Going from the physical printed medium to the web is going from rigid to fluid. It lets us manage and process information in entirely different ways, and the data takes on a very different form. Instead of the restrictions that come with the physical medium, we have an immense flexibility that the rapid growth of technology has made possible.

Last month, the case against the Pirate Bay started in a court in Stockholm. Already in the second day of the trial, half of the charges were dropped “due to serious shortcomings in the prosecution evidence.” All charges for “assisting copyright infringement” had to be dropped because of non-cleared evidence material, inaccurate screen grabs and other evidence flaws. The remaining charges are for “assisting making available.”

Oscar-nominated Isreaeli animator Yoni Goodman has released an animation criticising his government’s actions on the Gaza strip. The short animation has been in the works since before the conflict escalated in December last year. It is a strong comment on what has been called a massive outdoors prison. Goodman argues that Israel policies are “violating the rights of 1.5 million people who seek only to live ordinary lives – to be reunited with family, to pursue higher education, to receive quality medical treatment, and to earn a living.”

That’s 20,000 jobs disappearing every day. Less jobs means less income, less income means less spending, which will force employers to slash even more jobs. Even though Obama has been moving quickly to get the stimulus package out, economics professor Sun Won Sohn says that “the stimulus won’t have immediate effect on job creation even though some planned layoffs could be cancelled,” and that any significant job growth will not be seen until 2010.