OXYTOCIN

brianmichaelbendis:

X-men Battle of the Atom 50th anniversary event art by ART ADAMS! first look!!

thepeoplesrecord:

Justice for PayPal WikiLeaks protesters: Why DDoS is free speech
January 23, 2013

There is no weapon on the planet more powerful than speech.

In recent years, the digital revolution has led to new and unique ways for people to express themselves, and speech has flourished around the world, bringing it closer together. As a lawyer and as someone who promotes the advancement of individual liberties, I was fascinated by the advent of online speech, which was quickly followed by the advent of online protest.

While affixing your e-signature to an online petition is a new and somewhat direct way to “petition your government for a redress of grievances”, I am most concerned with advocating for more immediate and effective manners of protest. So naturally, I was interested when, in December 2010, the hacktivist collective Anonymous voiced their displeasure with PayPal, over that company’s part in the banking blockade of Wikileaks.

A reported 10,000 protesters around the world took to the internet with a protest method known as DDoS (distributed denial of service) – the functional equivalent of repeatedly hitting the refresh button on a computer. With enough people refreshing enough times, the site is flooded with traffic, slowed, or even temporarily knocked offline. No damage is done to the site or its backing computer system; and when the protest is over, the site resumes business as usual.

This is not “hacking”. It is protest, and it is speech.

True, customers of the site are temporarily inconvenienced, but democracy is often messy and inconvenient. Moreover, the voice of your fellow citizen should always be worth slowing down to hear for a moment. Exposure to new or differing views enriches us all. Such was the case with the 2010 PayPal DDoS protest.

Or it was … until the United States government decided to serve 42 warrants and indict 14 protesters. While protest charges have typically been seen as tantamount to nuisance crimes, like trespassing or loitering, these were different. The 14 PayPal defendants, some of whom were teenagers when the protest occurred, find themselves looking at 15 years in federal prison – for exercising their free speech rights; for redressing their grievances to PayPal, a major corporation; for standing up for what they believed was right.

Instead of being handed a $50 fine, as one would face for traditional protest crimes such as a sit-in, the PayPal defendants’ freedoms are in real jeopardy. To address this situation, there was some more traditional, yet still modern speech aimed at the White House. An online petition has been launched, asking that DDoS be treated as speech – a concept I wholeheartedly support. Being mindful that all protest must be reasonable in time, place, and manner, I believe that there is room in cyberspace, indeed in the world, for this type of protest activity.

The example of the PayPal protest provides a good analogy for why DDoS is speech. In the 1960s, civil rights protesters went to the Woolworth’s lunch counter in the segregated American south because they sought to make a point by asserting their right to buy a simple meal – much as protesters went to PayPal because they wanted to donate to WikiLeaks. In Woolworth’s, the protesters made plain their goal: “If you serve me a meal, I will eat it, pay for it, and then I will leave.” This concept was lost on the Jim Crow south, so protest became necessary.

Certainly, our contemporary situation is a long way from that struggle against deep, historic injustice – no one suggests otherwise – but the analogy is apt nonetheless. Thousands of PayPal protesters said, via their protest speech in DDoS form: “I want to make a donation to WikiLeaks; I’ll take up my bandwidth to do that, then I’ll leave. You’ll make money, I’ll feel fulfilled, everyone wins.”

Alas, PayPal and its parent company, eBay, were not in the win-win business. They were in the censorship business, which is not somethingAnonymous suffers lightly – especially as PayPal has a history of taking donations for questionable organizations, like the National Vanguard (a national socialist group) and Americans for the Truth About Homosexuality (an anti-LGBT group), yet won’t process donations for WikiLeaks.

So, it came to pass that thousands of displeased people, all around the globe, expressed their outrage via a DDoS protest. All the PayPal protesters did was take up some bandwidth. PayPal claimed – almost as a cry of victory – that their site never even went offline. In that example, DDoS was used as an almost pure form of protest expression – therefore it was speech and should be recognized and protected as such. The law should be changed.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is thus being used to stifle new and creative forms of online expression. This type of harmless creative protest should be encouraged: our nation was built upon the principles of free speech. If the founders of this great nation saw its laws abused, as when applied to these minor protests, I think they would be shocked and offended.

Our best and brightest should be encouraged to find new methods of expression; direct action in protest must not stifled. The dawning of the digital age should be seen as an opportunity to expand our knowledge, and to collectively enhance our communication. Government should have the greatest interest in promoting speech – especially unpopular speech. The government should never be used to suppress new and creative – not to mention, effective – methods of speech and expression.

Since the PayPal prosecution, there have been no DDoS protests on that scale. Speech has been chilled.

Supreme court Justice William O Douglas said:

“Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.”

Toward that end, it’s time to begin a conversation about acknowledging DDoS as legitimate protest speech, deserving of first amendment protection.

Source

(via cognitivedissonance)

darcywho:

harlotstarlet-queenofconeyisland:

chasexjackson:

THE GOLDEN RULE OF TUMBLR

my god, we’re all Ross.

Excuse you.

(via bookoisseur)

lets-go-lesbos:

Is it weird that I love seeing my pics on your blog?

Note: Not at all! We like it too :P

Best. Meal. Ever.

• me: (out shopping, looking all fly with my Marvel comics tote bag featuring several characters)
• dude: nice bag.
• me: thanks. (keeps on shopping)
• dude: do you even know who all those characters are?
• me: uh... yeah?
• dude: ok then, who's that guy? (points at a character on the bag)
• me:
• me: wait, are you asking me to prove that I'm enough of a fan enough to carry this bag?
• dude: (smirks) that's what I thought. He's called the Silver Surfer. I bet you don't even know his real name.
• me: does it matter? (starts to edge away before I start punching throats)
• dude: psh, you're not a real fan.
• me:
• me: (slowly unsheathing my Wolverine claws)
• me: how many pairs of chromosomes do humans contain in their cells?
• dude: uh... what?
• me: explain the function of cellular mitosis?
• dude:
• me: what is the purpose of myelin sheath with regards to the formation of new neural pathways?
• dude: what are you even talking about?
• me: oh, well it seemed that you were implying that if I don't know as much about the Marvel universe as you do, then I can't possibly be considered a real fan. This is me implying that because you don't know as much about the human body as I do, you can't possibly be considered a real human being.
• dude:
• dude:
• dude:
• dude: Um, I... wow. You're right. Have a nice day. (starts to shuffle away)
• me: his name is Norrin Radd.
• dude: (looks extremely embarrassed)

She is perfect. Just perfect.

lets-go-lesbos:

<3

Note: You’re so gorgeous~

This image makes me wanna be a girl. Laying down in this picture just doesn’t seem right or hot when I picture one of them being my hairy ugly ass. — A Man

(via lets-go-lesbos)

(via lets-go-lesbos)

Does NOT get any better than this. At all. Period. RIPMCA

therealmikeholmes:

“Nonstop Disco Powerpack” - Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2

(via evildorina)

Everything I like makes sick or poor or fat - David Lee Roth

(via evildorina)

and each of you
is a reminder to the earth
of what it’s capable of
You all the reasons,
jumping, rational, lackadaisical, irrational
you are ceaseless sieges
on the city of Joy
the reason Agamemnon went to Troy
you light of gods
efface yourself
at the knees of yourself
intelligence
is not a discipline
it is an experience
allow it to explode
destroy buildings
I’m sorry I hurt your feelings
did i lose that sweater
or did it
lose me
?

And language was invented so people could lie
dont just say i love you
let your love perspire and fly
it is the most profound gymnastics
and incredible calesthenics
let me pole vault you
let me cartwheel into your beauty
in an ideal love affair
we never have to say “i love you”
stuttered birth, ohbythewayilove you

sweaters that are lonliness
which is a delusion
sweaters that immasculate
creating confusion
a giant expression melting into suppression
a giant sweater of lycra
sweaters of spandex
sweaters of knitwear
creating the reason that Ceasar went to Gaul
we dont wear the sweater
walk thru the sweater
the sweater that murders the mirage
the sweaters that take over our lives
and remind us
that we dont like the way that we walk
Walk throu the sweater apocolypse and find your own warmth

evildorina:

YES!!!!!

Meanwhile the X factor is based on American Idol. A show created in England called British Idol by that same arrogant prick whose name escapes me but is the British guy who hates everyone and makes young girls cry.