Strange
Day

“No, I will not crochet you an angora vibrator cozy for Christmas. Christmas is evil and bad.”

– Suzannah Breslin

“a heavily made-up woman whose affections seem to be negotiable.”

– Natalie MacLean

Human relationships are about communicating. Business jargon should be banished in favour of simple English (or French or Spanish or Chinese or whatever). Simplicity is a sign of truth and a criterion of beauty. Complexity can be a way of hiding the truth.

– Helena Rubinstein, CEO, www.labgroup.com

Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved. Too often, people are assumed to be empty chess pieces to be moved around by grand viziers, which may explain why so many top managers immerse their calendar time in deal making, restructuring and the latest management fad. How many immerse themselves in the goal of creating an environment where the best, the brightest, the most creative are attracted, retained and, most importantly, unleashed?

– General Colin Powell

The only cats worth anything are the cats that take chances. Sometimes I play things I never heard myself.

– Thelonious Monk

Creativity is the fine line between deep concentration and sheer insanity.

best comic discussion comment ever:

I’ve never put out for comics before … but if someone would give me a full run of “Hitman,” I’d give’em a big sloppy blowjob.

Every so often the people fighting sharing slip up and tell us what they really think. Ed Felten points to an article about a program that lets you copy DVDs. “It’s like somebody selling a digital crowbar,” said Patricia Benson, an attorney for the studios.As Felten points out, crowbars are available at the local hardware store, even though they can be used to break into private property and actually steel things, as well as attacking people. Last time I checked, you didn’t need a license to get one.”

– Aaron Swartz: The Weblog

“(1) The most important first indication that was absolutely clear from the argument is that our fear was misplaced. The Court clearly got it. Though the other side had written literally 300 pages trying to show all the good CTEA did (and pronounce it like it is a disease — sateeeya), the Court hadn’t bought any of it. Congress was not acting to promote progress, it was acting to reward "court favorites." The only question the Court was struggling with is whether it has the power to do anything about it. “

– Lawrence Lessig

You have been living in a cave the last few years if you’ve heard nothing about Copyright. Whether it is the record companies using it as a bully club, or the now famous Eldred case, everyone want’s to own something.

This past week, the Supreme Court heard arguments for and against the reversal of the Copyright Extension Act. No matter what side you’re on, this article by the lawyer for the People is in depth, interesting, and strangely enough, optimistic.

Read it.

NOW!

“There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is supported by neither statue or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back.”

– Robert Heinlein, Life Line, 1939

October 9th, 2002

Eldred v. Ashcroft

Fuck the mouse. If you cannot make a profit off your creation in the entire span of your life, PLUS 75 years after you are dead and rotting (as is the already ridiculous copyright standard), then just maybe no one gives a shit about what you have to say.

“At least one person was arrested Saturday afternoon as about 300 neo-Nazis rallied near the Capitol.

“Police arrested a counter-demonstrator who threw a stone at a neo-Nazi. About 1,000 police officers placed themselves between the two groups.”

– Associated Press

This shows you the typical District police reaction to any protest.

300 Nazis + 300-400 anti-Nazi protesters = 1.4 cops to handle each protester.

I will give the cops this… the cops were slightly less instigatory this time. That may be due to the fact the main force this time seemed to be comprised of Capitol Police as opposed to the usual MetroPD.
Pictures later.

“Americans are a broad-minded people. They’ll accept the fact a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, but if a man reads comics then there’s something wrong with him”

— Author Unknown

When national security is threatened, there are times when the United States cannot afford the luxury of adhering to the Constitution

— Florida Solicitor General Tom Warner

‘The actual monetary loss to piracy might never be known, but the recording industry can count at least one statistic. "The music industry is still looking in the wrong direction," Allen said. "The customer is always right, and the customer in obviously voting with her feet.’

– Wired

Beautiful.

Great quote.

The music industry lost money again last year. They continue to blame Napster.

Small problem… Napster has been offline for over a year.

How many of you out there copied and stole a lot more music, probably guilt free, back when you just copied it onto a cassette tape? You can try to make the argument about quality differences… but copying is still copying.

It occurred to me a few days ago that the modern music labels are some of the only art producers who want to or try to maintain a total control over their product. Almost the only people who insist that every single copy/version/performance is reimbursed separately.

Authors never lobbied to dismantle libraries, and would likely be burned at the stake if they tried.
Painters, sculptors, and other visual artists often dream of being exhibited in a museum, where people don’t generally pay per piece.

You could argue that dancers and stage actors often do get money from each audience member for each viewing. But honestly, how far up on the pop culture scale do those artforms rate, today?

I read an interesting comparison the other day, relating digital music to software. Software manufacturers have not tried to hunt down the individual copyright violators, but instead take reasonable steps to protect the software when it is distributed, and go after the people violating the copyrights on a mass scale. And unlike the music business, the software programers have not asked every other related industry to protect their product because they cannot.

Lets face it. The RIAA and associated labels are scared senseless. They haven’t known what to do in over 15 years. Fifteen years of the most technological innovations in over a century. It’s a public secret that the music labels killed the release of Digital Cassettes, because they would have been duplicated so simply. Since then, music companies have not supported a single other distribution format with any vigor. Although this bit of history will surely be rewritten, it was the users and customers themselves who decided what new format they wanted. Consumers who were tired of waiting decided it was not only time for music to go completely digital, but also ambulatory. And you can’t blame the electronics manufacturers from fulfilling the demand. MP3 may be the modern superstar, but it was hardly the first. I was downloading AIFF files 7 years ago.

Seven fucking years.

Note to the music industry: pull your heads out of your asses and try to catch up. We are no longer waiting for you. While you expend great sound and fury trying to protect the status quo in the courtroom, we continue to evolve without you. Be prepared to jump again.

“BT has few friends in the U.K. The company has consistently been slow to take up new technology which really frustrates Internet users in the U.K.,” Ian Hill, a London-based technology journalist, said. “And BT now seems to be focused on trying to spread the ill will directed at it beyond Britain’s shores. Does this mean we’ll be seeing links floating in the Boston harbor soon?”

yesssss.
links floating in the harbour. I love it.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses up a thousand times the memory.

These are the words that will infect your soul, curve your spine and bring, God help us, peace without honor.

– George Carlin

Nobody should write with an audience in mind. That way lies only mediocrity.

– Warren Ellis

For a generation taught that Sex is Death and Rain is Poison, what else is there left except for TV and incessant masturbation?

– Dr Hunter S. Thompson

Given the sense of stress and fear over the last few days, the quotes below have been sticking in my mind. Consider these comments:

I’m very much afraid that I might be
the next victim because innocent people
are being killed because they’re in the
way of the situation.

– Rhona L.

I’m afraid I’ll be the next victim because
I never know what would happen. Just like a
lot of these deaths, I could just be an innocent
bystander and an attack could start and I could
be the one to get killed.

– Michelle B.

You don’t know your own fate. Even though I’m
not a member of a gang or a drug group and I don’t
possess a gun, and even try to stay out of conflicts
with other people, that doesn’t say, “Well, yeah,
I’m safe.” I may be an innocent bystander or a victim
of revenge. So I’m not safe.

– Donna H.

I am not afraid, because the way I see it is that if
it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen. You can never
stop it.

– Anthony P.

Yes, I’m afraid, but if it comes and I see it coming,
I’ll definitely protect myself. The reason I’m afraid
is that I will have a big decision – either I kill or
I will be killed and it frightens me.

– Leacroft T.

I know five people who have been killed and no
reason … I had to go to five funerals one
after the other … Sometimes I wish I could
just isolate myself from society but I can’t
so I just have to face it.

– Gillian C.

These comments were not collected in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks or the recent Anthrax exposures. These are excerpts from the journal entries of students in an English class I taught at a high school in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn in 1992.

–from Nextdraft, 10.17.2001

…and when we speak we are afraid
our words will not be heard
nor welcomed
but when we are silent
we are still afraid.
So it is better to speak
remembering
we were never meant to survive.

– Audre Lorde, A Litany for Survival

“It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was just a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke. “

– Unknown

Everyone should know of all information that others have deemed unfit for public knowledge.

– Author Unknown