Have you ever imagined what it would be like living through the break out of the First World War? Have you ever fantasised about living amidst the industrial revolution, French Revolution? Or any other period that changed the structure of societies, cultures, politics, the course of history, development of civilisation. Have you thought about how you would act during such times, what would you do? The Enlightenment of the Greeks was wiped out, by centuries of dark ages. For hundreds of years, there was virtually no intellectual and moral progress. Given great strides forwards made during our life time and our parents lifetimes. It is hard not to assume that arc of history indeed steadily bends towards justice and better living conditions for all. However, there is no law of physics, no guarantee societies will continue to march towards positive progress. Investigative journalism is dead. Their business model which was predicated on the (more…)

Free online documentary about life of inspiring child prodigy Aaron Swartz who committed suicide at age of 27, after lengthy prosecution by US government. Aaron helped create RSS standard when he was 13 years old.  By the time he was 19 he had made his first million by being one of the founders of reddit.com. Afterwards he got involved in political activism, genuinely wanting to make the world better place. He “hacked” (not really, watch documentary for detailed explanation) to MIT’s JSTOR and downloaded vast number of science journal articles. These articles were in public domain, founded by public money, yet access was limited to universities or those who could afford it. For this “crime” he went through lengthy investigation and prosecution by FBI facing unto 30 years in prison. In the mist of all this he played continued to be involved in political activism. Playing key role in stopping SOPA and PIPA proposed bills. Its hard to overstate importance of stoping those bills. I found watching Aaron’s story shocking and horrifying, to think that we really live in the world where things like this can really happen. Irrationality of laws and motives of prosecutors. Documentary illustrates staggering capacity of our society for ignorance, apathy, the worst of our culture is capable. Aaron is inspiring contrast to all that. Example of what’s admirable about culture. Ability to think rationally, to be engaged, to be critical and not settling for status quo, to protect our freedoms and liberties. World is worse off without him.  (more…)