It turns out the United States Antarctic Program is now using a web-filtering service (like Blue Coat) to block access to websites containing certain "categories" of content.
This enables the scientific institution to deem which websites facilitate a suitable entertainment process for the minions who, without such wise counsel, would simply plod through the long Antarctic night yearning only to gamble away the money they would otherwise use to order Russian brides.
Along with "Gambling", "Nudity", and "Illegal Drugs", other Blue Coat categories include: "Abortion", "Alternative Spirituality", and (most important of all) "Suspicious".
If your institution is using Blue Coat and blocking you from a certain site, you can visit
Blue Coat's site here, type in the URL, and it will show you which category the website falls under. (This information is notable because, depending on which category is blocked, the press might be curious whether the agency is promoting certain political/religious convictions. Of course no media will sympathize with this issue regarding internet access on the job, just as if you worked at an office in the states; this media point assumes that the web filter also applies to your use of the network on your own laptop on your own time.)
A friend suggests this, but I haven't verified if it works:
"A quick way around blocked pages is to add .nyud.net at the end of the server address"
Thus:
http://thesuperficial.com/2009/02/paris_hilton_flashes_her_vagin.phpwould become:
http://thesuperficial.com.nyud.net/2009/02/paris_hilton_flashes_her_vagin.phpBoingBoing published
a list of ways to get around censorware, but Blue Coat blocked them for publishing ways to get around Blue Coat, so in case that link is blocked, one may have to go
here, click the (randomly ISP'd) link to BoingBoing, then search for "blue coat censorware".
