IN T ER ES

survive and
T
thrive
IN G TIMES #4 april 2010

Facebook Casanova:
-up
an interview with pick
guru Action Jackson
the age of the stainless steel rat
Life, liberty, etc, in II
from Robe rt A. H e in lein, part
Life lessons y les
ro m ne tw o rk s to p h
Cyberpunk Tribes: F lo showdown
o n the co ming S ino -Ang
ts
Cybergeddon: though
Life, liberty, etc, in the age
These days I am thinking about this whole move-
Twenty-ten, fuckers! ment we are creating, geared around surviving
We are now officially living in the science- and thriving in the modern world. it's not really a
movement yet though, mostly a loose collection of
fiction future. And it scares the shit out of weird Internet misfits. But it's getting there. I am
reminded of Harry Harrison's classic of fine litera-
me, and makes me cream my pants at the ture, The Stainless Steel Rat, in which the protago-
same time. Polish my nuts and serve me a nist, James "Slippery Jim" diGriz, expounds:
”...We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscot-
milkshake, for we are in for one wild ride! ing of their society. It was easier in the old
days, of course, and society had more
rats when the rules were looser, just
as old wooden buildings have more
rats than concrete buildings. But
there are rats in the building now as
well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and
stainless steel there are fewer gaps in
the joints. It takes a very smart rat in-
deed to find these openings. Only a
stainless steel rat can be at home in
this environment...”

Now, this is supposedly like 30

000 years into the future, not
to mention a work of fiction,
but I feel that these words ring
pretty damn true today. I can
sympathise with the guy: he’s
a smart and capable individual
in a boring society with no real op-
tions left for his kind. He doesn’t drop
out of society because it’s too hard or
whatever, like a garden-variety
slacker: no, he does it because he’s
slowly dying of boredom and finds
himself discarded by an aimless soci-
ety mostly interested in paperpush-
ing and hamsterwheeling. He
becomes a gentleman thief and roams
the galaxy in search of adventure.
monthly(ish) editorial
of the stainless steel rat
Me, I ram down cheap vodka and watch Amer- good and make you happy. They're also the rea- mers offering people the world and then some,
ican Pie 7 for the 20th time. But it’s the same es- son you are here to read this in the first place. I but soon it’ll actually come true, I tell ya! We’re
capistisc sentiment basically. think people who call me shallow haven't really going to have people with rum & cokes running
thought things through. Of course, there's also a around in power armor doing our greasy deeds
Become a rat?, you ask. Sure, I’d rather be a lion far more sinister reason these sleazebags called dirt cheap. Monthly luxury cruises on our own
too, but that’s a sure-fire way to get yourself pick-up artists fascinate me so. Those who have fleet of fully-equipped decadent warships (hey,
made extinct. Or put in a zoo cage and prodded seen the true face of the modern houllebecqian another cult pulled it off...) Editorial meetings
by snotty brats. If rats we must be, then let’s stop sexual market, know that it is a ticking tac-nuke. where we slam cheap vodka and do body-herring
whining and fucking do it. Let’s become like Slip- Witness the shock of impact that the arrival of off of Elisha Cuthbert. Underground EMP-
pery Jim: always eluding the powers that be, slip- the topic of Game caused in the political blogos- weapons factories, financed by questionable pas-
ping through the cracks, existing on the fringes phere in the late 00's. If you are unblinded by sive income from the Internet. An arnoldesque
of the gray market, enjoying life, and doing it all feminist dogma and corporate niceism/letspre- throne room with me giving sage advice, much
with impeccable style. tendism, then you know that the zeitgeist of eurodisco music, and Swedish college chicks pour-
today is Sodini. Yes, on the level of superficial ing liquor and love into your mouth. Ninjas who
What this boils down to, and what we try to pro- trappings, the whole PU community is absolutely know how to twirl. And fuckin’ furrienauts in
vide here at Interesting Times: ridiculous. But then again, the Catholic Church space and fembots in your bedroom. All this and
gets away with funny hats and nerdy/arcane more, if you order now!!!1
1. Survive. Everything from self defense to lingo...
gardening to fortification. Apparently, this isn’t a clear enough picture, So yeah, we live in a pretty damn scary time,
2. Thrive. Learning how to tap into the vast and people get hung up on certain details instead and we’re pretty much headed for deep impact.
resources out there by learning entrepreneurship, of seeing the grand vision. Which means we’ve Express elevator to hell. You have three choices
social engineering, lifestyle design, marketing, been getting all kinds of people calling us a here: either you take the blue pill and keep veg-
networking, etc. macho men’s mag. Fine. Whatever. I’m down ging out, or you go batshit insane. Or... and this
3. Resistance. Let’s face it, the powers that with that. Only, forget about Ferraris and pictures is the interesting option... you decide to make a
be are trying to crush us and we need to do some- of Megan Fox’s breastesses. We’re the ones teach- stand and inject some pattonesque gusto into the
thing about it. Fighting back requires a knowledge ing you how to GET Megan Fox. And we’re gonna struggle. Irrational confidence is pretty much par
of the enemy’s modus operandi as well as a grasp give you POWER ARMOR with fuckin’ JET PACKS. for the course here. Optimism conquers, pes-
of tactics, strategy, history, geopolitics, cyberwar, See if that doesn’t cure your mid-life crisis. simism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Cheer the hell
memetics, etc. up and grow a boner for whatever you hold dear.
4. Camaraderie/community. How to Now is the time to get in on the action! Right now Apathy is not an option. As they say: Illegitimi
win friends and influence people, in a nutshell. you are only a few e-mails away from joining our non carborundum.
5. Epic shit. I think we should all try to cram organization. That is likely to change very soon.
in as much quality hedonism as possible. Sur- Right now we’re just a bunch of low-level scam- Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
vivalism is good but if your life is about as fun as
a Swedish social realist movie then you have a
problem.
We’re the ones teaching you how to GET
6. The big picture. Finding your pur- Megan Fox. And we’re gonna give you
pose/drive/motivation/mojo/whatever through
personal growth.
POWER ARMOR with fuckin’ JET PACKS.
7. Hawt babes. Why not, eh? They smell See if that doesn’t cure your mid-life crisis.
_info___
Interesting Times is a self-help magazine for extreme people, helping you survive
and thrive in the cyberpunk future of today. Headquartered in Sweden, the maga-
zine provides a unique perspective on the current age of possibility, where every
new happening holds the potential for both disaster and groundbreaking success.
The magazine aims to implement total world domination using a shock & awe
toolbox of positive thinking, power armor and pornstar girlfriends, edifying the
reader with an eclectic mix of interesting subjects including lifestyle design,
preparations for the post-apocalypse, and the pursuit of superhuman
fitness through batmanesque bodyhacking.
Building better bad-asses is our main objective and we aim to please.
The suck stops here!

Interesting Times, in the trenches at all your base since 2009!

Cover: Stainless Steel Rat

Artist: Michael Nordlund aka groundhog1988 groundhog1988.deviantart.com

Editor-for-life: A.H.A. [email protected]

Layout: Imoto [email protected]

Visit the magazine at www.interestingtimesmagazine.com

Contact us at [email protected]
Join us on Facebook www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=153463365735
Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/AHA_ITMag
_index_
6 Adventure dad
7 Life lessons from the far-flung future: What science fiction has taught me
about life in the modern world
8 Life lessons from Robert A. Heinlein, part II
10 Review: The Art of Shen Ku: The Ultimate Traveler’s Guide of this Planet AKA
The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe
12 Cyberpunk tribes: from networks to phyles
16 Id theft Opsec: ”The most important question for 2010 is not IF but WHEN!”
18 The new arms race: Staying ahead of the curve in the pick up community
22 Fat gripz: a reviev
23 Wanted
24 Cybergeddon: thoughts on the coming Sino-Anglo showdown
26 White boy warfare or the ”military horizon”
30 Master of facebook: an interview with pick-up guru Action Jackson
36 Counter-insurgency lessons for the modern first world citizen
42 Food Production Systems for a Backyard or Small Farm
44 Medical Tradecraft: What you need to know to make it – or fake it
A d v e n t u r e d a d text RONALD EAG
LIN

One of the greatest challenges I find in my life is the balancing

act of work, play, dad, husband, and adventurer. My main
hobby of adventure racing is a hugely time consuming hobby,
requiring a large time commitment to training and also learn-
ing – including re-certification of skills necessary to race.
If you plan to follow this path, then you really are going to
also make a commitment to time management. Also you’ll
need to learn to juggle doing multiple tasks at once
– so here are some things that work for me.
1. Combine Transportation with Workouts 2. Get Involved in your Kids Sports 5. Let Family Choose for Themselves
For me this means biking to work. If I do not My kids (girls aged 11 and 12) play soccer, The family will usually choose to do things
have meetings in any particular day that re- football, run cross country, and are basicallywith you, but let them off the hook on the
quire a car – I am going to ride my bike the fully involved in sports. When they play – I most extreme activities. At some point they
10 miles to work, regardless of weather (bar- play. I coach the soccer team, which is a solid
will be ready, but let them choose. Practical
ring extreme weather). For me this is riding workout in and of itself. Since workouts are examples are not to push you kids to do
to the gym about 1/2 mile from my office, the most time consuming part of maintain- black diamond ski slopes, let a qualified ski
working out, showering, and making it in ing an adventure regimen, these two will instructor take them when they are ready.
fresh and ready to go. help. I’ve found that my kids have progressed
through a lot of fear and now go extreme
3. Get Rid of TV mountain biking with me and are starting to
like climbing. They are picking up other ac-
You can still watch some shows, but the av-
tivities as they get older.
erage American wastes 4-5 hours of their life
A DAY watching TV. These are usually the
I’m still learning a lot as a dad, and I’ve
same folks who complain to me that there is
learned a lot from other fathers who share
never enough time. Go figure.
the spirit of adventure. There will be times
when you will sacrifice what you want to do,
4. Involve the Family but there will be rewards that will far out-
Much of the adventure life style involves weigh these small sacrifices.
going to out of the way places, these are al-
ways great places to involve the wife and
Ronald Eaglin has previously written about Adventure Rac-
kids. They may not partake of the extreme ing and 2010 predictions in issue 3 of Interesting Times. His
part of the adventure, but there are almost blog can be found at eaglinar.blogspot.com
always other things to do.
Life lessons from the far-flung future:
text XENOVALENT

What science fiction has taught me about life in the modern world
I read a lot of science fiction — some people might say that I was obsessed with
these fictional futures. But I am not interested in the Utopian societies seen in Star ”Never underestimate the
Trek. I’m more interested in the dirty, gritty pseudo-realities found in cyberpunk, determination of a kid who is
and universes in wich the aliens are as likely to shoot first and ask questions as time rich and cash poor.”
the bad guys in a spaghetti western. Cory Doctorow, Little Brother
So to follow up on the two pieces we’ve had about what you can learn from ”Half of wisdom is learning
reading Robert Heinlein’s works, I thought I’d pull some of my favorite quotes what to unlearn.”
from other science fiction sources. I hope you’ll find them as insightful as I do, and Larry Niven, T
go seek out the original source. (The science in the sources may be dated, but the he Ringworld Throne
stories are about people, not about the science.) (Yes, I know not one but two similar quotes
You’ll notice that several authors are repeated throughout this article — that’s are in the Heinlein article. It’s important.)
because they’re the ones I find most insightful. I’m not going to add any com-
mentary to these — hopefully they all speak for themselves. ”Shared pain is lessened; shared joy,
increased – thus do we
”Anything you don’t understand refute entropy.”
is dangerous until you do ”‘Nell’ the Constable continued, Spider Robinson,
understand it.” indicating, through his tone of voice Callahan and Company
Larry Niven, Flatlander that the lesson was concluding, ‘the
difference between stupid and intelli- ”Ask the next question, and the one
”You can’t get any movement larger gent people — and this is true that follows that, and the one that
than five people without including at whether or not they are well-educated follows that.”
least one fucking idiot.” — is that intelligent people can handle Theodore Sturgeon,
Kim Stanley Robinson, Green subtlety. They are not baffled by am- in an interview
Mars biguous or even contradictory situa-
tions — in fact, they expect them and ”You have many years to live — do
”A beginning is the time for taking are apt to become suspicious when things you will be proud to remem-
the most delicate care that the bal- things seem overly straightforward.’” ber when you’re old.”
ances are correct.” John Brunner,
Neal Stephenson,
Frank Herbert, Dune Stand on Zanzibar
The Diamond Age
 Life lessons from Robert A. text XENOVALENT

Included in Interesting Times issue 2 was an article titled ”Life Lessons from Robert A. Heinlein”. The author,
Dusty, quoted a number of things that demonstrated Heinlein’s philosophy and attitudes toward life quite
well. Anybody who is a fan of Heinlein is a decent person in my book, and no doubt the IT editorial staff
gave him a limit on how long the article should be, so as much as I would like to I can’t find fault with
Dusty for leaving out a number of things that I felt should have been included.
AHA mentioned that he’d like a ”part II” article written, I jumped at the chance — being a Heinlein fan,
I think that any excuse to re-read the master’s works is a good one, and I was two-thirds of the way
through The Puppet Masters at the time anyway. Now I will no doubt fall even further behind on the other read-
ing I’ve been meaning to do while I get this project completed.

Dusty starts off with a quote that he felt fit into their mental model of how the uni- ple just fight it like it would be. If you can
”might be at least part of the foundation of verse works (or rather, is supposed to work). change their minds — and that’s a big if —
the rest of the stuff I’ll quote later builds It is therefore necessary to alter or remove then maybe you can get people to see the
upon.” I’ll also begin with a similar quote their current mental model in order for them world as it is, rather than as they think it is.
that I believe acts as a foundation stone for to accept the facts and move on. People who And once they have a clearer view of the
the quotes I’ll provide: are unable to make this kind of shift — and world, they often find that the adjustment
there are many of them out there — in- was easy and their lives are better after-
”How can I possibly put a new idea into your evitably become barriers to progress in any wards.
heads, if I do not first remove your delu- organization or society. Avoid them if possi-
sion?” ble. If you can’t avoid them, detour around ”Progress doesn’t come from early risers —
Life-Line (1939) them where possible. If it’s not possible to progress is made by lazy men looking for
get things done around them — get out of easier ways to do things.”
Let’s see that a second time, reworded in one that organization, put it behind you and Time Enough For Love (1973)
of Heinlein’s later works: don’t worry about it. The world will change
around them and they will be made obsolete Getting out of bed early — while some may,
”The hardest part about gaining any new — much like print newspapers and major foolishly, enjoy it — may be necessary to ac-
idea is sweeping out the false idea occupy- recording labels in today’s world. complish certain things; but doing so does
ing that niche. As long as that niche is occu- not guarantee that you will accomplish any-
pied, evidence and proof and logical ”I used to think I was serving humanity... and thing. Most of the platitudes that come from
demonstration get nowhere. But once the I pleasured in the thought. Then I discovered the business world are enough to make you
niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has that humanity does not want to be served; on want to take an ice pick to the brain of who-
been filling it — once you can honestly say, ‘I the contrary it resents any attempt to serve it.” ever quotes them at you (or possibly your
don’t know’, then it becomes possible to get Stranger in a Strange Land own brain, if you’ve heard them enough
at the truth.” (1961) times), but this is actually a better restate-
The Cat Who Walks Through ment of one: ”Don’t work harder, work
Walls (1985) People don’t want their ideas on how the smarter.”
world works shaken up. It’s an emotional dis-
In some cases it is quite literally impossible aster on the scale of an earthquake that reg- ”Never let an oaf cause you to lose your
for someone to accept a fact — even as it isters 8.7 on the Richter scale; or the death of judgement.”
stares them in the face — because it does not a loved one. Well, actually, it isn’t, most peo- Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)
Heinlein, part II
”So be the rugged
individualist who builds
log cabins in the woods,
don’t want to do what other
people expect is that those
actions do nothing to fur-
ther your personal goals. So
or lives alone in a 5000 be the rugged individualist
who builds log cabins in the
square foot mansion, woods, or lives alone in a
or whatever it is 5000 square foot mansion,
that you want to do” or whatever it is that you
want to do, only being con-
Basically Heinlein’s way of saying ”Don’t lose cerned about how you see
your cool.” It’s a lot easier to make mistakes yourself, not how society sees you.
— sometimes very bad ones — when you’re works. Anything ”free” comes with a catch.
hot-headed. Take your time, play it cool. Do ”In the course of a long life, a wise man will Sometimes it is merely that the ”free” pen
things quickly if necessary; but never do be prepared to abandon his baggage several contains advertising for the organization giv-
something that you haven’t considered the times.” ing it away.
implications of. And keep in mind that ap- How to be a Survivor (1945) Sometimes, the ”free” item or service is
pearing to ”blow your top” may be the right only available if you purchase another item
course of action. Some days, being the angry or service — always at inflated cost. And
Heinlein attributed this as an ”old Chinese
customer shouting at the clerk gets you re- damn near everything has at least one un-
adage.” I’m not so sure of the origin. (Of
moved by security, other days it gets you recoverable cost — your time. Don’t let others
course, the title of this magazine could also
prompt service. And blowing your top at a misuse your time.
be considered a reference to a Chinese curse
time that will get your ass kicked is exactly
of equal dubiousness.) But it’s still good ad-
how not to be a bad ass. ”Rub her feet.”
vice, and it doesn’t apply only to literal, phys-
Time Enough For Love (1973)
ical baggage.
”Do not confuse duty with what other people Sometimes it is necessary to leave things (or
expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty people or relationships) behind because it is sim- Heinlein’s second-best piece of advice, ever;
is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obli- ply impossible, or too big of a risk, to go back and probably the best piece of relationship ad-
gations you have assumed voluntarily. Pay- and get them (or to drag them along a path that vice he ever gave. Heinlein was married three
ing that debt can entail anything from years other people are not ready to go down); or per- times — the third marriage lasted until his
of patient work to instant willingness to die. haps because you’re in too big of a hurry to haul death, a total of forty years. Apparently, he
Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-re- things with you. This doesn’t mean that you figured out how to make it work the third time
spect.” around. I suspect this is part of his secret.
should abandon baggage — or projects — at the
Time Enough For Love (1973)
first sign of trouble. But look at the risks versus
”Place your clothes and weapons where you
the advantages, and make your decisions logi-
If you’re a bad ass — and if you’re reading this cally rather than emotionally. can find them in the dark.”
article, you’re probably well on your way — Time Enough For Love (1973)
then you don’t do anything unless you want to ”There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”
anyway. So why do anything that will diminish The moon Is a Harsh Mistress Heinlein’s best piece of advice, ever. After all,
your self-respect? Usually because someone ex- it’s hard to rub her feet if one (or both) of
(1966)
pects something of you — and the reasons you you is dead.
Often shortened to TANSTAAFL in Heinlein’s
 review:

THE ART OF SHEN KU:

text SHANE MITROVIC

Not every WOG* can bankroll all the kit and books they want, and as
such, we learn to find deals. Surplus shops are great for getting pouches,
ponchos and packs, but not so great for books.
The typical used book store is often a good start, but picked over.
A store that is becoming more common is the warehouse discount book
store. When new books are no longer new, and stores like Barnes and
Noble or Chapters need to make shelf space, the books are typically re-
turned to distributors. The distributors then sell bulk loads of books to
warehouse discount book stores. It was in one of these warehouse book
stores that I found ”The Art of Shen Ku”.
The Art of Shen Ku is a densely packed tome like a grab life by the balls, hard as nails WOG
Published: 1999 ISBN: 0-399-52752-7
of tips, tricks and philosophy. The cover art to me. This is no manual or compendium writ-
Author: Zeek Pages: 336
along with the interior art leans more to the ten at arms length. Every recipe, every tip and
comic book or even cartoon style, often a de- every hard lesson in the book was lived by lists for basic survival kits and illustrated sur-
tractor for many potential buyers. The entire one man and here he is, passing it on to you, vival techniques (shelters, making fish
book is printed in black and white. like a creepy grandfather you wish you had. hooks, collecting water). Not just focused on
physical survival, the chapter gives some so-
So how does a book of herbal remedies, Down to brass tacks as they say. The main cial survival skills with what I would call basic
recipes, martial arts throws and basic sailing text of the book is collected into four main entertainment (jokes, magic tricks, quick
come to be printed all under one cover? To chapters. The Traveller, the Physician, the games) and what I would call basic parlour
understand what the book is, we can skim Sailor and the Martial Artist. While the titles tricks (palm reading, numerology, writing
the section about the author. The author, help to loosely collect similar data and give analysis).
under the pen name of ”Zeek” lost sight in you an idea of what’s in them, the chapters
one eye and damaged the other eye at a rel- are still very eclectic. Below I will give a cap-
atively young age of 15. From then on he was sule review of the chapters, but remember THE PHYSICIAN
told by doctors to live a sedentary (see also the information is packed in pretty tight and
I will start my capsule review of this chapter
boring) life. The author being a young stub- I cannot reference every topic covered in awith a disclaimer. There is a lot of general in-
born British man, took working passage to chapter, only the larger multi-page topics.formation in this chapter, please know that
Australia. From there he worked until he this is not a be all and end all of medical ad-
could buy a small boat. He sailed in an at- vice, so before self medicating, please seek
tempt to go around the world, but did not THE TRAVELER professional opinions. The medical advice
make it. He spent an undisclosed number of This chapter is about surviving the rigors of contained in this chapter has a very oriental
years working and sailing and now lives on travel. The chapter starts with diagrams of flavor to it. This can be seen in the extensive
a boat in the tropics. suggested clothing modifications and then acupressure diagrams and descriptions.
launches into a series of home remedies to Other items included in this chapter are quick
I don’t know about you, but the author sounds help traveling ailments. Also included are reference guides detailing vitamins (defi-
The Ultimate Traveler’s Guide of this Planet AKA
The First Intergalactic Artform of the Entire Universe

ciency symptoms and what they aid), natu- and anchoring your vessel. The majority of that the author himself has been working to
ral cures and a quick reference for herbs. the sailing instruction has very useful dia- put the book online (very slowly) at
There is a few short sections on food and diet grams. www.shenku.com. I am sure the more indus-
to control physical issues along with some- trious WOGs could obtain electronic copies of
thing called salt therapy, again natural type THE MARTIAL ARTIST the book.
cures.
Again another disclaimer. Life is not like a
As stated, the text is very dense. There is a lot
movie directed by Run Run Shaw. Expertise in
THE SAILOR a martial art cannot be gleaned from a text
to be learned from this book, and even on
multiple reads, you may find a small tidbit
At first glance, this chapter looks like it would in a cool montage, so please keep that in
you missed the first time. I would recom-
be of the least value to the average WOG. The mind for this chapter. The author takes a very
mend that any WOG put this on their book-
way this chapter is organized however, there basic approach to his chapters. The chapter
shelf, not as a standalone reference, but as a
is something in this chapter for everyone. In- gives you information on basic exercises,
very solid foundation to guide future re-
formation ranges from knots and line repair, basic fighting tactics along with basic martial
search on the topics contained in its pages.
pest control, food storage (including plans arts maneuvers. The chapter rounds out with
for a DIY dehydrator) and some simple more Asian health tips and macrobiotic diet
* The term Sean Kennedy of Rantmedia (interview in
recipes (on a boat you don’t have a full tips. issue 2 of Interesting Times) uses for his followers.
pantry). It is theorized that he got it from the Scientologists,
In addition there are some more home WHAT’S IT ALL MEAN? who use it as their term for non-members. ”Wisdom
remedies and basic first aid. As the name of Oriented Guardian” has also been proposed.
As of this writing Amazon.com has the Art of
this chapter implies, there is basic informa-
Shen Ku on discount. Also, it would appear
tion on ship rigging, basic sailing, navigation
 text DAVID de UGARTE

The Internet is the great steroid jar of this century.

Take the ethics of the lonesome Ivy League hackers of the 80’s and
set them loose on the web: in 15 years you will get Linux, Firefox,
free music, the Public Domain movement and the end of the old cul-
ture industry. Take the old BBS, fanzines and fan conventions, move
them to the Internet, and you will get the greatest conversational
community boom since the Babel Tower.
When conversations take place in languages these communities in the midst of the whirl- having a nationalist discourse and growing
such as French, Spanish, or Arabic, they be- wind that is a world where national states are peanuts to constituting a community trade
come transnational with great ease. Only 2 sinking and the globalisation of the economy network with two million members that
out of every 5 people who write in French on is eroding all the good old institutions that spreads from South Africa to Italy. Its trans-
the Internet live in France. More than half the used to make people feel secure. Many of formation isn’t over yet, but the young
readers of any Madrid website with more these communities will wish to have their Murides have turned the daïras, the old Ko-
than 1000 visitors per day are in Latin Amer- own economy, community companies and ranic schools, into urban communes that are
ica. Arabic in the Western islamic world has common funds. also business cells.
gone, in ten years, from being a religious
language superimposed onto regional, al- Spanish cyberpunks went from cy- At first blush, nothing could be farther apart
most mutually unintelligible varieties (Mo- beractivism and literature to constituting a than cyberpunks and the Murides. But the
roccan, Algerian, etc.), to having a standard group of cooperative enterprises straddling parallelism is significant: they are not com-
that is gradually reunifying the local dialects: South America and Madrid. Their new ban- panies linked to a community, but transna-
Al Jazeera Arabic. ners: economic democracy, resilience, and tional communities that have acquired
transnationality. They changed names: now enterprises in order to gain continuity in time
Virtual communities arise in new spaces, the they are known as ”Indianos”, the Spanish and robustness. They are phyles.
spaces of the various globalisations associated word for the emigrant who would return to
with the great transnational languages. The his home village after making his fortune in Phyles may function democratically and be co-
main players in these communities belong to the Americas. Only that the Indianos’ Amer- operative-based, as in the case of the Indianos,
two generations that have grown up with Hi- ica has been the Internet, and their business or else they may have a small-business struc-
manen’s hacker ethic: the network logic of abun- has spread from consultancy to sustainable ture and even a religiously inspired ideology,
dance and the work ethic of free software are production or local development. as in the case of the Murides. But they share
the glue that binds the blogosphere. The result: two key elements: they possess a transnational
conversational communities, identitarian, In these very same years, the Murides, the identity, and they subordinate their companies
transnational non-hierar- old pacifist Sufis from Senegal, went from to personal and community
chical tribes, based on the needs.
powerful incentive that is
recognition. Let us place
”The Internet is the great Phyles are ”order attractors”
in a domain which states cannot
steroid jar of this century.”
 :

reach conceptually and in areas that states Communities emerge, they are not artificially 4. Meet together
increasingly leave in the dark: phyles invest made. That means interaction and identity. Community building is trust building. Meet-
in social cohesion, sometimes even creating Taking part in someone’s blog or having com- ing all together used to be difficult – espe-
infrastructures, providing grants and train- mon interests doesn’t automatically provide cially if there are members on different
ing, and having their own NGOs. Transna- that. So first step is to ask yourself if you re- continents – but meeting with some other
tional thinking allows them to access the new ally have a community or a contact list. Size members has to be on everyone’s task list.
globalised business before anyone else. A doesn’t matter: a community of three per- Having a beer or lunch will make it easier to
phyle’s investment portfolio may range from sons can grow, a thousand persons spam- discuss virtually later.
renewable energies to PMCs, from free soft- ming each other with Facebook or Twitter
ware initiatives to credit cooperatives. Their status updates are useless even as a starting 5. A blog aggregator for all
bet is based on two ideas. First: transnational point. Build an aggregator for all of the commu-
is more powerful than international. Second: 2. Build a private nity’s blogs, show the conversations to the
in a global market the community is more re- conversation space world, expose your community to criticism as
silient than the ”classic” capitalist company. Deliberation is what really matters in com- well as new ideas and influences. Accept that
munity building, so open a mailing list, a pri- others talk about your network as ”you”.
Winning a bet in the cyberpunk and post- vate newsgroup or a closed web forum. Start Identity emerges not only as an endogenous
modern world we live in nowadays amounts discussing and learning together. process but also as a kind of external recog-
to nothing but resisting and thriving. In order nition.
to do so, one must truly belong in this world, 3. A blog for each member
truly love its frontiers. Phyles are the children Private talking will transform personal blogs: 6. Write periodically
of its explorers: of free software, virtual com- they will be the origin of new proposals for a paper with the
munities, cyberactivism, and the globalisa- the mailing list and the places where the con- consensus you reach
tion of the small. Maybe because of this, they clusions will confront the external world. Hav- Almost once a year, write a paper with your
are indubitably winning their bet. ing personal windows for contrasting with the common approach to reality and your visions
world what you cook within your network is of the future. The important thing is not the
DIY in 12 steps the best vaccine against narrow thinking or ideas or proposals themselves but the exer-
1. Do you have sectarian leaders. cise of consensus reaching.
a real community?
 7. Take your time from the group for a while or forever. Be- nity building, the important question is to
Time is on your side. Time is necessary for coming a new member on the other hand, share experiences and conversations between
maturing, will make it easier for the less in- has to be approved by the consensus of ac- the clusters and the whole group.
terested to leave, will develop connections be- tual members. Expel proselytism from your
tween closer members, and will allow clusters mind. 10. The great leap
to form inside the community. Time will let 8. Identity becomes The great leap’s time will come when, inside
you learn the two key lessons of deliberative defined by conversation the conversational community, one cluster
communities: and learning constitutes a commercial firm acting accord-
• Not everyone goes in the Independently of group origins you will dis- ing to the common identity, principles and
same direction. Plurarchy is the ce- cover that the important thing about your ideas. The key question now will be under-
ment of deliberative communities. Not every- community is the knowledge and ideas you standing this initiative as part of the com-
one has to agree about everything always. have discovered together. So even if your munity, but also as something new destined
It’s not always necessary to achieve consen- community was born as a study group on by itself to build a community of a different
sus, as it’s even worse to artificially produce Swedish stamps of the fifties, you will feel kind. The emerging of democratic firms in-
scarcity by voting on differences. Learning to that it’s open to Uzbekians who share the side the community means that some clus-
live with plurarchy is the key experience nec- same passion and ideas. Real identity is al- ters inside feel mature enough to go further
essary to becoming a phyle. It’s not about ex- ways transnational. Anyway, with time you than fraternity and are capable of testing
treme individualism: on the opposite, it’s will discover language as something impor- equality. Equality in managing of organiza-
about sharing and developing a common tant too. Fresh chatting, cooperation and real tions means that everyone is indifferent on
identity from the everyday practice of com- equality in the community’s life is limited to which other member will assume command
plete personal independence. speakers of the same language or very of any task, as everyone trusts everyone
• The goal is not to remain to- closely related languages (such as the Nordic equally.
gether but to learn more. The na- ones) who have no problem of understand-
tion-state has taught us that a group is more ing your language even they if speak in 11. A different way of thinking
important the more members it has. At the his/her native one (which has to be under- and building community
end of the day it produces the thinking of a standable by you too) Then arrives the most difficult phase in the
proselytist sect: easy to become a member, whole phyle birth process. The cluster that
9. Encouraging founded the firm has to become the center
emotional chantage if you want to exit. Be particular initiatives
just the opposite! To separate, to go out, to of a community empowered with firms inside
and sharing narratives the wider environment of the original con-
stop being part, or to come back to member-
Living in plurarchy teaches you to encourage versational community. In the experience of
ship doesn’t have to be explained, it has to
the emerging of clusters without suspicion. las Indias the keys to success in this phase
be as easy as possible. Members’ state of
These clusters will have their own projects were:
mind is not the community’s business. You
and particular interests. They are not in con- • Organizing the firm under an economic
are a conversational, deliberative commu-
tradiction with the community, in fact they democracy basis, becoming a labour coopera-
nity: there is no cost for the remaining mem-
reinforce it because a stronger kind of trust tive. Cooperative form is coherent with equal-
bers when someone leaves, so don’t impose
and connection will be born between cluster ity among members, and what is even more
costs on the members who want to separate
members. From the point of view of commu- important, makes leaving easy and relatively
 ”Phyles are ”order attractors”in a
domain which states cannot reach conceptually
and in areas that states increasingly leave in the
dark: phyles invest in social cohesion, some-
times even creating infrastructures,
providing grants and training,”

cheap for all. Being a labour-coop made it eas- propriate the evolution and discussions of the phyles! Now is the time to look farther, to
ier for us to organize as plurispecialists (every- group. We established an integration process make plans for the future... It’s just the be-
body has responsibility in everything, anyone that includes theoretical discussion and prac- ginning, so meet some phyles out there, all
can perform any task) and to declare a ”right tice in the firm with all kinds of tasks. This over the world, and test new ways of bank-
of secession” which governs the process of process carries on for almost three years and ing, collaboration, international sales, etc.
leaving the community, ensuring minimum its goal is to accept the apprentice as an equal
cuts to dissidents’ incomes. partner in the cooperative society. More on phyles in English:
• Closing the formal organization of our ”Phyles: Economic Democracy in XXIst Century”:
http://deugarte.com/gomi/phyles.pdf
mother community, an association called 12. Being Phyle
Ciberpunk, when the majority of its After this long trip we will have the heart of John Robb on ”The central question of 21st century
members assumed that a new stage was a neo-Venetian, democratic phyle working: a governance”: http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/
reached when the firm became more and transnational community proud of its own globalguerrillas/2010/01/journal-central-question-
more solid. of-21st-century-governance.html
history and empowered with its own eco-
• Establishing a Council that has evolved nomic metabolism. Doesn’t matter if you Origin of the word, which is ancient Greek for ”tribe”
and grown in order to maintain the original have only some few members. Doesn’t mat- or ”clan”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyle
deliberative network connected to the firm, ter whether you reach sooner or later a cer-
but from an external position. Now, this coun- tain income level. Your community will have Usage in the post-cyberpunk novel ”The Diamond
cil advises the main community in its strate- Age”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dia-
an economy to base its life style on. The life
mond_Age#Phyles
gies, NGO initiatives and external style that makes everything worth it to its
investments. members. Anyway, welcome to the world of Ask questions to a real phyle (Spanish preferred, Eng-
• Learning that the newcomers have to reap- lish allowed): [email protected]
Id theft Opsec: text CHRIS ”loganWHD” HADNAGY

10 million people affected.... over a 10% increase in one year. ”Af-

fected?”, you ask. Yes, affected. Over 10 million people a year have
their identities stolen and that is just in the USA. The Internal Revenue
Service of the USA has stated that ID Theft grew 644% in the last
four years.
As we speak... errr... type, a friend just pm’ed me and told me his
ATM card was compromised. No joke. The question we
need to ask ourselves is what we will do WHEN
(notice not IF) we get hacked in 2010.

eed ,
h e y f rs
”T fea
o ur and
off i es
Phishers, scammers and wor
r
eti
es wants me to sign up for a It scares us. Heck, I have a family and want
our anxi us
thieves have turned to the In- our offer vaccine... heck, I don’t want to protect them. Then along comes an email
r
ternet to stalk their latest prey. and limme to turn into the next strain promising the cure, the vaccine, the best se-
a g ope.”
These are certainly interesting h of flesh-eating zombie crea- curity plan or latest tip to stay protected and
of
times we live in and the only true ture, I better go and sign all I need to do is click.
way to make it is to be educated and up... click... PWND!
prepared. Take a look at one of the most suc- More often than not when we do click, the
cessful attack vectors in 2009: How it works poor suckers that do, are presented not with
Phishing, hacking, heck, theft in general hasn’t the information or cure they hoped for but a
”You have received this e-mail because of the changed much since the beginning. Sometimes virus, trojan or worse yet a root kit or some
launching of State Vaccination H1N1 Program. we are so wrapped up in technology that we other tunnel back to the malicious hacker.
You need to create your personal H1N1 think they have changed their methods. The
(swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov same simple principles are applied. They feed Information,
website. The Vaccination is not obligatory, but off our fears, our worries and our anxieties and Information Everywhere
every person that has reached the age of 18 offer us a glimmer of hope. All we need to ob- Sometimes despite all the warnings the stu-
has to have his personal Vaccination Profile tain this amazing hope is CLICK HERE. pidity of some people just amazes us. Sure all
on the cdc.gov site. This profile has to be cre- your friends visit you on Facebook and they
ated both for the vaccinated people and the We just lost our job. We just saw the news laugh at your pictures, they rejoice in your lat-
not-vaccinated ones. This profile is used for story the media is sensationalizing about the est news.... but also the dark side of the In-
the registering system of vaccinated and not- five year old that died from swine flu. We just ternet trolls these pages. One notable story of
vaccinated people. saw the clip of the arrest on dateline of the 2009 was the woman who posted about her
Create your Personal H1N1 Vaccination Pro- latest 40 year old showing up to help a 14 upcoming and much needed vacation on her
file using the link:” year old girl with her ”homework” bringing favorite social networking site. She enjoyed
Heck, none of us want H1N1 and the CDC balloons and flowers. her vacation but so did the thieves that
 ”The most important
question for 2010
is not IF but WHEN!”
checked her posts too. The day after she left protect the damage that may occur if you are other service that might have been used in
they broke into her home and took their sweet breached. Monitor your credit reports. the fraud or breached.
ol’ time coming back to systematically move • Notify the Law Enforcement – as mundane
everything out of her house. as that may sound and as little as they may I am sure there are more steps you may
do to comfort you, it can build a case if many think of, but having a clear path of action
These things are real, they happen. Despite people have reported the same kind of at- when this happens can save you lots of
the amazing amount of stories about the tacks. money, time and stress.
dangers, people still put their whole lives on • Notify existing credit accounts and ven-
public web space open to the world. It is like dors so only you may authorize purchases. We are not trying to be bleak in this article
leaving your front door open and hoping that • Notify your bank, freeze checking ac- but it is time for 2010 to be a slap in our col-
the bad guys just don’t notice.... heck, forget counts, savings, ATM Cards and credit cards. lective faces and a time for a wakeup call. I
the bad guys, it just takes people who are • This may seem extreme but you may need truly hope this never happens to you, but
down and out and see an opportunity. to apply for a new driver’s id number or state there are 9 other people in my room right
id number if it has been compromised and now and none of us have been hacked... yet.
So what can I do? used for fraud. Till next time stay safe.
We come back to the most important question • Keep good records – write and record
of 2010. What will you do WHEN you get everything. You may need it. Chris is on the development team and the lead
hacked? We can’t go through life with the at- • Never, ever pay a bill or a portion of a bill social engineer for www.social-engineer.org. so-
titude that it will not happen to me. 1 in that is a result of fraud. Do not file bank- cial-engineer.org is a website that was developed
every 10 U.S. consumers has already been ruptcy. to house the world’s first Social Engineering
Framework. It is complete with tools, tips, trick
victimized by identity theft (Javelin Strategy • Cooperation with your local law enforce-
and how-to:s on social engineering. The endeavor
and Research, 2009). 1 in friggin 10!!! ment or vendors is essential but do not give in.
is to educate companies and people to the risks
• Remove your name from call lists when- so they can protect against the increasing number
Look around you... count the next 10 peo- ever you can. of social engineering, phishing and deception at-
ple... one of you will be or has been a victim • Quickly call any phone, cell phone or tacks being used today.
of id theft. We have to plan for what we will
do when it happens. ”Heck, none of us want H1N1 and the CDC
wants me to sign up for a vaccine...
Here is a very simplistic plan
of attack WHEN you get hacked
heck, I don’t want to turn into the next
• Notify your credit bureaus for your coun- strain of flesh-eating zombie creature,
try and local area – this can go a long way to I better go and sign up... click... PWND!”
 new ace :
h e
T arm s
text
r
SteviePU
A

The more you know how to

do something, the better you
tend to do it. This applies to
repairing a car, learning a
language or cooking your fa-
vorite dish. It also applies to
meeting girls. The paradox
comes, though, when others
are learning to do it better
too, resulting in increased
competition and techniques
becoming too widely known,
thus losing their efficacy.
You’ll still do better than the
newbie who has little or no
specialist knowledge but a
point of diminishing returns
often sets in, raising the
question of how to stay
ahead of the curve to maxi-
mize effectiveness.
Staying ahead of the curve
in the pick up community
Internet growth has expedited the exchange and using the same approaches, the more di- insemination because they are not on the
of information between niche groups. The luted is the effectiveness of what they are radar.
pick up artist (PUA) community, for instance, doing. I’ve personally seen PUA trainees You might say, for example:
used to be underground but today benefits opening a group of girls only to be told ”You know, you remind me of someone. You
from information flow in a way that was ”we’ve just heard that one!” I’ve also seen look so familiar, you’re not famous are
never previously possible. Men interested in clubs in which it used to be easy to do well, you?... it’s the eyes... I think it’s my brother...
meeting girls can now easily discuss what filling up with huge, slick guys – machines you have his eyes! (pause) But, if you have
does and doesn’t work. The problem arises on a mission to ram it home that very night. his eyes, you’re gonna have to return them
when many thousands of guys all use the It never used to be that competitive. right away, kiddo, because he’s gonna need
same techniques, the same approaches and them for what I’ve got planned for us later”
the same lines with the same girls. One night So how does one deal with these situations
on my way home from giving a PUA training and stay ahead of the curve? Innovate. That’s the surface technique but driving it is
workshop in Copenhagen, I happened to a series of underlying principles.
overhear a guy on a train using the same Firstly, understand the difference between
script I myself had posted online only weeks principles and techniques. A technique could Firstly, we need to draw her into
previously. Add to this the media focus upon be a line you use but a principle is what the interaction, so we use a neutral enter-
PUAs (”The Game” movie is due out in 2010) drives that choice i.e. why are you using that taining opener that is easy for her to buy into
and you have a situation where men are not particular technique at that particular mo- and creates some intrigue. We know most
the only ones aware of this new knowledge ment in your interaction? By asking yourself chicks focus on their appearance (it’s where
but also girls have a raised awareness of PUA what the principle behind the technique is they get a lot of their power) and on celebri-
activities. For some guys, this results in get- you can begin to step outside of the confines ties, so we open with the assertion that she
ting ‘blown out’, i.e. the girl has heard the of the arms race, dodge those pesky weapons might look like a famous person. That peaks
approach before and the techniques don’t inspectors and stay ahead of the curve. HB her curiosity. It is a speaker-centered opener
work on her. Hans Blix or AMOG Mohamed Al-Baradei sim- to let her relax — we are not going to set off
ply won’t recognize your weapons of mass autopilot responses by using a generic ques-
There are two dynamics operating
here. One is between the PUA and the girl he
is interested in (his target). Then there is the
competitive dynamic between males for the
”When everyone is running around
girls. Think of these as an arms race. The repeating the same lines and the same
arms race happens when one side of the
equation has something the other side wants. techniques, they get stale. This is when
In order to take what he wants, the PUA uses you become a social robot operating on
his knowledge and techniques to show the
girl the qualities she is looking for. But as someone else’s programming. It’s far
more and more men learn to exploit these
loopholes in her code, the girl raises her de-
better to be an autonomous operator
fenses. In the competition between PUAs, the using your own material.”
more guys out there running the same scripts
tion-based rapport opener that she hears so parison with ”my brother” — downplaying ”(1) It’s not the first time I’ve been in here
often when a man is interested in her e.g. her femininity and causing her to question in Club X but it is the first time I’ve met some-
”Hi, how are you? So what do you do? Are her attractiveness. Then, once the neg hit has one who I totally connect with. And the thing
you having a good time?” etc. Most AFCs use gone in and we have lowered her view of her- is, (2) I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again.
openers that seek rapport before displaying self (thus increasing our relative value to her Like, (3) I’m sure you are a nice person and
an iota of value to her first. Why would a de- because we are not fazed by her beauty and all that, but have you ever met someone who
sirable girl just open up to a stranger who are also using an implicit challenge princi- was totally on your wavelength, who imme-
clearly is only interested in her physically be- ple) we fractionate back into humor. diately made a powerful impact on you...(4)
cause that is all he has experienced of her this person made you think and wonder be-
thus far? She might like his looks if he is for- Using humor here gives her a get-out cause they are so intriguingly different? Me,
tunate, but it’s not solid PUA technique. clause from the neg hit and lets us lead the (5) well I might not be a Club X virgin but
interaction in a fun way again, That’s frac- there is more to life than what we expect,
Saying ”you’re not famous, are you?” is am- tionation — we change and mix up the pace (6) but that is a different story, I can tell
biguous — are we asking if she is famous or and focus of the frames we are setting. We you! Maybe not now though, I don’t know if
are we confirming she is no one special? finish by developing intrigue about what I you can handle it.”
Both. It’s therefore harder to resist or counter have planned for ”my brother” (or is it what
in its efficacy. The next step in the above is planned for me and the girl? — ”what I’ve This uses broadly the same principles, adds
opener uses a neg hit to lower her view of got planned for us,” — is ambiguous in its some pattern language — i.e. confusion, am-
herself (use this for hot girls who are used to scope, so she doesn’t resist it, but puts the biguity and vagueness and finishes with a
being put on a pedestal). We use the princi- suggestion into her mind that we might be challenge.
ple of relative value to generate the com together later). This sets up a continuation of
the interaction and gets her investing in the The point here is to understand what powers
story — finding out what I plan on doing your techniques and not to just spout the
later. From here we can link into a new rou- same lines as everyone else. By understand-
tine or pattern. ing the principles you can begin to generate
your own material.
The above uses the principles of:
1. Drawing her in This brings us to another way of staying
2. Curiosity ahead of the curve — using your own life ex-
3. Neg hit periences to generate content. When every-
4. Ambiguity one is running around repeating the same
5. Fractionation into lines and the same techniques, they get stale.
humor This is when you become a social robot op-
6. Curiosity & Invest- erating on someone else’s programming. It’s
ment far better to be an autonomous operator
using your own material. There are several
We can generate other tech- advantages to using your own material in the
niques using the same principles field.
e.g:
Firstly, using someone else’s material poten-
tially gets you into a competition with other
”I’ve also seen clubs in which it used to
guys. There is the risk of your target having
heard it before. Then there is the wider prob-
be easy to do well, filling up with huge,
lem of congruency. It’s not always easy to
make your delivery sound natural if it is a slick guys – machines on a mission to
ram it home that very night. It never
learned line. Most chicks can spot incongru-
ency a mile away. There is a term in PUA cir-
cles called ”leakage”, this is where your
words, voice tone, body language and facial used to be that competitive.”
expressions don’t go in the same direction or
contradict each other. Moreover, you have the high standards when it comes to girls. If you can’t come up with your own origi-
challenge of remembering what to say. nal material, take pieces from other people
There’s nothing much worse than being over- Doing well means calibrating her response and tailor it to make it your own. I rarely use
dependant on someone else’s material and and using that knowledge to decide what full pattern scripts any more so it is difficult
forgetting it or having it run out while you kind of mental/emotional state you want her for someone to recognize a pattern of mine
are mid-sarge. This happens when you are to move towards. based on having seen it or heard it before.
unable to generate your own ideas that work. Dip into your life experiences and try to What I do is use fragments of patterns in
Mostly this can be avoided if you understand think of situations where people gave you much of my speech.
the principles that underpin the techniques value, admired you and connected with you. I personalize those fragments, making
being taught in the PUA community. Start It doesn’t have to be 100% true, but should them my own so they have become part of
thinking about not only what a tool does but have a basis in truth. It’s fine to embellish how I naturally communicate. When you can
why it works as it does, then you can use it the story but if it is a complete fabrication do that, you don’t need to worry about keep-
outside that particular setting. you might have problems with congruency ing ahead of the curve because you begin to
when recounting it. own the material, merging it with your per-
Developing this awareness gives True, you can tell a completely made up sonality to the point where it becomes how
flexibility, keeping you ahead of the curve. story so many times that you come to believe you normally communicate.
Work on generating your own material based it yourself but that is much harder to imple- Done successfully, there comes a point
on what has happened in your life. Use your ment successfully than using material with a where you can’t tell if you have morphed the
life experiences to deliver stories, quote what basis in reality. material to fit your personality or whether
people said, and describe how people acted your personality has been shaped towards
around you and the actions you took. Don’t just follow what others are the material. Either way, it’s ideal for keep-
These experiences become vehicles to dis- teaching, try techniques out for yourself. Be ing an edge.
play value and to elicit the states of mind in original when you can. Remember the dif-
her which fit the principles needed for your ference between surface and underlying Society usually mandates that people
pick up to be powerful. Go for a ”show, not structure. Girls will recognize the outward hook up in the evening, in bars and club. Try
tell,” approach whenever you can. form but will almost never identify the to see past this and avoid only going out to
Anyone can say what a big man they are deeper structure. They might sniff a pick up meet people in the prescribed locations and
but if you can have your target come to the line a mile away but never once clue in to the times. Give yourself permission to talk to peo-
conclusion herself that you are a cool guy fact that you are lowering her value and ple all day as you go about your business.
based on how people react around you (or boosting yours by way of utilization of social By using the outlined principles in all of your
how you say people reacted around you) proof. communication, all the time, you can begin
then that is hugely more effective. Telling a This is similar to the way comedians use to integrate material with your personality
story about how you kicked a girl out of your the same comedic devices many times even and vice versa. This breaks the community
life for breaking your rules will be more ef- though the location/people/punch line in hold and fosters autonomy, both vital for
fective than telling your target that you have the joke are completely different. keeping you ahead of the curve.
fat gripz
text LEIF ERIKSSON

A rather common question I get from people of all walks of

life on the quest to improve their physiques is: How do I im-
A review
prove my forearms?
The forearms is one of the most popular muscle groups to
improve upon for very simple reasons. First of all, they are
often one of the few parts of your physique that’s showing in
your everyday wear (like greasy Metallica t-shirts). Secondly,
they are often miserably underdeveloped.
How does one even go about getting forearms like these?

There is of course no simple answer, a barbell in mint condition and a double

unless you feel like making it simple. A lot overhand grip they will be kept in place
of people who train in commercial gyms quite firmly. With a reverse grip on a worn
aren’t even allowed to use chalk for their out barbell, they’ll tend to rotate along the
deadlifts, hence they use straps instead until surface of the bar. I haven’t really had any
their forearms resemble twigs rather than the serious problems with this though, and I
preferred tree trunk. Building forearms is do appreciate the fact that they are made
often a matter of managing to build some from rubber which is friendly to your
grip strength. There are loads of assorted hands and grip.
work out products to this end.
Doing high pulls, it was clear that this
Getting a good strong grip was important to was way more difficult than high pulls
me personally, since I wanted to be able to on an Axle, due to the ball bearings on
clean big weights on an Apollon’s Axle. Let’s the barbell. Ending with a double over-
face it, if you can clean the axle like hand deadlift hold, my forearms and
Koklyaev, your forearms rule! The Axle is ac- hands got an excellent work out.
tually about as thick as a regular barbell with
Fat Gripz on them. They are these thick, blue, I would furthermore recom-
rubber handles that fit perfectly on a barbell mend attempting to do as many of
or dumbell handle. This is a cheap alterna- your regular exercises as possible using the Bench pressing is one of the exercises well
tive to buying a fat bar. Fat Gripz. There is a reason world renowned suited for Fat Gripz!
strength coaches like DeFranco and Tate rec- In my opinion, there are definitely a worth
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We’re still looking for
writers
graphics
secretary
marketers
henchmen
illustrators
researchers
photographers
www.interestingtimesmagazine.com
[email protected]
Cybergeddon: text PARIAH

thoughtsonthecomingSino–Angloshowdown
and so here we are on the verge of the trenches at ‘the firm’ blew by like an norance on the part of the average American
the first declared cyber-world-war. the chinks eight ball on a friday night and the jet set- that what is really pissing off the Islamics is
have pwned the goog, and now big G have ting, hard living scene of the raging party kid the billions of dollars in aid we have sent to
thrown their toys out of the pram with talk of slash professional penetration tester was Tel Aviv since 1973[6]. and it wasn’t the sys-
ceasing ops in .cn[1]. hillary’s on the case[2] clearly my calling. tematic disassembly of the privacy, inde-
and the gloves are about to come off. pendence and self reliance that have been
hacking in those days was dead simple. the core values and defining characteristics
and when they do, well then we’ll show fuzzing was in its infancy. vulnerable serv- of the United States since its inception.
them. surely the console warriors of the most ices were everywhere. memory corruption
powerful nation in the world will pull the vulnerabilities aplenty. smashing the stack no, what changed, was me. somewhere along
plug on China’s obviously well tuned cy- for fun AND profit. patches only came when the line i got sober enough to get drunk on
beroffensive units before they can turn off redmond released service packs, and in the oxycontin oxytocin and find my soul mate.
our lights and heat and leave us shivering in unlikely event that the infrastructure was ac- squeezing out the crotch fruit was undoubt-
the dark with no TV to watch and no mi- tually properly configured and hardened, edly the tipping point. bringing those little
crowaves to heat up our trays of edible food- then there was always rain forest puppy and souls into the world suddenly made me want
like substance[3]. his radically simple idea of ‘sql injection’. to care. but not care about the things that
we’d been taught to hold sacred. no, my wee
or will we? i never thought i would be a pa- back then... i did it for money. and if a ones would be masters of their own uni-
triot. as a teenager, when the other guys were mate needed a favor, i did it for friendship. verses, keen to thrive and survive and not let
drinking beer, playing football and raping and if i got properly loaded, maybe i did it for anybody push them around. while other dads
cheerleaders, i was dropping acid and ring- glory. but i never thought i’d do it for country. read bedtime stories about Elmo and his
ing long distance BBSs using bruted calling
cards or borrowed Tymnet portals. in univer- "i never thought i would be a patriot.
sity, LSD was entwined with MDMA and other
extraordinary artifacts of bovine[4] and fe-
as a teenager, when the other guys
line[5] pharmacology to really push the edge were drinking beer, playing football
of my psychoemotionalspiritual envelope. and raping cheerleaders, i was
Tech 12’s and Trumpet Winsock meant i could
spin rekkids and hack ip networks without
dropping acid and ringing long dis-
leaving the house. the end of the world was tance BBSs using bruted calling cards
always nigh, but my profound nihilism and or borrowed Tymnet portals."
the banging trance, breaks and jungle were
grand preparation for the apocalypse. but then, something changed. it wasn’t sit- friends, to my son i speak of ancient ninja
ting in Kowloon watching the twin towers fall rites and the virtues of running unsigned
at uni my skillz on the console did not go un- in NYC in 2001. it wasn’t the carpet bombing code on his game console[7].
noticed, and when in graduation year fate and the oil wars and the gross incompetence and so, now i stand atop my ivory tower of acu-
flipped the coin of indictment or employ- of the American commander in chief and his men built on the rugged foundation of a score
ment, lady luck called the latter. four years in minions and masters. it wasn’t the blind ig- of experience and a life without boundaries. i
 "while i’m planning for the worst,
i’m hoping for the best. i’m not sure that cyber-
vigilantism is going to solve anything, but i
do think that by uniting folks interested in cyber-
punk, hacking, martial arts and survivalism
we may be on to something"
see before me the hungry, ambitious, intelli- the lines, be expected to think deviously porations, cloud operators, gov’t agencies,
gent masses of the populous developing coun- enough to defeat their adversaries who have and defence contractors are getting pwned
tries. i feel their billions of eyes looking lustily been groomed from day one to be malicious, eight ways from Sunday by the Chinese and
upon the broken empire over which we still cunning, and unstoppable? their zero day client side exploits[14]. and
preside. and i understand that the conven- don’t even get me started about the banks.
tional tactics which have served to keep us in the Brits have been hiring hackers
power for the good run we’ve had will be woe- for longer than they admit. there is now an sounds hopeless... but, while i’m planning
fully inadequate in the cybergeddon to come. official ‚”bad boy club”[10] operational in for the worst, i’m hoping for the best. i’m not
the UK, but unfortunately when setting this sure that cyber-vigilantism[15] is going to
for some time now the Pentagon has up GCHQ may have overlooked all of the solve anything, but i do think that by uniting
been publically and privately trying to re- truly talented security pros and settled for folks interested in cyberpunk, hacking, mar-
cruit[8] the young minds that will lead the the geeky Asians they could vet. tial arts and survivalism we may be on to
next generation of American cyber warriors something.
to face down our axis of evil foes on the play- and as for the US of A? well, fear not my till next time...
ing field of cyberspace, where everyone friends. for at long last we finally have our
agrees the next world war will be fought. cyber czar. after Melissa Hathaway’s under- pariah is a security consultant by day, and
whelming 60 day review, which basically said a ninja by night. he can be reached at
but unfortunately, their mindset is all wrong. (without saying) that we are indeed all to- [email protected]
security clearances are a catch-22 of which tally fucked, we now have a former Microsoft 1 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/
Yossarian[9] himself would be proud. you CISO at the helm[11] who’s going to make new-approach-to-china.html
2 http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/
everything all right.
"while other dads read bed- 135105.htm
3 http://community.nextfitness.com/?p=47
time stories about Elmo and so, the bad guys are 4 http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/ghb/ghb.shtml
5 http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/ketamine/
laughing at us. they’ve
his friends, to my son i speak successfully diverted
ketamine.shtml
6 http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/usaid.html
of ancient ninja rites and the our attention (and re- 7 http://team-xecuter.com/

virtues of running unsigned sources) with yet an- 8 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/22/

federal_cybersecurity_shortage/
other far fetched
code on his game console" ”underwear bomber”
9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yossarian
10 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/24/
threat to commercial hacker_cyberdefence_hire_nonsense/
11 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_
can’t get one until you need one, and if you airliners, while their real masterminds are Cyber_Security_Center
need one you can’t get one. the clean cut, watching the cleartext intel streams from our 12 http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/12/
boy scout recruits that actually can be vetted own UAV’s[12], and figuring out how to re- not-just-drones-militants-can-snoop-on-most-us-warplanes/
13 http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9087338/
lack the grayscale sense of right and wrong ally fuck us over. we’ve got bureaucrats Critics_question_value_of_federal_IT_security_report_card
that most elite hackers share. how can these buried up to their necks in useless FISMA[13] 14 See the ”Social Networks” article in IT02, Nov 2009
kids, who never once thought to draw outside compliance paperwork while our biggest cor- 15 http:/www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/
id.5265/pub_detail.asp
Whit e bo y w ar f ar e o r t h e text SGT. SKULL

A subject that Western military historians and theorists love to yak about amongst them-
selves is the so-called ”Military Horizon.” You have probably never heard of it because it
never seeps through into discussions of military matters in the civilian press.
Briefly, the ”Military Horizon” concerns the transition from fighting between two disorgan-
ized mobs into the ”modern” stage of fighting using rank and file formations. This transi-
tion occurred sometime during the transition from stone age hunter/gatherer economic
patterns to settled agricultural patterns.
The short video below is of a typical New Guinea spear fight. Not much happens and that’s
pretty much the point. This is how we white boys fought in Europe when we were free, that
is before the invention of agriculture and our eternal enslavement to the almighty state.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWFEWh2GBbk&feature=related
When populations became more numerous rows at a distance or individual combat with invented in that you followed orders – you
due to agriculture and thus there were more clubs and swords or throwing your spears. stayed in you predetermined place or you lost
guys on the battlefield a great change took We won’t throw our spears. We’ll stay in a your head.
place. All over globe the concept of fighting compact group all together and charge
in ranks and files was independently (we straight ahead and stab the other guys to It is the general consensus among
shall assume) discovered over and over again death with spear thrusts. Anybody who Western military historians that the crossing
until the mob version of warfare disappeared breaks ranks, either charging ahead or of the military horizon and the development
completely except in backwaters like New falling behind, will be executed.” of ”real war” made the modern, all-power-
Guinea. ful state possible. That is to say that the iron
And so the ”military horizon” was crossed and discipline of the new fighting style pre-dated
Some smart dude would tell his buddies, ”real warfare” (in the eyes of Western mili- the new and all-powerful state and not the
”Look here, no more shooting ar- tary historians) was in- other way around. My guess is that they are
vented. The old mob style correct. In general primitive societies are not
fighting is scoffed at by ruled by despots who may strike off the
Western military historians heads of their subjects as they please and ac-
at because it was ”indeci- cording to their whim of the moment. That’s
sive” in that annihilation because in primitive (think free) societies
of the enemy was seldom every adult male is a warrior and combat is
achieved and ”voluntary” generally voluntary. If a despot in such a so-
in that a great of the de- ciety were to decide that he wanted to strike
cisions were left to the off the head of one of his warriors he’d have
individual warrior. With to do it himself, and the warrior – being a
the new concept classic true warrior and not a modern soldier slave –
military discipline was would defend himself.
”military h or i zo n”
And now I must explain why Western military This type of fighting in ranks with held spears phalanx was more difficult to maneuver than
historians absolutely drool over the crossing was perfected by the Greeks during centuries sword fighters. The Romans (it is said) would
of their ”military horizon.” It’s because they of fighting each other and any damn fool for- ”fix” the spear wall formation in place with
are (with rare exceptions) fascists. And eigners who thought they could overwhelm basically a suicide group of sword fighters
please note that I do not mean fascists in the them with mere numbers. and then assault the phalanx in the flank or
contemporary model of Adolf Hitler, but fas- rear with sword formations or cavalry.
cists in the classic Roman tradition, which is The father of Alexander the
their ideal. Almost all Western military his- Great carried this system to the extreme Up until the later days of the
torians were born into the oligarchy or were when he stripped his infantry of most of their Roman Empire the Roman sword phalanx
talented commoners inducted into its ranks body armor so they could carry longer and was king of the battlefield. It was sort of like
via education (think indoctrination) at pres- heavier spears. He had the first rank carry a wheat harvesting machine that cut down
tigious universities. They absolutely adore short spears (and some armor), with the next everything in its path. As Roman military dis-
the all-powerful state ruling over the cring- rank (about) three feet back carrying spears cipline went to hell along with the rest of
ing mass of citizen slaves and wish out of pro- that were three feet longer (and less armor) Roman society they substituted hired bar-
fessional pride that its whelping be credited and so on and so forth until each enemy barian horsemen as their main fighting
to their chosen profession. grunt wound up facing a ”spear wall” of 4-6 force. Even then these horsemen did not
spear points all at once. adopt the bow as their primary weapon but
With the new system it was winner retained the spear which they renamed the
take all. The formation that got pushed back- This was the winning combo until the Romans lance. The Asians, not being white boys and
wards (the new system was basically a huge stopped using the spear wall and switched to thus not subject to white boy mania for close
shoving contest) broke ranks and was scat- swords. The Romans came to understand that up combat, saw that the composite bow was
tered and the victors could lay siege to the the spear phalanx had weaknesses that could the logical choice as the primary weapon for
enemy city while destroying their farms’ be exploited. The spear phalanx worked best mounted warriors and achieved excellent re-
crops and anything else they couldn’t carry on perfectly flat terrain against an enemy sults.
inside the city walls. that had less than the iron courage required
As for weapons the held spear initially won to face a spear wall and it only worked well Now we get to the part about why I call this
out over the club or axe or sword in Europe. in straight ahead fighting because a spear ”white boy” warfare. If there is one thing

”Clearly, no rational persons would think global

devastation a reasonable price to pay for the three
rewards offered above. Then again, human history can
be fairly described as a vast landfill of toxic human folly.”
 the Western navies were still building ships
with reinforced bows suitable for ramming.
Consider dueling as we did in colonial times
when, for instance, Alexander Hamilton was
killed and Andrew Jackson was almost killed.
10 paces, turn and fire. Everything is stripped
away except balls and an instant and deci-
sive result.
Even von Clausewitz, the most esteemed
military writer of our era, was infected with
this mania for one big head-to-head decisive
battle. Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese military
theorist wrote a book that was basically a big
bag of ”sneaky” political and psychological
that has struck me over and over again in my because it was seen as an admission of cow- tricks that a general could use to get the best
reading about Western warfare, it’s an ab- ardice and an admission that you would be of his enemy. You seldom see such things em-
solute mania for mano a mano, head-on defeated if such a confrontation took place. phasized in Western military manuals which
fighting to the death right here and now and focus on weapons and ”tactics.”
screw anything and everything else. I’m not This mania seems to have permeated
sure if this Western mania came about be- Western popular culture as instanced by our Look at the photos of WWI soldiers
cause European terrain and economics and own esteem of the high noon shootout with going ”over the top” to charge across no-
favored mass, head on clashes of opposing six shooters. Never mind that most actual mans land only to be mowed down by ma-
infantry or if the mania dictated the fighting deaths in Deadwood or wherever were back chineguns like so many arcade ducks. They
style. shootings, it’s the thought that counts. We got fixed bayonets in every damn picture. I
don’t esteem sneaky, black clad ninja assas- remember the bayonet range in the army.
North Africa and Persia and the sins like the Japanese do. We give top honors When we marched around it we had to yell
steppe of Southern Asia were all horse coun- to, say, ”high noon” cowboys or the mounted ”KILL!” every time our left foot hit the
try and the horse-mounted warrior was king. knights of the Middle ages who just charged ground and we had to run at the bayonet
Mounted warfare does not lend itself to sui- each other head on and got it over with. Even dummy straight-on at full speed screaming
cide charges. Generals who could maneuver on the verge of WWI when navy ships had ”ARRRRRRHHHH” and stick him dead square
their formations like chess players always guns that could fire huge shells miles away, in the chest and them ”butt stroke” him with
seemed to get the upper hand. Because of
this fact, retreat became a pragmatic tactic ”We don’t esteem sneaky, black clad
in horse country as opposed to a sure-fire
way to get defeated as in European infantry ninja assassins like the Japanese do. We
warfare where it was therefore despised as
cowardice.
give top honors to, say, ”high noon”
One big problem Pericles had was persuad-
cowboys or the mounted knights of the
ing his fellow Athenians not to march out and Middle ages who just charged each
fight the invading Spartans. Refusing com-
bat in ancient Greece was almost unheard of other head on and got it over with.”
the rifle butt while yelling ”KILL! KILL! KILL!” 1: Brevity of action tain to fail because Russia and China are in
exactly like cavemen. Using a fully automatic 2: An unambiguous or ”all or the ascendant while America is suffering
weapon as a spear and club... duh, OK. nothing outcome” from self-inflicted internal rot of every sort.
3: The continuation and rein- The powers-that-be in London and Wall Street
They may as well have been training us for forcement of the oligarchic sys- may offer up their own populations up as
the service in the Spartan army. When I was tem that initiated the new style slaves leased to the Russians and Chinese in
in training in the U.S. we didn’t get one sin- of war in the first place to return for continued abundance for them-
gle second of ambush or counter ambush achieve a life and death power selves. If such an arrangement is concluded
training but we got plenty of time at the bay- over their citizen slaves. probably the first major manifestation will
onet range learning how to use fully auto- be massive grain sales to China. That, of
matic weapons that can kill a guy a mile Clearly, no rational persons would think course, will mean a 3,000 mile long Yu-
away as if they were spears and we were get- global devastation a reasonable price to pay goslav-style civil war here in starving Amer-
ting ready to fight the Persians at Ther- for the three rewards offered above. Then ica, but I suppose that’s better than nukes
mopylae 2,500 years ago. Duh. again, human history can be fairly described being thrown like snowballs.
as a vast landfill of toxic human folly.
Take the movie Dr. Strangelove. May the Cyclops eat you next to last.
Major Kong rides the bomb to sure death wav- I will offer only one possible outcome that
ing his hat. He was using a nuke as a club - does not involve major global warfare. Cur- Tom Chittum (AKA Sgt. Skull)
face-to-face and an unambiguous, instant de- rently, the London Banking Cartel - led by the
cision. UK and it’s junior partner America - is at- web site:
tempting to bully the Shanghai Cooperation http://www.buyagong.com
If we look for an explanation for Custer’s ac- Organization - led by Russia and China - into
PS Any shapely Swedish lady on vacation is invited to
tions at the Little Bighorn or of Lee’s charge submission by military encirclement and in- visit me in semi-beautiful Frederick, Maryland. My
at Gettysburg or the utter insanity of re- ternal subversion. This effort is almost cer- email is [email protected].
peated WWI charges into machinegun hell
they can’t hold up to rational examination,
but you can understand them if you think
”military horizon” and ”white boy” warfare.

In our time classic war (except as theater to

distract the peasants) has been abolished by
the introduction of nuclear weapons and
equally horrid exotica such as HAARP ma-
chines. Previously, even the most devastating
war held the prospect of material and social
gain at least for some faction of the elites.
Today, full nuclear and/or HAARP war be-
tween major powers would mean reversion
to stone age conditions for generations for
most of the globe. Still, such war does NOT
violate the sacred themes of white boy war-
fare.
 Master of
an interview with pick– text AHA

AJ (”Action Jackson”) is the creator of Matchbook Method and the owner of Action Attraction, a company that sup-
plies textbooks, workshops, seminars, and instructional CDs and DVDs for single men to help them improve their so-
cial skills and interpersonal communication with women on social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.

Clinically diagnosed with Social Anxiety in 2005, AJ found refuge in online social networking sites. Through messag-
ing thousands of women and making every mistake possible he developed the Matchbook Method: A step-by-step,
copy-and-paste messaging system for meeting and attracting high-value women on Facebook and MySpace. AJ has
used his own system to date a massage therapist, flight attendant, NFL cheerleader, 2nd grade teacher, exotic
dancer, and multiple models.

In addition to his proven copy-and-paste messaging guides, AJ is known for his high-quality interactive coaching
videos and content/presentation creativity. On July 1, Action Attraction will launch the Matchbook Method 2.0 Home
Study Course. AJ has a B.S. from the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business and currently resides in Hol-
lywood, CA with his bulldog Frank ”The Tank”.

What is your view on PU/

seduction in general?
Your worldview basically.

I’m all for it. Let’s face it, the shit works. The
problem is on the business side of it. One
issue is the self-proclaimed gurus and key-
board jockeys who spend 6 months learning
pickup and think they’re qualified to release
a product and give advice. There are dozens
of little guys like this popping up all over the
Internet. The other issue is there are a couple
big time guys who are expert internet mar-
keters but terrible pickup artists. You’d never
know it unless you saw them picking up
women in person and realized they suck. I
won’t name names but they know who they
are.
 Facebook:
–up guru Action Jackson

Ah, interesting. What are some good -Online pickup acts as a virtual training -Sending messages & friend requests to
solid names in the industry that you ground that will carry over into real world strangers is MORE socially accepted.
trust to give out good info? What pick-
pickup. Guys who master online pickup au- -You can easily see whether she’s read and
up guys should we be reading, other
than yourself? tomatically see better results in their ”meat- replied to your message.
space game”. -You can send out unlimited number of open-
I hate to start naming names because I know ing messages at a time without being flagged
I’m going to leave someone out, but off the CONs: as a spammer.
top of my head: Carlos Xuma, El Topo, DJ -We can’t make eye contact.
Fuji, John Alanis, and Christian Hudson are -Confident body language has to be conveyed MySpace CONs:
great guys and have great content. They all through photos. -It has more perverts and creeps, which can
offer a different unique angle to becoming -We can’t do any playful touching or physi- make women guarded.
successful with women. cal escalation until the meet up. -It has more fake profiles.
-Confidence, enthusiasm, emotion have to be -It’s becoming more and more tainted.
Tell us something about online game in conveyed through our messages. -It’s becoming less popular.
general? How does it compare to meat- -Laughing and facial expressions are limited
space game? Why is it better/worse? to smiley faces, winks, ”lol”, ”haha”, etc. Facebook PROs:
What are some pitfalls? -It’s safer and more secure, which means
However, I teach specific strategies to fill higher value women.
Sure, I’ll give you a list of PROs and CONs: these vacancies. -There are nearly no fake profiles.
-It’s becoming more and more popular... over
PROs: You seem to have done most of your 350 million users!
-It’s 100% Free. fieldwork on Facebook and Myspace?
-There’s no approach anxiety. How do they compare?
Facebook CONs
-You don’t need a wing man. -You can only browse people inside/con-
-No dealing with bitch shields, cock blocks, Sure, I’ll give you a breakdown of the PROs
nected to your networks.
loud music, etc. and CONs of each.
-You cannot view her profile unless you are
-You never have to worry about freezing up Facebook friends.
and not knowing what to say next. MySpace PROs:
-Sending messages & friend requests to
-You never have deal with the embarrassment -It’s one giant network. You can browse and
strangers is LESS socially accepted.
of getting blown out or rejected. message everyone!
-You cannot see whether she’s read and
-My system is based on copy-and-paste messages -You can view her profile unless she sets it to
replied to your message.
so I’ve practically done all the work for you. private.
-You cannot send more than 15-20 new open-
ing messages at a time or you will be flagged need to feel like they are higher value than riss’ book The Four-Hour Work Week and
as a spammer and your account will be sus- everyone else. Recently a lot of my customers thought it would be easy... bullshit! More like
pended. have been begging for a Facebook pickup the four-hour sleep week! Also, the pickup niche
What would you say to the critics guide because they’ve hooked up with the is becoming more and more saturated. I lucked
of PU?
hot MySpace girls and realized they’re fun to out because my online pickup business is in a
mess around with, but they wouldn’t make sub-niche that is virtually untapped. But if
I don’t bother with them. The critics are usu-
great girlfriends. you’re thinking about starting a business on
ally two types of people: naive naturals and
inner game, confidence, nightclub pickup, day-
insecure egotists. The naturals have always
So if you want to meet a more down to earth time pickup, etc., forget about it.
been able to approach and get women so
girl then Facebook is better. You can also be
their naive response to pickup is, ”That’s stu- Haha, we are pretty much Tim Ferriss
more genuine on Facebook, whereas on My-
pid... why don’t you just walk up to her and loyalists over here! But OK, what are
Space you have to use hardcore pickup tech-
say ‘hi’?” The insecure egotists are the guys some good books/resources in this
niques.
who really need to learn pickup and get bet- field?
ter with women but refuse to admit it. In my What is the future of online game?
experience, it’s very hard to change some- If you have an entrepreneurial mentality like
one’s opinion on something if they are naive I still love MySpace, but Facebook is defi- me I would definitely recommend picking up
or an egotist. a book called The Top 10 Distinctions Be-
nitely the future of online pickup. Everyone
tween Millionaires and the Middle Class by
is on it! Also, you have the ability to pickup
Why is Facebook better for sarging than Keith Cameron Smith. I would also recom-
all types of different women. You can use
Myspace? Better quality women? More mend Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill,
choice?
Facebook to find and score dates with girls
and How To Win Friends and Influence People
you’ve never met, girls who went to your old
by Dale Carnegie.
Facebook isn’t necessarily better, it’s just dif- school, girls in your college, girls you already
ferent. If I want to go out with a stripper or know in real life, girls who are Facebook How can guys avoid becoming social
a ”model” I’ll use MySpace. (I put ”model” friends with one of your friends, etc. The pos- robots with women as their sole hobby
in quotations because most of them are sibilities are endless. in life? How can men really find them-
wannabe models, but they’re hot nonethe- selves and become solid people?
Some words of advice for people who
less.) These types of women love to hang out
want to start a business in the pick-up It’s a double-edged sword. Women are at-
on MySpace because they can design their industry? How to differentiate oneself?
profile to show themselves off. Whereas on tracted to men who have their own thing
Facebook, everyone’s profile is the same, Seriously reconsider, unless you’re willing to going for them. Guys who spend all their
which is a real problem for these types of put in 60 hours per week for the next two time trying to get women are usually the
girls because they are super insecure and years. I made the mistake of reading Tim Fer- ones striking out. That being said, finding the
right woman is a numbers game. You have to

”I made the mistake of reading Tim Fer-

riss’ book The Four-Hour Work Week
and thought it would be easy... bullshit!
More like the four-hour sleep week!”
meet and date a lot of women to figure out your profile sounds like you’re trying to im- have you ever seen a MySpace profile that
what you like. Here’s an easy way to tell if press the reader then rewrite it. So forget takes forever to load because there are 3 dif-
your life is balanced. Log into your Facebook about listing your accomplishments or ex- ferent slide shows running while a video
or MySpace and look at all of your pictures. plaining why you’re worthy of dating beau- plays and animated stars shoot across the
If you have a nice eclectic mix of you play- tiful women. screen in the background? Not only is this an-
ing sports, traveling, hanging with family, noying, it also looks like the person spent
guy friends, female friends, etc., then you’re 2) Avoid the profile information pitfalls that hours on it. You don’t want to be one of these
doing fine. If your photos are lopsided in one will lower your value. people; you’re a busy guy... you don’t have
direction or another then you’ll know which Even if your profile has attractive photos and time to sit in front of your computer for
areas of your life need improvement. a confident About Me section you can still ruin hours. Your profile should come off as if you
your chances if you don’t pay attention to the spent maybe 15-20 minutes on it.
On online dating sites it seems to me straightforward parts like Basic Info. Try to se- How can one balance online and IRL
that men are almost always the ones game to make sure one does not be-
lect answers that are honest but at the same
taking the first initiative. How can one come a keyboard jockey who spends all
create a profile that draws female atten- time won’t disqualify you. If the selection that his time talking to women online and
tion to oneself so that they are the ones fits you best could potentially turn the girl off never goes out to sarge in meatspace?
to make first contact? before she has the chance to get to know you
then selecting No Answer is the best option. Great question! I joke with my members and
When creating/editing your profile, focus on Choosing No Answer means the topic won’t be
tell them I should have called my system Pick
these 3 things: displayed in your profile. Up Beautiful Women in Your Underwear
While Watching Sitcom Reruns On a Friday
1) Create an attraction building profile that 3) Keep things simple and don’t overdo it.
Night... because you feel the urge to do just
subtly raises your value as much as possible.
that when you start getting results and real-
Here’s a good rule of thumb: if it doesn’t ize this shit works. However, for a few months
If your profile doesn’t create attraction, her boost your attraction leave it out. Cluttering
I let online pickup dominate my dating life
motivation to invest in the conversation will your profile with unneeded text or layers of
and began to hurt my results. Don’t make
diminish. The goal is to do it subtly so you media will distract the reader from the at-
the same mistake I did. Going out to public
don’t come off as a braggart and try-hard. If traction-building pieces of your profile. Also,
venues and societal gatherings will help keep
 ”The other issue is there are a
couple big time guys who are
your social skills in tune. I tell all my cus-
tomers/members that meeting women on-
expert internet marketers but
line should be used as a supplement to your terrible pickup artists. You’d
regular dating life, not a substitute.
never know it unless you saw
What are some really easy 80/20 type
fixes that guys can do to hook up more. them picking up women in
Ie small things that yield big results?
person and realized they suck.
Get your profile in shape! Let me paint a pic-
ture for you...
I won’t name names but they
It’s Saturday night and you’ve just pulled up
know who they are.”
to the hottest nightclub famous for its Yeah, some might call it immoral, but if you written messages are based on scientifically
plethora of beautiful women. Now the next have to ”fake it till you make it” then do it. proven attraction techniques that are de-
step is your decision... are you getting out of For example, having social proof photos of signed to immediately hook the girl and cre-
a stretched limousine and walking in dressed you with attractive women is the most im- ate instant attraction. I’ve put together a
to impress with a hot girl on each arm? Or portant part of your profile. The problem is nearly flawless message formula that com-
are you flying solo in a station wagon wear- some guys don’t have pictures with women, bines playful nicknames, false disqualifiers,
ing clothes even the Salvation Army would- so I give them ”fake it till you make it” push/pull techniques, and calls to action.
n’t take? Apply this analogy to MySpace and photo-taking routines where they can liter-
Facebook and the importance of a high-value ally walk up to any hot girl on the street and What if you can’t meet up soon? Let’s
profile becomes clear. easily get a sexy picture with them. One such
say you want to sarge someone in a
foreign country, like, say, Sweden. Any
routine is called ”Photo Scavenger Hunt” tips for international sarging?
Here’s the reality. If your opening message where you and a buddy go pretend you’re on
Is it even a good idea?
does its job and piques her interest she’s a scavenger hunt for your friend’s bachelor
going to check out your profile. The quality of party and you have to get various types of
It’s a good idea if you’re going to be travel-
your profile will directly affect your success photos with girls. I even have guys print out
ing there in the near future. For example,
because 1) It acts as the main attraction a sheet of paper with different photo poses.
one of my advanced techniques is called
builder, and 2) It will either lower or raise
Travel Destination Meet Ups where I show
your value. What angle/approach have you found guys how to sarge women ahead of time in
works best for contacting women via
Cool. What are some more sneaky
places where they will be traveling to. That
MySpace and Facebook?
methods if one were inclined toward the way they have women waiting to hang out
Dark Side? For instance, I have heard with them when they get there.
Just straight up send them an opening mes-
of guys creating fake chick profiles
sage that sets you apart from the rest of the
contacting them, in order to boost their For the guys that might have jumped
social proof. guys. Matchbook Method openers and pre- off the MySpace bandwagon – what
 changes have they made that make it all about getting her number. Well I don’t derneath guys sporting six-packs and sports
easier or productive for meeting know about you but in my opinion ”phone cars.
women? Ah, but what if guys don’t remain
game” is hard! So why put yourself through
that pressure? Instead, I seed and arrange clueless on matters of attraction?
I’ll admit, it used to be A LOT easier to meet SteviePUA has predicted (see ”Predic-
the meet up over MySpace and then get her
women off MySpace. What’s changed? The tions for 2010” in the previous issue and
number just in case I have to tell her I’m run- ”The new arms race: Staying ahead of
competition has grown and girls have be-
ning late. Surprisingly most girls don’t need the curve in the pick up community” in
come jaded. You can’t get away with just
to transition to the phone before agreeing to the current one) that this will happen in
being a chill, down to earth guy and expect
meet up. In fact, not once have I ever had a 2010 due to the release of the movie
to grab a hot MySpace girl’s attention any- ”The Game”. Will there be a new arms
girl say to me ”We can’t meet up, we haven’t
more. But that’s why there’s the Matchbook race as pick-up technologies become
talked on the phone yet.”
Method. every man’s possession? How will we
stay cutting-edge if that happens?
What makes your system so effective
The one thing that has gotten easier is get- for getting women to respond to you?
ting the girl to actually meet you in person. People also said it would happen when the
Over the years Internet dating has become We just follow some very simple attraction VH1 show ”The Pickup Artist” came out, yet
more and more socially acceptable. However, rules that most guys are clueless about. For I still use old school routines out in field that
there will always be those girls who are a lit- example, I teach my guys to make sure they were ”exposed” on the show and I’ve never
tle nervous or paranoid, but the Matchbook don’t qualify themselves until the girl quali- been called out by a girl.
Method has a solution for that too. What we fies herself first. If a girl realizes she’s won But let’s say it DID happen. The most im-
do is flip the ”stalker” frame on the girl and you over without having to work for it she’ll portant part of attracting women is self-con-
accuse HER of being the potential ”creepy in- lose interest immediately. You need to make fidence, and that’s something girls cannot
ternet stalker”. It works like magic! her earn it. YOU are the prize to be won. The call you out on.
#1 mistake I see guys make is they reveal You can learn the best pickup techniques
What have you found the best way to their interest in the girl too quickly. You see and technologies but if you don’t deliver
transition from emails to actually meet- this all the time on MySpace. Even a hand- them with confidence girls are going to see
ing? texts? IM? phone calls? some, chiseled dude can blow himself out right through you. I believe the pickup in-
with a ”Hey sexy!” comment. But that’s why dustry is headed more towards teaching
I have a very different approach than most MySpace is so great. It allows regular joes lifestyle attraction and self confidence rather
guys. Most online pickup ”gurus” tell you it’s like us to steal beautiful women from un- than specific pickup lines and routines.

”What we do is flip the ‘stalker’ frame

on the girl and accuse HER of being the
potential ‘creepy internet stalker’. It
works like magic!”
 text BRETT STEVENS

Counter-insurgency lessons for

the modern first world citizen
We gain experience in life, and at some point, find ourselves in a mod- and because you have taken the highest path
of abstraction, you will find that few can
ern time — a dying time. This time is the product of a series of revolu-
argue against it without looking like crass
tions across the world which deposed kings, threw out the myth of God, materialists.
and replaced them with the individual as a mini-king.
The main rule of this time is that the individual can do whatever he or Tactics are more difficult. The prevailing logic
in the counter-revolutionary underground ap-
she wants so long as it does not immediately infringe upon another
pears to be that (a) a counter-revolutionary
individual. The collective health of society, nature and truth don’t even underground is a good idea, (b) we should
come in a distant second; they are forgotten, except as a justification for form small isolated communities and activ-
whatever the individual wants to do. ity teams, (c) we should hit people with our
most controversial surface issues and finally,
Because of this underlying assumption to the ronic movies, bad fast food, pollution or the (d) we can form an identity as ”separate
modern world, we live in an age where ap- real killer of our environment, habitat loss, from” the mainstream culture which is the
pearance is the rule enforcing natural selec- humans destroy what they touch, and this product of these revolutions.
tion. Like a cancer made out of politeness, creates a pervasive doubt you can exploit.
this disease starts with the individual and the Not to disparage my esteemed colleagues,
individual’s choice to avoid unpleasant ideas If you want to help replace this modern time but to my mind, this is unadulterated horse-
and replace them with comfortable half- with a more realistic one, you must have two shit. History is not changed by those who
truths. things: drop out, but by those who engage, and do
so with a clear public statement of what they
This makes modern society difficult to over- 1. A strategy, or plan for conquering the want to fix and how they’ll do it. All revolu-
throw, because it is a lowest common de- mental space of your citizens. tions occur when 2-5% of the population
nominator which panders to the insecurity, 2. Tactics, or ways in which this can occur agrees on a set of values and decides to im-
self-doubt and narcissism of the individual. practically plement them.
Counter-revolutionaries, or those who oppose
the modern world, face a hard path in that Strategy requires connecting to the psycho- Since up to 85% of most populations
we must convince our fellow citizens to give logical hooks through which people view our are politically inert and follow whatever
up ease and comfort for a heady dose of re- world. I suggest basing it around a simple trend seems popular, the effectiveness of
ality. meme: because we are so busy ensuring that these small groups is disproportionate to
we as individuals can do whatever we want, their size. However, first they need to get that
Fortunately, all of this putting the indi- we have made ourselves dependent on this magic 2-5% of the population to agree on
vidual first has manifested itself in an obvi- notion, and in doing so, have become oblivi- what is desired, or these people who are very
ous pattern: humanity expands recklessly ous to reality. Explain that as the root of all proud of their big brains will each come up
and wherever it goes, ”someone” ruins what problems and you avoid getting into hot-but- with a values system of their own, usually
is and replaces it with decay. Whether mo- ton issues that make people shut you down, converging on the lowest common denomi-
nator of ”what sounds cool to my peers.” • Subversion of existing symbols and activities.The means to this end should not be, as my
In addition, we need to recognize that esteemed colleagues suggest, a breakaway
After some years of experience with media, this strategy has a founding meme, or mind- group. In my view, it should be a social iden-
I have found that all successful society-chang- virus that both makes sense as explaining ex- tity which operates in conjunction with other
ers have several things in common. On the ternal reality, and makes the individual feel social identities, exists within mainstream po-
strategic level, they create a cult-like meme, ”at home” with their own relationship to it: litical and economic and social concerns, and
which is a type of psychological justification addresses real-world solutions to actual prob-
that puts the user at ease. On the tactical • ”Because we are so busy ensuring that we lems in a way that both benefits the individ-
level, they organize themselves like modern as individuals can do whatever we want, we ual directly and benefits the individual by
corporate marketers in that they create a vir- have made ourselves dependent on this no- making a more stable society.
tual community around their idea, but they tion, and in doing so, have become oblivious
do it through mainstream channels, so that to reality.” (Modern people are so spaced out Your target audience are not clueless
people are members of both the mainstream that you may need to follow this up with the teenagers looking for an identity; those peo-
and yet identify as being of a variant associ- notion that being unresponsive to reality ple are useless. While they have disposable
ated with the product. means that reality does bad things to you. income and disposable time, they are self-
It’s in vogue now, for the last four centuries, centered and have nothing at stake, so the
When I worked with CORRUPT, a civilization to think we each live in a personal reality: only activities in which they participate will
watchdog think tank, we identified five ”what does it mean to you? What is this like be self-aggrandizing and self-amusing. That
stages to a successful counter-revolutionary in your world?” Sometimes people need re- directly conflicts with the idea of doing any-
strategy: minding that their world exists only in their thing effective, as such acts resemble ”work”
heads, and that reality acts in consistent pat- which teenagers are certain is the opposite
1. Gain power in local community terns we can discover through science.) of ”fun.”
2. Unite the 2-5% of people who can lead
and act These are the elements of strategy You are looking for people who
3. Point them toward favored candidates — psychological programming — that make are effective and intellectually alert. Do not
4. Deceive the clueless masses and disen- for success. They systematically create an ef- try to recruit the urban market, the food serv-
franchise them fective, mobile political action cadre at the ice workers, or the hipsters. These people are
5. Implement policy directly center of our society, and push them toward not intelligent except in the very narrowest
domination from within. If you look at most of senses, meaning that they can handle rea-
Zooming in for a moment on the second successful revolutions, acting from within is sonably complex tasks within a narrow field
point, we can see the need for the following: an imperative — the best training, resources, of specialization. That narrow field means
media power and political connections come that they will always work for someone else
• A mainstream meme. from within the system already in place. and be told what to do, excepting unimpor-
tant details.
Instead, target the official and unofficial model, and then adjust it and keep the ad- • A belief system: why the cult is
leaders of society. A partial list is as follows: justments that don’t fail. right, what it’s right about, and what to
As mentioned above, you’re going to shape avoid. This is best not phrased as a ”the
• The local guru (computers, politics, litera- these people into a society within a society, a world is wrong and I am right” but instead,
ture, gardening) in a range of topics. culture within a culture, united upon the a sense of ”here is where to find power in
• A business leader or team leader at a busi- basic meme. To do this, you need to create a the world.” Everyone seeks the same thing,
ness. group identity that resembles a cult, and so but you’re giving your members a powerful
• Clergy and academia. we’ll use the basic parts of a cult to define it. tool. In doing this, you want to bind them to
• Police, firefighters, and volunteers. Successful examples of modern cults: Ayn collective survival and point out that while
• Writers, artists and journalists. Rand, heavy metal, Apple computers, Scien- your ideas benefit the individual, the biggest
• The first person on a suburban street that tology, Buddhism and Science of Mind. Peo- benefit comes from a healthier or smarter so-
people call in an emergency. ple who belong to these cults participate in ciety.
life just like normal people, but they inject • An icon and verbal tag: you
The general population imitates their ideas fanatically as underlying as- need a visual symbol as well as a tag word,
these people in the same way that children sumptions to all that they do, spreading a cool name for the group. People go nuts
imitate their older siblings and peers. They those ideas like a disease. for this stuff. Your icon should be simple and
find someone who has succeeded in being forceful so that someone with a marker can
popular or being effective, and imitate that The elements of a good cult: draw it in a second; your tag should be a
person from the outside-in, meaning that • A creation story: why the cult came word or number that in the right context peo-
they start with mannerisms and work up to about and what it improves upon. For exam- ple can spot as what it is. The best example
understanding ideas. People work by imitat- ple, Buddhism has the classic prodigal son of the icon is a symbol like the Anarchy cir-
ing archetypes. You see this with musicians, story: a young man matures and finds that cled A, or the Star of David that radical Zion-
who start with clumsy imitations of their he- the religion he was raised in has gone off- ists draw to mark territory.
roes; writers who ape their influences; actors track, so he starts his own group to clarify For pervasive verbal tags, think of groups
who adopt the styles of their forebears; and the teachings. In doing so, he spends seven like Freethinkers, Progressives, and the bril-
even in business, where young MBAs clone days under a banyan tree meditating, and liant branding of ”Hope” and ”Change” that
successful CEOs of the past. All of these peo- discovers The Absolute Truth. Then, because allowed people to drop those words in con-
ple are on their way to creating their own he’s a fat jolly sweetheart, he brings it to the versation and have a meta-subtext be un-
style, but they start by imitating a working rest of us so we can enjoy it and prosper. derstood.

”Successful examples of modern cults: Ayn Rand, heavy metal,

Apple computers, Scientology, Buddhism and Science of Mind.
People who belong to these cults participate in life just like
normal people, but they inject their ideas fanatically as
underlying assumptions to all that they do,
spreading those ideas like a disease.”
• A ritual: when people know the pattern it gives people an identity and a reason to • A messianic leader: even more ap-
of activity, they can join in. Rush Limbaugh feel superior to others, which in turn makes propriately, an invisible messianic leader. Sci-
does this better than any human being alive. them work harder on spreading the idea entology has L. Ron Hubbard and Buddhism
He introduces a concept for dissection, talks around so others recognize their new social has the Buddha. Their adherents pass along
about how it succeeds or fails, then mentions status. their wisdom, but the leader is never there to
where it succeeds it touches on his principles, • A secret language: this language be debated, debunked, or photographed tak-
and finally, concludes with a statement of how isn’t secret as much as it is exclusive to your ing out the trash. Your leader should be an
it would be better if it followed his way. He group. Name things you hate with a pejora- inviolable symbol. Dead people are best.
uses similar language, speech patterns, and tive term; name things you like with positive
the same rhythm of progress between these terms. Apple computer does this effectively by In addition, learn to market your idea as a
stages in his five-minute radio screeds. Peo- insinuating that its users are artists and hip brand without a center, meaning that while it
ple like predictable. They know what’s com- young people, and its opposition are dowdy is identifiable, it is not controlled by anyone
ing next, like singing the words to a song, and nerds. When you have a special name for — it is the property of those who use it, and
it binds them to the ritual. things, you have power over them, because the so they work to pass it on and are more ef-
• An in-group/out-group strat- meaning of that name shapes the conscious- fective than any single person, corporation
egy: you want a name for people who ”get ness of the speaker each time they say it. or government can be:
it,” and a name for those who don’t and a • Hierarchy. You want to be able to take • Make your idea a space, not
reason why they don’t. Ann Coulter is the those who ”get it” and raise them above oth- discrete, so people can feel empowered by
master of this style, in that she makes her ers, and the best way to do this is to claim creating within it, like they use found objects
fans feel like ”real conservatives” while talk- they are ascending in their learning and abil- in collages. The best products in the world are
ing about how stupid ”liberals” are because ity. When your good buddy Jim makes it to imperfect ones because an industry rises up
they’re narcissistic nitwits. Sociologists call being a Fourth Level Druid in D&D, you work around them to make them better. How is it
this an in-group/out-group strategy, because that much harder to do the same. That bonds that Microsoft Windows dominates the mar-
by emphasizing who is and isn’t in the club, you even more with the cult. ket? It smells of opportunity and offers no
barriers to letting others create within it. • Cultivate your critics and people viduals and your community so they feel em-
• Let people project themselves who want to write about you. They develop powered by you.
into the idea and develop it for you. Be cryp- your idea as much as your supporters. If • Reward those who use your idea to
tic, gnomic and nuanced; let their imagina- someone tells you they think what you’re involve other people and create a status sys-
tions fill in the rest. People want a vision doing is crazy, treat them like a friend. This tem so those who do well are recognized by
more than a reality, and since that vision is will baffle them and draw them to you, usu- the community. Make the absence of good
personal, you want to give them tokens they ally because those who go looking for some- behavior conspicuous. If you want people to
can play with in their mind but ultimately use thing to critique are hoping to raise their own involve others, identify each person by name
in their own fantasies of what their lives are social status by seeming wise in negating the and number of people they involved. If that
about. negative. Agree with them halfway; if they number is zero, it looks bad and they will
• Suggest your idea is an enhance- say you’re recruiting people to destroy the work to avoid that. Keep a constant flood of
ment to what exists, not a counter-idea. Be world, tell them they’re right, you’re recruit- information about those who are succeeding.
positive. If you’re infiltrating the Republican ing people — but to remake the world. Then • Make it easy to socialize using your
party, you don’t want to be anti-Republican, drop some nuance and talk about how the community. All of your events should be so-
you want to be super-Republican, and you do world could be improved. This gives them cial events first, and activism second, or
this by implying that ”new learning” sug- something to talk about and create drama you’ll only attract people for whom life has
gests a ”new way” of being more Republican about, drawing attention to you. failed so hard that they need to consider
than ever before, because it’s more effective. • Don’t be evil. Always reward indi- themselves ”activists” who are sacrificing
themselves for the common good. You don’t tree planters or book clubs, churches, per- The above hitlists do not provide an
want those social dropout nutcases; you want sonality cults like Toastmasters or 2600, local easy path. Obviously, it’s easier to set up a
winners. city governments and PTAs, activities and myspace group or blog and hope that these
• Make your idea a win/win propo- classes at your local community college. people with lots of time on their hands — and
sition. Based on the writings of Stephen Covey, Find winners in real life and groups that I wonder why they have so much undedicated
whose ”7 Habits of Highly Effective People” serve a real life function. They already have time? — will somehow come together, and
still dominates the self-help section, you need the power; you just want to redirect that awaken the citizens, and just like in a Holly-
to suggest to others that when your idea wins, power to your ideas, which is the path of least wood movie you’ll have a huge crowd at the
they also win. There are no losers, except of resistance and thus the one most likely to suc- end demanding justice. That’s not reality. Re-
course the aforementioned out-group. ceed. ality is finding the normal, but strong and ef-
While my esteemed colleagues suggest that In my years in the underground, I’ve found fective people, and drawing them to your
you run off to the hills with the weirdos and that about one in four people are in it be- ideas as part of the path they’re already on.
failures of civilization and try to whip them cause they believe it’s a good idea. The rest
into a counter-insurgency, I have the exact are there for an identity, and they’ve chosen Following the above can unite the 2-5%
opposite advice: do not secede from reality. the underground because they’ve failed at needed for a successful civilization transition.
What exists now does so because it is suc- life and need a reason to justify that. They If you recall our list above, that’s the first
ceeding. Join up with something that is al- dream up a conspiracy to support that no- step toward building a political audience.
ready succeeding and then meet the people tion, and blame Big Corporations, The Jews, Later you can find people who hold your
who are most influential in it. Try to bend The Masons, Government, The Rich or The ideas and get them elected, which is the least-
their ears to your ideas, and then invite them White for their failings. These people are use- unstable strategy for taking power away
into your group as founding members. They less to you because everything they do is for from a mobocracy and the most likely to suc-
will do your work for you. themselves and they cannot succeed in soci- ceed. But first, you need to build this audi-
ety, so all they do is gather other do-nothing ence, and this article has given you the
Groups worth targeting: conserva- know-nothing losers around them. basics.
tive political groups, community groups like

”In my years in the underground,

I’ve found that about one in four
people are in it because they believe
it’s a good idea. The rest are there for
an identity, and they’ve chosen the
underground because they’ve failed at
life and need a reason to justify that.”
 text DOUGLAS BARNES

I’ve just had the chance to review the DVD Food Production Systems for There is good information on garden place-
a Backyard or Small Farm by Rooster Crows Productions. The 110-minute ment in the Gardening section. They mention
a few mistakes they made over the years,
long DVD aims to help people with access to some land in temperate cli- which is a great way to help others avoid
mates work towards producing all of their own food. some of the common problems faced by gar-
The DVD is divided into 10 sections, which include an overview and ac- deners. They recommend double-digging,
knowledgments. The meat-and-potatoes of the DVD are the sections on which involves digging all the dirt out of a
trench then filling it in again with some
water, gardening, rabbits, home butchering, poultry, dogs, perennial amendments added. I would have to agree
plants, and other essential information relating to small-scale food pro- here with my teacher, Bill Mollison, that you
duction. The systems and techniques shown take place on the presen- should only do this if you want the exercise.
ter’s small farm where they have about 30 acres in polyculture I have always had success just by adding
amendments and mulch, perhaps very deli-
production. They are able to feed 2 adults and 2 children with 2 to 4 cately loosening the soil with a pitch fork.
hours per day of input on their farm. Disturbing the soil means killing beneficial
mycorrhizal fungi and disrupting bacteria,
So what did I think? Taking into ac- ally covered with rigour. worms and other soil life. The DVD’s advice
count the challenges and limitations of such a The section on water looks at the sources on avoiding soil compaction should definitely
production, I think it is very well done. The available and the benefits and drawbacks of be heeded, though.
scope is very ambitious. Covering backyard rainwater versus pond water versus mains
food production is no mean feat. There are a water, for example. It outlines the water re- There is some information on integrating
lot of possibilities and a lot of ground to cover. quirements of trees and gardens in different other systems with the garden as well. For in-
What they have done successfully, I think, is soil conditions. Rainwater harvesting is ad- stance, enhancing fertility with rabbit ma-
to tell their own story, which is a tale of grow- dressed with good information on tanks and nure or putting chickens on pest patrol.
ing food in Central Texas. This necessarily lim- rainwater catchment off rooftops. It should
its the scope of the project, making the video be noted, however, that the cost-to-storage They avoided interplanting com-
relevant just to people in temperate climates. ratio of tanks is much higher than that of panion plants for fear of scaring off the
And those in cold climates such as my own will dams and ponds, something not mentioned. novice, but I think they could have included
face a few challenges not covered in the video. Also, in very cold climates, tanks need to some basics without adding any confusion to
Those in the tropics and arid regions might be submerged in the ground to prevent them the presentation. I also would have liked to
not get much out of the video, considering from freezing solid and risking rupture. I was see something on chop & drop mulching
their unique situations. I don’t intend to be waiting through the whole section to see whereby sacrificial plants are chopped and
critical here. Ideally, there would be a book earthworks such as swales (water-harvesting placed around crops. There was, however,
and video to cover the situations faced in ditches on contour) covered, but swales were brief mention of mulching trees with weeds
every bioregion and every watershed in every only mentioned in passing in Section 8 of the in a later section; but no active strategy of
climate. One DVD could never possibly hope to DVD in relation to support systems for peren- chop & drop.
do all that. What is covered, however, is usu- nial plants. One method of pest control covered was the
approach of eating the pests. There is a photo The killing and butchering is not for the Now, I’ve just covered the DVD here. I have
of inago (a Japanese garnish consisting of squeamish. I must say, however, that the not yet mentioned the 35 MB of pdf files on
seasoned grasshoppers) being prepared, but whole thing, particularly the kill, was a sa- the supplementary CD ROM. A lot of the in-
I get the impression from the credits that they cred moment. The presenter obviously re- formation that I mentioned the DVD did not
are not the ones doing this. During my years spects her animals and the taking of life. Up cover is covered in the CD ROM. There is even
in Japan, I had the opportunity to try inago to this point she had shown to be an ex- a transcription of Bill Mollison’s 1981 per-
and I can say it’s not for the faint of heart. tremely articulate and well-educated person. maculture design course given in Wilton, New
The taste is fine, but the yuck factor is pretty And when the time came for compassion, she Hampshire. All told, there are 64 files on a
high. My Japanese wife wouldn’t touch the demonstrated it admirably, stroking the rab- broad number of topics to help you on your
stuff. bit, singing to it to sooth it, and making an way to producing your own food.
offering of tobacco. It was a very emotional
The sections on rabbits and poul- scene and it really stirred my feelings. Were So here is the question: Is it worth
try were covered rather well. Again, they let the meat we get from the market only handing over $24.95 USD for the DVD? Is it
us see the flaws of their system so that the butchered with such reverence. worth less than a case of beer for informa-
viewers could design to avoid the problems tion that could save you tens of thousands of
they had. Breeding and handling of rabbits The section on dogs runs through the dollars over your lifetime? Just go to back-
was demonstrated and the feeding and pro- basic guidelines for farm dogs as well as their yardfoodproduction.com and buy it already!
duction of food for rabbits and poultry were uses. They use theirs for livestock protection,
covered. There was mention of chicken trac- clearing meat scraps and, ingeniously, to Douglas Barnes is a permaculture designer and
tors in the poultry section, but for those un- haul carts. teacher living in Ontario, Canada. He has worked
familiar with them, I suspect confusion will on projects in Canada, Japan, Australia and India.
ensue. The operation of the tractors was not The section on perennials offers some good His website is www.ecoedge.ca and his blog is
permaculturetokyo.blogspot.com. He can be
demonstrated. They delve into the issue of basic information for establishing food
reached at [email protected]
predator protection for their birds, but make forests and orchards. The information is
no mention of electric netting for some rea- broad, but vital. And again, they share prob-
son. Electrified enclosures are a very effec- lems they have had, giving the viewers a
tive way of protecting livestock and are head’s up to potential problems.
reasonably priced.
The last educational section addresses im-
What to say about the section on butchering? portant loose ends such as selecting crops
The first thing that comes to mind is the ”Pets based on nourishment requirements,
or Meat?” scene from Michael Moore’s Roger food preservation, first aid, testing
& Me. The presenter takes us through an en- mulch to see if it has herbicide that will
tire butchering of a rabbit, starting with a live kill garden crops, marking contours
rabbit and ending with a quartered rabbit with a bunyip level (water level), deal-
going in a bag and the hide being tanned. ing with ants, rocket stoves and more!
The whole scene takes up over 13 minutes.
Medical Tradecraft- What you need text [R3CVR5!<3]

A man in an olive drab uniform walks up to you and speaks rapidly in a

vaguely slavic language. Only a basic vocabulary, a lab coat, and an
overpriced souvenir passport from the ”Conch Republic”
stand in the way of your ass being riddled with holes
and stomped into the mud by a dozen copies
of the very boots that you’re now following down the hallway.
In a life or death situation, this is where social engineering
meets survivalism. Are you ready?
As the saying goes, ”it’s not what you know, but who you know.”
This could not be less true. It’s nice to have ticeably louder than the hard rubber soles to know things before you can know people.
friends, but if you lack the basic skills of a against the worn tile floor, your italian You can ride your bike, or your girlfriend, but
given profession, you lack credibility. You loafers tacitly keeping time with the clack- your bike doesn’t need flowers and a night
have to approach any task you set forth on as squee, clack-squee, until you reach a door- out on the town before you can touch the
if your life depended on it. Not to wax philo- way obscured by a gossamer film of plastic, handle bars.
sophical, but every step you take in life leads bracketed in stark contrast to the pair of ro-
to the next, and if you fail to complete a step bust guards now eyeing your passport and So about those guards – You have
that you intend to, then you stumble into a credentials. to read your mark very carefully, especially
sometimes profoundly different life than you while traveling overseas, since nuances of
would have had you not stumbled. There’s a few lessons to be had here, so let’s local custom may turn a pun into a jail term.
begin your fieldcraft training, since it’s more You need a friend in this situation, someone
Believe me, I’ve stumbled quite a bit. important, and more widely applicable than with access and that can throw some shade
Sometimes it’s not a bad thing, either. On oc- anything else you can learn. My cellphone on you from the legitimacy tree. After all,
casion I’ve even chatted in the wee hours of has private numbers for a variety of power- your objective is to get down the hall, and
the morning with my coffee cup sitting on ful, intelligent, capable individuals. Quite a out of the building without those boots clack-
things secret enough that mentioning them few are incredibly hot and single. squee-ing after you.
here could have the proverbial wolves upon
my flock. I’m neither a con-man, nor a spy, Most of them are women. Here’s the read: The guard ahead of you is ei-
mind you, but my skill set overlaps suffi- ther fresh meat, or just got new boots. Since
ciently that you can assume I’m a vague hy- Unfortunately, none of these people you’re in an eastern bloc nation, the boots
brid somewhere between MacGuyver, are standing in the corridor with you. Even if aren’t going to be a top item, certainly not
Gregory House, Jason Bourne, and any one they were, only a rarified few have tactical squeaky leather boots. Your run of the mill
of Ocean’s Eleven. Or Twelve. training and an arsenal to go with it, but MY grunt is either going to wind up with his own
cellphone doesn’t help YOU with those synthetic cheapo boots, or something issued
This article, however, is not about me, it’s guards, does it? by the organization they work for (the local
about getting you down that hall. flavor of the army/navy/coast guard/air
The shiny leather of his boots squeaks no- This is where fieldcraft comes in. You need force, etc.) so he’s likely fresh meat. The
to know to make it.
Or fake it

other two guards have noticeable wear school you can find, and take all the basic bi-
marks on their boots – creases in the leather ology and anatomy oriented classes you can.
panels and scuff marks on the polymer, so Basically pick up a pre-med degree descrip-
they’ve walked these halls for a while. tion and follow the biology aspect of the
They’re the ones that you DON’T want chas- course work as closely as possible. Skip
ing you. The weapons they hold are likely things like botany, but organic and analytical
going to be some AK-47 variant, chambered chemistry are a MUST. Screw literature, but if
in 7.62 by 39, something like a shorter .308, you scored less than 700 on your SAT (the
but with just as much stopping power. A max score for that test in the US is 800. I got
phone book held over your head won’t even weapons. Luckily for all of you, you produce a 710 in 8th grade) then you need to take
slow it down, and you’re sure as hell not a pack of moderately high quality european some composition classes. Think about a fic-
going to outrun it in this lifetime. The key is cigarettes and a lighter. Grins all around. The tion writing class or even medical terminol-
their posture. Relaxed? Tense? How likely is first one goes to the noob, ”Welcome to the ogy. Build those language skills. DEFINITELY
your odd behavior going to be in setting [Army], eh?” take a medical terminology class, and take
these guys off. Why are they tense/relaxed? it on campus, in person, not online or just out
If their focus is elsewhere, say on a sporting You’ve just made your first friends this side of a book. You get alot more out of it if you
event, or an impending attack by the ”bad of the barbed wire. hear someone actually say the words and use
guys” – then you’re pretty well set and can them constructively in a sentence. You also
assume that you can operate with some lib- At this point it doesn’t matter what’s on the hear plenty of war stories that you can steal
erty in gaining your freedom. If they’re tense
other side of the plastic. It’s either a guillo- from and build on for your own repertoire.
because of YOU, then you’re pretty much tine, in which case you probbably wouldn’t
screwed. be walking under your own power, or some Next, take some sort of formal medical
sort of crazy third-world sick bay with scads training. You have to have SOME experience
So, damned if you do, damned if you don’t, of slowly reanimating corpses that need before you can call yourself a practitioner of
you might as well see where this rabbit hole ”treatment”. any sort.
goes.
You need skills now, not just in dealing with Once you have at least some internship at a
”Fresh meat?” you ask, tilting your head to- people, but in dealing with SICK people. You clinic on your resumé, even if it’s just been
wards Private First Class Squeaky McBoots. can’t just charm a guy’s leg back into contact clerical work, you should sign up for cell bi-
with the rest of his body – blood vessels and ology, and take your first cadaver-based
The decidedly scruffier looking guard nods, connective tissue don’t care how shiny your anatomy and physiology lab. If you can take
”Da.” satin tie is, or how ”cocky funny” you are. a course that includes pathophysiology, do
so. That means you learn about diseases
You reach into your shirt pocket, noticing the So let’s begin your education with a named after dead people like Alzheimer,
guards tightening their grip on their laundry list. Look at the nearest, cheapest Cushing, and Hashimoto.
 ”You can’t just charm a guy’s leg back into contact
with the rest of his body – blood vessels and
connective tissue don’t care how shiny your
satin tie is, or how ‘cocky funny’ you are.”
It doesn’t hurt at all to take a physics class or stitches in fabric first, then transition to the Do you want to let her down?
two, but you definitely want to self-study as simulator. Pork and lamb are remarkably
much as possible. Get as far as you can like human flesh, so if you’re really expect- Fresh meat looks a bit sheepish at this point,
through fluid dynamics and thermodynam- ing to have to do some sutures, you might and pulls back the plastic ahead of you,
ics – usually a third semester engineering consider paying a visit to your local butcher handing you a plastic box of surgical masks
course for the former, and a third semester and seeing if you can snag some intact skin and latex gloves.
physics class for the latter. They have their and fascia. You might have to go back in the
own books, unlike the introductory classes supply chain as far as a packing or rendering Your eyes are drawn to the commotion on the
that use the same book or books for the first plant, but even raw chicken isn’t half bad to left side of the room, where a crimson foun-
and second semester work. When one se- practice on a few times. If you use something tain intermittently punctuates the din of sev-
mester takes its own 1000 page book, you like dental floss or undyed linen or cotton eral orderlies apparently trying to clamp off
know you’re in for some math, so if you don’t thread, there’s no reason you can’t make a a bleeder. The instrumentation scattered
at least have integrals and derivatives under few slices in your chicken and stitch some around the ward is obviously late-60’s era so-
your belt, get help NOW. Seriously. It helps to garlic cloves under the skin. viet-bloc surplus, running on a stout mix of
be able to run derivatives in your head when Just remember to cut the sutures out be- vacuum tubes and vodka-scented duct tape.
your commandeered car is careening towards fore you serve it. Moving closer, you assess the immediate area
a cliff and you need to accurately estimate around the patient. The blow-out kits next to
the coefficient of friction between the rubber By this point you should be able to di- the rusty examination table used to be
of the tire and the gravel you’re sliding on. agnose most battlefield type injuries, and if clearly marked in Cyrillic, but with the dust
you payed attention during your cardiovas- and water stains it might as well be Greek.
While you’re doing all this book cular system studies, you’ll be able to clamp
work, which should take someone with an IQ off that severed artery long before your pa- If you don’t have it in your bag, you just
of 120 or so 18-20 months while working a tient bleeds out. You should also be able to might have to do without.
full time job, you should get a suture kit. diagnose broken bones, dislocations, and var-
Learn how to sew some basic stitches in fab- ious other forms of blunt and sharp trauma. So here’s your loadout:
ric, then transition to an inexpensive skin Gunshot wounds may or may not be what
simulant. You can get them on eBay for 20- you might call treatable, and all you’re pre- Get a bugout bag. Forums abound,
50 U.S. dollars. I’m guessing that by the time tending to be is a general practitioner, or an and situations differ, so read up and put one
you read this article that we’ll be using dol- EMT. You should actually be an EMT or para- together that fits your skill set and situation.
lars as firestarters, so expect to pay some- medic by the time you pretend to be anything Then start packing a second kit. You need a
where around 30-40 euros. Skin simulants else, and you should remember that at some brightly colored, durable, cheap duffle bag –
are reusable, self-healing silicone models of point, the gig will be up and you won’t be bright red is great. Yellow or International
an incision through various layers of skin and able to fake neurosurgery. Orange come in a close second. Try and stay
fascia, with a muscle-like backing material. pretty standard to your local EMS folks, or
You can expect to get a few hundred The lab coat might get you through a door, but your typical military EMS gear. Get some red
stitches through the material before it be- on the other side of that door might be a scared, cross patches to put on it, but don’t do it until
comes less than ideal, but don’t think you bleeding, 12 year old girl that is depending on you’ve at least completed basic first aid train-
can just screw around with it. Learn the the man in the lab coat to save her life. ing – CPR and all that jazz.
Get a basic medical kit with the usual gauzes Not a bad conversation starter if you’re sin- To this library you can then add the actual
and antibiotic ointments – toss it in the bag gle, so have fun with it. Grab all those books tools of the trade. Everyone’s probbably
and forget it’s there. and start reading them. The more you know, thinking suture kits and tracheotomy tubes.
the better, and if you’re the operator that you Not quite yet, soldier.
Get a PDR – Physician’s Desk Reference. need to be, you should have a girlfriend
Hang out at a local university or trade school that’s a nursing student by now, so when you First on the list is a stethoscope. Learn how to
that offers a Nursing program, or just go to a get stumped, you’ll have someone to go to. use it. I don’t just mean push it up to some-
hospital cafeteria and look for nursing stu- You’ll be able to figure out fairly quickly one’s chest and listen, you need to learn what
dents. Spend some time around a medical what books and cheat sheets you’ll need with heart sounds mean what.
school and learn to like coffee at odd hours of you in your bag, and which ones are best left
the night. If you see a short lab coat walking at home. http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e
by, pay attention to what’s in the pocket. n_US/Littmann/stethoscope/education/he
Don’t be afraid to ask what ”all those books” It’s not a horrible idea to get a PDA art-lung-sounds/
are. Write down the title and get a copy at the and load a few memory cards with text ver-
book store. There are countless cheat sheets sions of the books or scanned images of Lung sounds are next.
that medical students and residents use all charts. That whole suture technique thing you
the time to make sure they get the name of a learned a few months ago? Download some http://www.med.umich.edu/lrc/psb/heart-
condition right, as well as the proper course of videos and tuck them away on a card too. sounds/index.htm
treatment and possible side effects.
 You will need a thermometer. A full field surgical kit to include blunt dis- but I didn’t tell you that. Really. Contra-indi-
Make it two. Batteries die, readings are section gear – picks and probes – you’ll see cated uses are not fun to mess around with,
wrong, two is one, one is none, just have at most of them during your cadaver lab. Dis- but if it’s a matter of saving someone’s life,
least two with you. Besides, whatever THAT posable suture and staple kits as your budget then do what you must.
guy has might not be so easily rinsed off. He allows. Get several gauges in absorbing and
can keep it. Liquid crystal forehead ther- non-absorbing sutures. A good wound wash The young soldier follows you over to the
mometers are AWESOME when you want to solution is invaluable. Kelly clamps/ bleeding patient, and begins to translate for
keep a mask on someone, or if their mouth haemostats galore. At least half a dozen sets what appears to be the scared-shitless doctor
is inoperable. Seriously dehydrated folks do of stainless steel. Get at least two pair of on duty. Apparently he’s lost a clamp in this
NOT want to have you sticking a cold, hard, clamps about 6” long that are NOT made in girl’s entrails, and can’t find it, and the other
plastic rod into their mouth. They will kill you China or Taiwan, and if you can, get the gold three sterile clamps are already holding onto
with their mind. plated versions. Nothing stays quite as visible three other bleeders.
in a wound bed like the glisten of gold, and Reaching into your bag, you come up with a
GET A BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF. The magnetic stainless is always nice since you pair of round neodymium magnets. Dropping
wrist electronic deals are nice, but, again, can get cheap sharps organizer trays with them in a rubber glove, you step forward and
batteries die, so have a real one or two avail- magnets in the bottom so you can keep your massage the glove into the wound, and feel
able. Two sizes of cuffs if you can get ‘em. tools handy and out of the mud while your the slightest click. As you tug the glove back
Normal adult ones can usually be adjusted patient thrashes around. out of the wound, the clamp appears, and
DOWN for kids, but not UP for big guys. It’s A couple of old fashioned magnets are a your gold-plated hemostats close the bleeder
nice to have options, too, since you never good idea to have around as well in case you just behind the astounded doctor’s fingers.
know what part of an arm might be broken lose a needle or clamp. Epi pens are invalu-
or bleeding, so the wrist/leg/arm option is able, as is benadryl – injectable or otherwise. No more blood flowing, no more scared med-
nice to have. It’s not a bad idea to learn how Topical creams and sprays are particularly ical ”professionals”, and you just earned
to do a femoral blood pressure either. good for local anesthaesia on open wounds, more street cred than you can shake a stick at.

”I’m neither a con-man, nor a spy, mind you, but But street cred alone will not save her, will
it?
my skill set overlaps sufficiently that you can as- In the US, nursing courses last about 6-8
sume I’m a vague hybrid somewhere between months, and you can be an RN in 18 months
if you have a degree of any kind whatsoever.
MacGuyver, Gregory House, Jason Bourne, and If you go the extra step and become a nurse
any one of Ocean’s Eleven. Or Twelve.” practitioner, you can prescribe most of the
 ”It helps to be able to run derivatives in your head
when your commandeered car is careening towards
a cliff and you need to accurately estimate the
coefficient of friction between the rubber of the tire
and the gravel you’re sliding on.”
things you might need in your kit, to include She’ll make it. 200 stitches from five suture [R3CVR5!<3] specializes in the application of
the aforementioned injectable benadryl. kits and your bright red bag sits limp on the database tools and computer models to real
From experience I can tell you that over 90% table, its contents spilled, scattered, and world health and human services issues. A long
of the things that get done in a hospital are bloodied all around you. You’re shaking now, time network security enthusiast his resumé over-
flows with experience in fields from automotive
done by nurses. I can also tell you that some filled with joy at your performance, at her re-
and electrical engineering to botany and medi-
of the best clinicians I have ever known have covery, and scared shitless about all the
cine. Apparently, after a few pints of Hef-
been nurse practitioners. things you didn’t study that you just had feweisen, he also thinks of himself as quite the
The worst clinicians I know are absolute to fake your way through. author.
morons who made it through medical school
cheating off their lab partner and happened Overloaded yet?
to be able to take standardized tests really
well. They walked out of their board exami- Good. This is just a sit down with someone
nations and became general practitioners who knows how important all the informa-
and never looked back. The field is always tion is. Put yourself in front of someone
evolving, and if you don’t stay on top of bleeding out from what seems to be an in-
things, you will kill someone. visible wound, losing a pint of blood a
minute, and you might get an idea of how
Three hours later, you wipe the last of the absolutely crazy it is for you to think you can
girl’s blood from your face with a towel pretend to be a doctor.
soaked in almost-warm water. You can’t fake it.
You have to make it.
Oh, happy day!

It has now been forever since issue 3 was out.

I know, and I apologize for that.
My computer dumped me and the time ran away.
It won’t happen again, I promise.
And I promise to make issue 5 like there has
never been made a magazine before.
Like there’s no tomorrow.

Peace, and love to Dusty

imoto