“The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010. . . [will not have existed] in 2004. . . We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist. . . using technologies that haven’t been invented. . . in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”

In 2006, high school math teacher and technology coordinator Karl Fisch made a slideshow for his fellow teachers and administrators inspired by the disruptive effect of technology—”cell phones, video games, social networking sites, the Wikipediazation of information, the reach of YouTube and Skype”—on education. The slideshow was called, “Did you know?” and featured provocative statistics, observations, and predictions about future demographics, jobs, and education opportunities. From a great HuffPo article that explains the “anatomy (and meaning) of the ‘Did you know?’ video series“:

New technologies have ushered a seismic shift in education: how our kids learn, how our teachers teach, how curriculum is shaped and presented, how individual students, powered by technology, process and experience what they’re learning.

After having shared the slideshow on his personal blog, Fisch was contacted by a university instructor named Scott McLeod. Together, they turned the slideshow into a short video, which McLeod then posted on his own blog. Someone at the design company XPLANE came across the “Did you know?” video and contacted the two educators, offering to produce a free animated version of their presentation. Within a year, it had been viewed more than 5 million times.

That was version 2.0 of the series, produced in 2006. Version 3.0 is here and 4.0 below.

Says McLeod, a former 8th grade teacher:

“When you show some version of the video to corporate people, like the folks at Sony, they nod their heads and say, ‘yeah, this is the challenge we’re dealing with.’ When you show it to kids, to students, they nod their nods and say, ‘yeah, we’ve been waiting for you to catch up, we’ve been living through all of this.’ When you show it to educators, as often as not, the predominant reaction is withdrawal. They retreat like a turtle to its shell. Not all of them. But a lot of them. It’s too much. It’s too overwhelming. They don’t know what to do with it. This is our challenge.”

HuffPo journalist Jose Antonio Vargas concludes his article on “Did you know?” with “a call to action”:

This is a time for innovation in education, and technology in general and the Internet in particular are central to that. As President Obama and Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, continue to plan the future of our schools, Fisch and McLeod’s videos serve as resources—and, altogether, a call to action. Shift happens. It’s here. Lead.

Poignantly illustrated by zoo animals. Brilliant, not to mention probably painfully close to the truth for some…

Think Tank Photo have just launched the new……

T830 Urban Disguise 70 PRO

E’ strano… alle volte non ci si pensa, ma a NY la metropolitana (qui subway) è per la maggior parte in superficie, dobbiamo pensare a tutta NewYork e non solo alla city. Mi è capitato solo l’anno in cui soggiornai a Williamsburg di usare la metro in superficie… poi sempre sotto… in stazioni da film: umide, buie, spartane, in continuo miglioramento senza una deadline…

Ma tornando all’inizio, ogni mattina salgo alla stazione della 125esima, salire è il verbo giusto visto che è in superficie ma molto in alto… fa parte della line 1, la rossa, quella linea che taglia in due manhattan, la city appunto.

Perchè ho scritto di questa stazione? perchè per la seconda volta c’è la calma, è una zona di residenza, in cui c’è movimento al mattino ed alla sera prima di cena, ci sono dei locali, ma piccoli.. in questa parte di città o si studia o si lavora… e i ritmi vengono comunque dettati dalla stanchezza. Fa strano vedere venire la sera, e non sentire il casino di taxi suonanti, si gente e schiamazzi tipici della zona centrale di NY.

Qui si sentono i camion che scaricano al mattino, si vedono le auto private cosa quasi strana… una zona cmq perfetta per correre… il parco vicino è meraviglioso, il Riverside Park, la vista è sull’Hudson River.. certo non favoleggiante come il Central Park, ma ottimo per correre… anzi chiudo qui perchè devo andare a percorrere le mie miglia quotidiane.

Great compilation I saw on Red Tory:

This is a follow up to my previous articles, “The Idolatry of Theological Training” and “Is Theology Your Idol?”.

Mount Zion Bible Institute exists:

To glorify God by teaching His Word, distributing courses worldwide without charge. The courses are all designed to glorify God by “humbling the pride of man, exalting the grace of God in salvation, and promoting real holiness in heart and life.”

Mount Zion Bible Institute is a ministry that provides free, practical, and solid theological training. They have training for all people at all areas of understanding in their knowledge of Scripture. They also offer many books, articles, and sermons on their website for free. I highly recommend visiting them. I’ve included information directly from their website below that will provide some greater detail about them. (For those of you that may be worried about credibility, John Piper recommends them on his website.)

What I’ve seen so far, and greatly appreciate, about MZBI is that they teach theology as well as how to apply it to your life. In case we’ve forgotten: this is why we have theology.

Click here to go directly to Mount Zion Bible Institute.

What is the purpose of MZBI?

MZBI exists to glorify God by teaching His Word, distributing courses worldwide without charge via the internet. More specifically, the courses are all designed to glorify God by “humbling the pride of man, exalting the grace of God in salvation, and promoting real holiness in heart and life.”

Many countries have English as a first or second language. The need to train native pastors and missionaries is urgent and pressing, and each of them have a great need for materials to disciple their own people. Also, all missionaries need on-going Bible study to maintain their walk with the Lord. (See question 2 below.)

In addition, the English language has become the second language of most countries on earth—for business, government, and education purposes. Because of this, there is a wide open door through the internet for useful English materials into every university campus in the world, and also into the homes of their graduates. Internet-based Bible training can be used mightily of the Lord to change many lives. May it be so, O Lord!

Why is MZBI’s internet training so important?

Most third world pastors do not have access to a computer or the internet, but many do! And very often there is a western missionary at least in contact who can furnish materials. The following report is from a missions conference*:

“There is astonishing growth in numbers of Christian churches in Africa, Asia, South America, and countries that were formerly behind the so-called iron curtain. This growth has occurred so rapidly that formal training institutions like universities and seminaries will never be able to train enough pastors to shepherd these churches. Studies have shown that there are at least two million preachers preaching in pulpits in these countries every Sunday, who have never had any theological training whatsoever.

“In many African countries, churches have an average of only one trained pastor for every 20 churches. One pastor from Uganda, sitting next to me, told us that his denomination has 1,000 congregations, but only 8 trained pastors to shepherd them. Another one from the Evangelical Christian Church in Zambia told us that his denomination has 675 churches, with only 31 trained pastors. We were told that since 1973, 29,000 new Christian churches have been planted in the Philippines; and they expect another 16,000 to be planted in 2001. All the formal seminaries and training institutions in their whole country could never train even 5% of the needed pastors for these churches.

“One Chinese pastor from the Peoples Republic of China told us of the phenomenal growth of the house churches in their country, in spite of ongoing difficulties. In many of these churches the pastor will just throw his Bible to his congregation when he is arrested, and the person who catches it automatically becomes the pastor. In some places teenage girls are appointed as “pastors” because they are the only literate people with Bibles. The pastor told us that he is currently running a program of training 20,000 Chinese pastors for these house churches, but mostly without materials, depending upon memory and word of mouth.

“In some of these countries, the church is growing itself to death! The structures simply cannot cope. The structural growth lags behind. The provision of adequate leadership is not keeping pace with the influx of people into the church. There is a vast lack of the most basic Bible knowledge, as well as basic Christian doctrine, amongst church members and even their untrained leaders.”

* In March 2000, an international conference was held in Manila, Philippines, on the training of Third World pastors. There were representatives from over 80 institutions in 50 countries. This report is abstracted from attendee Dr. Flip Buys, Principal of Mahlanga Bible College in Gauteng, South Africa, as shared with Pastor Erroll Hulse of Reformation Today magazine, Leeds, England.

What is the doctrinal position of MZBI?

The heart desire of MZBI is to point people to Jesus Christ as personal Savior, Lord, and King, through intimate application of the Scriptures for changed lives. Therefore, we focus on application of the knowledge of the Scriptures to the heart.

MZBI holds to the classic conservative evangelical teachings of the Reformation, the historic Protestant faith. These can be summarized as follows.

MZBI Short Statement of Faith:

We believe the Bible to be the divinely inspired, infallible, inerrant, plenary, and authoritative Word of God.

We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, His deity, His sinless humanity, His perfect life, the eternal all-sufficiency of His atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the Father’s right hand, and His personal imminent return to earth in power and glory.

We believe all men are depraved in their nature since the fall, and justly deserve punishment for their sin in hell. While they can do nothing in themselves to earn God’s favor, all men are responsible to call upon God for their salvation.

We believe that justification is a judicial act of God on the believer’s behalf solely on the merits, blood, and righteousness of Jesus Christ. Further, that regeneration (the new birth) by the power of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for personal salvation. This salvation is by grace through faith alone.

We believe in the Lordship of Christ over His Church; and the observance of the ordinances of Christian baptism and the Lord’s supper.

We believe in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed in heaven and the eternal doom of the unregenerate in the lake of fire.

A more detailed statement of faith can be found in the Westminster Confession (adopted in 1646) and in the London Baptist Confession (1689).

How are the courses chosen?

MZBI is very careful to include as reading materials for the courses only theologically conservative, proven, and often classic (widely accepted as authoritative) texts, mostly from prior centuries. The authors have withstood the test of time, where Christians over many years have found the texts both very helpful and true to the Scriptures. We avoid the controversies associated with one man over another in our present day.

Our desire is to teach the whole counsel of God. Therefore we are continually seeking to add courses to fill in the curriculum to become a complete lifetime of learning through the entire Scriptures.

How can I utilize MZBI’s materials in my own ministry?

The MZBI resources are available at no charge. You may use them in any of several ways:

For a file on your PC:

- download the courses from our web site; make your own copies.

For printed course booklets:

- in the USA: write to us and we will send them, DV.

- outside of the USA: if one of the foreign branches is in your country, contact it directly.

- outside of the USA: if there is no foreign branch in your country, write us for one course copy sent by surface.

- outside of the USA: if you are a pastor or missionary, you may download a Branch Application (to establish a branch in your city) from our web site (at the Worldwide Branches page). Alternatively, you may write us for a Branch Application. In either case, you must have three references who are pastors also write to us.

The courses may be reproduced as long as 1) the copyright information is printed or displayed on all reproductions, and 2) the material is not charged for. You can include mention of our web address in your materials, or a link to our web site.

In addition, foreign translations of the materials are welcome, and it is possible that your translation of MZBI courses into a local language may be made available through MZBI. Please contact us for specifics before beginning any translation work.

What is MZBI’s philosophy of learning?

Study at Your Own Location

The courses are offered as independent study so that the student can remain in his own surroundings, maintaining his own daily work responsibilities. In this way he can avoid travel expenses, save time, and fit the studies into his own schedule. When there is a local group, there is the added benefit of feedback from others in an environment of trust.

The course materials have wide distribution into several environments:

1.     individuals working in independent study,

2.     groups using the course together, with feedback from a group coordinator. This might be in church classes, home Bible studies, prisons, or home schools.

Administration

The emphasis in all courses is understanding and application of the truth. Grades can weaken the spiritual impact, leading to reliance on self vs. God. The Bible Institute is unaccredited by men, and does not issue diplomas or certificates. Instead, the courses are offered solely for winning the approval of God, as He does a work in our hearts to transform us into the image of Christ.

When printed locally after a course file is downloaded, courses can be used either for independent study (no mailing of lessons), or for traditional correspondence study (lessons reviewed by a course administrator). In “traditional correspondence study,” the student returns his written answers to his course administrator.

Course administration (enrollments, distribution of materials, and review of written answers for feedback) can be accomplished by either a pastor, church worker, or chaplain conducting their own local training.

Design

The courses are practical in nature, since practical application, obedience, and holy living seem to be our biggest struggle in the Christian life. Many people tend to take a course in a mechanical way: getting the ‘head-knowledge’ without a change in the life. Therefore the courses are designed to encourage the student toward understanding and obeying the truth, rather than memorizing information so that a high grade may be attained. To this end, the courses are heart-searching, challenging to the conscience, and practical in encouraging holy living.

We try to avoid the standard didactic approach often used exclusively in formal colleges and seminaries, which uses deduction from a hypothesis to a conclusion only, and can become overly dependent on the intellect to the exclusion of the working of the Holy Spirit. Most courses are therefore centered on studying the Scriptures in the way God intended: meditating on a Bible passage with the Spirit as the teacher, rather than memorizing information and pouring it back out on a test.

Doctrine

We try to avoid using the term “systematic theology,” in order to avoid time and energy given to anything other than our main work: “to humble the pride of man, to exalt the grace of God in salvation, and to promote real holiness in heart and life.” We bring out the basic core doctrines of the Christian faith which are necessary for salvation, sanctification, and service. When other doctrines present themselves, we try to present both sides of the truth, and encourage returning to unity in the major doctrines.

Audiences

Because the materials are focused on personal application in a realistic daily walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, the courses are used by individuals, pastors, and groups such as home Bible studies and church ministries. Students of The Bible Institute courses also include many who cannot afford, or choose not to pay, the high prices of Christian materials offered in the prosperous marketplaces of Western nations. Therefore the courses are often used in prisons and among pastors and lay people in native churches of underdeveloped countries.

Many students will be in a local church, but will not have experience in personal Bible study. The basic courses will be helpful to this group. Others will have some years in the Christian life, and will be at an intermediate level. Still others will have much Bible knowledge. These may study the advanced courses, which focus on renewing personal intimate fellowship with Christ.

Click here to go to Mount Zion Bible Institute.

I’m very pleased to have found this. And also nauseated.

I recommend pouring yourself a double before settling in to watch. I’ll tell you this: That old guy at the end of the video isn’t the only one who’s really afraid of what’s happening in America.

via Deep Thoughts

Sounds scary, right?

When I read crap like this, it really makes me feel happy—not to mention morally superior—about not belonging to any sort of church.

Let’s consider some of the Christ-like musings of Pastor Wiley Drake, who preaches at First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California.

Here is an excerpt of a conversation Pastor Drake had with Alan Colmes on his radio show earlier this year about the dear Pastor’s fervent prayers that President Obama die and that his children be fatherless and his wife be a widow.

“Are you praying for his death?” Colmes asked Drake, referring to President Obama.

“Yes,” Drake replied.

“So you’re praying for the death of the president of the United States?” Colmes asked.

“Yes.”

“You would like for the president of the United States to die?” Colmes asked once more.

“If he does not turn to God and does not turn his life around, I am asking God to enforce imprecatory prayers that are throughout the Scripture that would cause him death, that’s correct.”

As I’m in the middle of hurling my checkbook at the computer monitor, Colmes takes a call from a listener. The caller (rightly) observes that the pastor’s call to violence in the name of religion to support a political agenda is just terrorism.

To this, Pastor Drake replies: “No, I’m not a terrorism supporter, I’m a vengeance of God supporter.”

Really. Vengeance of God. How very Old Testament of you. And I’ll refrain from mentioning any analogy to “jihad” here.

Referring to the murder of Dr. George Tiller, Alan Colmes asked Pastor Drake if he “got what he wanted,” and Drake replied, “Well, I think so, and I think in the days ahead, we’ll see other imprecatory prayers answered.”

[For the record, “imprecatory prayers” are prayers for misfortune or death to befall someone, usually an evildoer or a backslider. Me? I usually pray for people to feel  better when they are sick. Or for folks to find comfort when they lose a loved one. Or that the world's wackos stop spouting this incendiary bullshit with the intentions of provoking more senseless violence.]

Ugh. This is what irritates me the most. Pastor Drake claims to be the most righteous of them all, what with his relationship with Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior, and he is exactly the one displaying the most un-Christ-like behavior. As hymn-belting accordionist Sister Virginia from my childhood church would have said, “Pastor Drake, that’s just not very Christian of you.”

It’s just gross. I grew up in a Pentecostal and Southern Baptist family, and this is still impossible to understand. Knowing that many in my family probably would swallow this guy’s message hook, line, and sinker without asking any questions or performing any critical analysis simply because the pastor names Jesus Christ makes me feel like throwing up.

Via Salon

gift tutorial

the gift must be a finite object which will encapsulate the project. A symbolic object, which does not explain through representation but represents through symbology, like a icon. The icon will show the materiality of the archive skin, the layering, the lie it hides, its un-disclosure. It will open like a gift but will be a mediator of the scales of the giant collage, materiality models, virtual representation and site model. It can exist at all these scales at once, thus being both the object which is archived, a symbol of the archive itself and a diagram of its structure. At the heart of the gift should be the intimate intensity expressed in the work up until now.

This was a very neat article about a new medical breakthroughs for treating Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), asthma, bronchitis, and other lung afflictions which cause the body to produce too much mucus. By using an inexpensive flute which creates vibrations at 16 hertz (the same frequency as the lungs’ cilia move to dislodge the excess mucus), patients enjoy at least the same benefit as current COPD treatments. Already used in Japan, Europe, and Canada, and I understood that FDA approval is already in place for diagnostic use, with approval for therapeutic use expected very soon.

Video here:

Best of What’s New 2009: Playing the Lung Flute from PopSci.com on Vimeo.

Link at Neatorama

Most people don’t live life to the fullest because they have fear. They let fear rob them of life and the joys of living. I don’t want you to be reckless and foolish, but I do want you to take chances and challenge yourself. If you’re afraid to take some risks, you will never grow, never stretch and never reach your potential. Sometimes it may be painful, but there is no growth without pain. That’s why they’re called ‘growing pains’.

What would you think if you had a baby who was three years old and had not grown from infancy? You’d take the baby to the doctor. Or suppose the baby fell down once and just stopped trying to walk? You’d know there was something wrong because you know that without falling and getting back up, the baby would never learn to walk.

We cannot stop trying just because we fall or just because it is painful. Growth is painful, but it is necessary. This is a direct quote from the families of the astronauts who died in the tragic Challenger shuttle disaster: ‘‘Do not fear risk; all exploration, all growth is calculated. Life is filled with challenge. Only those who are will­ing to go after those challenges grow. Only if we are willing to walk over the edge can we become winners.’’ Remember, all things are possible if you can just believe.

Visit my website at www.williejolley.com for free motivation and make this a great day!

[The First Part of this series was <<A: Open Source. The second installment of the Stop Usage Based Billing alphabet series was <<B: Packets and the Internet. The third installment was <a href="<<C: Deep Packet Inspection, and the final installment will be E: Open Source Deep Packet Inspection]

What is BitTorrent Anyway??

“BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it has been estimated that it accounts for approximately 27-55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009.”

– Wikipedia on BitTorrent

BitTorrent is an extremely fast and efficient means of uploading and downloading. BitTorrent is an excellent way to distribute large materials to many people via the internet.

Radical Ideas

Like so many of the radical new ways to do things that technology and the internet have made possible, BitTorrent can only work through co-operation. BitTorrent requires a network of “peers”, or other people’s computers who are willing to share the file. This is referred to as “peer to peer” or “p2p.

If I have a large file I want to transfer, the first step is to “seed” the file, transferring portions of the file to multiple members of the p2p network.

Diagram 1: Seeding

It only takes a small fraction of the file to be passed along before the process speeds up enormously.

Diagram 2: Seeding and Sharing

Once I have a small portion, i pass it along at the same time as I’m receiving new bits of the same file, either from the original seed source of another peer.

Diagram 3: Upload + Download = Speed

With many participants (peers) uploading and downloading at the same time, large files can be distributed very quickly indeed.

Diagram 4: Finish Fast

Bell Canada “Throttles” BitTorrent

Bell Canada

When Bell Canada was first caught “throttling” internet traffic to the Independent ISP customers, Bell Canada’s justification to the CRTC was that the internet was too crowded, and that it was necessary to “manage” the traffic. Bell claimed that they needed to employ Deep Packet Inspection to identify BitTorrent Traffic so that they can “throttle” it.

Mandate:
“The CRTC’s mandate is to ensure that both the broadcasting and telecommunications systems serve the Canadian public. ”

—CRTC Role, CRTC Website

Amazingly, the CRTC had nothing to say about Bell Canada’s plans to discriminate against particular Canadian internet users.

The CRTC has accepted Bell’s unsubstantiated contention that this discrimination was necessary, and in approving it they have allowed Bell Canada to think that this discrimination is acceptable. In no way does this serve the Canadian public.

You might almost think that the CRTC mandate was to suppress Canadian creativity and the creation of Canadian movies and music. The availability of the technologies that exist to make it easy to create our own movies and music should be welcomed as an opportunity to add to and help grow our Canadian Culture.

Why single out BitTorrent traffic for throttling if it is an efficient use of the available bandwidth?

One of Bell Canada’s arguments for implementation of Usage Based Billing is that Canadian internet bandwidth is in short supply, making it necessary for them to “manage” bandwidth by penalizing heavy users.

So how could anything as efficient as BitTorrent possibly be seen as a bad thing if the Internet is so crowded?

It doesn’t make sense to discriminate against BitTorrent use. There is nothing inherently bad about BitTorrent use or BitTorrent internet traffic. But Bell Canada’s contention is that BitTorrent is bad because people use it to download movies and music.

Which begs the question: how does that make BitTorrent bad?

The Copyright Red Herring

The “Copyright Lobby”, which consists of large media producers and distributors (like Disney), and corporations and organizations (like MPAA), who distribute commercial movies and music, want us to believe that this is a bad thing.

This corporate special interest group has spent a great deal of time, energy and cash trying to promote the “pravda” that any digital copying of copyright works is bad. Making no distinction between commercial bootleggers who distribute illegal copies for profit and legal purchasers who seek to make a back-up copy or digital format shift for personal use, the Copyright Lobby has been pressuring governments the world over to criminalize personal use copying.

The problem for ordinary citizens is that these corporate interests have vast quantities of money to spend and a great deal of media power. This makes it incredibly difficult for governments to stand up to their onslaught. In some parts of the world this persistent advocacy has paid off for the Copyright Lobby, as lawmakers knuckle under and legislate to the detriment of their own citizens by making it illegal even to copy or download movies or music for personal use.

Here in Canada the Copyright Lobby is seeking to influence our lawmakers to criminalize personal use copying. They are trying to make Canadians think that people who make copies for personal use are performing criminal acts, and should be penalized the same as a a bootlegger who films the latest theatrical release off a theatre screen and proceeds to sell hundreds of thousands of bootleg DVDs.

Once again, Channel Four’s hilarious I.T. Crowd puts this question in perspective with this send-up of a video piracy commercial I found on YouTube.

Strong and free?

Canadian Law says

RIGHT NOW, in Canada, personal use copying is simply not illegal.

RIGHT NOW, in Canada, use of the BitTorrent file transfer protocol is also perfectly legal.

RIGHT NOW, in Canada, peer to peer (p2p) file sharing is legal; Canadians break no laws simply by joining in a p2p network.

The Copyright Lobby’s smear tactics have gone a long way toward making the world believe that BitTorrent is inherently bad.

Bell Canada has convinced the CRTC that it is acceptable to “throttle” BitTorrent, because of BitTorrent’s reputed connection with possible copyright infringement. So although BitTorrent is perfectly legal, Canadian internet users are paying the price for the success of this Copyright Lobby propaganda.

Myth: All BitTorrent/p2p internet traffic consists of copyright movies and music

The Corporate world doesn’t understand radical ideas like Open Source software and p2p file sharing because these concepts are so different from anything appearing in the old business models. Even more incomprehensible to the outdated business models is the fact that it may or may not generate a direct monetary profit.

The classic example of corporate myopia is:

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. ”

—attributed to Thomas J. Watson, president of International Business Machines, circa 1943

For many years IBM has taken the rap for this quote whether or not Mr. Watson really did say it. (Most likely not.) Maybe proving it wrong is part of why IBM is such a going concern in the 21st Century. Having weathered the storms of fortune today’s IBM is a world leader by continuing to innovate and adapt alongside evolving attitudes and technologies. IBM has been steadily increasing their participation and involvement with Open Source software in this new century.

The reality is that IBM not only understands the importance of open source, the corporation has actively supported and promoted adoption of Linux and Open Office in the corporate world. And naturally BitTorrent is a part of the equation because it is such an efficient means to distribute large files (like for instance, Canonical’s Ubuntu.)

“Think.”

—Thomas J. Watson, president of International Business Machines

Seems IBM actually does heed their most enduring slogan (which definitely was coined by Mr. Watson). Sadly, this type of foresight is uncommon. Because BitTorrent is such a radical idea, most entrenched corporations simply aren’t capable of understanding it.

There are other uses for BitTorrent that are not only legal, but even perfectly acceptable in polite society.

Probably my favorite use of BitTorrent is the amazing Project Gutenberg. This organization has been digitizing books in the public domain and distributing them freely… via BitTorrent, since this is such an efficient method of digital distribution. After all, BitTorrent is used for transferring very large files like music and movies because it is very efficient.

BitTorrent file sharing is not all movies and music. Like IBM, many people actually use p2p to help distribute open source software like OpenOffice via p2p. There is a growing body of open source software available, for instance my favorite web browser is Mozilla’s Firefox.

In fact, there the awesome SourceForge website which provides a place to find all manner of open source software, or where you can release your own.

When a new distribution of Ubuntu is released, people around the world gather together and have Ubuntu Release Parties making more good use of BitTorrent

And of course the Pirate Party of Canada has established Captain: the Canadian Pirate Tracker, their own BitTorrent site where Recording Artists and Filmmakers (and I imagine novelists, and software creators as well would be welcome to utilize this) to freely distribute their work.

Every bit of music and every movie transferred is not a copyright infringement. If I get to the point where my home made movies may prove marketable, I would certainly be looking at BitTorrent Distribution. In fact it would probably be easier to distribute home movies to family via BitTorrent than it would be to try to burn DVDs. (DRM makes the two commercial movie making software packages I’ve purchased almost unusable. Of course it doesn’t slow down the bootleggers.) If YouTube is an indicator, I’m not the only person who wants to transfer music and movies freely … not as copyright infringements. I have paid levies to the music industry for home movies I have made and burrned to CD for distribution to friends and family. If I choose to transfer them via BitTorrent now I can avoid the levy but instead suffer the added expense of Bell Canada’s deliberate throttling inflation?

Another really good legal use of BitTorrents are the actual commercial websites where people can go to to purchase downloads of music. So far no one seems to have found anything wrong with this practice.

But that’s not all. Canada’s own CBC Television Network tried their own experiment by releasing an episode of their program Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister via BitTorrent. Unfortunately the BitTorrent didn’t work so well because of Bell Canada’s CRTC approved BitTorrent “throttling”.

Geist tweets about the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation

Which is not to say it wasn’t a good idea. Not too long ago Michael Geist tweeted about the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s foray into BitTorrent use. All accounts indicate that their experiment was very successful indeed, which is having a big impact in the way they do business.

Ink Poster

The sad tale of a pirated Independent film can be found in this TorrentFreak article Indie Movie Explodes on BitTorrent, Makers Bless Piracy.

I guess it isn’t such a sad story after all.  

Thanks to piracy this Indie film called INK was has been achieving a distribution level that the filmmakers had never dreamed of.  They are of course extraordinarily pleased.

I think what is being called piracy here is BitTorrent p2p personal use sharing. Friends sharing with friends is one of the most effective ways to achieve recognition. They used to call it a “grass roots” movement. This is one of the major issues for the large movie studios. This is the place where they complain of being ripped off. What they don’t seem to realize is that this is a good thing. Exposure garners fans, makes a “name”. Fans buy stuff.

BitTorrent Traffic is not the only thing Bell Canada is Throttling

Rumour has it that there are people who actually work from home.

Time was the government encouraged the idea of people working from home. There are all sorts of advantages to society, like reduced congestion on actual highways, less wear and tear on our roads, a decrease in commuting based pollutants in our environment, a reduction of human depletion of fossil fuels.

But if you work from home, you are probably going to have to transfer files back and forth between your home and workplace. Chances are good that you are going to encrypt this type of traffic for security reasons. Although Bell Canada says they are only “throttling” BitTorrent traffic, in fact there have been instances of Bell throttling encrypted internet traffic on the assumption that if it’s encrypted, it must be BitTorrent traffic.

Bell places the onus on the customer to prove their “innocence” before they will consider stopping throttling.

Since the CRTC gave Bell Canada permission to use Deep Packet Inspection to inspect our packets, the only way to ensure that our private information remains private is through encryption. And in Canada any encrypted internet traffic will most likely to be throttled.

Canadian Copyright Consultation

The Canadian Government is looking at updating Canadian copyright law. They held a copyright consultation process this year, traveling around Canada soliciting opinions of stakeholders. Even better, they set up a website where they accepted submissions from any Canadian who wished to contribute. This website was flooded with thousands of submissions. Some are simply a few lines, some are extensive essays covering all sorts of topics, but all I’ve read are heartfelt. Because of the overwhelming response it took a long time to get all the submissions posted. (My own submission finally made online.)

This process led a lot of Canadians, including me, to believe that the copycon process might actually mean that our elected representatives were listening to us.

Unfortunately there is currently a lot of pressure on our government to make copying movies, software and music for personal use illegal. The secret ACTA meetings have caused a feeling of dread to settle over most Canadians. There has been deprecating talk about weak Canadian copyright law.

Except it isn’t true.

If anything, Canadian copyright law is probably more robust than is good for us.

The essential problem that the copyright lobby is attempting to overcome the problem of suing their own customers for what they imagine are infringements. They have noticed that fighting personal use copying garners bad publicity. This problem can be neatly solved by passing the responsibility for finding and prosecuting copyright infringement to governments. And of course the only was to get government to take ob the responsibility is to convince them that the copyright infringement is a criminal offense.

Regardless, currently copyright law is imprecise as regards personal use copying. So we’ll just have to wait for an actual law to be passed before it becomes illegal. (This pressure is actually largely from foreign owned interests– like Disney. It will be interesting to see if our government caves to this outside pressure.)

mixed messages

The government mandated levy we pay every time we purchase a blank CD is a tacit governmental admission that it is legal to burn CDs of our own music.

In the pre-Tivo era, Canadian cable networks actively encouraged Canadians to videotape the movies that they showed so we could watch them when it was convenient. They called it “time shifting” in their massive advertising campaigns. But no media giants took our cable companies to court back then. For the same reason artists will lend or give away their work for free when they’re starting out (because they need to build and audience– exactly like the INK producers mentioned above), back then even Disney didn’t have a channel in Canada. So Disney didn’t kick up a fuss even though they had to have known this was happening. They let it go because it was in their best interests to allow time shifting (i.e personal use copying). Disney knew this was in their best interests because it would help the Canadian cable companies build their market.

Of course now Disney doesn’t want us to record their movies for personal use. Disney would be happy if our government decided personal use copying was illegal. They would be happier still if our government spent time and energy searching out and charging people who download Disney movies.

Disney would be happy they no longer had to expend time and energy chasing down copyright infringements. They would be ecstatic if our Mounties were to do it for them. Gratis.

But this precedent indicates copying movies for personal use is also legal in Canada

So even though p2p networks or copying movies and music are not actually illegal in Canada, our friends the CRTC gave Bell Canada permission to “throttle” anyone using BitTorrent transfers. Because the assumption is that even if you’re not technically performing criminal acts, per se, anyone who uses BitTorrent can’t be very nice.

The CRTC, the government body that is supposed to safeguard Canadian telecommunication consumers, gave Bell Canada legal permission to mess with BitTorrent traffic. Its discriminatory for one thing. If there are copyright infringements happening, there are laws to handle them. It isn’t any of Bell Canada’s business. Or the CRTC’s.

[More on copyright in my other blog-- in the wind: Personal Use Copying vs. Bootlegging]

Dudley Do-Right?

Eirik Solheim's metaphorical image of the internet is the best I've seen: The internet is a series of tubes

Even if it were true that Canadian consumers were downloading music or movies, and even if it had been made illegal under Canadian Law, it should not make a whit of difference.

Because Internet Service Providers or Internet Carriers are NOT branches of Canadian law enforcement. They have not been deputized to enforce the law by the RCMP. If Bell Canada was in fact a Law Enforcement entity they would not be allowed to peek in any citizen’s packets without first acquiring a search warrant. Corporations don’t exist to uphold laws, they exist to make money.

The internet has been called dumb pipes, or a series of tubes, or a highway. It doesn’t really matter what you call it, what is most important is access for all.  
The people who control the pipes should not be allowed to discriminate against particular users for ANY reason. Net Neutrality is so important: the internet should be accessible to all.

revolutionary ideas

In the United Kingdom The Times Online Do music artists fare better in a world with illegal file-sharing? article looked at the benefits of personal use copying applied as peer to peer file sharing with some dramatic results.

Canada’s own ThisMagazine presented this thought provoking article Pay indie artists and break the music monopoly — Legalize Music Piracy which advocates making the law serve the artists and consumers rather than just the corporations.

Further rumblings about changing the way we look at this issue were reported recently by the The Globe and Mail blogs article NDP, Billy Bragg make case for free music

STOP Usage Based Billing

The Earth laughs in flowers.

–  Ralph Waldo Emerson

It has been revealed that Norwegian electric car manufacturer Think Global is planning to produce and sell its cars in the US.

Think has a loan application in the earlier stages as a part of the US Government’s scheme to encourage the local production of fuel-efficient vehicles.

Around 2300 Think City small cars have been ordered in the past 12-18 months and production will begin in Finland in December – in the same city as Porsche makes its Boxster and Cayman.

Think is aiming to sell 4600 units next year and then double production by 2011.

Think City can travel up to 180 kilometres in one charge, with a top speed of 100km/h.

]]> http://shawncita.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/not-your-problem/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:48:37 +0000 shawncita http://shawncita.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/not-your-problem/

Loved this one, too…May we all remember this story, especially in our current “I’ve got mine, so screw you” social and political climate:

A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package; what food might it contain?

He was aghast to discover that it was a mouse trap!

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning, “There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house.”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell you this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me; I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mouse trap in the house.”

“I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse,” sympathized the pig, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers.”

The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, “Like wow, Mr. Mouse, a mouse trap; am I in grave danger, Duh?”

So the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected to face the farmer’s mouse trap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught.

In the darkness, she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital.

She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.

His wife’s sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.

So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

via Miss Cellania

Este cuentecito me encantó, y me parece que es super-aplicable en “today’s tough times.” ¡Qué lo disfruten!

Juan trabajaba en una empresa hace dos años, siempre fue muy serio, dedicado y cumplidor de sus obligaciones, llegaba puntual y estaba orgulloso de que en dos años nunca recibió una amonestación.

Cierto dia busco al gerente para hacerle un reclamo:

– Señor, trabajo en esta empresa hace dos años con bastante esmero y estoy a gusto con mi puesto, pero siento que he sido postergado. Mire Rogelio, ingresó a un puesto igual que el mío hace 6 meses y ya está siendo promovido a supervisor.

– Uhmmmm – Mostrando preocupación el gerente – Le dice: Mientras resolvemos esto quisiera que me ayudaras a resolver un problema. Quiero dar fruta al personal para la sobremesa del almuerzo de hoy. En la bodega de la esquina venden fruta, por favor, averigüe si tienen naranjas.

Juan se esmeró en cumplir con el encargo y en 5 minutos estaba de vuelta.

– Bueno Juan ¿Que averiguaste?

– Señor, sí tienen naranjas a la venta.

– ¿Y cuánto cuestan?

– Ah.. eso no lo pregunté.

– Ok, pero ¿había suficientes naranjas para todo el personal?

– Tampoco pregunté eso señor.

– ¿Hay alguna fruta que pueda sustituir a la naranja?

– No sé señor, pero creo…

– Bueno Juan, Siéntate un momento.

El Gerente mandó llamar a Rogelio. Cuando éste se presentó, le dio las mismas instrucciones que le dio a Juan y en diez minutos estaba de vuelta.

Cuando Rogelio regresó, el gerente le pregunta:

– Y bien Rogelio ¿qué noticias me tienes?

– Señor, tienen naranjas, lo suficiente para atender a todo el personal y, si prefiere, también tiene plátano, papaya, melón y mango. La naranja está a 1.5 pesos el kg. El plátano a 2.20 la mano, el mango a 0.9 el kg. Me dice que si le compra en cantidad le darán un descuento de 8%. He dejado separada la naranja pero si usted escoge otra fruta debo de regresar para confirmar el pedido.

– Muchas gracias Rogelio, pero espera un momento…

– Se dirige el gerente a Juan, que aun seguía con la cara de “WTF” estupefacto y le pregunta:

– Juan, ¿Qué me decías?

– Nada señor, eso es todo…. Con su permiso….

via Vida en Zen

Why I am so clever. I think, therefore I am.

This video is being posted as a continuation of the article that I posted last week titled: The Idolatry of Theological Training. The pastor in the video is Tim Conway from Grace Community Church, in San Antonio, Texas, and the video was produced by a ministry of this church called: I’ll Be Honest.

Update 11/24/09: This article has been updated and a continuation of this post has been published here: Mount Zion Bible Institute.

Abbi pazienza ma debbo scriveredevo dirti un paio di cose, e lo faccio a te scrigno scoperto che ti ho accanto.

Devo dirti che con lei qui non va più.
Che c'è qualcosa che non convinve non suona più bene e tutta l'armonia sta svanendo e
tutte le basi stan cedendo.

Devo scrivere il mio pensiero,
devo ammettere di non essere sincero, di non averle detto delle cose. Di aver mentito su altre
E di continuare a fare così anche adesso, che forse non ha più senso farlo adesso se è vero
che stiamo per finire

Devo pensare. Pianificare
Immagina io che devo capire, come finire.
la inviterò qui, o forse fuori esterni dove il rumore è altro e il dolore è minore.

Ma non devo, voglio e forse no. Non so perchè lo faccio
ma so che lei non si merita una persona che non l'ama.
Me lo dice sempre, che non se lo merita... e io mi sento male.

Abbi pazienza ma devo pensare
E per farlo ho bisogno di scrivere
Devo capire se è il caso o no di fare una scelta del genere
Devo capire, se lei è ancora per me, se qualcosa si può fare.
in anni anni e anni insieme, qualcosa forse ancora si può fare.

Non voglio finire, senza provare a fare qualcosa.
Ma quando l'amore si spegne: che cosa puoi provare ?

Io sento sento e sento tante cose, ma l'amore quello forte o la passione o semplicemente
il desiderio quello no, non lo sento più. E non lo sento da tanto.
Per questo mi chiedo se ha senso, che senso ha stare insieme. Che senso ha fare progetti
uscire pensare a cosa faremo, fare l'amore se non senti nulla se non solo l'unico piacere
fisico che termina appena finisci di respirare...

non so, io penso e penso che sia sbagliato andare per decisioni
penso che sia immaturo dover fare tutto in fretta. Ma non sento e questa cosa è difficile.
non ne puoi parlare, lei starebbe malissimo e finirebbe tutto,
quindi non so come affrontare questa situazione

Penso e penso ma non trovo nulla. Attendo e ho un sacco di pensieri, ho aspettato molto
che lo cose cambiassero, ma nulla è cambiato e io sono sempre qui
con le mie emozioni con i miei pensieri, cosa faccio ?

Devo soffrire, starò da solo, abbiamo passato davvero tanti anni assieme e tutto finisce così?

--
Quando finisce così
non finisce così...