Flash Mobs // Current TV

CJE Weekend News Briefs

Car Drives Into Crowd At Virginia Parade, 60 Hurt-Ag-Gag Law Protest... more

joeeddy
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42 minutes ago
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Are Flash Mobs Illegal?

Social-media fueled "flash mobs" at first started off rather harmlessly.... more

Schnookums
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1 year ago
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33 comments

Flash Mob Epidemic

Flash mobs used to be so much fun. A group of people would arrange to meet in a... more

Revelation1217
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1 year ago
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0 comments

‘FLASH MOBS’ A NEW TREND IN ROBBERY IN THE U.S.

'FLASH MOBS' A NEW TREND IN ROBBERY IN THE U.S....Flash mobs is an event... more

sassy_len9
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1 year ago
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1 comment

Keeping it Current - News Roundup 7/15/11

Are you ready for the weekend? We definitely are! Check out some of these stories!
Regina's Pick of the Week
People under 18 no longer allowed outside after 6PM, 20 new surveillance cameras to protect you from "flash mobs" in a US county added by Pfailblog
In WTF news, cops in the Cleveland area are cracking down on teens participating in flash mobs. Yes, flash mobs! If you haven't seen this phenomenon, a flash mob is strictly for entertainment purposes where strangers meet in a public place to dance, have a pillow fight or dress up as if it's a zombie apocalypse. However, it seems Cuyahoga County have witnessed some riots and the police are making sure teens are under parent supervision. The police department is also monitoring social networking sites to avoid future riot-causing flash mobs. RIDICULOUS! What's next? Checking our Facebook event pages and cracking down house parties? Honestly, I think cops are just jealous they are never invited to the party.
Whoa, baby! Texas mom delivers 16-pound newborn added by letsliveinpeace
As the expression goes, everything is bigger in Texas. The size, the food and now adding to its population, a 16-pound baby boy. How? Ouch. Yikes. The proud mother was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during her pregnancy but didn't expect such a heavy arrival. So instead of having to care for an average newborn baby, JaMichael weighs as much as a 3-month-old and has a full head of hair. I hope that this future football star and his mother has a speedy and healthy recovery.
Robyn's Pick

8-year-old Brooklyn boy is killed and dismembered added by letsliveinpeace

I hate sharing stories that are so heartbreaking, but unfortunately that's what I have this week. Lieby was only 8 years old when he was abducted, murdered, dismembered and shoved in a suitcase. I have an 8-year-old and this one just hit me hard. Seeing the comments on the posts on this story, I know I am not alone in my outrage and heartbreak.

If you saw some stories you'd like to share, please do so in the comments. Of course, if you have a story that you think should be included in our weekly updates, feel free to PM either Robyn or me and let us know.

Are you ready for the weekend? We definitely are! Check out some of these stories!... more

rluz
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1 year ago
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0 comments

FREESTYLE FLASH MOB DANCE: Los Angeles July 31st across from Union Station at 1:19pm!

This Saturday, July 31st, The Movement LA, will be hosting a FREESTYLE flash mob dance... more

The_Movement_LA
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2 years ago
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2 comments

Downtown Danville overrun with Bad Kitties

Coffee drinkers at Pete's in Danville were surprised Saturday morning by a flash... more

teriincali
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Flash Mob Carrots for a Green Future

Flash mobs are typically formed for the amusement of attendees and spectators, but... more

alicotterill
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4 years ago
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13 comments

Flash mobs face ban after pillow fight fiasco

Authorities in San Francisco have announced a crackdown on "flash mobs"... more

bansheewail
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4 years ago
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3 comments

S.F. may crack down on Flash Mobs

Partly anarchistic, partly absurdist, the international fad of "Flash Mobs"... more

digitrash
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4 years ago
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10 comments

Never mind social media, how about social hacking?

One of the basic tools of any good hacker has always been the ability to utilize the concept of social engineering as made famous by people like Kevin Mitnick and the Badir Brothers. The idea being -– according to Wikipedia — that “All social engineering techniques are based on specific attributes of human decision-making known as cognitive biases. These biases, sometimes called "bugs in the human hardware," are exploited in various combinations to create criminal attack techniques.”

While this type of ploy has been used to gain access to computer systems for various reasons, it also raises an interesting idea of it being used to get people to willingly do things on the Web that they might not think of doing on their own. Its possible that this is just another form of the mob mentality that we see in things like flash mobs, but isn't this just another form of social hacking?

Long before things like social networks and social media were the hot buzzwords used to spark VC feeding frenzies, Web forums and newsgroups were the main social communication tool. People would scour Web forums to spread news about people or products, good or bad. The overall effect of this type of promotion was usually limited, but it was still possible to get people riled up over something on a much larger scale.

Then along came blogs and the ability to instantly publish or comment about a person or a product. It provided a much easier way to galvanize people into acting, even if only verbally. To this mix now come things like Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, or any number of instant social tools that can broadcast your message instantly around the world to a potentially unlimited number of people. The effect being that within minutes you can galvanize an immense number of people into a single action.

One of the best of the classic online flash mobs can be seen anytime anyone says something negative about Apple products. The moment someone posts something like this, whether on a Web forum or a blog, you can be sure that in very short order the site will be inundated with Apple’s faithful arguing against whatever has been said. This varies from intelligent discussion to hateful things being said about the person who wrote the post.

Bring this forward to today and we see, as Svetlana Gladkova at Profy.com points out in a post, just how easy it could be to cause a major news group to pull down a service because of a social hack.

CNN editors expected to receive opinions from the site’s main target audience (which definitely is not in Russia) but what it received instead were mainly votes from Russia with the first answer getting 92% of votes (or over 329 thousand of people).

How did this happen? Very simple actually. The information about the CNN poll quickly made it to the Russian blogosphere (it is impossible to determine where it all started because of the huge number of posts on the topic) and bloggers started encouraging their readers to go to CNN and vote for the first option. The news was quickly disseminated over an enormous number of the Russian blogs and the results were predictable: 92% supported the official point of view of Russia.

The reality is that even with the simple social media tools that we have today it would be incredibly easy to use them to organize people unknowingly to attack the Web presence of a person or brand. Just as we can see daily on services like Twitter, where people are being directed to charities or new products, this group mentality could potentially be used as in the CNN story to cause damage. Why use things like botnets when you can just as easily obtain the same results by using social media - and it’s legal to boot.

Is it really that large of a step before incidents like the one that happened with CNN become part of the norm? Are we really beyond being used in such a way without even realizing that we have been a part of a social hack attack? Would you even realize it if you had been socially hacked?One of the basic tools of any good hacker has always been the ability to utilize the... more

smorrisey
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4 years ago
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1 comment

San Francisco Freeze 2/23

Remember "Frozen Grand Central" from a few weeks ago...couple hundred people... more

HurricaneRena
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5 years ago
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1 comment

Time stands still in Trafalgar Square

Inspired by Improv Everywhere's stunt in Grand Central Station last month, over... more

emmahill
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5 years ago
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5 comments

3rd Annual SF V-Day Pillow Fight

It's that time of the year. Nothing warms my heart like watching a scrawny... more

joebrilliant
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5 years ago
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1 comment

Live in SF? Like to take your pants off in public?

Call to all fans of flash mobs, exhibitionism, and other forms of public sillyness- A... more

sonrisa
added this
5 years ago
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0 comments

Buying Nothing at Wal Mart

What happens when you go shopping for nothing?

Mulcahey
added this
5 years ago
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5 comments

Zombie attack feared on Oct 11th in San Francisco

Zombies are expected to roam the streets of San Francisco on Thursday, Oct. 11th at... more

matt_fisher
added this
5 years ago
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6 comments

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