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OK, so this has more to do with culture and economy than science, but I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the current Writer's Guild of America (WGA) strike. For those of you who are fans of House MD, Law and Order SVU, Family Guy, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, The Tonight Show, Dave Letterman Show, and many others- your shows are being directly affected. I encourage everyone to learn about what is going on and give her opinion on the revision in current culture that is happening right now.

Here is my understanding of the situtation: Writers receive residuals for their work which allows them to earn money while they are between jobs. As a group, they claim that these residuals are essential to letting them support their families in a tough industry. 20 years ago, when networks decided to make shows available on VHS, the writers took a cut in pay since the market was new and unsure (they say that the understanding was that their normal cut would return when the market was sucessful). Their pay cut of the VHS's has not increased since then and remains the same for DVD's- I think it said they make $00.04 for every $20 DVD you buy, and they are asking for 4 cents more. Also, since shows are being streamed on the Internet more and more, the Networks are running ads during those shows and making a profit, while the writers receive no compensation when their work is shown online. They are asking to be paid from what the Network makes from online viewing. Once the WGA's contract was up for renegotiation, they made several demands to which the Networks refused. The strike began Nov. 5 and the negotiations stopped recently- the Networks walked away from the table. The strike is against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. For additional information, I suggest wikipedia and youtube especially.