Folding Paper

Today Susan Crawford speaks to Fresh Air’s Dave Davies about the battle over high-speed internet. Internet service providers, especially cable companies, are not required to treat all websites equally. They can provide faster service to some sites and slower, interrupted service to others who refuse to pay them extra fees.  In fact, when a video is buffering, it might not be the video loading at all. Crawford explains:

"Arstechnica did a great article about this called “Why YouTube Buffers.” Why do you sit there in front of what you thought was going to be your favorite YouTube clip and you see nothing but a multicolored wheel spinning in space? You may think it’s the YouTube application. You may think there’s something wrong with your computer. It’s probably the Network provider making life unpleasant for YouTube because YouTube has refused to pay in order to cross its wires to reach you. And we’ll be seeing much more of that kind of activity in the future…

The Power of Empathy

Via Fast Company:

Dr. Brene Brown’s 2010 TED Talk on “The Power of Vulnerability” has gotten nearly 12.5 million views online. And it’s no wonder: Brown delivers insights into human connection, vulnerability, authenticity, and shame with humor and deeply personal stories that avoid the kind of platitudes and sugarcoating that self-help skeptics love to hate. Now, a clever new animation from RSA shorts, animated by Bristol-based Katy Davis (AKA Gobblynne), brings Brown’s wise words to life with cartoons of a sad fox, an empathetic bear, and a judgmental reindeer.