From an upcoming PBS programme America Revealed, this visualisation of just how that one pizza (and its ingredients) make it’s way to your doorstep.

So a few days ago, an NPR intern wrote this blog entry on being part of a generation ‘raised digitally’ and how as a music lover at the age of 21, she owns over 11,000 songs but can admit to only ever paying for 15 CDs.

This in turn has lead to a shit storm of comments from all sides through forum debates, blog posts and most prominently, this 3,800-word open letter response by academic/musician David Lowrey who argues his perception of a ‘lost morality’ that lies at the heart of internet piracy today. It’s a very eloquent piece that raises some profound notions on how today’s artists are being effected and well recommended worth a read.

Of course, this popular rebuttal had then lead to even more comments, tweets, write ups, re-responses and a interesting introspective post by musician Jonathan Coultan whose music career owes its own foundations to that of the early sharing culture of the internet. The argument over internet piracy is certainly nothing new, but what’s interesting here is that the cases on either side make for a much stronger representation of the ‘who’ that are involved in this issue; as opposed to the usual rhetoric of on is ‘file-sharing pirate’ and the other a ‘monolithic music corporation’.

Whichever sphere of thinking you consider yourself in, this is an issue that’s getting progressively heated with each iteration and… okay, so maybe online reactions to passionated internet writers is hardly a step up from the excessive lengths taken to get a file-sharing website founder arrested; but going from the gross misuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to the creation of extremely unreasonable and impractical laws like SOPA and PIPA, social media has greatly simplified our online culture’s process of sharing (which is a good thing), but it appears that simplification has blurred enough of the ethical (not legal) distinction of what’s okay to share and what is really having an adverse effect on the livelyhood of the artists themselves.

Music and edit by POGO

Yes.

• The father-son team who run L.A.’s vibrator empire
• Hollywood, Inception, and the Cinematic Dream State great interview with Jason Silva
• A bizarrely well reasoned look at Adam Sandler’s career
• How to Determine If A Controversial Statement Is Scientifically True
• European Space Agency gave the go ahead on the Euclid telescope’s search for dark matter and energy
• Using a quantum theory with black holes to consolidate physics principles
• Why Do People Feel Phantom Cellphone Vibrations?
• The influence of Twitter on language and culture
• I love how creepy these Disney Face Swaps are…

And hooray! A teaser is out for Pixar’s follow up to Monsters Inc: Monsters University.

This is just straight up awesome new technology.

The Jet Propulsion Lab have developed a 250mm diametre omni-directional anchor that utilises an array of claws to help grip onto the rocky surface of asteroids, comets and cliff faces of Mars. This unique arrangement of these multiple microspines allows a unit to work under a lot of force in almost any angle (even hanging upside down). Be sure to check it out.

So while this technology is totally fucking awesome and obviously designed for the purpose of space exploration, I can’t help but imagine what practical applications this can have in society once the technology is refined. Hell, I just love the idea it’s one step closer to making those Tachikoma tanks from Ghost in the Shell a reality… or any kind of spider-bot in that regard.

Brilliant!

• Prometheus, Viewed as a Roleplaying Game (contains spoilers; but seriously good fun read)
• What If Beethoven Gave Your Commencement Speech?
• ‘I Just Want to Feel Everything’: Hiding Out With Fiona Apple, Musical Hermit
• Anatomy of CGI: A Scene from “Tangled”
• 20 Things Fantasy Characters Should Do More Often
• Germany’s Ambitious Energy Plan (here’s hoping it works)
• Most Internet trolls are probably trolls in real life, too
• Photos: Behind the scenes of The Empire Strikes Back