On Was Aaron Swartz Stealing?
i work at a nonprofit scholarly press in the journals division. i hope you'll allow me a couple of minor quibbles. one, saying "none of the money goes to the author, it goes to the publisher" makes it sound rather like publishers are raking it in, when in reality there are way more small nonprofit presses than there are elseviers. two, the per-article fee doesn't go directly to publishers. part of it does. what we get basically helps offset the loss of print sales our publications have been experiencing for years now.
anyway, as you might imagine i'm a little less eager than some other commenters here to say that the whole scholarly publishing system is broken. that's not because i think it works especially well, but mostly because nobody seems to have a good alternative and academics seem to forget how badly they need editing and other aspects of journal production that publishers provide.
all that having been said, this is the best thing i've read about this whole kerfuffle and that includes plenty of industry discussion.
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On On Copyright, Fair Use and Photography
one of the reasons people should talk about these experiences more is that the public needs to know that fair use won't stop you from being sued, it will only help you - possibly - defend yourself if you are. you may wind up owing somebody a lot of money even if your interpretation of the law is completely valid. sure, people can sue you for all kinds of things and it will suck, but it's a lot more likely to happen in a case like this.
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On How To Not Spend Any Money In New York City
i recommend not living in new york as a frugality tip.
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On Man Believes Momentary Neurological Event Somehow Reflects The Way We Think Now
sounds like a migraine to me. kind a gnarly example of aura/prodrome, but well within the range of things that happen all the time.
and if you didn't get a proper headache later that doesn't mean it's not migraine. anyone can get them and they don't work the way everybody thinks they do.