lucius septimius 4/7/2022 5:23:11 AM

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I see we're going minimalist this week.

This morning, for the first time in my life, I made cappuccino. It turned out pretty well - daughter convinced me to buy an espresso machine.

vxbush 4/7/2022 5:57:49 AM

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In #1 lucius septimius said: This morning, for the first time in my life, I made cappuccino. It turned out pretty well - daughter convinced me to buy an espresso machine.

Good morning.

I have a hard time with the concept of espresso. While I know the shot of caffeine is not directly proportional to the size of the cup, my eyes think tiny cups of caffeine are useless. 

Occasional Reader 4/7/2022 5:58:11 AM

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Good morning. Well, this isn’t creepy at all, is it:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61019127

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 6:08:32 AM

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President Barack Obama Returns To White House After Growing Tired Of Working Remotely

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 6:25:56 AM

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In #4 Kosh's Shadow said: President Barack Obama Returns To White House After Growing Tired Of Working Remotely

"It's been quite the experience so far. You'd be surprised how easy it is to ruin—erm run a country over Teams or Zoom." said President Obama. "The best part is no matter how bad things get—I just blame Kamala and Joe!"

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 6:41:38 AM

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A disturbing conversation over at Insty last night.  It appears that, with the revelations about the sexual wokeness in the Disney company,  the hate-Disney impulse, never far from the surface, has erupted in an orgy of "strip the company of its copyrights!" and "copyrights are too long and are robbing us of the right to use other people's work without paying!"  

The brutish hate and envy of copyright holders mixed with (and often confused with) the understandable dislike of Disney's wokie position in the culture wars is quite unsettling.

lucius septimius 4/7/2022 7:10:57 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 6:

On a vaguely related note, I read a scathing review of the latest revival of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite.  The consensus was that Simon just isn't funny anymore. His sort of "Borsht Belt on Broadway" humor seems tired and, in the opinion of the reviewer at least, obsolete as stage comedy has become more sophisticated.  

Reading the review and considering how Simon was once the gold standard of comedy, I recalled his copyright battle with schools.  He (or his legal team) started targeting high school performances -- and here it included simply the performance of individual scenes for speech competitions - for royalties.  No one questioned that he was technically entitled to them, but hitting up high school students for doing a 15 minute cut from The Odd Couple for royalties in performances that no one was paid for just seemed petty. 

The result was that Simon's work - enormously popular at the time - disappeared from schools, with the secondary result that people born after 1965 - three full generations - had little if any exposure to Simon.  The current revivals, universally panned by Gen-X and younger reviewers, are obviously aimed at the few Baby Boomers who still have a fondness for his work, 

Everyone knows how touchy Disney is about copyright - Berke Breathed got into a pile of trouble with them years ago -- but as with Simon, the thing that will hurt them in the log run is being jerks. Their original fan base is dying out, and their recent work has mostly served to annoy viewers.  I haven't seen the last few Pixar movies, but I gather that none of them comes even close to the best of the earlier ones. They killed Star Wars and seem bent on doing the same thing to Marvel.  ESPN is slowly dying.  

In the end, we don't need to attack Disney's rights.  The more crap they pull the more people will walk away.

As for the parks, they know that their base are wealthy white people, most of whom now vote Democrat. They're not worried about losing them.  Even here, though, as with Simon, the fascination I suspect will die out. And if they really do follow through with their pledge to make nothing but LGBQERTY+ characters (which they won't because CHINA) people will just turn off their sets.  

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 7:37:09 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 7:

As for Disney being tough with copyrights - 

Years ago, I read a news article that some day care center painted Disney characters on the walls. Disney forced them to remove them. Warner Brothers sent in people to paint the walls with Warner Brothers characters. I'm sure that it included an appropriate copyright notice, but they got cheap advertising and good will.

Same with WB and Babylon 5. The creator of B5 convinced WB to allow free use of the B5 images, with appropriate copyright notices, by fan sites, but commercial sites had to pay. That actually got B5 free advertising - the fan sites could easily drive more people to watch the show. They would tell the fans to include copyright notices, which is proper.

On the other hand, some fans can be jerks, too. I read about Trekkies getting upset when they tried to publish fan fiction, as Paramount owns the copyright to the characters. No, the fans don't own the characters.

doppelganglander 4/7/2022 7:46:32 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 7:

Interesting about Neil Simon. Back in the Pleistocene era, a/k/a the early 80s, I was in a theater group that performed the third act of Plaza Suite as a one-act play for senior citizens and women's groups (remember those?). I don't recall any fuss about copyright, but the college may have paid for the rights. We also staged his very little-known play Fools. I know the rights were paid for because we had the little books from Samuel French (I still have mine).

doppelganglander 4/7/2022 7:53:09 AM

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Very good news from my family members in the UK: they got refugee visas for my daughter-in-law's family! That includes her parents, her sister, and her two nieces. Their house is large by British standards, but it's going to be a full house for sure.

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 7:56:06 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 7:

I'm not a big fan of Simon either; I'm old enough to be in his original fan-base demographic---at the tail end, anyway---and I've always thought him somewhat overrated.  His bad business decisions---and Disney's---are something else again.  Regarding Disney, I remember hearing some years ago that they sued the hell out of some school or other which had used Disney characters without permission in a playground wall mural; they won, of course, and had it painted out, at which point Warner's came in and offered to replace it for free, using Looney Tunes characters, of course.

Such things aren't limited to the big boys, either; many years ago, I acquired some wooden picnic plates in a junk store, because someone had painted copies of some of the characters from the Pogo comic strip on them.  A while after acquiring them, I was on the phone with Walt Kelly's widow, who'd called up the artist's organization I worked with to ask some question or other.  In the course of the conversation, I mentioned the plates to her---and she initially threatened to sue me.  For what, she wasn't quite sure.  I told her that if she wanted to waste money and make a very public fool of herself, to go ahead---to the questionable extent these bits of folk art represented an actionable infringement, it certainly wasn't against me.

All that, however, is beside the point---lots of people make silly or foolish business decisions, and works, or styles of work, go in and out of fashion.   JC Leyendecker, the famous Saturday Evening Post cover artist, creator of the Arrow Collar Man, etc., was so popular at his height that he was making well over $100,000 a year in the depths of the Depression---but his style went out of fashion  in the '40s, and after he died in 1951 his surviving companion sold off his canvases at $5 and $10 apiece (they're worth tens of thousands today).  So it's not surprising that Neil Simon's star has fallen dramatically.

Anyway, the point is that the Disney-hate is being wrapped up with a hate of copyrights and copyright protection generally, with people very much of the mind that they have the right to tell the creators/owners of intellectual property how long they "should" be allowed to retain it, because otherwise the sans-culottes of "the public" are somehow being robbed.

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 7:56:26 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 10:

Great news.

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 8:00:56 AM

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Most people think that copyright holders are a cross between Smaug the dragon and the Underwear Gnomes---on the one hand, squatting on their hoard of copyrights and letting nobody else touch any part of the hoard, and that copyright holders operate on the principle of

1) Create something;

2) ?????

3) Profit!!!

Both ideas are absurd; it is by licensing out the work that one makes money.  And the post-mortem portion of the copyright term is equally important---first, because it encourages the continuation of the commerce which the licensing initially made possible, and second, because if someone does not wish to pay a licensing fee for Item X, that person must create something new.

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 8:16:32 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 13:

BTW, there are also the "free software" people. I've actually met Richard Stallman, but at a National Space Society meeting (in what used to be the MIT AI lab computer room - today a smart watch is probably more powerful than the PDP-6/10 they had back in the 1970's)

JCM 4/7/2022 8:19:57 AM

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Life Style Choices!

Homeless camp fire near Seattle stadiums part of dangerous surge, data shows

From Jan. 1 through April 3, officials said the Seattle Fire Department has responded 449 times to homeless camps for fire-related incidents, including rubbish fires and illegal burns.

Occasional Reader 4/7/2022 8:23:04 AM

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In #10 doppelganglander said: Very good news from my family members in the UK: they got refugee visas for my daughter-in-law's family!

Great to hear.  And I assume they are safe and accounted-for? 

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 8:25:53 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 14:

There is a harmonic convergence between the  "free software" people, the Electronic Frontier Foundation ("information wants to be free" is their cry), Creative Commons, the anti-copyright copyright bar (of which, it appears, Glenn Reynolds is a member), and the tech giants who want to destroy copyright because copyright a) gives individuals ownership in their own work, but b) is finite, which means that even things owned by tech giants can eventually go into the public domain.

The tech giants control access, and access is forever, while copyright is finite.

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 8:26:33 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 10:

Excellent news indeed.

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 8:47:25 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 17:

Another reason the tech giants don't like copyright is that it cuts into their profit. I'm sure youtube would love to stream Disney movies and keep all the ad revenue. Same for Facebook. Spotify and Pandora could make more money if they didn't have to pay royalties, either.

doppelganglander 4/7/2022 9:01:58 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 16:

Yes, last I heard they were in western Ukraine, but it seems they'll be flying out of Poland. Her sister is pretty distraught at having to leave her husband, who is of fighting age, but he insisted they leave for their own safety. The British government is giving them financial assistance for housing them, and they will have access to NHS. Several airlines are offering free or discounted flights, and some NGOs are helping pay for flights and other expenses. 

I want to thank all of you for your prayers, well wishes, and support. Should you wish to help others who have been directly affected, this is an organization that my daughter donated to after checking them out. Their Charity Navigator score is not great, largely because it hasn't been rated on some measures. But over 98% of funds go directly to programs, and they seem to have very good connections in the area to make sure help gets to those who need it.

Global Empowerment Network

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 9:05:58 AM

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Jew-hating gecko.

SHAMEFUL: Antisemitic Israel-Basher the Face of Geico ‘Inclusion’ Campaign

Despite the antisemitism scandal surrounding Linda Sarsour, one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S., Geico, recently honored her.

Occasional Reader 4/7/2022 9:09:11 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 21:

Well, one can always switch to Progressive Insurance. 

Oh, wait...

Arguably, one could say that the insurance business is the perfect place for Leftists politics to thrive, since their business model is, "you give us your money, and in return, we try to give you as little as possible."  Kind of like "Progressive" pols. 

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 9:18:19 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 22:

Jukebox

"We'll up your premiums semi-annually"

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 10:18:32 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 23:

I remember a song, IIRC from the Contractual Obligation Album, but I can find no mention of it anywhere. It was the Song o' the Insurance Men and went

We'lllcover you 'gainst fire and flood
Why-how endowment!
But not riots, war, nor acts of god
Why-how endowment!
For a period of fifty years
Why-how endowment!
Unless of course you're in arrears
Why-how and up your premium!

vxbush 4/7/2022 10:20:19 AM

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Reply to doppelganglander in 10:

Fantastic news!

Occasional Reader 4/7/2022 10:57:52 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 11:26:03 AM

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Speaking of insurance, there's a scene in E. Nesbit's book "The Phoenix and the Carpet" in which insurance figures.  "The Phoenix and the Carpet" is a book of the series starting with "Five Children and It," in which five siblings on holiday discover a "sand fairy" that grants wishes; in "The Phoenix and the Carpet," there is a phoenix egg rolled up in their new nursery carpet and, when it accidentally falls into the fire and hatches out, the Phoenix explains to them that their carpet is actually a magic carpet that can transport them to different places.  

In any event, at one point the children are walking around London, and pass by an insurance office labeled "Phoenix Fire Insurance"; the Phoenix, convinced that these are devotees of his, insists on their entering---and somehow the insurance underwriters are convinced to stand and sing a song of devotion to it, thus:

O golden Phoenix, fairest bird,

The great world has so often heard

Of all the many things we do

Great Phoenix, just to honor you...

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 11:28:08 AM

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vxbush 4/7/2022 11:40:49 AM

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In #28 buzzsawmonkey said: E. Nesbit was a turn-of-the-century Fabian Socialist, who wrote many children's books.  She's most well-known for her dreariest work, "The Railway Children," but she did the three "Five Children" books as well as "The Story of the Treasure-Seekers" and the sequel "The Would-Be-Goods."  

I remember reading the Railway Children as a child, so it was still popular in the 70's. 

Occasional Reader 4/7/2022 12:15:12 PM

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Postmodern Warfare:  Ukrainians use "Find My" feature to track Russian troops who stole their consumer electronics.

vxbush 4/7/2022 12:28:59 PM

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In #30 Occasional Reader said: Ukrainians use "Find My" feature to track Russian troops who stole their consumer electronics.

Heh. Bet the Russians never even considered that possibility. 

Occasional Reader 4/7/2022 12:38:55 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 31:

In Soviet Russia, iPhone finds you!

/obvious, but it had to be said 

Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 12:44:40 PM

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A short explanation of why socialism requires a repressive system:

There are two approaches to get people to be productive in society - the carrot and the stick.

Socialism eliminates the carrot.

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 12:49:34 PM

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In #29 vxbush said: I remember reading the Railway Children as a child, so it was still popular in the 70's. 

There was, I think, a PBS version of it.  Again, it is---in my view---the dreariest of her kid's books.  

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 1:13:50 PM

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vxbush 4/7/2022 1:16:41 PM

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In #34 buzzsawmonkey said: There was, I think, a PBS version of it.  Again, it is---in my view---the dreariest of her kid's books.  

I'm seriously thinking of going back and reading children and YA books from the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the stuff printed today is worth reading, but so much of it is positively saturated with wokeness of one flavor or another to be so dreary and ugly. 

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 1:30:09 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 36:

I strongly recommend the Paul Berna books, "A Hundred Million Francs" and its sequel "The Street Musician," and "The Knights of King Midas."    These books all have a group of kids, boys and girls both, usually from the ages of about six to thirteen, in which they deal with a particular adventure that is more or less thrust upon them.  The point is, they go across age and sex in the interest of the group as a whole.  "A Hundred Millio Francs" was filmed (by the now-unutterably-evil Disney, I think) as "The Horse Without a Head," a film I've never seen but which could not help but be inferior to the book.  Just like Nesbit's books, which have a mixed-sex group of various ages, the Berna books show the ability of people to reach across age and sex towards a common goal.

Occasional Reader 4/7/2022 1:45:18 PM

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In #37 buzzsawmonkey said: show the ability of people to reach across age and sex

Disney has now modified that message, teaching about the ability of people to have sex, regardless of age... 

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 1:53:54 PM

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In #38 Occasional Reader said:

Yo soy tan viejo, yo puedo recordar cuando las palabras fueron "haciendo amor," y no fueron "teniendo sex."

buzzsawmonkey 4/7/2022 1:54:58 PM

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Kosh's Shadow 4/7/2022 2:11:44 PM

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In #36 vxbush said: saturated with wokeness

You didn't like the new version of Dick and Jane?

See Jane

See Jane's dick.

JCM 4/7/2022 2:51:21 PM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 30:

FIRE MISSION!