Why would a Dervish be dreaming of a Hindu honeymoon? I don’t get it.
Archive | June, 2011
The Copyright Infringements in the Rue Morgue
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.)
Keep Warm
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.
Send in the Clouds
No commentary seems adequate, so I’ll just post the thing:
Cordial and Sanguine, Part 6
My third post (yeah, been crazy busy lately) at Bleeding Heart Libertarians is now up: “Prison Break.”
Anarchy in India
Before it had malls, a theme park and fancy housing compounds … Gurgaon was widely regarded as an economic wasteland. In 1979, the state of Haryana created Gurgaon by dividing a longstanding political district on the outskirts of New Delhi. One half would revolve around the city of Faridabad, which had an active municipal government, direct rail access to the capital, fertile farmland and a strong industrial base. The other half, Gurgaon, had rocky soil, no local government, no railway link and almost no industrial base.
As an economic competition, it seemed an unfair fight. And it has been: Gurgaon has won, easily. Faridabad has struggled to catch India’s modernization wave, while Gurgaon’s disadvantages turned out to be advantages, none more important, initially, than the absence of a districtwide government, which meant less red tape capable of choking development. …
Meanwhile, with Gurgaon’s understaffed police force outmatched by such a rapidly growing population, some law-and-order responsibilities have been delegated to the private sector. Nearly 12,000 private security guards work in Gurgaon, and many are pressed into directing traffic on major streets. …
Celý piroh. (CHT Jesse Walker.)