Well with YouTube you’re in luck – as of the date of this post, there have been no changes to the Channel Uploads RSS feed. It has just been hidden from your browser’s “Subscribe” feature. All you have to do is take the existing YouTube Channel Uploads subscription in your feed reading software, and copy and paste into a new one with the channel name changed.

NOTE: These instructions only apply to the Channel Uploads feed.

The Channel Uploads feed for YouTube user HowToVanish is:

http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/howtovanish/uploads?alt=rss&v=2&orderby=published&client=ytapi-youtube-profile

Replace “howtovanish” in the above example with the name of the channel you wish to subscribe to, and you have that channel’s RSS feed.

Enjoy!

Adam Carolla breaking down the current occupy wallstreet movement in simple terms for everyone to understand. He dives into the cultural reasons that lead us into this situation, as well as the solution to our problems… Very similar to Ron Paul’s chapter on envy in his latest book, liberty defined.

This was an effort to stop the creation of the Great Firewall of America (aka “Internet Blacklist Bills”). If you did not see the “Stop Censorship” banner on Mozilla, Techdirt, etc. that day, or missed when I did it, the banner took you to AmericanCensorship.org.

A hearing occurred on that night in Congress regarding two unusually un-American bills, The House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (HR 3261) and the Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act (S 968). More at AmericanCensorship.org and EFF.

Here is a video which sums it up:

PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Much has been written about the tyrannical nature of these bills. I did not follow it on this blog, as much more has been written on every other blog and I would have too much to write about. However, in this post I will point out several ways this bill is outright silly:

• A certain non-profit encyclopedia will have to block the US from editing its site, as they will have to hire lawyers 24/7 to approve every edit (out of at least thousands of edits per day)
• YouTube will have to fully watch and fully approve every video submitted.
• In order to prevent ourselves from accidentally becoming felons, we will have to put a blindfold and earplugs next to our keyboard and mouse.
• At least once, the President be working together with, and acting in the interest of, Muslim terrorist states.
• People will not be able to buy food if they are merely suspected of copyright infringement, as the grocer would become a felon unless the customer goes to federal court with the MAFIAA and is not proven guilty. (Still a financial transaction.)
• Every business in the country becomes free unpaid legal services for the entertainment industry, mainstream media, and White House.

If you haven’t yet, write your Senators and Representatives, and soon.

I left a comment on the Mises Institute blog, which states this:

What’s great about this video is that inflation is not described merely as an increase in prices due to manipulation of the money supply, but the fact that money has lost its value.

Iran’s terrorist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad states the following about capitalism:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a U.N. General Assembly session on poverty this week that capitalism is on the verge of death and that it’s time for a new economic system.

“The discriminatory order of capitalism and the hegemonic approaches are facing defeat and are getting close to their end,” Ahmadinejad said at a summit meeting assessing progress on achieving U.N. goals to drastically reduce poverty by 2015.

“The undemocratic and unjust governance structures of the decision-making bodies in international economic and political fields are the reasons behind most of the plights today humanity is confronting,” he said, according to an English translation of his prepared remarks.

Hegemony and “the undemocratic and unjust governance structures of the decision-making bodies in international economic and political fields” are not capitalism. It is the linkage between government and business (Italian fascism) in which the wealthy control key institutions.

For example, NAFTA, WTO, the European Union, the UN, and the development of proposals such as “harmonizing” (forcing copyright laws to be exactly the same in all countries) and “the public’s right to know” (shutting down non-government-sanctioned news sources) are anything but capitalist. Despite hijacking the economic concept of “free trade”, which by definition means the absence of legislation and treaties, all require government legislation which is more friendly to corporations. This has nothing to do with free trade or capitalism, other than the pursuit of wealth.

And if one views the varying link between effort and pay as “discriminatory”, well then they’re right.

Bolivian President Evo Morales stated:

…it was jeopardizing the future of “Mother Earth.”

The claims that capitalism is bad for the environment is only true due to the fact that it is handled by legislation rather than the judicial system.

For example, a business-friendly environmental law from the EPA would create limits on releasing a pollutant. As this business would be following the law, a nearby neighborhood would be unable to challenge the sickness, except by trying to overturn the law in the federal court system (often a waste of time and money)

However, resorting to the judicial system would prevent this sort of intrusion and poisoning, forcing businesses to pay a fine and cease further activity in the region. As for out-of-court settlements, a parent would not be likely to sell out their dying children and relatives.

See this example of a Pennsylvania town filled with exploding tap water and “methane fog”, permitted due to a business-friendly federal environmental law which renders the state courts almost helpless.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez also rejected the “global economic order, which continues to be an extremely unjust and plundering order that benefits rich countries.” The Venezuelan and Nicaraguan speakers raised similar complaints.

I assume this is referring to the pressuring of governments to accept pseudo-capitalist “free trade” treaties which force agribusiness/pharmaceutical-friendly patent laws, as well as the “nation-building” of Afghanistan and Iraq (which is also not capitalist, as the link to self-defense from these countries is weak if any). See this article about an neocon-penned Iraqi law forcing farmers to use “registered” (Monsanto-friendly and sterile) seeds.

If anything, capitalism is rising better than ever before, due to the use of the Internet to expose politicians’ past activities, videotape fraudulent news reports, spread classified documents, weaken copyright protection, and dig up laws and treaties the media doesn’t want you to know about and post them on blogs, as well as to organize protests and grassroots political campaigns. A past column from this blog describes this in detail.

Now it appears the same thing is occurring with STP. This band has existed since 1992 (1991 if you count the non-grunge Mighty Joe Young demo material)

Their first album in 1992, the grungy Core, has lots of hits played on classic rock stations, including “Sex Type Thing”, “Plush”, and “Wicked Garden”.

1994′s Purple (incorrectly considered self-titled as the word “purple” is written in Chinese) is very 70s rock sounding, Led Zeppelin-like. Two hits from Purple are frequently played by classic rock stations, “Big Empty” (also used in The Crow) and “Interstate Love Song”. (A heavier hit, “Unglued”, is no longer heard on the radio)

I was a fan of this band since I was in 6th grade. This was 1996, after Tiny Music was released. This had a more messy sound, wasn’t always heavy, and sounded similar to the Beatles at times.

In 1999, after a brief break-up (including terrible solo work by singer Scott Weiland), No. 4 was released. It was very heavy, kind of like Core, and there were a few softer Tiny Music-like songs, but also very messy, as there were psychological issues at the time, including Scott Weiland’s drug addiction.

Shangri-La Dee Da, released in 2001, was mostly acoustic. I didn’t like it and found it boring, but others disagreed with me. There were frequent obvious references to Courtney Love (Hole like most others had “sold out” at the time), including the hit “Hollywood Bitch” and the conspiratorial “Too Cool Queenie”

(note I can only find a session recording, if you are interested in the conspiracy theory click here for the lyrics)

A greatest hits album, 2003′s Thank You (from which the above video came from, as I am told, I do not have this album). The buy-this-anyway-hit was “All In The Suit That You Wear” (sounds kinda like a cross between No. 4 and Shangri-La Dee Da):

After another break-up, Scott joined members of Guns & Roses to found Velvet Revolver, which I didn’t like (nor do I like Guns & Roses). The rest of STP joined Filter’s singer Ray Luzier to form Army of Anyone, or, “The Rest of Shangri-La Dee Da”.

A few months ago, they came back with their self titled album, Stone Temple Pilots. This album was just plain excellent. IMO Shangri-La Dee Da is no way to end a career unless you’ve given up on music. The radio hit “Between the Lines”, which will probably be locked away in the ClearChannel vault, is heavy yet polished, with the bridge lifted from Nirvana’s song “Stay Away” Hopefully they will continue to release records and not break up with another Shangri-La Dee Da Here are some songs from the new album, and the Nirvana song for comparison:

Having heard all these songs, go check out the reviews on Amazon for Stone Temple Pilots’ new 2010 self-titled release. All of the negative reviews say “This isn’t Core or Purple“, as if this was STP’s third album released 10 years after being a one-hit wonder.

To put it another way: as classic rock and modern rock radio have become merged over the past 5 or so years, too many songs were lost, reducing great careers into one-hit wonders. Pearl Jam for instance had dozens of releases on old modern/alternative rock stations. Less than 5-8 of them are played now.

See also: Act! for America’s Stop the Mosque petition to Michael Bloomberg and New York officials. 99,622 have signed so far.

(via Catholic & Enjoying It)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today, carving out new legal protections for consumers who modify their cell phones and artists who remix videos — people who, until now, could have been sued for their non-infringing or fair use activities.

The first of EFF’s three successful requests clarifies the legality of cell phone “jailbreaking” — software modifications that liberate iPhones and other handsets to run applications from sources other than those approved by the phone maker. More than a million iPhone owners are said to have “jailbroken” their handsets in order to change wireless providers or use applications obtained from sources other than Apple’s own iTunes “App Store,” and many more have expressed a desire to do so. But the threat of DMCA liability had previously endangered these customers and alternate applications stores.

On EFF’s request, the Librarian of Congress renewed a 2006 rule exempting cell phone unlocking so handsets can be used with other telecommunications carriers. Cell phone unlockers have been successfully sued under the DMCA, even though there is no copyright infringement involved in the unlocking.

EFF also won a groundbreaking new protection for video remix artists currently thriving on Internet sites like YouTube. The new rule holds that amateur creators do not violate the DMCA when they use short excerpts from DVDs in order to create new, noncommercial works for purposes of criticism or comment if they believe that circumvention is necessary to fulfill that purpose. Hollywood has historically taken the view that “ripping” DVDs is always a violation of the DMCA, no matter the purpose.

(note: this still does not give us back our VHS-era right to back up movies)
More information from Crooks & Liars

Three additional rights were also restored: the right to break copy protection when needed to test videogames for security flaws, old or obsolete “software dongles”, and (if no commercial solution exists) to make e-book readers more accessible to the disabled.

Mentioning or linking to Wikipedia (or Wikimedia Commons, or any of their leecher sites, WAPedia, Answers.com, etc) on a Google-indexed Web site results in a higher position in Google search results for Wikipedia articles.

This tutorial need not require a domain name – follow these tips on your Blogspot blog, Facebook entry, even the description field of the YouTube video you’ve just uploaded, to weaken the influence of this wannabe-Orwell bullied teenage reject narcissism fest on Google, Yahoo, and the minds of you and your children:

1. Avoid mentioning the word “Wikipedia” (or “Wiki pedia” or something similar) in your articles.
2. Avoid linking to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, WAPedia, Answers.com, etc. in your articles. For example, when linking the word Slackware Linux, link to slackware.com rather than the Wikipedia entry for Slackware Linux.
3. When I left Facebook, the “Likes” system was being centralized around Wikipedia articles. Use the unofficial Facebook “Like” pages instead of Facebook’s Wikipedia-based ones, or use Facebook “Groups” instead. (I don’t know if this is still possible.)
4. Link to entries on Wikipedia alternatives like Conservapedia, Anarchopedia, Infoanarchy, and Wikia-based wikis.
5. Word of mouth
6. Create your own (intelligent) pages on the same subjects. Do not use Wikipedia’s content. Be sure to make it as visible as possible (do not use noarchive, nocache, block via robots.txt, etc.)
7. Don’t visit Wikimedia Commons sites or Wikipedia leecher sites for any reason. Block them out in a filter if you have to.

Even though you can’t see the effects of your boycott, you individually are still making a very small effort, and you’ll feel proud that you’ve done your part in protecting the minds of children and adults from this behemoth of junk. It’s easy – there is nothing to lose, just follow the tips above (and invent your own) and keep your effort going!

Rather than go on a standard political rant about this issue like any other blogger would, I thought I’d apply this to each amendment in the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.

(Note that the content in this article may not apply to blogs hosted on major “community” sites such as Google and Myspace. Since they are run by major corporations, with Myspace owned by the parent company of Fox News, they may be subject to the same/similar issues as Twitter and Facebook.)

1st Amendment: No Establishment of Religion (basis for “Separation of Church and State”), Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Peaceful Assembly, Right to Petition the Government:
Blogs have empowered the people more than ever, as they expose media bias and blackouts, political scandals, and more corruption you would never find out about on TV or radio. Information about diverse religions and philosophy available on the Internet is discouraging many parents from vaccinating their children by temporarily changing their religion or claiming an exemption. Some religious issues reported by Media 1.0, such as sexual abuse issues in the Catholic Church, have been subject to further debate on blogs – for example, the role of the vow of celibacy required by most priests. Material critical of Islam, such as the movie Fitna and depictions of Muhammad, freely spreads through blogs, causing Islamic theocracies to play whack-a-mole, banning entire Web sites and threaten to execute their owners. As a means of news, blogs containing audio and video, such as embedded material uploaded onto YouTube, have enabled individuals to “broadcast”, regardless of archaic laws. Broadcast licensing was originally designed to prevent interference according to issues not present in the age of GPS, satellites, digital transmissions, and “simulcasting” (the ability to put multiple channels in a single frequency, such as with Digital TV and HD Radio). However, they eventually became a means of media control. It took many media blackouts for obscure anti-establishment politician Ron Paul to gain media exposure in 2008, and in the 2004 Democratic primaries an antitrust-minded man named Howard Dean was mocked out of the race over a pep rally. Many grassroots campaigns, spread via blogs, have been highly successful. The Internet has made it easy to send e-mails and faxes to Congressmen and -women, as well as make laws and transcripts available for full viewing.
What gives blogs the advantage with all of this over Twitter or Facebook is the fact that if you own or lease the hardware running your site, you have much more freedom, since the less contracts there are, and the more privacy rights you have (Facebook is notorious for a mysterious “selling out” on the importance of privacy rights some time ago), the freer you are.

2nd Amendment: Right to Bear Arms:
In a world of liberal and neo”conservative” media, true conservatives and libertarians have grown due to blogs. Efforts such as the “Ron Paul Revolution” presidential campaign of 2008, the successor group Campaign for Liberty, and Tea Party protests owe the Internet their success. In opposition to these efforts, bog-standard left-wing charges of “violent racists” and “angry white men” fly at innocent Republicans who now have a new opportunity to speak their mind. And unlike Twitter and Facebook, which respond to any one complaint by banning the user or material immediately, so-called “hate speech” and “harassment” accusations by the left-wing establishment can be resolved more easily and fairly with a hosting provider, even if similar bans are in their contracts.

3rd Amendment: No Quartering of Soldiers:
Many blogs, such as the anarcho-capitalist LewRockwell.com and Justin Raimondo’s Antiwar.com, frequently criticize wars, foreign policy measures, anti-terrorism laws, and the actions of the US military (in fact, LRC is banned from offices of US intelligence agencies). No longer are complaints about the military or government limited to our minds or homes – while none of us, whether criminal or peaceful, are anonymous to authorities in any way, blog pseudonyms enable us to publish all kinds of crazy ideological arguments without our families and friends even knowing. Again, Facebook and Twitter will shut anything “hate speech” down immediately.

4th Amendment: Search & Seizure, Warrants, Right to Privacy:
The establishment has grown very successful in defeating the protections of this amendment. Laws such as the Patriot Act have eroded this right, and social networks and search engines have become goldmines for both private industry and government agencies. Facebook and Twitter are no exception – those sites store backups of your actions even if you delete your account. Web hosts have their own privacy policies and law enforcement measures which may be much less invasive. Other laws, such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, have granted these same broad powers to copyright holders, though in some cases they are used for purpose of censorship or forming trust-like “holding” organizations rather than copyright infringement.
And while Media 1.0 will censor or twist anything that reflects badly upon its own industry (or any other industry for that matter), and Facebook has “mysteriously” reversed its stance on privacy rights recently, blogs such as Slashdot have risen to fill in the blanks.

5th Amendment: No Double Jeopardy, No Self-Incrimination, Right to Life, Liberty, and Property, Eminent Domain:
6th Amendment: Right to a Speedy Trial, Nature of Trials:
7th Amendment: Right to Trial By Jury:
Acts which threaten the establishment have led to intelligence agencies and copyright holders to engage in dealmaking which is slowly trending towards entire leasing of your machine. Blogs have been reporting these efforts by Microsoft, Apple, the MAFIAA, and others, as well as reporting hacker attacks on remotely-stored personal data, which is sometimes marketed as “cloud computing”. After eminent domain laws were extremely loosened to allow seizure of property by Wal-Mart, bloggers not only reported the story, but debated the consequences. Trial by jury is being threatened through the expansion of forced arbitration, mandated by a federal law irreversible by states, including to Web sites about cartoon characters, rapists, neglectful murdering nursing homes, and consumer electronics purchases, but people are getting together and fighting the law, and some arbitration companies have left consumer dispute markets. The banking industry’s role in the current recession, reported by bloggers with an anti-establishment bias, has helped with this issue as well.

8th Amendment: No Cruel or Unusual Punishment:
Information regarding foreign wars have been reported by bloggers, with Media 1.0 dishonesty even being videotaped. Torture and other events at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo would be easy to hide if blogs didn’t exist, and there would be less questioning the claims made by the President about national security and foreign dictators. The use of pseudonyms have encouraged people to discuss and debate the Israeli lobby without fear of being publicly labeled an anti-Semite, even if they secretly are one.

9th Amendment: Rights Not Limited to Constitution:
As rights such as copyright protection have been broadly expanded in length and scope, bloggers have been making use of Creative Commons licenses to waive such rights for the benefit of themselves and others. This even includes musicians who rely on a cult following and touring, such as Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead, who have left major labels and still kept their fans. Some have gone even further and released material entirely into the public domain, as controversial creationist figure Kent Hovind once did. I myself have released much of this blog’s content into the public domain.

10th Amendment: States’ Rights, Other Rights Belong to States & People:
Due to dissatisfaction with the establishment, fueled by blogs and the Tea Party movement, many libertarians have started a “Tenther” movement, proposing that the US become a confederacy where states have nullification rights over an ever-expanding federal government. Many want to repeal other Constitutional amendments associated with infringing on states’ rights, including parts of the 14th (birthright citizenship, bill of rights applies to states), the 16th (direct federal income tax), and the 17th (senate popularly elected like the house is, something I want to see repealed). Twitter and Facebook, once again, will shut down anything after somebody points the race card.

27th Amendment: Limiting Congressional Pay:
(part of original Bill of Rights, but not ratified until 1992)
Bloggers have been able to monitor Congress like never before, including not only laws and transcripts in their entirety, but also exposing financial and sexual scandals, ties to various lobbies, and other forms of corruption Media 1.0 would never report, and would be extremely difficult to spread via Twitter.

You Are a Thoughtful Artist

You may be creative, but there’s nothing messy about your approach to art. All of your art is well thought out and planned. You art ends up being close to how you initially imagined it. Your work tends to be quite deep and complex. You know how to produce something that appeals on many levels. Your art may take a long time to create, but your patient. And as a result, you tend to love everything you make.

Blogthings: What Type of Artist Are You?

You Are A Creative Dreamer

You dream big, and you often are willing to think of ideas that others wouldn’t dare dream about. You don’t just think outside the box – you’re not even aware of the box being there! You can solve problems that other people think are impossible. You always explore all options. Where others see nothing, you see possibilities. For you, the world is rich with potential.

Blogthings: What Kind of Dreamer Are You?

Here are all 3. Apparently Warner fucks are roughing up minors again, so #3 might get “muted” in its entirety for a Whitesnake clip in the credits (it is muted on other usernames).

(Click here for the previous post – contains details on the game)

The game consisted of simple arcade-style jump-and-shoot games with goofy graphics. Not a bad idea, but definitely not worth $199, regardless of inflation or the existence of Shockwave Flash.

More info here.

(I was a Super NES kid, not a Sega one, and didn’t own a SNES until two-three years later, so I didn’t fall victim to this, fortunately)

Also, as this funny video review points out, many of the games could not be continued due to inability of the character to jump or other issues caused by poor design.

Watch: