Quotes

Parsing the Veronica Mars Kickstarter Issues

The Bird and The Bat: Parsing the Veronica Mars Kickstarter Issues

thebirdandthebat:

Most Kickstarters are, for lack of a better term, exclusive events. If you don’t participate in the 30 days they’re up, you’re out of luck. There are some exceptions to this of course, many comic book Kickstarters now offer retailer incentives so people can actually purchase books in a shop if they’ve missed the end date. But the Veronica Mars film will not be exclusive to backers and that seemingly makes it less special to those who did back it. But that doesn’t seem to be an issue for fans, they just want to see the movie.

Um….what? People have it in their heads that crowd-funded business ventures are supposed to only produce things for their investors and nobody else?

I think they’re missing the point of a platform called Kickstarter.

Edit: I should add that none of the Kickstarter projects I’ve backed have given me the impression that the product was going to be given exclusively to the backers. So whether “most” is true or not in general, it hasn’t been in my (admittedly limited) experience.

Hazards of April Fools by email: I started reading the latest EFFector newsletter, not realizing it had arrived on April 1, and the first story was almost believable:

Hazards of April Fools by email: I started reading the latest EFFector newsletter, not realizing it had arrived on April 1, and the first story was almost believable:

MPAA Announces Kickstarter Campaign for Film Decrying Internet’s Impact on Creative Works

In a statement posted on its WordPress blog this week, the MPAA announced that it will respond to the Internet’s “destructive” effect on creative works with a new PSA, to be funded on the crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. “Rampant content theft — or as we call it, creativity murder — makes it impossible to promote ideas online,” according to a Tweet from MPAA chairman Chris Dodd. “For a pledge of $50, backers will receive an exclusive DVD copy of ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked’ in 3D.

The rest of them were a little more obvious.

Why Venus looks so much brighter than Jupiter.

Why Venus looks so much brighter than Jupiter. (This is something I don’t usually think about, but over the past month, with the two planets in the same area of the sky, I’ve really noticed it.)

Originally shared by Philip Plait (The Bad Astronomer):

Venus still blazes Jupiter, but 10 times as bright

Venus and Jupiter are still near each other in the sky, and will be for the next few days. Just go outside after sunset and face west; you can hardly miss them!

Venus is the brighter of the two by a long shot. That might seem weird; after all, Venus is about the same size as Earth, but Jupiter is over 11 times wider (and 140 times the area)! So why is Venus brighter?

Math! At least, math + geometry + science. Let me show you…

Jupiter and Venus still blaze in the west

[Image credit: Robert Blasius at fotografie.robert-blasius.de as part of Astronomers Without Borders]

Vaccination saves lives

Stop Antivaxxers Now – Phil Plait

Vaccination saves lives. Not just the lives of those who get vaccinated, but those around them who can’t because they’re too young, immunocompromised, or have other medical reasons that they can’t.

(If you’re wondering why this is on an astronomy site, it’s because the author makes a point of promoting science education and fighting against pseudoscience across the board.)

Originally shared by Vineet KewalRamani

Vaccination as altruism

There are people in society (the immunocompromised, newborns, elderly) vulnerable to deadly viral infections that the rest of us can easily prevent through vaccination.

But if 75 percent to 95 percent of the population around us is vaccinated for a particular disease, the rest are protected through what is called herd immunity. In other words, your measles vaccine protects me [the immunocompromised NY Times Op-Ed writer] against the measles.

Obviously people will first act in their own interests, but if there are no scientifically credible data showing harm by particular vaccination, and benefits are clear to the vaccinated and also to society at large, why not do it to help protect another?

For the Herd’s Sake, Vaccinate