Day 1061: Links For 2008-07-23
July 23, 2008 - Filed Under computing & internet, desi / india, digital rights, football, green bay packers, louisiana, movies/tv, music
* Favre Allegedly Used Packer Cellphone To Call Vikings
Nothing but forthcoming and cooperative with us, huh, Brett? You’re still under contract with the Packers and it is dimwit moves like this that make a whopping 200 people desire your return and relegate you to a simple link and not a whole post on this blog. Please go fishing.
* Raw Story | GOP cyber-security expert suggests Diebold tampered with 2002 election
When a consultant working for the Republicans serves you up for election-machine-related wrongdoing, you must have done something really bad.
* First an album, now Radiohead open sources a music video
Plus, the video for House of Cards uses computer rendering and visualization techniques.
* Bolly-Hinduism: Not Only For Jessica Alba But Also Natalie Portman
Devendra Barnhart and girlfriend, Natalie Portman, created and starred in this Spanish-language music video which has nothing to do with the Ramayana but uses it as the basis for the video’s set, costumes and makeup. I agree with Ultrabrown’s take that “the whole shambolic shebang is highly exoticist.” Then again, the East has yet to let go of its assessment of the West as being overrun by bikini girls with machine guns.
* D points out that former governor Edwin Edwards is waiting to learn if his sentence will be commuted. Edwards Now More Than Ever!
Day 1031: Kid Rock Rocks Kids
June 23, 2008 - Filed Under digital rights, music
Wired: Kid Rock Boycotts iTunes, Champions P2P
Atlantic Records went to their label’s Kid Rock asking him to make a PSA against illegally downloading music.
His response: “Wait a second, you’ve been stealing from the artists for years. Now you want me to stand up for you?” … “ITunes takes the money, the record company takes the money, and they don’t give it to the artists” … the internet offers a “great opportunity for everyone to be treated fairly, for the consumer to get a fair price, for the artist to be paid fairly, for the record companies to make some money.”
Wow, the internet is finally being used for its original intent - sharing. Instead, Kid Rock encouraged his fans to give to that other price gouger, Ticketshafter. Well, that’s not what he said, but what large concert isn’t run by them?
“Download it illegally, I don’t care. I want you to hear my music so I can play live.”
Back at the ranch, Metallica brays.
Day 1019: Fight The CDMCA!
June 11, 2008 - Filed Under books, digital rights, global, government, public domain
Sweet ghost of Johannes Gutenberg, this is awesome! Gordon Duggan of Appropriation Art has put out a comic book about the ongoing, mostly covert efforts on the part of the Canadian government to lengthen that nation’s copyright terms (currently a moderate life-plus-fifty) and to stifle user rights.
As Cory Doctorow says at BoingBoing, “this is just staggeringly great, the perfect primer on the shameful attempt by Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice to smuggle the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act into Canadian law without debate or public input.”
Day 881: More Evidence Of The Internet Killing Books Sales
January 25, 2008 - Filed Under books, digital rights, public domain
Alchemist Author Pirates His Own Books
… and increases sales dramatically.
[Paulo] Coelho’s view is that letting people swap digital copies of his books for free increases sales. In a keynote speech at the Digital, Life, Design conference in Munich he talked about how uploading the Russian translation of “The Alchemist” made his sales in Russia go from around 1,000 per year to 100,000, then a million and more.
Day 801: Electronic Geophysical Year
November 6, 2007 - Filed Under digital rights, eGY, education, gizmos & hacks, science & technology
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free, yes, and eternally young
– I.G.Y. by Steely Dan
Back in 1957, the International Geophysical Year (IGY) was launched along with Sputnik and the world reached for the stars. More importantly, the simultaneous public interest in science and technologies generated since form the very crux of our modern existence. We have come a long way, but where to go now and how? A fundamental fact to understand about science is Data Over Theory - theories come and go, the data remain unchanged. As we fly into the 2000s with the help of the tools of the last half-century, how do we treat the vast amounts of data created and share findings with other scientists and the public in an accessible and intuitive manner? Information archival and sharing is no trivial matter; in its absence, science loses its edge and relevance.
Fifty years since IGY, 120 countries now collaborate in a series of years, one of which is the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY). The Society of Exploration Geophysicists heartily embraces the recognition and opportunities for data stewardship provided by the eGY in a special section of The Leading Edge’s October 2007 issue.
In the Earth and space sciences, as in other disciplines, ready and open access to the vast and growing collections of cross-disciplinary digital information is the key to understanding and responding to complex Earth and space system phenomena that influence human survival. We have a shared responsibility to create and implement strategies to realize the full potential of digital information and services for present and future generations.
Two developments have brought us to the threshold of a new revolution in our understanding of Earth and space science. First, our ability to collect data has increased dramatically, with pervasive networks of observational stations on the ground, in the oceans, in the atmosphere, and in space. This “wiring” of the planet is, in part, a legacy of the IGY, a time when a global network of observatories and the World Data Centers were established. As a result, today, petabytes of data about our planet are collected daily—data that are critical for our understanding of our planet and how it is changing. Second, modern digital communications and information management provide an unprecedented ability to access and share information and processing capability.
eGY could not have come at a better time when the public’s interest in science wanes and American students score poorly in mathematics and science and choose scientific careers less often. The ivory-towering of science as well as our government’s sheer disregard for the public’s educational wellbeing are equally to blame. In this vacuum, the burden then rests on the scientific community, whether in academia or industry, to come together and address our failings. It is then my hope that we render science more fun and more sophisticated, e.g. in “virtual observatories” mentioned in the aforementioned article.
Data for the nonscientist needs context and constraint. In order for data to be accessible to the general public, the virtual observatories need to provide supporting information that defines the data for the user, as well as a limited set of choices to keep the user from being overwhelmed … Virtual observatories can only do what they are designed to do, and most are designed to service the scientific community, not the general public. And yet, it is increasingly the case that the general public wants access to these data. Many virtual observatories have heard this message and have developed solutions that allow access to their data by a broader audience.
Open source and fair use are also very important philosophies in this discussion. Scientific data and methods ought to be readily shared with schools and colleges, along with pathways to careers in science. While technologies invented in high-powered labs and companies are immediately directed towards intellectual property lawyers, it may be more prudent for a timely release of these materials under fair use guidelines for the true benefit of humankind. Scientific societies steering away from big publishing houses, which exist merely to make money for themselves, and self-publishing is also a good start. One example of data/papers/software/methods sharing is the Stanford Exploration Project from which I have learned quite a bit of geophysics and wasn’t required to reinvent some code because it was only a quick Google search away.
My first foray into science was at the age of three, when I created fire and various noxious chemicals on my brother’s chemistry set (and my parents, in their infinite wisdom, didn’t stop me). While the government tries to put the lid on all such fun, other avenues for questioning and discovery are paved daily. So, this winter, give IRIS, the National Virtual Observatory, the Virtual Solar Observatory or the eGY demonstrations a whirl. Start breaking the scientific divide by asking questions of the scientists there and, when stumped, request them to consider tools that will help you and your children use the scientific Internet for what it was originally intended - reliable and relevant information at your fingertips. VatulBlog will help further this cause by showcasing methods of archival, sharing, data interpretation and visualization and related projects.
If anything, marking this year reminds us that the aims of science are very human: to learn, to grow, to teach and to help keep wonder alive. Happy eGY!
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