Full version of my comic Counting Stars, which I drew for a competition.
Beautiful!
My goodness, that made me tear up. I might cry. This is so heartwrenchingly beautiful.
February62012
February22012
-Joe
And THAT, right there, is why Cap will always be my favorite Avenger.
(via anshinwrites)
11PM
(via anshinwrites)
January302012
(Source: heyrainbows, via anshinwrites)
January252012
“WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Ensure that every child in America has access to an effective school library program.
Every child in America deserves access to an effective school library program. We ask that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provide dedicated funding to help support effective school library programs. Such action will ensure more students have access to the resources and tools that constitute a 21st century learning environment. Reductions in school library programs are creating an ‘access gap’ between schools in wealthier communities versus those where there are high levels of poverty. All students should have an equal opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to learn, to participate, and to compete in today’s world.”
Ensure that every child in America has access to an effective school library program.
Every child in America deserves access to an effective school library program. We ask that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provide dedicated funding to help support effective school library programs. Such action will ensure more students have access to the resources and tools that constitute a 21st century learning environment. Reductions in school library programs are creating an ‘access gap’ between schools in wealthier communities versus those where there are high levels of poverty. All students should have an equal opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to learn, to participate, and to compete in today’s world.”
The librarians need 11,000 more signatures on this petition…
(via neil-gaiman)
(via anshinwrites)
January242012
“
When the web started, I used to get really grumpy with people because they put my poems up. They put my stories up. They put my stuff up on the web. I had this belief, which was completely erroneous, that if people put your stuff up on the web and you didn’t tell them to take it down, you would lose your copyright, which actually, is simply not true.
And I also got very grumpy because I felt like they were pirating my stuff, that it was bad. And then I started to notice that two things seemed much more significant. One of which was… places where I was being pirated, particularly Russia where people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading around into the world, I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated. Then they were going out and buying the real books, and when a new book would come out in Russia, it would sell more and more copies. I thought this was fascinating, and I tried a few experiments. Some of them are quite hard, you know, persuading my publisher for example to take one of my books and put it out for free. We took “American Gods,” a book that was still selling and selling very well, and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it and you could download it. What happened was sales of my books, through independent bookstores, because that’s all we were measuring it through, went up the following month three hundred percent
I started to realize that actually, you’re not losing books. You’re not losing sales by having stuff out there. When I give a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people say, “Well, what about the sales that I’m losing through having stuff copied, through having stuff floating out there?” I started asking audiences to just raise their hands for one question. Which is, I’d say, “Okay, do you have a favorite author?” They’d say, “Yes.” and I’d say, “Good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands.” And then, “Anybody who discovered your favorite author by walking into a bookstore and buying a book raise your hands.” And it’s probably about five, ten percent of the people who actually discovered an author who’s their favorite author, who is the person who they buy everything of. They buy the hardbacks and they treasure the fact that they got this author. Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it, and that’s how they found their favorite author. And I thought, “You know, that’s really all this is. It’s people lending books. And you can’t look on that as a loss of sale. It’s not a lost sale, nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it because they can find it for free.”
What you’re actually doing is advertising. You’re reaching more people, you’re raising awareness. Understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright and of what the web was doing. Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things. Allowing people to read things. Allowing people to see things that they would never have otherwise seen. And I think, basically, that’s an incredibly good thing.
” Neil Gaiman on Copyright, Piracy, and the Commercial Value of the Web (X)(Source: roominthecastle, via anshinwrites)
4PM
What the Actual Fuck?
“I ordered some video-editing software from Hitfilm in the UK which also comes with some instructional videos. So a few days later I get a call from FedEx saying that the DVDs were being held at U.S. Customs until I filled out a Video Declaration Form, which she said was now standard practice. Now, I’d never heard of this before, so I called back to ensure that this was indeed FedEx and not someone phishing for information. Had them email me the form.
This is what the form said: “I/we declare the the films/videos contain no obscene or immoral matter, nor any matter advocating or urging treason or insurrection against the United States, nor any threat to take the life of or inflict bodily harm upon any person in the United States.”
Now, the first clause I can kinda see, though “immoral” is weird and there’s no standard definition of obscenity in the US, but let that go…what made my eyebrows go up my forehead and down the other side was clause two. So I called back the nice lady at FedEx — who was only following instructions given to her by Customs — and asked what this was all about.
Apparently — and this is only her understanding of the situation — this is a new thing being done by Customs and Homeland Security with FedEx, UPS, and other carriers to make sure that films and videos with ideas or stories that were at odds with the United States Government didn’t get into the country, as it was a form of terrorism (as further elaborated upon in the third and final clause.) She added that some DVDs showing Occupy events in London and elsewhere had gotten bounced because of the concern that these were being used to coordinate activities here (as if with the internet people actually need physical DVDs for that sort of thing but that’s neither here nor there).
Under this new stipulation, if V for Vendetta had, for instance, been produced in the UK (instead of just filmed there), importing it into the US would be considered subject matter “advocating or urging treason or insurrection.” And if you lied about it on the form, you could be held liable for this.
So there are now very literally guardians at the gate ensuring that the wrong sorts of ideas, movies or DVDs are not allowed into the country without investigation and/or prosecution. And most pernicious of all, they don’t actually define what they mean by advocating treason or insurrection, any more than they define what “immoral” means, it’s whatever they decide it means, so you could be breaking the law without knowing you’re doing it, until they decide you’re doing it.
Thoughts?”
Thoughts: this country’s laws and things the government stands for gets more disgusting every day. Those are my thoughts.
Also, this only has a few notes and it’s someone’s personal story, so, probably good to signal boost it because it won’t be going around everywhere…
I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing that I’m totally unsurprised at this.
/casually flips a table
(via scar-lip)
January222012
(Source: gerrymanderer, via anshinwrites)
January212012
Threatening New Bill. Worse than SOPA/PIPA. This Bill Entitled "The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011" Is a Bill with overly broadened language that greatly threatens all of us. "under language approved 19 to 10 by a House committee, the firm that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your Internet activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you've been assigned."
this is so absurd that i honestly thought it was a joke until i clicked the link to find out that people in our government are reallythat stupid
are you fucking kidding me
what the actual fuck
wow that is just ridiculous, does this country have any freedom anymore
omfg
oh god please no
george orwell you prophetic motherfucker i hope youre rolling in your grave with cackles at our foretold misfortune
btw i hope the government likes gratuitous violence and porn because if this goes into affect thats just about all im going to be looking at
gurochan im looking at you
no
no
no
jesus
WHAT IN THE EVERLOVING FUCK.
(Source: jewfullness, via anshinwrites)
12AM
Alright people, we need to concern ourselves with ACTA
Five facts:
1. ACTA isn’t the “European” SOPA. It’s nearly GLOBAL, and will apply to every country that signs the treaty.
2. ACTA is far more aggressive. ACTA will not simply affect websites and have them blocked out of the internet - its measures go as far as surveillance of anything you share through private channels.
3. ACTA doesn’t have a campaign against it that is as wide-spread and organized as the SOPA one. This is DANGEROUS, as there’s less time between now and the final signing of ACTA.
4. ACTA has effects on healthcare, trade, and even tourism.
5. ACTA has to be stopped.
Let’s start spreading the word and organizing a good, solid response to it.
More information:
(via anshinwrites)
← Older entries
Page 1 of 2
