RTFA: http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/10/att-inven…

From the company that brought you the C programming language comes Hancock, a C variant developed by AT&T researchers to mine gigabytes of the company’s telephone and internet records for surveillance purposes.

An AT&T research paper published in 2001 and unearthed today by Andrew Appel at Freedom to Tinker shows how the phone company uses Hancock-coded software to crunch through tens of millions of long distance phone records a night to draw up what AT&T calls “communities of interest” — i.e., calling circles that show who is talking to whom.

The system was built in the late 1990s to develop marketing leads, and as a security tool to see if new customers called the same numbers as previously cut-off fraudsters — something the paper refers to as “guilt by association.”

But it’s of interest to THREAT LEVEL because of recent revelations that the FBI has been requesting “communities of interest” records from phone companies under the USA PATRIOT Act without a warrant.

This is a highly interesting read. Please read the full story at wired.

RTFA: http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid…

The daytime queen profusely apologized to the parents of students at her all-girls school in South Africa for a sex-abuse scandal that resulted in the dismissal of one of its dormitory matrons…

Allegations surfaced two weeks ago that a “dorm parent” had been accused of fondling a girl and physically and verbally abusing several others, including grabbing them about the neck, beating them and hurling them against a wall.

RTFA: http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm/

One sound effect that has found a following with many sound editors and observant movie fans is a distinctive scream named Wilhelm.

In 1951, the Warner Bros. film “Distant Drums” directed by Raoul Walsh starred Gary Cooper as Captain Quincy Wyatt, who leads a group of soldiers to stop some Seminole Indians from threatening settlers in early 19th Century Florida. During a scene in which the soldiers are wading through a swamp in the everglades, one of them is bitten and dragged underwater by an alligator.

As is usually the case with the making of a movie, the scream for that character was recorded later. Six short pained screams were recorded in a single take, which was slated “man getting bit by an alligator, and he screams.” The fifth scream was used for the soldier - but the 4th, 5th, and 6th screams recorded in the session were also used earlier in the film when three Indians are shot, one after another, during a raid on a fort.

After “Distant Drums,” the recording was archived into the studio’s sound effects library, and was re-used in many Warner Bros. productions.

This one sound effect has made its way into dozens of movies, including the Star Wars & Indiana Jones series.

RTFA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Name_is_Bruce

My Name Is Bruce is an American horror film scheduled for release in October 2007, directed, co-produced by, co-written and starring B movie cult actor Bruce Campbell.
The plot revolves around Campbell, playing himself, who, after being harassed and mistaken by fans to be a character much like Ash from the Evil Dead series of horror films, is abducted from his trailer park home to fight against Guan Di, a Chinese war deity.
According to Campbell, the film is in post-production, although Campbell has shown several minutes of this upcoming movie during some of his campus lectures, as well as a few public screenings including showings at the 6th Annual Ashland Independent Film Festival and CineVegas.

Talk about art imitating life. This is so recursive my head is going to sucksplode.