https://www.stupidcensorship.com/

Offers a way for those behind net filters to visit blocked websites. I remember being frustrated in high school with not being able to access sites about the beat generation authors because they mentioned drugs on the pages. That is ridiculous. Glad to see that there are people working on this.
Here is a good discussion on slashdot:

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/03/26/1824239/Fixing-Internet-Censorship-In-Schools

One reader wrote:

“If you really want a kid to learn how computers work, put a filter between them in the internet. They’ll figure out a way to circumvent it if they’re smart. And if they’re too stupid to break out, think of it as a your-kid filter for the internet and not an internet filter for your kid.

Everybody wins!”

VPN (virtual private network)

One can buy VPN service subscriptions for as little as 6 euro/month. That’s cheap for “perfect” (or whatever) anonymity, whether you want to fileshare (and your ISP forbids legal file sharing), whether you live in China, Australia, Burma, or Iran (and the web is censored or much of it blocked) or if you want to use streaming video sites that are prohibited in your region. Or if you just don’t want your ISP to know every site that you visit: because now they have to retain that sort of information. It’s better than a proxy in some respects because you can run any protocol, from mail to skype to utorrent through it. It’s terrible to have to pay for anonymity, and maybe this sends the wrong message (i.e. we should be battling for our rights online, not subverting their authority with cool technologies) — because really we need to open the world up, not censor and close it up.

This is an incredible performance by Cia Bocabajo in Bremen, Germany on 16 August 2009. Their awe-inspiring skills mixed with their funny and emotive pantomiming made them the best performance in this year’s La Strada festival (street cirkus, theatre and art) in Bremen.

YAY!!!!! The album has been released on p2p networks… and I have tangible super-sweet cds now for a limited release of 100… so write me if you want a cd! Otherwise, looks on the internets, you’ll probably find it!
Heart!
catfish

According to gaming company Global Gaming Factory X, it is in the the process of acquiring The Pirate Bay for $7.8m (SEK 60 million). The acquisition is scheduled to be completed by August and will see the site launch new business models to compensate content providers and copyright owners.

You can follow the discussion on TPB here:
http://thepiratebay.org/blog/164

from comment 35:

“The listed software company, Global Gaming Factory X AB (publ) (GGF) acquires The Pirate Bay website, http://www.thepiratebay.org, one of the 100 most visited websites in the world and the technology company Peerialism, that has developed next generation file-sharing technology. Following the completion of the acquisitions, GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners. The responsibility for, and operation of the site will be taken over by GGF in connection with closing of the transaction, which is scheduled for August 2009.

“We would like to introduce models which entail that content providers and copyright owners get paid for content that is downloaded via the site” said Hans Pandeya, CEO GGF.

“The Pirate Bay is a site that is among the top 100 most visited Internet sites in the world. However, in order to live on, The Pirate Bay requires a new business model, which satisfies the requirements and needs of all parties, content providers, broadband operators, end users, and the judiciary. Content creators and providers need to control their content and get paid for it. File sharers’ need faster downloads and better quality” continues Hans Pandeya.”

It sounds like TPB as we know it will be gone. It’s, naturally, with the trial and all that, understandable and probably inevitable, but it’s still sad!

There’s a pretty good discussion here:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/30/pirate-bay-acquired-by-global-gaming-factory-going-legit-like-n
Here’s a good point by Marty K.:

Its pretty sad how TPB blog is trying to spin this buyout as all ado about nothing. Statements like

“GGF intends to launch new business models that allow compensation to the content providers and copyright owners.”

and

“If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That’s the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to.”

are very incompatible. I can’t fathom a scenario where this dichotomy of ideas can produce a business model that satisfies both TPB users and copyright owners.

Truly a sad day indeed. Like a Metallica tattoo, and for the same reason, I’m glad I never bought a TPB tee shirt.

There’s now a good discussion on Slashdot:
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/30/1233213/Pirate-Bay-Announces-Sale-to-Swedish-Company-For-78-Million?art_pos=2

Coraline on IMDB

So, I’m a big Decemberists fan but to my dismay they’ve reproduced much of the hard electric-guitar-laden sound that made parts of The Crane Wife unlikable to me. I miss the accordion-laden Decemberists of yore.  On this album, I really only liked the interludes and the song Isn’t it a Lovely Night but there seems to be a self-consciousness in it; like maybe it reminds me too much of Lou Reed’s pomp in I’m Sticking With You, I don’t know.  This album certainly reminds me of The Tain but lacking the clever lyrics, the segues and the charm.

Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

So fun! I adore their pop-sensibility and lyric-imagery. Full songs with violins, triumphant ooohs and decent drum fills. Beautiful ballads and gorgeous vocals. Their style hasn’t changed at all really over the years (save a fuller sound), but that’s why it’s good.

Röyksopp – Junior

I’m enjoying this album.  At times it reminds me of the band aRTIST oF tHE yEAR and at times Air.  There is some great instrumentation on this: violins on Röyksopp Forever. I think I’ll listen to this alongside the new Telefone Tel Aviv album which I’ve also been enjoying.  Tricky Tricky features vocals from Karin of The Knife and it is nice and dark (and bouncy) like a song by The Knife.

So the lesson is:  Bands, stop changing your sound!!!!!!!

Ha, j/k.

Quote about the memories: “It’s not stored in my system.”

Spoiler questions (i.e. don’t read if you haven’t seen the film):
Why are animations like this so much more appealing? Is it because we can have little segues and quick surreal flashbacks? Because we can see the ferris wheel and hot air balloons in the background? What about this makes it more moving? Does the “real” footage make it more powerful for you?
When it’s an animation, I think, we pay more attention to the sideways glances and the pauses of the “actor”… if it was live acting, we would be aware that the actor is aware of the videocamera.

Here is the film’s IMDB page.

Is it:
Having read Lynne Truss’ masterpiece…
or
Having read Lynne Truss’s masterpiece….

This site suggests that we use the first whereas this New Yorker article practices the second usage.

The first site suggests that the s’ is modern usage. When do we stylistically, grammatically decide to drop the apostrophe in ‘fridge or whether an Oxford comma is wrong or not? Do the style manuals decide these things?!

Anyhow, I was taught that ‘s was correct because you pronounce the S.
Doesn’t it look better as well: Truss’s?

———–
EDIT:

I found this from Eats, Shoots and Leaves that properly explains it:

Current guides to punctuation (including that ultimate authority, Fowler’s Modern English Usage) state that with modern names ending in “s” (including biblical names, and any foreign name with an unpronounced final “s”), the “s” is required after the apostrophe:

Keats’s poems

Philippa Jones’s book

St James’s Square

Alexander Dumas’s The Three Musketeers

With names from the ancient world, it is not:

Archimedes’ screw

Achilles’ heel

If the name ends in an “iz” sound, an exception is made:

Bridges’ score

Moses’ tablets

And an exception is always made for Jesus:

Jesus’ disciples

–Lynne Truss