Just Visiting

I'm back. If you read the Publicke Notice, Planet Vleeptron was closed for the day while Bob went to visit a 79-year-old Authentic Full-Tilt Geezer pal who (was not standing on his head while he) was serving nine months in a federal prison.

So anyway, I am not on Vleeptron right now, I am on Earth checking out its prisons. I almost couldn't find any prisons in Finland/Suomi, but a very nice fellow in the architecturally remarkable Helsinki train station agreed to show me the only prison he knew about in Finland, for a very reasonable Safari Guide fee. When we got there in his Finno-Ugrik (Finns are very proud of their locally manufactured car), it looked like a very nice place, as joints like that go. No machine gun towers, no barbed wire, and if the Suomifolk inside it were not exactly Happy to be there, they didn't look outraged or suicidally depressed, either. Both genders hang at this prison, and if two (but probably not > 2, this is a prison after all, there are rules) prisoners want to fall in love, or have sex, or both, they can do it with the door closed in their room, which sorta resembles a small clean dormitory room at an okay public college.

None of that peeing and shitting in a bucket crap while sneering sociopathic guards watch you púp and pee in lieu of non-perverse amusement or entertainment.

Well, more about that Nearly Empty Set, the prisons and prisoners of Finland, later.

Here, there, on Vleeptron, in the Netherlands (my train to Amsterdam always passes a small concrete bunker, barbed wire and all, with unhappy mostly young adults in a small outdoor recreation area smoking [if that NL prison still lets prisoners smoke] and thinking unhappy thoughts), prison or jail sucks.

If you can manage to duck and dodge and weasel out of the incarcerated experience, you might consider Not Going To Jail, ever. That's just Geezer Bob's Sage Free Advice.

We are nothing
if not non-judgmental
on Vleeptron.

You may have an entirely different take on the matter, and I validate all your desires to do six months to three years in the can. You Europeanaisies need that in Metric? Six months to three years in the can. We are nothing if not non-judgmental on Vleeptron.

But if you do have Another Opinion about this, please leave a Comment and explain fully and rationally your wish someday to do a big chunk of your life locked inside some gulag or correctional facility or honor farm somewhere. Share your thoughts with Vleeptron and Earth about Why You Think Prison Might Be a Positive, Enriching Experience.

To date, Geezer Bob (who also had to set an alarm and get up early for this) has done 3 hours behind bars. Toilets and sinks made of stainless steel are cool, ditto having them in your bedroom. My mugshot is on file with the Chicopee Police Department and I guess Mulder and Scully can cliquez ici and see my prints, too, if I am a suspect in a mysterious zombie-related incident.

BUT NO CONVICTION HAHAHAHAHAHA! THE LAME MASS. PROSECUTORS HAHAHAHA THEY COULDN'T CONVICT HITLER IF THEY HAD VIDEO! HAHAHA! THE JUDGE THREW OUT THE CHARGES HAHAHAHAHA! ME AND THE OTHER DESERT STORM PROTESTORS WHO GOT BUSTED AT THE AIR FORCE BASE (hereafter referred to as: The Usual Suspects) WE JUST MOONED THE FUCKING LAME PROSECUTORS AND BREEZED RIGHT OUT OF THAT COURTROOM TO CATCH THE MIDDAY PAVEMENT RAYS! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

So ... as they say in old black-and-white Hollywood gangster movies: One arrest, no convictions, snarl. So there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Wanna see my tatt? (Tasteful small Oriental dragon in 2 or 3 colors on right bicep.)

I am so Noir. I have a colorful past.

But anyway, the jail and prison sentences which last considerably longer than 3 hours -- try to avoid these.

If you grok what I'm trying to tell you, and wish to maintain an absence from the correctional facilities of Your particular Nation, this is the time to keep up on Current Events. Lights on in your heads, whippersnappers.

Oh, also, tell the truth here: Did you know what Internet2 was? Bet Mike did, he knows shit like this. Vleeptron Honor System. No pizza. If you were klooless, remember: You heard it on Vleeptron first.

**********

Q. Is home taping killing music?

A. Yes. Instead of making
billions and billions and billions
of dollars, the music industry is now
only making billions and billions
of dollars.

-- Matt Groening, creator of
"The Simpsons," "Life in Hell," etc.

**********

CoolAvenues News Wire
Friday 15 April 2005

Music Industry Goes After Internet2
For Pirated Music Downloads

After pursuing the net-users downloading pirated music on world wide web or main commercial Internet for all, music industry has decided to pursue users on Internet2 downloading pirated music.

Around 400 students are being sued by RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for alleged downloading of illegal pirated music and movies via super-fast computer network known as Internet2.

Internet2, established in 1996, is high-speed network, which connects around 200 universities and 60 corporate for the purpose of carrying out research & test. Internet2 is not connected to main Internet, and hence, not open to general public.

As per RIAA, a total of 405 suits are being filed against students at Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of California - Berkeley, University of California - San Diego, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, University of Pittsburgh and University of Southern California.

RIAA claimed that though evidence of infringing activity on i2hub is extensive, it (RIAA) has chosen to limit the number of lawsuits to 25 per school at this time, and lawsuits are being filed only against some of the more extensive abusers of Internet2 technology. The average number of MP3 files shared by users sued in this round is more than 2,300, while the average number of total files is more than 3,900. Some users have shared as many as 13,600 MP3 files and as many as 72,700 total files (such as audio, software and video). The alleged offenders as per RIAA have illegally distributed more than 1.5 million total files, including more than 930,000 songs.

This move of RIAA is being seen as an attempt by entertainment industry to raise awareness about music piracy by expanding the scope of its legal means. Before this, lawsuits were filed against music pirates for the first time in Asia when London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) filed suits in Japan.

Faced with continued shrinking sales due to ever increasing pirated music downloads, music industry is trying its best to arrest this declining trend by using legal means. With further growth in deployment of broadband at homes where faster downloads are possible, the problem of pirated music downloads is expected to grow exponentially, and hence this widening of scope of law suits is seen as an attempt to educate people about possible danger of pirated music downloads. Prior to this music industry successfully closed down Napster - a peer-to-peer file sharing network in its earlier avatar.

- 30 -

There are more recent developments on this matter, I just can't find them right now. When I do, I'll post them. They involve oh, 20 undergrad students at my nearby University of Massachusetts @ Amherst, and handcuffs. Handcuffs. For stealing long strings of intangible zeroes and ones. These people are Evil.