Packaged “Human Meat” protest in Barcelona.

Earlier this year the animal rights group “Animal Equality” launched a human meat protest in the streets of Barcelona, Spain. According to the website Banoosh.com the demonstration took place directly out front of the Cathedral of Barcelona to commemorate the “day without meat”. The stated objective of Animal Equality is,

“To raise awareness of the suffering and deaths of nonhuman animals as victims of speciesism and work towards the abolition of animal use through the promotion of veganism. Animal Equality does not support welfare reforms, or changes in the way animals are exploited, as the group believes that “reforms in animal treatment benefit exploiters by increasing efficiency and profit, and encourage the public to feel more comfortable about consuming animal products.”

According to their twitter page they called the demonstration a “meat out” and referred to it as shocking.

Animal Equality has a history of backing its protest with action. It has conducted a raid on a facility housing 40 000 imprisoned chickens, physically jumped into a Spanish Bull Ring and the rescue of six pigs before slaughter.

Here at Circus Bazaar we thought that this story, although old was very much worth posting. Well done “Animal Equality”.

All credit for these brilliant photos goes to www.banoosh.com

Below you can view the Spanish News report on the demonstration.

Disclaimer – Circus Bazaar does not necessarily subscribe to vegetarianism.

The Facebook like page is something that those that dwell in Social Media have become very accustomed to. To a large extent it has played almost a substitute role to a blog or a website for many businesses. All over the world companies use these pages in order to establish a direct line of communication to their market.

One of the most intriguing features of this is how Social Media reflects real life in the sense that popularity has a positive correlation to becoming more popular, or if something looks the part then it is more likely to be consumed. Commonly referred to as “Bullshit”, the world of Social Media is of course no different.
[pullquote]    “Thanks for your inquiry. ‪With our experience we have added even 100k likes. Please confirm us if you would like USA or Worldwide likes.”         – Facebook Like provider[/pullquote]
Circus Bazaar, although (in our humble opinion) a brave, honest and independent publication is not without the want to increase our audience which of course means an effort to increase our social media presence. This has come with its fair share of research. We found that one of the best and most common ways to increase your marketability is to “buy likes”. This is the process in which specific companies will use unethical tactics in order to generate “fake likes” on their page with the hope that potential followers will “monkey see, monkey do”.

There are two ways in which these companies will provide such a service and it seems to be dependent on location.

1. Using deceptive hacker and spam type tactics to obtain “high quality” likes from individuals in opulent societies such as the United States.
2. Using what they call “like farms” that are typically established in the third world nations where individuals apparently owning useless Facebook accounts spend their days liking pages they will never visit under payment schemes from these same companies.

Luckily Facebook being street wise to this provides two ways in which to counter this.

1. The use of complex and intelligent algorithms that detect those pages that have a disproportionate amount of likes to regular visitors. These pages are then punished by selectively showing posts by those clearly following a more honest approach.
2. Publishing public data directly on pages detailing, most popular week, most popular city, new people talking about this, and the most popular city.
3. If it finds this practice, it can suspend or shut down offending pages.

As you can see from the below screen shot, this page has been selected out for “fake likes”. This is visible from the data. Particularly given the target group is European but the most popular city is Cairo. This data from all pages is available simply by clicking on the Like box in the profile.

Never the less this seems to not be enough.

Circus Bazaar has recently contacted a non disclosed provider of these so called fake likes and asked them of the possibility of being caught. See below conversation;

Circus Bazaar – How do you asses the risk of blockage with 1250 USA likes?

Non-disclosed provider – Thanks for your inquiry. ‪With our experience we have added even 100k likes. Please confirm us if you would like USA or Worldwide likes.‬‬

This is an all to common take and the more you look the more you become aware of this.

Next time you see a page that you think seems popular, check it out. If it looks a little dodgy, say all the followers seem to be from Punjab Pakistan then close out and ……. follow Circus Bazaar.

Norway’s largest prison, “Oslo Fengsel” is located more or less in the the heart of Oslo. Its capacity according to Wikipedia is 350 inmates and is skirted by this children’s play ground.

Don´t be fooled by the lack of children. They are playing cricket only 50 meters away.
If you have photos or film that you think that Circus Bazaar would find interesting why not send them through to us. Use the contact page right here. 

This series will look at a recent technological development each week and examine how it is changing not only today but how it may also powerfully reshape our future.

3d printing and mobile phones.

One is the most ubiquitous, fastest growing and most successful technology in history and the other is moving rapidly from its embryonic status and promises similar world changing potential.

The connection between the two is how 3D printing is set to dramatically add value and function to the mobile phone in much the same way as software applications opened up what had been simply a mobile communications’ device and converted it into a complete communications, information and recreation hub.

3D printing is now making everything from toy figurines and plastic car fixings to alloy jet engine parts for Lockheed Boeing and this trend seems pervasive as it expands into almost every aspect of manufacturing and the mobile phone market is no exception. Recently engineers at UCLA managed to create a 3D printed attachment that allows the phone to become a sub-wavelength microscope capable of detecting image particles as small as 90 nano-meters. What this means in layman’s terms is that it will enable your multi media mobile device/phone to also become a microscope capable of seeing particles at the nano scale including viruses. It could prove essential for various point-of-care applications such as viral load measurements, or other biomedical tests conducted in remote or under-resourced areas. The same UCLA team recently found other ways to modify mobile phones functions to detect food allergens and perform kidney function tests. A journal paper published in ACS Nano provides a more detailed explanation of the device.

So now the mobile phone (thanks to 3D printing) can also become a research tool , highly sensitive detection device and even a health scanner. Now its certainly also a potential copyright nightmare for manufacturers as their customers could potentially now begin making their phones own replacement parts and accessories, but it seems that some manufacturers like Nokia are embracing the new hybridisation of these technologies. At the Mobile World Congress earlier this year, Nokia used a MakerBot machine to print custom cases for its Lumia 820 phone. In a recent blog post interview in January, Nokia executive John Kneeland touted 3-D printers as a tool that may one day let consumers customise devices.

“You want a waterproof, glow-in-the-dark phone with a bottle-opener and a solar charger? Someone can build it for you — or you can print it yourself!”

John Kneeland

And the trend to developing devices to augment the mobile phone into an almost star trek like versatility is only speeding up. Currently the tech company Structure SDK has a highly successful Kickstarter project to manufacture their 3D sensor device that will attach to iPads and eventually smart phones to function as highly energy efficient and mobile 3D sensors and scanners.|

AS an example the SDK structure sensor can:

1. Object Scanner: Capture models of objects and export them to CAD software or for 3D printing. You can also upload models directly to Shapeways.com for 3D printing.
2. Room Capture: Easily capture a 3D model of a room by simply spinning around with your Structure Sensor and iPad. Then, tap any two points to retrieve distances.

So a design, virtual upload, architectural and engineering tool is also potentially added to the list of mobile phone functions in a mating of technologies less than two years old.

So with my mind, blown by this awesome innovation of the two technologies I could not help comparing this to Star treks fictional tricorder, now far less wistfully distant and with some real hope for its eventual reality. All being enhanced and made possible by the burgeoning technology of 3D printing.

It has been officially announced that the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize has gone to the OPCW – The organization for the Prohibition of  Chemical Weapons.

The official motivation being “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons”.

Here is the official statement from the Norwegian Nobel Committees website:

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2013 is to be awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.

During World War One, chemical weapons were used to a considerable degree. The Geneva Convention of 1925 prohibited the use, but not the production or storage, of chemical weapons. During World War Two, chemical means were employed in Hitler’s mass exterminations. Chemical weapons have subsequently been put to use on numerous occasions by both states and terrorists. In 1992-93 a convention was drawn up prohibiting also the production and storage of such weapons. It came into force in 1997. Since then the OPCW has, through inspections, destruction and by other means, sought the implementation of the convention. 189 states have acceded to the convention to date.

The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law. Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons. Some states are still not members of the OPCW. Certain states have not observed the deadline, which was April 2012, for destroying their chemical weapons. This applies especially to the USA and Russia.

Disarmament figures prominently in Alfred Nobel’s will. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has through numerous prizes underlined the need to do away with nuclear weapons. By means of the present award to the OPCW, the Committee is seeking to contribute to the elimination of chemical weapons.”