The Evilstick

Have you heard of the “Evilstick” yet? If not, let me give you a quick recap (or you can just watch the video below).

 

A mom in Dayton, OH bought her child an “Evilstick” (yes, that is what this toy is called)
from the local dollar store. To the mom’s horror, behind the foil covering, there was a Photoshopped

picture of a girl cutting herself. 

Well, as all weird stories do, this one took off in the social media world...

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State Dept.Free To Direct Its Broadcasting Arm At Americans

"information produced by VOA for audiences outside the United States shall not be disseminated within the United States … but, on request, shall be available in the English language at VOA, at all reasonable times following its release as information abroad, for examination only by representatives of United States press associations, newspapers, magazines, radio systems, and stations, and by research students and scholars, and, on request, shall be made available for examination only to Members of Congress."
 -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith-Mundt_Act

The US government has a bit of a PR problem at the moment, thanks to Ed Snowden's leaks and a decade-plus of general antipathy towards its constituents' rights and liberties growing out of its War on Terror.

Fortunately, the government now has a chance to aim its official version of today's news at US citizens, thanks to the repeal of a so-called "anti-propaganda" law earlier this month.

For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts.

The Broadcast Board of Governors, which produces programming like the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, has been prevented from aiming its programming at Americans since the 1970's when the Smith-Mundt Act (which authorized the State Dept. to communicate with foreign audiences via many methods, radio being one of them) was amended to prohibit domestic dissemination of the BBG's broadcasts. This was done to distance the State Department's efforts from the internal propaganda machine operated by the Soviet Union. MORE

Silk Road 2.0 targeted in dark-web takedown

Law enforcement agencies from 17 countries flew into The Hague as 40 digital investigators collaborated on one of the biggest dark-web takedowns to date.
From the clinical environment of Europol’s Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce operations room, officers would use their scrambled communications to co-ordinate with those in the field, making arrests and seizing servers during the final stages of a six-month long investigation into underground sites used to sell drugs, guns and hitmen.
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OMOTE / REAL-TIME FACE TRACKING & PROJECTION MAPPING from something wonderful on Vimeo.

This video is worth the two minutes it takes to watch, particularly if you’re a fan of CGI effects. Producer Nobumichi Asai used Omote to create an array of makeup styles on the face of a living model in real time. Omote uses tracking technology to follow the woman’s face so that the “makeup” can be projected onto her while she moves.

Asai has already worked on projecting images to buildings and other objects. Projecting makeup to a face is a more dramatic project, and it’s already getting plenty of attention. The video starts off with some very subtle applications and builds to jaw-dropping faces that turn the model into something unreal – all while she moves her head from side to side and nods.

The video is a little unsettling to watch, but it’s mesmerizing, too. You’ll have an urge to watch it again as soon as the credits hit. You can see other Asai projects here, including work done for Subaru.