Review: Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec Anonymous

We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec Anonymous by Parmy Olson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a detailed, fascinating account of the 2chan -> 4chan -> Anonymous -> LulzSec evolution and the actions/lives of the driving core team including the extent to which they can be identified.

There are some Anonymous culture I only sort of remember such as the shaming "shoe on head" imagery specifically demanded in Anonymous/4chan as a verification method used to prove identity. In September 2012, for instance, journalist Adrian Chen, who had exposed a controversial Reddit moderator, was forced by members of the Anonymous collective to post images of himself wearing a tutu and a shoe on his head to prove his identity and meet their demands.

There is a lot on the Anonymous DDoS activity, particularly with the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) is a DoS-attack tool which multiple untutored volunteers used carelessly allowing their IP addresses to be discovered. All of this was not even essential as the real damage was done with a botnet and even just sharing data shared by others with Anonymous.

It is interesting from the outside the crime noir element where it all falls apart and in the rather typical way of no-honor-among-thieves. Clues are found by determined investigators after sloppily left behind, mostly because a life of crime wasn't connived from birth of course. Then court orders cause HideMyAss.com to reveal what was thought hidden and pers turn CI as in the case of Sabu: https://www.darkreading.com/cyberatta...


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Review: Outsight: A Quarter-Century of Music Journalism: Book 2: Jazzy & Bluesy

Outsight: A Quarter-Century of Music Journalism: Book 2: Jazzy & Bluesy by Thomas Schulte
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Class and Colour in South Africa, 1850-1950

Class and Colour in South Africa, 1850-1950 by H.J. Simons
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Socialists in south Africa politics

...to collaborate with the Industrial Workers Union of Africa in compiling a leaflet in Sesutu and Zulu. It was the first serious attempt to put Marx's clarion call for unity into an African language: 'Let there be no longer any talk of Basuto, Zulu or Shangaan. You are all labourers. Let Labour be your common bond. Deliver yourself from the chains of capitalism. '14

A few months later the socialists faced more serious charges in consequence of an African strike wave on the Rand. White mechanics employed at the municipal power station came out on strike in May for £8 2s. a week, the equivalent, they claimed, of their pre-war wage of £6. They won their demand after leaving the town in darkness for several nights. Impressed at the success of this operation, Africans working in the municipal sanitary services asked for a modest rise from Is. 8d. to 2s. 6d. a day. But they were black and handled lavatory buckets, not electric generators. The council refused, some fifty men struck work, and all except fifteen were convicted. Another 152 men then came out, initially in protest against having to do the work of the arrested strikers. T. G. Macfie, the chief magistrate and a staunch ally of Crawford, sentenced the 152 strikers on 12 June to two months' hard labour for breach of contract. They would be compelled to do the same work as before, he told them, without pay and under armed guard. They would be shot if they tried to escape and flogged if they refused to work. The harsh threats and the contrast between this treatment and the concessions made to the white strikers infuriated the African public. The ANC launched a campaign for the prisoners' release which soon developed into a demand for a general wage increase of Is. a day, to be enforced if necessary by a general strike on I July.

Socialists and ANC leaders disapproved. Makgatho warned a meeting of nearly 2,000 Africans that striking was dangerous. Even socialists, being white, would join in shooting down Africans. The League retorted that it could have no part in the 'more reactionary, middle-class and religious-cum-racial tendencies' of Congress, though 'the close coincidence of native and working-class interests' might yet force it to play a useful role.

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Review: The 3-Pound Universe

The 3-Pound Universe by Judith Hooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Longest Year: America at War and at Home in 1944

Longest Year: America at War and at Home in 1944 by Victor Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: Donald Trump: The Master of Disaster

Donald Trump: The Master of Disaster by Demetric Canada
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



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