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2headedsnake: cargocollective.com Nate James What is the...
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The Washington Post: SOPA visual petition riles up the ‘geek lobby’
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verbalresistance: mehreenkasana: Revealed: US spy operation...
Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social mediaMilitary’s ‘sock puppet’ software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda.
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an “online persona management service” that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world.
The project has been likened by web experts to China’s attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet. Critics are likely to complain that it will allow the US military to create a false consensus in online conversations, crowd out unwelcome opinions and smother commentaries or reports that do not correspond with its own objectives.
The discovery that the US military is developing false online personalities – known to users of social media as “sock puppets” – could also encourage other governments, private companies and non-government organisations to do the same.
The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations “without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries” …
Raise your hands if you’re surprised. That’s right. I see no hands.
News from back at the beginning of this year, but it’s important you all know, especially those who might not have heard about it since then; that there in itself would be proof, of how more ‘murky’ exploits by the US government, can pass by unaccounted/unchallenged - with little coverage from institution media…
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alecshao: Rodin’s The Gates of Hell (after Dante’s Inferno)
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Mantegna Tarocchi “Fool (Beggar) with Dog” might be...
Mantegna Tarocchi “Fool (Beggar) with Dog” might be the earliest. There are good chances, that this figure was influenced by Alberti’s (= Lucian’s) Momus (written 1443 - 1450) and Momus declared (in Alberti’s text), that he found the role as beggar quite interesting … and further by the theme “Diogenes with dogs”. Some estimate the Mantegna Tarocchi (E-series) to 1465, we suggest 1475
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Urartu was one of several first millennium B.C. states that came...
Urartu was one of several first millennium B.C. states that came into existence and prominence in Anatolia (modern Turkey) after the destruction of the Hittite state around 1200 B.C. (others include Phrygia, Tabal, and Lydia). These states were kingdoms, each with its own language, ethnicity, religion, and characteristic material culture. In their inscriptions, the Assyrians of Mesopotamia refer to the Urartians as their northern enemies from the eleventh to the seventh centuries B.C. However, the earliest known Urartian written document, a rock inscription at Van (ancient Tushpa), records the earliest reference to the state. There it says that Urartu was ruled by a king named Sarduri (r. ca. 840–830 B.C.), and mentions a male deity, Haldi, the supreme god throughout Urartian history. Urartu was centered in eastern Anatolia, around Lake Van; the capital, Tushpa, was located on the eastern shore of the lake, situated on a high and elongated rock outcrop. In the late ninth century B.C., the state expanded north into the Caucasus, where an Urartian presence was established at sites like Karmir Blur and Armavir. The Urartians also moved east across the formidable Zagros Mountains into northwestern Iran, where many rock-cut texts and various sites—such as Hasanlu, Agrab Tepe, and Bastam—inform us of their presence.
From the Facebook page of Nicolas Cvl
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Georg Siebert, Worker, 1931
Georg Siebert, Worker, 1931
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ymutate: Mitsuo Katsui found at: all this talk
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mrkiki: Raoul DufyClaudine de espaldas. 1906Óleo sobre tela. 46...
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tatteredbanners: David and Goliath by Paul Gustave Doré
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i12bent: Paul Cadmus: Fantasia on a Theme by Dr S., 1946 - Egg...
Paul Cadmus: Fantasia on a Theme by Dr S., 1946 - Egg tempera on composition board (The Whitney)
This painting is an explicit reference to Dr. William Sheldon’s popular theory of body/personality types: endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic…
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i12bent: Alias Kid Balzac… Waldo Peirce (Dec. 17, 1884 - 1970),...
Alias Kid Balzac…
Waldo Peirce (Dec. 17, 1884 - 1970), was an American painter and larger-than-life character, a long-time friend of Hemingway’s…
Above: Portrait of Ernest Hemingway by Waldo Peirce. Signed by the artist, lower right: “For Ernest (alias Kid Balzac) Key West first April /29 - WP”. Ernest Hemingway Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
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Library fire in Egypt clashes destroys 'irreplaceable' 200-year-old documents
Library fire in Egypt clashes destroys 'irreplaceable' 200-year-old documents:
Cairo (CNN) — The new round of bloody clashes between pro-democracy protesters and Egypt’s security forces left 10 people dead Saturday, including six by live ammunition, even though the new prime minister denied that live fire was being used by his forces.
An Egyptian protester against continuing military rule throws stones at riot policemen during clashes in central Cairo Saturday
Meanwhile, 213-year-old Egyptian maps and historical manuscripts — described as “irreplaceable” — were destroyed after a library in Cairo was among structures set ablaze during the clashes, officials said.
Among those killed in the escalating violence in central Cairo were two children, ages 12 and 14, and two others died from skull fractures caused by cement blocks, officials said. Also, 432 people have been injured since the latest unrest broke out Friday, said a spokesman for the Health Ministry, Dr. Hisham Sheeha.
Sheeha said six of the deaths were by live fire.
Egypt’s Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri, appointed by the military earlier this month, condemned the library attack, which he called an “arson committed by the protesters who portrayed no patriotism in protecting the symbols of the historical civilization of this nation.” The 200,000-book library is called the Scientific Center.
Destroyed in the fire were the original manuscript of the “description of Egypt” and “irreplaceable maps and historical manuscripts preserved by many generations since the building of the Scientific Center in August 1798 during the French Campaign,” Ganzouri said in a statement.
Egypt lost a piece of “its national treasure” and “its rare history,” the prime minister said.
The library was a scene of intense confrontation Saturday.
A dozen men dressed in military uniform were positioned on the library roof and threw cement blocks and rocks on the protesters and sprayed them with water hoses to push them away from the building.
But protesters hurled back rocks as well as Molotov cocktails. Then a massive explosion erupted, apparently originating from inside the building, and black smoke billowed.
Firefighters were busy putting out another fire in a nearby building.
Protesters were bleeding from rocks thrown at them.
At least one demonstrator was unaware that the structure was a library containing historical documents.
“We had no idea it was a library. We love our country. Why were the military thugs on the rooftop of the building in the first place, throwing debris and rocks at us? They destroyed it, not us, and now they will use it to turn public opinion against us and label us thugs,” said Ahmed Ali, a student and activist involved in the clashes.
“Since when are buildings or manuscripts more important than the lives of humans?” he added.
Tahrir Supplies, a group that provides medical care to Egyptians injured in Tahrir Square clashes, publicly asked protesters to return any books or maps taken from the library and deposit them at a nearby church. But such a book return appeared daunting Saturday as the neighborhood was embroiled in clashes…
Read More: CNN
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“Messene. Circa 183-182 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver,...
“Messene. Circa 183-182 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 16.79 g 9). Diademed head of Demeter to right, wearing diadem formed of pearls and wheat ears, and a pearl earring. Rev. MESSANIWN Zeus Ithomatas standing right, hurling thunderbolt with his right hand and with an eagle with spread wings perching on the wrist of his outstetched left arm; below his left arm
This coin was struck during a short-lived revolt of Messene against its forced membership in the Achaian League. Unlike other revolt coinages, which were withdrawn and melted down, the rare Messenian tetradrachms must have continued to circulate since the vast majority known today are quite worn; this is, in fact, one of the finest in existance. ”
This composition may have originated with Hageladas.
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“Boeotia Thebes. Circa 405-395 BC. Stater (Silver,...
“Boeotia
Thebes. Circa 405-395 BC. Stater (Silver, 11.97 g). Boeotian shield. Rev. Q-E Head of bearded Dionysos three-quarter facing, turned slightly to the right, wearing ivy wreath; all within a very shallow circular incuse. BCD Boiotia 457 ( same dies ). Head, Boeotia p. 41 = BMC 104, pl. XIV, 9. Jameson 1164 ( same reverse die ). Very rare. An attractive and splendid coin of great beauty. Nearly extremely fine. From the collection of APCW, ex Nomos List 3, 2010, 60.
This is surely the most majestic and noble facing head of Dionysos to be found anywhere on ancient Greek coinage. He has a serene beauty that is in contrast to the wild and orgiastic nature the god can have on other occasions; his eyes are clear here, and his gaze penetrating. It is interesting to note that the artist who made the dies for this coin seems to have been following a Theban tradition in not including any trace of the god’s neck, as with the facing heads of Herakles that appear on Theban staters about a generation earlier (BCD 422-423): this gives the portrait an ethereal, almost other-worldly feel, as if the god is actually looking out from a swirl of clouds at the viewer. ”
Compare with the Dydima Apollo and the Celtic sky gods— despite the difference in facial expressions.
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2headedsnake: mettyori.deviantart.com Yusuke Katekari
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poisonwasthecure: Hero Finds Leander Ferdinand Keller 19th...
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Water spouts in the form of a lion mask, ca. 100B.C.–100 A.D.;...
Water spouts in the form of a lion mask, ca. 100B.C.–100 A.D.; Late Hellenistic or Early Roman
Greco-Roman; Said to be from Kourion
Bronze
These impressive objects must have adorned a monumental public fountain house (nymphaeum), probably in one of the more important Cypriot cities. The heads are attached to a bronze tube, encased in lead, of about 2 3/4 inches (7 cm) in length.
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