Home Taping is Killing Music
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.
FBI Top Ten Anniversary
Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list.
The year was 1949, and a reporter came to the FBI with a novel question: who were the “toughest guys” we were after? We responded with photos of 10 fugitives, which were published on the front page of The Washington Daily News. Although we didn’t know it at the time, a crime-fighting institution was born.
The “Top Ten” list immediately caught the public’s attention, and several of the fugitives were captured as a result of the media exposure. The following year—on March 14, 1950—we formally established our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program, relying on the support of the public to help us capture the worst of the worst.
The mugshot archive.
quote out of context
Oh man, what a bummer.
Beard Law
In case you were curious about the steps one must take in order to grow a beard at Brigham Young University:
A student who wishes to obtain a beard exception must visit a BYU Student Health Center doctor by appointment. The doctor will fax his recommendation. The student then needs to come to the Honor Code Office to fill out some paperwork and receive the letter allowing the growth of the beard, if approved. If a yearly beard exception is granted, a new Student ID will be issued after the beard has been fully grown, and must be renewed every year by repeating the process.
I didn’t see anything about shape or length. I can only assume such deliberations are left to their shaven Mormon elders.
Perplexing
As attorney general in 2006, McDonnell said Kaine exceeded his constitutional authority by extending protections to gays.
Operation Exodus got its name in part “because of its Biblical relevance”
In a video of the first training session, posted on the sheriff’s office’s website, the recruits — almost all white, and many appearing to be past middle-age — gamely practice their hand-to-hand combat techniques:
How to Probate and Settle an Estate in Texas
Office of Precinct 6 Justice of the Peace. Jim Wells County, Texas.
If you live outside the state, you will need to appoint a resident agent, and the letter of appointment must be notarized. You can usually scare up a notary in any office of a justice of the peace.
the traffic women of North Korea
Their uniforms, it is said, were designed by Kim Jong II. They rotate only counter-clockwise.
there’s a novel in the details of this
The professor at the University of Alabama who gunned down three colleagues in a tenure meeting — and who probably killed her brother in a shooting in 1986 — may have orchestrated the details of her brother’s shooting from a newspaper clipping police discovered in an enlarged photograph from the original crime scene.
Keating declined to be specific about the incident in the paper. Boston newspapers were reporting the article was about the November 1986 killing of the parents of actor Patrick Duffy, who starred in the TV series “Dallas.” They were slain with a shotgun during a robbery attempt at a Montana bar they owned. The two teen suspects then stole a truck at gunpoint from a car dealership. They were arrested after a high speed chase.
The probate hearing
was in what they call the Old Criminal Courts building. On the wall of the room in which I swore my oath was a photograph of the trial of Jack Ruby.
David Bowie as web visionary
“I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years because I don’t think it’s going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way. The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.”
“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.
So I think that this
is kind of a big deal.
from the comments
It is written in my will that if I am shot and eaten, I may not be served with either apple or mint jelly.
Redemption
Sorry I’ve been quiet of late. I have much to share that may or may not be of interest to ‘flockers, but this glimpse into the mind of my late Uncle Ray (through a letter to his friend Jim) may provoke:
The once “Bro. Jim”,
After prayer and meditation the Lord, in His wisdom and compassion, has led me to extend the hand of civility and forgiveness to you who have fallen so far from the fold. But I do not want to place undue emphasis on how far you have fallen or the depths of your depravity but rather on the Hope that shines eternal through His grace and redemptive power. It is truly grace because you, of all people, have through your sins, blasphemies and contemptuous behavior, earned an eternity in hell. If you escape your destiny only grace can account for it. It warms my heart to extend a gracious welcome back to the fraternity of the true believers, the promise keepers if you will. All you need to do is open your heart. It matters not that you reek of fish, gin, campsmoke and possibly loose women (could not tell from the fish odor) so long as you are sincere in your confession of sin.
Come as you are as we softly sing “Just As I Am”.
You cannot imagine how my heart swells to see a sinner return to the Truth as I see it. You should be aware that the Lord’s forgiveness is complete and total but mine is more exacting. Lacking the supernatural powers to see into your heart, I must judge by outward behavior. You would serve your rehabilitation well by inviting Joyce and me up to a Cardinal game before the season is over. That would be a splendid sign of an intent to climb out of the cesspool of degradation and self-elevation that you have inhabited.
You were once a good boy. I’ve been told that. By you, but it was convincing at the time. Open your heart. Accept this lifeline. Put on the raiments of salvation and join me when we celebrate for an eternity. Just put your hand on the computer and say “Bro. Ray intercede for me because I am lost and unworthy but I want to be found and redeemed.”
Jesus and I patiently wait,
Bro. Ray
Spiritual Warrior
These letters keep my dear Uncle alive for me. I hope you enjoy them too.
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.”
legislating the apocalypse
The Virginia House of Delegates has voted against implantation of microchips against a person’s will, both as a measure of protecting personal privacy and to forestall the coming of the Anti-Christ.
“My understanding — I’m not a theologian — but there’s a prophecy in the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times,” Cole said. “Some people think these computer chips might be that mark.”
Fidler’s castle
A UK man who secretly built a castle by hiding it with bales of hay has been ordered to tear it down.
To keep prying eyes from noticing his unauthorized abode, Fidler placed bales of hay and tarpaulin around his dream home in Salfords, Surrey, authorities said. The court ruled he could not benefit from his deception.
Authorities said he incorporated two grain silos into the design, covering them with material to give them a castellated appearance.
the law was “just wrong”
Looks like don’t ask don’t tell is finally going away.
A White House official said that Mr. Obama’s call for repeal stayed through six drafts of the speech, despite reports of internal battles over how far he should go.
no more prison fantasies
Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons “promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling,” according to the ruling. The prison later developed a more comprehensive policy against all types of fantasy games, the court said.
from the dissent
While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.
the first legal male prostitute
I think for a male, if you want to be successful in this type of venture, you’re not a prostitute. You’re a surrogate lover. You encompass everything that’s required of you—not only emotionally, physically—but psychologically. Because women are wired differently. They’re much more sensitive creatures. You actually have to enjoy what you do. You can’t necessarily say, “Oh, it’s just a job.” You actually have to say it’s a passion. I think it’s the same situation as with anything that happens when you break apart a social institution. There has to be some kind of change in terminology to describe persons like myself. And it’s more of a civil rights thing now. Basically this is the first time in the economy of the United States that a male has actually stood up and said, “I want to do this for a living.” And be protected under law to do it. It’s just the same as when Rosa Parks decided to sit at the front instead of the back. She was proclaiming her rights as a disadvantaged, African-American older woman. And I’m doing the same. I’m actually standing up now, and hopefully I can be supported by the male community and be understood as a person. This actually isn’t about selling my body. This is about changing social norms.
Congratulations.
(via marginal revolution)
Spanish Osama
A Spanish lawmaker was horrified to learn that the FBI used an online photograph of him to create an image showing what Osama bin Laden might look like today.
Electromagnetic Sensitivity
Arthur Firstenberg has filed a lawsuit against his neighbor for her use of electronic devices.
He’s part of a group of Santa Fe residents who are pursuing legal means to remove all Wi-Fi hotspots from public locations because they claim the wireless internet waves aggravate their “electromagnetic allergies.” To add merit to their case, they are classifying their “allergy” or “sensitivity” as a disability and are claiming the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination based on disability.