Amber Case is a "cyborg" anthropologist. She studies how we interact with technologies and tries to see if it makes us more- or less human.

She hits on something interesting, not sure if she read Mcluhan, but she mentions that technology is an extension of our mind, much in the way that tools are extensions of our bodies. This, according to Mcluhan, is the final stage of the extensions of humans out of our physical bodies.

Watch the talk, do you find yourself "merging" with technology?

Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now #TED : http://on.ted.com/iA0h

Would you allow your children to forego college for a chance to freely pursue a dream?

http://nyti.ms/OpwSdi

ON THE MEDIA (one of my favorite programs for those who don't already know) takes a hard look at the TV industry and asks, who's winning and who's struggling during this paradigm shift? A great overview of the major issues being faced by these media companies. Listen to the show after the jump.

Fascinating analysis of the Dream speech by MLK from ON THE MEDIA. Juxtaposition of the improvisation utilized building on other themes and works vs. the way in which his now intellectual property is being utilized by his estate.

I found this piece from ON THE MEDIA rather intriguing: surveillance using consumer purchasable drones to capture images and video. The segment speaks to privacy and legal issues, which I won't discuss here, but the images created can be breathtaking. Here is a link to certain videos that were created using a "hexacopter" drone. Below are a couple of youtube videos of the drones in action:

Yesterday I woke up to find out that facebook has changed their layout, once again. No advance warning, no press release, nothing, just wake up and boom, your whole (online) world is changed, once again.

Another of my favorites, NPR's On the Media takes a look at the use of data in today's society, especially how can we use data to define ourselves, how journalists use data to come up with stories and how data can lead us astray.  But the awesomest piece is the collab-o with Radiolab on science and data.  Take a listen:

(Note: OTM had an embeddabe player, which I used in this post, but it has sinced been removed *shame*, but here is the link for the story below)

This is probably one of the most awesome inventions that will come to play in the near future, take a listen (you will have to listen to this on a pair of stereo speakers, unfortunately headphones may not give the same effect):

The New York Times finally decided to pull out all the stops and start charging readers a subscription for their content. Well, after all, the current industry model is sinking like a stone, so who can blame them? Given all of this turmoil, the burning question on everyone's mind is, "is erecting a paywall really the right thing to do?" Well, I guess you need to look at it a couple of ways. First, is it the right thing for readers, and second, is it the right thing for the NYT?

I cannot help but have the sneaking suspicion that we've been smacked upside the head by another bubble.  "But so soon after the bubble to end all bubbles?" you may ask.  Well, put quite simply, yes.  While people (and the Media) were busy pulling their hair out, running around screaming about how the sky was falling (along with their housing values), another bubble-within-a-bubble may have been taking shape.  This time, for the second time really, in the tech-o-social-o-wiki-o-app-o-sphere.