Category Archives: Websites

Birth of a fetish: Boston's Girls 4 Ganja

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One of the Girls 4 Ganja. Photo: Scott Gacek

One of the Girls 4 Ganja. Photo: Scott Gacek

Scott Gacek has a stoner’s dream job: Taking pictures of attractive young women, and getting blazed with them on New England’s beaches, and in other interesting spots around Boston.

Gacek started his website to raise money for MassCann and others fighting to legalize pot in Massachusetts.

But Gacek, a professional photographer who’s shot for virtually every major Boston news outlet, is just not doing Girls 4 Ganja for the money–at least not for himself.

Gacek wants folks to know that the “girl next door” might just be a toker, too:

New friends. Photo: Scott Gacek

New additions to the G4G lineup. Photo: Scott Gacek

“They are courageous, willing to come out of the “cannabis closet” and tell the world “I SMOKE MARIJUANA”. And hell, they look great doing it.

The models featured on Girls4Ganja come from all walks of life. Some are students, some are working professionals. Like most marijuana smokers, they are contributing members of society, who are viewed as “criminals” only because of the plant they choose to smoke

via Girls 4 Ganja :: Real Girls. Real Ganja..

Gacek is also working on a 2010 G4G calender, which will feature a mix of his own photos, and self-submissions.

Colorful, cute, creative and useless

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Protesters on the Web and in the streets might believe they are making changes, but they’d be wrong.

(Hello, worthless: For all of their viral videos, chain emails, outlandish performances and guerrilla visual marketing campaigns, the new generation of dissenters have little to brag about. Photo: 2004 Democratic National Convention protesters, by Mark Baard)

from Mark:

The Denver Post, citing their “funky fusion of protest, performance and pompoms,” suggests that protesters are changing their tactics for the YouTube generation. (See excerpt and link, below.) But when young protesters hit the Democratic Convention this summer, they will be corralled into the same caged protest zone I saw at the 2004 in Boston.

And the devastating impacts to Americans of the so-called War on Terror, failing banks and foreclosures, and the emerging police state have never been worse.

Indeed, the mass protests that elsewhere and at other times have forced governments to reverse their unpopular decisions, are completely absent from the American scene. Instead, food riots

That is because, as secret societies historian Alan Watt often notes in his radio programs and audio blurbs, governments and corporations generate apathy as often as they use terror to control the masses.

New generation plans dissent – The Denver Post
A nude-in with bare bodies arranged to spell “PEACE,” traffic- stopping bike blockades, music with a message. Civil disobedience, direct confrontation, radical cheerleading.

That funky fusion of protest, performance and pompoms.

The new generation of activists, and the daisy-in-the-rifle protesters who birthed them, is busy with creative ferment, organizing public dissent for the Democratic National Convention here in August. They are motivated by the desire to create social change with people power, not political power, frustrated by a mounting list of problems, from the housing crisis to soaring prices for gas and food.

Cape Cod licenses go to the devil

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(A powerful figure: Some want 666 on their headstones, others their license plates. Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, Ireland. Photo: Leo Reynolds)

The Mark of the Beast is making big bucks for Cape Cod Charities this summer (link, excerpt, below). Bids for the plates (28 to-date) are exceeding the $600 mark. Other “lucky” numbers, such as 888 (eight is lucky in China), are doing equally well in the bidding for new “custom” license plates from the Commenwealth of Massachusetts.

Cape license plate bidding goes apocalyptic – BostonHerald.com
Devilish drivers are burning up an online auction in a bidding war over plate 666.

It’s all part of the Cape & Islands license plate auction that lasts until Aug. 1.

Plate numbers 1 through 999 are up for grabs with the sign of the devil leading the way as of yesterday, the first day of bidding.

The most popular plate in the auction, 666, known as the devil’s number, has grabbed at least 24 bidders looking to ride under the mark of the beast.

Google hating on Obama haters

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Obama appears to have the kabillion-dollar internet company hypnotized, too.

From Mark:

Google denies that it is spiking Blogger users for their anti-Obama rants. And at least one credulous blogger (below) seems to be taking the company at its word.

But given Google’s iffy track record looking after its users’ interests, I say it is too soon to suggest Hilary diehards should feel embarrassed.

Bloggasm » All aboard the Hyperbole Express
Their explanation is certainly interesting, and if true it means that Obama supporters had absolutely nothing to do with the Blogspot lockdowns.

I bet a few anti-Obama folks who thought they had discovered Hitler 2.0. might be feeling a little silly right now. Of course Miguel told me that Google wasn’t really elaborating much on this issue, and their claims sound a little suspicious, but wouldn’t it be ironic if they were telling the truth and the blogs were flagged simply because of the mass emailing?

Social networkers: Don't be suckers

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The more you play, the more they pry

Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

A warning to all you social networking, or “Web 2.0″, junkies out there: This kid (Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg) and his coding pals are not your friends. Photo: “Scott Beale / Laughing Squid,” at laughingsquid.com. – mb

Practically all of the stupid games, quizzes, widgets and apps used by Facebook social networkers scoop-up more personal data than they need, and keep that data longer than they should, without notifying users.

A University of Virginia study found recently that 90 percent of the most popular apps (UVa looked at 150 of them) rip-off Facebookers’ personal data.

Here’s a link and excerpt to some recent coverage of the case study’s release:

Privacy Lives » Blog Archive » Social Networking Sites’ Applications Gather Users’ Personal Data
“Facebook fanatics who have covered their profiles on the popular social networking site with silly games and quirky trivia quizzes may be unknowingly giving a host of strangers an intimate peek at their lives,” reports the Washington Post. A couple of weeks ago, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (“CIPPIC”) filed a complaint (pdf) against Facebook alleging 22 violations of Canadian law (which I blogged about here). The Privacy Commissioner of Canada has launched an investigation. The BBC discusses security vulnerabilities in these applications here. CNet News and others have reported on the problems surrounding this kind of data-gathering from social networking sites and third-party application creators.

CEOs zeroing-in on Facebookers

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A powerful organization headed by the CEOs of the world’s largest corporations are looking to Facebook and other social networks as a means to get further inside consumers’ heads.

The Conference Board, which includes top executives from Merck, Alcoa, Deutsche Bank and Yale University, said this week that the social networks’ “cheery atmosphere(s)” make them an ideal place to make brand impressions.

“Obtaining information about others” is one of a consumer’s most positive online experiences, according to the Conference Board, which also produces the the oft cited Consumer Confidence Index.

Marketers, schooled in the positive psychology movement popularized by Marty Seligman, are typically obsessed with consumers’ feelings. They seek to be associated with strong emotional triggers, preferably positive ones.

Advertisers, for example, pressured news organizations to kill the bad news reports coming out of Afghanistan after 9/11, and to replace them with positive stories.

Consumer Internet Barometer – The Conference Board
Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: “Online social networking is an integral part of many people’s lives and a natural extension of our means of communication which the Internet has created. The next growth wave will be expanding and incorporating these networks into our business lives.”

Sci-Fi cover for a real-life agenda?

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A Second Life transhumanist, despite her sim’s ties to movement leaders and government agencies, insists it’s all “science fiction.”

Fishers of pre-posthumans? Second Lifers drop a line in the Extropia sim. (Image: From the Extropia Core website)

by Mark Baard

One of the founders of Extropia said this week denied she is propagating any ideology through the online sim.

Extropia founder and blogger “Galatea Gynoid,” as she’s known in Second Life, this week posted a rebuttal to “certain people” (see excerpt, below) who see more to the sim than an evolving work of pure fiction.

Extropia is an area within Second Life where people, via their 3D avatars, gather to discuss transhumanism, science and science fiction.

Gynoid says she started Extropia so that she and like-minded Second Lifers might enjoy an alternative to the depressing, dystopian sims they found elsewhere in the metaverse.

But Gynoid, by trying to have it both ways, may be trying to duck criticism from those who see the transhumanist agenda at work in Extropia.

By co-hosting events with real life (RL) transhumanists and U.S. government agencies, for example, it is clear that Extropia is more than fiction. It is also a meeting place for believers.

Extropia co-hosted a NASA “future forum” on May 14. And in two weeks, the sim will host a technology and religion conference meant to “re-cast our understanding of ‘humanity’ in the Third Millennium.”

Why “Extropia”? | Extropia Core
There are certain people out there who are insisting you need to subscribe to a particular ideology to be welcome here. The funny thing is, the majority of the Board of Directors wouldnt [sic] be allowed in Extropia if what they said is true. I myself, the founder and owner of the sims, would not be allowed in Extropia if what they said was true. Its utterly, patently ridiculous.

Why just help a neighbor…

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…when you can take his money, too?

Zilok.com, a new service launched today, is not only a stupid idea for anyone who owns a home (granted, it might help apartment dwellers in a pinch), it is a depressing sign of hard economic times.

The service suggests that — instead of sharing your lightly-used weed whacker with a neighbor, for example — you can charge him for it.

The car safety seat pictured here, for example, is available for rent in the San Francisco State University area for eight bucks per day, which makes no economic sense whatsoever.

Zilok also says (natch) that you will be doing right by the environment, because your customers will be buying less stuff. (One reason: By renting everything, and never owning anything, they will stay poor.)

No Boston-area items were available for rent as of noon today. — mb

Zilok Official USA Launch!
Keep it local and be a green hero
By simply renting things you aren’t using to people in your area, you cut down on conspicuous consumption and encourage the reuse of everyday household items and electronics. With Zilok you help save on the natural resources needed to produce more stuff.

“Inspired by conservation and green movements in Europe, Zilok is the fun way to tackle over-consumption while expanding everyone’s access to the things they want and need—whether that is a scooter or Wii, a ratchet set or a tuxedo” offered Gary Cige, Cofounder and CEO of Zilok.

Google's gone evil with street views

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What a bummer. Googler users are ogling shots like this one, from a residential neighborhood in San Francisco.

Google says its new, ground-level street views (reportedly taken from atop dusty old vans cruising city streets) will be a boon for tourism and local businesses in major cities.

But Google’s point-by-point photos, shaped into navigable 3D panoramas for internet consumption, also cover residential neighborhoods.

The company tells AFP (clip and excerpt, below) it is only taking its photos from public property, which is splitting hairs.

Photographing people in public places is legal in the United States, the AFP story points out. But photographing non-newsworthy people in their homes and private spaces, and in embarrassing moments, crosses a line.

clipped from rawstory.com
“What Google does is not illegal, but irresponsible,” said Rebecca Jeschke of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a US non-profit group dedicated to defending Internet freedom and privacy.”Google Street View technology has been an intrusion of privacy to many people captured in their pictures. They could have waited until they developed technology that would allow them to obscure peoples’ faces.”