Life Inc. – First Impressions
Posted on July 2, 2009
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Ok I’ve been a little lazy but I’m almost done with the first chapter. It’s really amazing to see what we’ve evolved too financially in the last 1000 years, which is really not much. The ‘corporation’ was created for the illusion of ownership so monarchs and kings could rule over entire sectors of the economy and zap all the wealth from the citizens. So not only did the monarchs have control over the markets but they also controlled the law of the land, granting monopolies to companies it deemed fit. Even the people of the time were pissed, the king and his approved subjects would continue to get all the wealth why his subjects would suffer, lucky for us the same exact system is still used today!
I also saw that Faux Noise was complaining about how bad it was that Obama is trying to control the press (although I must admit, if Obama did control the media how did they get this message out!?!) but I actually feel like I kinda agree with them. Holding a ‘town hall’ meeting and only taking approved questions? Sounds like someone doesn’t want to talk about the 500 pound pink unicorn in the room that only the stoners can see. I’ve also subscribed to the white house’s blog via rss and it looks like nothing more than propaganda on a daily basis. Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect them to start publishing war casualty numbers but even on some of the most critical days they have some of the silliest posts up. It’s like when they try to sell you ground up cow with a commercial about how happy life is, I have this funny feeling like what we see isn’t what we’re getting, or at the very least what we see isn’t reality. Maybe that’s just a bad feeling left over from the last administration, but from what I can tell Obama is ready and willing to advocate 100% for the federal reserve, so even if he won’t talk about marijuana he’s still not talking about anything else important.
I have tomorrow off work, I wouldn’t really expect a post all weekend. The 4th of July is Saturday so it’s time to celebrate our freedom by putting flames to explosives and blowing up a small chunk of our land. Yep.
The Middle East
Posted on June 30, 2009
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Iran, the 400 point pink elephant in the room no one wants to talk about, that is unless you’re the media spending every waking moment obsessed with twitter pages of people claiming to be in Iran. Please don’t let twitter get in the way of real news regarding the actual state of Iran. Little back story, a few days ago Iran invaded the British Embassy claiming they had video proof of suspected spies working to incite riots in their country.
Gordon Brown’s spokesman said: “We are deeply concerned at their arrest and their continued detention. These arrests are completely unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
Yesterday, the Iranian intelligence minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi, said Tehran had video proof that Iranian employees at the embassy “were distinctly present at the scene of clashes” following the 12 June election.
What a mess, it’s fairly impossible to know who to believe, and even if you believed one side or the other you still wouldn’t know how to respond. Iran claims to have proof of British and US involvement while the British and US claim it’s impossible, and no country is at all trustworthy. You still have a small set of people, mainly the one’s who rally against theocracy rule, protesting but it’s getting smaller every day. The worst part is the military we see in the streets isn’t like the military here , it’s mainly volunteer, people who believe they’re protecting a leader who speaks for god, so they’re willing to kill anyone who gets in their way. I mean they still get 71 virgins when they die right?
Iraq is a whole different ball game, the oil that’s left is slowly starting to see more bids but everyone says it’s a giant security risk. No shit, some American company coming in and practically stealing your natural resource and you’re supposed to sit on the sidelines and watch because a bunch of people in Baghdad told you that you had to? The military isn’t protecting their assets anymore as well, because many of those resources are being transported to Afganastan and soon to be Pakistan, so the oil companies are butt hurt that they’d have to secure the area themselves after so many years of leaching off my tax dollars to do it.
I’m only just past the intro on Life Inc, I picked it up the other week, and it’s really interesting to read the stories that brought him to write the book. I’m excited to get into a little history!
The End of The Pirate Bay
Posted on June 30, 2009
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The day has finally come to announce The Pirate Bay dead. It’s been years but just like the websites and programs before it now it will be forever remembered in the Wikipedia as the largest public bit torrent of our time. We will rebuild, and we’ll built it faster, stronger and more secure but we’re going to need a little time to morn.
It all sounds a little fishy as the moment, some Swedish IT company Global Gaming Factory X came out of nowhere with 60 million SEK (just shy of 8 million US) and offered to pay half of that to the ‘owners’ (the people facing jail time AND exactly 30 million SEK fine) and spend the other 30 million SEK revamping the site. The first opening statement is exactly why The Pirate Bay as you see it today is dead.
“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.
What’s happened in the past with deals like this is every content owner has a different idea on how they’re going to get paid, each has it’s own separate model with it’s own special way they want the content packaged or they’ll sue you till you’re blue in the face. Many providers are deciding to go it alone, like with that Hulu project, so they can be in complete control over their content while others, mainly local independent producers, are looking for anything and everything to get their show out regardless of the model (thanks for the 5 cents iTunes!). It defeats the purpose of The Pirate Bay, which wasn’t just getting content for free but taking any content, regardless of it’s origins, and sharing it with the world. Whatever you can make work on the computer screen you upload it and let anyone who’s willing take that information and pass it along too. It’s the ultimate freedom of expression, but realistically how can a bunch of tree hugging hippies take on a 40 billion dollar a year industry.
The Pirate Bay was built to fail from the start, it had nothing to do with the will of the people involved but it had to do with the industry it was up against. Now if you worked for a corporation that claimed it was losing billions of dollars each year to piracy and through a series of events you were given the opportunity to make a large portion of that problem go away for a measly 8 million dollars. I’m not saying that’s what happened, as it would be close to impossible for me to speculate with me being so far away and not understanding the language over there, but it all smells really fishy to me. This new company is set to take over August 2009, I would recommend finding a new tracker after that point. From what I can tell the current torrents won’t work with the new company, making it that much easier to stay the heck away from.
I’m really going to miss The Pirate Bay. I’d have to say out of all the file sharing website’s I’ve been too this one couldn’t have been more easy to operate. I even taught my father how to use it, the site it was truly a blessing. The owners didn’t go down without a fight and the deal they’re getting isn’t that horrible, so long as they find a way to get out of that year in jail. The movement they’ve grown seems to be going in the right direction so they will have a lasting impact, unlike that of Napster or Bearshare which can only be credited with being a building block. VIVA LA RESISTANCE!
“Fictional” Police State
Posted on June 28, 2009
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“Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then ‘discovered’ the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.
“The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.
“I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer’s scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.
“In the end, I feel my privacy is a small price to pay for educating the government about the medium.”
Ok so here’s what the situation boils down too, they detain him by ‘random’ chance, read a comic book critical of the police state then proceeded to interrogate this man? In the end though, the writer chooses education over liberty, I don’t think I’ve ever head that. We should never sacrifice liberty for security but if you sacrifice liberty for education is that a positive?
Also what real-life government think tank designed that writing contest? I remember having it back in high school but I remember my teacher got in trouble for it, he never left the class so somehow he came out in the right, but I never remember why it was important that we do it. After he got in trouble for it he dropped it, I can’t find anything on the Googles!
Yep that’s it, it’s Sunday I’m going to the farmers market then it’s the gay pride parade and I heard this year it’s going to be really gay so you’ll want to at least stop by. I think the whole thing is supposed to run for like 2 1/2 hours, I’m so glad I have no reason to drive downtown.
Good Morning
Posted on June 25, 2009
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NPR had a great story this morning about Regina Spektor’s new album, it’s awesome.
The Pirate Bay has been denied a fair trial in Switzerland, that the judge being apart of the Swedish Copyright Association didn’t effect the verdict. However the pirate bay has fired back.
“The Pirate Bay will now file charges against Sweden for violation for Human Rights. More info later. (The bias-judge is himself biased…)”
While I agree with them this seems like Plan D, like they’ve exhausted every other resource and now as a last ditch effort they’re charging that because they couldn’t get a fair trial their rights were harmed. I’m not positive if this means they need to start serving their year in jail, they’re still expected to pay 30 million konor. The bottom line becomes though, if they can’t change copyright law it’s just a game of survival for them. I think they can appeal more too, I have no idea how it works in Switzerland other than what I’ve read but I certainly send them my best.
I do know in America things have been much worse in the Jammie Thomas-Rasset case. She’s on the hook for 2 million dollars, for just 24 violations of copyright, $80,000 per song. What I don’t like is how she says the jury did it’s job. To me the jury failed, the jury isn’t supposed to blindly follow the law, they’re supposed to take it under consideration but come to their own conclusions. It seems to me some billion dollar record company had just a few “have to follow the letter of the law” people and they turned the rest. Maybe it’s just paranoia but I saw Run Away Jury, I know how easy it must be to tip a jury. Maybe I’m just bitter about jury’s because I’ve never been asked, and I feel like that’s something I really want to do at least once.
You can sign up for The Pirate Party in the US now. We’re a young party but we’re hoping to change the way this part of our law works. It’s broken and no party, save for maybe the socialists, are talking about these issues. Their Platform is small, and largely incomplete, I still find it more relevant to me than the 2 main parties. They also work closely with the EFF, which is always advocating for the right things. I can’t exactly say that about Moveon.org anymore.
Right to Government Access
Right to Protest
Right to Free Press
Right to Assemble
Right to Privacy
Right to Government Transparency
Separation of Intellect from Property
Reform of Copyright
Reform of Patent
Reform of Trademark
Abolition of the DMCA and related subsequent provisions within copyright law
Abolition of Digital Rights Management
Rejection of the Concept of Online Piracy
The idea that sharing anything online is piracy is absurd on its face. Actual piracy requires forceful and aggressive acts, committed against those who would keep a cargo safe from harm. The cargo in this case is the freedom to act. We would take it from those who jealously guard it for themselves and divide it amongst everyone in the country.
There’s also so much foreign policy crap, Iran, North Korea, and Bears oh my!
Red Line Train Crash in DC
Posted on June 22, 2009
Filed Under Politics | 1 Comment
So the red line goes from Glenmont to Shady Groove. 2 Stops from Glenmont is Silver Spring, where I stayed. The first transfer point is Fort Totem, and it happened not far from that. I rode this line.
Metro now says that one of the two fatalities was a female train operator.
Chief Rubin gives some harder injury numbers: Handled a total of 70 patients, 50 are triaged “green” or walking wounded, 12 moderate injuries, 2 critically injured, 4 dead.
Holy fucking shit.
All About The Internet
Posted on June 22, 2009
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Oh Seattle, how I’ll never understand why the only ‘choice’ we have for phone service is Qwest. In fact I just got off the phone with them, previously I was told 1.5mbps was the limit but now I’m told 5 mbps (which is less than speakeasy gives me and would come with a Windows only ‘rule’). Holy crap they’re finally offering speeds I should have been getting all along! I also asked about the commercials where they talk about 15-20 mbps, I was told 15 mbps is likely to come in October (though I wouldn’t hold your breathe) and I didn’t have time to ask other questions about it (though I’m likely not to get the full story anyway). What happened was the rep said I could sign up for 5mbps service and when the time came for upgrades I could just upgrade, I lost it, I couldn’t stop laughing at what a crappy deal that was and I didn’t feel like being anymore rude. The offer really was, sign up for a 2 year contract for a service that Verizon offers 10 times faster of and in 6 months *maybe* you can upgrade to 4 times that speed but you’ll still be far slower than everywhere else around you.
This article hurts the most today.
Verizon has just boosted speeds across its FiOS network, but the focus isn’t on downloads so much as it is on uploads. Verizon believes it can set itself apart by appealing to those customers who want to “fully participate in today’s interactive, multimedia Web.”
I wish Qwest did this, just upgrade their network from time to time, like, hey the network is all in place and we can stand to give our customers a better value. The focus was on uploads mainly, let’s see how big.
Download speeds are increasing today; the base-level 10Mbps package gets a bump to 15Mbps, and the 20Mbps plan jumps to 25Mbps.
But the real action is on the upload side of the equation. The base-level plan came with a 2Mbps upstream connection, but today that’s being boosted to 5Mbps. The 20Mbps plan will see upload speeds increase from 5Mbps to 15Mbps.
So in a little over 6 months Qwest is going to be able to offer the download speed that Verizon offers in upload. This feels like a tale for that site fuckmylife, Seattle has the worst internet for the worst price from the worst companies. No word yet on the report that was supposed to be out by the end of this month, the city taking action is our only hope.
Health Insurance
Posted on June 22, 2009
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So I haven’t posted about this topic much since the debate between single payer vs. competition, I thought the debate was pretty much over when the voters choose competition over single payer in the democratic primary but apparently, this issue is still huge.
Now I’m a skeptic, I don’t think that if everyone was forced into buying into a plan that a majority would be happy (or even content) and when you go to countries like Europe or Canada you can tell that some people love it but other people hate it. From long lines to being forced to pay for necessary surgery only because a one a day pill is technically cheaper single payer systems don’t work, but there’s no question as to why every major health insurance company has been running off to capitol hill advocating for such a plan.
As it currently stands each individual is ranked based on previous doctor visits, current health defects and the possibility that in the future more problems will arise. The greatest fault of the American system right now is that if you don’t get insurance through your workplace in your contract is likely a clause that states they can drop you for whatever reason whenever they want. They claim that because of the way our system is setup the fraud people are committing (which is getting sick while on their plan) is destroying their bottom line (not the billions of dollars they bribe politicians with). What’s the point of health insurance if you can be dropped at anytime? I can see now why my dad wanted to continue working instead of trying to buy a health insurance plan in the private market, because the private market isn’t going to help you even if you pay all your premiums. To think that a single payer system (where everyone is forced to give private companies control over their health) is going to change this strategy is laughable, only instead of only a few people being screwed we will all have an equal opportunity to get completely screwed over if we ever get sick. What they offer isn’t even really insurance, it’s a monthly statement demanding money for something they’ll never feel obligated to pay and it would actually be a heck of a lot better for their bottom line if you passed on instead of wasting all their precious profits trying to live (just make sure you don’t live long enough to see a court room). I can tell you right now, if I were self or unemployed as a 23 year old I wouldn’t give these assholes a dime, considering they’d just cancel my coverage as soon as I got sick, and the law won’t stand by my side (and it will actually only work against me), I’d throw a fit if I were forced to pay into that kind of a system, and it’s not like it would help me either way.
What we need is an insurance plan for people that is actually for the people and not for giant multi-national corporate whores. I don’t mind that they exist, but I believe we should all have the option to choose a plan that won’t cancel you the minute you get a cough. Or what about that pre-existing condition crap that actually costs us billions of dollars every year because health insurance providers don’t actually want to help people who are on their plan but when they were 12 had a little asthma so this leg injury can’t possibly be covered. What do you think happens to the cancer patient that needs radiation or will die? It’s against the law to refuse them life saving or pain revealing treatments, because a long time again the generation before us thought it a crime that anyone suffer in a country with so much. Who pays for that treatment? The government, which is to say all our tax dollars. So what’s the problem with the government taking a little money from people who disagree with being dropped from their health insurance to be actually insured so they won’t feel like they need to spend hours in the emergency room? It’s going to be on our dime regardless of your opinion, the only sane option is to attempt to sell these people some kind of insurance so when they do spend our money it won’t cost as much, it should be made clear that no option will completely negate government spending if we still believe people of our nation shouldn’t suffer for no reason (however I welcome that argument, please make sure you start off with why you hate humanity). If we can agree that every plan will result in government spending we should be debating on how to lower those costs, since the private market cannot be trusted unless you’re rich and famous and is more likely to care only about profits and not customers (the law is with them on this one).
This debate is exactly what I thought the election was supposed to fix, I thought we were going to have a government plan without a 200 page contract that will offer real health insurance at a ‘competitive’ price (making sure that everyone can afford it regardless of health conditions). If we move to a system where everyone is forced by law to pay into a broken system it’s not going to magically fix the broken system, it’s only going to swallow our money up and demand more to fix the problem, and more to their liking if it’s again mandated by law. Nothing helps an industry more than forcing everyone to buy into it, but that’s called fascism, and from what I understand goes against capitalism (though again, I’m open to debate). More competition will keep people honest, and for people like myself who don’t want to give health insurance companies a dime for the non-service they preform I can sleep better at night, because if I get fired for whatever reason in the future I can actually buy insurance that isn’t going to drop me because I had some indigestion a few years ago. That’s what scares me the most, if I have some kind of more serious problem will I ever be able to get help if I see a doctor? Or will I forever be told “well, it’s cheaper for you to take this pill with weird side effects for the rest of your life”? We need cures, not band-aids, competition, not mandatory private insurance. Plus, why can’t we give the health insurance we give our congressmen, who died and made them king?
Pesky First Amendment
Posted on June 22, 2009
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As much as I would love for our government to take a moral stand against the atrocities of Iran it’s laughable to think our system is any better. As many of you probably know (and as I do too cause I have a pocket constitution I got from my trip) the first amendment gives us all the right to say practically anything we want (however lying with no purpose than to hurt profits or screaming fire when there is none have challenged this right, for obvious reasons) and peacefully assemble without fear of prosecution. Now, while the sentence starts off “Congress shall make no law…” I believe it’s accepted that it’s not just in the law that the government should keep their noses out of our business. The Department of Defense seems to think otherwise, classifying anyone who has ever protested as “low level terrorists“.
The first question of the Terrorism Threat Factors, “Knowledge Check 1″ section reads as follows:
Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism activity?
Select the correct answer and then click Check Your Answer.
O Attacking the Pentagon
O IEDs
O Hate crimes against racial groups
O ProtestsThe “correct” answer is Protests.
So by our own definition the protesters in Iran right now fighting for their right to participate in their own country are considered “low level terrorists” by our government. No country that treats protesting, which used to be considered (and to me it still is) a necessary function of democracy, like some form of terrorism has any right to spread that kind of word anywhere. I’m embarrassed that my country feels like my opposition to the war in Iraq is terrorism, just the idea of me not agreeing with them 100% means that I seek to destroy my own country through violent means. What a waste of my money going to fund training to classify anyone who disagrees as terrorists. No wonder America is so divisive, it’s still our way or the highway, and I’ll gladly choose the highway. I understand why people don’t want to pay taxes now, and if it weren’t for the IRS having machine guns I’d consider it myself.
I’m Back!
Posted on June 20, 2009
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I made the flights all by myself just like a grown up, it was great. DC was great, I almost liked Baltimore better cause of Andrew’s friends however the weather was just crazy. I’m so excited about being back home, with my plants, and my 60% humidity. I’m going out tonight to hang out with friends (I’ve already queued all my downloads I missed), but tomorrow I’m staying at home, unpacking, and watching Anime. I have work on Monday and it looks like the news over the weekend is going to be 100% Iran, all the better to veg out. When Monday comes around I’m sure I’ll have time to find something more pro-marijuana, I mean after smoking pot not but a mile from the White House, civil disobedience is awesome. What’s even more awesome was nobody saw me. :p What now Obama?
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