On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:33:42 +0000, Invisible wrote:

>>>> Actually, I don't think many of the users in Egypt were anything more
>>>> than normal users, but the techies made it easy for them to route
>>>> around the government-imposed outage during the uprising there.
>>>
>>> Am I missing something?
>>
>> You were aware that Hosni Mubarak is no longer in charge in Egypt and
>> that they had a "small" revolution last year, weren't you?
> 
> Nope. The politics of remote countries isn't something I generally keep
> up with. (Heck, the politics of *this* country isn't something I avidly
> follow...)

So you didn't hear about any of the so-called "Arab Spring" events?

You do know that the US pulled out of Iraq, yes?  Or were you unaware 
that the US (and the UK) were at war in Iraq?  You know there's a war in 
Afghanistan too, yes?  And that's still going on?

And that Osama Bin Laden is dead?

>>>>> I have to admit, Wikipedia's blackout is the very first time I'd
>>>>> even *heard* of The Pirate Bay.
>>>>
>>>> <boggle>
>>>
>>> What? Like it's famous or something?
>>
>> Arguably the most famous torrent site in the world.
> 
> And Edgar Froese is arguably the most famous band member ever to be in
> Tangerine Dream... Have *you* ever heard of him?

Yes, as a matter of fact, I have - because I have a fair collection of 
Tangerine Dream albums here. :)

> Fame is a relative thing.

It is relative, but there's been a *lot* of news about illegal downloads 
and torrents in the past 5 years or so.  TPB has figured into a lot of 
that news, because the providers keep blocking access, and they keep 
getting unblocked.

I've found it kinda hard to avoid news about that.  I'm wondering how you 
managed it without even trying.

Jim

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On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:10:36 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> On 23/01/2012 9:39 PM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>> Fox News
> 
> ??? :-P

Some over here refer to them as "Faux News" - because a fair bit of the 
opinion side is "manufactured rage".

Jim

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On 24/01/2012 12:50 AM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:10:36 +0000, Stephen wrote:
>
>> On 23/01/2012 9:39 PM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>>> Fox News
>>
>> ??? :-P
>
> Some over here refer to them as "Faux News" - because a fair bit of the
> opinion side is "manufactured rage".
>

I saw a bit of it last year in NM. I did not go back to that hotel.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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>> Fame is a relative thing.
>
> Are you really willing to compare the fame of a pretty obscure band to
> the fame of a website that serves every kind of content to pretty much
> everyone in the net?

No, I'm pointing out that they do *not* serve "everyone in the net".

I'm on the net, I've never heard of it, and even now that I have, I have 
no particular desire to go visit.

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>>> You were aware that Hosni Mubarak is no longer in charge in Egypt and
>>> that they had a "small" revolution last year, weren't you?
>>
>> Nope. The politics of remote countries isn't something I generally keep
>> up with. (Heck, the politics of *this* country isn't something I avidly
>> follow...)
>
> So you didn't hear about any of the so-called "Arab Spring" events?

No.

> You do know that the US pulled out of Iraq, yes?

I've heard multiple rounds of "We're pulling out. Oh, wait, we're 
pulling out in 6 month's time. No, we're pulling out next month. Oh, 
actually, make that 2 years. Actually, wait, make it a month. No, hang 
on..." It's news to me that they *actually* did it at last.

> Or were you unaware that the US (and the UK) were at war in Iraq?

Hehehe, is *that* why every FPS made in the last 10 years happens in the 
Middle East with Iraqis as the enemy? :-P

> You know there's a war in Afghanistan too, yes?  And that's still going on?

Wait - Afghanistan and Iraq aren't the same place? o_O

> And that Osama Bin Laden is dead?

Actually, no. I heard Saddam was dead, but I didn't know they ever found 
Osama.

>> And Edgar Froese is arguably the most famous band member ever to be in
>> Tangerine Dream... Have *you* ever heard of him?
>
> Yes, as a matter of fact, I have - because I have a fair collection of
> Tangerine Dream albums here. :)

I knew there was a strictly positive probability that this might happen. 
*facepalm*

>> Fame is a relative thing.
>
> It is relative, but there's been a *lot* of news about illegal downloads
> and torrents in the past 5 years or so.  TPB has figured into a lot of
> that news, because the providers keep blocking access, and they keep
> getting unblocked.
>
> I've found it kinda hard to avoid news about that.  I'm wondering how you
> managed it without even trying.

I've heard a lot of talk about "illegal downloads". I haven't heard 
anybody mention TPB.

It did tickle me when ISPs were talking about various ways to "detect 
and prevent downloading". Uh, you realise that the entire /point/ of 
ISPs is to enable downloading, right? Perhaps you meant prevent 
*illegal* downloading? :-P

(That and the talk of ISPs charging YouTube money because they're "using 
up all the bandwidth". Translation: "our profit model depends on 
customers using only a fraction of the bandwidth that they pay us for, 
and now people are using /all/ of what they rightfully paid for, waaaaa!")

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On 23/01/2012 06:13 PM, Warp wrote:
> Invisible<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>> On 23/01/2012 10:29 AM, John VanSickle wrote:
>>> Wait, isn't Pipa some gal who's in the tabloids a lot?
>
>> I wouldn't know; I don't read comic books.
>
>    I don't know if that was just a jab at tabloids, or if you a honestly have
> a confusion of terminology... Either way it's slightly amusing.

Even I'm not quite /that/ dense. ;-)

Seriously though, from what I've seen, your typical tabloid is about as 
factually accurate as your typical comic book. Like comics, they 
sometimes reflect real things which are actually happening in the real 
world... aaaaand then most of the time they contain complete fiction. 
(E.g., MMR causes autism - a claim that to this day has not one shred of 
scientific evidence behind it.)

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Le 2012-01-24 04:30, Invisible a écrit :
>>>> You were aware that Hosni Mubarak is no longer in charge in Egypt and
>>>> that they had a "small" revolution last year, weren't you?
>>>
>>> Nope. The politics of remote countries isn't something I generally keep
>>> up with. (Heck, the politics of *this* country isn't something I avidly
>>> follow...)
>>
>> So you didn't hear about any of the so-called "Arab Spring" events?
>
> No.
>

Do you watch tv?
Do you listen to the radio?
Read newspaper?
Walk by a newspaper stand on your way to work?
Talk to people?

I think I facepalmed hard enough to break my nose.

-- 
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>>> So you didn't hear about any of the so-called "Arab Spring" events?
>>
>> No.
>
> Do you watch tv?

No.

> Do you listen to the radio?

No.

> Read newspaper?

No.

> Walk by a newspaper stand on your way to work?

I can't actually remember the last time I *saw* a newspaper stand in 
this country... Usually you have to walk indoors to look at newspapers.

> Talk to people?

Sure, all the time. :-P

> I think I facepalmed hard enough to break my nose.

Good for you.

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Le 2012-01-23 05:25, John VanSickle a écrit :
> On 1/19/2012 12:31 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:56:30 +0000, Invisible wrote:
>>
>>> If they were planning to make it legal to lock Americans up without
>>> trial, *that* would be seriously disturbing.
>>
>> They already have that. It was part of the most recent defense
>> appropriations bill that was signed into law.
>>
>> Obama issued a 'signing statement' saying that his administration
>> wouldn't use indefinite detention on American citizens, but there's
>> nothing to stop the next administration from doing that.
>
> So the next President could round up the Congressmen who wrote that
> provision, toss them in prison, and tell them that they can go free when
> they repeal it.
>
> I hereby announce my candidacy...
>
> Regards,
> John

Nope.

Article I, section 6.

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> Francois Labreque<fla### [at] videotronca>  wrote:
>> Le 2012-01-22 02:09, Warp a écrit :
>>>     The day after SOPA was rejected in the US congress, the US government
>>> took down megaupload.com. Coincidence?
>>>
>>>     The prevailing theory is that they were planning on taking it down for
>>> some time (after all, the bureucracy and paperwork involved in this kind
>>> of operation is not something that's done in one day) and were only
>>> waiting for SOPA to pass in order to shut down the site, so that they
>>> would have a justification. It did not pass, so no justification. However,
>>> rather than let all the hard work go to waste, they took the website down
>>> anyways.
>>>
>> Using existing laws, proving that PIPA and SOPA were unnecessary after all.
>
>    And now the US government has the IP addresses if millions of people who
> have uploaded and downloaded illegal material to megaupload.com. What do
> you think they will do with those addresses?
>

Use existing laws to prosecute the offenders, if they decide to do so. 
Further proof that PIPA and SOPA were unnecessary.

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