• As a boy, future Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was subjected to CIA-backed mind-control experiments
It's more than mere coincidence that Ted Kaczynski, one of America's most famous early terrorists, was part of the CIA's "MK-Ultra" experiments — designed to see how much the human psyche could take before crumbling.
"Thus did Kaczynski’s Harvard experiences shape his anger and legitimize his wrath,” wrote [professor Alston] Chase, who died in 2022. "By the time he graduated, all the elements that would ultimately transform him into the Unabomber were in place..."
• 17 deaths, 736 wrecks so far, involving Tesla's "autopilot"
• Reddit CEO hosts disastrous "ask me anything" session, stalks off after refusing to answer questions Under various nom de plumes, I've been on Reddit.com for almost as long as Reddit has been there. Some days it's half my internet browsing. If you use Reddit right, you can walk away smarter after spending some time there (which is not to say that I use Reddit right).
There's an IPO coming up, though, and Reddit is eager to monetize itself, so they're pulling the plug on outside apps. That's seriously stupid, because Reddit in its native state is a relentlessly unpleasant experience. It's only outside apps and the all-volunteer Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) that make the site enjoyable. Here's a quick primer on the facts.
They're ending API access at the end of the month, and there'll be no support for 'adult' content. I don't do much adulting there, but Reddit is specifically not for children, so it's ridiculous if adults can't be adults on the site. For now, Reddit says that the pre-re-design "old.Reddit" will remain available, and it looks like RES can continue to exist, but Reddit's management has lied about such things in the past.
I'm also increasingly annoyed that Reddit has given bots free rein in the comments section and, I suspect but can't prove, more and more of the posts are by AI chatbots.
Much of Reddit is going dark in protest over all this, and at least some of the largest subReddits won't be coming back. I'll be unsubscribing from any subReddit that remains online during the protest.
Meanwhile, hanging out in a place that's evil makes me uncomfortable, so I'm test-driving participation in some not-for-profit alternatives, Lemmy and Squabbles and Tildes.
• Google litters Gmail with more ads, including in-between mails
• Google litters Gmail with more ads, including in-between mails
• Top distiller says climate change to crimp liquor supply
• America's love affair with air conditioning shows a Catch 22 of climate change
• Heat and dryness from climate change is making wildfires much worse
The "rough ride" has been a common cop tactic for a long, long time. Hell, it was common knowledge when I wrote about it in Pathetic Life, 28 years ago, after cops killed Aaron Williams in a "rough ride."
Randy Cox got a ride that left him paralyzed, and it's unsurprising that the coverage from AP doesn't explain "rough rides," and instead frames it as if it had been accidental.
• 'Right to be left alone': Man acquitted of assaulting Edmonton police officer after successful self-defense argument
• San Jose Police union executive facing fentanyl-smuggling charges is fired
• The dangerous Republican freakout about Trump's indictment
• Judge overseeing Trump's prosecution is a Trump-appointed wingnut
• Taking a break from lawsuits to overturn 2022 election, would-be Gov Kari Lake drops a new single
• 12-million Americans believe violence is justified to restore Trump to power
• FCC pretends to fine right-wing bullshitters $5 million for voter robocall scam
Mystery links
There's no knowing where you're going
There's no knowing where you're going
My browser history
without the porn
without the porn
• Schadenfreude over coup-plotter convictions, sure, but who's next?
• How did birds first take off?
• What is it like to be a fungus?
• What humanity knew and when we knew it, about climate change
• The only physical encyclopedia still in print... and I kinda want one
• "The Simpsons is good again"
• Watched D-Day, he says
• Dave Letterman calls CNN on their lies
♫♬ It don't mean a thing ♫
if it don't have that swing
if it don't have that swing
• Bad Reputation — Joan Jett
• Electricity — Manoeuvres
• Look for the Union Label — Joe Glazer.
• The Question — The Moody Blues
• Sweet Child o' Mine — Cornbread Red
Eventually, everyone
leaves the building
leaves the building
6/11/2023
Cranky Old Fart is annoyed and complains and very occasionally offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that's made me smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.
Tip 'o the hat to ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, CaptCreate's Log, Looking for My Perfect Sandwich, One Finger Medical, Two Finger Magical, Miss Miriam's Mirror, Nebulously Burnished, RanPrieur.com, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I've stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Wynn Bruce, Joey Jo Jo, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn't always shitty.
>They're ending API access at the end of the month, and there'll be no support for 'adult' content.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is : They are massively increasing the cost for outside apps to use their API, to prohibitive levels. In addition, IF OUTSIDE APPS do pay, they will not be allowed to show adult content. The official Reddit app (which sucks big green donkey dicks) and the desktop site, still will.
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I have relatively complex thoughts on Ted Kaczynski. I think the CIA stuff is overblown, and even he vehemently denied it. He said a lot of spot-on stuff in his manifesto, interspersed with terrible opinions on women, and likely other topics - I never did read the whole thing. It'd be reasonable to have his name upside down, considering the murders.
Never read any of Uncle Ted's manifesto. Nothing about MK-Ultra seems justifiable to me, and without evidence I assume the CIA is doing similar things today.
DeleteOverblown how? For our understanding of how long TK was there and the depth of his trauma from it, we have to trust either the CIA or Ted Kaczynski, or trust the now-dead but obviously wingnut shrink who ran the experiments. No reliable sources in that room. I don't trust any of them, but there's no doubt that he was there.
Yeah, he deserves the flip treatment, thanks.
You described the API/adult think better than me. A lot of the tech details of that mess are abstract to me, understood just barely well enough to know it's wrong.
>Overblown how?
DeleteI believe he participated in a single experiment, which lasted a short time, and involved no drugs, and the person who conducted the experiment was associated with the CIA at a later point. It's all vague in my memory. But obviously, I trust the CIA about as far as I can throw an elephant. Who the frick knows?
I don't care enough to delve deeply, but even if it was just one afternoon...
ReplyDeleteIf you're 16, and told to write a long essay about everything you seriously believe, and then "each of the students was seated in front of bright lights, wired to electrodes and subjected to what Murray himself described as 'vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive' interrogations, during which members of his research team would attack the student subjects' ideals and beliefs, as gleaned from their essays," that's going to leave a lasting mark.
Dude obviously had other neurons firing at the wrong rate, so I ain't saying that's what made him. But I gotta wonder, what if he'd spent that afternoon getting Kama Sutrasized by some eager big-boobed college co-ed?
I've read too much about the CIA's MK-Ultra program. Man, their whole purpose in life was to fuck with people's minds, and none of those bastards ever went to prison for it.
Fuck the CIA, then and now.