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It's sort of weird. While the Copenhagen talks occur and just before Christmas, the Australian government seem to be pushing out all the backlog they've been sitting on. Within a day (give or take hours) the discussion paper on An R18+ Classification for Computer Games was released by the Attorney-General's Department and the ISP Filtering Live Pilot Report was released. Obviously the filter report is getting more attention because I suppose there are more internet users than gamers.

While I would love to actually give the two issues thought and create a deep, well thought out treatment of each, I don't have the time. But if you are looking to do so, here's some of the quotes that may be useful.

But I think the political landscape will get shaken up next year. With G4C pushing forward, the Democrats rebuilding, a possible election purely based on Climate Change and the Sex Party and the Pirate Party challenging the status quo... it's going to be crazy.

I'll probably deal with the R18+ a little more in depth. But first, let's look at some of the views of those involved on the ISP filter...

The Libs want the results audited...
Quote:

Our concern with Labor’s proposed mandatory filtering plan has always been that it would be both unworkable and ineffective.

..there should be an independent audit of the trial results released today. This audit should occur as soon as possible.

The Pirate Party thinks the ISP filter breaches Article 19...
Quote:

This policy ... will put the Australian Government in breach of Article 19 of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This article states that "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
1

Whilst the Greens think it's all a bit pointless
Quote:

"The pointless nature of this proposal is set out in the report itself, which admits that the filters will be circumvented by people seeking blocked material... "esting showed that the filters used for the ACMA blacklist only were more easily circumvented than other more complex filters used to cover a wider range and volume of material."

The Australian Democrats think it's all a bit of a waste of money
Quote:

The Australian Democrats remain opposed to the mandatory clean feed as a waste of tax payers money and a violation of their freedom, as well as establishing a bad precedent for Government control of information.

Quote:

"Those who have been able to access the report have been disappointed with page after page of jargon and graphs, the missing context of any assertions is horrifying. There's not even details of how many people participated in the trial, whether they requested to do so or really under what sort of conditions."

The Sex Party thinks that there's too much to do...
Quote:

Senator Conroy’s decision to create a black list of Refused Classification (RC) websites would mean that 95% of the world’s four million adult sites would need to be listed and blocked, according to the Australian Sex Party.

Ms Patten said that the Minister was trying to sell the mandatory internet filter against child porn and sexual violence but in fact it would ban mostly depictions of legal sexual acts. ‘Senator Conroy also appears to have ignored the reality that a new classification scheme for classifying websites in Australia will be necessary to cope with the flood of adult website operators who will want to have their sites rated to ensure that they fall below the RC line”, she said. ‘The Classification Board are flat out coping with magazine and DVD submissions to worry about websites”.

Electronic Frontiers Australia points out that Labour haven't explained clearly what it's all for...
Quote:

“Successful technology isn’t necessarily successful policy. We’re yet to hear a sensible explanation of what this policy is for, who it will help, and why it is worth spending so much taxpayers’ money on.”

And Google Australia seems to have feel it's all a bit too much...
Quote:

Google, like many other Internet companies, has a global, all-product ban against child sexual abuse material and we filter out this content from our search results. But moving to a mandatory ISP filtering regime with a scope that goes well beyond such material is heavy handed and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on access to information.

In comparison, the Australian Christian Lobby think that it's not enough...
Quote:

It has also proven the technological principle that can be extended to deal with other harmful X zand R-rated material on the Iteret. This is now clearly feasible and we need a review in three years that might test this in practice, particularly usig third party providers of URLS

iiNet use some diplomatic language to insinuate that the filtering won't do what Labour think it will
Quote:

"iiNet has previously raised concerns with ISP level filtering which it believes is unlikely to have a significant effect on illegal activity. As the Government has decided to introduce legislation, iiNet wants to make sure any changes introduced are workable."

While Optus has released a statement stating that
Quote:

"Optus acknowledges that it is the government's responsibility to strike a balance between protecting Australians' desire for freedom of expression and access to information, with the need to improve online safety and limit access to illegal RC content," said Krishnapillai.

Anyway, just found that Gizmodo have put together Obligatory reading on the internet filter issue, covers most of the above, but has some extra stuff in it, so check it out.

I've probably forgotten lots of things, but I'm busy with... stuff... like work and stuff... tell you later...

We (urbabe and I) headed down to the Kris Kringle Night Markets at the Northcote Town Hall the other week and while some of the stuff is really awesome, you do have to remember that what's there is crafts and as a result tends to be priced as such.

Anyway, one of the artists there that had some stuff that we agreed was HMC Designs (they have an etsy store as well). The badges on cards and the magnets are amazingly cute.

And don't forget that the markets end this Thursday...

Brickset is reporting (as have others) that there looks to be something interesting happening in 2010. Seems that LEGO might be releasing the above 16 figures in a lucky dip style opaque bag. While the details are a bit hazy, the collection might be released in June 2010 and certainly the minifigs look cool. And word is it would last a month and be followed by 16 new minifigs.

It's not clear where the sets will be sold or how it would work. Brickset has updated it's info to include the following
Quote:

We're seeing information from a number of sources that suggest each bag will contain a selection of parts from across the range of the 16 figures, and not a specific figure as had previously been supposed. So a single bag you buy might contain the Clown's hair, the Zombie's head, the Robot's body, and the Cheerleader's legs.

But we'll see. I like the idea of random minifigs, but not sure about not being able to build a specifc minifig from the parts of one bag. That's assuming that we'll be able to get them outside Europe.

Am watching George and Martha... I love how obsessed they are by rollerderby... But because I can't find a video of them, here's a video from the latest VRDL bout...

Here's another Victorian Roller derby round-up... it's been a while huh?

VRDL
VRDL's latest bout, Movember Proskate Awareness was awesome...

As a bit of a side note, VRDL is getting really popular. The first match of this season seemed tiny (compared to Skate of Origin 2). VRDL seems to be advertising very well and clearly people are enjoying the matches and atmosphere.

Seemed like there was a lot of people turned away, and while we got there at around 7pm and had actual tickets we missed out on getting our usual seats. Instead we had to sit down near the Suicide line.

As a massive side note, here's some 'celebrity spotting' sillyness. I pointed out to Urbabe that Josh Thomas was standing on the other side, but we couldn't see Charlie Pickering with him (though we had seen him before). Urbabe sent a twitter to him asking if he wasn't friends with Josh. About a minute later he was standing behind us... we waited to see if he would pull out his phone to twitter back, but he didn't till later that night. Urbabe's attempts at Kenearing didn't work too well.

Getting on to the actual game, there was a lot of rough and tumble. Hidden Magenta took a tumble and was out for the rest of the game. Tsunami hit the floor and took a few jams off, but I think it's hard for her to be injured so she later rejoined the game. The game was very back and forth, with the Toxic Avengers getting an early lead, only for the Dead Ringer Rosies to jump ahead a few bouts later. With a lot of agression (and passion) there were a few times that Skate Bush as jammer would
end up in the penalty box at the end of a jam, meaning she was jammer for the Rosies a lot.

Near the end, the Rosies got a 30 point break on the Avengers. From there on out, point scoring was close, leaving a final score of Rosies 142 to the Toxics 118.

So get ready for the VRDL final Crashendo where the Rosies and Avengers go head to head again on the 5th December 2009 at Puckhandlers. And make sure you get some Reservoir Dolls items before they all go.

Check out thier Myspace, the VRDL Facebook group or the VRDL blog.

GRDL
GRDL are having thier Season Final this Saturday (26th October 2009). The event will see the Atom Bombs and Psychotics go head to head in the Season Final. The event will be AusLan Interpreted (which will certainly be interesting).

As an extra bonus there will be a Co-Ed Scrimmage. I wanna see how many times Harry Spot'er is sent off... Plus Calendars will be for sale!

Tix available from the Barwon Club, on the GRDL website or at the door. $10 for Adults, $5 for Children, Under 5s get in for nada.

Check out thier Myspace, GRDL Facebook Group or the GRDL blog.

BRDL
BRDL are kicking off on Sunday, 29th November 2009 with thier first official exhibition bout with the Gold Diggers facing of against the Libertines. It'll be interesting to see how they go.

Tickets are $5 per person, kids under 5 get in for zip. Tix are available at YHQ (122 Armstrong St Sth, Ballarat) or on the BRDL website. The event is being held in The Arch Stadium at the Ballarat High School.

They're not going to skate in corsets are they? Are they?

Also check out the BRDL Facebook Group, the BRDL Forum and the BRDL website.

South Seas Roller Derby
Misty Meaner wrote to me as I was writing this post to let me know that they now have 24 girls in our league and train 3 times a week in Frankston. They also have a new website and the new logo looks a lot nicer.

Details on becoming Fresh Meat, can be found on the SSRD's Fresh Meat page.

Check out thier Myspace or Facebook.

General
Check out my Google Calendar Rollerderby Victoria calendar and my Rollerderby Twitter list which contains tweets from rollerderby groups and peeps across Australia. Will be adding more as I go along.

And of course, if you ever want to let me know anything... just send me an email.

Hey... what are you doing Saturday? Do you want an R18+ rating for video games in Australia? Well, then you probably should be heading down to your local Attorney General's office and moaning (is that what zombies do?) at them.

The rally, planned to be held on 21st of November (the Saturday after the release of the Australian friendly version Left for Dead 2) kicking of at between 11am and noon, ending at 5pm or so.

There are specific demands being made of the Attorney Generals:
1. Removing Michael Atkinson from the R18+ decision
2. Releasing the R18+ discussion paper
3. Let the public vote for whether or not the R18+ should be brought in
4. Make Attorney General decisions a majority rather then unanimous decisions

You can find out more information at the Left 4 Dead 2 Rally website.

Michael Atkinson recently responded to a Gamer query, you can see the original scanned letter here.

I don't think we'll be attending (busy day), but if you can do so. Especially if you are in Adelaide...

LEGO Rock Band, while it has been released in the US, is yet to be released here. Rather than just import it from Play-asia, I decided to get it from JB Hi-Fi, because... well I suppose I need another LEGO minifig key-ring. So I'll have to wait another week or so...

Anyway, the opening video looks awesome...

And whilst watching it, I was trying to figure how the bus was put together. But nicely LEGO Club has released the instructions. (via
FBTB has releasedinstructions for the LEGO Rock Band Bus.

Looks great.

The full track listing for LEGO Rock Band has been announced. All the tracks can be exported to Rock Band 2 for $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points). Looks like fun. The game seems to be going up against Band Hero in terms of mood/track listing.

All American Rejects, “Swing, Swing”
The Automatic, “Monster”
Blink-182, “Aliens Exist”
Blur, “Song 2”
Bon Jovi, “You Give Love a Bad Name”
Boys Like Girls, “Thunder”
Bryan Adams, “Summer of 69”
Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
The Coral, “Dreaming of You”
Counting Crows, “Accidentally in Love”
David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
Elton John, “Crocodile Rock”
Europe, “The Final Countdown”
Everlife, “Real Wild Child”
Foo Fighters, “Breakout”
Good Charlotte, “Girls & Boys”
The Hives, “Tick Tick Boom!”
Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”
Incubus, “Dig”
Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
Jimi Hendrix, “Fire”
Kaiser Chiefs, “Ruby”
Katrina & The Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”
The Kooks, “Naïve”
KoRn, “Word Up!”
KT Tunstall, “Suddenly I See”
Lostprophets, “Rooftops”
P!NK, “So What”
The Police, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
The Primitives, “Crash”
Queen, “We Are The Champions”
Queen, “We Will Rock You”
Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway”
Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
Razorlight, “Stumble and Fall”
Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
Spinal Tap, “Short & Sweet”
Steve Harly, “Make Me Smile”
Sum 41, “In Too Deep”
Supergrass, “Grace”
T-Rex, “Ride a White Swan”
Tom Petty, “Free Fallin”
Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
We the Kings, “Check Yes Juliet”
The Zutons, “Valerie”

Oh and Destructoid has a preview of the game which looks awesome.

Iggy Pop and David Bowie will appear as playable characters in LEGO Rock Band according to USAToday. The article also adds a new song to the track listing Bowie's Let's Dance (Iggy's The Passenger was already known to be in the game).

You can see what Bowie looks like as a minifig at RockBandAide. Don't think I've seen a minifig with different coloured eyes. I hope that LEGO puts out Rock Band sets, but they probably won't.
But at around the same time as LEGO Rock Band comes out according to Model Building Secrets, Hazel's Amazing Armory is producing custom minifig guitars so that your minifigs can rock out.

The pack will be available at the Custom Minifig Store Novermber 15 for US$20 and will come with 8 guitars and 2 hardcases in a cool looking box.

According to TBB, as of mid 2010, LEGO will be placing the Pirate theme on hiatus. Which is a real shame everyone loves Pirates. Anyway, LEGO have announced that the Imperial Flagship will be available Jan 1, 2010. And it looks like more than a match for Brick Beards Bounty. The flagship contains 1,664 pieces (and is 75cm long and 60cm tall) compared to the bounty's 592 pieces (56cm long and 44cm tall).

Here's the dot points about it:
- Includes 9 minifigures: the ship’s captain, his daughter, a pirate captain prisoner with shackles, the ship’s cook, a lieutenant, and 4 soldiers!
- Amazingly detailed and realistic ship features 3 removable sections!
- Main hull contains 4 firing cannons, ammunition crates, muskets, torches, cannonballs, prison with a rat, saw shark figurehead, a moving rudder and a fully-equipped ship’s kitchen with fish, turkey legs and a carrot!
- Raise and lower the working anchor!
- Open the front deck’s working doors and play inside!
- Imperial Flagship is equipped with masts and rigging!
- Open the back house deck’s doors to reveal the captain’s chambers complete with a map, poison bottle, organ and even a treasure chest filled with jewels and gold!
- Features 6 opening windows, a telescope and sextant as well as 3 deck lanterns!
- Measures 29.5” (75 cm) long and 23.6” (60 cm) tall!

There's a whole lot of images at Classic Pirates.

Kmart is celebrating Bricktober with a competition. From now until the 29th of October, when you spend $20 or more twice, you could be in the running for a trip to LEGOland California (for 2 adults, 2 children) , staying at a ritzy hotel. You need to register at the Bricktober website, and follow the instructions there. Apparently the trip for the family involves writing a caption contest.

There's also some extra prizes to be won, namely:
50 Space Police K-9 Bot sets from 24 September to 7 October 2009
50 Red Brick key chains from 8-14 October 2009
50 Indiana Jones key chains from 15-21 October 2009
50 Darth Vader "limited edition metallic minifigs" 22-29 October 2009

The full details are outlined in the terms and conditions. Sadly the terms and conditions contain errors such as "Participants will also have the option to select a LEGO® Minifigure as their online character. This is not a mandatory requirement. If a LEGO® Minifigure is not selected, one will be randomly selected." however if you don't choose an avatar (which seems to have no purpose), it won't accept your registration.

To be honest, the instructions on the main website state that ALL you need to enter your details, choose a username and password, select a minifig and "Submit every LEGO® product purchase (values at $20 or more) from Kmart during Bricktober on this site." but there's a bit more to it than that. Shame that it's so complex.

Anyway... shouldn't babble. Good Luck!

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