The Perverse History of Copyright. by Chris Higgins

In this short video, explainmaestro C.G.P Grey explores the history of copyright, using the only slightly less alarming headline Copyright: Forever Less One Day (there’s also a transcript at that page).

Copyright is an important system; it underlies much of the commerce I do every day. And its current implementation is basically cuckoo bananas, due in large part to exquisite lobbying by well-connected corporate interests. If you have five minutes to learn a little history (and have a few chuckles at George Lucas’s expense), check this out:

See also: Everything is a Remix.

Oldie: Poor Bessie

An old farmer named Clyde had a car accident. In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning Clyde. “Didn’t you say at the scene of the accident, ‘I’m fine,’?” asked the lawyer.

Clyde responded, “Well, I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule, Bessie, into the……”

“I didn’t ask for any details,” the lawyer interrupted. “Just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, “I’m fine!’?”

Clyde said, “Well, I had just got Bessie into the trailer and was driving down the road….”

The lawyer interrupted again and said, “Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question.”

By this time, the Judge was fairly interested in Clyde’s answer and said to the lawyer, “I’d like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule, Bessie.”

Clyde thanked the Judge and proceeded, “Well… as I was sayin’, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was drivin’ her down the highway when this huge semi ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurtin’ real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moanin’ and groanin’. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.

“Real soon a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moanin’ and groanin’, too. So, he went over to her. After he looked at her, he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road, gun in hand, looked at me, and said, ‘How are YOU feeling?’

“Now what the heck would you say?”

The hullabaloo surrounding this weekend’s 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic means a whole generation of youngsters is slowly realizing that the disaster was more than a figment of James Cameron’s imagination.

[gothamist]

Run Tom, Run!

A Tom Cruise Compilation

Slightly Skewed Movie Descriptions

מראה מעוותת. מאת שלום בוגוסלבסקי

יאיר לפיד הוא קריקטורה, שטחית וגרוטסקית. לא פלא הוא שמה שהולך היום זה להיכנס באמ-אמא שלו. ובצדק (לכו על זה, חבר’ה). הוא הרוויח את זה ואני לגמרי בעד. מדובר בתופעה מזיקה במיוחד לציבוריות הישראלית. בדיוק כשצו השעה הוא מעבר מפוליטיקה שבטית של ספירת ראשים דמוגרפית לפוליטיקה חוצת מגזרים של עמדות, שבה לא רק השייכות המולדת קובעת את דפוסי ההצבעה אלא אשכרה אפשר להשתכנע לעבור מעמדה אחת לאחרת, כמו שאמור להיות בדמוקרטיה אתם יודעים, בא הטיפוס הזה ומנחית עלינו עוד מפלגה מגזרית, ש”ס לבנה שכזאת.

אבל אני לא יכול להתחמק מהשאלה – של מי הקריקטורה הזאת? ומהתשובה הבלתי נמנעת שזאת קריקטורה שלנו, של הישראליות ה”חילונית” וה”ליברלית” שחושבת את עצמה ל”מעמד בינוני”. ואולי, חלק מהזעם כלפי לפיד נובע לא רק ממודעות פוליטית מפותחת אלא גם מכך שכמו כל קריקטורה, לפיד מציב בפנינו מראה. מעוותת אמנם, אבל מראה. ואנחנו לא אוהבים את מה שאנחנו רואים שם.

עוד…

The future of education in America: Dohn Community High School, a dropout recovery charter school in Cincinnati, is attempting a novel method of persuading student to come to class: Paying them.

The school says it has teamed up with donors and the Easter Seals to offer seniors who arrive on-time every day $25 a week. Lower grades are eligible to receive $10 a week.

“You have students who we haven’t seen in a week or two coming to school,” says principal Ramon Davenport. “So that tells me that this incentive that we’re trying is actually working.”

[ap.]

DIY Airsoft Machine Gun: Nighthawkinlight spent around $15 to make an airsoft machine gun from a soft drink bottle, and his DIY project unleashes more pellets per second than pretty much any store-bought model.

The parts are all cheap and easy to get, but the project does require access to an air compressor. In case you don’t have one of those just lying around the house, Nighthawkinlight plans to release instructions for a compressor-less model of the gun soon.

And after that, he plans to introduce a backpack-mounted air chamber to create an Airsoft “flamethrower.”

[ohgizmo] ?

TED: Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus

Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement — and his fears — about the blue heart of our planet.

Humour: how many acres?

Two Texans are sitting on a plane from Dallas and an old Jewish Texan is sitting between them. The first Texan says, ‘My name is Roger. I own 250,000 acres. I have 1,000 head of cattle and they call my place The Jolly Roger.’

The second Texan says, ‘My name is John. I own 350,000 acres . I have 5,000 head of cattle and they call my place Big John’s.’

They both look down at the Jewish man who says, ‘My name is Irving and I own only 300 acres.’

Roger looks down at him and say, ‘300 acres? What do you raise?’

‘Nothing’, Irving says.

‘Well then, what do you call it?’ asked John.

‘Downtown Dallas.’

Photos Of The New Electric Delorean: Back To The Future Of Cars

It’s no flux capacitor, but the power source for the newest DeLorean are futuristic: batteries. The original model may not have caught on outside of Marty McFly, but perhaps a new electric version will.

FULL STORY

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