The word is that Newt Gingrich has scuttled his chance at the GOP nomination by interrupting his campaign for a two-week cruise in the Greek isles.
Well, duh. If I had to choose between cruising the Greek isles and campaigning to be president of the u.s., I’d make the same choice he did.
Warner Bros. is being sued for using a copy of Mike Tyson’s tattoo in a movie without the permission of the original artist. If the case goes against Warner, they may have to have the tattoo digitally altered when they release the dvd.
Warner is a victim of censorship here, plain and simple. But given that Warner makes money by threatening similar censorship against everyone else, it’s hard to feel sympathetic. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
Oh, this is too good to be true. The artist who claims Warner Bros. stole his tattoo design is being charged with stealing it in turn from the Maori. (CHT Stephan.)
Why would a Dervish be dreaming of a Hindu honeymoon? I don’t get it.
In his introduction to Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin trilogy, Matthew Pearl offers in passing an interesting thought on copyright:
The brilliant resolution Poe designs for “The Purloined Letter” – that the letter in question is right in front of our eyes the whole time, which is why the police cannot find it – is also a perfect formulation of the odd version of “theft” that exists perhaps exclusively in the area of the law protecting artistic creations, which is known as intellectual property: that something can be stolen and in plain sight at the same time or, odder still, that in copyright law, for something to be considered stolen it must be in plain view. (p. xv)
(I think the connection to “The Purloined Letter” is a bit of a stretch, but never mind.)
11th Doctor (Matt Smith) displaying library card of 1st Doctor (William Hartnell)
Doctor Who fans might get a kick out of Tachyon TV’s blog series Adventures With the Wife in Space, wherein überfan Neil Perryman reports as his not-so-much-a-fan wife Sue Thompson watches, makes acerbic and amusingly disparaging comments on, and grades every single episode (or such, at any rate, is the plan) of the classic 1963-1989 series, including those episodes that survive only as audiotracks with photo stills. (See both Neil and Sue here.) They’ve just finished up the Hartnell era (displayed in reverse order on the blog, as is the way of blogs) and are heading on to Troughton.
No commentary seems adequate, so I’ll just post the thing: