"Over protecting intellectual property is as harmful as under protecting it. Culture is impossible without a rich public domain. Nothing today, likely nothing since we tamed fire, is genuinely new. Culture, like science and technology, grows by accretion, each new creator building on the works of those who came before. Over protection stifles the very creative forces it’s supposed to nurture."

- Judge Alex Kozinski, Dissenting in the White v. Samsung Elec. Am., Inc., 989 F.2d 1512 (9th Cir. 1993) ruling.

 

Last Thursday at 11:00 there was an excellent example of the flash mob form in Liverpool Street train station in London where most of the concourse starting dancing.  I am calling it an "example of the form" because it was actually organised by T-Mobile, but aside from that it had all the hallmarks: A group of people who turn up, do something, melt away afterwards, and most important of all; the general public knows nothing about it.

What we have here is Reyn Ouwehand performing a fabulous modern version of the "Green Beret" theme by (the great) Martin Galway.  It also happens to be an excellent example of what a single talented musician can do with a handful of instruments and a loop machine.

Aurora is a design concept for a 3D browser by Adaptive Path who are working in partnership with Mozilla Labs and have presented a mock up of what a future browsing experience might look like.  So, it's not a real product, or even a product in development, but it looks cool nevertheless.

This is a gem from Yahtzee (of Zero Punctuation fame) which I found over at despotliz's journal, where he takes a rather articulate exception to the dissenting email he received following his, apparently, controversial review of "Super Smash Bros. Brawl".

When critic’s attack. 

In keeping with the tonights Space theme, and following on from 'Planets and Stars to Scale' I stumbled over a peice on Andromeda vs. The Milky Way that the BBC included a documentary. It is rather dramatic, and of course all the action takes place about three billion years from now, but even so it is clear that everyone is going to a have a bad day.

In the grand scheme of celestial bodies where do we rate?  Answer: Nowhere.

One of my younger brothers playing Basketball. He's pretty good, don't you think?

Yes, apparently he has been scouted.

(not my video)

This video was originally from the Center For Social Media but that doesn't change how funny (or poignant) it is.

Just stumbled across this... excellent.
(actually this is a re-post for testing purposes)