Philip Palmer on Faster-Than-Light travel in science fiction.
For at this very fast speed, one’s mass will be infinite (i.e. even greater, so the equations prove, than my mass and the dimensions of my arse on Boxing Day) and this makes travel of any kind difficult.
An interesting article on the use of mass transit in psychology.
A pregnant woman appears: Who will give up his seat first? A blind man slips and falls. Who helps? Someone appears out of the blue and asks you to mail a letter. Will you?
Matt Curran has some interesting things to say about remaindered books over at his blog.
Scott Pack replies to a Guardian piece by Stuart Jeffries that (according to Scott; I haven’t read it) is another ‘why can’t bookshops be like the old days’ article.
Among other things, Scott writes:
Less than a decade ago it would have been possible to walk into a branch of Waterstone’s, especially some of the London shops, and ask for the bestselling book in the country only to discover that they didn’t stock it because ‘it wasn’t our sort of thing’. I remember an occasion when one branch refused to unpack a science fiction promotion because ‘our customers don’t like sci fi’. The same shop would complain whenever we ran a Jacqueline Wilson offer as ‘she’s a terrible writer and our customers can’t stand her’. I am not making any of this up. Is this what Jeffries wants? Really?
I’m not entirely convinced that this is a bad thing. When — years ago now — I was hawking my own book around branches of Waterstone’s, I had assumed (along with the public, I think) that such bookshops are essentially autonomous. However, on every occasion, I was told that the manager/manageress lacked the power to make buying decisions (or was too worried to exercise it), even when the decision centred on four or five books of a local author. So if there was a time when the managers of Waterstone’s branches were less timid, I’d say winding the clock back would be no bad thing.
He goes on to say:
Waterstone’s has branches in towns across the land. In some of these places a new Andy McNab novel will sell 20 or 30 times more than a new Martin Amis. The stock and merchandising of the shop should reflect that.
Which I agree with. I can’t stand Martin Amis and thoroughly enjoyed Bravo Two Zero when I was a teenager.
There is an interesting question at the heart of this debate. What do you or I want in a bookshop? Personally, I don’t really want bookshops at all. I want the recommendations of my friends and a web browser that gets me to Amazon.
Literature and the shops that sell it are two dissociable entities. As are, I think, words and books themselves.
Here’s an interesting presentation by Dutch Internet strategist Freek Bijl on how vertical integration between the iTunes music store and the iPod might be applied to publishing, with reference to the fabled Apple tablet device.
► How Would Apple Change Publishing? Here’s One Theory | Cult of Mac
Well, I uploaded to YouTube the video of myself, my girlfriend and her God-daughter ‘going ape’. The status of the video is described as ‘matching third party content’. In other words, YouTube has detected that I’ve used the Raiders theme, but the video is still available. Apparently, it could be removed at any time by Sony — or else a little advert will appear in the lower third. Hopefully, the latter.
This week, we’ve had a young visitor from Germany. We took her to the Go Ape! attraction at Leeds Castle on Sunday. Being that kind of person, I filmed some of the swinging about, added a soundtrack using music I’d purchased form iTunes, and tried to upload the video to Facebook. The music in question is the Raiders March, composed by John Williams for Raiders of the Lost Ark. When the upload had finished, I received this email from Facebook:
Hello,
We have removed your video entitled (no title) uploaded at 3:10pm November 6th, 2009. We did this because it appears to contain copyrighted material owned by a third party, such as a video clip or background audio. If you believe this material was removed by mistake, you may file a counter notice of alleged infringement by following the link below.
Please note that if you re-upload this video without filing a counter notice, or if you upload another video that infringes on the rights of a third party, we may remove the content. This could cause your access to the Facebook Video application, or your Facebook account itself, to be disabled.
To file a counter notice:
File a Counter NotificationFor any other questions, view our Help page.
The Facebook Team
I don’t necessarily disagree with the legal interpretation of copyright law here. Facebook is a US-based commercial company and, as far as I’m aware, if Facebook takes any interest in editorial control of its content (I recall it once censored a group of breast-feeding mothers on grounds of decency) then it loses the designation ‘safe harbour’ and becomes a target for law suits from those who think their copyright has been infringed. Thus, it should police its content proactively.
However, I added the Raider March to my video with a clear conscience. I had bought the music (not for the first time). I knew that viewers of the video would not mistake the music for something I’d composed myself. I did not think that its use would in any way diminish the earnings of the movie studio that owns the Raiders brand. And I did not consider that uploading the video to Facebook constituted a form of publication because the audience comprises a small audience of friends, any one of whom I might lend a book, DVD or CD. (I was specific about this by indicating ‘my friends only’.)
As I say, I don’t necessarily disagree with Facebook’s legal stance here. I signed up for their service and (ahem) read the licence agreement. But it’s another reminder that Facebook — while creating the illusion of a social experience — has a measure of control over the way I interact with my friends that doesn’t really correspond with the complete sovereignty I exercise in ‘meat space’.
I just received an email from Michael Fuchs — thriller writer and author of The Manuscript and Pandora’s Sisters — telling me that my comments mechanism sucks. Here’s what he tried to post:
That’s really a very funny coincidence. I checked in just now due to acute boredom at work. And would you believe it? Our house mouse turned up just on Friday. I got a single-line e-mail message from Anna, the text of which was that we have a mouse; and the sub-text of which was that I was in trouble.
There have been a couple of sightings — he’s a daring little bugger, coming out in daylight, and Anna even admires him grudgingly. She’s named him Marcus. I was sitting at my workstation yesterday when I realised he was dead at my line of sight — on top of a framed picture of Anna’s family, on top of Anna’s dresser.
I fed him some chocolate. I texted Anna: ‘Marcus is a cutie pie!’.
Anna was not thrilled by either of these actions on my part.
I too picked up a ‘live capture’ mouse trap at Home Base. It recommended peanut butter as bait, which we didn’t have, so Anna tried jelly. (Seemed intuitive enough.) However, when we got up this morning, either Marcus outsmarted us (I’d briefly imagined him removing the whole back cap where the food goes) — or he doesn’t like jelly.
I already know he likes chocolate; but I’ll certainly bear Muesli in mind if he continues to elude us.
I intend to release him in the churchyard round the corner. While I’m not sure he has just the right temperment for it, perhaps he will liven things up there — as a churchmouse.
Now, off to forward this to Anna, ostensibly to show her it’s not just us, but I already know she’ll merely take it as me defending A) the non-lethal trap and B) the existence of Marcus in general …