GOLBLOG

"

Everyday, millions of innocent children are unwillingly part of a terrible dictatorship. The government takes them away from their families and brings them to cramped, crowded buildings where they are treated as slaves in terrible conditions. For seven hours a day, they are indoctrinated to love their current conditions and support their government and society. As if this was not enough, they are often held for another two hours to exert themselves almost to the point of physical exhaustion, and sometimes injury. Then, when at home, during the short few hours which they are permitted to see their families they are forced to do additional mind-numbing work which they finish and return the following day.

This isn’t some repressive government in some far-off country. It’s happening right here: we call it school.

When he was in the ninth grade, open-access champion Aaron Swartz, who took his life last month, stood up in front of his school assembly and read this, affirming the need to change educational paradigms away from the factory model of schooling.  (via explore-blog)

(Source: , via explore-blog)

“I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You” written by and illustrated by Yumi Sakugawa, published in Sadie Magazine, 2012.

(Source: durianseeds, via therumpus)

lessig:

(Some will say this is not the time. I disagree. This is the time when every mixed emotion needs to find voice.)

Since his arrest in January, 2011, I have known more about the events that began this spiral than I have wanted to know. Aaron consulted me as a friend and lawyer. He…

Mesa Arch Sunrise on Flickr.

Mesa Arch - Post Sunrise on Flickr.

rememberaaronsw:

Our beloved brother, son, friend, and partner Aaron Swartz hanged himself on Friday in his Brooklyn apartment. We are in shock, and have not yet come to terms with his passing.

Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless…

Lightening from the air (Taken with Cinemagram)

mattfisher:

My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court

I’ve been sending out some impertinent tweets about Progressive Insurance lately, but I haven’t explained how they pissed me off. So I will do that here as succinctly as possible. There’s a general understanding that says, “insurance companies— oh they’re awful,” but since Progressive turned their shit hose on my late sister and my parents, I’ve learned some things that really surprised me.

I’ll try to cleave to the facts. On June 19, 2010, my sister was driving in Baltimore when her car was struck by another car and she was killed. The other driver had run a red light and hit my sister as she crossed the intersection on the green light.

Read More

selligy:

This morning, I learned that Sparrow, my favorite email application on both iOS and Mac OS was acquired by Google and subsequently shutting down. The first thing I do each morning and the last thing I do each evening is check Sparrow. Sparrow made email fun again. And… now it is gone.

I have no…

parislemon:

Apple’s soon-to-retire SVP of hardware engineering Bob Mansfield in a letter published on Apple.com:

We’ve recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system. I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT.

A very straight-forward letter about a not-so-straightforward topic.

Read another way: We had tried to move away from an environmental standard that is somewhat arbitrary (and doesn’t even include all the things we do) in order to further refine our manufacturing process and do some new things that we want to do. Unfortunately, we didn’t consider the ramifications of this move with some of our larger contracts, like major U.S. cities, and the U.S. government. Whoops.

Right or wrong, money talks, we listen. We like to do things our way, but we’re not stupid.

Big mistake. Our bad. Pretend this never happened.