Interesting Links for 23-01-2012
Jan. 23rd, 2012 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewducker- The Megaupload indictment, in detail; or, a crash course in the DMCA and why they're totally fucked
- Ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Modesty Fight
- Weird things fans have said to authors
- The BBC covers polyamory
- Has the Conservative's independent-minded MP put the party off open primaries?
- France grapples with job conundrum
- The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor
- The three deadliest words in the world: "It's a girl."
- A response to the US President's challenge on copyright and technology
- Facebook Gives Politico Deep Access to Users' Political Status Updates
- SOPA, Internet regulation, and the economics of piracy
Oddly, the numbers used by the movie/music execs to justify new laws don't add up.
- Magic Cards with Googly Eyes
- Until 2009, the human clitoris was an absolute mystery
- A french view of English and French parenting
- Two undercover police officers had children with campaigners they spied on and then abandoned them
- Is teaching women to code a feminist act? And does it matter?
- Living life without ads (makes it much less stressful)
- Help! My children have grown up French!
- Why Some Men Are Playing Women, and Why Game Developers Should Take Note
I played the female Shepherd in Mass Effect having heard the voice acting was better.
- An author ties herself in knots justifying lies.
- MPAA boss calls for bribed politicians to stay bribed
- Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2012 - amazing photos!
Tags:
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no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 01:20 pm (UTC)I'm so far away from that childhood that I'd forgotten these things. But I left the article shaking slightly and with my stomach in a knot.
The introduction on going overboard on gift giving (#4) could be an entry all by itself - the bit about keeping bill problems out of earshot of kids:
"But what a lot of parents don't realize is that when they're openly worrying about bills within earshot of their children, the kids worry, too. When they hit a certain age, they start to make sacrifices on the family's behalf, and they feel guilt for the rare small luxuries they're allowed. "
Where I went to school, the first term of any musical instrument lessons were free. We had a strong school band. I picked up a loan trumpet, carefully cleaned it, cared for it and spent a weekend blasting out noise in my grandparent's back garden before starting lessons. In my first lesson, the teacher just asked to blow out whatever we could, just to see if we could. I blew out a 'high C' - some achievement for a novice apparently - and he was so impressed, he immediately sent me to see the school's music master to tell him. I was proud. I continued with my lessons with gusto.
When the free lessons ran out and I realised my parents would have to pay, I didn't even ask them. I attended the first lesson of the new term, handed the trumpet back and ran out before I burst into tears.
I'd forgotten about this until last Christmas when it came up in conversation with my dad and step mum. They were gutted. They thought I'd stopped because I hadn't enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 11:22 am (UTC)Would that be considered a weird question?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 11:25 am (UTC)Oh, and if anyone starts discussing Game of Thrones further than the end of book/season 1 on this post then I will ban them. And then set fire to their house.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:22 pm (UTC)the last few episodes properly grabbed me. Had I been watching it week-to-week, I'd have given up after ep.2
I'm aware the books are probably better, but I now can't be bothered reading them. Which is a pity since I have 3.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 10:30 pm (UTC)(Please don't burn my apartment andrew!)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 12:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 12:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:01 pm (UTC)https://www.eff.org/issues/acta
Stuff like this continues to gain momentum. I do half suspect that our glorious leaders looked at the Arab Spring and crapped themselves thinking 'what if it happens here!' So now they're working on totally controlling the internet.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 07:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 05:52 pm (UTC)Bearing in mind that this is a site where people who feed their child grapes (or even a packet of crisps which they intend to pay for) going round Tesco are roundly condemned as thieves, I thought it was eye-opening.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 05:58 pm (UTC)The psychology of it is fascinating though. I've even seen people post complete copies of movies with the tagline 'No copyright infringement intended'. Which.. I don't think those words mean what they think they mean.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:39 pm (UTC)the overwhelming consensus seems to be that since all the money goes to studio execs [who are universally assumed to be psychotic arseholes] and grossly overpaid lead actors, it really doesn't matter if you don't pay.
I rather suspect that if profits were more evenly shared among cast and crew, and that everybody knew this, there's be a far greater compulsion to buy. This in much the same way as people will happily pay a few quid for an independently produced download, but always pirate the summers blockbusters.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 07:56 pm (UTC)If what you say was at all true there'd be a healthy market for independent cinema in this country, which there isn't.
I don't really care if people pirate films (for me, if a film's worth watching, it's worth watching in at least DVD quality and preferably in a cinema) but I wish people would stop coming up with lame justifications for doing it.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:34 pm (UTC)I saw something suggesting that was the case (either in actuality, or in practical terms what companies had to do otherwise face escalating court costs by trying to get confirmation/buy time) but was unsure.
I ceratainly consider piracy it to be illegal. It's against the law, after all. I wouldn't say the illegality of it concerns me, though. It's also not enforced, as far as I'm aware. -Uploading- copyright infringing material is something that they enforce as an illegal act.
On the other hand, since as a consumer I'm treated like a criminal regardless, I have no problem with acting like one. If a company will refuse to let me refund genuinely mislabelled MP3s, or a CD or DVD where I opened the case has been opened because the implication is that I will have pirated it even when I actually simply don't want the product, then you're damn right I'm not going to waste my money buying things that might turn out to suck or not be right. I'll spend my money on things that I know are good, and download things to see if they are.
The only computer games that I've pirated in the last few years have been ones that are impossible to get unless you want to pay vastly inflated amounts to get them second hand, and may or may not actually work on modern systems. Had they been available for purchase on something like Steam or GOG, I would have bought them there.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:39 pm (UTC)The whole point is to get rid of the need for the host to worry about whether its content is legal - it's up to owners to make claims, and uploaders to decide whether to challenge them.
There's a nice guide here:
https://www.eff.org/issues/intellectual-property/guide-to-youtube-removals#dmca-takedown
no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:55 pm (UTC)Likewise with tv shows, I've a lot of downloaded tv shows I've gone on to bought the DVD boxed sets off because I really liked them. Or indeed DVD boxed sets I've bought, and then downloaded off the internet so that I could put them all on a hard drive for easier access.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:24 pm (UTC)MegaUpload is [was] an unbelievably shit service. Utterly manky website, obstructive UI and painfully slow if you weren't willing to pay. Which I was not.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:55 pm (UTC)I'm trying to prevent that from colouring my perception of the arrest, but it's hard.
-- Steve isn't surprised that the guy kept his emails and server records; wankers like that never expect to get caught, so they don't take precautions.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-24 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 01:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:43 pm (UTC)I had thought for rather a while that far too many men were simply 'doing it wrong' or just not terribly interested. It never occurred to me that .. well... people just didn't know
there is also, incidentally, a male clitoris.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 02:20 pm (UTC)Huh. That was a surprisingly competent look.
"The 5 Stupidest Habits You Develop Growing Up Poor"
Oh, excellent description.
"Is teaching women to code a feminist act? And does it matter?"
I thought some of what she raised was interesting, although I agree (like every newspaper article ever) that they couldn't say "I'm interested in what goes into X" without tacking on a little bit of "Everyone says X is evil, but actually its awesome" :)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 02:44 pm (UTC)And yes, I was surprised by how competent the polyamory article was.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 06:48 pm (UTC)Didn't need an article to tell me that!
Also, I am playing as a female lizard in Skyrim but am grumpy that though the skin textures and the head shape is different, the body shape is still the same as for all the other races so my lizard has mammalian characteristics :-(
no subject
Date: 2012-01-23 09:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 12:48 pm (UTC)There was the 'French women don't get fat' book or thingy a few years ago, and that's clearly a total lie. It maybe applies in the posher bits of Paris, but head out to the burbs and take a walk round a supermarket and they look much the same as here. Tracksuits too.
That said, yes, as far as I know, the French education system is rigid and stifling. But on the other hand, they don't have school uniform, which I consider stifling in a different way. And I'm not sure which form I would prefer.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 12:54 pm (UTC)I don't particularly mind uniforms, I do object to ties.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 01:14 pm (UTC)I don't see what uniform is for. All the arguments I've heard for it are bogus.
Does it set a level playing field? No, there are countless other ways in which kids can exhibit, demonstrate, or even flaunt their parents' status.
Does it create a feeling of social cohesion? Perhaps, but if so it's a cheap hack. You create a feeling of community by, like, creating a community.
Does it simplify things for parents? No, because you have more clothes to buy and you have effectively two parallel wardrobes for your child to keep track of.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-25 01:35 pm (UTC)