I know – I’m late on the Sunday roundup. Deal.
Anyway, a few interesting links for the week:
Crimes That Cost You More Than Pirating Music – The whole RIAA cracking down on music downloaders thing is just getting ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong: I’m all about people protecting their musical property, but it seems a LITTLE excessive to fine people like Jammie Thomas $2 million for downloading just 24 songs. Not only is this a bad PR decision on the part of the Record Companies – especially considering that CD sales have gone UP since the advent of musical piracy – it seems a little excessive when the fine for downloading 24 songs is FAR GREATER than the fine for KIDNAPPING A CHILD. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure our society’s priorities are royally screwed up on this one. Don’t believe me? Check the link.
Barack is Taking A While to Hire His People – :: steps on soapbox :: This story just makes me angry. While I understand that it is not outside the realm of reason to draw attention to the arduous task of getting presidential appointments approved by congress, the reality is that this has been a problem since the BIRTH of the presidency. George Bush had this problem. Bill Clinton had this problem. It’s just a fault of the system which, I agree, should be changed. But the first half of the article paints the picture as if this is a Barack problem, not a systemic problem, which is just incorrect. We need healthcare right now, dangit, and the New York Times is going off and making front-page stories about nothing. Stop it, media. Stop it. :: steps off soapbox ::
On the Other Hand, The New York Times Does Good Stuff Too – This is a stellar article by Krugman. It’s pragmatic and painfully accurate, which is basically Krugman being Krugman.
U2 is Trying to Kill the Environment – Not really, but the expense of their MASSIVE 360 tour is royally ticking off some environmentalists, and honestly – they’re kind of right. If you don’t believe me, or think I’m too easily convinced, please understand that there is an INFOGRAPHIC in that link. That means that there are pictures explaining really complex numbers. That means that you’re going to believe whatever it tells you – don’t lie, you know the pictures always tell the truth. Always.
All Hail the Robot Hand: We Live in the Future, And That Means Robots Are Going To Enslave Us All Soon – For years now, people have been making movies and writing books about the coming robotic apocalypse. They’re fun to read, because they’re totally NOT true, right? Right?
Wrong Will Robinson. Dead Wrong. First the New York Times writes an article THIS YEAR about how robots are going to enslave us all and turn us into their personal ball-bearing cleaners, but we all wrote that off as the New York Times just going downhill and having a slow news day. Then Disney made a Robo Barack Obama, but we just thought that was Disney being silly and steadily running out of money…
But then I saw the video above and…well…watch all the way through.
Basically we’re all doomed. Start brushing up on your binary code, folks, because Robo Barack Obama doesn’t want change and hope – he just wants to use you feeble human body as a battery.
You have been warned.
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