Harry Potter and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Warner Brothers is counting on adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz series to fill the void left when the Harry Potter series ends.
L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” — the book that “The Wizard of Oz” is based on — is just the first story in a series that spans 14 books. All fourteen books are now part of public domain. The original film, however, is not in public domain. In other words: Any reproduction of an element that was solely a part of the film’s story and not the book will have rights fees still associated.
quote out of context
Thus, there is a little evidence that popes experience saint-making fatigue as their tenure in office lengthens.
bottled ghosts
Two glass phials said to contain the ghosts of an old man and a young girl have sold for NZ$2,000 ($1,395:£935) in an online auction in New Zealand.
The top bidder, an electronic cigarette company, said it was looking for ideas on what to do with the ghosts.
The ghost of the old man and the girl had been safely contained in holy water, she said, which “sort of puts them to sleep.”
The lot was viewed nearly 220,000 times in a week and received scores of comments, ranging from practical issues about how to ensure the ghosts remained in the bottles to concerns over the morality of selling another person’s spirit.
“I think they are called Jim Beam and the other is Johnnie Walker,” he said.
oldest known flying car up for auction
Down-size Detroit
Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.
from the comments
I guess old people can’t afford good bread.
photo out of context
(via marginal revolution)
the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy
About the same time that Ibnale was handing out umbrellas, Brett Lockspeiser took $100 worth of dollar bills to the 16th Street Mission BART Station and held up a sign.
“I will give you $1 for you to give to someone else,” the sign said. Throughout the evening rush, Lockspeiser stood in the station, trying to give away dollar bills.
“Everyone though I was trying to scam them,” he said. “They wanted to know what I was up to. I told them they just had to promise to give the $1 to someone else.”
After three hours, Lockspeiser had managed to give away only $52. One passer-by did not take the $1 but, suspecting that Lockspeiser was down and out, handed him a pair of socks.
(via marginal revolution)
Vintage Chanel at Paris auction
It took assessor Francoise Sternbach a year and a half to assemble the 820 lots, which she acquired from more than 120 private sellers. Some of the vintage items were dug out of trunks or rescued from attics where they had languished for decades, she said, adding she hoped those lots would end up going to museums.
“These are dresses which have lived during Mademoiselle Chanel’s time, which went to the most famous parties, which were admired and worn by gorgeous women,” said auctioneer Cornette de Saint Cyr. “And they will be worn again by gorgeous women. That’s what I want: For (the garments) to live again.”
CreditSuisse
Credit Suisse refused a bailout last year, and made their bankers take as “bonuses” all the toxic assets that had been allocated to the bank. These “bonuses” were supposed to distribute the failings of the bank among all the investment bankers who made the decisions. To teach them a lesson. Well, as was recently disclosed, those toxic assets have risen 72% which makes all of those bankers very,very wealthy men. We’re talking billions of dollars.
Read more about it at the Wall Street Journal.
“That’s where it all began,” Ventola said.
The media reported that black-tar heroin was sweeping through town, killing users. That “made people want it more,” said Paul Hunter, a Huntington police narcotics officer. “Addicts are always looking for the best high.”
From a series of articles in the LA Times about Xalisco Mexico, middle-class America, black-tar heroin, decentralized business models, and addiction.
Amy said
I want an unlimited cheese budget.
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I have tried to show that, just as sex made biological evolution cumulative, so exchange made cultural evolution cumulative and intelligence collective, and that there is therefore an inexorable tide in the affairs of men discernible beneath the chaos of their actions.
the rare earth crisis of 2009
China is the only country capable at the moment of mining and processing the rare earth elements used in dozens of emerging technologies. With China’s increase in consumption, however, manufacturers around the world are concerned China may limit or halt the export of such materials.
Europium: This extremely rare but critical chemical makes the red color for television monitors and energy-efficient LED light bulbs. China is the only country today that produces europium, dysprosium and terbium, which are necessary for either boosting the efficient operating temperature of magnets or for producing red in color displays. In December, USGS scientists discovered Alaskan deposits of europium, but even the few U.S. companies that mine rare earth elements must send the resources to China for processing.
Lanthanum: A primary component of the nickel-metal hydride battery in Toyota’s popular hybrid car, Prius. The Prius also incorporates neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. Lifton estimates that Toyota may use as much as 7,500 tons of lanthanum and 1,000 tons of neodymium per year to build its Prius cars. That dependence on rare earth elements has prompted the company to search for alternative sources outside China.
Neodymium: This represents a main component of the permanent magnets at the heart of the most efficient wind turbines. China’s own wind production efforts could consume all the available neodymium production and leave nothing for the rest of the world’s booming wind industry, Lifton notes in a recent report titled “The Rare Earth Crisis of 2009.” Neodymium is also used in the glass of incandescent light bulbs produced by General Electric, which has unsurprisingly invested in both Chinese and alternative sources of rare earth elements.
this unique 18-minute genre has its own requirements
From a Wired article on how to ace a TED Talk:
“I’m surprised to see that half the people here know my career in some detail and the other half don’t know who I am,” he says.
Science is fine, but not when it messes with our illusions.
If she had included solar power and African child warriors, it would have been so perfect a TED talk that there would have been no need for others.
Wolfram wraps his talk by saying that when it comes to trying to boil down the universe to a simple algorithm, “it’s almost embarrassing not to at least try.”
“Just because someone has an ego,” he says, citing a writer whose name I can’t read from my scribbled notes, “doesn’t mean he’s wrong.”
Magnum archives sold to Dell, curated by the Ransom Center
The famed Magnum photojournalism archive (the rights to the photos are still owned by the photographers) has been sold to Michael Dell and will be curated, for the next five years, at the Henry Harry Ransom Center in Austin.
The boxes are marked with three-initial codes. I haven’t quite broken the codes that correspond to all the photographers. Robert Capa is CAR but then also BOB which is funny. Bob.
early Shelby Cobra racer up for auction
Old Nintendo sells for $13,105
Last week, North Carolina eBay user lace_thongs35 thought she was putting up an everyday, 80s-era Nintendo Entertainment System (together with five games) up on the popular auction site. But less than an hour after the first bid, the price was over $6,000 — and on Wednesday, when the auction closed, the final selling price topped $13,000.
It wasn’t the console that was worth so much.
Robin Hood Tax
Richard Curtis has launched a campaign for the Tobin tax in the UK. It’s pretty good.
Amongst the responses from leading economists is the opinion that this will probably not fly unless it is also broadly accepted by the large European countries (i.e. France and Germany) and the US. And the US, they say, will never accept it.
UPDATE: Well, it’s looking at the very least like this idea is being taken seriously for the G20 summit. Watch them closely.
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Thus when the sex ratio is 20:20 the split is $50:$50 and when the sex ratio is 19:20 the split is more like to $99:$1 in favor of the men.
Monopoly: Revolution Edition
“Monopoly: Revolution Edition” is slick and round instead of dull and square, with debit cards and an ATM instead of paper money and a banker, clear plastic representations of the classic tokens (bye-bye, little boot!), and clips of popular songs (like Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day,” and Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love”) that play after certain actions.
No paper money!
Giacometti’s Walking Man
Giacometti’s Walking Man sold for $104,327,006, breaking the record for a piece of art — let alone sculpture — sold at auction.
quote out of context
Perhaps our different experiences account for some of our differing economics views.
Meet The Helpsters
Sweet! Our Mary came up with the gestating project they mention:
Once derided as hipsters, let’s call them helpsters. Instead of disaffected aesthetes with nihilistic tendencies, we see motivated and committed Samaritans. They fight overdevelopment, though it was their presence (and buying power) that drew the developers and realtors in the first place. They defend the rights of tenants, since landlords want to squeeze their diverse neighbors and artist friends out and move a new crop of more affluent—and inevitably less interesting—interlopers in. At the moment, efforts to increase community gardens, bike racks and green spaces are being discussed. Others organize meals for the poor and bike tours of toxic sites. One currently gestating project, to develop Brooklyn’s own currency, would make even old-school lefties blush.
Hayek versus Keynes
This was on NPR yesterday.