http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Wed, 21 Jul 2004 17:19:45 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/21/171945.php H. Wayne NixBritish Telephone's internet service has been using a filter that blocks attempted access to child porn sites. That's a good thing.But then they go around quoting numbers that sound like bullshit. This article states that they block more than 20,000 hits per day to child porn sites. This one, though, states that it's 40,000 hits. This news article, claims only 10,000. Is that number single access attempts from multiple users or many attempts from very few users? All the articles agree that the total number of blocked attempts for 3 weeks was 250,000. So, a little simple math states that the average number of attempts was 11,904. So, is it bad math or sensationalism that's driving these stories? 12,000 hits per day isn't that many. Consider that many porn and mainstream sites recieve in excess of one million hits per day. Also, how many of those hits were made by the same few people over and over?These stories seem to be implying that the net is infested with pedophiles, when that's just not the case. Porn webmasters even have a site and an organization, ASACP, that fights child porn. Culture17684@blogcritics.org Wed, 21 Jul 2004 17:19:45 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/17/163645.php H. Wayne Nix This review was written by my wife, Heather Nix. This book is great for anyone interested in learning the lineage of Egyptian Deity. The book goes into ka, sekhem,and the Heavenly Kine. The word ka is usually defined as double.The ka is a kind of spirit twin of each person in the spirit world. The sekhem relates to the ka in that sekhem is usually defined as power. So, my understanding is that ka and sekhem are basically one and the same. The Heavenly Kine relate to the Hindu Kundalini-yoga chakra system.Although ancient Egyptians did not usually cast circles, that being a later invention, this book tells how to cast egyptian style circles for the modern witch. It gives information on opening, closing and other details of circle casting. There is a pronunciation guide for difficult words like neteru. Also the important difference between invocation and evocation. It talks about totem animals and how to do magical workings with them. Then it tells of the egyptian pantheon, the Heliopolitan Ennead, of Ra-Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. It tells you that Ra-Atum is the beginning or creator and from his masturbation came Shu and Tefnut.Then comes Geb (the earth) and Nut (the sky) Twins, son and daughter or Shu and Tefnut. Geb is the twin brother of Nut. He is also the Father of Osiris and Isis, Set, Nephthys.Nut is the twin sister of Geb. From Geb come Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. The Pyramid Texts state that "none of these entities is separate from him, Atum." This is a great breakdown of the lineage for anyone! After reading this Egyptian history made much more sense for me. It breaks down each deity in detail with each having its own special focus. There are invocation passages for some deities, with a reply and closing ritual for some of them. The ones with replies can be used as the charge in Wiccan rites. It has a chapter for each of the following deities: Ra-Atum, Amun, Ptah, Neith, Khnum,Thoth,Hathor,Sekhmet and Bast, Shu, Maat, Nut, Geb, Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, Horus the Elder, Harsiesis, Anubis, Min, Khonsu, and Imhotep. Egyptian Paganism for beginners has a lot of useful information for anyone. Books17549@blogcritics.org Sat, 17 Jul 2004 16:36:45 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/15/232444.php H. Wayne NixThis isn't any sort of Tanya Donelly I've heard before. Admittedly I've not heard any of her solo albums, though. Her work with her sister in the group Throwing Muses was harsh, jangling noise. Her work with Belly was bouncy pop. This isn't anything like that. The first thing that came to mind when I heard Whiskey Tango Ghosts is torch songs and crooners. It's all very romantic. Like love songs from the 40's by women jazz singers. It's like Dido with more guitar, Sarah Maclachlan with a less operatic voice. It's as if she went back in time and threw away everything that influenced her before. She got rid of all the punk and pop that was the essence of her sound and started over. This sounds like Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, maybe just a touch of Patsy Cline (there's steel guitar in several songs). It makes you wonder what she's been through in the past ten years to change her sound so profoundly. I would read a bio to find out if she's been through a divorce or had children, just to see if her life had really changed in some profound way. But I won't do that. Bio's never really tell you what's happened, just what the Public Relations weasels want you to hear. Music17494@blogcritics.org Thu, 15 Jul 2004 23:24:44 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/13/153451.php H. Wayne NixIt's official, Britney is over. I posted a pic of Brit's nipple coming out and no one even cares. My site is getting more hits from people looking for nude shots of Macy Gray, if you can believe it. It's over. No one cares. She's getting a lot of attention from the tabloids about her marriages...but that will be it. When this burst of attention is over she's done. She'll try to do a Madonna and reinvent herself, but she won't pull it off. What's she going to do? Be punk rock Britney? Yoga Britney? Dominatrix Britney? It's like putting new outfits on a Barbie doll: it's still a Barbie underneath. How did Barbie do it? How has she stayed popular for all these years? By never growing up. By being plastic. Something Britney, since she's actually human, can never do. Music17404@blogcritics.org Tue, 13 Jul 2004 15:34:51 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/10/024136.php H. Wayne NixI've looked all over for this book. Amazon doesn't have it. Powell's doesn't. No one on the internet does. I've emailed the author and also Bruce Sterling and apparently they're so much better than me that they can't respond to my emails. The book I'm looking for is Freezone by John Shirley. An excerpt of it was printed in the anthology Mirrorshades. Was this book ever even printed? I can't find it anywhere. If any of you have it please let me know. I'm not going to pay an arm and a leg for it. It's really the sort of thing that should be .50 cents at the used book store. But I will pay a reasonable price. Books17295@blogcritics.org Sat, 10 Jul 2004 02:41:36 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/07/07/150650.php H. Wayne NixFleshbot is sponsoring a "War on Pornography". Did you know that "pornography is more addictive than alcohol, cigarettes or illicit drugs?" Or that "one in five children ages 10 to 17 has received sexual solicitations while on the Internet" - and that, by extension, pornography per se is equivalent to pedophilia? Or that "over 80% of Americans are in favor of clamping down on Internet Pornography?" Neither did we. Nor can we find any sources to back up most of the claims made by an alliance of "several U.S. and Canadian organizations" that announced a "War on Pornography" campaign in Utah yesterday. Someone has to fight the good fight, don't they? Culture17209@blogcritics.org Wed, 7 Jul 2004 15:06:50 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/26/021019.php H. Wayne NixDo you want a gmail account? I have two invitations left. I will trade one for one of these things. Customize phpbb so that it can rotate banner adds on the pages. Or, a contest. The person who designs the best logo or banner ad for this site, www.sxxxy.org, recieves a gmail account. I'm partial to devil girls. A devil girl logo would be cool. Also I like evil looking little faeries. But whatever.Email me, nyx@sxxxy.org, for details. Blogcritics needs money, so buy something. Culture16844@blogcritics.org Sat, 26 Jun 2004 02:10:19 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/06/15/010127.php H. Wayne NixThink marriage is sacred and homosexuality is an abomination? Well, God has these other laws he wants you to follow, too.An Excerpt: "Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? Bring all of God's law unto the heathens and the sodomites. We call upon all Christians to join the crusade against Long John Silver's and Red Lobster. Yea, even Popeye's shall be cleansed. The name of Bubba shall be anathema. We must stop the unbelievers from destroying the sanctity of our restaurants."Oh, and blogcritics needs money, so buy a tv. Culture16530@blogcritics.org Tue, 15 Jun 2004 01:01:27 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/21/001826.php H. Wayne NixYou democrats want a real nightmare? If it wasn't bad enough that George Sr. somehow got the runt of his litter elected president imagine if it continued....Jenna Bush is eligible to run for president in 2038. The 40th anniversary of the reign of the first King George. Don't think Jenna is presidential material? No one though Georgie W was, either, until his miraculous conversion to whatever kind of Christian he's supposed to be. BTW, I'm just posting this to see if I can stir up a war. Sound familiar? Bring it on! Culture15842@blogcritics.org Fri, 21 May 2004 00:18:26 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/05/19/004129.php H. Wayne NixNetwork Security Assesment by Chris McNab is mostly pointless. It's stated purpose is to enable security conscious web admins to test their own security by running probes. I don't see the point of putting this in a book, though. It's not for beginners, it's much to difficult to understand for that. But it's not for more advanced admins, either. Mostly it's just a list of bugs and exploits that networks are vunerable to and some ways of testing your own network for these vunerablities. The problem is that any admin worth his salt would be subscribed to half a dozen bug fix and security mailing lists already. So why buy the book? You could get most of this info by looking through the slashdot archives. So what's the point of this book? Mostly so an ex-hacker can sell his consulting business. The author is a former black hat system cracker in his teen years who is now trying to make it in the consulting business. It would look really good on a resume or brochure to say you literally "wrote the book" on network security. Save your money, just do a google search on network security and trawl usenet. Books15777@blogcritics.org Wed, 19 May 2004 00:41:29 EDT