Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

torrentfreak.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 207 posts

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#81

Post by VLM »

geofft wrote: post #48
carlisle_ wrote: post #2

>There was no concern for his vegan diet I can't be the only one that thinks it's ridiculous for a prison to accommodate voluntary diets like this.

My vegetarian friends say that they literally can't eat meat any more, in the sense that their stomach physiology (acids? bacteria? not sure) isn't capable of digesting it. Yes, it was voluntary at some point, but it's not clear that you can still apply that label. As someone with food allergies, I could understand (and be unhappy) if a captor decided to feed me allergens as intentional punishment, but I'd be pretty…

"in the sense that their stomach physiology isn't capable of digesting it"

Its a very popular strightdope urban legend discussion topic. You'd die pretty quickly if you couldn't adsorb complete proteins. Astrologically speaking, iron ions from spinach are dramatically different than iron ions from a steak, but your biochemistry won't know the difference.

You can get three interesting effects:

1) Any time you mess with your diet you mess with your gut flora and ... residue. Not to mention the "feel" in your stomach before its all broken down to constituent molecules indistinguishable from plant sources (other than less fiber) So minor tummy ache is theoretically possible. Less fiber intake = less... output the next day, etc.

2) From my M-i-Ls adventures in gallbladder problems, its theoretically possible for vegan types to chug olive oil especially in the form of salad dressing, but to really consume huge quantities of oil/fat all at once you need a greasy triple cheeseburger with bacon. So you can have some bile / gallbladder related fun (whoa I just ate three days worth of oils/greases in one meal, totally freaking out my gallbladder type of reaction). You'll be fine.

3) Psychologically you can get really messed up. Try eating some dog sometime in a foreign country and then focusing on your stomach (assuming you're standard American) is going to be all messed up. Still meat is meat and if they told you it was pork you wouldn't have blinked, but here you are feeling like you're gonna hurl. Its really not as much fun as my description sounds. Think of that soy stuff instead of cows/chicken/fish/pigs/dogs and you'll be just fine as long as you can avoid getting all anxious. Being anxious is never fun, no matter if due to diet or relationships or tiny enclosed spaces or public speaking or whatever.

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#82

Post by knutsen »

zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #53
Someone1234 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the only goal of forcing someone to eat something they consider immoral is to punish. It certainly won't help rehabilitation efforts (likely hurt them, in fact).

> Because the only goal of forcing someone to eat something they consider immoral is to punish. Prison is punishment first, rehabilitation second (and it's pretty bad at that considering the percentage of recidivists). Of all the consequences of breaking the law, being forced to eat something you don't like certainly sounds pretty mild.

> Prison is punishment first, rehabilitation second

That is not a society I want to live in. Prison should protect the remaining population and rehabilitate, punishment should be a consequence of the means necessary to do so. Prioritizing in that order (protect -> rehabilitate). In my opinion anyways..

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#83

Post by Blaaguuu »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #57
Carrok wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe your friends. They may notice the meat in their stomachs and feel more 'full' than usual, even feel bad. But 'incapable of digesting it'? Not likely. What, the toilet has whole hotdog pieces in it?

I stopped eating meat as a regular part of my diet nearly four years ago, and now eating more than a little tiny bit will make me physically ill with severe stomach distress. I would certainly count that as 'not capable of digesting', and to say otherwise is pure pedantry. And if you're putting whole hotdog pieces in your stomach you might want to consider chewing a little more carefully, that way leads to choking.

I think the point is that 'not capable of digesting' is an inaccurate description of the issue. Most likely it would just take some time to integrate meat back into their diet... I've made much smaller changes to my diet which caused discomfort, but it lasted a week or two, and my body was fine with it. Likely this friend's transition would be more uncomfortable, and lengthy, but I can't imagine that if for some reason they HAD to eat meat again, their body would completely reject all meat indefinitely.

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#84

Post by zanny »

benologist wrote: post #31
tedks wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did they stop hosting .torrent files? Hosting only magnet links means they have nearly nil bandwidth costs (just some sparse HTML pages, by far the biggest piece of content on a tpb results page are the ads) and require very little infrastructure. In contrast, they have banners on the results page, pop-ups when you interact on the results pages, and massive banners on the item pages. A good chunk of their client…

You missed the affiliate links - they also peddle crapware for $$$, in addition to the ads and popups that might be blocked. Even if 1/2 their traffic is using adblockers that still leaves billions of ad impressions a month. There is no reason to believe their lies about how much servers cost, especially on a site like HN where many people have first hand experience of more elaborate hosting costs and advertising. 20…

On the flipside, I cannot imagine clickthrough rates and impressions that lead to purchases is high on a site that markets itself as a place to pirate digital content even for those not using adblock. And the nature of the site can deter larger advertisers from using it.

I'm not saying they made no money, but I doubt it would have been as lucrative as if those page views were dedicated to, say, www.wickerbaskets.com or something else.

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#85

Post by PhasmaFelis »

zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #53
Someone1234 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the only goal of forcing someone to eat something they consider immoral is to punish. It certainly won't help rehabilitation efforts (likely hurt them, in fact).

> Because the only goal of forcing someone to eat something they consider immoral is to punish. Prison is punishment first, rehabilitation second (and it's pretty bad at that considering the percentage of recidivists). Of all the consequences of breaking the law, being forced to eat something you don't like certainly sounds pretty mild.

> Prison is punishment first, rehabilitation second

That's certainly how it is now, yes. You think that's how it should be?

Most prisons suck are incompetent and ineffective and need reforming. Accommodating vegans is one of the many things that needs to be reformed.

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#86

Post by zanny »

rudolf0 wrote: post #76
MichaelGG wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still unelegant and inconsistent. If I claim my diet requires high-quality food determined by me daily, that gets ignored. I understand Kosher for commercial enterprises like airlines: with a minimum of effort, they can satisfy many customers. But governments should have consistent treatment of citizens.

Even if a diet choice is voluntary, if the choice is grounded in religious or ethical reasons then it is an infringement of personal freedom to deny that. Yes, prison itself is an infringement of freedom, but some believe that certain freedoms should remain permanent.

Well obviously the prisons disagree, and since they are fundamentally rooted in the denial of freedom then I don't think anyone involved in the prison industrial complex (even in Sweden) is going to care to hear arguments about how they should be nicer to prisoners.

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#87

Post by DanBC »

zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #53
Someone1234 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the only goal of forcing someone to eat something they consider immoral is to punish. It certainly won't help rehabilitation efforts (likely hurt them, in fact).

> Because the only goal of forcing someone to eat something they consider immoral is to punish. Prison is punishment first, rehabilitation second (and it's pretty bad at that considering the percentage of recidivists). Of all the consequences of breaking the law, being forced to eat something you don't like certainly sounds pretty mild.

Entomophagy - eating insects - provides cheap protien. Would you be happy if you were forced to eat insects?

I don't think you understand how ingrained some of these "voluntary" diets are; how strong taboo is.

EDIT: also, forcing people to eat a certain diet is disproportionately punishng them. Do we give those prisoners reductions in their sentence just because they were life-long vegans before they went to prison?

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#88

Post by zak_mc_kracken »

TomGullen wrote: post #67
zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of things I don't like to eat and I'm pretty sure that I would find eating in prison quite troublesome, regardless of what the food is. It's one of the many prices you pay for breaking the law, but surely losing your freedom and seeing the world move on without you should dominate this unease?

> I'm pretty sure that I would find eating in prison quite troublesome Because you don't like the quality, or because it goes against your ethics? Do you not see the distinction?

I see the distinction, I'm just saying the prisoner's ethics are irrelevant: the society decides what rights and privileges prisoners get in prison, regardless of what they think they are entitled to.

Re: Pirate Bay Founder Peter Sunde Released from Prison

#89

Post by jsmthrowaway »

knutsen wrote: post #82
zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because the only goal of forcing someone to eat something they consider immoral is to punish. Prison is punishment first, rehabilitation second (and it's pretty bad at that considering the percentage of recidivists). Of all the consequences of breaking the law, being forced to eat something you don't like certainly sounds pretty mild.

> Prison is punishment first, rehabilitation second That is not a society I want to live in. Prison should protect the remaining population and rehabilitate, punishment should be a consequence of the means necessary to do so. Prioritizing in that order (protect -> rehabilitate). In my opinion anyways..

It is the society you live in. The entire point of prison is to suck, so as to be a deterrent against going there.
Post reply on HN