The reason is it’s free, isn’t it?

Even with piracy, entertainment companies can still beam at their bank accounts. The global box office hit of 2011 is 7% higher than 2010 with $32.6 billion. It rose to $34.7 billion in 2012, adding 6% more. The global music sale in the same year is $16.5 billion, another increase from 2011. They remained lucrative yet eliminating piracy will definitely payout.

Piracy is not totally harmful. Oxford economist Karen Croxson claims that illegal downloads create a buzz and gives unplanned promotions for the product. Asst. Prof. Robert Hammond of North Carolina State University took an interest on studying piracy and found that leaks of albums before its actual release has a sales-boosting effect. Unauthorized access shifts unknown products to familiar brands.

Related: Justin Timberlake Made a Fortune Giving His Album Away

The benefits of piracy are recognized. Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft Corp’s business division, prefers users to pirate Microsoft products than the competition. It’s the biggest opportunity for people to try the software and then later on buy them. Researchers at University of Texas at Austin cautioned the companies on their anti-piracy campaign as it may repulse poor consumers. The US government agrees that piracy increases brand awareness. In the long run, piracy will contribute sales.

Annihilating piracy has been a global effort, yet the demand never ceases. No matter the justification, piracy is stealing. It’s a crime against creation and innovation. Original works deserve compensation.

Have you bought a product you once pirated?

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Jay-Z, one of the most popular modern rappers, is famous for his rapping and music, rather than for being lyrical. But in No Church in the Wild, his first four sentences are very impressive.

Tears on the Mausoleum floor,

Blood stains the Colosseum doors,

Lies on the lips of a priest,

Thanksgiving disguised as a feast.

The whole song is about power, who has power over who? The church seems to have had the most power in the past, but what is God to a non-believer? And did the church use that power in the right way? In the first two sentences, he speaks about the other side of the ability of humans to build such terrific buildings. How many people died building the Mausoleum? How many people were slaughtered in the Colosseum? A lot. After that, about the priest who should be the most righteous man, but how many times has the church used men for their own good? Some churches are huge, but why did the money not go to the poor? Thanksgiving is a feast, but it represents the genocide of the Native Americans.

Lupe Fiasco, not very well-known, always tries to encourage people from the poor class to do something with their lives, while saying the government is trying to prevent exactly this.

The Sealy has the same feeling that the floor has.

This is about the government, which tries to keep the poor poor. The Sealy, being a big bed, feels the same as the floor, so why try to be rich enough to buy it when it doesn’t make a difference? But Lupe Fiasco pronounces it so that Sealy sounds like ceiling, which means the same, the top is the same as the floor.

So no matter what you been through, no matter what you into,

No matter what you see when you look outside your window,

Brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire,

Never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher,

Raise them till your arms tired, let them know you here,

That you struggling, surviving, that you are going to persevere.

 

This part from The Show goes on is about standing up for yourself, not letting others get you down. Brown grass is what you see from inside a prison cell, green grass from inside a nice house, the same goes for the fence and the wire. Lifting your arms up speaks for itself. In order to really experience the way Lupe Fiasco is bringing what I would call hope, you’d have to listen the song for yourself.

Macklemore, sometimes called a pop-artist rather than a rapper, always comes up with original subjects. In Otherside he raps about problems with drugs, in Same Love about the problems people encounter being gay, and in Wings about consumerism:

We want what we can’t have, commodity makes us want it

So expensive, damn, I just got to flaunt it

Got to show em, so exclusive, this that new shit

A hundred dollars for a pair of shoes, I would never hoop in

Look at me, look at me,  I’m a cool kid

I’m an individual, yeah, but I’m part of a movement

My movement told me be a consumer and I consumed it

 

This one isn’t very comlex, but it goes deep. He’s talking about an expensive Nike shoes, and people buy it because they think it makes them cool and it makes them different from others. But, as Macklemore says, they’re actually part of a movement, consumers like everyone else.

This is quite a long article already, so I won’t give any more examples. I might sound as if I understand all these lyrics, but most of it was too much for me too grab. Rapgenius.com is a website where all lyrics are explained very clearly and I recommend it to everyone whom I might just have given that little push towards listening to Hip Hop.

Some say Hip Hop has changed too much. It’s not what it’s used to and should still be. I admit Hip Hop is more linked to pop music than it was, but on the other side this means more people will be listening to it. And that is important in my opinion, because the meaning of a song outweighs the sound. I may be generalising a bit too much here, but you get what I mean. And whether people like it or not, Hip Hop has become more than just a genre, it’s the language of the thinkers, for a world full of them.

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You pulled over, obeyed to show your license and then the speech. What can you do to avoid a speeding ticket?

Before you practice your act after being pulled over, the trick starts with the car. Make sure it’s well maintained. Clean it and fix all that is a noticeable damage. You wanted to communicate that you’re a law-abiding citizen and you look out for your vehicle.

Related: Do Red Cars Really Get More Tickets? 

Observe the road. See if there’s a highway patrol or cops on standby. Obviously, you need to show off when they’re around. Do not speed when you’re alone on the road. Stay in the pack of speeding cars to diffuse the chances – you’re just driving like anybody else. Just make sure you’re not the leader as they’re the first on target. Avoid the fast lane because cops lurk around that side and they know drivers often outlaw the limit there. Staying in the middle is the safest.

When you see a cop on the sideroad and it’s too late to slow down, wave at him. It’s more common for cops to be avoided than to be greeted. Waving will got them thinking and distracted. Is this somebody I know? If they waved back, then drive on.

Now, to the speech.

Kindly deny. Admitting it is sure fire to a fine. Never fight the cop as aggression rarely gets to anything.

Put on a dramatic face. Saying that you have to poop or something hurts is not believable when you look golden. Act with your excuse. This is more effective for women because not many can resist a sobbing lady than a weeping grown man.

Complicate your accent. If you have a foreign look, then use it to your advantage. Make your English crooked, grammar mishap and enunciation pricky. Make it painful to talk to you and he’ll dismiss you.

The Humorous Approach. Matt Hardigree of jalopnik.com can put up an excellent scenario.

Officer: Where are you going in such a hurry?
Me: Just keeping up with traffic, officer
Officer: I don’t see any traffic
Me: That’s how far behind I am, I was trying to keep up! (insert unfunny drum noise) “da dum ching”
Officer: Just slow down. (walks back to car shaking head)

 

If they don’t laugh just say “What are you, the joke police?”

The best way to avoid the ticket is not speeding up, but this happens. What’s your best approach?

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Related: Putting a Price on Foreigners: Strict Immigration Laws ‘Save Denmark Billions’

Stopping people at the border is not considered wrong. If you don’t have some sort of identification proving you may be here, well, then you may not. But what if those immigrants do get past? They build a new life in a new country. Should they still be sent away? Many would say yes, for one because immigrants don’t have that little yet very important paper we call passport. And second because it would be an invitation to others.

How do you send someone away? In the Netherlands, there was a guy a few years ago who didn’t pay for the bus. The ticket control then looked up his case. He, being illegal, was discovered and was sent back to the country of his origin. I don’t think there’s something wrong with this. The goal of the (ticket) control wasn’t to find out whether he was illegal or to get him out of the Netherlands. The goal was to check whether he had paid or not.

What if for example a police officer thinks someone is illegal? Is it right to walk up to that person and check whether he does have a passport or not? No, because that would be discrimination, a.k.a. suspicion based on appearance. The only way to not make it look like discrimination is checking a whole bunch of people. That would be checking a whole restaurant. But in a way that is discrimination too, why check this restaurant and not the other one?

Related: Background on Discrimination Against Immigrants

What if you could find a way to check someone’s passport without discriminating and the person is indeed illegal. Is it right to send him out of the country? In other words, it is right to punish someone just for being somewhere? In my opinion, the world is for everyone. Assuming there is no way to check someone without discriminating, sending someone away would be double discrimination.

Talking about passports, what exactly is the difference between someone with and someone without a passport? What gives person A the right to be somewhere, while B may not?

I think punishing illegality is wrong, especially when someone’s illegality is the only thing someone ‘does’ wrong. But not punishing illegality would be welcoming whoever wants to come in. Is the moral wrongness more important than the practical function?

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Burying those who already passed is expensive in terms of land allocation. The Woodlawn Cemetery in New York covers more than 400 acres of land to accommodate just 300,000 resting people. In due time, the cemeteries be filled up and the next land should be sacrificed for the dead.

Will we ran out of land?

With Earth’s 149 million km² of land surface, there’s obviously enough room for the living and the dead. But as much as we wanted to respect those who passed away, the living could use the finite space as valuable resource to actually live.

We demand living space. The average size of homes in the US is 2,438 ft², according to the survey of the National Association of Home Builders. We also need more land for the community’s social needs – schools, cathedrals, parks, factories, roads, famine and the list never ends. And since nobody would want to live in a village or plant their crops that’s been a cemetery before, the land of the dead is of little use to the living and thus, uneconomical.

Related: The World’s 10 Most Haunting and Famous Cemeteries

The simple option to resolve the conflict of interest is cremating our loved ones. This method is increasingly popular with 40% rate in the US. Interestingly, Japan, with just 377,900 km² land area, cremates 99.85% of their dead. The Japanese graveyards are also tight in space, which is practical given their limited land area.

Cremation saves resources for the living. Urns require less space than coffins. Some families even prefer to keep the remains and place the ornamented urn inside the house. And some will opt to release the ashes back to the environment. The average cost of a traditional funeral is $6,560, while the cremation service through a funeral home is ranging from $2,000 to $4,000. The cremation process alone, should anyone decided to skip a funeral, could be as low as $700 to $1,000. This gives more money and land to utilize for the living’s benefit.

While living, people may already have planned their resting ground. They may have already bought a lot in the cemetery or have requested their family on how they wanted to be rested in peace. Earth can handle either burying or cremation, for now.

Would you like to be cremated or buried six feet under ground?

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We don’t need an argument for religion to affect our interactions. There are prejudice against Muslims, Buddhists, and even atheists. There is in any religion, even to the devout Christians.  It separated several couples because of families in disapproval. People are persecuted because of unmatched beliefs.

Does too much religion separate us?

Analysts argue that world religion is shrinking. But the major religions still keep a massive population of believers. Here is the tally of the top 10 organized religions by the world statistics of Adherents.com.

• Christianity: 2.1 billion
• Islam: 1.5 billion
• Nonreligious: 1.1 billion
• Hinduism: 900 million
• Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
• Buddhism: 376 million
• primal-indigenous: 300 million
• African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
• Sikhism: 23 million
• Juche: 19 million

There is also growing number of denominations within the above-listed religions. Buddhsim can be furthered into Theravada and Mahayana. Islam can be furthered into Sunni, Shi’a, Ahmadiyya and Sufism. Christianity can be furthered into Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy, Anglicanism, Mormonism and hundreds more.

There are thousands of religions and denominations in the world. It doesn’t take an elaborate history to form one; it only needs a founder.

On January 5, 2012, a little more than a year ago, Swedish jurisdiction acknowledges Kopimism as a legitimate religion. Founded by 19-year-old philosophy student Isak Gerson, adherents believe that file sharing is a sacred act. One of their symbols appears to be a Yin-Yang balance with Ctrl-C on top of Ctrl-V. Computer users and lazy pupils recognize these as copy and paste.

Related: Who Invented Cut/Copy and Paste?

Among the fastest growing religions in the 2000s was Jediism. Based on the blockbuster sci-fi movie series Star Wars, adherents practice the spiritual and philosophical implications of the movies. They believe in the “Force” and observe the “Jedi Code”.

Another religion added in the 20^th century was The Creativity Movement. It is an atheistic approach that concentrates on the white people’s seclusion. In the words of the founder Ben Klassen, “united and organized the White Race is ten times more powerful than the rest of the world put together”.

Pastor James Emery White compared the foundation of new religions to starting a business. A million people found their businesses; but 40% dies by year one, 80% by year five. New churches and denominations share the same fate. White enumerates “Lack of Ministry Gifts, Lack of Money, Wandering in No-Man’s-Land, Failure to Contextualize and Small-Church Mentality” as the reasons why most ceased.

Related: Top 10 Religious Figures and Religious Founders in History

However, once a religion firmly proved that they’re renitent, they are added to the list of world religions and denominations. With too much to choose from, certain perspectives can construe to an individual.

Is it possible to have two non-conflicting religions? A Christian can believe in the trinity and still apply the Buddhist meditation. A Shintoist can diligently practice her vocation and also agree that there’s a “Force” within her that has a vast potential.

Can crossovers like this unite the world religions, or will it complicate it even more? If you have an answer to all these questions, what makes it right? It’s based on beliefs again.

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Thinspo is essentially the glorification of eating disorders as a form of weight-loss and being “healthy.”  The main eating disorder Thinspo enthusiasts support is “Ana” short for Anorexia.  In order to encourage starvation or food resistance, Thinspo enthusiasts surround themselves with emaciated photographs of what their ideal body image will be.

Related: The Real Deal On Eating Disorders and the Growing “Thinspo” Trend

Erroneous Body Image

Continuously seeing these images helps to reinforce the resistance to eat, and to continue starvation.  Thinspo enthusiasts see this as a healthy goal, and their desire for “perfection” reaches unhealthy extremes.  The internet has been flooded with images of “models” with bulging bones, gaunt faces, and dead eyes. Support groups for Thinspo are at an all-time high.  Trying to reason with Thinspo enthusiasts seems to be a lost cause because their desire for stick-thin figures is so strong that they are willing to do anything to be “skinny”.

As Thinspo diets (or lack thereof) increase in popularity, women on the opposite spectrum of this craze have retaliated with the newer health craze “Fitspo.”  Fitspo is a mixture of clean eating and exercise, basically the epitome of good health.  The same process resides within this trend of circulating photos of women with rock hard abs, and women eating healthy foods to reinforce good and positive health habits.

Related: Fitspo: Is Strong The New Skinny?

The difference between the two trends is stark and challenges anyone who attempts to achieve skinniness and perfection.  They are two extremes of different body types, both attempting to claim the title as “healthy” looking. Whether it be starvation or over-exercising can result in loss of body fat which will ultimately result in Amenorrhea in women, which is the body’s way of shutting down the reproductive system by stopping the production of estrogen until a healthier equilibrium of fat and health is achieved.  The results and requirements of both Thinspo and Fitspo are at a pinnacle.

Whether you want to lose a few vanity pounds or an extreme amount of weight, doctors and health experts would agree that Thinspo is not the healthy route, and is dangerous when attempted.  Eating sensibly, avoiding processed foods, and getting adequate exercise 3-5 days a week is the healthy alternative for anyone trying to lose weight and be healthier over all.  Depriving your body of nourishment is not.  Think smart, eat smart, and be healthy.

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We’re told guesses on why we yawn. It is a response when the brain needs oxygen. People think that it preludes sleep. But contradictories dismissed them. We don’t yawn while we’re exercising – the time when oxygen use is expeditious. Singers yawn before taking the stage – which doesn’t sound like a drowsy person.

But yawning has an alerting effect. It keeps us wake and more responsive. And it just felt damn good.

It may cool our brain as it sends air towards our headspace. Albany researchers found that those with cold packs in their foreheads are less likely to yawn than those with warmer packs. Since our brains burns a third of our calorie intake, it’s hot enough. It needs some cooling mechanism and yawning is some sort of our ventilation.

Yaaaaaaaaawwwnnnn. That’s a long one, really passionate. Writing YAWN couple of times won’t keep my mouth closed.

Everybody yawns. A growing 11 weeks old fetus already knows how to yawn. 50% of those who’ve seen other people yawning did the same. Probability is higher when we have a closer relationship with the yawner, says University of Pisa’s Elisabetta Palagi. Even dogs yawn with their owners, says Lund University’s Elainie Madsen. Many called this an evidence of empathy.

Related: What is the world record for the longest yawn?

An interesting theory thinks yawning is a threat. Since it opens the mouth and exposes the sharp teeth, it may be considered as an aggressive behavior among certain species. The alpha primates yawn more frequently than the beta population. The leader is thought to yawn first while the rest follows to keep them alert in the wild. Thus, yawn is associated with dominance.

Even more intriguing, yawning is claimed to be a sign of sexual attraction. I don’t know but perhaps these scientists are bored.

How many times did you yawn while reading this?

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But there’s not enough abundance of resources in Earth for us. And we know that there’s more out in the space.

There is a plan to mine precious metals from asteroids. Scientists believe that these entreating minerals, including platinum, iron and gold, came from asteroids showering earth millions of years back. Now they wanted to contact directly the source. According to Astronomer John S. Lewis, “a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of one mile contained more than $20 trillion worth of industrial and precious metals”.

Related: Average Salary of an Astronomer

Planetary Resources Inc. headed the project with high-profile investors and supporters from director James Cameron, Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and the former US Presidential Candidate Ross Perot.

Fossil fuels are expensive economically and environmentally. There’s no major movement to deviate from it and our electricity demands are even more insistent. One proposal is to extract helium-3 from the moon’s soil to power our lights. It is more efficient that hydrocarbons and nuclear plants.

The pioneer of space exploration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration or NASA also hopes to extract lunar water. The search continues for other resources discovery from the US government agency.

The question is, who owns the space?

China is set to launch a lunar rover this 2013. The robot explores the surface and extracts nuclear fuel along the way. Russia hopes to revive its Russian robotic space program. They are landing robots to the Moon, Venus and Mercury as early as 2014. The European Space Agency awaits approval to send a robotic space plane that will soar in the orbit. Japan launches a cargo craft to space station. India celebrates the 101^st mission to space.

Now everybody’s into it.

Is it a race to space?

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But the dude has access to Facebook and he can know what’s up with his group. He can video call his girlfriend and see her live. He can still reach the outside world through the social networking sites.

Corporal punishment is another option many parents resort. It is also widely controversial and studied. Among them, the research of Murray Straus in the University of New Hampshire claimed that children who are spanked have slower mental ability development.

What are you gonna do? What is the best punishment for a child’s misbehavior?

What matters to children most in this modern day is connectivity to the internet. Banning social media sites, along with a period of prohibited outside presence, will fold their network with friends. This is a real punishment that hurts. Various software solutions like K9 web protection will aid internet parenting at home.

Another option is cutting their phone’s bill. With that, their expensive smartphones won’t have any purpose but an added carry-on. They won’t like that either.

Since nearly everybody has a profile in the internet, tell your teen that you’ll chat with his/her friends. This is the ultimate embarrassment for them. They’ll probably hate you but it’s a good threat nonetheless.

What other modern punishment do you think will work for the modern day child?

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