A controversial piece of legislation aiming to bolster the powers of law enforcement agencies has passed the Federal Senate, despite vehement protests from the Greens, who argued strongly that the bill was “yet another” unnecessary expansion of the Government’s surveillance powers in Australia. Entitled the Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011, the legislation, amongst other things, introduces a requirements for ISPs to retain data on subscribers’ Internet activities in the context of a warrant being sought. It also broadly brings Australia into line with the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime.
The Australian public, and media, have been largely asleep on this issue and, by Parliament standards, the speed with which this legislation has been rushed through must be a new record — with both major political parties colluding to force it through and quash any thoughts of amendment to its draconian scope.
So the time has come — VPN is no longer a luxury but a necessity. The question is, which VPN service providers are best for us poor folks on the arse end of the planet? I have more or less settled on probably going with Private Internet Access. Can any of the BigBrains on Slashdot enlighten me further on the subject of personal VPN — the kind that provides the full spectrum of service as a naked direct link does?
I still am not sure about that cows having magnetic sense thing. Birds I can accept, but the very first thoughts to cross my mind when I heard about cows:
1: Grazing lands are usually lands people don't want to live in
2: The southern face is more livable and hospitable.
Those two facts suggest to me that it's possible on a global scale cows are mostly on a certain face of a hill. Supposing most cows are on the southern slope, could it not be possible they simply elect to face uphill?
I'm not saying my speculations are any kind of proof, that they are well supported, or anything else like that. Only reasons the scientists may not have found the true cause. As they say, correlation does not imply causation.
Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules. Corollary: Following the rules will not get the job done.