Taking down the Church of Scientology
The anonymous campaign against Scientology, better known among its participants as Project Chanology, continues to this day. In the months since it launched “Message to Scientology,” Project Chanology has employed a variety of tactics, including pickets, pranks, and propaganda that ranges from the purely informative to the ferociously satirical. It has waxed and waned and waned some more, and yet, improbably, it has endured, evolving into a peculiarly instructive case study in the dynamics of online protest.
Project Chanology may well be the first movement to realize the kind of ad hoc, loosely coupled social activism that many have hoped the ad hoc, loosely coupled architecture of the Internet would engender. But it’s also the first one founded on the principles of the most obnoxious innovation that architecture ever produced: trolling.
Brilliant article over at Wired
Student punished for spaghetti beliefs
A student has been suspended from school in America for coming to class dressed as a pirate. But the disciplinary action has provoked controversy – because the student says that the ban violates his rights, as the pirate costume is part of his religion.
Bryan Killian says that he follows the Pastafarian religion, and that as a crucial part of his faith, he must wear ‘full pirate regalia’ as prescribed in the holy texts of Pastafarianism.
The school, however, say that his pirate garb was disruptive.
Pastafarians follow the Flying Spaghetti Monster (pictured), and believe that the world was created by the touch of his noodly appendage. Furthermore, they acknowledge pirates as being ‘absolute divine beings’, and stress that the worldwide decline in the number of pirates has directly led to global warming.
More at - Metro
Key To Subliminal Messaging: Keep It Negative
Subliminal messaging is most effective when the message being conveyed is negative, according to new research funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Subliminal images – in other words, images shown so briefly that the viewer does not consciously ’see’ them – have long been the subject of controversy, particularly in the area of advertising. Previous studies have already hinted that people can unconsciously pick up on subliminal information intended to provoke an emotional response, but limitations in the design of the studies have meant that the conclusions were ambiguous.
Today, the journal Emotion publishes a study by a UCL team led by Professor Nilli Lavie, which provides evidence that people are able to process emotional information from subliminal images and demonstrates conclusively that even under such conditions, information of negative value is better detected than information of positive value.
Dirty Layer Hid Painting’s Penis
A Brazilian art restorer has discovered a new layer hidden in a centuries-old painting of the Greek god of fertility Priapus by French artist Nicolas Poussin – the deity’s erect penis. ”They hid the phallus of Priapus. It’s what we call adjustment for modesty, and it’s not uncommon,” said Regina Pinto Moreira, quoted in Tuesday’s edition of the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
She suspects the cover-up was made in conservative Catholic Spain in the 18th century.
Ms Moreira, who worked as an master art restorer at the Louvre in Paris for some 30 years, spent eight months alongside two French experts restoring Poussin’s large 1634-1638 painting Hymenaios Disguised As A Woman During An Offering To Priapus. The 3.71-metre by 1.66-metre artwork depicts Hymenaios, the Greek god of marriage ceremonies, dressed as a woman and dancing with Priapus, who was traditionally depicted with an erect penis.
ABC (thanks, KirstyJ)
Guerilla Amusement
Look and smile. I love this guy.
To anyone in Boston, US
Punchdrunk are the most astonishing theatre company in Britain and are now taking their events overseas. I don’t know what this new project is, but make sure you go: it’ll be utterly extraordinary and you’ll remember it like a dream for the rest of your life.
Haribo’s MAOAM Candy Criticised For “Sexual” Sweet Wrappers
Simon Simpkins, a father of two, said he was shocked at the “pornographic” poses when he bought the sour candy for his children Benjamin and Ofelia.
Mr Simpkins, of Pontefract, West Yorks, told The Sun: “The lemon and lime are locked in what appears to be a carnal encounter.
“The lime, who I assume to be the gentleman in this coupling, has a particularly lurid expression on his face. I demanded to see the shop manager and, during a heated exchange, my wife became quite distressed and had to sit down in the car park.”
Haribo said the sweets, which feature illustrations of lemon, lime and cherry characters, said the “fun” packaging was introduced in Germany in 2002.
A spokesman said: “This jovial MAOAM man is very popular with fans, both young and old.”
Telegraph (thanks, KirstyJ)
Man Sets Record By Walking On Broken Glass For 18 Miles
A man from Yorkshire has set a new world record -by walking over 18 miles on broken glass in aid of the charity, Action for Children.
Nigel Jardine, 56, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, walked 1,060 metres in one hour around an octagonal circuit of glass at the Bageecha restaurant in his home town of Horsforth – breaking the previous record of 960 metres.
The sports coach and motivational expert carried on for 27-and-a-half hours until he had covered the equivalent of 30 kilometres, or 18 miles.
He said: “I’m used to walking on broken glass but I suppose the customers at the restaurant weren’t used to watching someone do it as they tucked into their meals.”
Mr Jardine was allowed five-minute breaks every hour during the challenge to have a drink, visit the lavatory or have a lie down.
His feat was in aid of Action for Children, the leading children’s charity. He said he felt a strong connection with the charity’s work because he was abused as a child mentally and physically, both at home and at school.
He said the glass walk reflected a child’s response to abuse: treading carefully, avoiding pain, not wanting to get hurt.
Telegraph (thanks, KirstyJ)
The Bible’s Bad Bits: Silent Women, Mass Murder and a Weary Concubine
Biblical verses apparently endorsing sexism, genocide and the slaughter of sorceresses have been identified by readers of a Christian website as the least endearing parts of the holy book.
The online survey by shipoffools.com, a humorous online magazine, lists the ten verses people would rather had been left out of the Bible, in an attempt to show the dangers of quoting scripture selectively.
St Paul’s advice about whether women are allowed to teach men in church came top of the “Worst Verse” poll, which received more than 1,000 responses.
The results were discussed last night by a panel of theologians at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham. In 1 Timothy ii, 12, St Paul is quoted thus: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”
The verse has been used by some conservative Christians to justify opposition to women priests.
In second place is the order by Samuel, one of the early leaders of the Israelites, for his people to commit genocide: “This is what the Lord Almighty says … ‘Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’” (1 Samuel xv, 3).
Times Online (thanks, KirstyJ)
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