Clowns. What's the Problem?

It's that time of year again....

Hallowe'en.  

Firstly before we get into the topic of Hallowe'en in the modern (commercial?) day, what was Hallowe'en.

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Hallowe'en is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts.

Like the majority of pagan holidays, it was hijacked by the church to try and quash the pagan beliefs that had existed for centuries and centuries.

Hallowe'en fell to the same fate. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween. 

Over time the holiday of Hallowe'en has evolved into a secular celebration where people revel in dressing up, giving out gifts of sweets and treats, and guising (or trick or treating if you're American!).

So here we are in 2016, getting ready for Hallowe'en, stocking up on sweets and treats, planning parties, shopping for new decorations and checking over the old ones, and finally the all important costume.

Whether it is a costume for your kids to go out guising or trick or treating, or a costume for you to wear to a party the choices every year get bigger and better.

But as much as the range of costumes gets more difficult to choose from each year, there are timeless classics that will always be amazing.

Clowns.  They're classic.  They're fun.  And at this time of year they're scary too !

But why are people scared of clowns in particular?  Clowns are a thing of joy and fun, of comedy and laughter no?

While there is no official phobia for a fear of clowns, we think it definitely deserves to have one to describe the fear that people have.

Primarily because a phobia is a term used to describe an irrational and over exaggerated fear of an object, place or situation.

This fits peoples fear of clowns perfectly.  Clowns are not going to attack you, murder you or rob you.  People might dress up in a clown disguise to do these things, but then they could also dress up in any other type of mask to hide their identity.

The media has a lot to answer for when it comes to ramping up peoples fear levels in the world.  

Exaggerated reports of people dressed up as clowns stalking people, warning people not to dress up as clowns for hallowe'en, building up peoples irrational fears and anxiety.  References to real life murderer John Wayne Gracy Jr - the Killer Clown, Stephen King's character of Pennywise the Clown in It and Twisty the Clown in American Horror Story all add to play on peoples psyche and build there fear levels.

Now we are not saying that people do not have to be careful while out guising or trick or treating.  You do.

We are saying though that you do need to be understanding that people will be dressed up as clowns, and that clowns - even scary hallowe'en clowns - are ok.

So let's all enjoy ourselves this hallowe'en.  Dress up. Party. Give out sweets and treats to people who come to our doors - even if they are dressed as scary clowns!

Sci-Fi Nerd Block Unboxing - March 2016

Here is another unboxing video from ManTwaddle for the March 2016 Sci-Fi Nerd Block that we have subscribed to for the last two months only.

We are still judging this variation of the Nerd Block and have yet to decide whether we will continue to subscribe to this block as well as the Classic Block that we already subscribe to.

For those of you unfamiliar with Nerd Block head over to www.nerdblock.com to check them out and see the different categories of monthly box that they sell for all us fellow geeks.

Classic Nerd Block Unboxing - March 2016

Here is the first of the unboxing videos from ManTwaddle for the March 2016 Classic Nerd Block that we have subscribed to for the last year.

For those of you unfamiliar with Nerd Block head over to www.nerdblock.com to check them out and see the different categories of monthly box that they sell for all us fellow geeks.

Where Did 'ManTwaddle' Come From?

Ok so we have already given the definition of 'ManTwaddle' to you; and we hope you agree it is a good definition, but where did the word come from in the first instance?

Well it was a quiet afternoon in the ManTwaddle household and we had sat down to watch a film that had recently been released.  The male of the household was very excited about the prospect of watching the film and had convinced / coerced / conned the female of the house to join them in watching it.

Now, to be fair it did take quite some time for the now immortal phrase to be uttered by the female of the house (approx 42 mins if memory serves me right) while watching the film; however it was still uttered, and was then used as a term to describe things that the male of the house found interesting and self indulgent.

So what was the film that caused the phrase to be uttered?  What was the context of the uttering?

Well it was 'Tusk'.

In the opinion of the male of the house - an amazing film: funny and disturbing in equal measure; another Kevin Smith masterpiece; a film that started his 'True North Trilogy'; a film that brought together well known actors such as Johnny Depp, Hayley Joel Osment, Michael Parks and Justin Long and put them in roles and a situation that you would never expect to see them in.  A plot that was gloriously developed from an original discussion topic on a SModcast podcast with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier.

In the opinion of the female of the house - 'A load of self indulgent ManTwaddle'.

That was it.

The term 'ManTwaddle' had been born into existence.

At first it was met with laughter, derision and denial that the film was fitting of such a term.  However, on later reflection it was sorely conceded that the film could be referred to in such a way; along with a lot of other favourite films of the male of the house.

Now that is not to say that the film was not enjoyable and great to watch (in the opinion of the male of the house), but that the term 'ManTwaddle' did quite succinctly describe the style of the film.

Then over the following days and weeks the term kept resurfacing to describe items and activities that were interests of the male member of the house - now referred to as MT.

Comics?  ManTwaddle.

Guitars? ManTwaddle.

Cigars? ManTwaddle.

Jeeps? ManTwaddle.

In fact, everything MT enjoyed? ManTwaddle.

Therefore at that moment MT had a thought to himself.

If these areas of ManTwaddle interested him, then surely other men also had interests that were fitting of the ManTwaddle label?

And that the term 'ManTwaddle' should be used with pride, as a term of endearment, as a badge of honour to celebrate and revel in the glory of the interests of men.

And that my dear readers, brothers and men is when ManTwaddle.com was born.

A place to celebrate the ManTwaddle that we so love; to share in the joy of the inane, the foolish, the pointless and the trivial.

So join me please in helping to share all things...

... ManTwaddle.

Netflix vs the Proxy Using Viewers

So Netflix has upheld their threat to prevent users from accessing the service through the use of proxy servers and vpn services.

ManTwaddle must admit that at first they believed the original statement made by Netflix to be nothing but an idle threat to scare people using these services to access Netflix, and other streaming TV services, such as NowTV, BBC iPlayer amongst others, to cease and 'toe-the-line' and access the Netflix service available within their country of residence.

However, it didn't take long before ManTwaddle started to hear about people receiving the notification about the use of a proxy service or vpn to access content when using Netflix.

So that was it.  Darkness. End of content for many people who were accessing Netflix outside of their country of residence to be able to gain access to varied programming and programmes that they actually wanted to watch, including people travelling who wanted to continue to access their home service while in a different country and the programme was not available there.

Ok, so MT must be clear here: we understand that the restriction to access content outside of the country of residence is not a choice of Netflix, but due to pressure placed on them by the various major movie studios and TV companies.

In a weird way MT actually feels a little bit sorry for Netflix as they appear to be caught in the middle of this whole situation: although that still doesn't stop us being personally upset that they have bowed to the pressure exerted on them as it stops us watching our favourite programmes which are not available in our area of residence Netflix service.

We understand that they are required to demonstrate to the major movie studios that they are protecting their rights and interests by ensuring that access to content is only provided legally, to then allow the studios to sell their content to other geographical areas and then maximise their revenues even further.

However, by restricting access to content for users who live in countries with limited Netflix catalogues such as UAE, Spain, Portugal amongst others, Netflix is at severe risk of losing subscribers who are no longer willing to pay for the service with such limited access to content in the times of the Global Market Place.

Data posted on finder.com stated, as of 27th January 2016, the percentage of content available to users outside of the USA and provided some very surprising results.

For example, Netflix users in the UK had access to only 38.2% of USA TV shows and 34.53% of USA films, Germany had access to 28.35% and 31.35% respectively and the UAE had 28.35% and 31.26% respectively.

Is it any wonder with these severely restricted content libraries that users are resorting to the use of proxy and vpn servers to try and access content that they actually want to watch?

The availability of access to online streaming content has no doubt taken people away from illegal downloading of content through torrent file sharing; however, now restricting what people can access in a semi-legal manner will push them back to downloading content through torrent file sharing.

Why can the movie and TV producers of the world not realise that the world is now a global marketplace and in the modern world of online access and information sharing people want access to everything?

Netflix Vice President of Content Delivery Architecture, David Fullager, stated recently that 'We look forward to offering all of our content everywhere and to consumers being able to enjoy all of Netflix without using a proxy. That’s the goal we will keep pushing towards.' 

ManTwaddle cannot help but think that the pushing has to be helped by the end user as well.  Public opinion and pressure will always help to persuade the large corporations of the path that they need to follow if enough people join together.  Obviously the only true language that the corporations will understand is the loss of revenue by people no longer willing to be restricted to content catalogues, only accessible within their country of residence, which contain severely limited and outdated content.

MT would suggest that the likes of Netflix produces new subscription models to their customers.

How about adding either a local subscription rate and a premium global subscription rate with access to all available content?  Or you could add on other countries to your basic subscription that provides access to their content that is not already included in your own?

Don't forget that people are already paying for a vpn or proxy service every year to be able to access the other content, so an additional, fully legal, cost to subscribe to increased catalogues would not be prohibitive.

MT for one is more than willing to pay for legal access to the full catalogue provided by Netflix and would love to see other specialist streaming channels start up and join the streaming revolution, such as science fiction channels, sports only for example. Qello Concerts is one of MT's favourite specialist channels providing access to hundreds of music concerts and programmes without geographical restrictions.

The future of TV viewing is changing and producers of content have to realise this quickly: people want access globally to content at their own convenience, not being drip fed what the corporations and producers believe we want in a limited fashion.

So what does the immediate future hold for country hopping Netflix users?  Well the proxy and vpn service providers are hurriedly trying to work around the restrictions put in place to allow their subscribers to resume service as normal and get access to the Netflix countries they want.

But then, we guess that Netflix will then put measures in place to prevent access again in a never ending cat and mouse game that will potentially drive people back to illegally downloading content and cancelling their Netflix, vpn and proxy subscriptions.

So let's see what happens, and who will win in the end, however one thing's for sure - as ever the loser in this battle will be the consumer who just wants to pay for content that they want to watch, when they want to watch it, in whatever country they happen to be.

Review of Marshall Headphones Major II bluetooth

No doubt you will have heard of Marshall Amplification; you will definitely have heard Marshall Amps on your favourite rock tracks, however you may not be aware of their foray into the world of headphones and portable speakers.

These headphones are based on the previous wired version, but with improved drivers and also now able to be used wirelessly so you can rock out to your favourite tracks without pesky cables getting in the way!

The styling is obviously Marshall - the brass highlights and legendary white Marshall logo make these headphones stand out as a model not to be easily dismissed and ignored.

So ManTwaddle (MT) decided to order themselves a pair of the new headphones and see how they sounded compared to their normal headphones.

The headphones are well presented and packaged and MT couldn't wait to get them out of the box and charged up to try them out.

After patiently waiting for them to charge, MT easily paired them to our Marshall London mobile (we'll talk about this in another post for you soon) and scrolled through for one of our favourite tracks to test them with.

So, with Alice in Chains' Down in a Hole from MTV Unplugged set up and starting to play MT was pleasantly surprised - in fact taken aback if we're honest.

The headphone's sound was very tight and responsive and allowed the track to be heard in all of its glory and passion.  Bass was full and clear, and just the right balance of middle and treble gave the music an immersive quality.  MT uses the headphones with the equaliser on their phone at 'flat' and the sound is perfect through them.

One advantage of using the Marshall London mobile with these headphones is that the mobile plays FLAC and lossless music files: allowing a superior quality of sound to be provided through the Major II bluetooth headphones.

In addition the headphones use bluetooth aptX technology which helps to reduce any video / audio syncing issues that you may normally experience while watching movies and bluetooth connected headphones.

The comfort of the headphones in prolonged use was very good, due to the style of 'over ear' and the comfy headband.

The brass highlighted analogue control knob on the headphones allows you to pause, play, shuffle and control the volume of the tracks you're playing.  The headphones also include phone functionality, and the analogue knob also allows you to control answering or rejecting calls, and the built in mic means you can accept calls in between your listening with ease.

Another positive that ManTwaddle has found with the headphones in use, is the length of play time when used wirelessly: the quoted time is 30+ hours and MT was sceptical as always about this.  

However, MT stands corrected and has been able to use the headphones for approximately 28 hours and there is still a charge left within the battery, allowing you to rock out for longer!

The headphones also come complete with a Marshall styled 3.5mm stereo cord with mic and controls which can be used to connect the headphones to your device in wired mode (if your battery runs flat) or, if being used wirelessly, you can use the cable to share the audio with someone else and share what you're listening too with them.

In summary, the headphones sound amazing, are styled in typical Marshall branding, have impressive battery life, and MT is very satisfied with their purchase.

So, if you're interested head on over to https://www.marshallheadphones.com/mh_uk_en/major-ii-bluetooth to have a look for yourself and order a pair and break free from cables!