What does it mean to ‘share’? The online world is brimming with ‘share’ widgets. Just watched a video on youtube? Feel like those belonging to your social circles (virtual or real) should know of its existence? No worries, youtube’s share button has options for everyone: you can post the video…
Cookie and/or Cake | №5
Have you heard of the Marshmallow Test? It’s a study lead by Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel: kids are given the choice between having one marshmallow (or their favorite gourmet treat of choice) right away or two marshmallows after fifteen minutes. Those fifteen minutes are self-control. This study goes back –…
Textbooks© | №4
Textbooks are expensive. This isn’t news to anyone; the students-are-poor-and-textbooks-are-ridiculously-priced affair features heavily in the media across North America. You’ll be hard-pressed to buy a textbook for less than hundred dollars, and frequent updates make purchasing cheaper second-hand editions impossible for most classes. This is a problem. A problem of…
Dreams of Electric Birds | №3
Say you have a dream about three little electric birds, do these birds belong to you? Legally, the answer is no. Take it step by step. If these electric birds (let’s call them ABC) were to be a form of property, they would be intellectual property (IP); ABC, with their…
The Pug-nundrum | №2
The pug is not exactly a noble beast. Yes, their lineage is beyond reproach: pugs hail from the Middle Kingdom, bred especially to sit on the lap of Chinese Emperors. It was a pug, Pompey, who saved William the Silent, Prince of Orange (not to be confused with his descendant,…
iDisorder: Addiction to Technology | №1
I will be the first to admit it. My phone, my tablet, my laptop (yes, excessive, I know)- I love them and could not live without them. They are mine and I am theirs. This is not a wayward or injudicious romantic declaration. What my technology and I have is…