Links of the Day

Mickey Mouse Copyright - As the chart indicates, how copyright duration has changed over the last 100 years, mostly defined by how close the Mickey Mouse copyright came to entering public domain. It use to be that items would enter public domain after a certain period of time but now that is unlikely to happen as lobbyist get Congress to extend the date which is currently 70 years after the creators death. Just another example of how copyright, patents and more are broken systems.

Avatar Sneak Coming Soon - Apparently James Cameron's next epic might get a 15 minute sneak peak next Friday at Imax 3-D theatres worldwide at 6 and 6:30pm. The website is reporting that the tickets will be available at noon PDT on Monday at the Avatar website on a first come first serve basis.

Clueless Town Hall Protester - It’s amazing how a little ignorance can go a long way as the video shows below. This random housewife of clearly limited knowledge has suddenly become absolutely angry about the healthcare debate (despite her own coverage being one of the worst I have heard of). Apparently the last 20 years couldn't get her dander up but this is the final straw! How much you want to bet all her information comes from Fox News and Glenn Beck? In this day and age with the ease of getting information from multiple perspectives, her ignorance on even the basics is pathetic and inexcusable.


GOP's Real Reason for Fighting Healthcare - Let's face it. If you look at the GOP for the last 60 years their core platform is "whatever makes big business happy" + "scare the public with a boogeyman argument". In the Healthcare debate the question then is what are they protecting big business for? It turns out record profits is the motive. Based on SEC filings, during the Bush years (2000-2007) Health insurance companies have enjoyed a 428% increase in profits from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion. During this same period 19% less Americans have insurance. This is why the GOP is fighting so hard and why they are using boogeyman arguments ("death squads") to fight any reform as the insurance companies are scared to death that their will cease to enjoy record profits. When the GOP is fighting something there is always, without exception, a big business motive behind the action. They do nothing out of kindness, only out of lust for money.