YAHOO NEWS: A federal grand jury this week indicted 13 members of the “hacktivist” group Anonymous on charges of orchestrating a series of cyber attacks across the globe. As Reuters reports, the 13 suspects were allegedly involved with Anonymous’ “Operation Payback” scheme, originally launched in 2010 as retaliation for the shutdown of the Pirate Bay file sharing site. The operation also included distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against credit card companies and financial institutions that refused to process payments for WikiLeaks, in the wake of the secret-spilling organization’s publication of 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables (an incident known as “Cablegate”). MORE […]
SIDEWALKING: The Benjamin
Ben, Locust Walk, 10:31 am yesterday by JEFF FUSCO
Win Tix To See F*ck Buttons @ Making Time
I have come here today to hand out lollipops and tickets to see Fuck Buttons @ Making Time on Saturday, and I’m all out of lollipops. To qualify, all you have to do is sign up for our mailing list (see right, below the masthead). Trust us, this is something you want to do. In addition to breaking news alerts and Phawker updates, you also get advanced warning about groovy concert ticket giveaways and other free swag opportunities like this one! After signing up, send us an email at FEED@PHAWKER.COM telling us a much, with the words BUCK FUTTONS […]
CINEMA: The Farce Estate
DAVID EDELSTEIN: I gotta agree with budding film critic Julian Assange on this one: The Fifth Estate, which purports to depict the rise of the WikiLeaks founder, played by Benedict Cumberbatch and the momentous release of documents supplied by (then) Bradley Manning, is a feeble, reactionary drama. Director Bill Condon and screenwriter Josh Singer have decided to frame this as a saga of seduction and disillusionment. Daniel Berg (Daniel Bruhl) falls under the spell of Assange, exults in WikiLeaks’ cyberomnipotence, and then realizes that his charismatic leader is psychotically indifferent to the human cost of releasing government documents. (Assange won’t […]
INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE: Hi-Def Saturnalia
[Click HERE to enlarge] SLATE: Saturn is so beautiful that it would be next to impossible to pick what would be my favorite picture of it ever. Impossible until now. Because HOLY HALEAKALA Croatian software developer and “amateur” astronomical image processor Gordan Ugarkovic has created a picture of Saturn so stunning words fail me. Look. I had to shrink the original 4000 x 3200 pixel behemoth to fit this blog. So please, click that picture to see it in full resolution. It’s staggering. OK, you should know by now that words never fail me. Let me take you on a […]
MUST SEE: The Lords Of The Serengeti
This is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. Do yourself a favor and take the time to check it out. Show your children. Show your parents. Show everyone. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: Photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson were determined to break new visual ground when they made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013. A remote-control toy car and a rugged robot tank gave them an unobtrusive way to make images up close and at low angles. Two cameras were mounted on each device; Nichols controlled one and Williamson the […]
WORTH REPEATING: Snowden Speaks!
Artwork by POSTERCHILD NEW YORK TIMES: Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, said in an extensive interview this month that he did not take any secret N.S.A. documents with him to Russia when he fled there in June, assuring that Russian intelligence officials could not get access to them. Mr. Snowden said he gave all of the classified documents he had obtained to journalists he met in Hong Kong, before flying to Moscow, and did not keep any copies for himself. He did not take the files to Russia “because it wouldn’t serve the public interest,” he […]
LET’S GET META: In No Particuluar Order My Top Five Singles Of The 21st Century…So Far
WXPN asked for my Top 5 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium #885Countdown thingee, so I gave at the office. Can’t wait to do it again next century. WXPN’S THE KEY: Phawker’s Editor-in-Chief and founder, Jonathan Valania, is no stranger to music. A long time music critic and popular culture writer in Philly (Philadelphia Inquirer, Huffington Post, The Guardian), and (many years ago) the lead singer of the Allentown rock and roll band the Psyclone Rangers, Valania sent us over his five picks to include in WXPN’s 885 Greatest Songs of the New Millennium countdown, happening now on XPN. You […]
BOOKS: The Importance Of Being Morrissey
THE TELEGRAPH: Morrissey, former lead singer of The Smiths, has made a career from warbling about how woeful his life is. His autobiography, published today, bizarrely as a Penguin Classic, continues in this vein. Here are 13 of the most Morrisseyesque bits in Morrissey’s life story. On being born: “Naturally my birth almost kills my mother.” On being taught to swim: “I was lifted up and thrown into the water in an act that, these days, would count as extreme physical and psychological assault.” On school dinners: “Putrid smells reduce me to a pitiful pile, and none are more […]
SIDEWALKING: There Will Be Blood
Paul Dano, Brian Wilson concert, NYC, last night BY JONATHAN VALANIA THE GUARDIAN: The long-mooted biopic of musician and former Beach Boy Brian Wilson is finally taking shape, with reports emerging that There Will Be Blood actor Paul Dano has been cast as Wilson in the early part of his career. The project, currently titled Love and Mercy, is set to range widely over Wilson’s life and work, which began with a blaze of glory in the 60s with surfer-pop act the Beach Boys, before the cancellation of the Smile album in 1967 and Wilson’s subsequent battles with mental illness […]
SECRET HISTORY: This Is Why ‘They’ Hate Us
By ‘they’ we mean the Arab world, specifically Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba pretty much all of South America. FRESH AIR: In 1953, for the first and only time in history, two brothers were appointed to head the overt and covert sides of American foreign policy. President Dwight Eisenhower appointed John Foster Dulles secretary of state, and Allen Dulles director of the CIA. Journalist Stephen Kinzer says the Dulles brothers shaped America’s standoff with the Soviet Union, led the U.S. into war in Vietnam, and helped topple governments they thought unfriendly to American interests in Guatemala, Iran, the […]
SAINT RICH: Officer
This just in, Saint Rich will be returning to the greater Philly metro area on November 14th with a just-announced show at Kung Fu Necktie. In our world, this was the Song Of The Summer, which is good news for fans of T. Rex/Crazy Horse, less so for fans of the cops.
THE FIFTH ESTATE: Glenn Greenwald/Laura Poitras/Jeremy Schahill Teaming Up With eBay Founder For Bold New Journalism Venture
CNN: Pierre Omidyar, founder of online auction site eBay, said Wednesday he is teaming up with journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has led reporting on secret U.S. surveillance programs, to create a new online mass media venture. Greenwald announced late Tuesday that he was quitting The Guardian for “a once-in-a-career dream journalistic opportunity” but said he was not ready to give more details. Now Omidyar has confirmed to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he is behind the new media venture, which includes Greenwald and others — and that he will personally fund it. Greenwald has been at the forefront of a […]