren and motor sounds make an excellent job of constructing an atmosphere that gives an efficient, wordless message.
You can listen to the melody for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did purchase Power Glove’s album :).
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