Sausage festival

Today’s post is supposed to be about our best party that we’ve ever hard. As I’m writing this post, I can’t really think of any cool outstanding party, however there is this particular party, which happens to be the worst party I’ve ever had. It happened just a month ago in my suite. And unfortunately, I was the host of the event.

 When you come all the way from France to Boston, you’re hopping to meet new people, socialize with your floor mates, and sweet talk to girls. And what is best to do such thing? A nice room party filled with alcohol and music.

As you can see above I had a lot of expectations… maybe too much… I prepared things carefully; I sneaked out some bowls full of crackers out from the dinning hall, download some MP3 (legally), cleaned up the whole place, made my bed ^^. Everything looked nice and perfect. Exactly as I have imagined in my dream.

11h30 already… And still no sign of my floor mate.

I was hopping to see this girl again, however, she didn’t come… actually almost none of the girl came… Just couple. And they barely stayed an hour. This party turned out into what Americans call a “ sausage fest”. The worst part about it was when one of our floor mates started to feel the heat of the alcohol. Therefore, he took his shirt out danced and jumped around like crazy. My supposedly “dreamed party” turn into a real nightmare… Indeed, for someone who expects to meet girls I ended up with a party with only half naked male.

My failure was as great as my expectation.

Litchi martini

 

In today’s post, I d like to define certain origin of the cocktail and of course I’ll give you another recipe.

 

Where does the term cocktail come from? What is its origin?

 

Ironically, the cocktail was invented while alcohol was still prohibited. Since it was forbidden, many alcohols would taste really bad. Therefore People would add some other juice to mask the taste of a bad quality illegal alcohol. Up to the 70’s, cocktails were mostly made out of gin, rum and whisky. Nowadays, vodka has replaced these alcohols since it’s cheaper.

And now, without further ado, I have the pride… the privilege… no, the pleasure of introducing the mighty litchi martini. This cocktail is not really known in every bar somehow. As for me, I’ve learned this cocktail in a wedding and I still remember the feeling of it. We were in Hawaii and the weather was pretty warm and the tuxedo didn’t help at all. Then, my cousin (the bartender girl) brought me this drink:

“ Here you go, this should help you out with the heat”.

The drink had this particular white and unclear color. But most of all I couldn’t help noticing this strange white thing at the bottom of my drink… It was a litchi.

When I first sipped my cocktail… I felt a really refreshing and smooth taste. A very light sweet taste given by the litchi juice coupled with a little rough taste of the vodka. However, you can barely feel the alcohol thanks to the sweetness. I’ve never tasted a litchi juice that was this good. And believe me… No brand will be able to match the taste of that litchi juice I was holding.

“What kind of juice to you use to make this drink? I’ve had many litchi juices before and they barely match the taste of your drink. What did you use?”

Then she pulled and wave out this fruit can.

 “This one is pretty easy…  Litchi can”

Yup that’s right. Do you remember those fruit in a can that comes with sirup? Those little deserts that we used to eat when we were very young? Well, it happens to be one of the best ingredients to make cocktails.

“Fruit can happens to be one of the best ingredient for bartenders since it contains the fruit itself which can come in handy if you want to decorate a cocktail, but mostly because the syrup will outmatch any juice on the market.”

“Yeah… I’ve never thought about that”

“And its cheap too ^^” … She replied at me with a big smile.

So to make a litchi martini, all you need is vodka, a litchi can, a shaker and some ice. I know what you’re thinking. Even though it’s called litchi martini, well there is no martini in the recipe. Now since it’s a martini, there should be at least 40% of vodka and the rest litchi syrup. Put it in the shaker and shake until its ice cold. You usually stop shaking when it starts hurting your hand.

 

Tips of the day: Suppose you have nothing to measure oz. How would you pour the exact quantity of alcohol? Well, here is the technique that most bartenders use. You count in your head =) (be sure to count in your head and not out loud to look more professional ). Indeed, what matters is the proportion between the alcohol and the juice. If for example, you can’t 3 second of juice, and 3 second of alcohol, than you know that the ratio is 50/50. There is another counting technique but I can’t remember the exact proportion each count represent in term of liquid. But I promise I’ll do my homework for the next post to come.

 

 

Darwin's and Khai's theory of evolution

According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, an organism inherits features every generation. These changes in the genes can produce a new trait in the offspring of an organism. The features that help a species to survive and reproduce are more likely to linger than traits that are unfavorable. This process is called the natural selection.

In this section I’m going to talk about my thoughts concerning the theory of evolution and how it may affect us. So it may sound a bit out of place since I’m no expert on the subject.

From what I’ve learned, we are descendant of the monkeys. These latter stay low on the ground and whenever they want to look for into the horizon to spot incoming predator, they had to climb trees. When they decided to move away from the trees, the only way to look for into the distance was to stand tall like humans and look far.

As for human being, I’ve always wondered if we are still evolving according to this description of the natural selection like animals do. Indeed, the animals developed certain features that help them to survive to their environment. However, we all know that Men don’t adapt to the environment, well at least not anymore. Actually, they tend to do the opposite and adapt the environment to themselves. From all these generation, didn’t we lose features instead of gaining? I have couple examples in mind such as fur, teeth and nails.

We all know that fur allows animals to keep their heat when the environment is cold. However, Men built shelters and knew how to create fire. They used animal’s leather to build cloth. And therefore, they’ve learned how to protect from cold environment, which is why fur is no longer needed.

As for the teeth, many animals have strong and developed canines and fangs to tear the meat apart. Didn’t we lose this feature as well? When Men discovered fire, they test burn everything. Then they tried to burn meat and guess what? To their great surprise, meat happens to be easier to eat when cooked (and taste better too). We also use knives and forks as well, which do the job for tearing meats apart. Maybe in future generation, human being will lose their teeth, who knows?

I believe also that nails where supposed to be an asset that would help us to defend ourselves against dangerous predators. Indeed, for many animals such as tigers, cat and lions, claws are lethal weapons. However, as for humans, since they’ve created tools, lance and knives to protect themselves, nails were no longer needed as weapons.

Nowadays, without our abilities to adapt the environment to ourselves, we would pretty much die from every possible way that one could think of. Indeed, we haven’t developed traits to survive to our surrounding environment. During all these years, I believe only one aspect of our body as developed since… Our brain. And is the brain enough to survive in dangerous environment? Well I believe that mind over matter.

Cocktail recipes and preparation

Today is your lucky day. And why is your lucky day? Because by the time you finished this post, you’ll be able to prepare 3 of my favorite cocktail. They are called Vodka martini, litchi martini and at last, the mojito.

I will also cover the story behind each cocktail, how they are supposed to taste, how they became famous and I’ll teach you some tricks while preparing cocktails.

“Shaken not stirred”.

The vodka martini has become without a doubt famous thanks to the success of James Bond movies in the 1960. It is indeed, 007’s favorite cocktail .It has a really precise aspect thanks to the characteristic shape of the glass, the clearness of the vodka/vermouth and its olives.

The taste of vodka martini is really particular and there is NO single recipe for this one. Indeed, the preparation can vary depending on your customer's taste. It has a very contrasted taste in two levels. First, the vodka gives the strength of the taste whereas the martini gives smooth and a delicious taste. Then, there is the sweetness of the “sweet vermouth” combined with the saltiness of the olive. However I’ve seen many bartenders use “dry vermouth” instead of “sweet vermouth”. The dry vermouth isn’t sweet and gives the cocktail a very strong and refreshing taste. While drinking it, you got to make sure to drink the cocktail very slowly so the olives give its taste to the vodka martini.

There is a variant for this cocktail as well: “The dirty vodka martini”. Some people prefer their drink with olive juice. Since, this latter has a grey color, therefore, the clearness of the drinks disappears and this is why it looks dirtier.

The preparation is rather easy but before I start telling you my recipe, you all ought to know that there is no exact recipe for any cocktail. Like cooking, you have many ways of doing certain dishes. It is not chemistry. Some chef will innovate by adding a secret personal ingredient and so on. The ingredients required are ice, dry (or sweet) vermouth, vodka and olives. You’ll need a shaker as well.

Tips: Here is my first tip. Many of the cocktails lack of ice in the drink itself. Therefore, if you wait too long, the drink may warm due to the body heat (mostly because you are holding the drink). You can’t just put ice in the drinks because you may alter the taste since ice melts. The trick is to fill up the glass with ice while preparing the cocktail, which takes a little time. When the preparation is finished, you get rid of the ice and pour the drinks into the frozen glass. Some bartenders put their glasses in the fridge compartment to keep them real cold.

As for the proportion, it is very simple. First, fill up the shaker with ice (lots of ice). Then start with a fifty/fifty proportion of vodka and vermouth in the cocktail shaker. Since people have different taste, you can vary on the quantity proportion. As for me, since vodka has a really strong taste, I tend to put a little bit more vermouth then vodka. Shake the shaker until its ice cold. Then finally, pour the drink in the frozen glass without the ice. To customize the taste and the decoration, add a slice of lemon (optional). And voila ^^.

Now remember that this cocktail is rather a strong one since you’re mixing up two alcohols together. Indeed many other cocktails are diluted with soft drink or fruit juice. So you better go easy on the number glass you drink. This one can get you wasted in 3 drinks. As for me, only one is enough to make my day.

To be continued…

PS: I am saving the other recipes for the next post to come since this one is starting to become really long. Like many TV-show, it is a way to keep your audience entertained in the long term.

Darwin's Birthday

Today's class was rather original. Indeed, we were allowed to attend Darwin's birthday, which happened in the GSU. We were also given this special social assignment in which we had to interview the person who attended the event. We had to know why they were here, who they are and if everything goes well, why not ask for a diner some day...

 

So when we arrived at the GSU, there was a special improvisation show around Darwin. However, it was rather hard to understand everything. After the show, a cake was nicely offered by the GSU. And this was the opportunity for me to interview someone. Since I have a really good reason to talk to them, it wasn't that hard at all. My approach was:

 

"Hi, my names is Khai, we are given this special assignment. Do you have 3 min for an interview? " And bingo... I was able anchor a conversation.

 

With this approach, I was able to interview a group of 4 girls. However, their answers were rather short. And the interview didn't last too long. When you talk to someone, you can always tell whether the person feels like talking to you or not... In my case, I believe I didn't handle the conversation well. However, it is understandable since it is harder to maintain a nice conversation flow with 4 perfect strangers and my English skill for approaching a person isn't well developed enough. Anyway, there are here because their friend is in the music band and they wanted to watch their performance.

 

Then I was able to interview someone called Ryan Menezes. He's one of the member of "Liquid fun", a community of improvisation actor. He is the person who handles the finance. He told me that it was actually their group who organized the show. I've done some improvisation last year. I can tell you it's really difficult to talk without hesitation. I don't know if you had notice but during the show, all the actors respected the rules of acting: Always face the audience and never ever hide one of your partners.

 

To put in a nutshell, I understand the real meaning of this assignment. Maybe you want us to think that its true purpose was to write something in English. However I believe you gave us this assignment so we could have a chance to socialize with the local people from Boston, which I really appreciate. And for that, I thank you very much.

Battle star Galactica

 

In this topic, I’ve decided to writte about Battlestar Galactica (Also known as BSG). BSG is a remake of a very old TV-show that bears the same name. It is a sci-fi series which involves the human race extinction and in order to survive, they have to flee from their own creation of race of robots called the Scyllons (also known as toasters). These latter have destroyed their home planet Caprica and are now looking for a new home to rebuild the human race. Therefore, the remaining humans fly through space with the left over ships that survive the attack.

The real interesting thing about BSG is not the main plot itself but all the issue the fleet encounter during their migration and how the scenarist were able to submerge the audiance in this solid world. Indeed, it almost feels like you’re living in it. In Battlestar galactica, people are confront with the same problem we experience on earth.

The scyllons are the least of their problem. Unlike any TV-show, in BSG, people eat, and their stock supply food are not unlimited. And therefore, they have to find a fast solution about it before the population starts to manifest.

Spaceships need a certains type of fuel which need a spécial méthode of harvesting.

People are not all nice. While escaping, the fleet was able to salvage a prison cargo. Since the fleet is fighting for its survival, it opens up to a lot of debate whether they should free the prisonner or not.

They don’t work in the same condition. The elite are to fly fighters whereas the other have to work hard in terrible conditions. And therefore, we have a new version of the proletariat in a space environnement.

As for the world, it is really credible. People have developped certains habit of language. In Bsg, they don’t say the F-word but « FRAK ». This word became really popular in the fan comunity.

The way it is filmed is original as well. It really feels like you are watching a high definition documentary rather than a TV-show.

And because all of these details mentioned above, the creators have built a really strong and credible environnement .

 

Second Life

Today’s topic will be about a game called Second Life. You probably heard about it. If not, well, second lifeis a MMORPG (Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). A new generation of game which  involves that you posses a permanant access to internet.  This new generation of game has opened a lot of debate due to its addicitive attributes. So in this post, we’re going to talk about the concept of the game and why it is addicting thanks to my personal experience. The concept of mmorpg is simple but revolutionary at the same time. You create a character which will evolve in this virtual world. However, unlike many game, When you disconnect, the world still persist and other players will still be able to interact with the world while you’re not playing it. In « second life you can let your imagination run freely to create your character?.  From height, to eye color, blond or brunette, Fat or skinny… You can be anything you’ve ever dreamed of. If you’re creating a female character, she’s got to look like something from playboy.

The game open’s up to a lot of debate for several reasons. First it gives children a very stereotyped image of the real world. Indeed, we have to remember that second life is a game and that children tend to be influence very easily. In « second life », males are as strong as Conan the barbarian, and the girl’s breast are as big as Pamela’s. Second, the activity the game offers is similar to our real worlds, there is no need to socialize anymore. You feel like playing bowling with your friend ? Just turn on your cumputer, log your character and meet other players to play online bowling. You can even go shopping in malls in second life. To put it simple, each minute you spend to tweak your character is a minute wasted of your real life. This is how a lot of people feel like about MMORPG.

And finally, MMORPGs are addicting. But why is it addicting ? The reasons are simple too. You character evolves in a virtual enivronnement cut from the real life’s problem. In second life, you don’t pay taxe, you can have as many virutal girl friend as you want, you don’t have to eat nor go to the toilet. Well to put it in a nutshell, you just live in an utopic world. There are certains degrees of addiction to these MMORPG. The highest level of  player are called « no-life », since they don’t really have a social life or « hardcore » by the player community.

Couple months ago, I admit that I was one of those hardcore gamer. I’m not really familiar with « second life » but I used to play « world of warcraft » a lot. The concept is the same :

So in the real life, I’m Khai, a 25 year old  student who lives the most boring life that one could possibly have. But in World of Warcraft, I’m « Fangor », a paladin warrior of the Light who swore to protect the « alliance » from those dreadfull nasty « horde ».  I’m rich and wealthy. I have several horses in my personal stable and seven wives. Many people are counting on my skills and abilities. I am indeed a powerful fella who seeks power and recognition. Well now you got the point, things that would’ve been an issue or impossible are at the reach of my hand in world of warcraft.

To summerize, MMORPG are the new génération of game that counts roughly 11 000 000 player in the whole world. Some of thèse player have become so addicted that they lost certains aspect of life they can’t ignore. Like any addicting product, MMORPG should be used with moderation

Bartending

Today’s topic will be about bartending. Indeed, I got recently

interested in alcohol mixture, I even bought myself a Boston shaker for 70 dollars but dont get me wrong, Im not a big drinker. Like cooking, I believe bartending deserve a bit more attention. Mixing alcohol in order to archieve a sweet and smooth taste is an art and I’m going to share  this pleasure with you guys. This is the story how I got interested into bartending.

I still remember the first day I did my first cocktail. In the first place, I wanted to visit my cousin in a restaurant called Anise in California.  Since she happens to be a bartender, I thought it would be fun to ask her if she could make me a drink. So I asked her for a Mojito …and to my great surprise, she didn’t give me any drink. Just a bottle of rhum, some mint leaves, lime, sugar cane and sparkling water.

« Here… Do your own mojito ».

« What the … ? Are you kidding me ?? hmmm hey why not ? ^^»

And here goes my first cocktail and it tasted not so bad… Then she asked if I knew what a bartender was.

« Well of course, it’s a person who serves alcohol »

« Well not exactly. Bar, a roost. Tender kind . When putting it together, it give Kind Roost »

Then she knocked the bar and said :

« If this was a roost, it would be a board to place the drink on. But because there is a bartender, tender, which is also kindness, is born into the bar. If there is no kindness, it can’t be called a bar »

Of course after our little conversation, I really got impress by her knowledge and I wanted to know more about bartending.

There is two job in the world where you are never allowed to betray your Customer. The first is a doctor or a pharmacist and the other one is a bartender. Indeed, both these jobs offer things that can be either poisonous or medical.

Now i would like to focus on cocktails. Some cocktail doesn’t require ice nor shaker, and is very easy to make. But because it is so simple, it has to be made correctly. The easier the cocktail is, the harder it is to please your customer. One perfect exemple would be the « red eye ». The « red eye » is carbonated and feels like beer. But it has got a sense of sweetness in it and is very soothing. To perform a red eye, all you need is a beer and a tomato. These type of cocktails are called reviver cocktails. Revive as in cheer up or give life to.  However, everyting that is served in a bar is a « reviver cocktail ». When you’re tired of working, as soon as you enter a bar, it already starts to feel better. That might be the reason why bar exist.

If you would like to know more about cocktails, Ill be glad to writte other post about the history and recipes of each cocktail.

The crisis consequences

The subprime crisis started in the 90’s but it’s only now that we are experiencing its huge disaster. Soon, many cities and town will have to fire thousands of workers. The article doesn’t even hesitate to use a strong and violent metaphore to picture the catastrophic issue : « Nearly all community is going to see blood ».

Heavy measures have been taken. Governor Deval Patrick has taken away the local aid by 128 million dollar for the fiscal year. In Massachussests, One out of five dollars goes to the cities and town to help the local budget.

 

The crisis resulted in many job loss. So far, we can count : 14 500 teachers, firefighters, librarians, and other local employées lost their jobs. As for as I am concern, this crisis is weakening towns and cities by attacking key persons and jobs. Therefore many cities are in need and request financial support. However, the opposite is happening. Local aids are been cut and many layoff is about to happen. But that’s not it. Ongoing project for towns and cities are now put on hold resulting in a decreasement of job. It is so bad that in some cities, they even stop salting the roads during winter in order to preserve the salt for the busiest thouroughfares

 

Recovering has becoming the main priority for town and the following discussion and décision have never ever been talked nor thought about.

Accents from Boston

As far as I am concerned, an accent is a very personal and charming trait  that one may have. You are not  convinced ? Then check this link :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tOepGpowzk&feature=PlayList&p=FAF32B145E384492&playnext=1&index=14

 Long time ago, I remember I wanted to learn how to speak English the perfect way. Indeed, I really wanted to get rid of my french accent so I watched many movies and tried to imitate their way of speaking. As of this day, I beleive I have a slight accent but people can’t really tell whether my accent is french or not. Now I regret it a little since accent make you so much more appealing.

It is usually one of my subject when I’m talking to local american people since I’m worried about my accent.

Now, as for Boston accent, according to the radio broadcast, there not one but many boston accent depending the region you’re in. However, the best known typical features of the Boston accent are non rhoticity and large As

The typical accent would be in the pronouncation of the R sound. Indeed, the R sound is a bit skipped and faded. They tend to leave off "r", and sometimes add one in another place..As for the A, it is a lot stressed and longer. In Boston, you don’t say :

How are you?

But most likely:

How ah yaa?

It somehow sounds like the British accent with the same stressing but in a more “flatter way”. I really like accent from different country and the one from Boston remeinds of a clown speaking^^.

THe Mercantile Era

Frederick Tudor AKA Boston’s Icekings.

Born in september 1783, Frederick Tudor is the third son of Willam Tudor a wealthy boston lawyer. He is also known as the Ice Kings of Boston thanks to his bright and original idea. Indeed, while visiting the Carribean, he thought about selling ice oversea to warmer countries by exploiting the ponds of New England. At first glance, this idea may seem a little out of place and very challenging. How could you ship ice oversea without them melting especially in 1805. We have to remember that means of transportation wasn’t as developped as nowadays. The travelling from one point to another was really long since boats were much slower in this period. Indeed, the real challenge was to keep his ice from melting before customers had a chance to purchase it. Also an interesting detail is that he didn’t produce the ice, he rather took advantage of Massachussets natural ressources and cold weather in order to extract ice and water. However, Frederic Tudor knew that if he were successful, he would be able to make a huge fortune out of his business very fast and without competition. But before archieving the impossible, Frederick Tudor went through a lot of issue.

First attempts and failures

His first attempt was to sell 80 tons of ice in Martinique which is 1500 miles away from Boston. He bought his first brig named « Favorite » in 1806 and this latter left in the 10th of february. The trip was rather long and it would take three weeks to complete the journey to Martinique. Therefore, a considerable amount of the ice melted, less than half the ice quantity, resulting in 4500$ loss overall. However, his first delivery wasn’t a complete failure since Tudor was able to sell some of the ice and proved that selling ice oversea is not impossible.  However many competitor were attracted to steal his idea and exploiting the ice business. Later, he’s encounting severe financial issue with the loss of 3 shipments to Havana. He only started to make profit in 1810 with 7400$ of gross sells. Then it increased to 9000$. However, he was overwhelmed with debts and pursued by creditors. His balance was against him: $10,3 72 out of a total of $38,772. Since his benefit couldn’t outweight his debt, he spend a year in debtor’s prison from 1812 to 1813.

Success Story

His personal experience from “ice shipping” taught him how to increase the efficiency of his business not only in shipping but also in other field as well such as transportation and stocking. These two factors were crucial for the ice conservation. He began to stock the ice into “wooden icehouses” which got a better insulation than the others houses. Moreover, he found out that stocking ice in a huge amount would slow down the melting process. He also replaced the hay he used for the insulation by sawdust which is more efficient. Therefore, Frederick Tudor was back in business again. And tried to exploit new business area such as fruit shipping. However, this idea has been revealed to be a complete disaster since fruits would rot before arriving to destination resulting in debt again. He first thought that the market wouldn’t work at all but to his great surprise, he discovered that Americans were also interested in ice as well. Indeed only elite had ice for their guest. This new business was very interesting for Frederick Tudor since it was so much easier to ship the ice to those regions than the other island. He then decided to focus on those Customer by giving them free ice in order to make them loyal customers. This technics is often use by infamous drugs dealers and reveals to be very successful. In 1825, Frederick Tudor improved his business thanks to Nathaniel Wyeth who found a new way to cut the ice from Boston lakes. It was a big revolution and ice conservation was no longer a problem for the business man.

Finally, his ice business worked so well and he became very wealthy. From this simple and crazy idea, Frederick Tudor was able to archeive the impossible : selling ice oversea and most of all,  make a fourtune out of it by learning from his previous mistake and adapting to his environment. Many competitors are now interested in the ice market and tried to follow Frederick Tudor footsteps.

The key to unlock the success

In this part of the essay, I would like to focus quickly on several key factors that led him to success and famousness. Indeed, Frederick Tudor was no ordinary businessman.

He first had a great a sense of observation of the weather. This latter was for him a matter of business: as the season of cold approached, and as long as it continued, he watched and noted the thermometer. Indeed, Boston during cold season is freezing col and filled with ice. Although people thought it was a joke, he took the challenge seriously. Otherwise he could never have pulled out the harvest that gave him his name of " Ice King."


" The frost covers the windows, the wheels creak, the boys run, winter rules, and $50,000 worth of Ice floats for me upon Fresh Pond." (From Tudor's Ice House Diary)

He also had this great idea of marketing mentioned above. Applied by drugs dealer, you first appeal your customers with free sample and make them loyal customers

His first attempt of ice shipping wasn’t a success but neither a total disaster. What impresses me the most was his ability to stay on track and dared to continue his business by learning from his previous mistake.

 

Sources :

http://homepage.mac.com/robbyg/tudorice/iMovieTheater20.html

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Tudor

http://www.iceharvestingusa.com

http://www.failuremag.com/arch_history_cool_customer.html

MP3 Downloading

MP3 downloading

 

MP3 downloading has become a huge issue for the music industry. It first started with the creation of a new music format file called MP3. This Latter reduces the size of any sound file (such as .wav) without alterating the sound quality and and therefore it is much easier to handle and is more likely to be uploaded/downloaded. Then came napster, the most infamous peer to peer program. This free software allows any user from the world to exchange MP3 files at a relatively fast rate. No need to spend cash for an album anymore, you can now just download it for free. As for as I am concern, I m going to take position wether it’s fair or not to illegally download MP3 files by analysing both sides :

From the users point of view …

… and the industry and its artist points of view.

So on one hand, internet has become a rich source of information nowadays. You can now find anything you want from information, music, video, software and even people. What makes internet a powerfull tool is its diversity and i believe it’s a shame to limit its capacity. Above all, I believe it’s ridiculous to make someone pay an insanely high fee for downloading. 250 000 dollars and 3 years of prison is way above reasonable. If you need to penalize someone, choose the right way at least. Paying is not the only option. You could for exemple take away one’s driving licence for a temporary moment or even a simple warning would’ve been enough. A second warning would then be the high ticket fee. I believe it’s a more appropriate méthode of warning and threatening by saying «  Okay, we got ya, if you do it a second time, you’ll be in big trouble ».

In this very room, who hasn’t download any thing illegaly ? Do you think you deserve to pay this much ? How about those cops… Do you honestly think that no-one never ever downloaded anything illegal ? And you’re going to let them arrest you for something they’ve done?

On the other hand, we all got to remember that our favorite artist is living out of his song. Eventhough the temptation, we have to remember that downloading can be interpretated as stealing. Would you steal a bag from a old defenseless woman ? No huh… As for me… I never really download anything because it’s too much of a hassle to find the right site. They always change their adresse and so on. But if I had the opportunity to download illegaly, I would think twice.

I believe the downloading issue is to big to be handled especially by the police. Hackers are always a step ahead. They even have developped a way to download without getting caught : IP-blocker. The only way the downloading issue can be resolve is with some self discipline.