GREEN PIRATE

A friend sent me this insightful lecture from Mark D. Pagel, Fellow of the Royal Society and Professor of Evolutionary Biology; Head of the Evolution Laboratory at the University of Reading; Author Oxford Encyclopaedia of Evolution; co-author of The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology; where he goes on to compare our human abilities of innovation against our innate instinct to copy. Not only do I love when some highly credible expert comes along to confirm what we pirates have known all along, whether it be in our hearts or minds, but what better modern day example represents this subject than the debate over copyright vs. infringement?

(more…)

I was disappointed to read of the prosecution against the admin of Student Bay, a Swedish file-sharing site dedicated to providing text books to students (or anyone else looking for a free education). Of all forms of pirated media that is available in abundance over the internet, educational texts are the most important and least found in the torrent and file-sharing community. Still, the demand appears to be there among students who feel that it is unnecessary and naive to be expected to spend around $1,000 per year on textbooks. Especially in places such as Sweden where publicly funded education is supposedly freely (gratis) available.

(more…)

18.945 more signatures are needed by December 18th to have President Obama address the American people on this issue.

As Active Politic reports, some people have had a problem with not being allowed to sign the petition. This is the White House website we’re talking about, so the problem is more likely to be due to incompetence than active censorship, but either way, not everyone is being allowed to have their voice heard.

Others have tweeted having issues with the site as well:

DiogenesCynic78: @St4rbuck_ @telecomix I had that problem with the last few I tried to sign. Managed to sign one for legalizing pot. Won’t let me sign more. -

Fortunately, 18,945 is not a lot for the internet to muster up, so sign it (if you can) and pass it on! Oh and the registration e-mail was slow to arrive for me, so have patience.

If you are unable to sign the petition, please confirm @telecomix #censorship.

Green Pirate Drink:
One part Crown Royal or Jack Danimals. One part green smoothie. Pour in the whiskey first, followed by green smoothie. Don’t bother to stir or shake.

This actually tastes better with each gulp. In fact, I’m tagging this post as “humanity.” Also putting the period inside the quotes, but I read once that it doesn’t really matter.

Note of interest: The B vitamins in the green smoothie supposedly reduce the chances of hangover. The alternative to this note is wicked looking green vomit. Schlitweitz!

Tech experts, human rights & free speech supporters, as well as the very internet users who will be subject to the ill effects of this legislature, are not being allowed to voice their opinions at the the congressional hearings surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) this week.

Supporters of this bill have given congress over four times as much money as the opponents. Simply put, Hollywood money ($8,500,820) vs. the common person with common sense ($2,076,390) has successfully bought congress.

If you are sick of corrupt congressmen bending over for Hollywood’s golden member, you can go to Demand Progress and demand that the voice of the people is heard.

There are endless circumstances of governments invading civilian privacy, but this interesting post by Dave Pell at NPR raises the issue of how we as civilians treat each other’s privacy.

The article was inspired by an incident you may have heard of where the argument of a couple arguing openly in a Burger King was followed and tweeted by someone else in the restaurant. It focuses on the ethics of whether we treat each other as fair game for such things when we are in public. BTW Burger King, this is a much better ad campaign than that stupid King costume. Just saying.

Argue in public and expect to be a spectacle for the onlookers. Eat in public and expect to deal with the public. Even if that means the occasional arguing couple or bum with 10 ft radius pee smell. Maybe that’s just a San Francisco thing…

Enter the all seeing eye of smart phones and social media. If you don’t have similar expectations as above that you might be filmed, photographed or spoken of while making a scene in a public place, you probably qualify as naive. Of course, if you had the “emotional intelligence” to stop and think about things like that in the first place, you probably would wait until you were in the car before getting into it further. The fact is, some people just don’t have that and never will.

So the finger is pointed back to the onlooker. Was it proper etiquette to broadcast this public scene to a wider audience? Nah, it’s rude, but it still comes down to using your own personal judgement. I mean, this type of real life drama dominates pop culture. If you make a living or benefit in some way from social media, I don’t think anyone can fault you too hard for giving the people exactly what they have shown that they want time and again through their action. Sure, they may say it’s horribly wrong in a moral sense, but then look at how often those people’s morals are overlooked when it comes to collecting a paycheck.

Instead of hopping on the moral diatribe of what’s right and wrong, which is only a matter of personal opinion as far as I can tell, I would like to look at why this sort of thing is so popular to begin with. Why might we want to post such things?

In days of old, an incident such as this couple’s argument would have been quickly forgotten and hardly anyone would have known that it took place. Say this couple worked out their problem and made up. The next day you might meet them for the first time and never know that they had a fight. In that moment, you might even think they are the perfect couple and wish that your relationship was as happy as theirs seems to be. You might compare this snapshot of their lives to the sum of your own relationship. Images of fights you had and small resentments coming to the surface making your own relationship seem to pale in comparison.

Perhaps this is why we generally love to see these dramas play out in others. Perhaps it makes us feel that we are not the only ones who are human; whose lives are not in fact perfect in spite of our best efforts to present it as such.

So how will society adapt to these intimate moments being more prone to public voyeurism? Will we adopt an unspoken etiquette of looking the other way and hope that people will comply? Will we make social outcasts of those who don’t? Or will it make apparent the fact that we are all human, flawed, and lead us to accept our own shortcomings?

In conclusion, I think a poor diet consisting of fast food makes you generally irritable and you would probably do best to stay away from it altogether.

Redneck Judge William Adams has lost all credibility as a human being worth spitting on as a video showing him beating his sixteen year old daughter with a belt is going viral. The reason for this horrible abuse toward his own daughter? She disobeyed his command to stop downloading files on the internet via Kazaa.

Although this scene of blatant child abuse (by a scum bag granted the authority to judge others no less) is disturbing enough by itself, the video is quickly becoming an icon of the harsh overreaction to file-sharing that is encouraged by large copyright profiteers and executed by U.S. court judges such as the dishonorable Judge William “Bane of Little Girls” Adams.

Hollywood lobbyists, copyright trolls and corrupt judges & legislators have long been the angry, computer-fearing redneck with a leather belt, beating the legs out from under defenseless citizens all in the name of “respect my authority.” Thank you Judge William “Little Girl Beater” Adams for putting a face to these despicable people that will now be the first thing the world thinks of each time a story is published of governments or Hollywood one percenters seeking to beat the other 99% into submission.

Here is a message from Hillary, the girl in the video.

2004: Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams took a belt to his own teenage daughter as punishment for using the internet to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time. She has had ataxic cerebral palsy from birth that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father’s backwards views. The judge’s wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video. The judge’s wife has since left the marriage due to the abuse, which continues to this day, and has sincerely apologized and repented for her part and for allowing such a thing, long before this video was even revealed to exist. Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can’t even exercise fit judgement as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His “judgement” is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.

Not that I have any sympathy for gangsters, whether they are crips or politicians, but the monitoring of twitter by police recently led to the arrest of 56 people in blue clothing for standing in a park being suspicious. Maybe they were plotting and scheming something heinous. Maybe gangsters just like to get together for a BBQ once in a while like the rest of us. I don’t know and nobody will ever know for certain. Is it better safe than sorry to have police monitoring social network activity to prevent potential flash mobs from gathering in the name of destruction?
(more…)

I just want to remind all of my Christian brothers and sisters out there that file-sharing is the Christian thing to do. It is what Jesus, our Lord and saviour, would do.
(more…)

Hello, my fellow young Americans. Bruce E. Levine has given 8 reasons as to why you are a pussy. I’m inclined to agree. You are a little pussy.
(more…)