anghara (anghara) wrote,
anghara
anghara

A couple of things that caught my eye today -

HBO isn't worried about Game of Thrones piracy - “I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts,” Michael Lombardo, HBO programming president, said. “The demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.” Ain't it nice when you're SO BIG that you don't care if a couple of (maybe hundred thousand) people don't actually pay for your product (well, in their case... and I quote... "According to one estimate, Thrones‘ second season finale was illegally downloaded 4.3 million times worldwide last year." the mind, it kinda boggles.). For most of the rest of us down here on Planet Earth, it kinda matters, ratio wise, whether or not we actually get paid for our work. I mean, yeah, sure, it's a compliment... but me going to my power company or the cable company (hey, don't judge, that's my INTERNET...) and complimenting their product isn't going to get me free electricity or free WiFi and if I try to steal those by hacking the wires and I get nabbed at it I get jumped on, hard. It's nice that HBO can be so cavalier about the piracy of their show. WHEN THEY"VE ALREADY EARNED THEIR MILLIONS. Gah.

NASA video to be shown before "Star Trek: Into Darkness" - this one is equal parts squee and appalled sadness. Squee, because NASA - and SCIENCE FICTION - and they are COMING TOGETHER - and OMG for any fan of the great Out There this is something that makes the heart race. Reality is - or may be - approaching those flights of the imagination which have always filed me with joy and awe, and it's enough to make me dance. But the other - read the small print - after a *successful Indiegogo campaign* - NASA is getting CROWDFUNDED? *REALLY*? We can spend bloody gajillions on a semi-functional war plane that is simply and solely a killing machine... but reaching out to the stars gets CROWDFUNDED? By pennies thrown at it by the public? The priorities here are so screwed up that I could weep and gnash my teeth and tear my hair out. The idea that our road to the stars is being paved by... well, probably by people like me, with more enthusiasm than wherewithal... we should have had that moonbase by now. If the funding had been channelled to where it should have been channelled, human curiosity and exploration and moving us forward, the BEST of us, rather than on figuring out how better to kill one another.
Tags: link salad, mini rant
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