About

Hey, I'm Tom. I'm working towards being a theatrical theorist. I write a bit, think a bit, sing a lot when I'm high. Hopefully you'll like something on here...

anarcho-queer: veneratiodiaboli666: anarcho-queer: The Pirate Bay Moves to North Korea, Gets Virtual Asylum The Pirate Bay says it has been offered virtual asylum in North Korea. The move comes after the Norwegian Pirate Party was forced to stop routing traffic for the infamous BitTorrent site by a local copyright group. “We can reveal that we have been invited by the leader of the Republic of Korea, to fight our battles from their network,” the Pirate Bay says. A traceroute does indeed show that The Pirate Bay is now being routed through the dictatorial country. Last week the Swedish Pirate Party was forced to shut down its routing services to The Pirate Bay. The Party and its leaders took the difficult decision after they were threatened with a lawsuit by a local anti-piracy group. Luckily for The Pirate Bay, the pirate parties of Norway and Catalunya were willing to take over the role. However, after just a few days the Norwegians had to shut down their Pirate Bay node as well, facing similar threats to their Swedish comrades. This resulted in some downtime earlier today after which The Pirate Bay returned online from a rather unexpected location. A Pirate Bay insider informs TorrentFreak that they had been working for a while to get connectivity in North Korea. Today they made the big switch. “We’ve been in talks with them for about two weeks, since they opened access for foreigners to use 3G in the country,” a Pirate Bay insider told us. “TPB has been invited just like Eric Schmidt and Dennis Rodman. We’ve declined up until now.” While The Pirate Bay crew may not visit North Korea, they are using the country’s network to connect the BitTorrent site to the rest of the world. “This is truly an ironic situation. We have been fighting for a free world, and our opponents are mostly huge corporations from the United States of America, a place where freedom and freedom of speech is said to be held high.” “At the same time, companies from that country are chasing a competitor from other countries, bribing police and lawmakers, threatening political parties and physically hunting people from our crew. And to our help comes a government famous in our part of the world for locking people up for their thoughts and forbidding access to information,” they add. The Pirate Bay says that it sees the current step as one forward for North Korea, and the BitTorrent site hopes that all North Koreans can soon access the site to foster freedom of information. “We believe that being offered our virtual asylum in Korea is a first step of this country’s changing view of access to information. It’s a country opening up and one thing is sure, they do not care about threats like others do. In that way, TPB and Korea might have a special bond.” “We will do our best to influence the Korean leaders to also let their own population use our service, and to make sure that we can help improve the situation in any way we can. When someone is reaching out to make things better, it’s also ones duty to grab their hand,” TPB concludes. While it’s hard to believe everything The Pirate Bay says, the site does indeed route through North Korea at the moment. For some reason we think that Hollywood and the major music labels will have a hard time shutting that node down. For the record I ran Traceroute and got a German IP address. This is a hoax. The Pirate Bay made a press release on their Facebook page regarding the ‘switch’. This isn’t a hoax. They ought to be condemned for associating themselves with a state like North Korea, shame on them.

anarcho-queer:

veneratiodiaboli666:

anarcho-queer:

The Pirate Bay Moves to North Korea, Gets Virtual Asylum

The Pirate Bay says it has been offered virtual asylum in North Korea. The move comes after the Norwegian Pirate Party was forced to stop routing traffic for the infamous BitTorrent site by a local copyright group. “We can reveal that we have been invited by the leader of the Republic of Korea, to fight our battles from their network,” the Pirate Bay says. A traceroute does indeed show that The Pirate Bay is now being routed through the dictatorial country.

Last week the Swedish Pirate Party was forced to shut down its routing services to The Pirate Bay.

The Party and its leaders took the difficult decision after they were threatened with a lawsuit by a local anti-piracy group.

Luckily for The Pirate Bay, the pirate parties of Norway and Catalunya were willing to take over the role. However, after just a few days the Norwegians had to shut down their Pirate Bay node as well, facing similar threats to their Swedish comrades.

This resulted in some downtime earlier today after which The Pirate Bay returned online from a rather unexpected location.

A Pirate Bay insider informs TorrentFreak that they had been working for a while to get connectivity in North Korea. Today they made the big switch.

“We’ve been in talks with them for about two weeks, since they opened access for foreigners to use 3G in the country,” a Pirate Bay insider told us. “TPB has been invited just like Eric Schmidt and Dennis Rodman. We’ve declined up until now.”

While The Pirate Bay crew may not visit North Korea, they are using the country’s network to connect the BitTorrent site to the rest of the world.

“This is truly an ironic situation. We have been fighting for a free world, and our opponents are mostly huge corporations from the United States of America, a place where freedom and freedom of speech is said to be held high.”

“At the same time, companies from that country are chasing a competitor from other countries, bribing police and lawmakers, threatening political parties and physically hunting people from our crew. And to our help comes a government famous in our part of the world for locking people up for their thoughts and forbidding access to information,” they add.

The Pirate Bay says that it sees the current step as one forward for North Korea, and the BitTorrent site hopes that all North Koreans can soon access the site to foster freedom of information.

“We believe that being offered our virtual asylum in Korea is a first step of this country’s changing view of access to information. It’s a country opening up and one thing is sure, they do not care about threats like others do. In that way, TPB and Korea might have a special bond.”

“We will do our best to influence the Korean leaders to also let their own population use our service, and to make sure that we can help improve the situation in any way we can. When someone is reaching out to make things better, it’s also ones duty to grab their hand,” TPB concludes.

While it’s hard to believe everything The Pirate Bay says, the site does indeed route through North Korea at the moment. For some reason we think that Hollywood and the major music labels will have a hard time shutting that node down.

For the record I ran Traceroute and got a German IP address. This is a hoax.

The Pirate Bay made a press release on their Facebook page regarding the ‘switch’. This isn’t a hoax.

They ought to be condemned for associating themselves with a state like North Korea, shame on them.

Photo post # March 5, 2013 / 11:14pm // 305 Notes

mydepressioneatsmealive:

“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs, and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate beings condemning them to spend their lives in search for their other halves.”

~Plato’s The Symposium.

Later in the book, Socrates rubbishes that idea.

(Source: eternalseptember, via iamsharkbait)

Photoset post # February 22, 2013 / 8:00pm // 574679 Notes

anarcho-queer:

Largest Strike (And Protest) In World History: 100 Million Strike In India Against Austerity And High Prices

A strike by millions of low-skilled workers in India has seen banks close and public transport disrupted across the sub continent in one of the biggest collective actions by workers in history.

Over 100 million Indian workers, angry about rising prices, low pay and poor working conditions, walked off their jobs on Wednesday, on the first day of a two-day strike organised by eleven major trade unions.

The strikers are demanding a legal minimum wage, fairer contracts and improved working conditions as well as redress for a multitude of other injustices.

“Workers are being totally ignored and this is reflected in the government’s anti-labour policies,” said Tapan Sen, general secretary of the umbrella Centre of Indian Trade Unions.

The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked for the strike to be called off. He wants all classes to pull together to tackle India’s slowing economy. But workers see this rhetoric as nothing but cover for the rich.

In many areas public transport was not running, banks were closed and most shops and offices kept their shutters down.

In Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha state in the east, protesters set fire to effigies of Singh and ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.

Several trains were stranded at stations as protesters blocked railway tracks. In the western state of Gujarat, close to 8,000 state-owned buses were off the roads, officials said.

One labour leader was reportedly killed by scabs in the northern city of Ambala.

Another person is reported to have died in Noida, a city where workers earlier clashed with factory owners.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimated losses for the Indian bosses from the strike at more than $3.7bn.

Photoset post # February 22, 2013 / 5:15pm // 696 Notes

anarcho-queer: Meet The New CISPA, Same As The Old CIPSA Last year, thanks to a public outcry, the effort to pass overreaching cybersecurity legislation stalled in the Senate. Now supporters have reintroduced the House version of that legislation — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The “new” version is in fact identical to the original CISPA — and poses the same threat to our digital civil liberties and our freedom to connect online. Here’s what we had to say about CISPA last April: CISPA would allow companies and the government to bypass privacy protections and share all sorts of information about what Americans do online. The legislation makes it far easier for authorities and private companies to spy on your email traffic, comb through your mobile texts, filter your online content and even block access to popular websites. The new CISPA — just like the old CISPA — would protect companies like Facebook and Microsoft from legal liability when they hand over your sensitive online data to the federal government, without any regard for your privacy. The bill would permit the government — including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security — to use that information for matters that have nothing to do with cybersecurity. The whole process would, of course, take place behind closed doors, with no accountability to the public. Last year’s activism succeeded in improving a similar bill in the Senate, before that bill ultimately failed to move forward. At the time, President Obama vowed to veto any destructive CISPA-like bill that reached his desk. This time around, for a number of reasons — including changes in Obama’s staff and shifting political dynamics — it’s unclear if the president would once again commit to vetoing CISPA. So if this “new” bill goes farther than it did last time around, we simply don’t know what will happen. If CISPA becomes law, it will be a major blow to our online privacy. But more than that, CISPA’s passage would have a chilling effect on our freedom to connect online. We won’t feel as free to state unpopular opinions, or to speak truth to power, if we know that Big Brother is getting a feed of everything we say and do. This is not what the free and open Internet is about. We need to bury this bill for good. Related: Obama Declares His Support For The Cybersecurity Act of 2012

anarcho-queer:

Meet The New CISPA, Same As The Old CIPSA

Last year, thanks to a public outcry, the effort to pass overreaching cybersecurity legislation stalled in the Senate. Now supporters have reintroduced the House version of that legislation — the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).

The “new” version is in fact identical to the original CISPA — and poses the same threat to our digital civil liberties and our freedom to connect online.

Here’s what we had to say about CISPA last April:

CISPA would allow companies and the government to bypass privacy protections and share all sorts of information about what Americans do online. The legislation makes it far easier for authorities and private companies to spy on your email traffic, comb through your mobile texts, filter your online content and even block access to popular websites.

The new CISPA — just like the old CISPA — would protect companies like Facebook and Microsoft from legal liability when they hand over your sensitive online data to the federal government, without any regard for your privacy. The bill would permit the government — including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security — to use that information for matters that have nothing to do with cybersecurity. The whole process would, of course, take place behind closed doors, with no accountability to the public.

Last year’s activism succeeded in improving a similar bill in the Senate, before that bill ultimately failed to move forward. At the time, President Obama vowed to veto any destructive CISPA-like bill that reached his desk.

This time around, for a number of reasons — including changes in Obama’s staff and shifting political dynamics — it’s unclear if the president would once again commit to vetoing CISPA. So if this “new” bill goes farther than it did last time around, we simply don’t know what will happen.

If CISPA becomes law, it will be a major blow to our online privacy. But more than that, CISPA’s passage would have a chilling effect on our freedom to connect online. We won’t feel as free to state unpopular opinions, or to speak truth to power, if we know that Big Brother is getting a feed of everything we say and do.

This is not what the free and open Internet is about. We need to bury this bill for good.

Related: Obama Declares His Support For The Cybersecurity Act of 2012

Photo post # February 22, 2013 / 9:54am // 646 Notes

Love is asking where the hell your cockslut is, and why isn’t he responding to my texts

Text post # February 14, 2013 / 1:54am

     Ⓐnarcho Queer: You Support The Troops? I Call Bullshit! →

anarcho-queer:

“I Support The Troops” is by far one of the most ingenuine idioms used by Americans on all sides of the political spectrum. When the troops are invading countries for oil, mercilessly bombing innocents with predator drones and forcefully establishing a ‘democracy’, you ‘support’ the troops. But…

Link post # February 13, 2013 / 1:05pm // 221 Notes

str-crssd: “Sleeping on the streets or walking down the aisle? It’s time to start prioritizing LGBT youth.” photo from Transgender Support (worldwide) facebook page.

str-crssd:

“Sleeping on the streets or walking down the aisle?

It’s time to start prioritizing LGBT youth.”

photo from Transgender Support (worldwide) facebook page.

(via anarcho-queer)

Photo post # January 23, 2013 / 12:08pm // 9870 Notes

Leaves That Are Green, Simon and Garfunkel

music Video post # September 18, 2012 / 11:13am

my name is james and the walls are pee coloured 

my name is james and the walls are pee coloured 

Photo post # September 7, 2012 / 12:12am // 4 Notes

A Chuck Palahniuk quote

“George Orwell got it backward.

Big Brother isn’t watching. He’s singing and dancing. He’s pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you’re awake. He’s making sure you’re always distracted.

He’s making sure your imagination withers. Until it’s as useful as your appendix. He’s making sure your attention is always filled.

And this being fed is worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about your mind. With everyone’s imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.”

—Lullaby, Chuck Palahniuk

I don’t know whether it makes a difference to anyone else or not, but I do disagree with this.
In so far as I think consumerism, and a religion of capital seem to play a role similar to what he describes, particularly consumerism.
I don’t think Orwell ever meant Big Brother to be corporations, and the corporate element of Fascism I have to assume Orwell didn’t predict. He was spot on as far as Fascism/Socialism being the outcome or WWII, but the role that consumerism and a market driven by frivilous consumption of badly manufactured goods like what we see today isn’t really in his fiction or non-fiction. He sees the state as the main problem, which is pretty clear from 1984. I do think that many of Orwell’s predictions about the nature of Fascist society have been realized by the market and a consumerist culture rather than the state though, maybe Palahniuk is right in that sense. 
I suspect the bastardisation of individualisation, which I would also argue serves as an ideology for consumerism, that is present is western fascist/capitalist societies makes it difficult to understand how collective the culture of the past was. Religious, class, ethnic, gender etc differences under a British empire were felt considerably more deeply than after the cultural revolution, most importantly in the United States. From what I have read though, it does seem more reasonable to suggest, as Orwell does, that national differences would have to triumph if Socialism or any ‘nationalistic’ political system were to function. 
Even said that, Orwell specifically mentions an end to sexism (arguable whether the book quite gets there, mind) and classism in 1984, and obviously the Party emphasises national and ethnic differences for political purposes.
Go figure. Though I would argue that some corporations are watching you, and the state is too. Presently it seems to be a marriage between Google and the CIA is my understanding. But the singing and dancing, this is also true 

Orwell Text post # September 2, 2012 / 8:39pm // 1 Notes

Newspeak theme by Diana