Wednesday, January 18, 2012

whoa...


the european space agency just released a new wide-field image of the eagle nebula, which is the location of the iconic hubble space telescope image pillars of creation. if you look closely, you can still see the pillars, albeit dwarfed by the rest of the nebula. they're near the center of the image, just below the smear of multicolored dots. those "dots" are, of course, ultra-hot new stars, some perhaps forming their own solar systems.

anyway, the esa news release describes it all, and has lots of cool pictures. read it, listen to the (almost) title track off nicolas jaar's new album, space is only noise, and smoke a joint. or don't. you do you, man.

INTERNET BLACKOUT 2012!!!


that's right. it's upon us. no wikipedia for 24 hours! i hope the nation's college students planned ahead...

anyway, if you haven't heard, the wikipedia blackout is in response to a couple of bills being considered in the legislature: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate.

the new york times has a short piece explaining it all, and you can always go to the google homepage to see their doodle about internet censorship.

obviously, not for the first time, homies in the legislature just don't get it. as the wiki model shows, the best way to police content on the internet is with self regulation. draconian measures put in place from the top-down by the federal government will only serve to further line the pockets of the wealthy (in this case, media and content distributors). we, the people of the united states, are getting pushed around by big business enough in every other part of life. we certainly don't need more corporate control over the content we choose to consume online.

The Woman in the Middle, a fellow blogger, has an excellent (and much more fair and balanced than my own mutterings) post on the proverbial tightrope congress is walking between preventing online piracy and encouraging the open model that the internet has already proven drives innovation.

take a look at the wikipedia blackout by trying to read one of my favorite wiki articles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst
oh, and a little protip: as the wiki page is loading, hit "esc" on your keyboard and you'll be able to view the article. this works on every wikipedia page.

wikipedia isn't the only site that has gone dark today. many bloggers, such as my friend over at The New Direction, are also blacking out their sites for a day. let's see what happens...

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

IS THIS THING ON???

so i've blogged before, i guess, but it's been a while. maybe i should be on tumblr. i guess it's hipper.

in other news, wu-tang has solidified itself in gangsta-rap lore for the umpteenth time with the leaking of ODB's FBI files