Rant 428 / Renault Was Probably The Tip Of The Iceberg

Just a few days after I typed that rant that mentioned the giant squids, scientists caught one that's even bigger than the biggest that I had mentioned. Measuring 5.9m, it's more than a metre longer than the previous champion. This was not an accident, but a rare success. Previous giant squid catches have been accidents, but this was planned by the scientists who probably learnt something about how to catch them after the Japanese scientists released the footage of a giant squid feeding on their bait.














Seth Rogen made over 24 million USD from his role in Observe and Report. This is the least he has ever received from movies in which he played a lead character. Don't know about you, but I thought most movies starring him were crap.

Piracy is wrong because it hurts their revenue? I think it's missing some context.
















Obviously Paul Simon was wrong about them being written on subway walls.











Now that RoM is gone temporarily from my life (it will probably return in Dec during holidays), I've been degenerating my brain by visiting 4chan more.


I'm getting all sorts of pics from my visits, though not all of them are as inoffensive as the above.


With this sort of influence in my life, maybe RoM was the better choice...












British artists are debating on the issue of file sharing. A group of them, called the Featured Artists Coalition, is against the proposal of requiring ISPs to act against illegal downloaders, while some agree with this idea.

The idea feels like an invasion of privacy. The idea is to look at file-sharing sites and see who is downloading stuff. If they can check who does what at which websites, which is basically just rephrasing the above, then what privacy is left?

Yes they aren't looking at you specifically - they're checking the IPs who go to certain websites and belong to their clients and are causing large amounts of traffic. That means anyone who lowers their download and upload limits can bypass this filter. For people who leave their computers 24/7, downloading 700MB DVD rips at 20kb/s isn't exactly a problem.

I agree with the FAC that the solution is not to monitor internet traffic but to rethink the payment system regarding the people who helped to make the song. I believe songwriters should get an income more proportional to the performers', including the revenue the singers get from their concert tours. Why not? The songwriter is the first person to make this possible and hence should be paid a lot more than they do now.

Tor will flourish if this becomes law in the UK.