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On July 6th the “democracy” roadshow known as the G8 stops by in Perthshire for a wee get-together and a round of golf. In attendance will be eight world leaders and thousands of protestors determined to make their voices heard. But why resist the G8? Why bother dragging yourself to Perthshire during the holidays just to be ignored once again by the people who claim to represent your interests and aspirations? Because staying at home is exactly what they want you to do. That way they can get on with frittering away your future undisturbed, and wouldn’t that be much easier all round? Firstly, for those who don’t know, here's a brief rundown of the G8 (or Group of Eight), which first met in 1975. The summit is essentially a meeting between the heads of state of the world’s 8 major industrial democracies (I use the term “democracy” loosely here): the USA, the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia and Germany. These men get together once a year to discuss issues ranging from...

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Let me make it clear from the outset that I wrote the majority of this piece at least two years ago, as part of a wee group of rants articles dealing with female stereotypes. I no longer advocate some of the bitter ramblings views expressed within (most of which are based on high school politics and the like) so I’d appreciate if you could take all this with a pinch of salt. Feminism’s a tricky word. I personally despise it. The range of opinion that surrounds the definition of the word has rendered it virtually meaningless; everyone has a preconceived notion of what it means to be a feminist, and the nasty connotations and confusion clouding people’s judgment on the matter have turned “feminism” into a filthy word. Burning bras. Militant lesbians. Man-haters. Femi-nazis. There’s that joke bumper sticker: “You’re a feminist? How cute!” in which there lies more than a grain of truth. Women who valiantly (or stupidly, depending on your views) attempt to shoulder the feminist...

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So, what's it all about? Folk are wearing them all over the place: celebrities keep cropping up wearing them and giving a little spiel during the ad breaks on telly and trailers at the cinema; even Alternative Nation has one stuck up there in the corner to annoy you. Is it just a trendy new fashion thing? Or is there some worthwhile meaning behind it? Is it just a bunch of bandwagon jumpers? Or are these folk actually on to a good thing? Is it - what we really want to know - is it, in actual fact, cool? Well, I think so, and I'm far from alone. When you visit the Make Poverty History website you'll find no "click to donate" buttons, no "direct debit donation" links. In fact, there's nothing there that's asking for your money at all. Strange, no? You were expecting requests to divvy up some beer money to help, weren't you? Well, no: all they're asking for is your support; just for you to agree that making the poorest people in the world a little richer is a...

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I'm a member of God-knows-how-many forums and I see these complainers absolutely everywhere I go. The number one gripe is "why did you post that, it's shite!" when really the question they should be asking themselves is: "Why did I click on the thread which was clearly labelled as something I'm totally not interested in?" Now, complaint may be called for if the thread was in the wrong place or mislabelled, granted, but that's a lot rarer than the situations where people moan about legitimate posts. We see this here in other forms as well: "Why do you have a meetups forum, it's shite, I'm not interest in meeting people/I want it someplace else/I just want it all in one forum". Not interested in it? Don't go into it! Interested in it? It's in a clear section and won't be lost. Want it someplace else? This is remotely reasonable until you consider the scale of things. There are over 500 members logging on every day; we can't make you all happy. God knows we...

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The Whitby Gothic Weekend has been running for 11 years now—bi-annually for most of those—and it's a huge, complicated beast of an affair. The weekend's events comprise the core of what is for many people a whole week's holiday. This April's WGW was only my third, but as I go with friends who have been attending almost from the beginning, I take part in a whole load of inherited traditions. Wednesday is a day of getting settled in, unpacking, buying supplies and drinking in the Elsinore, the pub where the WGW kicked off. Friends from distant lands are collected here, over the next couple of days. Thursday is usually spent touring Whitby's many excellent charity shops. Goth clothing from all over the region is saved up beforehand, and sent to the Whitby shops ahead of the Weekend, which makes for some amazing bargains if you're fast enough. Friday is the first day of the official events at the Spa, starting with the Bizarre Bazaar, of which more shall be said later. Friday...

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Bored yesterday, I was thumbing through one of the various tabloid Saturday papers my dad had picked up (“for the free CDs”, apparently) and was once again reminded that the world has gone well and truly mad. If disillusioned at seventeen, I have to worry about how I’ll see it all when I’m middle-aged. The reason? Sandwiched between stories of delighted new 14-year-old mothers and washed up celebrities degrading themselves for a shred of their past fame, was an article promoting a new TV show following the story of a man who left the country to woo and marry a 40 stone woman. The “hook” is that he now worries how her compulsory gastric bypass operation (and subsequent weight loss) will affect their marriage. Though bizarre, it is one of a huge range of programmes concerning obesity and weight loss that now clog every channel. I’m all for “all shapes and sizes” but - with heart disease and the like rampant in Scotland - where do we draw the line? The infamous Glaswegian...

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It should be made clear from the start that I do not intend this article to be an attack on religion or religious principles. I seek only to clear up some of the confusion which has led to the misapplication of the word ‘faith’ in discussions of science and religion. Faith is often used to defend religious beliefs that are not based on any firm evidence or proof. This is all well and good – religious faith is a very personal thing, and human beings are at any rate irrational creatures, inclined to believe all sorts of things. However, it is often put forward that science requires an equal faith in events and processes for which there is no proof, and to say this is simply false. Theories regarding the origin of the universe will make for a good example. Belief in the idea that the entire universe was created ex nihilo by an omnipotent being is an act of faith. Until such times as said being manifests itself, there is no way that an assertion of this sort can be proven....

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I despise nostalgia as I believe in living in the present. I honestly believe it's only ever excusable if the story is funny or interesting. Nostalgia for nostalgia's sake sickens me, people seem to always want to hold onto their past as if the present and future are something to be feared and avoided. I've never understood the acclaim that people accord to things being 'old school'. They remind me of the kids in school who were loved for being good at sport and cling preciously to that because they never do anything that well ever again. This is why it bores me senseless to hear people relate incredibly implausible stories (where they always seem to get the girl and strut like kings funnily enough) about the Rat Trap and suchlike as they always seem to come from either total burnouts or people who are 'settled' and bored senseless with their current life. Sorry, I was at the Rat Trap and you sat in the corner hiding behind your mop of hair while the self-confident...

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The H10 from iRiver – a new breed of portable audio? Over the last year or so the consumer market has enjoyed a massive upwards climb in the popularity of hard drive based portable audio. So much so, that smaller ‘sub categories’ have begun to emerge, two of which being the mini-player and the colour screen player. The average consumer is starting to become more aware of brands outside the domain of Apples iPod as rival companies stop producing clones and start producing units with a hook, a draw, something their rivals can’t do. As a consequence, Apple et al create new versions of their own products and so the cycle continues. This is all very good news for the shrewd customer, who can pick up some really amazing bits of equipment if they know what to look for. iRiver is one such rival company with a long and proud history of producing audio and video hardware units. Traditionally they have dominated the flash player market, but have lately made a more progressive move into...

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We're proud to republish this article by Dr. Joshua Z Ellis. What About The Artist, Stupid? I'm sick of being told that I ought to give my work away for free, or hold out a little tin cup and simper at my patrons until they condescend to drop a penny or two my way. Fuck all y'all. I'm not trying to rip anybody off. I don't sue teenage girls. I don't put the anti-piracy PSAs in front of crappy Hollywood blockbusters. I'm an independent musician who writes, records and produces my own work. I don't want to get screwed by a record label; I'd prefer to make less money and sell my work directly to my audience. If that means I never become wealthy, fine: that's my choice and I've made it, along with thousands of other musicians like myself. But instead of being applauded for our efforts to reach out directly to our listeners, we get carped at by a bunch of nerds who claim to be civil libertarians but act more like lobbyists for the p2p software industry.