The Most Dangerous Person on the Internet

Posted on September 10, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Do Not Click This Photo!

Who is the most dangerous person on the Internet? Turns out it is Emma Watson, the actress who played Hermione Granger in the wildly successful Harry Potter series. Now Watson is not some kind of nerdy super hacker like Lisbeth Salander writing codes to destroy your computer’s hard drive and hence your entire life. No, Watson is actually the bait to lure unsuspecting victims to sites that will launch really nasty viruses and/or steal your identity.

The tech security company McAfee is reporting that Watson tops on the list of famous names that cyber criminals use to lure online searchers. Watson is not the only celebrity unfortunate enough to be used to entice people to click into cyber hell. Last year’s list was topped by Heidi Klum (As Heidi likes to say, one day you’re in, the next day you’re out…Auf Wiedersehen).

Men take note; female celebrities are more likely to be utilized by cyber criminals. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was the only male in the top 20. As a public service from CultureMap.com, other risky celebrities to search online are Jessica Biel, Selena Gomez, Halle Berry, Megan Fox, Shakira, Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, and Sofia Vergara.

McAfee advises you to be wary about the sites you visit online to get your daily dose of celebrity scandal. Your best bet is to stick to well-known sites from established organizations like www.culturemap.com. Even so, you still need to practice safe surfing as online charlatans may try to fool you with a genuine-looking URL address that will be sure to lead you into eternal internet damnation.

Getting Lost on the Yellow Brick Road

Posted on June 28, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Listening to the pundits try to make sense of Wall Street is a bit like riding one of those old wooden roller coasters. You begin by starting off slowly. Then you climb a big hill and just as quickly, head screaming back down. In between, you get shook around a lot and end up were you started (if you’re lucky).

Take some recent analysis from the 4^th estate…

The price of gas goes down at the pump. Drivers now spend less money to fill up their tanks. That’s a good thing, right? Wrong! Analysts report consumer spending is down because Americans are losing faith in the recovery. What happens? Stocks tumble on the news of the report. Huh?

Speaking of gasoline, the former president of Shell Oil predicted in December 2011 that gas would cost $5 a gallon in 2012. Gas prices did go up, but have returned to January 2012. Maybe that’s why he is the former president for Shell.

Several large banks get their ratings lowered because of questionable deals with European countries. That’s bad right? Wrong! Stocks go up because investors were already expecting this and like the fact it was done. What happens? Stock prices rise on the news. Say what?

The Supreme Court surprises many people by upholding “Obama Care”. This was not based on commerce, but that the government can tax just about anything it wants. The money experts on Fox and CNBC immediately screamed this would ruin the economy and kill jobs. The market did go down after the ruling was released, but only dropped around 40 points. Wonder what Obama did when the market dropped over 100 points before the announcement was made?

There is a television ad currently airing for a financial services company. Various husbands are getting ready for bed and fretting to their wives about what could happen if the economy goes south (I’m guessing the company doesn’t feel women are smart enough to be worried). The wives offer sound advice saying “it’s all noise” and we should “tune it out”.

I remember a very smart (and wealthy) financial adviser telling me to look at the market as a long term process, and not to focus on a day/week or month. I try to follow that advice, but I have to admit it’s hard to do when all the talking heads sound like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz giving me directions to find the end of the Yellow Brick Road.

Maybe There is Hope for Us

Posted on June 26, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Something amazing recently took place on the Internet. It won’t bring us world peace, or end famine, but it could help restore our faith in mankind just a little bit.

The story begins with an unlucky tourist. Anyone who lives to travel knows how important taking pictures are. You want to capture all the sights from places that you’ve always dreamed of visiting, creating a special collection of wonderful memories. So imagine how it would feel to travel in Europe, take over 2,800 pictures and then lose your camera. That moment of realizing all the photos are gone would feel like being sucker-punched.

That’s exactly what happened to one unlucky traveler who visited Amsterdam, but this story has a happy ending. You see, the camera was found by a good hearted soul who realized the camera held a clue as to its owner, but how to find him?

After looking at some of the photos, it became apparent the camera’s owner liked to have his picture taken (a valuable lesson for those who hate having their picture taken). Still, there are millions of visitors to Amsterdam so what can one person do?

Jan van Cappellen, who found the camera on a train, said he felt like a detective. After realizing he had a picture of the owner, van Cappellen emailed several hostels, and other tourist sites including the Iamsterdam page on Facebook. The photo was posted on Monday and by Tuesday, the owner, Reggie Downing from Canada, was recognized and found still traveling in Europe.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, it might not seem like much, but it’s those little victories that make it feel like we still have a chance.

Was it Something I Said?

Posted on June 23, 2012 by bvanrysdam

So here’s the scenario. A media company broadcasts something the Federal Communications Commission deems indecent. The FCC decides to revise its’ policy in response to the broadcast and then fines the media company for it after the fact. Make sense?

The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t think so. In a rare unanimous ruling, the high court threw out the fines and sanctions issued by the FCC. The court concluded that the broadcasters could not have known in advance, the broadcasts would later be deemed indecent and subject to fines. In other words, they said it wasn’t fair to change the rules in the middle of the game.

The indecent broadcasts included a brief display of nudity on ABC’s “NYPD Blue” and several obscenities uttered by Cher and Bono during different awards shows. In case you’re having trouble remembering; The “NYPD Blue” episode “Nude Awakening” aired on February 25, 2003. Yes, the wheels of justice do turn very slowly.

What the court did not do is free “over the air” broadcasters from the regulations that other media outlets (Cable, The Internet, etc.) are free from. While that argument may be compelling, the government still controls the airwaves and can dictate different rules, even if many viewers don’t realize they are switching back and forth between a cable channel and a broadcast channel. It appears that, for now, broadcast outlets (television and radio) will still have to adhere to the current policy.

In case you were wondering, the infamous Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction was not part of this ruling. That case is currently making its way through the judicial process. The government has appealed a lower court’s ruling that threw out the fine in that case.

In regards to the case just wrapped up by the Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy said “it is unnecessary for the court to address the constitutionality of the current policy” which means we might get to relive the Super Bowl half-time show from Reliant Stadium all over again. Anybody want to place on bet on how that ruling will come out?

Now granted, the faster technology moves, the harder it is for laws and regulations to keep up. Social standards can also change, causing even more confusion as to what is, and what is not acceptable. Still, it seems like we just wasted a bunch of money. In the last month, the Government has lost its case against John Edwards, Roger Clemens and now this. With a record like that, they very well might end up replacing the Astros for last place.

I am the DJ on the Radio

Posted on June 18, 2012 by bvanrysdam

I had written and recorded this song a while back. I really liked how it came out, but felt it would be interesting to find a way to mix it with video. I played around with several concepts, but nothing felt right. I came across a website that hosted a ton of vintage film clips and discovered several films that featured radio broadcasting. I started to download and insert the clips. While browsing, I also came across some great clips of women doing burlesque. I thought it fit perfectly with the bridge in the song that featured hand clapping and scratching. I don’t think I’m every completely satisfied with any song I’ve recorded, but I was pretty happy with this.

Even More Fun With Photoshop

Posted on June 12, 2012 by bvanrysdam

click on image to see it full size

Democracy Makes My Head Hurt

Posted on May 25, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Egypt recently took another step towards democracy. The country just held elections to determine its next President. It’s an exciting time, listening to citizens take pride in the right to vote.

In the movie “American President”, Michael Douglas (who plays President Andrew Shepard) said “America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship”. Johnny Cash once said; “I love the freedoms we got in this country, I appreciate your freedom to burn your flag if you want to, but I really appreciate my right to bear arms so I can shoot you if you try to burn mine”.

Let’s face it; democracy is not easy. Consider these hot-topic issues dominating the news…

The right of the church to exercise their belief vs. the right of women to have access to birth control?
The need to build the Keystone Pipeline vs. the right of property owners who say they don’t want it on their land?

“In Egypt we’d like to bring a new form of democracy where all can work together and in spite of our differences” said Abdul Mawgoud Rageh Dardery, who won a seat in the Egyptian parliament.

Work together? That does not sound like the democracy being practiced in America today. Both parties seem more interested in appealing to the base and would rather point out everywhere we disagree rather than focus on what we do agree on (we do still agree on something right?)

How do we put compromise back into the vocabulary? In the good old days, politicians would enter a “smoke-filled room”, haggle, twist arms until both sides felt a little pain and made a little gain, but those days, like VHS tapes and the Walkman, seem like a long time ago.

Dalia Ziada, the Executive Director of Ibn Khaldun Center for Democratic Studies in Egypt said “Time by time, democracy fixes itself”. I for one, hope she’s right.

Before & After

Posted on April 5, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Had a lot of fun with “Snoop-Dog” today. He had a make-over done and so we posted before and after photos for everyone to check out. We had over 66 like and 10 comments in the 1st hour of it being posted on the Houston SPCA Facebook Wall. You can see more of my posts for them by clicking here.

Bending Reality

Posted on March 19, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Had a great visit to the Escher Museum in Den Haag. Will post more about the trip later, but wanted to get something up to share.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It…I Feel Fine

Posted on March 6, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Much ado has been made about the year 2012 and the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world. While Doom’s Day prophecies are as common as failed weddings from the Bachelorette, they are largely ignored by most sane people.

Remember Minister Harold Camping? He went out on limb, not just once, but twice (I think there was a rounding error on his 1^st prediction) urging us to empty our 401k’s and get ready for the big end. Sadly for him, he was proven wrong on both occasions.

Other near-famous unsuccessful prophecies include…

Haley’s Comet 1910…Stories abounded about a horrific gas cloud called Cyanogen that trailed the infamous comet (which incidentally was not named for the early rock ‘n roll star, but for some astronomer). Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and years later we eventually were able to “Rock Around the Clock”.

Heaven’s Gate 1997…It’s obvious that Comets play a big role in determining the end of the world. The Heaven’s Gate cult believed that an alien spacecraft was following the comet Hale-Bopp. Sadly, the members of the cult put their money where their mouth was and committed suicide fearing it was their only chance to survive before the Earth was “recycled”.

Y2K…Many feared computers would fail to understand the change from 1999 to 2000 causing massive blackouts, nuclear weapons launching and toilets to stop working. Thankfully, we were able to still flush in the new millennium.

I personally never held much stock in these predications until I learned that Snookie’s due date is December 21, 2012; the exact same date as predicted by the Mayans. Now I always considered “Jersey Shore” to be some kind of preview as to what the end of the world would look like, but I ask you; what are the odds?

You may think I’m being foolish, but I for one plan on cashing in my IRA and heading to Belize to party with the Mayans. If the world is going to end, I want to be with the folks who got it right.