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A simple and not-too-effective spam Twitter account has become an internet phenomenon. @Horse_ebooks may or may not be a ‘bot, but the nonsensical snippets that it Tweets, supposedly from the ebooks it is trying to sell, has caused over 25,000 people to follow the account.
I tend to liken horse_ebooks to some wacky public access show you might have watched in college. There’s no comedic motive — as with the weirdo doing a foreign events call-in show at 3:00 in the morning, there’s no irony — but it doesn’t carry that guilt of mockery: you are not, and couldn’t be, making fun of Horse_ebooks. If anything, it’s making fun of you.
Whatever the appeal — explication does more harm than good — it’s stuck with people. Someone started a genuinely good horse_ebooks fanfiction site. There’s Horse_ecomics, which posts comics inspired by the account’s Tweets, and a litany of smaller tributes: people have had ordered framed images of the account’s avatar, turned Tweets into mug inscriptions (“Swallow that garbage”), and renamed their Twitter accounts in it honor.
John Herrman at Splitsider explains what he knows about this account, and how it has taken off as a rising star on Twitter and in the larger internet universe. Link -via Boing Boing
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SPAM Mints -
$3.95
What better mints to wash down a yummy meal of SPAM than these SPAM Mints? Though sadly they're not actually SPAM-flavored mints (they're cinnamon mints), the new SPAM Mints from the NeatoShop come in a cool collectible retro SPAM mini tins.
Perfect for SPAM lovers and those in dire need of wacky stocking stuffers! Link
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Spam Lip Glaze / Balm – $1.95
Are you looking for delicious way to keep your lips supple and soft? You need the toasted meat-flavored SPAM Lip Glaze / Balm from the NeatoShop. This lip balm will make sure your mouth always stays meaty fresh.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more yummy Lip Balms.
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Is it getting less spammy in your inbox? It’s not just your imagination – according to Symantec, the volume of spam email sent decreased by over 80%:
There are many different factors that appear to be working together to make sending spam more difficult and less profitable for criminal gangs. In September 2010 the Spamit web site announced that it was ceasing operation due to “numerous negative events”. Spamit provided affiliate marketing services, allegedly helping to pay spammers for promoting many spam advertised web sites, notably the “Canadian Pharmacy” operation which was one of the most spam advertised brands.
The demise of Spamit corresponded with a large drop in spam volumes, from approximately 100 to 75 billion spam per day from the end of September to mid November 2010. It is not known exactly what the “negative events” are referred to by Spamit, but it is thought that these may be associated with increased attention by regulatory bodies and law enforcement in the activities of the group.
Even though the level of spam has decreased, it still accounts for more than 70% of all emails sent. Martin Lee of Symantec’s Security Community blog has more: Link – via Mashable and Cubiclebot
If experience with our own communications is any guide, then the first interstellar message we’ll receive from aliens is undoubtedly going to be this:
RE: YOUR COSMIC ASSISTANCE MOST URGENTLY NEEDED.
Hello. I am Young Prince Yirjgun Betel from the Huxdurg-6 system and I wish to interstellar radio with astronomical objects in the Orion Arm in search of an honest and trustworthy life form to partner for most exciting business opportunity this galactic year. I decided to contact Earth because you are a very reputable planet that can assist in a confidential matter of immense benefit for us both.
I want you and I to make a fortune out of a situation that I am obviously left with no better option. The issue I am presenting is that my sun was recently destroyed in a supernova that obliterated most life on my planet, but please do not weep for me: I believe everything happens for a reason. Before my father the Emperor was reduced to cinders he told me of mineral reserves in our solar system he deposited amounting to fifty billion (50.000.000.000) barrels of oil and one hundred thousand (100.000) tons of gold.
Read more of Zachary Martin’s excellent piece about interstellar spam over at McSweeney’s: Link – via Nerdcore
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What good are spam, you say? How about saving the lives of hundreds of would-be victim of a terrorist bomber?
The woman, dubbed "The Black Widow," who Russian authorities suspect was part of the same militant group that killed 35 people at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday, was at a house preparing for the attack, which would have occurred on New Year’s Eve at Red Square. Instead, the woman’s mobile phone, which served as the device’s detonator, was activated hours early by a spam message wishing her a happy new year. She was killed, while a man and woman suspected of being accomplices escaped from the house.
Russian security forces told The Telegraph that phones are usually kept off until the last minute for detonation, but in this case, "the terrorists were careless."
Sixteen years ago today, the first spam email message was sent out to 100,000 Usenet accounts by immigration lawyers Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel, offering their services:
Canter and Siegel went on to notoriety, claiming they’d made $100,000 from their Perl-script spamming. The two remained unrepentant, despite the backlash which led them to lose their hosting and even get Canter disbarred. [...]
Depending on who is counting, spam now accounts for nearly 90 percent of e-mail traffic — much of it sent through botnets or unscrupulous hosting companies and e-mail firms.
Link | Photo: US Department of Justice
Have you ever wondered what the first item sold on eBay was? Or who ran the first banner ad on the internet? Or what the first spam massage tried to sell? 11Points has those firsts and more, including this picture, which was the first image on the internet in 1992. It was uploaded by programmer Silvano de Gennaro in Geneva at the request of World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.
Berners-Lee asked Gennaro to scan some photos from a CERN party and post them on that page. Gennaro didn’t really get what he was talking about but scanned in the photos, FTPed them to the server and linked them to a page. The picture of the four women, complete with their early ’90s “Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead” fashion sense, was the first one ever viewed in a web browser.
Link -via Unique Daily
Can people tell the difference? Not necessarily, according to a new study by Robin Goldstein of the American Association of Wine Economists and colleagues:
Researchers provided 18 volunteers five food samples to try in a blind taste test. Only three were able to identify the canine fodder. [...]
The five samples came from a wide price range and were processed to have a similar consistency. The foods were duck liver mousse, pork liver pâté, two imitation pâtés — pureed liverwurst and Spam — and Newman’s Own dog food.
Eight participants believed the liverwurst was the dog food, and four thought the Spam was the culprit.
Two people identified the high-end pâté as dog food, and one identified the duck liver mousse as dog food.
Filipino American artist Michael Arcega has created a series of maps made of Spam luncheon meat.
Spam was used as ration by the United States Armed Forces during WWII. It ultimately spread through many Southeast Asian nations as a standard source of meat. Spam’s diasporic nature is symbolic of America’s ongoing influence on many nations. S-P-A-M is M-A-P-S in reverse.
