Updates made to The Millenium Project in September 2000

Disappearing act (2/9/2000)
Like roaches running under the stove when the light comes on, the North American Man/Boy Love Association has closed its web site to prevent it being used as evidence in a court case. If the perverts were just worried about censorship, they would have cloned the site at various places like I do. So come on, NAMBLA, bring it back and tell us again how paedophilia is good for children.

Harassment update (2/9/2000)
It has been quite a pleasure not to have to read the usual inane drivel coming from the Gutless Anonymous Liar. I have been filtering it for a week for a particularly egregious (even for it) piece of lying and I have no idea if it even wrote to me at all. It might have sent me 500 rants, it might have apologised, it might have gloated and thought it had won because I wasn't publishing its nonsense, it might even have told me where the apocryphal web site about me is located. I just don't know. The ban is now lifted. Also, I have not had much correspondence lately from Mr William O'Neill of the Canadian Cancer Research Group, although I have heard that he has complained to the Australian Computer Society about me again. I checked the ACS Code of Ethics and I can't see anything there prohibiting members from expressing private opinions.

And a new player arrives … (2/9/2000)
I received the following email. As I have never said anything about Sam Chachoua (which is how he actually spells his name) except to have a link to his site, I don't think I need to worry until the writs arrive. I suspect that this was not written by a lawyer, although I have heard that Dr Chachoua (which is how he spells his name) does lawyer up at the slightest provocation. Maybe that is because he believes that his research is so fragile that it is in danger of collapsing under even the slightest criticism.

From: Bo-Göran Hallgren
Subject: Sam Chachoua a fraud?
Date sent: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 15:20:27 +0200

Mr proctologist!

Where are your proof that validates your claim that Dr Sam Chachou is a fraud?

Please, produce just one share of evidence, proving your outrageous statement.

If you are unable to do so, kindley remove this statement or legal actions my be taken against you.

Regards

Bo-Göran Hallgren

Mystery solved (2/9/2000)
I mentioned last week that Oleg Volk had thanked me for including his site. I wasn't quite sure which site actually was his, but he has now told me. It is an anti-gun-control site. Thanks, Oleg. Someone else who seemed to know Oleg also wrote to me and offered to debate matters such as the need for guns and why the NRA is on the "Buffoonery" page. My response is that the NRA is on that page because they are buffoons, I don't debate gun enthusiasts, and, yes, I do know about guns and was once expensively trained to use them to kill people.

Harassment update (9/9/2000)
Despite lifting the ban from the Gutless Anonymous Liar, I have heard no more from it. It had been banned from talking to me for a particularly stupid and transparent piece of lying, but I do wish it would tell me where the web site about me is. A few messages appeared on newsgroups that I thought might have come from it, but it turned out that Mr William O'Neill of the Canadian Cancer Research Group, had picked up the baton. He informed me that I had been listed on a site called "pedophile.com". I went there (it's actually a conventional porn site) and while it was vaguely interesting and I was surprised at what you can do with two ostrich feathers, a harmonica and a walrus, I didn't see my name. Another disappointment. It's a pity Mr O'Neill is disqualified from winning the free ticket to the Skeptics Convention, because the following would make him front-runner for the prize.

From: "william o'neill" <williamoneillccrg@hotmail.com>
To: rsoles@ratbags.com
Date sent: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 14:17:10 EDT

i have assembled eveything i need, and positioned all of the people, to ensure that if any and all references to myself or my group are not immediately removed from your website, i will intiate a campaign to destroy your company and your reputation....

i have your client, supplier, and regulatory, jurisdictional and media lists prepared and i have been reassured of cooperation by all......

act accordingly......and it can all quietly go away....if not....

209.195.93.130

Harassment update (16/9/2000)
Much has been happening on the harassment front in the last week. It looks like the Gutless Anonymous Liar has retired, but someone has arrived to take its place. This new person will not say who he is although he has said who he is not. He said he is not Mr William O'Neill of the Canadian Cancer Research Group, even though he posts messages from Mr O'Neill's computer. A court case has been mentioned where a judge ruled that identifiable computers could not be identified, but minor details (such as proof that such a judgement exists) still need to be ironed out. In other harassment news, Mr O'Neill has now made up 28 versions of my name (only two to go before the t-shirts, mouse mats and coffee mugs) and I am being sued in something called the "general division of the nsw court" for libel, slander, defamation, breach of copyright and trademark infringement. This was announced a week ago but there seems to have been some delay in serving the court papers on me. This could be because the Olympic Games are slowing bureaucracy in Sydney or perhaps because there is no such court. An interesting aspect of this putative court action is that the plaintiff is simultaneously claiming that I breached his copyright by republishing his words and that I libelled him by saying that he wrote those words. The case is also highlighting some new tactics which are intriguing lawyers. One tactic is to sue for the trifecta of libel, slander and defamation all at the same time, an idea which someone suggested came from "taking LSD". The other tactic is for the plaintiff in a defamation suit to reinforce his case by calling the defendant stupid names, pretending to be other people, and suggesting that the defendant is bankrupt, a criminal and pervert. Full story, as usual, at the CCRG Correspondence File.

Communication breakdown (20/9/2000)
Some worker put a backhoe through the power cables at the Ratbags ISP today, so this site was off the air for a short period, but not short enough for its absence to go unnoticed, resulting in the following Usenet message. You will notice that the site is back on the air (and at an additional mirror site because someone announced that it had shut down).

From: healthwatcher2@my-deja.com
Newsgroups: misc.health.alternative
Subject: The Millenium Proejct & peter Bowditch down for the Count
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 01:16:31 GMT

Deligthed to advise that anal retentive nay-sayer Bowditch & his Millenium Project website have achieved their goal!

Shut down!........No more.....what a sad day!

From 206.47.244.30

Court Activity (22/9/2000)
Following some announcements which you can read in the CCRG Correspondence File, I am still waiting to receive the paperwork from the "general division of the nsw court" related to the legal action which was started there against me two weeks ago for libel, slander, defamation, breach of copyright and trademark infringement. The traffic has been good in Sydney despite the Olympic Games, so the courier should have been able to make the delivery. The fact that no such court exists should not have been a deterrent. Also, I am still waiting for the details of a case called "Rindo vs Harwicke" in which a NSW court brought down a decision about Internet use. In news about real courts and real cases, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled that anonymous Canadians can no longer hide. (Irwin Toy Ltd. v. Doe [2000] O.J. No. 3318)

Mirror, mirror … (22/9/2000)
Someone announced to the world this week that The Millenium Project web site had been closed down. As is the policy, this announcement generated another mirror copy of the site on another server somewhere. Just for good measure, I created two extra mirror sites, bringing the total to seven servers. All sites are indexed with the major search engines, and each extra site increases the probability that net surfers will find what some people don't want them to find.

Harassment update (22/9/2000)
Things have gone remarkably quiet. It looks like the Gutless Anonymous Liar has retired, and, apart from the premature announcement of this site's demise, I have heard nothing from the GAL replacement (who has said that he is not Mr William O'Neill of the Canadian Cancer Research Group, even though he posts messages from Mr O'Neill's computer). There are still some outstanding matters, however, and the box below contains a list of things that people claim to have in their possession but which I have yet to see.

Harassment Outbreak (26/9/2000)
I have received a fax from Mr William P O'Neill demanding that I remove certain content from this site by the close of business tomorrow. Business here never closes, and even if it did, I won't be removing anything unless a judge tells me to. You can see the fax and my comments about it here. I predict that this site will still be here after 27 September, my time (or anybody else's time).

Emetics – get the sick bag … (30/9/2000)
While updating the site this week I came across three sites that made me want to vomit. The first one is at www.cancerbusters.com, where the tragedy of a 5-year-old boy's cancer is being exploited to peddle worthless cancer cures. The second is also a fraud cancer cure site, www.worldwithoutcancer.com, where they use pictures of flapping doves and an angel, plus quotes from the Bible, to convince people to swallow cyanide. [This excrescence disappeared in 2019.] Well, it is a way to get to heaven quickly and dead people sure don't have cancer. The third site had been listed here before but had disappeared. It was called "Better Than Auschwitz". At least the racist is honest about what he does, unlike the cancer quacks.

The Contest (30/9/2000)

I know you have all been waiting to hear who won the free ticket to the World Skeptics Convention. A couple of entries were excluded because the writers did not hate me enough (one told me how extremely wrong I was and then said he loved the site!) and the gun enthusiasts didn't actually threaten to shoot me. There was a late entry from someone correcting my spelling (again) of the word "millennium", but it arrived after the deadline. I finally decided to give the award to Tim Bolen, spokesranter for "humanitarian" and not-a-medical-Dr Hulda Clark, for two pieces he issued called "The Last Days of The Quackbusters" and "BARRETT THE OBFUSCATOR – BARRETT THE EXTORTIONIST(?)…". They weren't directed at me personally but I was in the target zone. I won't publish them here because at least one of them might be the subject of legal action (not from me, I must point out), but they were sent to a lot of people and have appeared on several newsgroups. (You can see samples of Tim's work here and here.) So, Tim, you can pick up your ticket at the registration desk at Sydney University on 10 November. Just bring some identification, and don't forget to call me "Quackpot".