More at boybeauty

Photo made by GamenessPhotography

Rarely has a book for young adults been so eagerly anticipated as Tricks of the Trade, the third book by the popular young author Floortje Zwigtman. She understands better than anyone else that adolescents aren’t looking for a neat book of instructions for the future. These are stories that tell it like it is, historical novels about surviving in conditions where the laws and morals of polite society no longer seem to apply. Adrian Mayfield is born in the poor East End of Victorian London, the son of a pub landlord and a seamstress. However, a different career lies in store for him. It’s not a scenario that the street-hardened lad could have envisaged: a wealthy older gentleman falls in love with him and takes him home. The man is Augustus Trops, a second-rate artist from Flanders. He introduces Adrian to the flamboyant circle of Oscar Wilde, where he meets other men like Augustus and finds work as an artist’s model. The work pays well and he meets the most interesting and powerful people of his time. Adrian is very pleased with his new life at first. Everything appears to be going swimmingly.  Until, that is, London’s beau monde decamps to Europe for the summer holidays, as happens every year. Adrian, by now accustomed to luxury, ends up without any income.

In a male brothel he discovers the flip side of his new life in the twofaced London of the nineteenth century, where gossip, blackmail and brutal police violence make homosexuality a highly dangerous way of life. Then he faces the choice of whether to put his integrity and his friendships on the line so that he doesn’t have to live in a mouldy, cockroach-infested garret.

Tricks of the Trade is an intense book that is difficult to put down. It draws the reader in without resorting to cheap sensationalism. This is a result of Zwigtman’s unique ability to combine critical distance with open intimacy. The raw, breathtaking writing of this sharp, historical portrait really makes the reader think about life. Zwigtman is one of the great modern writers of books for young adults.

This is the first book in a series of three and was published in Dutch under the title “Schijnbewegingen” and in German as “Ich, Adrian Mayfield”. There is no English translation yet because all interested publishers asked the author to removed some of the detailed sex scenes considering the age of the target audience but Zwigtman refused to do so.

• Government starts to search homes without suspicion in the Netherlands
• Mother’s letter inspires gay marriage protest outside Irish parliament
• Fears for the world’s poor countries as the rich grab land to grow food
• Surprise, surprise: CIA director admits they were lying to Congress for years
• Sweden moves closer to nursing homes for gays, starting in Stockholm
• IPREDator, the global anonymity service from The Pirate Bay, goes live soon

• Zensursula will 1.000 Websites ohne Richtervorbehalt sperren – pro Tag!
• Grundrechtspartei? Wie die FDP in Hessen für den Polizeistaat übt
• FDP will versprochene Steuersenkungen mit Obdachlosigkeit finanzieren
• Vorwärts Marsch zum Deutschnetz – Sperrungen: der Nächste bitte
• Linke reicht Verfassungsklage für Gleichstellung von Homo-Ehe ein
• Tiefe Einblicke ins Private: Gutachten zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung
• Deutschland verschwendet mal wieder (3,1) Milliarden für nutzlose Panzer
• Witz des Tages: Klimaberater der Kanzelrin ist… der Chef von Vattenfall!

Aktuelle Petitionen and den Bundestag

Big Brother, the TV show, was invented in the Netherlands. Maybe that should have been telling us something about this country. Fiction turns reality over there at the moment, at least partly. The Dutch government is collecting “some” data about every person under 18 living in the Netherlands. These data are coming mostly from school doctors who have to fill out a dossier of 30 pages with 1185 (!) different data records about every child and teenager. They don’t only save the name, address, phone number, religion, tax and ID numbers and income of the parents and such things but also details about the sexual activity of the kid,  the size of the genitals and the look of the pubes, the penis respectively the labia and even the scrotum!  

Seriously… WTF is going on there!? I couldn’t find English articles about this and the only German source (written by a Dutch ‘tho) says they say they need the data to identify and find abused children later. I’d be thankful if some of our Dutch readers could tell us more about this, there must have been a public discussion about this at least.

I already forgot how I met Koes a.k.a. Heartkore, I guess it was through his Tumblelog, but I’m sure glad I did. He’s not only truly open minded in a very refreshing way but also looking adorable (see photo above), making stunning artworks (see photos below) and in a band I will sign immediately if we ever decide to have a milkboys indi record label ;o) I’ve attached one of the songs from his band Fallen Angels  but feel free to check out more of their music and Koes’ *cough* nude *cough* pictures at the milkboard.

    
Found at Westasian

Many Countries (like Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand, Brazil, Turkey and Germany) are using censor lists to keep you away from certain sites like some image boards (e.g. 12chan), file sharing sites (e.g. The Pirate Bay) or in some cases even whole communities like Blogspot, WordPress and YouTube.

It’s pretty easy to bypass these filters though. All you need to do is using a neutral DNS server. A DNS server maps the domain name you enter in your browser (like www.milkboys.org) to the IP of the site you want to enter (like 205.196.16.242). If a government tries to keep you away from a site they just keep a list of domain names and if you enter one of the domains on the list in you browser the local DNS server doesn’t resolve the name so you can’t get to the site.

But nobody can prevent you from using a DNS server outside of your country. OpenDNS for example. Just change the IP of your name server to OpenDNS (watch video below  to see how) and enjoy your regained freedom.

Artikel auf Deutsch

Viele Staaten (etwa Schweden, Finnland, die Niederlande, die Schweiz, Italien, Neuseeland, Brasilien, die Türkei und bald auch Deutschland) benutzen Zensurlisten um User von bestimmten Websites fernzuhalten. Zum Beispiel Image Board (wie 12chan), File Sharing Seiten (wie The Pirate Bay) oder in manchen Fällen sogar ganze Communities wie Blogspot, WordPress und YouTube.

Es ist allerdings ziemlich einfach diese Filter zu umgehen. Man muss einfach nur einen neutralen DNS-Server benutzen. Ein DNS-Server leitet von einem Domain-Namen den man in seinen Browser eingibt (z.B. www.milkboys.org) zu der IP der Seite weiter, die man besuchen möchte (z.B. 205.196.16.242). Wenn eine Regierung versucht, bestimmte Seiten zu sperren, wird eine Liste mit Domain-Namen angelegt und wenn man versucht eine der Seiten auf dieser Liste aufzurufen wird die IP zu dieser Seite nicht aufgelöst, so dass der Browser nicht auf die Seite gelangt.

Es kann einen allerdings niemand daran hindern, einfach einen ausländischen DNS-Server zu benutzen. OpenDNS zum Beispiel. Man muss nur die IP seines DNS-Server auf OpenDNS umstellen (im obigen Video wird erklärt wie) und schon kann man seine wiedergewonnene Freiheit genießen.