Universal Pictures has released the first trailer for their upcoming biopic Steve Jobs starring Michael Fassbender as the late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs. The film was directed by one of my favourite filmmakers Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) and written by Aaron Sorkin (The Newsroom, The Social Network). The film is scheduled to be released in theaters on October 9, 2015 and it feels pretty Social Network-y.
Twitter CEO on Battling the Trolls
While Twitter has been receiving complaints about harassment for years, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo acknowledged it’s a particularly difficult issue to deal with as there are so many varying degrees of abuse. For example, he noted, after the aforementioned memo went public, he received messages from users complaining about abuse that’s actually “fairly rational political discourse.”
“We’ve drawn a line on what constitutes harassment and abuse,” Costolo said. “I believe that we haven’t yet drawn that line to put the cost of dealing with harassment on those doing the harassing. It shouldn’t be the person who’s being harassed who has to do a lot of work.”
Of course, drawing those lines means deciding what constitutes free speech and abuse, an undeniably difficult task. “Well, you set policies and then you try to stick to those policies,” Costolo explained. “One way of thinking about it is: I may have a right to say something, but I don’t have a right to stand in your living room and scream it into your ear five times in a row. Right? I think there are things you can do on the platform that are of varying degrees of severity — not just black and white.”
Via Rolling Stone
Upworthy’s co-founder gets it right on social media activism
Since Upworthy’s launch, its team has often been accused of encouraging slacktivism, which critics would describe as a kind of superficial, internet-based activism that takes the form of social media sharing rather than real-world action. To his detractors, the site co-found Peter Koechley offers the following response:
“I think that awareness actually matters and that we are in an all out war for attention between the forces of inanity and the forces of things that actually matter to society […] We feel like people paying attention and being aware of important issues is one of the big roles of media.
“The second argument is, I spent a lot of time before Upworthy doing direct political organising and it’s incredibly difficult to actually organise people to take action, to go to a protest or call their congress person or give money to a campaign if they’re not aware of the issue, or it’s not really high up on their priority list.
“I feel like we think of ourselves as trying to help create, get people focused on the most important issues and try to create the conditions for other people to make change.
“Brands know, young people have been telling them loud and clear for a while now, that if your brand doesn’t stand for something more than the jeans that you sell or the soap that you dispense, it’s not going to be enough.
“Young people actually make purchase decisions based on whether they agree with the company’s values and whether the brand stands for anything.”
Via The Guardian
Bill Nye is asked if racism has any basis in nature. Here’s his brilliant answer.
Bill Nye, Ricky Velez and Mike Yard chat about pepper spray’s effects on white people, an anti-police T-shirt in Baltimore and whether racism exists in the animal kingdom.
Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver Records Song With Ed Sheeran, Paul McCartney
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is hoping to start a food revolution, with a little help from his friends. For years, Oliver’s Food Revolution Foundation has been encouraging supporters to think more about bringing fresh, wholesome foods to the table. This year, he wants to bring that food to schools. For this year’s Food Revolution Day, Oliver has launched a global campaign and petition to urge school boards around the world to make practical food education compulsory in their curriculums.
Adding to his appeal, Oliver has put down his kitchen utensils to take up a microphone and join in on an original song he commissioned from pop star Ed Sheeran. Oliver says he hopes the video leads to more people taking notice of the cause and signing the petition. “We’ve always made a lot of noise, and we’ve always raised the food conversation but we wanted to push it toward a petition this year,” he told CTV’s Canada AM from England Friday.
https://youtu.be/5Ug_vpIk1jc
Via Canada AM
Stevie Wonder Sings ‘1-2-3 Sesame Street’ in Clip From 1973
Stevie Wonder visited Sesame Street back in 1973 and sang this very groovy tune. Sing along with Mr. Wonder!
https://youtu.be/tFlxh9I6Bw4
Iggy Pop Picks One Of His Albums For “Albums That Changed My Life”
The February, 2015 issue of Q Magazine features some of the world’s favourite artists picking the “Albums That Changed My Life“.
As part of the edition Iggy Pop also gives up his 10 Commandments for living, and he explains how working with David Bowie forThe Stooges‘ Raw Power record did indeed change his life.
“Working with David Bowie was a trauma for the other Stooges because they were hardnuts from Detroit, but I understood that it could be very helpful to us,” explains Pop.
“The music we made before Raw Power was very inchoate and sluggish because that’s what we were living in, the early heroin disintegration of Detroit. We came to England, and boy, what a breath of fresh air! You’d see Marc Bolan live in Wembley Arena. The Stones were in town. Let It Rock, Malcolm [McLaren’s clothes] shop, was right up the street. It was a more literate, exacting environment.
“David was a benefactor to me, but also to the band. He jolted all of us.”
The Clash’s Isolated Tracks For London Calling’s “Lover’s Rock”
The Clash’s London Calling received unanimous acclaim and was ranked at number eight on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003. London Calling was a top ten album in the UK, has sold over five million copies worldwide, and was certified platinum in the United States.
Isolated vocal by Joe Strummer:
Isolated guitar by Mick Jones:
Isolated bass by Paul Simonon:
Isolated drums by Topper Headon:
Instrumental (including piano by Mick Jones, no vocal):