Week 10 Lab: More TED Talks

The Human Brain. Source.

Copyright is Brain Damage by Nina Paley. Source.

Paley's TED Talk covers how copyright has many detriments, including preventing the flow of culture, no additional benefits to the actual creator, etc. Overall, Paley calls herself a copyright abolitionist because any change in the laws and legislation would occur well after a human lifetime. I disagreed with a lot of Paley's talk. One of her arguments is that as copyright is traded between corporations and that the creator does not really benefit from copyright. Paley even mentions that copyright has not earned her any more money.

I argue that copyright allows creators to earn money in the first place. Yes, copyright is traded between corporations, but the reasons corporations own the copyright in the first place is because the original creator benefited from giving them rights to their art. Without money as an incentive, corporations would not be invested in art for the advertisement and production of it. In addition to this point, who would buy art such as a film when they could easily obtain a free version online. The level of consumers would drop of art was allowed to be shared everywhere, so what monetary value would it have.

And as much as people don't like to think about it, money is deeply involved in art. Aside from the money used to gather supplies to create the art, there is an upkeep cost as well. Overtime, mediums of art such paint degrade over time by chemical reactions with the air. The job is delicate enough for specialists to be required to reverse these reactions so the art retains its beauty. If no one pays to see the art, how can museums pay to conserve the art.

I agree that copyright laws are incredibly absurd, but the complete abolition that Paley describes sounds more harmful than anything else. Piracy is not a victimless crime, yet Paley says that people should use whatever art inspires them, no matter the license they fall under. If people did as Paley suggests and ignore copyright, aside from the legal consequences, the corporations would take a blow. If you do not think this is a loss, I would like to remind that a corporation may have strict businessmen on top but the people under them are just trying to make a living. If corporations lose profit, thousands of people could lose their jobs.

Another point Paley makes is that her art becomes lesser with a copyright filter, and she is correct. The work she created without the copyright material would have less substance. However, why did Paley want to use copyright source in the first place for her film's score. There are plenty of young artists who would greatly appreciate the chance to create a score, yet Paley is insistent on using already well-known art. Paley claims copyright hinders culture, but doesn't it play a part for opportunities for new artists to make their mark? I say that the use of copyrighted materials allows new ideas to spread and if after the copyright period of time a piece is still a classic, then it has made a large enough cultural impact to be worth using for the rest of time.



A New Theory of Human Intelligence by Scott Barry Kaufman. Source.

This TED talk focused on the story of a man who was rejected into a program because of his early test scores. Instead, he joins the university under another major and transfers into his preferred department. He started out as someone diagnosed as mentally impaired to getting accepted into Yale for graduate school. He describes how schools focus on past scores rather than the professional and innovative people that students want to become. 

I thought the points in this TED talk were incredibly obvious. My generation is fully aware of the problems of the American school system and attempts to improve it. For example, the No Child Left Behind legislation was made to penalize school districts with students with bad scores and reward school districts with good scores. However, if a student was doing badly in school, how could reduced resources help them improve? Changes to the SAT in recent years, such as the reduced emphasis on vocabulary are an improvement, but the SAT still has such a rigid structure that allows no leeway. 

Some students are easily confused by how a question is worded but they can describe a chemical process or historical event with a teacher's fluency. However, these students do worse on the SAT because the test is mainly multiple choice.

Another point is that when I took the ACT, there were questions about how to fix a single sentence. Except, I thought the whole sentence sounded unnatural. I would have rewritten the whole paragraph, but this was not in options A through D.

The one point from Kaufman that I agree most-whole heartedly with is that we need to treat unique traits of a student as co-abilities, not disabilities. I wholeheartedly agree with this. People diagnosed with some mental impairment are so often treated as lesser and it breaks my heart to hear or see any of it. As a premed, I get most riled up by idiots saying that vaccines cause autism. First of all, no they do not. Secondly, would you really rather have your own child die from debilitating diseases than have an autistic child. People with mental disorders such as autism still live perfectly normal lives.

Most of the time, we don't know a person is autistic unless they tell us they are. The reason for this is that autistic people may have difficulties but they can adjust as any other person. The same goes for any person with low test scores in their early life. People change over time and, as Kaufman said, should be allowed to live outside the scores other people assign to them. 

Week 10 Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends, Part B

"The Land of the Dead" from Myths and Legends of Alaska told by Native Storytellers and edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). Source.

A young woman died. Her dead grandfather's spirit woke the young woman up from ger casket. The young woman travels to an alternate plane where a town of the dead replaces her living village. In the village of the dead, another woman raises a stick to our protagonist, and the grandfather explains it's to show what a dog feels like when you chase it off. Another man is stuck to the ground, with grass growing out of his body because he ate grass stems when he was alive. Soon the young woman meets her dead grandmother, who offers water and deer meat that comes from the offerings to the young woman's funeral service.

Retelling Ideas:

The young woman meets her family, and it is a happy reunion. Dying is unpleasant, but being dead is good when loved ones surround you.

Or maybe the young woman gets her just desserts like the man who ate grass stems only for his body to grow grass.

"The Ghost Land" from Myths and Legends of Alaska told by Native Storytellers and edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). Source.

A young widower walks through the forest for a while and walks along a trail. The man stops at a rock at the edge of a lake. Then the man sees people on the other side of the lake and calls out to them, but they do not answer. Eventually, someone does hear him and brings him to a strange town across the lake. This town is the ghost land where the dead live. Man sees his deceased wife. If the man eats the food, he can never return to the land of the living. The man and his wife return to the living world, but the wife is only a shade. The wife returns, and eventually, the man dies too, and they are reunited.

Retelling Ideas:

The man is reluctant to leave because he misses his wife. However, the man realizes that one day, his time will too come to a few decades apart is nothing compared to an eternity together.

The Aurora Borealis shines above Bear Lake in Alaska by Joshua Strang. Source.

Week 10 Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends, Part A

The first human grew from a beach plea plant and, after a few days, came out of the pea pod as a full-grown adult. Man wandered along the beach and experienced strange sensations like hunger and thirst that he learned were relieved when he drank and ate. Raven discovered the wandering human and is curious about what Man is.

Raven learns that Man came from the peapod of Raven's creation. Raven realizes that he unknowingly created Man and decides to help Man learn how to live.

The world adjusts to Man's presence as Raven creates and moves animals for Man's needs. For some animals, Raven does not want Man to kill them, so places them out of Man's reach. For other animals, Raven multiples them so man can eat. Raven is still worried that Man will overeat, so he creates predators such as the bear to ward Man off.

Over time, Raven sees Man is lonely even if Man does not know what alone means. Raven carves clay and creates Woman to be a companion for Man.

Raven returns back to pea pod and sees that more men grew from it. Raven leads them into different directions and teaches them how to live with their respective lands and animals.

Retelling ideas:

Retell from Raven's perspective of a new parent who just discovered they created mankind without trying to. Perhaps Man accidentally almost hurts himself a lot because he is still ignorant of the world. These shenanigans cause Raven to want to pluck all his feathers out in aggravation and worry.

Retell from the abstract perspective of Man with descriptions of when he feels his stomach rumble for the first time or feels a weight in his chest from loneliness. Here also have almost accidents such as trying to eat a poisonous mushroom.

A mix of both perspectives could be useful, just make sure the transitions are clear.

Bibliography: Excerpt from "The Raven Myth" pulled from Myths and Legends of Alaska told by Native Storytellers and edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911). Source.

Photo of the Common Raven by David Iliff, License: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source.