Pirate Bay: End of the line?

One of the most visited website in the internet, popular for facilitating peer-to-peer file sharing using magnet links and torrent. Pirate Bay had always been shrouded with copyright infringement controversies.

Founded in late 2003, it was actually first established by a Swedish anti-copyright organization called Piratbyran (Piracy Bureau). The website later run separately since October 2004 by dedicated individuals.


The Pirate Bay had a reputation of providing access to copyrighted material without the owners' consent. They have been involved in a number of lawsuits, both as plaintiff and as defendant.

On 31 May 2006, the website's servers were raided and taken away by the Swedish police in Stockholm. The websites went down for several days, but went back up and running as usual as the case pursuit by the authority went ongoing. It was on 17 April 2009 that the website's founders, admins, and supporter found guilty under the charge of 'assistance to copyright infringement'.

Who are the individuals behind The Pirate Bay? The defendants for the Pirate Bay case were, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neji, and Carl Lundstrom. All four of them were sentenced to one year in prison and payment of a fine for 30 million krona. They appealed the verdict and the case continues until 26 November 2010, where the Swedish appeal court upheld the verdict, decreasing the original prison terms but increasing the fine to 46 million krona.

Carl Lundstrom however was not one of the individuals that run the Pirate Bay website. However, in 2003 to 2005, it was his company Rix Telecom that provided services and equipment to the Pirate Bay torrent tracker website. He was charged for being 'accessory to breaching copyrighted law'. He appeal for the verdict when the court found him guilty, and had his sentence reduced to 4 month with increased fine to 32 million krona.

The Pirate Bay website then spiraled into cycles of online and offline status with its bandwidth provider receiving injunctions from the court and their URL being blocked by many ISP provider from other countries.

What about the other defendants? After the verdict by the court, all of the website's co-founders vanished and avoided capture. However, one by one they were apprehended with their sentence upheld. Gottfrid Svartholm was arrested by Cambodian police in the capital of Phnom Penh on 30 August 2012, Peter Sunde was arrested at a farm in Oxie, Malmo, on 31 May 2014.

And finally, early November on 2014, Fredrik Neij was arrested on the border between Laos and Thailand by the Thailand authorities. With Neij capture, all formers founder of the Pirate Bay have been apprehended, dealing a symbolic blow to the global online file sharing communities.

He was in custody in Bangkok immigration office pending deportation to Sweden.

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Hendo Hoverboard

From the KickStarter campaign, Hendo Hoverboard is designed by Greg and Jill Henderson. Claimed to be the world's first hoverboard, Hendo Hoverboard utilizes Magnetic Field Architecture (MFA) technology, similar to technology applied to maglev trains. For $10,000, this board can be yours.

How does the hoverboard works? It have four magnetic disc, or dubbed as the 'hover engines', mounted under the board. The board can levitate about an inch from the ground with the rider on top, but apparently this futuristic board is not without several drawbacks.

First of all, it does not levitate on just any surface. It requires a non-ferromagnetic conductor, such as copper or aluminium, smooth surface in order for it to levitate properly. Second, just like any other modern vehicle nowadays, this board also requires power source. And apparently the board uses LiPo batteries that could run about 10 minutes of hovering experience. Thirdly, it have a very loud screeching noise when in use.  

But Hendo Hoverboard is not the only thing offered by the Henderson couple. One of their aims is also to promote the technology behind it, where they believe highly potential for future benefit if unlock. They also offered 'The Whitebox", a developer kit that contain basic hovering and propulsion system based on the technology they developing. It also include control for propulsion by you mobile device (iPhone/Android).

You can go their Kickstarterr campaign page to learn more about what they intended for the technology application. They also have set up their own webpage called HendoHover.

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Home-made Qassam Rocket

Qassam rocket is a simple steel artillery rocket commonly known by its usage by the Hamas forces in the current Gaza conflict. This home-made rocket is developed and deployed by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas.

Simply made, easily deployed, the rocket however is notorious for its indiscriminate usage against populated areas. The rocket is not guided, and used en mass with the intention of inflicting as much damage as possible against the opponent.

Apparently, the rocket was designed after the Gaza people were barred from any means of defending themselves. Occupied, blockaded, and policed by the Israel armed forces for so many years,  is what probably triggered the new arm race in the Gaza conflict.

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The Iron Dome

Iron Dome is the Israelite new missile defense system. Designed to be mobile, all-weather, with the purpose of intercepting and destroying short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from the distances 4 kilometers to 70 kilometers.

Oh, they are still developing this defense system, even though they already deployed it in the rocket attacks from Hamas currently. The system is expected to have increased range of interception up to 250 kilometers with the possibility of intercepting rockets from 2 different directions simultaneously.

Ironically, even though Iron Dome is considered the most effective missile shield the world have ever seen, it actually comes with a hefty price tags. $50 million per battery with $20,000 per interception. Though some said with Tamir interceptor missile, the cost of interception will be as high as $60,000 per interception. And all that cost, against the Hamas $800 home-made Qassam rockets 

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