SOPA, PIPA and the Dying Hollywood

If you are in the tech business and didn't know about SOPA or PIPA yet then something must be really wrong with you. For the non-geeks SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA(Protect Ip Act) are two legislations proposed by the United States congress and senate to give government the right to seize domain names of companies or individuals they feel are aiding the piracy of American intellectual property.
The idea naturally didn't go down well with people in the tech industry and people stood up against it. Major websites even blacked out for hours to register their protest against governments attempt to take over the Internet. In the end, the idea is suspended.

Naturally the lobby group pushing for the adaptation of the legislation are the ones representing big hollywood studios. This lead me to the realization that hollywood is dying. SOPA and PIPA is a desperate attempt by a sinking hollywood to grab anything they believe can keep them afloat for any time longer.

This point of view is even more aptly articulated by the folks at Y-Combinator. They did not only stop atacknowledging that hollywood is dying, they went as far as offering to fund a good startup idea that will accelerate that death. If you wonder why they are taking such a stand, then know that hollywood will not die a natural death with fighting back and in the process causing many casualties. The faster the demise, the less casualties they cause.

The following is from Y-Combinator's page requesting for startup ideas

"Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise. "

Read the whole article here

New Players In Space

China seems to be completing the takeover from U.S.A as the world leading country. There are many factors that made me think so, but the most interesting to me is space technology.
China successfully put man in space for the first time in 2003.  After that they had several manned space expeditions and also had their first spacewalk. Today China successfully launched it's first space laboratory Tiangong-1 into orbit. They plan to launch Senzhou-8 soon and will couple with Tiangong-1 to mark the first steps into building their space station which they hope to complete by 2015.

In contrast the U.S.A is retiring it's space shuttle program for good. In the future, U.S.A will have to rely on Russia to convey it's astronauts to space. They are however hoping that American private companies will rise up and fill that gap left in conveying astronauts to space. This will cost the American government about $50 million dollars per astronaut.

Other countries that may be playing greater roles space technology in the near future may include Turkey and Nigeria. Yes, Nigeria. Nigeria has recently lauched it's second and third earth observation satellites namely NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X. NigeriaSat-X signifies major progress for Nigerian space ambitions because it is built entirely by Nigerian engineers.

Many Nigerians argue that Nigeria should suspend it's space program
because it has no impact on the ordinary man's life. I think that is not true, the average Nigerian simply doesn't know the impact of our satellite on his life.  NigeriaSat-1 has immensely helped in getting early warning signs of floods but I must admit the relevant government agencies failed to act on the information.

Others argue that we shouldn't worry about space technology when we have things like good health care delivery and stable electricity to worry about. But just because the ministries of health and power are not meeting the expectations of Nigerians doesn't mean that the science and technology ministry should stay back and wait for them. It's like telling a person not to buy a TV or electric iron until we have stable power supply. Developing the various sectors of our national life should be carried out in parallel. Moreover Nigeria spent less on it's space program than it has spent in hosting football tournaments.

I am of the view that Nigeria can leapfrog into the space technology field like China did. All that is needed is a lot of discipline and optimism. A Chinese scientist recently said that three decades ago, the thought of China going into space will sound like science fiction. I hope a few years from now, a Nigerian scientist can look back and say the same.

The Black PC Inventor

As a software developer, I've always wondered why there are almost no famous black people in computer and ICT field. Was it that black people were never interested in that field or were they denied opportunities during the early days of the computers.
Actually none of the above was the case. Actually some black people have made their mark in the IT field but are just never celebrated.

One very good example is Mark Dean, a vice president at IBM. Mark Dean literally invented the personal computer as we know it. He is the architect of the personal computer and holds three of the the original nine patents that all PCs are based upon.

Without Dean's work, people like Bill Gates and Michael Dell will never be where they are today. But yet, the 20th anniversary of the personal computer was celebrated without anybody mentioning his name.

Dr Mark Dean later made history again by leading the team that created the first 1-gigahertz processor chip.

Dr Dean made my past assumption that black people never participated in the computer revolution wrong. In fact it is not wrong to say that he brought about the revolution itself.

A Little Mathematics For Independence Day

This year (2010) 17 African countries will mark their 50 years of independence from colonial rule. Many people especially in Nigeria think there is nothing much to celebrate. Some go on to call Nigeria names like "fool at fifty". I am not going to argue for or against that point of view but I will try to make a comparison of Nigeria with the United States and see whether we have made any progress in the last fifty years. I picked the U.S.A because people often cite examples with the United States when trying to make a point about how backward we are.

The United States became independent in 1776, that is 234 years ago. If we are to assume both Nigeria and the U.S are human beings and the U.S to be an adult of 40 years old then how old will Nigeria be in comparison.
Using simple mathematics we can apply the following formula

50/234 = x/40

where x is Nigeria's age if it were human.

x =8.54 years

So Nigeria is only an 8 year old child compared to the 40 year old America. For a child of that age, I think we've not done too bad.

U.S.A and the Giant Of Africa

Recently I'm beginning to get more and more worried about how our government is blowing it's own trumpet too loud. Agreed that we are ahead of many African countries in some sectors of development, but I think it's a bad idea to keep telling ourselves that we are the giant of Africa. The United States also have that mentality, but there phrase is "No. 1" instead of "Giant".
The Americans are ahead of us in that craze because not only the government promotes that concept but even the citizens do. I do not want us to follow the footsteps of U.S.A in self delusion given some disturbing statistics I came across about the United States. Just take time to go through the following


America No. 1? America by the numbers by Michael Ventura 02/03/05 "ICH" - - No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:


* The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

* The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

* "The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

* Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

* "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

* "Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).

* Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

* Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

* The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.

* "The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

* Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)

* "U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

* Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

* The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

* Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

* The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).

* "Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.

* "Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).

* "Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).

* The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).

* U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).

* Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).

* Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.

* Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

* Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.

* One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).

* "Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).

* "Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).

* Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).

* "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).

* "The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close. The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.





Despite the fact that I think the article's comparison of U.S.A and Europe is unfair given the fact that Europe is not a single country, I still don't want us to end up becoming another U.S.A.