Simian Uprising by Jer Clarke

Lately I’ve been noticing that more and more people are aware of the problems with and discussion about copyright than even six months ago. At this one party I met three different people who had to some degree read Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture (one of whom I had the day before convinced to buy it, though it is available at that link in dozens of formats for free) and were excited about it and the ideas it represents.

Whether catching the interest of university students constitutes an actual change, especially concerning the mass public, is obviously up for debate, but increased awareness is always the first step, right?

[for anyone interested in the things happening: Deep Links (blog of the EFF), Copyfight, Lessig Blog]

“TV in America created the most coherent reality distortion field that I’ve ever seen. Therein is the problem: People who vote watch TV, and they are hallucinating like a sonofabitch. Basically, what we have in this country is government by hallucinating mob.”

-Found in an interview with Reason magazine (via boingboing). Barlow was a writer for the Grateful Dead before becomming active in the politics of cyberspace and was the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a technological freedom advocacy organisation. Also of interest by Barlow : A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, a delicious and intense peice of cyber-philosophy if there ever was one.

-Also, tricked into watching CNN because it was playing in the pizza place, I couldn’t help wondering what value can be derived from watching constant coverage of a hurricane that cannot be helped. Are the viewers at home gaining any knowledge because of it? Will it improve their lives somehow? How is this pointless data being sold as news at all? Isn’t there a corrupt and stupid politician they could expose or something? (also, why does CNN have to constantly assert that they are the most trusted source for news? Does the station worry that the public will forget how much they trust them?)

Simian Update: Celebrity photographer (of, not is) attempts soul-theft of various primates.

(via BoingBoing)

Apologies for any weirdness that may have been noticed in the last couple of days, namely dissappearing posts. The problem seems to have been fixed (damn sketchy server).

Just so we’re clear I am back, and I did have an amazing time. Halifax is a tiny and delicious city with just enough girth to satisfy one’s need for serious techno-penetration, but is small enough to walk across in half an hour. Also, it is said that people there are nicer than on the mainland, but I’d say that the difference is even more pronounced in their cats, who roll over to have their bellies scratched by strangers on downtown streets. Now that’s service.

note: a certain mr. comeau wrote a couple of posts about our adventures.

(photocredit: Sarah Tracy, a beautiful soul who let me into her heart and home, but tried to trick me with buddhism.)

This city, job and space-time location as a whole are driving me insane. Thus I am retiring to do very little and enjoy the ocean in Halifax for the next week or so.

If I can get near a computer that will accept my memory card reader I will do my best to post something within that time frame. Otherwise you can all be confident that I am dead, and start mourning.

If you are in Halifax and want to hang out e-mail me ( jer at simianuprising dot com )with whatever information you want to give me. I won’t be doing much so my schedule is pretty open.

You should all do something fun while I’m gone. Seriously, go to the pool.

p.s. My brother, Brian, made it through the operation and is A O K. He is still pretty messed up, but I hear from reliable sources that The Morphine is helping keep that fire under control. You know it.

Catching up on my Wired news and found this mind-boggling story about a company that has actually cloned two kittens (Baba Ganoush and Tabouli) from it’s CEO’s bengal (Tahini), and is offering the service to the public for 50,000$ each.

“the company says it’s less interested in the scientific questions and medical promise of cloning and more interested in its business model – helping people make copies of their beloved pets.”