AN INTERNET WARNING!!!



Fanbox is the newest viral social networking site to hit the web - but it's much more "viral" than social. I would go so far as to call it an email virus. At the very least it is a massive spam campaign. Other have accused it of phishing.

If you ever receive an email from Fanbox, delete it immediately. Also, don't forget to mark it as spam so your spam filter will stop it.

Fan box uses many diabolical tricks to get you to give it your personal information. It steals your personal information from your friends and contacts who were unfortunate enough to give the program access to their email contact records. The program actually asks for the password to your email - IF YOU GIVE THEM YOUR PASSWORD YOU ARE GIVING THEM ACCESS TO ALL OF YOUR CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION AND POSSIBLY FINANCIAL RECORDS. From that point on you will be spammed almost daily with messages addressed to your name - and most of these will be from people you have never met. It is absolute, unrelenting spam - one of the worst, most invasive programs I have ever seen, and it is potentially very dangerous.

Do not provide them with any information about yourself whatsoever.

They will ask for you email, phone number, etc. I don't even want to think about what they could do with that information.

* * * * * * *

My favorite trick that they tried to play was with their instant messaging service. After logging in to view my account (so I could delete it), within less than a minute an instant message from a beautiful girl who I had never met popped up! Apparently this beautiful young girl who I had never met wanted to know how my day was. How sweet of her!

I laughed at the absurdity of the message knowing it was complete spam B.S., but I wanted to see what they wanted from me, so I answered the message. Suddenly the Instant Message showed a yellow error, stating that I could not send instant messages until I had completed my profile. AHA!

They were using fake instant message spam in order to get me to complete my profile, which involved giving them lots of confidential information. Of course. That's when I immediately deleted my account, before something worse could happen.


HOW TO DELETE YOUR FANBOX ACCOUNT:

Open Fanbox from an email. In the right hand corner you should see the word: ACCOUNT.

Click ACCOUNT and go the the Account Screen. Once there look for PROFILE STATUS and click it.

There you will see an option to delete your account.

I also told them in my comments to never contact me again.

Let's see if they'll listen. I doubt it.

For now I'm keeping them in my high-risk list on my spam filter.

Steve Riley suggests putting fanbox.com, fanboxapps.com, and sms.ac in your blocked addresses filter. I would suggest the same.

http://blogs.technet.com/steriley/archive/2008/01/07/faxbox-the-latest-in-password-scams.aspx

SURF SAFELY!

It's almost unbelievable that AIG announced it will be giving millions of dollars in bonuses to over 130 of its managers. And this after nearly going bankrupt! Way to reward incompetence...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12032008/business/aig_in_bonus_bungle_141891.htm

AIG claims that it is doing this in order to retain its best managers. But in an economy where everyone is losing their jobs - shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't the managers be happy that they still have jobs? They certainly don't deserve bonuses for running the company into the ground.

And the worst part is - this is after AIG smugly reported that it's top execs would not be receiving bonuses this year!!!!

American International Group Inc Chief Executive Edward Liddy will receive $1 in salary this year and next, and there will be no 2008 bonuses for the company's seven most senior executives, the troubled insurance conglomerate said on Tuesday.

Fifty more AIG executives will be locked out of pay raises in 2009, AIG said in a statement.

And they were even congratulated for their example.


"I encourage other firms to wake up to the new reality on Wall Street and follow AIG's step quickly," said Cuomo.

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE4AO6LX20081125

Personally I think they are trying to reward people because they got a free 150 billion dollar bailout. I mean, if you fooled someone into giving you 150 billion dollars for nothing - wouldn't you feel like sharing it with your friends?

Fortunately, the public is outraged about this. But it's not enough.

I call on all Americans to remove their money from AIG's institutions. It's time the public used it's power to tell Wallstreet and the whole business world that we will not tolerate blatant greed and misuse of our money.

I will make a list of companies that Americans should boycott and get shut down permanently. Then we can invest our money into companies that handle it responsibly and reward them for doing so.

#1 on the list of boycotted companies: AIG.

Congratulations AIG. You are finished.

*Note for American readers - "Moladyets" means "Good Job" in Russian.




Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
- Henry David Thoreau

No matter where you travel in the world, fashion will always be distinct from one country and culture to the next. The differences between the fashions of various countries is sometimes as small as the brand name labels on popular clothes and sometimes as big as the parts of the body that are allowed to be shown in public. In Western countries the fashions have become much more similar to one another thanks to global marketing, but differences in style even between neighboring countries can often be intriguing and humorous.

Ukraine is at a unique point in the evolution of its public fashions. Perhaps due to the influx of old American films shown on television, various old and now forbidden American fashions have begun to reveal themselves in Ukrainian popular culture. The most notorious of these is the infamous 1980’s hairstyle called the “Mullet.”

The “Mullet” is a hairstyle which tried to combine the ease and comfort of short hair with the elegance and beauty of long hair. Unfortunately, it failed miserably in the attempt. The “Mullet” is created by cutting the hair on the sides of the head as short as possible while leaving the hair on the top and back as long as possible. In this way two different looks are created at the same time.

One friend described the “Mullet” as “Business in the front, and party in the back”. His statement refers to the fact that from the front it gives the wearer a clean-cut business look, while the long hair in the back provides just enough flashy character to make the individual appear ready to party at any time.

This half-serious, half-playful hairstyle was very popular in certain parts of America during the 1980’s. It quickly became a symbol of the uncultured, uneducated masses. For the most part the “Mullet” is associated with people who live in trailer parks, which are almost akin to villages in Ukraine; places where there is little work, little education, little culture, and nothing to do. The kind of people that wore “Mullets” in America were often “redneck” boys from a country town where we could imagine them drinking beers and shooting guns in the woods while driving in dirty old pick-up trucks. In America today it would be considered inexcusable for a young man to have this kind of haircut. It would bring back too many hilarious memories from the past.

The “Mullet”, however, is currently very popular with young Ukrainian men and quite a few Ukrainian women. In fact, as my experience has shown me, often the size of a young man’s “Mullet” is in direct proportion to how beautiful his girlfriend is.
It is difficult to describe the level of shock that I experienced when I first saw a beautiful young Ukrainian woman walking arm in arm with a young man with a truly audacious “Mullet”. In America he would have been laughed off the street with such a haircut, but in Ukraine he is rewarded with a beautiful girlfriend. It was like being transported back 20 years in the past.

There are a great variety of shapes, colors, and sizes of “Mullets” here in Kiev. The most extreme “Mullet” seen so far is one called the “Skullet”. The “Skullet” is created by shaving the head completely bald (hence the term skull), but at the back of the head a small section of long hair is left creating a stunning combination of shaved head and “Mullet”. This hair style is not for the faint of heart.

Many other fashion “no’s” in America have made a resurgence in modern day Kiev, such as very short shorts and see through shirts on men, and the 1970’s David Bowie style hair cuts seen on many women. However, living in a foreign country I also get my fair share of stares here in the streets of Kiev wearing my typical American white tennis shoes and white socks. But if there’s one thing about fashion that is the same in every country, it’s that it is always changing.

I discovered an amazing thing the other day: a true propaganda site the likes of which I have never seen with my own eyes before. It was like stumbling upon a propaganda pamphlet from the time of Stalin - yet this is a modern day website trying to pass itself off as real news. And the best part - it's Russian.

The site is called Moscowtopnews.com and it is one of the saddest excuses for an actual news site that I have ever seen. It doesn't seem to be associated with any credible news source, though it does have links to Pravda, the famous Russian newspaper whose name means, of all things, "Truth".

It looks like they steal the articles from an actual news agency and then a government propagandist tacks on his own vitriolic anti-western comments. It's more like reading a KGB agent's blog for the indoctrination of young minds than actual news.

Some great lines:

On the situations in Georgia and Ukraine - "Just as it has become known that the US had a large hand in the invasion and genocide campaign against South Ossetia, it is also obvious they have a hand in the current crisis in the supply of gas to Europe. They financed and formented the orange and rose "revolutions" in order to get their dirty, filthy tentacles all the closer to Russia in order to strangle Russia economically.

It has been the intention of the US all along to take over the gas pipelines. That is the reason for Afghanistan now. And that is the reason for what they did in Georgia."

On America's presence in Afghanistan - "Now they are finding themselves quite alone even though they were so presumptuous as to think that Russia would allow them to run around wherever they feel like it."

On NATO's "encircling" of Moscow - "Russia retains the capacity to defend itself and if necessary to liquidate enemy forces concentrating on its borders with massive missile attacks from thousands of launch sites."

On Europe and the Ukrainian Gas Crisis - "The hydra monster empire would like to throw a wrench in the works in order to establish their own system to bypass Russia such as Nabucco. However, Nabucco is still in its primitive stages with little promise of success. Hopefully, their tentacles have been effectively chopped off by the truth coming out."

Their message to Obama - "Welcome, President Obama. Welcome, friend! We do not want your arrogance, we do not want your blackmail, we do not want your chauvinism. What we do want, and expect, is for your administration to clean up the mess your country has made, for wherever you look, the hotspots were caused by the United States of America, and none other."

And my personal favorite, On the Economic Crisis - "Russia is an economic oasis."

How many times has the ruble crashed since 1991?


Of course, for anyone who even remotely follows Russian politics, you know that it's goverment is in nearly complete control over the press and all journalists are forced to say whatever the government tells them to say. These kinds of pure propaganda are common in Russia, but it is rare to see them in English. It is a good lesson to see what kind of maniacs we are really up against as a country. To those who think America is the big bad bully on the interntaional playground, just remember - no one in the government is going to kill you for what you write/say/believe/support. That cannot be said in many 2nd and 3rd world countries, including Russia.


These kinds of mental dictatorships, where the governments control everything that their people see and hear, are dangerous to the entire world. Even our new President Obama recognizes this and mentioned it in his Inaugural speech.

From Obama's Inauguration Speech:

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

To those of you who don't know, (or haven't figured it out yet from this article) this is a direct challenge to Russia and a referral to its Soviet style control of the media within the Russian Federation.

Since Putin took control of the Russian government, he has initiated a form of government control and restrictions on free speech and the freedom of the press almost identical to those during the Soviet era.

It is intriguing, however, that the Russian propaganda machine has made a move into the English webspace. Perhaps they are trying to recruit Americans to their cause?

Probably not. Most likely this is an attempt to prevent English speaking Russians from reading real news on the internet and learning the truth about Russia's stances with the International community. If you speak Russian, the Russian government can control everything you read, but if you speak English, the whole internet is open to you and they cannot control what you might find. It may also be a way to combat Russians who are abandoning their country in record numbers in order to find decent jobs in America, Canada, and Europe. Russia wouldn't want them believing that their newly found freedom and prosperity were real.

The fact that the site is written in English is also quite ironic for several reasons. For those of you who have never traveled to Russia or Eastern Europe, their command of the English language is relatively low when compared to most European countries. For one, unlike Western Europe, they do not get many visitors from America or Great Britain, so most Russians have never met someone who speaks English.

Secondly, the English language is very difficult for native Russian speakers to master because the grammatical roots of the two languages are completely different. Russian uses many Greek grammatical structures, whereas English is much closer to the far simpler Latin grammar. For example, Russian does not have the word "the". It's use is almost impossible to explain to a Russian speaker.

What this means is, the person writing and editing this site must have spent a lot of time in Great Britain or America in order to master the English language to such a degree. I have met many Eastern European students who were studying English, and for a student to master the language this well, they must have truly loved English language and culture. Almost every Eastern European student I ever met who was diligently studying English had a great desire to move to America.

The person writing and editing these Anti-American opinions is probably a great fan of the United States. They probably watch all of our movies, listen to all of our top musical artists, and would love a chance to live in America. However, in order to make a living, this person is forced to use his or her love for the English language in order to write daily tirades against the United States government, which he or she most likely does not even believe.

How can I say this with confidence?

While in Russia I met a Russian Journalist working for the BBC in Moscow. This journalist complained to me about the fact that they had to tell what they knew were lies to the public, because the Russian government won't let the press write what they want. You can only say what the Russian government authorizes you to say, and this is almost always Anti-Western.

For example, when Ukraine had a peaceful revolution against a corrupt and fraudulent election (Russia tried to steal the election for the Pro-Russian candidate - a convicted criminal and rapist), during the Orange Revolution in 2004, Russia forced it's journalists to say that it was a violent revolution and that Ukrainians were attacking Russian citizens in the streets. These were bold faced lies, and the journalists knew they were lies, but Russia was secretly hoping to start a war with Ukraine in order to bring control of the country back into its own hands, like in Soviet times. (For those of you who don't know your Soviet history, without Ukraine there could never have been a Soviet Union.)

Fortunately this didn't happen and the Revolution remained peaceful. But not for journalists - If you don't say what the Russian government tells you to say, you will be fired - or in many cases killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia



The most disturbing part of the MoscowTopNews website?

Look at what they say about themselves on the "About" page:

"MoscowTopNews.com takes a clear look at real issues and provides the full truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is objective, independent journalism. The world's events analyzed and commented on, bring the news to the citizens of the world, and not some cooked-up package catering to its master´s needs."

Ironic?

or Terrifying?

Chandler's Political Cartoons: The Rising Tide - Political Meltdown




From the mind of Chandler: This is a political cartoon I created about a year ago.

Do you think that Global Warming assumptions impacted the Presidential Election?

Why have more Liberal ideas taken root in mainstream America today?



*Note that this political cartoon is a statement about the political power of the Global Warming movement and is not a statement concerning the veracity of the claims of the theories concerning Global Warming and Climate Change.

Many people ask me what it was like living in a post Soviet country. As you might expect, there are a lot of differences between our two cultures that make for some amusing encounters. In response I am posting some of my old newspaper articles (which were published in Ukraine) illustrating the cultural differences between America and post Soviet countries. Try not to laugh too hard - you will find that you may be laughing at yourself...

Depend not on fortune, but on conduct.

Publius Syrus

One of the most interesting things about living in a foreign country is getting to see the cultural differences, especially those concerning rude behavior. How people properly conduct themselves in public may at first appear to be guided by common sense, but as soon as you move across the globe you come to realize that things which would never be acceptable in your country are acceptable here, and vice versa.

I still remember the first time I saw someone blow their nose on the ground in public. It was an older gentleman walking with his wife who looked like he was on his way to do some early shopping. Nothing at all was out of the ordinary. Then all of a sudden he put a finger to his nose and shot the snot out of the other nostril onto the sidewalk.

I was shocked. His wife said nothing. She hadn’t even noticed. I looked around me and saw that no one else thought anything of it. Where was the common decency?

In America children would have started laughing, elderly women would have covered their eyes in disgust, and adults would have given the man dirty looks. The man’s wife would have certainly given him a smack on the head. It would have been considered very rude. Here in Ukraine, however, it appears to be perfectly normal.

The technical term for this action in America is called the “snot rocket”. It is almost never done in public and is considered a last resort only in the case that there are no tissues around with which to blow your nose and no public restroom to run to.

After this eye opening incident, I began to notice this action taking place all around me. It was as if everyone had been trained since childhood to blow snot rockets out of their noses instead of using a tissue.

Closely related to this snot rocketing, is the common lugie, or spit. It is when a man clears his throat loudly and fires a large wad of mucus out of his mouth. This too is considered rude in America and is usually only done by school children as a bad joke, but here in Ukraine it seems to be common practice for men of all ages.

Since coming to Ukraine I have borne witness to hundreds of spits. Old men hobbling down the street, young men walking with their girlfriends, businessmen and laborers; all seem to share the same habit of spitting anywhere and everywhere and no one seems to notice.

I and a fellow teacher always watch our steps when we exit the metro, because outside of every metro door there is an inevitable gauntlet of spit littering the pavement.

At first I was disgusted by this seemingly uncivilized conduct, but over time I have come to understand and even appreciate the relaxed Ukrainian mindset concerning behavior. If something is convenient, you do it, and if something is inconvenient, you don’t do it. This not only relates to manners, but to various areas in the lives of Ukrainian citizens, including following traffic laws and tax regulations.

In some cases it may even be logical. I realized that this casual Ukrainian view of snot rockets was probably rooted in old soviet times when tissue paper would have been scarce. Thus the action would indeed have been necessary for people with only a little paper left. And who cares if you spit in the countryside or on a farm? It’s biodegradable.

I must confess, I have not yet taken up the habits of snot rocketing or spitting lugies on the street, but I do take comfort in the fact that if I do, I will not be judged by my Ukrainian compatriots.

I have learned not to judge others by my own cultural opinions, which is absolutely necessary when living in a new and foreign culture. For I myself have performed many of my own rude American behaviors, such as putting my feet up on the table and talking and laughing loudly in public restaurants, for which I have been chastised by my Ukrainian hosts. As a result I have learned the necessity of cultural forgiveness for both myself and my native hosts.

We will get out of Iraq immediately! No more US citizens will be killed by the terrorists, because we know that terrorists would NEVER attack us at home!

Healthcare will be FREE! … for illegal aliens.

We’ll finally take the money away from those pesky RICH PEOPLE who don’t deserve it and give the money to someone who does deserve it…the government!

True social FREEDOM! You’ll finally be able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, because cross-dressing homosexual atheists will determine the social customs and moral values of our great nation!

We will save the world! America will become a GREEN country and we will reduce our oversized carbon footprint by making it more difficult, complicated, and expensive to live and work in America! Without a growing economy, we can’t pollute the environment!

Religious Freedom will be achieved! We’ll finally pass laws to get rid of public displays by those annoying Christians and their oppressive religious holidays! Separation of church and state will finally be completely realized and those silly religious moral values like honesty and decency will have no place in our great government!

Schools will be improved by paying teachers more and more money while not holding them accountable for their teaching methods!

More pay and less supervision = RESULTS!

Best of all – we will sign petitions to get rid of right wing radio talk show hosts forever!

Chandler's Political Cartoons: "Obama vs. Goliath: Obama Chooses a Weapon"

From the mind of Chandler: Is Obama fighting the recession with the right weapon?

It took a mere woman to cause man to fall,
But for woman it took the full Devil’s call.
For Eve was deceived by the world’s greatest liar,
While man fell by one neither lower nor higher.

WARNING: THIS POST MAY HURT YOUR BRAIN

Proof of the Soul

Hypothesis: Descriptions of consciousness coincide precisely with the descriptions of the universe in quantum physics.

Time:

How can time be subjective to the human mind? (How long is 5 minutes? – it depends on whether you have 5 minutes left in an exam or five minutes in an elevator full of people). Only if the mind itself operates differently or through a different organ than the physical body can time be relative. Physical objects all experience time at the same rate, because all objects are traveling at the same speed (C) through time. The fact that time is subjective to the human mind means that consciousness itself travels through a substance that can travel at different speeds through time than the body. The body and the mind must be made of two distinct substances, because the body’s experience of time is constant, while the mind’s experience of time is subjective. The mind, or spirit, must be made of a substance that can travel at differing speeds through time, ie. it travels faster at some moments and slower at others, thus producing different experiences of the same amount of time.

Theories:

1. The spirit is made of a substance (tachyon particles? etc.) that can travel faster than the speed of light, and thus can go back in time. In this way the spirit/mind can retrieve memories, which are re-experiences of the past.

2. The spirit exists ‘consciously’ in at least 5 dimensions and thus can step out of time, the 4^th dimension, (ie. as a 3 dimensional person can step out of a 2 dimensional space, which would seem impossible to organisms only conscious of 2 dimensions) and can move to any place on the space-time continuum. This allows the spirit to exist in a space outside of the 3-dimensional universe (ie. it is undetectable instrumentally) and explains the retrieval of memories (re-experiences) seemingly instantaneously by the brain. This is the most likely explanation.

Both cases suggest that memory is not merely a stored chemical compound (which even today has not been found and cannot be explained) in the physical brain, but that memory is actually the reliving of past experiences through the medium of the soul. This explains why individuals can actually hear, see, taste, smell, or feel objects and experiences from their past. The ability of the mind/spirit to retrieve this information is affected by the degree to which the mind/spirit is bound to the physical body. A mind/spirit less bound to its physical body would in theory result in higher memory recall in a particular individual and a mind/spirit strongly tied to its physical body would result in a greatly diminished ability to recall memories.

Examples:

How does the mind/spirit affect an individual’s experience of time? This must be somehow in relation to the speed at which the mind/spirit is traveling (particle theory), or in relation to its position on the time/space continuum (dimensional theory). Different forms of stress manifest themselves in different experiences of time, thus the different types of stress must cause the mind/spirit to react in different ways. This may be better understood if different types of stress are examined.

Fear (as motivation for action) = speeds up time

Joy/Fun/Excitement/Enjoyment = speeds up time

Fear (as inaction/immobility) = slows down time

Uncomfortability/Awkwardness = slows down time

Boredom = slows down time

Pain = slows down time

Desire (want for something lacking) = slows down time

The most notable parallel between the two lists is the place of fear on both lists. The major difference between the two types of fear has to do with the difference between something that is a motivation and something that appears to be an unavoidable obstacle. The first fear includes the avoidance of pain or suffering (which explains the motivation), while the second fear involves certain and unavoidable pain or suffering. The difference between the two is then fear of the possible and fear of the inevitable (or something that at least appears inevitable).

Amazingly, this difference between the two types of fear also seems to point out the difference between the mental and physical states present when time is experienced quickly or slowly. The speeding up of time is present when pain or suffering is avoided (or not present), while the slowing down of time occurs when pain or a suffering of some kind is experienced, whether mental or physical.

The Luminous Eye has been created as a place to discuss all things controversial in a realm of thought inaccessible to most people - namely, discerning and unwavering logic. Warning: if you read these posts you will be challenged intellectually, politically, and spiritually.

WARNING: Some posts may cause unexpected laughter. If your laughter lasts for more than 4 hours, please consult a physician.