The Symbolism of "Metropolis" and it's depiction and influence in todays' pop-culture.
0 comments Posted by in.SIGHT at 10:55Fritz Lang’s 1927 movie “Metropolis” is one of those timeless classics that withstand the test of time. Rather than becoming forgotten and obsolete, “Metropolis” is increasingly relevant as many of its predictions are becoming reality. We will look at the underlying occult message of the film and the usage of its imagery in the acts of pop stars such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Beyonce, Kylie Minogue and others.
Big Brother WILL snoop on your calls and clicks: UK Ministers resurrect plan to log all communications
0 comments Posted by in.SIGHT at 03:54Source: Daily Mail
Hugely controversial ‘Big Brother’ plans to store details of every internet click, email and telephone call that we make are being revived by the Coalition, it emerged last night.
Police, security services and other public bodies would be able to find out which websites a person had visited, and when, where and to whom a text or call was made.Security officials insist that monitoring communications data is vital in the fight against terrorism and serious organised crime.But the plan – which was kicked into the long grass by Labour amid a public outcry – will put the Government on a collision course with civil liberties groups.
They argue it is a ‘snooper’s charter’ which will allow the state to spy on millions of innocent citizens.
So far ministers have insisted they want to provide a ‘correction in favour of liberty’ when it comes to the powers required to protect the public.This is likely to include the scrapping or watering down of a raft of draconian laws introduced by the last government, such as so-called ‘Section 44’ stop and search without suspicion, and spying by Town Hall bureaucrats.But ministers have been persuaded of the case to give the police and security officials enhanced rights to access the public’s communications.
Officials insist many terrorists no longer use traditional methods of communication, hatching plots in internet chatrooms or on social networking sites such as Facebook.They can also speak over the internet, using Skype, and communicate through online computer games.One official said communications data ‘provides evidence in court to secure convictions of those engaged in activities that cause serious harm’.It has played a role in every major Security Service counter-terrorism operation and in 95 per cent of all serious organised crime investigations in recent years, sources said.
Firm plans will be published later this year on how the personal information – which does not include the contents of emails or text messages – should be stored.Crucially, one option that has been ruled out is holding it all on a huge central government database.The most likely scenario is that internet and telephone companies will be expected to store the details themselves. The authorities could then request access to the data as part of investigations.
Source: Daily Mail
You want flies with that? McDonald’s Happy Meal shows no sign of decomposing after SIX MONTHS
Looking almost as fresh as the day it was bought, this McDonald’s Happy Meal is in fact a staggering six months old.Photographed every day for the past half a year by Manhattan artist Sally Davies the kids meal of fries and burger is without a hint of mould or decay.
In a work entitled The Happy Meal Project, Mrs Davies, 54, has charted the seemingly indestructible fast food meals progress as it refuses to yield to the forces of nature.
Fresh: The Happy Meal on the day it was bought by artist Sally Davies in New York
Tasty: Looking a little dry and with an ‘acrylic sheen’, but the burger has no signs of mould – not even on the bun
Sitting on a shelf in her apartment, Sally has watched the Happy Meal with increasing shock and even her dogs have resisted the urge to try and steal a free tasty snack.
‘I bought the meal on April 10 of this year and brought it home with the express intention of leaving it out to see how it fared,’ she said.
‘I chose McDonald’s because it was nearest to my house, but the project could have been about any other of the myriad of fast food joints in New York.
‘The first thing that struck me on day two of the experiment was that it no longer emitted any smell.
‘And then the second point of note was that on the second day, my dogs stopped circling the shelf it was sitting on trying to see what was up there.’
Fast food: Five months into the experiment, and although the burger patty has shrunk a bit it doesn’t look that different to the original
Worrying: More than three months in and the usual effects of time appear to have had no impact
Expecting the food to begin moulding after a few days, Mrs Davies’ surprise turned to shock as the fries and burger still had not shown any signs of decomposition after two weeks.
‘It was then that I realised that something strange might be going on with this food that I had bought,’ she explained.
‘The fries shrivelled slightly as did the burger patty, but the overall appearance of the food did not change as the weeks turned to months.
‘And now, at six months old, the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it.
‘The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock.’
Tucking in: Mrs Davies bought the Happy Meal and put it on a shelf in her home. She said even her dogs are no longer interested in eating it
Even though she is a vegan, Mrs Davies’ experiment has brought her amusement rather than fear.
‘I don’t really see this experiment as scary, I see it almost as an amusement,’ she said.
‘Although, I would be frightened at seeing this if I was a meat eater. Why hasn’t even the bun become speckled with mould? It is odd.’
When asked if their food was not biodegradable, McDonald’s spokeswoman Danya Proud said: ‘This is nothing more than an outlandish claim and is completely false.’
It comes after Denver grandmother Joann Bruso left a Happy Meal to decay for a year until March to highlight the nutritional dangers of fast food.
Morgan Spurlock also made the film Super Size Me in 2004 charting the changes to his body eating just fast food for 28 days had.
When you live in a city, it's easy to forget that we are surrounded by the greates show in the Universe: The Universe itself. This sky comparison chart is the sad proof of that.
Sadly, missing the awe-inspiring show of all those planets, stars, and galaxies dancing around us is the price humans had to pay for having observed it in the first place:
When our prehistoric ancestors studied the sky after sunset, they observed that some of the stars were not fixed with respect to the constant pattern of the constellations. Instead, five of them moved, slowly forward across the sky, then backward for a few months, then forward again, as if they couldn't quite make up their minds. We call them planets, the Greek word for "wanderers." These planets presented a profound mystery. The earliest explanation was that they were living beings. How else to explain their strange looping behavior. Later they were thought to be gods, and then disembodied astrological influences. But the real solution to this mystery is that the planets are worlds, that the Earth is one of them, and that they all go around the sun according to precise mathematical laws. This discovery has led directly to our modern global civilization.A Personal Voyage — Harmony of the World, by Carl Sagan
Excellent dark sky
Inner city sky
Next time you have a few free days, remember the images above and go to a remote place, far from any town, in a night with no moon. If you have never done this, I can assure you that the experience will deeply affect your perception of the world.
The scenery fades away with every step he takes.
Nothing feels real, but the Glock in his hand.
Nothing feels real, but the Glock in his hand.
Oh if he could hide, or only shed a tear.
If allowed he would run, though he knows no fear.
Seasons may shift, presidents may change.
But no one ever knew how he slips away.
Every job he sought for, he was deemed unfit.
Over something stupid that he did as a kid.
That was then, this is now and he’s got two kids,
Pair of blue eyes and little miss sunshine.
Though the one who brought’em here wouldn’t even give a dime.
Up and disappeared, not worthy of a single line.
None of that would have mattered if the pockets got fatter.
But the kids need to eat, and he still loses sleep.
Plus, in the same face, they seek a mother and a father.
And on the edge of insanity, a scale is in place.
Years of disappointment form a mountain to the left,
And on to the right, two pairs of eyes, staring at his face.
The best part of he’s life is coming home at night.
Not cuz after two jobs he can have some rest.
Because of their smiles and that which then starts racing in his chest.
For that same simple reason he would struggle with no end,
And for the same reason there’s a gun in his hand.
A plan in his mind and a crime justified.
(c) Outspoken Poet
Before Wake Up!, I wasn’t quite sure where I stood with John Legend. His debut found him miscast as a unique type of badboy, gospel-drenched vocals jumping from one girl to the next in an attempt to blur the lines between the then-sputtering neo soul movement and the direction of more mainstream R&B artists like Usher. It left an awfully confused taste in my mouth, as does the arc of his career. Evolver, his most recent album, was another cluster of half-baked attempts at crossover and experimentation. While it sounded remarkably different from Get Lifted, over four years it seemed little had changed with Legend as an artist.
But then I heard the sample of “Again”—appearing on Legend’s Once Again LP that I’d skipped over—on the Roots’ offering earlier this year (How I Got Over) and after listening to that album, I was thrown for a loop. Here, Legend’s voice had risen far beyond merely good to occasionally fantastic, and all but one or two tracks were not just tolerable, they were superb. This discovery occurred just a few weeks ago, around the same time I got my first glimpse at what Legend and the Roots have been collaborating on since Evolver limped into the masses: Wake Up!.
Originally intended as a one off charity benefit type project, the combination quickly grew into an LP that, besides a few minor hiccups, makes a strong case for the collaboration continuing into the future. While all but two tracks here are covers, ?uestlove and James Poyser has done such an excellent job of arranging both the tracklist and the songs themselves that only the most well-versed poli-soul listeners will pick out the originals. The opening one-two punch of “Hard Times” and “Compared to What?” are particularly incendiary, and that hard Stax kind of funk appears once again on “Our Generation”.
The common thread throughout the entire project is revolution and political activism, something the extensive liner notes make blatantly clear. But the song selection is superb enough that the LP works perfectly fine as a straight up funk and soul record. In less capable hands things could get a bit awry, but not only does this band play tight as hell, they each find their moments to showcase individual talents. Legend goes from channeling Eugene McDaniel’s raging, deep soul on “Compared to What?” to harnessing a heretofore seldom heard higher register for the aforementioned reggae jam. Captain Kirk delivers a righteously funky guitar riff for “Hard Times” that adds an extra hundred degrees to the song, and each time Black Thought appears will stir familiar feelings from the Roots’ last few LPs that there is simply not enough of him here.
Owen Biddle, ?uestlove and James Poyser play more complimentary roles on the album, though all three are the spine around which the longer jams—12-minute protest song “I Can’t Write Left Handed” and seven-minute self-empowerment jam “Hang on in There”—unwaveringly cling. The way the band flits between these different motifs and feature players is entertaining, but it’s honestly John Legend that takes the most away from this release. He not only delivers his most focused effort yet, but his most diverse. The way he sings on “Hang on in There” and “Humanity” is just a joy to listen to. The band closes the album with “Shine”, the one Legend-penned original song on the album (Malik Yusef also provides an original spoken word intro to Little Ghetto Boy), and passes their final test by cranking out a song much less mundane than Legend’s previous attempt at world-unifying, “If You’re Out There”.
While it’s simplicity is greatly noticeable alongside these masterworks of soul, “Shine” also feels as fitting a finale to Wake Up! as anything else could be. Again, this is a testament not only to the quality of the musicians or the songs they play, but the way they’ve strung them together like something of a live, in studio performance. This spirit is, above all else, what makes Wake Up! such a success. There is no pretense that this band will equal the songs they’re reviving, though through seemingly unlimited talent they often come as close as possible. Wake Up! is an album explicitly from the heart, worn on its sleeve in a way few artists with such mainstream attention seem willing to match. What could have come off as a mediocre-to-good novelty project has, instead reaches the public coming just short of being a genuine contender for album of the year.
John Legend ft. The Roots - Wake Up Everybody
John Legend ft. The Roots - Wake Up Everybody
By Outspoken Poet
Kanye West’s “Power” is a short, almost stationary video that manages to tell a profound story in symbolic language. By decoding the occult meaning of the symbols present in this moving tableau, the viewer discovers who really holds the “power” in the world and understands the story of Kanye West’s initiation. We will look at the meaning of those symbols as they appear in the video.
Rapper and producer Kanye West has always found a way to stand out from the crowd. His video Power is no exception. It differs from the MTV norm in many regards, whether you look at the content or the form. The duration of the video, the filming style and the subject matter are quite distinct from today’s typical rap videos as it is short (1:43), filmed in a single shot (compared to the one-shot-per-second standard of music videos) and is very rich in archetypal symbolism.
Director Marco Brambilla sought to depict the concept of power in the form of a “video tableau”, a moving painting that slowly reveals itself to the viewer with a continuous camera movement. The director seem to have perfected this technique in his previous creation, Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard Hotel in New-York city. The symbolism present there is simply overwhelming. Here it is:
For Power, Brambilla went for a neo-classic aesthetic, but still created a piece full of symbolic and cultural references. As it was the case for paintings of the neo-classic era, each object, each symbol and each detail in the video conveys an important meaning, a meaning that is needed to understand the entire story. As we will see later, many symbols in the video have a deep occult meaning and many of them point to Freemasonry and Mystery schools. By doing so, the director clearly states what type of power is being presented in the video. We will therefore look at the meaning of the symbols displayed in the video as they appear in the shot. If you haven’t seen it, here it is:
Symbols Of The Video
The video starts off with a close-up of Kanye West with glow-in-the-dark eyes, as if he was “illuminated” from within or to hint at a demonic element. He stands between an infinite row of Ionic columns, which represent “wisdom” in Masonic symbolism.
As regular readers of this series already know, the occult meaning of the twin pillars is ancient, profound and presented in the symbolism of almost all mystery schools of History. There are many layers of interpretation attributed to the two columns, but one constant is always present: The pillars represent the entrance – the gateway – to the world of the initiate. Behind the columns can be found the key to the Mysteries and, consequently, the source of true power. This concept has been used for in many cultures and schools of thought.
- The two columns called the “Pillars of Hercules” in Ancient Greece stood at the gateway to the sphere of the enlightened
“The city of the philosophic elect rises from the highest mountain peak of the earth, and here the gods of the wise dwell together in everlasting felicity. In the foreground are the symbolic pillars of Hercules which appear on the title page of Bacon’s Novum Organum, and between them runs the path which leads upward from the uncertainties of earth to that perfect order which is established in the sphere of the enlightened. “
- Manly P. Hall
- Pillars of Hercules in Francis Bacon’s “New Atlantis” as a gateway to the New World
- Two pillars leading to Jacob’s Ladder in this Masonic tracing board
- Masonic initiate standing between the twin pillars as the third pillar, in the same fashion as Kanye West in the video.
In Power, Kanye is standing at the mouth of the gateway to the “sphere of the enlightened,” right at the border of the corrupt and decadent material world. So, right from the start of the video, the director reveals his take on the true nature of power in this world: It is not your democratically elected officials, but those who consider themselves to be behind those pillars. One of the most significant lines of the song is
“In this white man’s world, we the ones chosen”
Does Kanye’s “white man’s world” refer to the hidden rulers, the Illuminati, who are hidden behind those pillars or to the ongoing oppression and prejudice against colored people?
Horus
- Horus pendant on Kanye’s chain
The next thing that catches the viewer’s eye is most probably that gigantic chain with Horus’ head as a pendant. Horus is an ancient Egyptian deity that has an extreme importance in occult mysteries. Considered to be the Sky god, he is more often represented with the symbol of a single eye. The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra.
“Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, was called “Horus who rules with two eyes.” His right eye was white representing the sun while his left eye was black representing the moon. According to Egyptian legend Horus lost his left eye during a fight with his murderous uncle, Seth, to revenged his father’s death. Seth tore out his nephew’s eye but lost the fight because the assembly of the gods declared Horus the victor. The eye was reassembled by the magic of Thoth. Then Horus gave the eye to Osiris who experienced rebirth in the underworld.”
- Jordan Michael, Encyclopedia of Gods
- Horus, god of the sky
- The Eye of Horus as depicted by the Golden Dawn Mystery School
The symbolism of Horus is especially of great importance in Freemasonry, as the path of an initiate through the Masonic degrees is described as the process by which the Eye of Horus is opened.So Kanye stands at the gateway between the corrupt world of the profane and the exclusive world of the illuminated, wearing a Horus pendant, an unmistakable symbol. One might say: “Well maybe Kanye just likes Egyptian things.” Maybe so, but in the context of this video, where all details are important and extremely meaningful, Horus becomes another piece of this symbolic puzzle.
Horned Girls
The entrance of the gateway of pillars is guarded by two horned albino girls holding a staff. Their features are very reminiscent of depictions of Isis and Hathor, goddesses of ancient Egypt. Another allusion to Egyptian magic.
- Kanye standing between two horned female figures
- Isis and Hathor crowning Queen Nefertari. Both goddesses were depicted with bovine horns on their heads.
Isis was the mother of Horus (discussed above) and was the goddess of motherhood, nature and magic. Hathor was also considered as a maternal deity while also being the goddess of music, dance and fertility. Both Isis and Hathor were known to welcome and protect the dead during their journey to the afterlife, a concept that is particularly interesting in the context of the video.
- Hathor holding a sceptre with Pharaoh Ramses II
“The goddess (Hathor) [...] manifests two aspects of her divine power: first of all, she participates in the afterlife rite of passage, by means of which the deceased attains eternal life, and, second, she demonstrates her special connection to the Egyptian king. Hathor is rightly called a royal goddess, and in this role she is linked in various ways to the life of the pharaoh. Often the pharaoh would call himself the oldest son of Hathor.”
- Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism
Kanye, perhaps symbolizing the Pharaoh, is standing at the gateway to eternal wisdom, about to be executed/assassinated/sacrificed under the watchful eyes of Hathor, the “royal goddess.” Are the goddesses welcoming Kanye “behind the veil,” protecting him in this rite of passage to immortality? In occult circles, new candidates must symbolically die and be reborn to complete their initiation process. Is Kanye being killed an allegory for his initiation?
Sword of Damocles
- Sword hanging above Kanye West’s head
While doing some preliminary research on this video, I came across an article on MTV.com titled Kanye West’s ‘Power’ Video: A Cultural Cheat Sheet. Here’s what it says about the sword hanging above his head:
“Dragonlance: An image of a sword descending into a crown hovers over Kanye’s head, bringing to mind Volume Two of Douglas Niles’ series “The Crown and the Sword: The Rise of Solamnia,” in which Sir Jaymes Markham commands the orders of the Rose, Sword and Crown.”
- Kanye West’s ‘Power’ Video: A Cultural Cheat Sheet, MTV.com
Really? The director of this neo-classical themed video, was inspired by an obscure fantasy novel released in, like, 2006? Seriously? Good job, MTV, in keeping our youth clueless. The descending sword is more probably a reference to the Sword of Damocles, a pretty widely known legend, though one might argue it to be any other legendary or ordinary sword.
- Wenceslas Hollar’s depiction of the Sword of Damocles
“The Damocles of the anecdote was an obsequious courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse, a fourth century BC tyrant of Syracuse. Damocles exclaimed that, as a great man of power and authority, Dionysius was truly fortunate. Dionysius offered to switch places with him for a day, so he could taste first hand that fortune. In the evening a banquet was held where Damocles very much enjoyed being waited upon like a king. Only at the end of the meal did he look up and notice a sharpened sword hanging directly above his head by a single horse-hair. Immediately, he lost all taste for the fine foods and beautiful girls and asked leave of the tyrant, saying he no longer wanted to be so fortunate.
Dionysius had successfully conveyed a sense of the constant fear in which the great man lives. Cicero uses this story as the last in a series of contrasting examples for reaching the conclusion he had been moving towards in this fifth Disputation, in which the theme is that virtue is sufficient for living a happy life. Cicero asks “Does not Dionysius seem to have made it sufficiently clear that there can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear always looms?”
- Source
The tale of the Sword epitomizes the constant danger faced by those in positions of power. Kanye stands there, in a state of impending doom, knowing he can be executed at any time. Right after we see the sword of Damocles, a figure appears holding a dagger and attempting to stab him. The assassination will not happen by dagger, however, as two other figures leap out of nowhere holding swords to accomplish the “Killing of the King.”
Killing of The King - The Initiation
Ritual initiation represented in a display of geometry and symmetry
Ritual initiation represented in a display of geometry and symmetryAt the ending of the video, the decadent women and the dagger-holding assassins all disappear as two swords are about to hit him. Are we sacrificing the King?
The concept of regicide is reflected in the single’s cover art. It depicts Kanye’s severed, crowned head with a sword firmly jammed into it. Apparently Kanye was king and he got killed. Is this a symbol for a Masonic ritual? Note the stone on which Kanye’s head is placed. Is it the “perfect ashlar” of the Masons that represents the state of a perfected initiate?
- Covert art of Power portraying the killing of Kanye West as a king.
- A perfect ashlar in a Masonic lodge. In Masonic symbolism, the candidates start their journeys as allegorical “rough ashlars” and, through knowledge and wisdom, smooth out their edges in order to become a perfect ashlar.
Some occult researchers have stated that the “Killing of the King” is the name of a Masonic rite of passage to obtain the 33rd degree (see “King Kill 33″ by James Shelby Downard & Michael A. Hoffman II). Semi-interesting sidenote: King Kill 33 is also the name of a Marilyn Mason song, with rather interesting lyrics. Another sidenote: Researchers have reported that Killing of the King rites often happens in public, as more witnesses give more power to the ritual, hence … JFK. A completely crazy theory?… DYR (Do your research).
Back to Kanye and his standing … the two swords flying towards him never actually touch him but instead form a triangular shape above his head, possibly hinting to a “symbolic” killing and not an actual one. Notice the position of the crown above Kanye’s head. The combination of those elements form an interesting image.
Masonic Square and Compass-
- In Conclusion
Masonic Square and CompassTo sum up the the video, Kanye stands at the border between Masonic knowledge and the decadence of the mundane life, represented by lustful and gluttonous women, lounging around eating grapes. Kanye says “goodbye cruel world / I see you in the morning“, as he has been “chosen” to take part in an initiation process that is often metaphorically described as a “long night,” followed by a glorious awakening as a new being. In order to accomplish this, Kanye needs to kill his old self and be ritualistically reborn. Once this is done, true power is within his grasp.This “moving painting” is definitely a multi-layered artwork, with many levels of interpretation: the first level is a commentary on power by using timeless symbols taken from ancient art; the second level describes a Masonic initiation with a ritual murder and an imminent rebirth.
This video lasts a mere minute and forty-three seconds but it manages to give the viewers plenty to ponder on and many symbols to decode. Looking at its meaning from a pop culture point of view, it is interesting to note that this short-film, intended to be viewed by the general public (especially young people), describes the concept of power with overt Masonic symbolism and occult references. This causes the uninformed viewers to unconsciously associate those symbols with the concept of Power, while “those in the know” get the “insider’s wink” sent by this video. Power ultimately becomes another piece in the on-going process called the “Revelation of the Method,” where the true source of power gradually and subliminally reveals itself to the world and occult rituals take place right in front of the public’s eyes, accepted by pre-implanted psychological facilitators.
I'm not saying that this is what it is represented to be here.Kanye might just have read a few books on masonry and then decided to make it fashionable ;)
“The clock’s tickin’ / I just count the hours”
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
One morning in June, Google's list of the top global searches began to fill up with random words: "fried chicken," "comic book stores," "gyms." Before anyone could stop it, a racial slur jumped to the No. 1 spot.
Many observers concluded that Google must have been hacked. It wasn't.
It was the victim of a prank that redirected armies of people to search for the same things at the same time.
Corporations spend millions of dollars trying to understand and control traffic on the Internet, and more often than not they don't succeed. 4chan has mastered the feat for free.
Created seven years ago by a 15-year-old, 4chan is a vast web of anonymous, uncensored message boards. No one's in charge, but the site's users have managed to pull off some of the highest-profile collective actions in the history of the Internet.
The 4chan "hive mind" has been credited with -- or blamed for, depending on your perspective -- urging tween idol Justin Bieber to head for North Korea as part of his upcoming world tour (as part of an online poll allowing fans to select which country he should visit), spreading a story that Steve Jobs had a heart attack (which caused Apple's stock to fall precipitously) and starting a rumor that there was a bomb at New York's JFK airport (triggering an evacuation).
The June 17 takeover of Google Trends, the powerful tool that companies use to track what's hot on the Internet, wasn't the first time 4chan succeeded in outwitting Google. The site's users have also managed to get a swastika, symbols depicting planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the words "[expletive] you google" on the trends list.
One user of the site was investigated for hacking Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account during the 2008 campaign. Trying to game Google to make a search popular is not illegal, but some of the other pranks have brought inquiries by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. The site's antics have also garnered positive attention: 4chan's founder, Christopher Poole, recently raised $625,000 in funding to create a new online community. Among his investors are some of the most revered Internet inventors and businessmen, including Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, former AOL executive Kenneth Lerer and former Googler Joshua Schachter. The startup is still in stealth mode, so Poole declined to give details.
Digital intuition
How 4chan -- a site built for fun by a teenager that barely ekes out a profit from online ads -- manages over and over again to outwit the systems that multibillion-dollar corporations use to make money on the Internet is one of the great mysteries of the capricious online world.
"The community self-organizes, decides on goals and achieves them in an ad hoc, undirected manner," said Schachter, who invented the social bookmarking tool called Delicious. "I see it like the financial markets -- sort of chaotic. It's hard to understand, but incredibly vital to understanding out how people operate together on very, very large scales."
When 4chan was created in the fall of 2003, it was a narrowly focused "image board" where people interested in Japanese anime could trade comments and photos. Poole told nearly 20 people about it, and the site has grown by word of mouth ever since. It now has 11 million unique visitors (similar to The Washington Post's numbers in May) and 730 million page views a month (similar to the New York Times). There are 1 million new posts per day. Its demographic is largely males ages 18 to 25 -- "guys with nerdier interests," according to Poole.
'Antithesis of Facebook'
At a time when more and more of the Internet seems walled off into communities such as Facebook or MySpace, which operate with pages of rules and proper protocol, 4chan is the exception.You don't need to register to post on the site and you can delete your posts at any time with no record. You can curse and insult all you want. While there are some thoughtful, wonky conversations, many of the posts range from juvenile to risque to just plain gross.
Its critics describe 4chan -- and especially Anonymous, a loosely affiliated group that is credited for some of the pranks -- as the dark side of the Internet. "Hackers on steroids," "domestic terrorists" and "Internet hate machine" are among the insults that have been hurled at it online. It has been blocked, albeit temporarily, by both AT&T and Verizon.
But fans say 4chan is a haven for free speech.
"The Internet needs some of these unstructured spaces. . . . This may be a reaction against other places that have developed that say, 'This is what you use Facebook for, this is what you use LinkedIn for,' " said Wendy Seltzer, a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.Poole, who goes by the online name "moot," is now 22 and based in New York. He describes 4chan as the "antithesis of Facebook."
"Facebook is about real-life identity and having all these connections," he said. "4chan is anonymous and ephemeral."
While part of 4chan's ability to manipulate search rankings comes from the use of clever technical tools, a large percentage must still come from sheer manpower because of safeguards Google has throw out searches that seem to be automated.Poole, who says he neither instigated nor participated in any of the pranks, explains how 4chan users manage to get on Google Trends. They say, " 'Let's seize this idea.' " They then spread word through the discussion boards, e-mails, chat services and so on, asking everyone to search for a specific word or words at a certain time.
Next, Poole said, outsiders fan the flames. "Bloggers start to see this trending and think there must be a story, and all start to post stories. Higher up the totem pole, the bigger media outlets see rumors, and they'll comment, 'Hey look what everyone else is looking at,' " he said.
Gaming the trends
Search engine expert Barry Schwartz said the Google Trends list is generated by ranking searches and the number of news blog articles coming out about the Web on a new or unique topic. It's impossible to put a number on how many people must be involved to get a topic at the top, he said, but it's "a ton."
Why people would decide to spend their time following suggestions by 4chan is what's unclear in this chain of events.
"There's a lot of energy in the system from people who have nothing to do, no outlet for their goofing off," Schachter surmised. Seltzer theorized that "when people see it as a game to beat Google or stack a vote, they may be willing to do things that they wouldn't have been willing to do for pay."
In March, Poole was invited to speak at Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. He was asked to talk to a group of engineers about 4chan vs. Facebook -- ways they are similar ("there aren't many," Poole says) and how they differ. He started out his talk by asking people to raise their hands if they had a negative impression of 4chan. Most everyone did. "Apparently," he recalled, "I was a controversial speaker."
I've never been a big fan of diet drinks (I prefer good old water), and now I'm glad. A study conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio followed over six hundred people ranging from twenty-five to sixty-four years old for up to eight years and found that those drinking diet soda — even as little as one can or bottle a day — did not lose weight and were significantly more likely to become overweight than those who drank regular soft drinks or none at all. How can this be? No one knows for sure, but scientists think that artificial sweeteners, perhaps even the caramel coloring, may muddle brain chemistry. The brain in a sense gets a reward, and the desire for more sweets is intensified. The more of these fake sweet products you eat or drink, the more sweets you want.
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