Science Addiction

A dormant blog by Devanshu Mehta

Tag: Miscellany

July 17, 2007

Love is Old, Love is New




Lucy in the Sky

Originally uploaded by DevanJedi.

I was in Vegas in April of this year and saw Cirque du Soleil’s Love– a truly magnificent tribute to The Beatles through their music and Cirque’s visual extravagance.

The show opens with one of the last songs The Beatles recorded- “Because” for Let it Be. John Lennon is quoted as having said that the song is based on Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. Listen to both, and you know he’s right.
(“Video of Moonlight Sonata”:http://youtube.com/watch?v=O6txOvK-mAk on YouTube)

This got me to thinking about fair use. Would Lennon (or his lawyers) have risked it if the Sonata was still under copyright? There were “only” about 170 years between Moonlight Sonata and Let it Be, so in modern copyright terms, they were cutting it a little close.

Think that’s a stretch? Remember, Rep. Mary Bono channeling Jack Valenti once asked Congress for “forever less one day” copyright terms.

Note: I know that Lennon’s use would probably be ruled as fair use in a reasonable court of law. That is not the issue. The issue is that fear of litigation may have prevented Lennon (or his producers) from ever releasing “Because” in to the wild and ours would have been a poorer culture for that.

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July 15, 2007

Starbucks in Forbidden City: Closed!




Forbidden Starbucks

Originally uploaded by EccoCraz.

First of all- yes, there was a Starbucks in Beijing’s Forbidden City.

Fortunately, there was a Starbucks in Beijing’s Forbidden City. It’s gone now after huge protests.

Says the BBC:

Starbucks, which has nearly 200 outlets in China, opened the Forbidden City shop seven years ago and removed its brand sign two years ago to address cultural sensitivities.

Here’s what it looks like on Google Maps. Yeah, no Starbucks inside 600 year old monuments. Sorry.

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July 14, 2007

If Airport Security Wasn’t Funny Enough




Airport Security ftw!

Originally uploaded by sirbrett84.

Via Schneier, here’s a funny little photo that sums up many thoughts I have about Airport security. I wish there was a button to click to fix the problem…

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March 31, 2007

Bizarre Bird Video: Off for Hitchcock Auditions?

Take a look at this video my parents took in Florida: Read the rest of this entry »

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January 6, 2007

Spam Poetry

Just got a piece of spam with the following text (in addition to a .gif that was pushing some penny stock):

See – I think that “Happy Feet” would just never work as a film without its penguin predecessor “March of the Penguins. , but not enough for our upcoming foreign trip. James Bond is a Whovian!
I still insist on a live tree, but we did not have one shipped from Maine this year. Pelosi Pelosi Pelosi!
I, for example, mentioned to several girlfriends that they should see the new Bond flick using just three words: “Daniel Craig. Reaching for his own cola, Eagleburger continued: “He was a little loaded.
75Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott – 3.

I agree- Pelosi Pelosi Pelosi!

Also, even though James Bond is probably not “Whovian I am going to try to be one pretty soon.”:http://www.macmillandictionary.com/new-words/050425-Whovian.htm

Oh yeah, and Happy Feet doesn’t work in spite of its predecessor.

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July 25, 2006

95 Theses: The Aftermath

That past 2 days have been fantastic. After my long and heartfelt article was picked by BoingBoing, I figured that would be as good as it would get. Boy was I wrong.

The article made its way to Del.icio.us popular, the Digg home page, the Metafilter home page, Der Spiegel and dozens of other blogs. And now, 33000 readers later, I am stunned. Read the rest of this entry »

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July 23, 2006

The Blogger’s Trifecta

In the past, this site has been slashdotted twice and digg homepaged once. Being slashdotted for the first time, last December, was great because it was the first time this blog got noticed any where outside my friends and family. Getting on the digg home page meant that an article had been accepted by the internet masses, which was uniquely satisfying- though that article was a jab at Microsoft, and so was easy to gain acceptance in certain communities!

Now we have been “boingboing’ed”– which is a different level of satisfaction, because it was accepted by Cory Doctorow. I’m a big fan of his- as I make it clear in the article– and appreciate the link from him a lot.

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July 23, 2006

95 Theses of Geek Activism

Geek activism has not taken off yet, but it should. With the gamers recognizing the need for a louder voice, EFF gaining momentum and Linux taking on the mainstream on the one hand and recent severe losses in privacy, freedom of speech and intellectual property rights on the other, now seems to be the best time to rally around the cause.

Geeks are not known to be political or highly vocal (outside of our own circles)- this must change if we want things to improve. So here is my list of things people of all shapes, sizes and sides of the debate need to know. Some of these are obvious, others may not be meant for you. But hopefully, some of these will inspire you to do the right thing and others will help you frame the next discussion, debate or argument you have on these topics. Read the rest of this entry »

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June 23, 2006

DRM: Why Apple Has it Wrong

A few days ago, a Janet Meyer article on “Apple Matters”:http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/is-big-brother-on-your-ipod/ sparked a phenomenal discussion for and against Apple’s DRM policies. If you are not aware, Apple has a *Digital Rights Management* [DRM] system that “protects” the music it sells from the iTunes music store: it determines where you can play it, how you can play it, how many machines you can play it on and so on. It is proprietary, so if Apple controls the online music market, Apple also automatically controls how, where, why, when we listen to music we buy from them.

To cut a long story short, Janet was making the point that Apple may have a closed music format but as long as consumers have no trouble with it, consumers have a choice to buy CDs instead, the market will decide what is best.

Ah yes, the market. That all-knowing, all-seeing, all-singing, all-dancing market. It knows. In a _perfect_ society with fully informed consumers who have _true_ choices, the market knows. Elections would be marvellous with fully informed voters with _true_ choices as well Read the rest of this entry »

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June 6, 2006

Our First Birthday

Last June, “I started this blog”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2005/06/06/welcome-to-science-addiction/ to talk about the things I was interested in: technology, science, some politics (mainly concerning technology and science). Maybe it is a sign of the times, but the focus has been fine-tuned towards “civil liberties”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/04/25/outrage/, “privacy”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/04/25/outrage/, “open standards”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/05/12/how-internet-explorer-stifles-microsoft/ and “new energy”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/06/04/research-corn-fiber-to-ethanol-using-mold/ while still introducing the occasional “geek project”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2005/08/06/linux-on-the-xbox-reasoning-part-i/ or “humorous”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/categories/humor/ outburst.

“Two”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/03/28/review-googles-gmail-for-your-domain/ “Slashdots”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2005/12/18/seasons-givings/ and a “Digg”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/2006/05/12/how-internet-explorer-stifles-microsoft/ later, the blog is older and wiser. I am learning to focus on fewer things in more detail as I try to build a repeat readership. So far, a vast majority of the readership surfs in and out through links found on Digg, Slashdot, other blogs and mainly, search.

So thanks to all those who have surfed in; even more thanks to those who stick around. Add “SA to your RSS reader”:http://www.scienceaddiction.com/feed/ and come back often.

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