PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
INTERNETS, 18th of January 2012.
Over a century ago Thomas Edison got the patent for a device which would “do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear”.
He called it the Kinetoscope. He was not only among the first to record video, he was also the first person to own the copyright to a motion picture. Read the rest of this entry »
As you can well imagine, as a professional broadcaster, i listen to a LOT of radio. I’ve been an avid listener of public radio for well over 30 years! I don’t listen to commercial radio. I do not listen to american radio. EXCEPT… Read the rest of this entry »
Every time changes to the copyrightmonopoly are considered, the profits of major entertainment industry companies are at the center of the discussion. Even the people who fiercely defend the right to share information freely are going to extreme lengths to argue that this will not hurt the revenues of the copyright industry. But why are these profits even relevant? Why should we care about the profits of these companies? Read the rest of this entry »
How much money do banks or credit card companies say you owe them? How much of that debt did you accrue buying things you think should be available to everyone, like housing, health care or education? How much happier and healthier would you, your family, and your community be if you didn’t have to make those monthly payments? How much better would society be if it wasn’t structured around a debt game, where there are winners and losers, and the losers don’t always get to eat? What if instead we worked together to take care of each other and meet all our needs cooperatively? Read the rest of this entry »
Sister Helen Prejean makes no secret of why she penned the Death of Innocents. The book’s page count is still in Roman numerals when Prejean writes that she hopes that those reading about her account of the death penalty will be “set on fire” – consumed with a zeal to fight, what she calls, the “spirit of vengeance” that dominates the hearts and minds of Americans who support state executions.
On July 6, 2010, Private Bradley Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the United States Army in Baghdad, was charged with disclosing this video (after allegedly speaking to an unfaithful journalist). The whistle-blower behind the Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a ‘hero’. He is currently imprisoned in Kuwait. The Apache crew and those behind the cover up depicted in the video have yet to be charged.
If getting through a job interview with no major gaffs is a noble beginning for a newbie career hunter, why set such low expectations?
When I had my first job interview for an entry-level job straight out of university in (sorry the number pad has been disabled) there was no Career Advice web site to warn me against divulging my passionate political feelings to the interviewer. Today, the world is more open, the Internet is a free-for-all, but the corporate world is still conservative, prim and proper (even if it’s just an illusion).
You already know more than we did at your age, or should if you’ve been properly taking advantage of the Internet, which simply didn’t exist when I used to walk 22 miles to school in a blizzard Read the rest of this entry »
With the second Green Revolution well under way, the world’s food supply is slowly being transformed by a radically improvised agricultural paradigm. Genetically engineered crops have been introduced into the market without the rigorous testing that many scientists feel is required. The history is instructive: GMO=Contaminated Crops!
In the mid 1990s, Wal-Mart Discount Stores, headquartered in Arkansas, faced multiple lawsuits claiming the fact they sold guns and ammunition led to the accidental shootings of a few people, some by the hands of children. Sheryl Crow knew of this, and while in a Wal-Mart store, was shocked that the guns and ammo were being sold right next to the children’s toy section. Wal-Mart has sinced changed its policy to sell firearms in catalogs only, but at the time, it was fodder for Sheryl Crow, who would take a jab at Wal-Mart. Read the rest of this entry »
Jason Fried thinks deeply about collaboration, productivity and the nature of work. He’s the co-founder of 37signals, makers of Basecamp and other web-based collaboration tools, and co-author of… Read the rest of this entry »
In the 1990s and 2000s, Carlin’s routines focused on the flaws in modern-day America. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture
"The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint ... but is conceived and ordered ( moved, seconded carried and minuted ) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices"
-- C.S. Lewis [1898-1963]
from The Screwtape Letters
Please note that due to the volume of comments we receive, not all comments can be published, (but all will be carefully read, considered and appreciated.) Those that are published may be edited for language, brevity, clarity or anonymity.
"You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home."
Virgin Brain
Virginbrain is a blog by Richard Derks. Feel free to leave a comment, to react. I don’t mind it if you like to annoy me. Of course I prefer a lick every now and then
WikiLeaks
The controversial “uncensorable, anonymous whistleblowing” website based currently in Sweden
Syria's President Assad denies any government role in the Houla massacre and calls it an "ugly crime", in his first public comments since the killings.
'Her dress was split to the frontiers of decency and was so tight you could see what she was thinking" -- Sebastian Horsley
"The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything"
-- Oscar Wilde
What is the difference between genius and stupidity? Genius has limits. - Albert Einstein
"Never regret growing older, as it is a privilege denied to many !"
"Love the life you live. Live the life you love." -- Bob Marley
"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." –Gandhi
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." -- Oscar Wilde
»Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not gonna make it, but you laugh inside – remembering all the times you've felt that way.«
-CHARLES BUKOWSKI
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss
“Abundance comes from making others better off.” — Anonymous
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
-- Steve Jobs
'Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions"
-- Edgar Cayce
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"Every day, in every little way, Scientology is changing me for the better." -- Susan Meister on 01/09/1971
On 06/25/71 she was found with a bullet in her head.
'Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable' --Sydney J. Harris
"You must have LONG term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures."
-- Charles C. Noble
Sex won't make him love you, and a baby won't make him stay. -- Your Mom!