In an age where business dominates our governments and writes our laws, every technological advance offers business an opportunity to impose new restrictions on the public. Technologies that could have empowered us are used to chain us instead.
With printed books,
- You can buy one with cash, anonymously.
- Then you own it.
- You are not required to sign a license that restricts your use of it.
- The format is known, and no proprietary technology is needed to read the book.
- You can, physically, scan and copy the book, and it’s sometimes lawful under copyright.
- Nobody has the power to destroy your book.
Contrast that with Amazon ebooks (fairly typical):
- Amazon requires users to identify themselves to get an ebook.
- In some countries, Amazon says the user does not own the ebook.
- Amazon requires the user to accept a restrictive license on use of the ebook.
- The format is secret, and only proprietary user-restricting software can read it at all.
- To copy the ebook is impossible due to Digital Restrictions Management in the player, and prohibited by the license, which is more restrictive than copyright law.
- Amazon can remotely delete the ebook using a back door. It used this back door in 2009 to delete thousands of copies of George Orwell’s 1984.
Even one of these infringements makes ebooks a step backward from printed books. We must reject ebooks until they respect our freedom.
Most of these arguments are a little silly.
(Source: azspot, via urbanafrofuturism)
Be jealous I get to upgrade every 6 months.
Yes, I am using a Windows desktop background on Linux.
kinda iffy about the word stupid but yes
this is not true! indigenous populations were not immigrants! slaves forcibly brought over against their own will are not immigrants! we are not a nation of immigrants
We are like 85% a nation of willing immigrants. And I think that the gist is almost every single person here was once an outsider. Pilgrims were, and thousands of years ago, “native” tribes were too.
Human life didn’t begin in North America. Everyone had to get here and adapt (whether by force or gumption) from somewhere else. Most everything we have comes from the traditions and practices of places far, far away.
(Source: beautifulqalb, via urbanafrofuturism)
Mother Teresa: A Modern-Day Saint
I kind of resent this. There are no citations, and very little context for any of the actions. I feel like similarly accusatory statements could be made for thousands of socially valuable people. And I feel like in general, Mother Teresa is considered as socially valuable, having insisted upon providing some degree of medical care to those who would not otherwise have it.
And the fact that she can lose her faith after seeing suffering and still keep working to alleviate suffering seems to only add to arguments for respecting her contribution to humanity.
People think Saint means “perfect person.” No. Saint means a miracle within a person, someone who did good despite basic rationality.
Overall, I think it would be wildly hypocritical to let religious idiosyncracies overwhelm the social mission of a woman who dedicated her life to living among and assisting the poorest people on earth.
Oh you
(via urbanafrofuturism)
We got these cats for Spring Weekend
(Source: urbanafrofuturism)
Submitted by: littlecvoong
ha. the freeway in the radar is my freeway. what up, 210.
HOME!
(via noorinlosangeles)
Hi and welcome to ASH WEDNESDAY!
Today, millions of Catholics around the world (and some sympathizers such as myself), were really hungry all day. Lots of them had little ash crosses on their foreheads.
Though I am not Catholic, or even baptized, I observe the Catholic fasting days of Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. I think fasting is good for the mind: it resets your cravings, and you realize how much your day revolves around physical sustenance. I had 2.5 more hours today than I usually do, and I used that time really productively.
The hardest part of fasting isn’t really the not eating. Humans are designed to go a day or two without food before things go haywire. While it’s hard to be around people who are enjoying a nice meal, self control for one day isn’t that bad.
But try not eating for a day without complaining about it. It’s a metaphor for Lent, the forty-day period when Catholics try to rid themselves of bad habits and add positive changes to their lives. Lots of middle-schoolers will give up chocolate, for example. And they will complain about not having chocolate every day they don’t have any.
As a priest once explained to me, each person fasting has chosen to do so out of their free will, so there’s no reason for them to whine about it all day long. Fasting is not an excuse for anything, except for perhaps a lack of focus as the day draws to a close.
Today I made a conscious attempt to not mention that I’m fasting, though I let myself slip three times. The point of fasting is for my benefit, ultimately, and letting it get in the way of my interactions with others completely against the point.
In case you were wondering.
Match-up: Federal programs at risk from the budget proposal, and the cost in dollars to Americans from specific tax breaks for the wealthy.
(via wilwheaton: It’s pretty clear who Congress gives a flying fuck about, isn’t it?)
If this is true, I am angry.