(Not So) Final Thoughts

It is now January 19th. Wikipedia is back in view, Reddit, Wordpress, Google and all of the other sites who "blacked out" yesterday are now back to normal. But this issue is not done by long shot. As you will find out at the end of this post, there is still a lifetime of work to be done. The controversial bills that were being protested are not the end of the line, nor were they the beginning. SOPA and PIPA were just the continuation in the chain of bills drafted by the entertainment industry to stop any and all sharing of any of their stuff for any reason. Currently, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows anybody to share anything as long as the person sharing is not making money. This is called Fair-Use. The entertainment industry seek to remove that. If, for example, I post a photo and somebody wants to critique it, he or she can copy the photo, repost it in whole or in part, with attribution, and mark it and say anything about it. I have no legal recourse because it's fair-use. This would be taken away under SOPA and/or PIPA. I can't explain all of it myself, so I will let Clay Shirky, writer and teacher, explain it. It may not appear below if this legislation passes, so you will have to go to the TED website and look for Clay Shirky talking about SOPA and PIPA. I wouldn't even be able to link to the video, let alone embed it.

As a bonus, I have also included the Khan Academy explanation of these two bills.

Keep our Internet free. Thank you.

A Stroke of Insight

I watched this video on TED earlier today.  Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain researcher who got a once in a lifetime opportunity to study a stroke happening in the human brain.  This video is definitely a must-see.

If you are unable to watch it wherever you are, watch it later.  I also recommend the "What to watch next" video with VS Ramachandran.  He's neuroscientist who is very eloquent and humorous at times.

A Week in Video--Work

Today's video features a TED talk by Mike Rowe of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs.  He talks about one specific job he did a while back that involves sheep.  He also talks about trades in general and their real importance in our society.

A Week in Video--Metaphor

This video caught my eye and turned out to be very interesting.  James Geary talks about how metaphor is so critical to the way we think and make decisions.

A Week in Video--Comedy

Hello, he's a PC.  OK, not in this video, but John Hodgman is a very funny guy.  Here he talks about all sorts of far-out topics in his quest to tell a story of love.  If you only know of John Hodgman from the Apple Mac commercials, you are in for a real treat.

A Week in Video--Obsession

Today's video is from Adam Savage's TED talk about his obsession with stuff.  He made himself a Dodo skeleton and the Maltese Falcon due to this obsession.  He is, of course, one half of the Mythbusters.

This won't be the only appearance of a Discovery Channel personality.  There is one more.

A Week in Video--Science

Today I wanted to show you an entertaining and very frenetic video from TED.  Clifford Stoll is a scientist with more interests than any normal person.  He manages to cover every area of science in under 18 minutes.  Check it out and enjoy.