You Can Buy Software and Online Services Anonymously!
A little while ago I needed to buy a competitor's software product and because they were a competitor, and a pretty unscrupulous one, I didn't want to give them my name and credit card number for fear they might do "something" with it. The solution I found is great! Visa/Mastercard/American Express gift cards that you can buy at your local grocery store, pharmacy, Best Buy, etc. The beauty of it is that you can pay in cash for the card when you buy it, leaving no record to tie back to your own personal credit card. To further cement the fake identity you can, and sometimes must (because of security checks) log on to the virtual credit card's site (using the code on the card) and supply a fake name, fake address, and fake phone number which the credit card processor might validate against.
Because of federal laws related to money laundering, tax evasion, and terrorism these anonymous cards are limited to under $300 and they cannot be recharged (you cannot add more money to them later). Also, be aware that these cards are technically debit cards, though they behave like credit cards. I have noticed that some sites, particularly ones which involved recurring fees or the possible quick accumulation of charges, will not accept debit cards.
While I am not endorsing them, nor getting any reward for mentioning them, I will say I have used the Vanilla Visa card quite a few times and have had no complaints.
Beating the Polygrapraph (Lie Detector Test)
I knew lie detectors were flawed science, but I had always assumed they were just useful enough to justify their continued use... I am beginning to think differently.
As a quick aside... I should say that I took a lie detector test for a top secret clearance when I was 20 and it was the most horrific experience of my life (to that point). I was unprepared for the psychological manipulations they would employ to try to get me to reveal what they believed might be the truth. It was a horrible violation of the mind. In the end they kept insisting I had used drugs when I had never even tried them; whether they were genuinely insisting or just pretending I'll never know. Making the experience surreal, when I climbed back in my car for the long drive home I discovered I had the prescient Depeche Mode track "Policy of Truth" queued up in my CD player... It echoed exactly how I felt, the violation and vulnerability I felt for having "decided in my youth on a policy of truth", and how the truth I was sharing felt like it was being turned against me and spun into allegations of lies. I must have listened to that track a dozen times before getting home.
Depeche Mode's Policy of Truth
You had something to hide
Should have hidden it, shouldn't you
Now you're not satisfied
With what you're being put through
It's just time to pay the price
For not listening to advice
And deciding in your youth
On the policy of truth
Things could be so different now
It used to be so civilized
You will always wonder how
It could have been if you'd only lied
It's too late to change events
It's time to face the consequence
For delivering the proof
In the policy of truth
Never again
Is what you swore
The time before
Never again
Is what you swore
The time before
Now you're standing there tongue tied
You'd better learn your lesson well
Hide what you have to hide
And tell what you have to tell
You'll see your problems multiplied
If you continually decide
To faithfully pursue
The policy of truth
Never again
Is what you swore
The time before
At any rate... The other day I stumbled across a very interesting site, AntiPolygraph, which talks all about just how flawed polygraph tests are and how you can easily fool them. Read their free online book (jump to page 121). You'll learn about the two types of counter measures: behavioral and chart-recording manipulation.
The Strange Case of Emma Woods
I happened across the strange case of "Emma Woods" the other day. Emma Woods claims to have experienced a lifetime of peculiar UFO-abduction-like experiences, and she shares the details of her experiences as well as the self-, and assisted, examinations of her psyche (and body) that she's pursued. She's pursued it all with a deeply admirable semi-scientific rigor that is truly impressive. She has copious notes, journal entries, sketches of marks she's found, captures from video cameras she set up to record her abductions, and audio recordings from regressive hypnotic sessions. Whether you believe her experiences are real or not it's a fascinating site, though you should expect to be thoroughly disturbed. My bias and assumption is that her experiences are not objectively real, that they exist only within her mind or in the interpretations she has made of real and innocuous events. Unfortunately quite a bit of the site is colored with the anger and frustration she feels against the person who was conducting her hypnotic regressions. Still, an interesting read if that's your thing. Emma Woods: Is it alien Abduction?
The Great Alpaca Ponzi Scheme
Perhaps you've seen the peculiar "I Love Alpacas" TV commercials. If not, here's your chance:
So I actually went to the website, found a local alpaca breeder and my girlfriend and I were invited to spend the day at his alpaca farm learning all about alpacas and why we too should join the Great American Alpaca Movement.
It was a lovely day and they are lovely animals, but the surprising truth is, it's all a big Ponzi scheme! We were encouraged to buy an entire alpaca (some prize winners he had were valued at over $100k) or just a percentage of an alpaca (a partial interest, sold in $8k increments, I think); the animal stays there and we don't actually do any care regarding the animal, we just have a piece of paper that says we own some or all of it. If the alpaca is sold we get the money. When the alpaca is bred we get an one of the babies (or a partial interest), I forget the exact terms. That alpaca is then bred later, etc. Now on some level this is just Animal Husbandry 101, but a few things make it a Ponzi. We were told that no new alpacas from out of the country are allowed in to the main American alpaca registry. In other words, they've limited the supply to boost the value, so anyone who wants in on the alpaca business has to buy a registered alpaca. The animals themselves aren't intrinsically worth anything. We were shown alpaca yarn and alpaca woven hats and scarfs but were told that alpaca wool is not in such demand that alpaca wool is a profitable business. And you don't eat alpaca meat, or race alpacas, or use alpacas for labor, or breed them as pets. The only significant value alpacas have is the value other people imagine they have. And the only way their value increases is if more and more people want to buy in on the limited alpaca supply, hence the TV commercials to bring more people in. If people stop joining the alpaca owning/breeding ranks tomorrow alpacas would stop increasing in value and the alpaca investment industry will fall apart and everyone will lose their investment except those who got in and out early. And all these reasons are why I Love Alpacas (and the alpaca industry in general) meets my criteria for a Ponzi or pyramid scheme, albeit a cute and cuddly one. I bet the Madoff victims wish they'd at least ended up with cute and furry animals when it was all over.
^Q