Internet Babylon

Daniel Jolley writes "I spend basically every waking hour online, and I have seen all kinds of crazy things on the Web over the years, yet I was amazed by some of the incredible things author Greg Holden describes in Internet Babylon: Secrets, Scandals, and Shocks on the Information Superhighway . This guy has gone where many fear to tread, digging up the goods on some of the Internet's most questionable, fascinating, oftentimes disturbing oddities. He has put all of this knowledge to a higher purpose, using it to describe the all-pervasive social change the Internet has wrought." Read on for the rest of Jolley's review. Internet Babylon: Secrets, Scandals, and Shocks on the Information Superhighway author Greg Holden pages 472 publisher APress rating 9 reviewer Daniel Jolley ISBN 1590592999 summary A guided tour of the wild, surprising, and oftentimes dark underbelly of the World Wide Web

Along with all the incredible things I somehow missed over the last few years (e.g., the Amazing Mahir), Holden brought to mind a number of wonderful yet somehow forgotten memories (e.g., All Your Base Are Belong To Us). Then there's all the great stuff that, like so much on the Internet, no longer exists but which provided tons of laughs at the time (e.g., Evil Bert). And I never tire of the great web creations that keep on giving, such as the phenomenal Star Wars Kid parodies.

Unlike most of us, Holden didn't just wander willy-nilly all over the Internet -- well, maybe he did, but he put together a well-organized book that breaks his subject down into six parts spread across twenty chapters. First up is "The Rich and (In)famous." Here you can read all about the online doings of celebrities, serial killers, has-beens and wannabes. Holden will lead you to the Partridge Family Temple, introduce you to the unique musical stylings of Star Trek actors, and even point you to refreshers on Manson Family Values.

Next up is "The Afterlife." On the Internet, nothing truly dies. You can explore the mysterious deaths of Elvis and other celebrities, become a knowledgeable amateur sleuth hot on the trail of Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac killer, and other inhuman monsters, help look for ghosts via webcam in haunted buildings, and even watch a body decompose inside a coffin. (Actually, that last idea fell through, but it's sure to happen eventually.) Of course, you might want to get religion before you take your own one step beyond, and the Internet puts a wide variety of "religions" at your fingertips. With the good comes the bad, and the Internet does, unfortunately, have a dark underbelly of criminality and evil; in the section "Bad Boys and Naughty Girls," Holden gives you the scoop on famous hackers and their exploits, viruses and their creators, and the cretins who curse us all with unwanted spam. He basically takes you on a guided tour of the dark side of the World Wide Web.

As we all know, the Internet has revolutionized politics, and Holden devotes three fascinating chapters to political intrigue, scandals, and government secrets online. In the past, politicians could keep their perverted behavior secret from the public, but the Internet has changed all that -- just ask Bill Clinton. In this online age, rumors and scandals can be spread across the entire world in a matter of minutes, and Holden shows us how the Internet has at times shaped the content of traditional journalism (as well as supplying us with some of the funniest jokes and parodies known to man).

Anyone who browses the Internet soon learns that there are people out there who will do anything to get attention, and those with some sort of self-styled mission will stop at nothing to get their points across. This is the realm of flame wars, denial of service attacks, as well as really, really silly web sites you can't believe anyone would ever think of creating. The unlikeliest of Internet heroes are honored in this section: the Amazing Mahir of "I Kiss You!!!!!" fame, the Star Wars Kid (one of my personal favorites), and even one of the little guys - the man who invented the Smiley symbol. It all wraps up with a look at "Big (And Not So Big) Business." Remember the Pets.com Sock Puppet, who enjoyed much more success than Pets.com ever did? That's just one dot-com disaster story; here, you will learn about some of the worst Internet business plans ever put together.

Believe me, I have only scratched the surface of the material covered in this book. Internet Babylon is chock full of fascinating, oftentimes hilarious stories (and pictures) of the continually surprising sites and sounds the Internet has brought to life. You'll learn a little bit about the creation and evolution of the Internet, but mostly you'll revel in all the crazy online manifestations Holden holds under the microscope.

Let me close with a word of warning. I'm a big horror fan, and I've seen some pretty disgusting things in my life; I like to think I'm tough enough to stand anything. Thus, I ignored Holden's warnings about some of the more disturbing web content that can be found out there and rushed right off to one aptly-described shocking site. Let's just say I'll never be able to watch weight lifting again. I know you will want to take a gander at many of the sites Holden refers to throughout this book, so I just want to advise you to proceed carefully: as this fascinating book proves, you can find absolutely anything out there online, and some of it ain't pretty.

You can purchase Internet Babylon: Secrets, Scandals, and Shocks on the Information Superhighway from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Paths less travelled

[The Bungi]

One way to get to stuff you wouldn't otherwise see on the 'net is to use one of the web site randomizers out there. For example, RandomWebsite will pick one of its archived links and let 'er rip. It's a bit annoying because it works off a .pl script that does the work; pulling up the main page and clicking on the randomizer link will always open a new window. What I've done is to create a FireFox bookmark that links directly to the script so that I can just click on it. Be aware the owner changes the URL every 30 days or so, so you'll have to update your bookmark once in a while.

There are others, of course. But I like RWS because it doesn't contain truly obnoxious crap, scat tentacle anime pr0n or anything like that. Just your collection of normal to uber-weird sites. It has a heavy dosage of garage band sites, but even that's good for the occasional good music discovery. Some domains have expired and parked since they were added to the RWS database, so you will see some of those "SEARCH TEH INTERNET FOR FREE!!!" click-n-annoy pages, but they're the exception. In general (at least in my case) you'll find some interesting stuff, like wacky (and some bad) blogs and things like that. I've been hitting it occasionally for a few months and haven't seen a repeat yet.

Anyway, good for a boring afternoon.

Re:Paths less travelled

[The-Bus]

I'll go you one better: the Stumble Upon toolbar. It's a non-spywarey toolbar that you click and randomly puts you on a site from a list of topics selected... for example, my topics are Jazz, Alcoholic Drinks, Bizarre/Oddities, and Photography. But I could easily add anything from Postmodernism to Nuclear Science to Sufism to Cumshot/Facial. Once you've selected your topics, you hit a "Stumble!" button on your toolbar and you go to a site in the topics you've picked. You can then rate it thumbs up or thumbs down which will affect the likelihood of future stumblers finding it. You can also comment on the website (sample comment for Slashdot: "seriously, this is for nerds.") and add your review. If you find a new website, you can add it to StumbleUpon's database. It's not 100% bug free but it's pretty darn cool.

Bonus points since it's available for IE, Netscape, Mozilla, and Firefox in Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Re:You could...

[Mr Guy]

It's what appears to be a retarded girl bent over on her back in the bathtub with what is alleged to be her own explosive excrement raining down on her.

Re:About your warning...

[shufler]

Weightlifter

Or...

[MolarMass]

You can find a variety of Crazies, Wackos, and Tin Foil Hats on the Information Superhighway here.

Re:You could...

[Chess_the_cat]

Here's a SFW page about all sorts of shock sites.

Problem solved

[Anonymous Coward]

Just view this topic at "-1". You'll get plenty of teasers.

Re:Chain Popups

[Commander Trollco]

See my sig. Requires popup blocking to be turned off (except google toolbar), javascript on. It has all the famous shock photos save for a few.

WARNING: disgusting, also spawns alot of pops. You have been warned.
For the adventurous only. For ACs who can't see my sig, OH NOES

Re:Ewww

[Coupons]

Oh, geez!

The weight lifter is pretty bad, but I think the cab driver is worse.

Will anyone actually have the nerve to mod this post "informative"?

Re:About your warning...

[MyHair]

I hadn't heard about the weightlifter. Too afraid to click on that even after turning images off, I used wget and read the source (cut and pasted from shell window of source, so the formatting is really screwy...sorry):
---------------

This rather shocking photo was snapped in November 16th by a spectator at
the collegiate power lifting championships at Pennsylvania State. The unfortunate competitor, who expressed a plea to remain anonymous,
remembered to surgeons that he was "stuck" at the bottom of a personal best attempt in the squat lift when he "sort of pulled his stomach in and
pushed extra hard, at the same time as trying to complete the lift." He remembers a loud popping, splattering noise then a fierce stabbing pain and
then not being able to move from the squat position. He remained in this
position for about half an hour, since trying to stand caused him overwhelming agonizing pain.

Paramedics arrived and applied anaesthesia on the spot and carried him to an ambulance. He was rushed to surgery, where surgeons described the trauma as an "explosive and aggravated prolapse of
the bowel". Meanwhile it was revealed that the weight was removed from his
shoulders at the time of the incident by two "spotters" on either side of
the lifter. The third spotter who was standing behind the lifter was
unfortunately sprayed with fecal matter at the time of the incident. This
spotter promptly fainted when he realized the extent of the injury to the
lifter, who was a personal friend. This compounded the task of first aid
officers who were at a loss as to how to treat the injury to the lifter in
any case, who remained in the squatting position moaning in pain much to
the consternation of the helpless audience.

The hapless lifter had successful surgery to relieve the prolapse, but
remained immobilized with his feet elevated in stirrups for 2 weeks to
ensure "internal compliance with the surgery and that the organs retracted
successfully". To add insult to injury, the ex-lifter required rectal
stitching to partially occlude the anal orifice and stitch the rectal
passage (which had significantly expanded and torn during the prolapse) and
also was put on a low fibre low residue diet to combat flatulence to avoid
any possibility of a recurrence. CBS news spoke to his wife and asked if
she thought he would resume his power lifting career. "Not if I have
anything to say about it, would you like to risk something like that again?"

We agreed!!

CBS news

Origins: This item is "fa
lse" in the sense that the accompanying text does not correspond to the image:

• The message reproduced above was not written or published by CBS news or an
  y other news agency. (The poor writing, non-news format, and focus on "gross ou
  t" details mark it as a fabrication.)
• The annual USAPL Pennsylvania State Powerlifting Championship contests
  are held early in the year (February or March), not in November.
• No such injury as the one described occurred to any weight lifter at the Pe
  nnsylvania State Powerlifting Championships in the last several years.
• The "weight lifter" in the photograph is posed squatting immediately in fro
  nt of a doorway or wall, which would not be the case if had suffered an injury i
  n the midst of a powerlifting match and then found himself "not able to move fro
  m the squat position." (He'd be in the middle of an arena or gymnasium floor wi
  th plenty of room on all sides.)