(Part 2) Top products from r/blog

The statue of liberty is in the public domain. Anyone can use it for whatever they want. Want to take a picture of the statute of liberty and and put it on a t-shirt and then sell it? Nobody can stop you. Therefore, the image of the statue itself can be taken out of the discussion.

The torso component of the composite is taken from the image provided by the TSA to show the level of detail available in the typical scan. This is where the "commentary and criticism" comes into play.

The two remaining components - (the shins, and the raised arm) are so removed from the source as to be completely unrecognizable, and thus considered a new work. You literally will never be able to identify the original sources - therefore, there is no infringement. These components can be taken out of the discussion as well. As an exercise - try to to locate the source images.

By combining all of these components together, I have created a discrete work, protected by copyright. Consider Peter Max's famous Statue of Liberty painting which you will note is protected by copyright. If that's not convincing, you should look into the works of Rauschenberg and Warhol.

As an artist, I understand the concept of Fair Use better than most, and believe this image falls squarely within its purview, and I'm sure a court would agree.

If you are even remotely interested in the concept, you should really check out this book. It's a really entertaining book documenting how a band (Negativland) was sued by Island Records for copyright and trademark infringement. It also documents the massively important Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music sampling case.

Edit: added info about Negativland's book.

You can get this on Amazon for around $55 (large) and $68 (small).

I would, however, recommend this instead:

PETKIT Cat Water Fountain 2.0, 2L Automatic Pet Fountain for Dog and Cat with Filter, Super Quiet, Water-Shortage Alert, Filter-Change Reminder, Auto Power-Off Smart Cat Water Dispenser Bowl Fountain https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H7J4PBQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Be43CbGFPCCCT

The second time I met Victoria (/u/chooter), she recommended Ready Player One and The Room to me. I'm not sure exactly what that says about her, but it's something good, I think :)

I suggested it elsewhere on here, but if you're interested in the history this is a good primer.

According to Steven Pinker's book, The Better Angels of our Nature, violence has been on the decline over the millennia, and we're living in the most peaceful times in human existence.

However, he says:

>The decline, to be sure, has not been smooth; it has not brought violence down to zero; and it is not guaranteed to continue.

Pinker presents five forces that favour peacefulness over violence, but there have always been people fighting against them. They are:

• The Leviathan – the rise of the modern nation-state and judiciary "with a monopoly on the legitimate use of force," which "can defuse the [individual] temptation of exploitative attack, inhibit the impulse for revenge, and circumvent ... self-serving biases."
  
  
• Commerce – the rise of "technological progress [allowing] the exchange of goods and services over longer distances and larger groups of trading partners," so that "other people become more valuable alive than dead" and "are less likely to become targets of demonization and dehumanization."
  
  
• Feminization – increasing respect for "the interests and values of women."
  
  
• Cosmopolitanism – the rise of forces such as literacy, mobility, and mass media, which "can prompt people to take the perspectives of people unlike themselves and to expand their circle of sympathy to embrace them."
  
  
• The Escalator of Reason – an "intensifying application of knowledge and rationality to human affairs," which "can force people to recognize the futility of cycles of violence, to ramp down the privileging of their own interests over others', and to reframe violence as a problem to be solved rather than a contest to be won.
  
  We should be very concerned when leaders fight against these forces, because these forces are what make humanity better.
  

Yep! People who've never researched bitcoin don't realize how far-reaching the implications of this technology are. Bitcoin makes things possible that just aren't possible without it. It will change reddit, and the entire world. We are building a better economy.

Read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Sovereign-Individual-Mastering-Transition-Information/dp/0684832720/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418255980&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sovereign+individual

Chomsky has two books on education. Both are collections of articles and interviews. They are Chomsky on Democracy & Education and Chomsky on Miseducation. The former is much better than the latter, IMO.

I posted a PDF of a very important essay (again, IMO) by Chomsky on education a few days ago to the anarchist and education subreddits. In case you're interested.

That's a great idea. I would send this. Link is more or less SFW

We already have "dynamic models inspired by a new kind of "developmental connectionism," a marriage of connectionist models and developmental neurobiology, forming a new theoretical framework for the study of behavioral development.". Chomsky would not approve.

If you're asking what are Chomsky's thoughts on the history of Israel in regards to Palestine, the Middle East and the United States, you might want to read his book on the subject.

Alright, you win.

I would give you gold, but instead im gonna buy your book.

You know what, let me re-phrase this a different way... I gave you two colossal examples of how deregulation was a disaster.

So prove to me it's not. Show me some examples where deregulation has been just peachy keen for industry.

Airlines? Not hardly:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-morris/airline-deregulation-ideology-over-evidence_b_4399150.html

"Thirty years later all but a handful of new competitors have disappeared. In that time more than 150 airlines have sought bankruptcy protection or gone out of business. Before deregulation 10 major airlines controlled 90 percent of the market. Today, as noted, four control 85 percent."

Trucking? Maybe we should ask Tracy Morgan how he feels about that. Good book here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sweatshops-Wheels-Winners-Trucking-Deregulation/dp/0195128869

"In the years since deregulation in 1980, median earnings have dropped 30% and most long-haul truckers earn less than half of pre-regulation wages. Work weeks average more than sixty hours. Today, America's long-haul truckers are working harder and earning less than at any time during the last four decades."

But hey, as long as WalMart keeps dropping prices, right?

You should check out this book: How Nonviolence Protects the State

it's a polarizing book, but an insightful and thought-provoking one at that.

I can tell you why I don't want a spore: the likelihood that although it will start as a harmless prank modeling contagion, it will morph into a cortex-devouring, prion-spewing, ebola-like hemorrhagic fever whose pandemic leads to the zombification of the world.

It'll be like in 12 Monkeys, only whatever survivors remain won't see messages saying "we did it!", but instead arcane references to "orangered". And they'll probably still get trolled. Only by the zombies.

Attack on the liberty - james scott

http://www.amazon.com/Attack-Liberty-Untold-Israels-Assault/dp/1416554823

Orwell's 1984

Actually, use qgyh2's affiliate link: 1984

My father left Cuba shortly after Castro took over, and worked with the CIA as an informant for years during the bay of pigs invasion. If it were not for the open arms of this country, I would not be here.

He has been an american citizen for over 50 years.

More on his story here.

My grandmother came here as a refugee from Greece in the 40s during the Greek Civil War. For smuggling her children out of her village, my great-grandmother was executed and one of my great aunts was 'conscripted' (ie kidnapped) by local guerillas. She refused to hold a rifle or to kill, so she was given radio equipment. She escaped during a battle by hiding under the bodies of those killed in the battle until she found officers of the nationalist (not in the way the racists are nationalists - these were the non-communist belligerents) forces to surrender to, where she was sent to a POW camp and then reunited with her young siblings in the refugee camp.

They went to America to meet a father they barely knew, separated from them because of the war, never knowing the fate of their mother for sure until much later, and didn't know who killed her and why for decades. My grandmother and my grandfather (who himself was a refugee into Greece from Albania when Hoxha took over) were successful business owners in America, one of my great aunts and her husband were real estate investors (and their children were lawyers and doctors), another one was another small business owner, and my great uncle became a movie producer, investigative journalist (one of the first reporters to hear the Watergate tapes), and writer. His book Eleni - about him finding out who murdered his mother - was cited by Ronald Reagan as his inspiration for pursuing the destruction of the Berlin Wall.