Mix, Match, Morph: How to Build a Dog; What with the Wiki-Black Out? And what is SOPA?; Joh Stewart on SOPA; A World With out WIKI?

Mix, Match, Morph: How to Build a Dog; What with the Wiki-Black Out? And what is SOPA?; Joh Stewart on SOPA; A World With out WIKI?

The future of video protest; Photos: Saving Italy's Stricken Costa Concordia Cruise Ship; The Shit Girls Say meme: friendly prejudice, but prejudice all the same

January 19, 2012 11:15 by p.deleon

Mix, Match, Morph: How to Build a Dog

The National Geographic article claims scientists have found the secret recipe behind the spectacular variety of dog shapes and sizes, and it could help unravel the complexity of human genetic disease. How you ask? The key lies in the fact that certain dog diseased have been mapped to mutations in a dog’s genetic make up—often with their own human counterparts. “ But because dogs have been genetically segregated into breeds developed from just a few original individuals, each breed has a much smaller set of errant genes—often only one or two—underlying the disease.” Interested? We certainly were. Read on for more.

What with the Wiki-Black Out? And what is SOPA?

If you have been to buys this week to find out more about the hullaballoo about the first ever Internet black out, we have put together some links that will help you catch up—and add to the conversation at the weekend brunch. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was being discussed in the House of Representatives, and the Senate’s Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PROTECT IP, or PIPA for short).

Jon Stewart on SOPA

And of course, Jon Stewart had some choice words for SOPA. From highlighting the obvious internet ineptness of those discussing the act to the rather murky waters his very show would be in, if SOPA goes through.

World With out WIKI?
So what would a world with our Wiki look like? A whinny complaining twitter feed from high school students , if Twitter is anything to go by. Check out this Twitter feed.

The future of video protest

Time Magazine named The Protestor to be the person of the year in 2011. Protesting and documenting protests have taken a whole other life form over the past year. And nobody recognises it more than these two organisations, who are teaching protesters to behave like journalists and building apps to protect and preserve the videos they shoot

Photos: Saving Italy’s Stricken Costa Concordia Cruise Ship

Here are some stunning photographs of when the Costa Concordia hit a coastal rocks near Tuscany last week. Does the word “Titanic” seem vaguely familiar for the photo-essay?
The Shit Girls Say meme: friendly prejudice, but prejudice all the same
The Shit Girls Say video, has know developed into a full fledged meme—with Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls, Shit Sri Lankan Mothers Say and even Shit Single Girls Say—but so far Kipp likes this commentary by Guardian Thea Lim who says: “The Shit X Says to Y videos are delightfully validating because they show that those with the genuinely lovely intentions of being your friend and seeking commonality with you can still be rude and hurtful.”