Today could turn out to be an historic day for Scotland. At last, the way our land is owned, used, traded and subsidised is being put under some long overdue close scrutiny. There is still an awful long way to go before meaningful Land Reform takes place - and powerful vested interests will need to be taken on - but this is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.
Unbelievably the simple question of 'Who owns what?' in Scotland is still not fully answered, but of course many landowners enjoy and subsequently benefit from such blurry murkiness. So the first task, as this report points out, is to create a robust public register of Scotland's land. Vitally, this report also starts to throw some light on the huge tax-break, tax evasion, corporate investment and massive subsidy sink-hole that much of Scotland's land has become. I watch with interest and I live in hope.
'In a Report published on Thursday 20 March 2014, the Scottish Affairs Committee says any government which is serious about land reform needs full and clear information on existing land ownership and values made widely available.
'The Committee says Scotland lags behind most comparable European countries in providing such data and calls on the Scottish and UK Governments to address this as a priority.
'The Committee heard that Scotland is also “miles behind” other countries in terms of the openness and ease of land transactions. Templates exist which allow land transactions to become simple and straightforward, without the involvement of lawyers.' (UK Parliament article & interim report).
You've got to be kidding, right? Surely such questions as 'Land Reform' are for the developing world, where nasty corporations are cutting down rain-forests and booting off indigenous people to grow beefburgers on, etc. This is indeed true, but the state of land ownership - and the subsidy system it has - in the UK is a scandal of epic proportions. In fact it is the underpinning reason as to why we have to pay a ridiculous amount for a place to live in the UK; a fact that is then sold back to as: 'high house prices are a good thing for the economy'. Sadly most folks are entirely duped by this nonsense.
This excellent and disturbing article shines some much needed light onto the issue:
'Modern British history, excluding world wars and the loss of empire, is a record of two countervailing changes, one partly understood, one not understood at all. The partly understood change is the urbanisation of society to the point where 90 per cent of us in the United Kingdom live in urban areas. Hidden inside that transformation is the shift from a society in which, less than a century and a half ago, all land was owned by 4.5 per cent of the population and the rest owned nothing at all. Now, 70 per cent of the population has a stake in land, and collectively owns most of the 5 per cent of the UK that is urban. But this is a mere three million out of 60 million acres.
'Through this transformation, the heirs to the disenfranchised of the Victorian era have inverted the relationship between the landed and the landless. This has happened even while huge changes have occurred in the 42 million acres of rural countryside. These account for 70 per cent of the home islands and are the agricultural plot. From being virtually the sole payers of such tax as was levied in 1873 (at fourpence in the 240p pound), the owners of Britain's agricultural plot are now the beneficiaries of an annual subsidy that may run as high as £23,000 each, totalling between £3.5bn and £5bn a year. Urban dwellers, on the other hand, pay about £35bn in land-related taxes. Rural landowners receive a handout of roughly £83 per acre, while urban dwellers pay about £18,000 for each acre they hold, an average of £1,800 per dwelling, the average dwelling standing on one-tenth of an acre.' (New Stateman article and Who Owns Britain website).
'Kickstarter-funded, 80s-inspired action movie Kung Fury has released its first trailer, which gleefully throws realism out the window and has been described as "the greatest trailer of all time".
'The film centres on an eponymous cop who travels through time in order to destroy the ‘most dangerous kung fu master criminal of all time’, one Adolf Hitler.
'Police cars are flipped with skateboards, henchmen are riddled with bullets from the roofs of mid-air sports cars and vikings ride on dinosaurs in the incredible wacky trailer, which is delighting viewers with its shamelessly over-the-top antics.' (Metro article).
'The bot, named "Cubli", contains three internal wheels that spin faster or slower to give it the momentum to remain balanced, even if the surface it sits on becomes tilted. They can also be abruptly halted to give the cube the oomph to jump up to a balanced position from flat on the surface.
'The principles are similar to those used in satellites to stabilise them in orbit, so they don't end up spinning around uselessly. It's thought the technique could also be used to build robots that are able to explore other planets, or self-assemble.' (Wired article).
Block advertisements on YouTube, Stickam, and BlogTV with this easy edit of your hosts file. This trick will also block many malware programs from infecting your computer because the hostnames that distribute them will be blocked.
Of course the world should not need such a book, but it does. Sam Harris interviews the book's author Peter Boghossian to get the low-down on his approach to dealing with people who are superstitious. If you have any misguided God-squad friends, perhaps this is one for their Xmas stocking?
'Peter Boghossian is a full-time faculty member in the philosophy department at Portland State University. He is also a national speaker for the Center for Inquiry, the Secular Student Alliance, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Peter was kind enough to answer a few questions about his new book, A Manual for Creating Atheists'. (Sam Harris interview).
First of all, my sincere apologies for the long hiatus here at media underground. All my free time recently has been spent putting the finishing touches to my new book, Bothy Culture, which is now complete and will be released soon.
It's been a long haul and a shit-load of work (in fact I'm now convinced I have OCD), but it's finally complete and I'm currently awaiting a proof copy as I write. It's not a huge book, coming in at 132 pages, but I'm extremely happy with the end result and hope it provokes, entertains and inspires - as well as creating a few laughs along the way.
Do not be put off by first impressions that this is a book about 'the outdoors'. It has been designed deliberately to look like that - to be a trojan horse, if you like - in order to dupe the average 'Outdoor Knobber' into buying it. If one takes the time to examine the back cover, you will see from the image and blurb that there's much more to it.
Basically the book comprises of fact, fiction, history and scathing social commentary about the current state of our society. In fact I foresee there appearing a significant amount of negative reviews on Amazon over the forthcoming months (concerning the book's content and occasional bad language), which is okay, as this would be a good indication that I've done my job properly.
So, regular updates to media underground will now resume and be sure to stay tuned for the book's official release date. In the meantime here's the front and back cover art as well as some other promotional material (click on the images to expand)...
I watch a shitload of these "made for the internet" documentaries and this one has to be the best. Whoever made this knows his history on the CIA. If you watch any of it make sure to watch part three. It's amazing.
'An extraordinary work by a gifted filmmaker, "Counter-Intelligence" shines sunlight into the darkest crevices of empire run amok. The film vividly exposes a monstrous and unconstitutional "deep state" in which multiple competing chains of command - all but one illegal - hijack government capabilities and taxpayer funds to commit crimes against humanity in our name. Anyone who cares about democracy, good government, and the future will want to watch all five segments of this remarkable film.' (Films For Action website).
Our friends over at Republic.org.uk want your examples of the most cringeworthy, tasteless and sycophantic royal baby-related programming across the BBC...
'We’ve seen from the jubilee and royal wedding that the BBC often finds it difficult to behave like a serious broadcaster when the royals are involved. That’s why we’re going to keep a close eye on them after the arrival of the royal baby - and we need your help.
'The way the media covers the arrival of the royal baby is important. Of course we don’t expect them to ignore the event, but the coverage should be proportionate, balanced and respectful of the new parents’ privacy. The BBC also has a duty to all of us - regardless of our views on the monarchy - to offer serious, intelligent and unbiased analysis. They need to be reporting, not celebrating.
'As our national broadcaster, the BBC has a particular responsibility here. Will it take that seriously or will it subject viewers to endless trivial chatter and intrusive detail?' (Born Equal feature).
'Gangstagrass are musical pioneers: fusing traditional stylings of bluegrass with the rebellious expression of hip-hop. While these two genres may seem an unlikely mix, the resulting sound is irrefutably addictive. Heavy backbeats intertwined with ornate banjo rolls provide a powerful chug, setting the stage for skilful rap and twangy melodic hooks.
'The founder of the group, Rench, grew up with the sounds of country radio stations filling his home. At the same time, grade school recesses were spent embracing hip-hop culture. His friends were break dancers and rappers, endlessly enthusiastic about sharing their favourite rap albums. Instead of resisting either influence, he embraced them both. As a musician he approached these sounds in a way no one had done before. Taking his folk expertise, he reached out to established rappers to sample on his tracks. From this, he created the original recordings: “Rench Presents: Ganstagrass.” It didn’t take long for hundreds of thousands of downloads to occur shortly after its free internet release. Their new genre of music was introduced even further when their song “Long Hard Times to Come” was placed as the theme song of the television series Justified, a track which was EMMY nominated for “Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music”.
'Gangstagrass believes that music has no limitations. With their confidence to be innovative, they break away from what’s already been done. By bridging rural and urban music, they expand perspectives, defying the pre-conceived notions of either culture. As Rench puts it, “I want to provide the soundtrack for a wave of cultural miscegenation that will let us all party together at last!”' (Pinball Sessions audio download).
'It's time, if you're so inclined, to plunk down a reservation for a one-way ticket to Mars. The privately funded Mars One foundation recently opened up applications for astronauts to take a journey to the Red Planet in 2022/23. Return trips, the organisers said, just aren't feasible with the technology we have.
'From a wide field of applicants, organisers said two women and two men will be selected to make the journey. The technology that takes them there has been tested before, and the potential for a worldwide audience will be there given four billion people will have the internet by then, said Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp.
'However, a cost breakdown of the £3.93 billion budget - as well as a concrete plan for how reality television deals and other sponsorship money will be secured - was not provided to the public at the press conference, prompting some scepticism among journalists as to whether the plan could be achieved.
'Lansdorp remained optimistic in the face of questions concerning the project's viability, pointing out the London Olympics in 2012 generated nearly £2.62 billion in revenues for a three-week spectacle. This makes Mars One a bargain deal for investors, he said.' (Wired article & Mars One website).
Having been interested in the old-time American hobo lifestyle for some time, it has come as a great surprise and pleasure to find a thriving subculture of modern hobos still riding freight trains across the US. PBS has a superbly evocative film about hobos here.
Indeed, some old-timers are still out there migrating by freight-train to find work but there is a new wave of hobo riding simultaneously. It would appear that the new younger generation of 'bos' brings a decidedly 'punk-attitude' that simply rides the rails just for the sake of riding the rails - wonderful stuff. This creates an amazing mixture of young punks and old hobos doing the same thing, just for different reasons.
Riding the rails is also referred to as 'freight-hopping' or 'train-hopping' and there is quite a bit of stuff out there. Railroad Semantics is the website of Aaron Dactyl who publishes his own 'freight zine' about his adventures and is well worth a read. Northbank Fred has a very comprehensive website that has loads of hobo stories and links.
There is also a ton of stuff on YouTube and I particularly liked the videos from Wizehop.
Sarah George's documentary Catching Out is also a good all round study of the modern hobo. (Isohunt torrent download).
'A judge's ruling Friday paves the way for two comedians to show their videotaped confrontation with a Port St. Lucie man one of the comics claims sexually molested him nearly 40 years ago.
'Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn dissolved a temporary injunction he had previously granted to Stephen P. Spleen of Port St. Lucie to keep Andrew J. "Andy" Andrist of Eugene, Oregon, and Doug S. Stanhope of Bisbee, Arizona, both standup comedians, from playing a tape of the pair's November 4th interview with Spleen at a Port St. Lucie hotel.
'According to a motion filed by Fort Pierce attorney Jonathan Jay Kirschner, Spleen admitted on the tape that he had abused Andrist. A compliant filed by Spleen's attorney, J. Garry Rooney of Vero Beach, claims Andrist and Stanhope tried to obtain "money, possessions and/or notoriety to enhance their stand-up comedy careers by falsely accusing (Spleen) of committing disgraceful, deplorable and heinous acts."
'Kirschner countered that Andrist wanted closure and to publicize Spleen's activities for the sake of any other past and potential victims. Andrist claims he was molested by Spleen several times from June 1976 and 1981 when Andrist was between 11 and 13 years old. He said Spleen massaged him several times, and each time Spleen touched Andrist's penis. Andrist also claims Spleen served him alcohol and showed him pornographic movies.' (TC Palm article).
A bunch of ex-NASA executives have formed a company with the objective of landing on the moon. Money well spent...
'A team of former NASA executives has launched a private venture to send two people to the Moon for $1.4bn (£871m). Golden Spike Company says it will use existing rocket and capsule technology, and will aim for a first launch before the end of the decade. The firm is one of many new private firms hoping to follow the success of Space X, which has ferried cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).
'The US became the first and only country to reach the Moon in the 1960s. But costs and waning interest have prevented any other lunar mission. US President Barack Obama cancelled a planned NASA return to the moon, saying the US had already been there.
'Golden Spike, run by former NASA associate administrator Alan Stern, says it is looking into offering voyages to the governments of other countries - such as South Africa, South Korea and Japan - expecting interest for scientific research or national prestige.' (BBC News article & Golden Spike website).
'The master wears an amulet with a blue eye in the center. Before him, a candidate kneels in the candlelit room, surrounded by microscopes and surgical implements. The year is roughly 1746. The initiation has begun.
'The master places a piece of paper in front of the candidate and orders him to put on a pair of eyeglasses. “Read,” the master commands. The candidate squints, but it’s an impossible task. The page is blank. The candidate is told not to panic; there is hope for his vision to improve. The master wipes the candidate’s eyes with a cloth and orders preparation for the surgery to commence. He selects a pair of tweezers from the table. The other members in attendance raise their candles.
'The master starts plucking hairs from the candidate's eyebrow. This is a ritualistic procedure; no flesh is cut. But these are “symbolic actions out of which none are without meaning,” the master assures the candidate. The candidate places his hand on the master’s amulet. Try reading again, the master says, replacing the first page with another. This page is filled with handwritten text. Congratulations, brother, the members say. Now you can see.' (Wired article).
How exactly is it that SpaceX can do everything so cheaply? Well, it would seem from this recent interview with Elon Musk that there are a couple of reasons in particular. The first being that there’s a tendency for big aerospace companies to outsource everything to subcontractors who then, bizarrely, outsource work to other subcontractors who subsequently - in what seems to be little more than an utter bureaucratic shambles by this point - outsource to other subcontractors and so on and so forth... ad nauseum. As one commenter aptly points out at the foot of this Wired article: "One reason for all that expensively administered subcontracting is that it pleases exactly those committees [who control NASA's funding]. The large projects they favor can subcontract in many different districts, whose congressmen then have a good reason to vote for NASA's budget. This means the committee members need not trade away any more of their political capital to get the projects that support contractors in their districts."
In short, SpaceX don't engage in this subcontracting farce but do it all themselves from the bottom up.
The other reason SpaceX can manufacture rockets so cheaply is to use an advanced welding technology called "stir welding" which can create as strong a structure as is currently manufactured using more conventional construction methods - but without the material wastage of machining thick aluminium plate. How can Elon tell us about this without generating competition from rival companies?
"The reason I can talk about it is that nobody else knows how to build a rocket this way," he laughs.
I have high hopes for Elon Musk and Space X despite some of his seemingly more outlandish pipe dreams like making a privately funded human trip to Mars possible. Is Elon Musk's head in the clouds? Hopefully, because that's the only sensible place to have it when talking about making humanity a multiplanetary species.
'When a man tells you about the time he planned to put a vegetable garden on Mars, you worry about his mental state. But if that same man has since launched multiple rockets that are actually capable of reaching Mars - sending them into orbit, Bond-style, from a tiny island in the Pacific - you need to find another diagnosis. That’s the thing about extreme entrepreneurialism: There’s a fine line between madness and genius, and you need a little bit of both to really change the world.
'All entrepreneurs have an aptitude for risk, but more important than that is their capacity for self-delusion. Indeed, psychological investigations have found that entrepreneurs aren’t more risk-tolerant than non-entrepreneurs. They just have an extraordinary ability to believe in their own visions, so much so that they think what they’re embarking on isn’t really that risky. They’re wrong, of course, but without the ability to be so wrong - to willfully ignore all those naysayers and all that evidence to the contrary - no one would possess the necessary audacity to start something radically new.' (Wired Science article).
'SKYLON is the successor to Britain's HOTOL spaceplane concept, being developed by Reaction Engines Ltd (REL). It is an unpiloted fully reusable aircraft-like vehicle capable of transporting 12 tonnes of cargo into space and is intended as a replacement for expensive expendable launchers in the commerical market.
'The SKYLON vehicle consists of a slender fuselage containing propellant tankage and payload bay, with delta wings attached midway along the fuselage carrying the SABRE engines in axisymmetric nacelles on the wingtips.
'The vehicle takes off and lands horizontally on it's own undercarriage.
'The SABRE engines have a dual mode capability. In rocket mode the engine operates as a closed cycle Lox/Lh2 high specific impulse rocket engine. In air-breathing mode (from take-off to Mach 5) the liquid oxygen flow is replaced by atmospheric air, increasing the installed specific impulse 3-6 fold. The airflow is drawn into the engine via a 2 shock axisymmetric intake and is cooled to cryogenic temperatures prior to compression. The hydrogen fuel acts as a heatsink for the closed cycle helium loop before entering the combustion chamber.
'The vehicle takes off and lands using a relatively conventional retractable undercarriage. By special attention to the brake system it has proved possible to achieve an acceptably low undercarriage mass. However, a heavily reinforced runway will be needed to tolerate the high equivalent single wheel load.
'At the start of the take-off roll the vehicle weighs 275 tonnes, whilst maximum landing weight is 55 tonnes. At take-off the vehicle carries approximately 66 tonnes of liquid hydrogen and approximately 150 tonnes of liquid oxygen for the ascent.
'The ground handling operations will be carried out using a standard aircraft tractor and a bonded goods cargo building permitting overhead loading and protection from the elements. For safety and operational simplicity the cryogenic propellants are loaded subcooled without venting of vapour. Cryogen loading is automatic through services connecting in the undercarriage wells whilst the vehicle is stood on the fuelling apron.'
'In quantum mechanics, quantum suicide is a thought experiment. It was originally published independently by Hans Moravec in 1987 and Bruno Marchal in 1988 and was independently developed further by Max Tegmark in 1998.
'It attempts to distinguish between the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics and the Everett many-worlds interpretation by means of a variation of the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, from the cat's point of view.
'Unlike the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment which used poison gas and a radioactive decay trigger, this version involves a life-terminating device and a device that measures the spin value of protons. Every 10 seconds, the spin value of a fresh proton is measured. Conditioned upon that quantum bit, the weapon is either deployed, killing the experimenter, or it makes an audible "click" and the experimenter survives.
'The theories are distinctive from the point of view of the experimenter only; their predictions are otherwise identical.
'The probability of surviving the first iteration of the experiment is 50%, under both interpretations, as given by the squared norm of the wavefunction. At the start of the second iteration, if the Copenhagen interpretation is true, the wavefunction has already collapsed, so if the experimenter is already dead, there's a 0% chance of survival. However, if the many-worlds interpretation is true, a superposition of the live experimenter necessarily exists, regardless of how many iterations or how improbable the outcome. Barring life after death, it is not possible for the experimenter to experience having been killed, thus the only possible experience is one of having survived every iteration.' (Wikipedia article).
I think I've read this book three times cover to cover. One of the best books ever written on the UFO phenomena. It doesn't look like it's on BitTorrent yet because it hasn't been converted to an ebook but you seriously need to get a copy. I promise you won't be disappointed.
'Pratt went on to say he couldn't recall how or when he first learned about the Minuteman over-flights. He said he had been working at the time with a number of different UFO researchers who were pursuing several military-related cases using the Freedom of Information Act. Among his notes, though, Pratt said he'd found a typewritten statement with another researcher's name on the bottom saying that on May 17, 1977, an anonymous caller had phoned and told him about the over-flights and allowed him to tape the conversation. "This whole thing surprises me because I have no recollection of receiving such a phone call, nor do I remember working with Brad Sparks on these incidents," Pratt added.
'The truth of the matter may be lost in the mists of time. However, the likelihood that military sources purposely leaked the story to the Enquirer, possibly via one of several UFO researchers known to be working with Pratt, remains and must be considered, particularly in light of the Enquirer's surprising history.'
'In many ways the National Enquirer is a conspiracy theorist's dream come true. The newspaper's historical ties to powerful organizations such as the OSS, the CIA, the Pentagon, the White House, and the Mafia, raise troubling questions about its true agenda. To the uninitiated, though, the Enquirer seems hardly worth taking seriously. With its blaring, often absurd headlines and near-ubiquitous location alongside grocery store checkout stands across the nation, the Enquirer has become both a cliché and the butt of jokes among those who consider themselves sophisticated media consumers. There's much more to the National Enquirer than meets the eye, however. To see why, we need to review the Enquirer's fascinating origins, with particular emphasis on its ties to the U.S. intelligence establishment.' (Missing Times Website).
Media Underground is glad to welcome back James Inman as one of our regular contributors. James used to write for us several years ago as a guest and he's been bugging me ever since to put a good team of contributors together (with him included) to restore Media Underground to its former glory.
There are many words one can use to describe the anomaly known as James Inman. ‘Stand-up Comic’ is one such phrase, ‘Rural Punk Gen-X Anti-Hero’ is another. One might also refer to him as a ‘Recurring Alcoholic’ or ‘Angry Middle-Aged Man’. Yet whatever James is he certainly loves to torture himself, and in so doing can occasionally manifest ‘Genius’. Author of the depressingly hilarious travel guide Greyhound Diary, James works the comedy circuit travelling state to state on the Greyhound bus. He is also one of the main characters in the fly-on-the-wall documentary The Unbookables.
If you've never heard of James Inman before, then the following video is a good place to start...
When you go to your doctor do you assume he/she prescribes medicines to you based on what the best thing is to fix what is wrong with you? Or maybe they prescribe just what the best deal is for the NHS? Some doctors do one or both, many don't. A lot of doctors fall foul of the corporate megalith known as 'Big Pharma' and it's massive marketing machine. Many doctors are willing participants working with the Big Pharma machine because they get to go to Acapaulco and drink free cocktails. Having worked for a good while - much to my eternal shame - for Big Pharma, I was so glad to see the new book Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre published. It pours withering fire on a multi-billion pound industry that exists to pay its own greedheads rather than find effective and reasonably priced cures to human diseases. Don't be surprised if we hear about Ben Goldacre being found dead in a skip somewhere...
Ben Goldacre: 'My new book Bad Pharma is out today. It describes how drug companies harm patients, around the world, by distorting evidence on an industrial scale. More than that, it shows how doctors, academics, and regulators have all failed to fix these problems. Bad practices have been perpetuated, because the public have not understood the true scale of the disaster. If this book is not ignored, it will make certain current public positions from industry, and from regulators, untenable. That will be the beginning of fixing the problem, and for the rest, I need your help.' (Bad Science article).
Here at media underground, it is with pleasure that we welcome new contributor Stephen Lewis to the site. Stephen (or the 'Sergeant Matron' as he is often referred to) is some kind of bizarre human hybrid prototype with a keen eye for everything that is fucked up with the planet.
Author of Boots On The Line: Walking 1000 Miles Of Britain's Dismantled Railways, The Matron spends much of his free time either wandering around seriously remote parts of rural Scotland for extended periods, smoking peculiar and unusual tobacco blends out of one of his vast collection of briar pipes (a pastime that he's somehow managed to get me interested in), or rallying against corporate corruption wherever it rears its ugly head.
A staunch atheist and anti-royalist, we are delighted to have him onboard and look forward to his perfectly sane take on the ills of the 21st century.
'Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died aged 82. The former US astronaut, who will go down on history as the most famous pioneer of space exploration, passed away as the result of heart complications following surgery.
'As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, he became the first person to set foot on the moon, on 20 July 1969, fulfilling the longheld dream of the United States to get there before the Soviet Union. His first words as he stepped on to the surface - "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" - instantly became one of the most recognisable phrases ever uttered.
'Armstrong underwent heart bypass surgery earlier this month, just two days after his birthday on 5 August, to relieve blocked arteries.
'His family released a statement on Saturday describing him as a "reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job".
'It read: "We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his nation proudly as a Navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut.' (Guardian article and CPA Australia video interview).
'Pussy Riot, the feminist Russian punk band from which three members were found guilty of hooliganism driven by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in jail, have released a new single called Putin Lights Up the Fires. The Guardian has edited the new song to a montage of Pussy Riot members and their supporters.' (Free Pussy Riot website).
'This is a note to our friends across the pond, friends who may be freaking out about the news of The Pirate Bay potentially being blocked in the United Kingdom. While the news may come as a shock, especially in a country that’s so outspokenly against ACTA, all hope should not be abandoned.
'In fact, there’s an easy fix, one that clearly demonstrates the futility of uninformed government officials trying to regulate something they don’t understand. Simply put, if you want to “unblock” TPB, just switch DNS servers.
'Much like defeating SOPA measures with IP addresses (instead of domain names), users who want to access TPB but can’t, you might want to think about switching your DNS server, something that is easier than the idea may suggest. However, thanks to a quick how-to by Torrent Freak, you’ll see it’s not that complicated at all. In fact, all you need to know in order to do such a changeover is the IP address for the DNS server you’d like to use:
'For the two main alternatives, these are:
- OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222> and 208.67.220.220
- GoogleDNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
'You can configure an alternative DNS server on a per-computer basis, or for your whole network. The first one is the quickest, probably easiest solution, the last one has the huge advantage that all devices on your network will use the new DNS automatically, without the need to configure them all.' (WebProNews article & TorrentFreak tutorial).
'We Are Legion is a forthcoming documentary about Anonymous and hacktivism. The film explores the historical roots of early hacktivist groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater and then follows Anonymous from the early days of 4chan to a full-blown movement with a global reach.'
'Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During "loss of signal" periods, viewers may see a test pattern or a graphical world map that depicts the station’s location in orbit above the Earth. Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below.'
Fed up with space games that insult your intelligence and violate every law of physics? Orbiter is a simulator that gives you an idea what space flight really feels like today and in the not so distant future. And best of all: you can download it for free!
• Launch the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center and rendezvous with the International Space Station.
• Recreate historic flights with addon spacecraft packages: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Vostok and more.
• Plan interplanetary slingshots and tour the solar system with futuristic space craft.
• Design your own rockets, or download addons created by other users.
• Learn about the concepts of space flight and orbital mechanics by playing and experimenting. (Orbiter website).
William Shatner's new album is out and it's pretty damned good.
'Seeking Major Tom is a fourth studio album by William Shatner. It was released October 11, 2011 by Cleopatra Records. The album features many noted musicians, including Sheryl Crow, John Wetton, Patrick Moraz, Ritchie Blackmore, Alan Parsons, Peter Frampton, Nick Valensi, Zakk Wylde, Mike Inez, Chris Adler, Steve Howe, Michael Schenker, Dave Davies, Johnny Winter, Brad Paisley, Bootsy Collins, and Toots.'
'Rupert Murdoch doesn't like the BBC. And sometimes the BBC doesn't seem to like Rupert Murdoch either.
'Following the principle that you should know your enemy, the BBC has assiduously recorded the relentless rise of Rupert Murdoch and his assault on the old "decadent" elites of Britain. And I thought it would be interesting to put up some of the high points. It is also a good way to examine how far his populist rhetoric is genuine, and how far its is a smokescreen to disguise the interests of another elite. As a balanced member of the BBC - I leave it to you to decide. (BBC article).