I'm most intrigued but the vent/heater pipe/hvac whatever on the floor behind the bike. What is that!? Look at what appears to be spikes!? Is it a testing ground in the basement for his jet engines? A very intimidating heat/ac vent? Its rough looking at the very least, I like it.

I find this very sad. (no emo intended)

Historically young people and people in general separate naturally in to groups of like minded individuals, for safety, support and general fun. However this focused and somewhat organized aggression towards other groups and at such a young age make me worry that lessons of the past have been forgotten and/or poorly taught in Mexico.

Bullies ganging up on the weak or different always happens and likely always will but organizing 800 people in a common goal is far more than an extreme example its flat out war against another group. For nothing more than a perceived difference. Bummer.

I would have to say that we taught computers to think logically (think may be a bad word). The concepts of hierarchies, shortcuts (or perhaps pointers is better) were/are heavily used in how we process our environment. Maybe whats happening is the computer is simply allowing you to focus more on the concepts you've already been using.

I've had another thought on this. Couldn't it be arguable that the addition of comments paid/unpaid in an astroturf context could be of value in that they express the inherent importance of the topic at hand. If someone goes to the lengths, would it not be of value to see that kind of effort being applied.

Of course this all relies on knowing the sources and motivations of the participants, and being able to at some level categorize the content. An almost impossible and perhaps self defeating approach to whats here.

Either way its effected the way I look at this medium now. Positively I think....

I understand. I was not aware of the tactic of astroturf. My initial reaction is "wickedly clever" (when it first started) and "unfortunately unavoidable" as ad makers and PR folks old reliable tools fail in the face the intertubes ability to foster sharing.

Cool to know there is an experienced literary knight jousting for Boing's court. :-)

Thanks for the reply, and in retrospect the argument does seem terribly clean if not practiced and polished. Though I must say I have found those who can do it right the first time, and they scare me a bit.

Teresa,
Of all the arguments here BoinkBoink's are very convincing. Thorough, well thought out, presented well, and logically quite sound. I have no more insight into the strike than any other simple consumer of Hollywood's products. Admittedly non-expert but curious, why would the comments be unpublished? I cringe at the loss of history in an interesting stream of controversy. Just feeling a ting of censorship fear.

Or its my inner troll, but the doctors say the pills should kick in soon.

"Fight cynicism about government. It encourages you to give away an institution that belongs to you."

What a great quote. I have to say some level of cynicism is necessary to fuel critical thinking however this quote reflects an often lost perspective that it is OUR government. At times a terribly incorrect line is drawn that there is a separation between government and the people, we're one in the same.

If you find fault in the public institutions you find fault in yourself, simplistic I know but there is a level of truth to it.

Now the hard part, how to fix it.