Scary thought for Halloween
Earlier today I referred to Google not being as Evil(TM) as Some Other Companies. Maybe I spoke too soon.
Say it ain't so, Sergey!
Friday, October 31, 2003
More sound and fury about scholarly periodicals
According to the most recent issue of Library Juice, a group of researchers in the University of California system are calling for a boycott of Cell Press, a subsidiary of academic uber-publisher Elsevier which produces an array of astonishingly overpriced scientific journals. ( $90,000 ?!? )
Will boycotts like this, aided by constructive acts of rebellion like Public Library of Science, which recently inaugurated a free, peer-reviewed online biology journal, alleviate the crisis? Stay tuned.
(Thanks to Carlos for letting me know about PLOS: Biology.)
According to the most recent issue of Library Juice, a group of researchers in the University of California system are calling for a boycott of Cell Press, a subsidiary of academic uber-publisher Elsevier which produces an array of astonishingly overpriced scientific journals. ( $90,000 ?!? )
Will boycotts like this, aided by constructive acts of rebellion like Public Library of Science, which recently inaugurated a free, peer-reviewed online biology journal, alleviate the crisis? Stay tuned.
(Thanks to Carlos for letting me know about PLOS: Biology.)
Here today, gone next budget year
From time to time people accuse me of being a Luddite because I express skepticism about the permanance of "electronically-archived" documents. Those people should note that, according to ALAWON, the newsletter of the American Library Association's Washington office, a bill currently before the Congress, HR 2989 as approved by the Senate, would remove funding for the National Archives' Electronic Records Archive, which was intended to "capture, make available, and preserve crucial electronic government information", especially the digital-only documents which make up an increasing percentage of government records and which cannot be collected or preserved in the traditional fashion by the government-depository library program.
Of course, that's not the politicians' and bureaucrats' problem. They'd just as soon the records of their activities disappeared before the next election anyway, and any number of industry lobbyists would be very happy indeed if information embarrassing to their employers disappeared from the public record.
The House version of the bill has apparently retained this funding, meaning that the conflict will have to be worked out in a conference committee.
From time to time people accuse me of being a Luddite because I express skepticism about the permanance of "electronically-archived" documents. Those people should note that, according to ALAWON, the newsletter of the American Library Association's Washington office, a bill currently before the Congress, HR 2989 as approved by the Senate, would remove funding for the National Archives' Electronic Records Archive, which was intended to "capture, make available, and preserve crucial electronic government information", especially the digital-only documents which make up an increasing percentage of government records and which cannot be collected or preserved in the traditional fashion by the government-depository library program.
Of course, that's not the politicians' and bureaucrats' problem. They'd just as soon the records of their activities disappeared before the next election anyway, and any number of industry lobbyists would be very happy indeed if information embarrassing to their employers disappeared from the public record.
The House version of the bill has apparently retained this funding, meaning that the conflict will have to be worked out in a conference committee.
Google, Amazon, what's the difference?
Publisher's Weekly reports that Google apparently is pursuing plans to supply fulltext searching of books. Amazon is not alone, although Google is not (yet) a major competitor in the book/media retail business.
It's fortunate that the folks at Google seem to be less Evil (TM) than certain other computer-'n'-internet-related companies. Otherwise I'd be scared that they were about to Take Over The World (TM).
Publisher's Weekly reports that Google apparently is pursuing plans to supply fulltext searching of books. Amazon is not alone, although Google is not (yet) a major competitor in the book/media retail business.
It's fortunate that the folks at Google seem to be less Evil (TM) than certain other computer-'n'-internet-related companies. Otherwise I'd be scared that they were about to Take Over The World (TM).
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Another solar flare
Another alert from the gse-aa mailing list, for those who might be interested:
A major solar event occurred at 1102 GMT on Oct 28th, facing the
Earth. It was three hours long and left the sun at 1200 to 2000 km
per second. The shock should arrive at Earth as early as the
afternoon of the 29th in Europe (4 PM GMT)and as late as 2 AM GMT on
the 30th.
Europeans will be able to see the aurora probably as far south as
Southern France, since it should be over Paris by midnight.
It will be night in Australia and New Zealand if it arrives at 1100
GMT. This flare is probably large enough to approach mainland
Australia and be visible from the North Island in New Zealand, so it
may be worth staying up to see.
Russia, north of 50 deg latitude will be well placed on the night of
the 29/30 to see the aurora from this flare.
Observers in the USA should not be discouraged that it will arrive
during the day of the 29th. This flare is of a magnitude that should
lead to aurora visible over the entire continental US on the evening
of the 29th. It may be on the northern horizon for those in Florida,
Texas, and Southern California, but it should be visible.
The best viewing is from a dark area, even your back yard, with a
view to the northern horizon. Look out at the sky every half hour.
Typically, an intensification occurs every two hours, lasting about
1/2 hour. The maximum activity is usually around 11pm to midnight.
Prediction by [Chuck Deehr]
Another alert from the gse-aa mailing list, for those who might be interested:
A major solar event occurred at 1102 GMT on Oct 28th, facing the
Earth. It was three hours long and left the sun at 1200 to 2000 km
per second. The shock should arrive at Earth as early as the
afternoon of the 29th in Europe (4 PM GMT)and as late as 2 AM GMT on
the 30th.
Europeans will be able to see the aurora probably as far south as
Southern France, since it should be over Paris by midnight.
It will be night in Australia and New Zealand if it arrives at 1100
GMT. This flare is probably large enough to approach mainland
Australia and be visible from the North Island in New Zealand, so it
may be worth staying up to see.
Russia, north of 50 deg latitude will be well placed on the night of
the 29/30 to see the aurora from this flare.
Observers in the USA should not be discouraged that it will arrive
during the day of the 29th. This flare is of a magnitude that should
lead to aurora visible over the entire continental US on the evening
of the 29th. It may be on the northern horizon for those in Florida,
Texas, and Southern California, but it should be visible.
The best viewing is from a dark area, even your back yard, with a
view to the northern horizon. Look out at the sky every half hour.
Typically, an intensification occurs every two hours, lasting about
1/2 hour. The maximum activity is usually around 11pm to midnight.
Prediction by [Chuck Deehr]
On the "librarian shortage"
From the September 2003 issue of College & Research Libraries, p. 391-392:
In 1993, Library Journal reported that 20 percent of all recent library school graduates could not find full-time employment. By the mid-1990's, recent graduates were turning to nontraditional positions in the technology industy, such as Web design or online systems administration. Propelling this migration from librarianship was the average starting salary for nontraditional positions, which was 4.5 to 7.6 percent higher than traditional library positions. As recent graduates migrated toward careers in information technology, libraries gradually increased starting salaries, and in 1997, entry-level salaries surpassd $30,000 for the first time. In 1996, the average librarian had realized a salary increase of less than one percent over the previous year, but between 1997 and 1998, the average starting salary for all new hires was up 6.8 percent and then up another 4.4 percent in 1999 to $32,837....
Never fear, though. There's a government program for everything, including ensuring that library administrators will always have a vast pool of qualified but unemployed jobseekers whom they can hire for starvation wages, thus counteracting this unpleasant recent trend toward rising salaries. A press release from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services yesterday announced a $10 million subsidy to recruit yet more newbies into the grinder... er, I mean, the library profession.
Qui bono?
From the September 2003 issue of College & Research Libraries, p. 391-392:
In 1993, Library Journal reported that 20 percent of all recent library school graduates could not find full-time employment. By the mid-1990's, recent graduates were turning to nontraditional positions in the technology industy, such as Web design or online systems administration. Propelling this migration from librarianship was the average starting salary for nontraditional positions, which was 4.5 to 7.6 percent higher than traditional library positions. As recent graduates migrated toward careers in information technology, libraries gradually increased starting salaries, and in 1997, entry-level salaries surpassd $30,000 for the first time. In 1996, the average librarian had realized a salary increase of less than one percent over the previous year, but between 1997 and 1998, the average starting salary for all new hires was up 6.8 percent and then up another 4.4 percent in 1999 to $32,837....
Never fear, though. There's a government program for everything, including ensuring that library administrators will always have a vast pool of qualified but unemployed jobseekers whom they can hire for starvation wages, thus counteracting this unpleasant recent trend toward rising salaries. A press release from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services yesterday announced a $10 million subsidy to recruit yet more newbies into the grinder... er, I mean, the library profession.
Qui bono?
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Geek hobbies
It seems that this list of the top 10 geek hobbies is making its way around the Internet, so I might as well join the swarm of links.
I'm proud to say that only five of them apply to me. How glad I am that they didn't include model railroading. I'm not sure how one would assess its "damage to sex life" rating. "I'll be your steam engine, baby" might have a certain kind of sex appeal, but I doubt that very many women derive erotic thrills from talk of lost-wax castings, weathering with chalk and acrylic paint, or wireless DCC. Almost by definition, anything discussed on Slashdot can't be good.
It seems that this list of the top 10 geek hobbies is making its way around the Internet, so I might as well join the swarm of links.
I'm proud to say that only five of them apply to me. How glad I am that they didn't include model railroading. I'm not sure how one would assess its "damage to sex life" rating. "I'll be your steam engine, baby" might have a certain kind of sex appeal, but I doubt that very many women derive erotic thrills from talk of lost-wax castings, weathering with chalk and acrylic paint, or wireless DCC. Almost by definition, anything discussed on Slashdot can't be good.
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Authors' Guild objects to Amazon fulltext searching
Others have commented on Amazon's recent addition of full-text searching to its website. The Authors' Guild doesn't seem to be impressed, and objects that the publishers do not have the right to supply full text access without the authors' permission. More discussion here, and here, and at the Volokh Conspiracy. One of their concerns is that students and others will use Amazon's fulltext snippets as a way to look up essays, chapters, or statements from books and print or otherwise use them without buying the book.
Yes, these are the same folks who pettishly whined a while back about Amazon offering used books for sale. Perhaps this time they will have a legal leg to stand on, at least until book publishers incorporate mandatory surrender of all electronic full text rights into their "boilerplate" contract, as many periodicals publishers did after the Tasini v. New York Times decision.
My own thoughts about the usefulness of this feature are mixed. I can imagine plenty of situations in which this kind of search might be useful, but in many other kinds of searches it's just plain annoying. "Googling" full text via Amazon may help find forgotten titles featuring a certain character, or referring to some specific person, place or thing, but as any librarian knows, there are times when it's more useful to search only within data fields of limited scope but particular importance, like "subject" or "author". Just imagine trying to look through every book that casually refers to, say, Abraham Lincoln. Wouldn't it be more useful, if you want information about Honest Abe, to limit your searching only to books that list him as a major subject heading? Or contained enough lengthy passages from his speeches and papers that he was listed as an author?
For example: when I searched Amazon for "Frisco Railroad", I got "Where the Red Fern Grows" as the number-one result. Now, it's very nice that that fictional boy and his fictional dogs went walking between the Frisco Railroad and the Illinois River, but it hardly gives me the maps of Newburg Yard or the diagrams of the 1306-class freight locomotives that I'm looking for. The phrase occurs only once in the book, according to Amazon, so it appears that they're ranking the search results at least in part according to popularity and/or sales. This is not necessarily good.
Others have commented on Amazon's recent addition of full-text searching to its website. The Authors' Guild doesn't seem to be impressed, and objects that the publishers do not have the right to supply full text access without the authors' permission. More discussion here, and here, and at the Volokh Conspiracy. One of their concerns is that students and others will use Amazon's fulltext snippets as a way to look up essays, chapters, or statements from books and print or otherwise use them without buying the book.
Yes, these are the same folks who pettishly whined a while back about Amazon offering used books for sale. Perhaps this time they will have a legal leg to stand on, at least until book publishers incorporate mandatory surrender of all electronic full text rights into their "boilerplate" contract, as many periodicals publishers did after the Tasini v. New York Times decision.
My own thoughts about the usefulness of this feature are mixed. I can imagine plenty of situations in which this kind of search might be useful, but in many other kinds of searches it's just plain annoying. "Googling" full text via Amazon may help find forgotten titles featuring a certain character, or referring to some specific person, place or thing, but as any librarian knows, there are times when it's more useful to search only within data fields of limited scope but particular importance, like "subject" or "author". Just imagine trying to look through every book that casually refers to, say, Abraham Lincoln. Wouldn't it be more useful, if you want information about Honest Abe, to limit your searching only to books that list him as a major subject heading? Or contained enough lengthy passages from his speeches and papers that he was listed as an author?
For example: when I searched Amazon for "Frisco Railroad", I got "Where the Red Fern Grows" as the number-one result. Now, it's very nice that that fictional boy and his fictional dogs went walking between the Frisco Railroad and the Illinois River, but it hardly gives me the maps of Newburg Yard or the diagrams of the 1306-class freight locomotives that I'm looking for. The phrase occurs only once in the book, according to Amazon, so it appears that they're ranking the search results at least in part according to popularity and/or sales. This is not necessarily good.
Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Spurious Patent Follies of 2003
Oh, look. "Southern Michigan University" is among the universities targeted by Acacia Research Corporation, which, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume 50, Issue 8, Page A38,
...holds 5 U.S. patents and 17 international patents in digital-media-transmission technology. The patents cover not technological details but concepts like transmitting video on demand from servers to users' machines.
Acacia has sent patent-infringement letters to an unknown number of colleges across the country, offering to overlook past infringement in exchange for the institution's signing on to "a special royalty rate of 2 percent of gross revenue from each online course that includes digital audio and/or video content."
Must remember: Books Are Bad. Books Are Bad. Everything's On The Internet....
Oh, look. "Southern Michigan University" is among the universities targeted by Acacia Research Corporation, which, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Volume 50, Issue 8, Page A38,
...holds 5 U.S. patents and 17 international patents in digital-media-transmission technology. The patents cover not technological details but concepts like transmitting video on demand from servers to users' machines.
Acacia has sent patent-infringement letters to an unknown number of colleges across the country, offering to overlook past infringement in exchange for the institution's signing on to "a special royalty rate of 2 percent of gross revenue from each online course that includes digital audio and/or video content."
Must remember: Books Are Bad. Books Are Bad. Everything's On The Internet....
After All, Everything's On The Internet Anyway
It turns out that the library at "Southern Michigan University" has at least one feature noteworthy enough to have been mentioned in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
First developed for the warehouse industry, the retrieval system is a vault, with books sitting in bins and arranged according to size, not subject, to save space....
.....A handful of college libraries have installed such automated systems, some more enthusiastically than others. "Southern Michigan University"'s was the second academic library in the country to set up a retrieval system, in 1998. (California State University at Northridge's was the first.) The library stores about 500,000 items -- more than half of its material -- in what staff members call the Automated Retrieval Collection.
"B", who chose the system as dean of learning resources and technology, says the university saved more than $8-million in construction costs, which would have gone toward bookshelves, but instead helped to pay for group-study areas, computer banks, and a television studio.
Asked how the system affected book circulation, he says: "I have no idea, and I don't care." The effectiveness of the library can't be judged on the basis of circulation, he argues, "because that's not what happens here anymore." Faculty members go to the nearby ... (name of institution omitted)... for serious research, and undergraduates do all of their research online now, he says.
Sigh. Wish me luck. At least I'm forewarned not to volunteer any information or ideas that contradict the Official Doctrine that Books Are Bad because Everything's On The Internet.
It turns out that the library at "Southern Michigan University" has at least one feature noteworthy enough to have been mentioned in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
First developed for the warehouse industry, the retrieval system is a vault, with books sitting in bins and arranged according to size, not subject, to save space....
.....A handful of college libraries have installed such automated systems, some more enthusiastically than others. "Southern Michigan University"'s was the second academic library in the country to set up a retrieval system, in 1998. (California State University at Northridge's was the first.) The library stores about 500,000 items -- more than half of its material -- in what staff members call the Automated Retrieval Collection.
"B", who chose the system as dean of learning resources and technology, says the university saved more than $8-million in construction costs, which would have gone toward bookshelves, but instead helped to pay for group-study areas, computer banks, and a television studio.
Asked how the system affected book circulation, he says: "I have no idea, and I don't care." The effectiveness of the library can't be judged on the basis of circulation, he argues, "because that's not what happens here anymore." Faculty members go to the nearby ... (name of institution omitted)... for serious research, and undergraduates do all of their research online now, he says.
Sigh. Wish me luck. At least I'm forewarned not to volunteer any information or ideas that contradict the Official Doctrine that Books Are Bad because Everything's On The Internet.
A glimpse into the Library of Dream
The American Library Association's catalog of posters and other library-publicity materials arrived today, and it includes a nifty poster and bookmark featuring Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams in Neil Gaiman's popular Sandman series of graphic novels. The poster looks good, but where's Lucien? He's the librarian of The Dreaming, after all!
The American Library Association's catalog of posters and other library-publicity materials arrived today, and it includes a nifty poster and bookmark featuring Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams in Neil Gaiman's popular Sandman series of graphic novels. The poster looks good, but where's Lucien? He's the librarian of The Dreaming, after all!
The perils of freebies
The Washington Times today carries an article about the Council for American-Islamic Relations and its recent campaign of donating books to libraries. CAIR says the books are intended to promote harmonious understanding of Islam; critics charge that the books are pro-Islamic propaganda that deliberately obfuscate harsh passages from the Qu'ran and other elements of Islamic doctrine and practice.
I haven't seem the particular books in question, but I do recall seeing some materials that were donated to my former employer's library by an organization based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and which raised similar issues. The books were quite clearly biased, and included strained reasoning which I would consider quite unconvincing coming from the mouth of a high school debater, much less a purportedly scholarly source. For example, one of the books, Woman in the Shade of Islam, justifies sex-based restrictions on women with the metaphorical argument that, if a ship had two groups of passengers who were assigned to different decks of the ship, it would be foolish for the group assigned to the lower deck to insist on drilling holes for water. The book also asserts that Islam is superior to other religions because it protects women from "being exposed to places of iniquity" such as nightclubs, theaters, etc. I've known more than one woman who would gladly eschew such "protection".
Despite this, I was disappointed that the library refused to make them available to the public. Flawed as they are, they offer a useful glimpse inside a mindset that has substantial significance in the modern world, just as the tracts and other materials put out by fundamentalist Christian churches and publishing houses in the U.S. are important sources for understanding the worldview of those who write them and read them. The danger would be in allowing only materials of this type to represent Islam, or Christianity. Or of excluding them entirely, and thus distorting the collection by omission.
The article also refers to Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists, Mormons, et al, who are also frequently eager to "help" the library by donating copies of their latest tracts, or in the case of Mormons, offering to "update" the library's collection by replacing old copies of the Book of Mormon or other documents with "newer", "more attractive" editions. This is one area where caution is justified, and older materials should not be blithely discarded. See Jerald and Sandra Tanner's analysis of changes in the Book of Mormon for an understanding of how such offers are not entirely motivated by charity. Religions which retroactively alter their scriptures while simultaneously claiming that those scriptures are infallible have a vested interest in removing public access to older editions.
The Washington Times today carries an article about the Council for American-Islamic Relations and its recent campaign of donating books to libraries. CAIR says the books are intended to promote harmonious understanding of Islam; critics charge that the books are pro-Islamic propaganda that deliberately obfuscate harsh passages from the Qu'ran and other elements of Islamic doctrine and practice.
I haven't seem the particular books in question, but I do recall seeing some materials that were donated to my former employer's library by an organization based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and which raised similar issues. The books were quite clearly biased, and included strained reasoning which I would consider quite unconvincing coming from the mouth of a high school debater, much less a purportedly scholarly source. For example, one of the books, Woman in the Shade of Islam, justifies sex-based restrictions on women with the metaphorical argument that, if a ship had two groups of passengers who were assigned to different decks of the ship, it would be foolish for the group assigned to the lower deck to insist on drilling holes for water. The book also asserts that Islam is superior to other religions because it protects women from "being exposed to places of iniquity" such as nightclubs, theaters, etc. I've known more than one woman who would gladly eschew such "protection".
Despite this, I was disappointed that the library refused to make them available to the public. Flawed as they are, they offer a useful glimpse inside a mindset that has substantial significance in the modern world, just as the tracts and other materials put out by fundamentalist Christian churches and publishing houses in the U.S. are important sources for understanding the worldview of those who write them and read them. The danger would be in allowing only materials of this type to represent Islam, or Christianity. Or of excluding them entirely, and thus distorting the collection by omission.
The article also refers to Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientologists, Mormons, et al, who are also frequently eager to "help" the library by donating copies of their latest tracts, or in the case of Mormons, offering to "update" the library's collection by replacing old copies of the Book of Mormon or other documents with "newer", "more attractive" editions. This is one area where caution is justified, and older materials should not be blithely discarded. See Jerald and Sandra Tanner's analysis of changes in the Book of Mormon for an understanding of how such offers are not entirely motivated by charity. Religions which retroactively alter their scriptures while simultaneously claiming that those scriptures are infallible have a vested interest in removing public access to older editions.
Joe Bob would be proud
Interesting doings at the Kansas City, Kansas, public library: the 14th Annual Bad Film Festival.
Interesting doings at the Kansas City, Kansas, public library: the 14th Annual Bad Film Festival.
Attention skywatchers
The gse-aa listserv predicts heightened auroral activity in coming days:
The Earth has been in a sector of the solar wind that is conducive to
the production of active aurora. Aurora should be visible near
midnight from the northern US, Iceland, Scotland, Southern
Scandinavia, Northern Russia, Tasmania, and Southern New Zealand.
This will continue through the weekend. The first solar flare in 52
days occurred yesterday the 19th. The main effects of this flare are
directed away from Earth, but the side effects should be enough to
increase activity by the night of the 22nd.
With any luck, I'll have something pretty to look at as I drive back north from Southern Michigan University on Thursday night.
The gse-aa listserv predicts heightened auroral activity in coming days:
The Earth has been in a sector of the solar wind that is conducive to
the production of active aurora. Aurora should be visible near
midnight from the northern US, Iceland, Scotland, Southern
Scandinavia, Northern Russia, Tasmania, and Southern New Zealand.
This will continue through the weekend. The first solar flare in 52
days occurred yesterday the 19th. The main effects of this flare are
directed away from Earth, but the side effects should be enough to
increase activity by the night of the 22nd.
With any luck, I'll have something pretty to look at as I drive back north from Southern Michigan University on Thursday night.
Monday, October 20, 2003
Yet another crisis
Seems the media conglomerates' lobbyist-termites that infest our political system are active on yet another front in their ongoing war against fair use, public domain, and other traditional characteristics of enlightened intellectual property law.
As reported by IP Justice, the proposed "Free Trade Agreement of the Americas" would substantially modify intellectual-property laws in most Western-hemisphere countries. Among the mandatory changes to those nations' domestic laws which are incorporated in the draft intellectual property chapter of the treaty are the following:
* Mandatory adoption of the U.S.'s terms of copyright protection (life-plus-70 years, or 95 years for corporate media -- Part II, Section 3, Article 10)
* Mandatory adoption of prison-term penalties for "copyright piracy" (Part III, Article 4.1)
* Mandatory adoption of DMCA-type prohibitions against analysis or discussion of electronic security features (Part II, Section 3, Article 21)
There's also a reference to inserting the language of something called "Articles x to xx of Treaty for the Protection of Non-Copyrightable Elements of Databases - placeholder;]", which sounds like it was probably written by the same lobbyists who are pushing for HR 3261 to be rushed through the US Congress so that your local telephone company can copyright your telephone number and encyclopedia compilers can sue your local library for letting you look things up without paying them for a personal subscription .
I haven't read the whole thing yet, and probably won't, but I've spot-checked enough items from the IP Justice analysis to be confident that they're right to regard it as a threat to effective intellectual freedom. At best, it's a bullying attempt to impose Hollywood's demand for perpetual monopoly protection on an entire hemisphere without ever consulting the people upon whom it's being foisted. In the case of the "database protection" element, this may be the people of the United States itself, a fallback ploy in case people find out about HR 3261 and persuade their sometime representatives to consign it to a well-deserved place in legislative Gehenna.
Seems the media conglomerates' lobbyist-termites that infest our political system are active on yet another front in their ongoing war against fair use, public domain, and other traditional characteristics of enlightened intellectual property law.
As reported by IP Justice, the proposed "Free Trade Agreement of the Americas" would substantially modify intellectual-property laws in most Western-hemisphere countries. Among the mandatory changes to those nations' domestic laws which are incorporated in the draft intellectual property chapter of the treaty are the following:
* Mandatory adoption of the U.S.'s terms of copyright protection (life-plus-70 years, or 95 years for corporate media -- Part II, Section 3, Article 10)
* Mandatory adoption of prison-term penalties for "copyright piracy" (Part III, Article 4.1)
* Mandatory adoption of DMCA-type prohibitions against analysis or discussion of electronic security features (Part II, Section 3, Article 21)
There's also a reference to inserting the language of something called "Articles x to xx of Treaty for the Protection of Non-Copyrightable Elements of Databases - placeholder;]", which sounds like it was probably written by the same lobbyists who are pushing for HR 3261 to be rushed through the US Congress so that your local telephone company can copyright your telephone number and encyclopedia compilers can sue your local library for letting you look things up without paying them for a personal subscription .
I haven't read the whole thing yet, and probably won't, but I've spot-checked enough items from the IP Justice analysis to be confident that they're right to regard it as a threat to effective intellectual freedom. At best, it's a bullying attempt to impose Hollywood's demand for perpetual monopoly protection on an entire hemisphere without ever consulting the people upon whom it's being foisted. In the case of the "database protection" element, this may be the people of the United States itself, a fallback ploy in case people find out about HR 3261 and persuade their sometime representatives to consign it to a well-deserved place in legislative Gehenna.
Preemptive gratitude
Yours Truly recently received a valuable keepsake in the mail: a "signed" photograph of George and Laura Bush, along with an effusive note practically begging me to "become one of the first to join the Bush-Cheney '04 Team as a Charter Member in Michigan". After all, "Only with [my] help can the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign create a viable grassroots organization". Also included was a "Presidential Photo Receipt Confirmation Form", complete with checkboxes for my suggested donation of $100, $50, $25, or "other $".
A "grass roots" organization, "created" by an incumbent president's campaign staff? Sounds like Astroturf to me....
As flattered as I am that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney find my attention and my money so indispensible, I think I'll pass on the offer. The photograph ("suitable for framing!") may be useful as a prop should I be invited to interview at Thee University, though.
Yours Truly recently received a valuable keepsake in the mail: a "signed" photograph of George and Laura Bush, along with an effusive note practically begging me to "become one of the first to join the Bush-Cheney '04 Team as a Charter Member in Michigan". After all, "Only with [my] help can the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign create a viable grassroots organization". Also included was a "Presidential Photo Receipt Confirmation Form", complete with checkboxes for my suggested donation of $100, $50, $25, or "other $".
A "grass roots" organization, "created" by an incumbent president's campaign staff? Sounds like Astroturf to me....
As flattered as I am that Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney find my attention and my money so indispensible, I think I'll pass on the offer. The photograph ("suitable for framing!") may be useful as a prop should I be invited to interview at Thee University, though.
Friday, October 17, 2003
Don't call him a librarian!
The University of Texas at Austin is advertising on the Texas Library Association's jobline for a "Knowledge Gateway Metadata Analyst". It requires a master's degree in library science and two years of library experience, but heavens no, we can't call him a "librarian"!
The University of Texas at Austin is advertising on the Texas Library Association's jobline for a "Knowledge Gateway Metadata Analyst". It requires a master's degree in library science and two years of library experience, but heavens no, we can't call him a "librarian"!
You'll take what I give you and like it.
The following e'mail from Michigan's State Librarian, as sent to the MichLib-L listserv, serves as a good indicator of how libraries can expect to be treated by database publishers. Bear it in mind when considering the likely effects of HR 3261, discussed below, or the wisdom of making library services entirely dependent on such services. Ancestry.com obviously feels no obligation whatsoever to honor its contract in this case.
This message is from State Librarian Christie Brandau.
ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING REMOTE ACCESS TO ANCESTRYPLUS
Ancestry.com, owner of the genealogical database AncestryPlus, has
terminated access to the database remotely (from your home or anywhere
outside a library building) through the Michigan eLibrary (MeL)
beginning Sunday evening, October 19. This announcement from
Ancestry.com came abruptly and without warning to the Library of
Michigan. When contacted, the company cited an increase in usage and
customer abuse as reasons for discontinuing the contracted provision.
The announcement from Ancestry.com is surprising and extremely
disappointing. However, AncestryPlus will still be available for
patrons to use free via MeL in local libraries.
Feel free to contact the company at Ancestry.com, 801-705-7000.
Ancestry.com is a part of Myfamily.com, Inc., 360 W. 4800 N, Provo, Utah
84604. They may also be reached at
http://ancestry.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ancestry.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php.
The following e'mail from Michigan's State Librarian, as sent to the MichLib-L listserv, serves as a good indicator of how libraries can expect to be treated by database publishers. Bear it in mind when considering the likely effects of HR 3261, discussed below, or the wisdom of making library services entirely dependent on such services. Ancestry.com obviously feels no obligation whatsoever to honor its contract in this case.
This message is from State Librarian Christie Brandau.
ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING REMOTE ACCESS TO ANCESTRYPLUS
Ancestry.com, owner of the genealogical database AncestryPlus, has
terminated access to the database remotely (from your home or anywhere
outside a library building) through the Michigan eLibrary (MeL)
beginning Sunday evening, October 19. This announcement from
Ancestry.com came abruptly and without warning to the Library of
Michigan. When contacted, the company cited an increase in usage and
customer abuse as reasons for discontinuing the contracted provision.
The announcement from Ancestry.com is surprising and extremely
disappointing. However, AncestryPlus will still be available for
patrons to use free via MeL in local libraries.
Feel free to contact the company at Ancestry.com, 801-705-7000.
Ancestry.com is a part of Myfamily.com, Inc., 360 W. 4800 N, Provo, Utah
84604. They may also be reached at
http://ancestry.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ancestry.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php.
Down the well-greased ways of paid political influence
HR 3261, a bill to allow database publishers to exercise monopoly control over the information cited in their databases, is obviously on a specially-prepared legislative fast track, and has already been rushed to approval in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. Votes were party-line, with Republicans in favor of paying off the the well-monied publishing industry by approving the bill and Democrats opposing.
In an embarrassingly cowardly "I've-got-mine-Jack" moment, the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges withdrew their opposition to the bill after legislators consented to throw them a bone by exempting universities and research labs from the prohibitions on disseminating information from databases.
The intent of the bill may be judged by the fact that an amendment offered by Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, which would have exempted other libraries from such prohibitions, was explicitly voted down.
Allow me to repeat that for the benefit of those who were not listening. AN AMENDMENT PERMITTING LIBRARIES TO DISSEMINATE INFORMATION FROM DATABASES WITHOUT BEING SUED WAS EXPLICITLY VOTED DOWN.
Not exactly subtle, are they?
This information was primarily drawn from an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which does not (yet) have the power to sue me for discussing events and information that I read about there.
HR 3261, a bill to allow database publishers to exercise monopoly control over the information cited in their databases, is obviously on a specially-prepared legislative fast track, and has already been rushed to approval in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property. Votes were party-line, with Republicans in favor of paying off the the well-monied publishing industry by approving the bill and Democrats opposing.
In an embarrassingly cowardly "I've-got-mine-Jack" moment, the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges withdrew their opposition to the bill after legislators consented to throw them a bone by exempting universities and research labs from the prohibitions on disseminating information from databases.
The intent of the bill may be judged by the fact that an amendment offered by Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, which would have exempted other libraries from such prohibitions, was explicitly voted down.
Allow me to repeat that for the benefit of those who were not listening. AN AMENDMENT PERMITTING LIBRARIES TO DISSEMINATE INFORMATION FROM DATABASES WITHOUT BEING SUED WAS EXPLICITLY VOTED DOWN.
Not exactly subtle, are they?
This information was primarily drawn from an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which does not (yet) have the power to sue me for discussing events and information that I read about there.
A heartwarming tale
The Chronicle of Higher Education today contains a wonderful account of a fellow who got his Masters' in Library Science and walked from there straight into a job as collection development specialist for Yale's literature collections. Isn't life wonderful?
Of course, he first got a PhD in English literature and spent five to ten years working the slave-labor disposable-adjunct track before giving up on what he had really wanted to do. No offense to anyone is intended here, but I'm beginning to get the impression that college libraries hire permanant staff only from the pool of PhD's who couldn't get a steady job in their first choice of profession. People who were interested in libraries from the start aren't welcome.
The Chronicle of Higher Education today contains a wonderful account of a fellow who got his Masters' in Library Science and walked from there straight into a job as collection development specialist for Yale's literature collections. Isn't life wonderful?
Of course, he first got a PhD in English literature and spent five to ten years working the slave-labor disposable-adjunct track before giving up on what he had really wanted to do. No offense to anyone is intended here, but I'm beginning to get the impression that college libraries hire permanant staff only from the pool of PhD's who couldn't get a steady job in their first choice of profession. People who were interested in libraries from the start aren't welcome.
I.P.-o-mania
Plenty of intellectual-property issues in the past few days to comment on, from trivial inanity to potentially serious bills proposed in the Congress. Here we go:
Ghettopoly
Some of you may have heard of the controversy over Ghettopoly, a repulsive ripoff of Monopoly in which "playas" compete to "pimp ho's", sell crack, and put up crackhouses and "projects" instead of houses and hotels.
Obviously this is going to be offensive to many people on grounds of race, and there have been protests against the game in Philadelphia and other places. Personally, I find it just as offensive that the game frivolously glorifies stupid and destructive behavior like robbing banks, beating up "ho's", etc. As a clinically certified First Amendment fanatic, though, I can't justify supporting attempts to ban it because of its content. However, offensiveness is not the only problem here. It's also a pretty unimaginative ripoff of the venerable Parker Brothers' game, which blatantly imitates its structure and gameplay and clearly trades on its widely-recognized appearance and name for commercial gain. This led me to wonder whether Parker Brothers or the current holder of their trademarks would have standing to sue on intellectual-property grounds. Sure enough, it looks like Hasbro is doing so. It'll be interesting to see what develops. I have to admit that I find myself wondering whether I'd feel so supportive of Hasbro in this matter if their target weren't so unattractive.
Thanks to Loreen for mentioning it and inspiring me to go digging for more information.
Copyrighting facts
Traditionally, US courts have held that information itself, that is to say, isolated facts, as opposed to a unified work of creativity, cannot be copyrighted (Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) ). That will change if industry lobbyists have their way and get HR 3261 , the so-called "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act", through Congress. The bill may make it possible for database publishers to prohibit libraries from publicly disseminating information from their databases -- a deathblow to libraries which have made themselves dependent on such databases, and a significant restriction on citizens' access to information through local libraries or state-level library consortia.
From the bill:
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION AGAINST MISAPPROPRIATION OF DATABASES.
(a) LIABILITY- Any person who makes available in commerce to others a quantitatively substantial part of the information in a database generated, gathered, or maintained by another person, knowing that such making available in commerce is without the authorization of that person (including a successor in interest) or that person's licensee, when acting within the scope of its license, shall be liable for the remedies set forth in section 7 if--
(1) the database was generated, gathered, or maintained through a substantial expenditure of financial resources or time;
(2) the unauthorized making available in commerce occurs in a time sensitive manner and inflicts injury on the database or a product or service offering access to multiple databases; and
(3) the ability of other parties to free ride on the efforts of the plaintiff would so reduce the incentive to produce the product or service that its existence or quality would be substantially threatened.
(b) INJURY- For purposes of subsection (a), the term `inflicts an injury' means serving as a functional equivalent in the same market as the database in a manner that causes the displacement, or the disruption of the sources, of sales, licenses, advertising, or other revenue.
(c) TIME SENSITIVE- In determining whether an unauthorized making available in commerce occurs in a time sensitive manner, the court shall consider the temporal value of the information in the database, within the context of the industry sector involved.
More commentary here, and here, and here, and here. The Association of Research Libraries has a timeline of legislative and political activity on this issue here.
Thanks to the clever folks at ALAWON for mentioning this in their newsletter.
Black Box Voting
Diebold, the company that manufactures and heavily lobbies for the use of computerized voting machines, is using the DMCA to squelch discussion of flaws in its machines, according to the current issue of Library Juice. EFF to the rescue!
This has been an ongoing issue. Many commentators have noted flaws in the machines' security, which raise the ugly specter of elections being decided by which political party's black-ops teams hire the better team of hackers. With phantom electronic votes, of course, there would be no embarrassing paper trail to be re-counted. Whoever hacked into or otherwise controlled the machines could simply declare a winner. Diebold has, according to documents published here and elsewhere, left gaping holes in the security features of their voting machines' auditing routines, the very feature that guards against such tampering, and appears determined not to fix them.
I don't know about you, but when I have something that absolutely, positively must be preserved in an undisputably accurate form, I print it out. Hanging chads or no hanging chads, a hard-copy paper trail is at least auditable and re-countable.
Plenty of intellectual-property issues in the past few days to comment on, from trivial inanity to potentially serious bills proposed in the Congress. Here we go:
Ghettopoly
Some of you may have heard of the controversy over Ghettopoly, a repulsive ripoff of Monopoly in which "playas" compete to "pimp ho's", sell crack, and put up crackhouses and "projects" instead of houses and hotels.
Obviously this is going to be offensive to many people on grounds of race, and there have been protests against the game in Philadelphia and other places. Personally, I find it just as offensive that the game frivolously glorifies stupid and destructive behavior like robbing banks, beating up "ho's", etc. As a clinically certified First Amendment fanatic, though, I can't justify supporting attempts to ban it because of its content. However, offensiveness is not the only problem here. It's also a pretty unimaginative ripoff of the venerable Parker Brothers' game, which blatantly imitates its structure and gameplay and clearly trades on its widely-recognized appearance and name for commercial gain. This led me to wonder whether Parker Brothers or the current holder of their trademarks would have standing to sue on intellectual-property grounds. Sure enough, it looks like Hasbro is doing so. It'll be interesting to see what develops. I have to admit that I find myself wondering whether I'd feel so supportive of Hasbro in this matter if their target weren't so unattractive.
Thanks to Loreen for mentioning it and inspiring me to go digging for more information.
Copyrighting facts
Traditionally, US courts have held that information itself, that is to say, isolated facts, as opposed to a unified work of creativity, cannot be copyrighted (Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc., 499 U.S. 340 (1991) ). That will change if industry lobbyists have their way and get HR 3261 , the so-called "Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act", through Congress. The bill may make it possible for database publishers to prohibit libraries from publicly disseminating information from their databases -- a deathblow to libraries which have made themselves dependent on such databases, and a significant restriction on citizens' access to information through local libraries or state-level library consortia.
From the bill:
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION AGAINST MISAPPROPRIATION OF DATABASES.
(a) LIABILITY- Any person who makes available in commerce to others a quantitatively substantial part of the information in a database generated, gathered, or maintained by another person, knowing that such making available in commerce is without the authorization of that person (including a successor in interest) or that person's licensee, when acting within the scope of its license, shall be liable for the remedies set forth in section 7 if--
(1) the database was generated, gathered, or maintained through a substantial expenditure of financial resources or time;
(2) the unauthorized making available in commerce occurs in a time sensitive manner and inflicts injury on the database or a product or service offering access to multiple databases; and
(3) the ability of other parties to free ride on the efforts of the plaintiff would so reduce the incentive to produce the product or service that its existence or quality would be substantially threatened.
(b) INJURY- For purposes of subsection (a), the term `inflicts an injury' means serving as a functional equivalent in the same market as the database in a manner that causes the displacement, or the disruption of the sources, of sales, licenses, advertising, or other revenue.
(c) TIME SENSITIVE- In determining whether an unauthorized making available in commerce occurs in a time sensitive manner, the court shall consider the temporal value of the information in the database, within the context of the industry sector involved.
More commentary here, and here, and here, and here. The Association of Research Libraries has a timeline of legislative and political activity on this issue here.
Thanks to the clever folks at ALAWON for mentioning this in their newsletter.
Black Box Voting
Diebold, the company that manufactures and heavily lobbies for the use of computerized voting machines, is using the DMCA to squelch discussion of flaws in its machines, according to the current issue of Library Juice. EFF to the rescue!
This has been an ongoing issue. Many commentators have noted flaws in the machines' security, which raise the ugly specter of elections being decided by which political party's black-ops teams hire the better team of hackers. With phantom electronic votes, of course, there would be no embarrassing paper trail to be re-counted. Whoever hacked into or otherwise controlled the machines could simply declare a winner. Diebold has, according to documents published here and elsewhere, left gaping holes in the security features of their voting machines' auditing routines, the very feature that guards against such tampering, and appears determined not to fix them.
I don't know about you, but when I have something that absolutely, positively must be preserved in an undisputably accurate form, I print it out. Hanging chads or no hanging chads, a hard-copy paper trail is at least auditable and re-countable.
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Your Tax Dollars At ... oh well. Never mind.
The Great and Sovereign State of Michigan has decided, in its wisdom, that it will no longer produce the simplified EZ tax form. Furthermore, it will no longer distribute tax forms through college libraries. No doubt the student population will appreciate this wisdom. I wonder whether they'll rate Governor Granholm "hot" as a result? From the Michigan Electronic Library's Government Documents Specialist, via the MichLib-L listserv:
The MI Dept. of Treasury sent out a second letter to academic institutions
totally dropping them from the program. In other words, colleges and
universities in Michigan will not receive ANY paper forms, reproducibles,
etc. What they will get is a poster.
As we pointed out to Treasury, students, faculty and staff who still want
paper forms will now be sent to the public library for tax materials. So,
while supplies of forms for public libraries are being cut by 25% or more,
the demand for forms will only grow. And academic libraries are left high
and dry.
That better be one impressive poster.
I'm not sure why this surprises me. After all, this is the same state that recently decided there was no need for unemployment-office locations in the entire upper peninsula. After all, we all know how stable the jobs are in the industries which dominate the upper peninsula. Tourism. Logging. Mining. (Not to mention, um, education.)
But from a political standpoint, the great festering urban masses of the lower peninsula are where the votes are. So I guess that's the most profitable place to pander.
The Great and Sovereign State of Michigan has decided, in its wisdom, that it will no longer produce the simplified EZ tax form. Furthermore, it will no longer distribute tax forms through college libraries. No doubt the student population will appreciate this wisdom. I wonder whether they'll rate Governor Granholm "hot" as a result? From the Michigan Electronic Library's Government Documents Specialist, via the MichLib-L listserv:
The MI Dept. of Treasury sent out a second letter to academic institutions
totally dropping them from the program. In other words, colleges and
universities in Michigan will not receive ANY paper forms, reproducibles,
etc. What they will get is a poster.
As we pointed out to Treasury, students, faculty and staff who still want
paper forms will now be sent to the public library for tax materials. So,
while supplies of forms for public libraries are being cut by 25% or more,
the demand for forms will only grow. And academic libraries are left high
and dry.
That better be one impressive poster.
I'm not sure why this surprises me. After all, this is the same state that recently decided there was no need for unemployment-office locations in the entire upper peninsula. After all, we all know how stable the jobs are in the industries which dominate the upper peninsula. Tourism. Logging. Mining. (Not to mention, um, education.)
But from a political standpoint, the great festering urban masses of the lower peninsula are where the votes are. So I guess that's the most profitable place to pander.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
From the Department of Unsurprising Discoveries:
The Chronicle of Higher Education discovers, to its dismay, that college students evaluate their professors for superficial reasons:
* GOOD-LOOKING PROFESSORS consistently outscore less attractive
ones on student evaluations of teaching, a new study finds.
--> SEE http://chronicle.com/jobs/2003/10/2003101501c.htm
Ratemyprofessors figured this out some time ago, and included "pepper" ratings on its website so that lovestruck, vengeful, or disgusted students could express their views on whether professors were "hot or not". Mercifully, they do not add up and display negative "hotness totals".
The Chronicle of Higher Education discovers, to its dismay, that college students evaluate their professors for superficial reasons:
* GOOD-LOOKING PROFESSORS consistently outscore less attractive
ones on student evaluations of teaching, a new study finds.
--> SEE http://chronicle.com/jobs/2003/10/2003101501c.htm
Ratemyprofessors figured this out some time ago, and included "pepper" ratings on its website so that lovestruck, vengeful, or disgusted students could express their views on whether professors were "hot or not". Mercifully, they do not add up and display negative "hotness totals".
Whining works, apparently.
After whining piteously about my boring life yesterday, I received another request for a telephone interview, this one from a place I'll call Big State University. It's a state university with 17000 undergraduate students, located in a flat, rectangular midwestern state best known for agriculture and limestone, one well known to Carlos.
The telephone interview with Down East State U. was fairly informal. I think I avoided blurting anything terribly embarrassing. Interestingly, one of the four people on the search committee was a student. This is something I saw at a previous interview at a small junior college in Wisconsin, but I haven't seen it yet at the university level.
After whining piteously about my boring life yesterday, I received another request for a telephone interview, this one from a place I'll call Big State University. It's a state university with 17000 undergraduate students, located in a flat, rectangular midwestern state best known for agriculture and limestone, one well known to Carlos.
The telephone interview with Down East State U. was fairly informal. I think I avoided blurting anything terribly embarrassing. Interestingly, one of the four people on the search committee was a student. This is something I saw at a previous interview at a small junior college in Wisconsin, but I haven't seen it yet at the university level.
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
No news
Pablo recently mentioned that it seems I'm spending a lot of pixels discussing politics and events rather than myself lately. There happens to be a rational reason for this. My life is pretty d*mn boring right now. Last weekend, in between marathon sessions of Alpha Centauri, I got correction letters mailed out to all the places I applied to in the month of August, along with a couple of new applications for positions advertised in the last week. I note, however, that I have already received thanks-but-no-thanks letters in response to many of the August applications, so I wonder whether it's worth the trouble of delving further back into the July applications.
One glimmer of interest: I have an upcoming telephone interview with a place I'll call Down East State University. This was one I had given up on a while back, since their original position description referred to a start date of September 1. Perhaps their first choice backed out on them?
Downeast appears to be in one of the few places in the eastern contiguous United States that can compete with northern Michigan for remoteness and frigidity. It's about as far north and east as you can go without treading salt water or becoming Canadian. I searched the Chronicle of Higher Education and found about five articles that mention them, the most entertaining being a description of their athletic program's remarkably rigorous winter fitness exercises, which apparently involve running for two hours at a time in snowshoes.
On the other hand, they do seem to have some strong environmental and ecological study programs, and it looks like it could be an interesting small-town area with remarkable scenery and surroundings. And it pays better than my current gig.
One of the local theaters is showing American Splendor, and it sounds like it might be interesting enough to see. If anyone has seen it and has comments, thoughts, or rotten tomatoes to throw, let me know.
Pablo recently mentioned that it seems I'm spending a lot of pixels discussing politics and events rather than myself lately. There happens to be a rational reason for this. My life is pretty d*mn boring right now. Last weekend, in between marathon sessions of Alpha Centauri, I got correction letters mailed out to all the places I applied to in the month of August, along with a couple of new applications for positions advertised in the last week. I note, however, that I have already received thanks-but-no-thanks letters in response to many of the August applications, so I wonder whether it's worth the trouble of delving further back into the July applications.
One glimmer of interest: I have an upcoming telephone interview with a place I'll call Down East State University. This was one I had given up on a while back, since their original position description referred to a start date of September 1. Perhaps their first choice backed out on them?
Downeast appears to be in one of the few places in the eastern contiguous United States that can compete with northern Michigan for remoteness and frigidity. It's about as far north and east as you can go without treading salt water or becoming Canadian. I searched the Chronicle of Higher Education and found about five articles that mention them, the most entertaining being a description of their athletic program's remarkably rigorous winter fitness exercises, which apparently involve running for two hours at a time in snowshoes.
On the other hand, they do seem to have some strong environmental and ecological study programs, and it looks like it could be an interesting small-town area with remarkable scenery and surroundings. And it pays better than my current gig.
One of the local theaters is showing American Splendor, and it sounds like it might be interesting enough to see. If anyone has seen it and has comments, thoughts, or rotten tomatoes to throw, let me know.
Saturday, October 11, 2003
NEWS FLASH: Muskogee, Oklahoma schools run by morons
From CNN: An 11-year-old Oklahoma girl has been suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies...
The stated reason is "to stem gang-related activity." I guess Muskogee must be having a lot of trouble with menacing gangs of 11-year-old Muslim schoolgirls. I wonder what kinds of problems they've been causing. Koran smuggling? Drive-by gossipping? Conspiracy to acquire an education?
Of course, this is the same benighted state where school officials in Broken Arrow recently filed suit against a student for allegedly "casting magic spells" at a teacher. And Duncanville, Texas, persists in thinking that "ejjikashun" consists of suspending straight-A students because their shirts aren't tucked in tightly enough to please some pinhead administrator who couldn't spell cat if you spotted him the "C" and the "A".
Anyone who judged Oklahoma and Texas by the quality of these public school administrators would conclude that H. L. Mencken was right to dismiss everything south and west of his beloved Baltimore as a "Sahara of the Bozart" populated solely by drooling, illiterate yokels. But it's worse than that. These so-called "schools" are using their inescapable, taxpayer-funded monopoly power over children, not to teach them how to be functioning, responsible, educated citizens, but to indoctrinate them into habitual, abject submissiveness to pompous administrative drones. Let's be honest. These aren't schools. They're madrassahs of mindless bureaucratic conformity.
(For further reading, in case anyone's interested: John Taylor Gatto's The Six Lesson Schoolteacher and Dumbing Us Down.)
From CNN: An 11-year-old Oklahoma girl has been suspended from a public school because officials said her Muslim head scarf violates dress code policies...
The stated reason is "to stem gang-related activity." I guess Muskogee must be having a lot of trouble with menacing gangs of 11-year-old Muslim schoolgirls. I wonder what kinds of problems they've been causing. Koran smuggling? Drive-by gossipping? Conspiracy to acquire an education?
Of course, this is the same benighted state where school officials in Broken Arrow recently filed suit against a student for allegedly "casting magic spells" at a teacher. And Duncanville, Texas, persists in thinking that "ejjikashun" consists of suspending straight-A students because their shirts aren't tucked in tightly enough to please some pinhead administrator who couldn't spell cat if you spotted him the "C" and the "A".
Anyone who judged Oklahoma and Texas by the quality of these public school administrators would conclude that H. L. Mencken was right to dismiss everything south and west of his beloved Baltimore as a "Sahara of the Bozart" populated solely by drooling, illiterate yokels. But it's worse than that. These so-called "schools" are using their inescapable, taxpayer-funded monopoly power over children, not to teach them how to be functioning, responsible, educated citizens, but to indoctrinate them into habitual, abject submissiveness to pompous administrative drones. Let's be honest. These aren't schools. They're madrassahs of mindless bureaucratic conformity.
(For further reading, in case anyone's interested: John Taylor Gatto's The Six Lesson Schoolteacher and Dumbing Us Down.)
Friday, October 10, 2003
Who, me?
The pseudonymous "Ms. Mentor", in her October 6 column in the Chronicle of Higher Education, advises students and academic bloggers to be "canny and pseudonymous" lest their blogs "hamper [their] chances of getting a job."
Gee, I wish I'd thought of that.... [grin]
The pseudonymous "Ms. Mentor", in her October 6 column in the Chronicle of Higher Education, advises students and academic bloggers to be "canny and pseudonymous" lest their blogs "hamper [their] chances of getting a job."
Gee, I wish I'd thought of that.... [grin]
Too good to be true?
While doing some (ahem) research on the webpage of the one, the only Joe Bob Briggs, I discovered that he'll be hosting movie night at the Alamo Drafthouse bar'n'theater during the 2003 Texas Book Festival in Austin. From their schedule for November 7 :
• TBF at the Movies
Midnight
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Colorado St.
Books and film merge seamlessly at this soirée at the Alamo Drafthouse. Enjoy a Q&A with Festival author Joe Bob Briggs, followed by the screening of a film featured in his new movie Profoundly Disturbing:The Shocking Movies That Changed History.
One of you Texas-type folk better give me a report. Book fu, tacky movie fu, beer-and-nacho fu. Does it get any better than this?
Well, actually, it does. The famous Rock Bottom Remainders (or at least some of them) will be playing the Festival, too.
While doing some (ahem) research on the webpage of the one, the only Joe Bob Briggs, I discovered that he'll be hosting movie night at the Alamo Drafthouse bar'n'theater during the 2003 Texas Book Festival in Austin. From their schedule for November 7 :
• TBF at the Movies
Midnight
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Colorado St.
Books and film merge seamlessly at this soirée at the Alamo Drafthouse. Enjoy a Q&A with Festival author Joe Bob Briggs, followed by the screening of a film featured in his new movie Profoundly Disturbing:The Shocking Movies That Changed History.
One of you Texas-type folk better give me a report. Book fu, tacky movie fu, beer-and-nacho fu. Does it get any better than this?
Well, actually, it does. The famous Rock Bottom Remainders (or at least some of them) will be playing the Festival, too.
O, those wacky televangelists....
... what will they think of next?
This is the same fellow who, you might remember, has claimed that God steers hurricanes according to his directions, and that the September 11 attacks were acts of God because he was mad at homosexuals, abortionists, and the ACLU. (Pretty poor aim for an omniscient God, if you ask me. How many ACLU members work at the Pentagon?)
Then again, Hurricane Isabel just hit this guy's home town dead center. Maybe God's aim isn't so bad after all.
... what will they think of next?
This is the same fellow who, you might remember, has claimed that God steers hurricanes according to his directions, and that the September 11 attacks were acts of God because he was mad at homosexuals, abortionists, and the ACLU. (Pretty poor aim for an omniscient God, if you ask me. How many ACLU members work at the Pentagon?)
Then again, Hurricane Isabel just hit this guy's home town dead center. Maybe God's aim isn't so bad after all.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
The world turned upside down
I've discovered further proof of the total chaos into which the world of American politics has fallen since 2001. In this column, published in the December 6, 2002 issue of the Texas Observer, Molly Ivins, the reigning doyenne of Texas liberalism (and yes, Virginia, there is such a thing), she of the perky smile and the razor-edged pen, actually said Nice Things about hardcore right-wingers such as Barry Goldwater, William Safire, and longtime Texas nemeses Dick Armey and Ron Paul. (Well, to be fair, she has been known to grudgingly acknowledge that Armey is at least more consistent than some other politicians. But only to call him consistently "mean".)
The uniting factor? Opposition to what Ms. Ivins rightfully calls "Total Information Creepiness", the same issue that has brought together habitual opponents like the National Rifle Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, et al.
More of Miss Molly's words of wit-n-wisdom can be found here. She's one of the few people who really understands the weird & wacky world of Texas politics. Too bad she's such a habitual lefty.
Miss Molly on Texas redistricting circa 1971:
In the process of screwing all the Speaker's enemies, the redistricters inadvertently screwed a few of his friends as well, one of whom was Rep. Bill Finck, a cigar manufacturer from San Antonio. Brother Finck rose to protest the butchering of his district. "Lookahere, Dell-win," he began plaintively. "Look at what y'all have done to my dis-strict. You have drawn a great big, ol' ball at the one end, then it runs in a little-bitty ol' strip for 300 miles, and then there's a great big ol' ball at the other end. The damn thing looks like a pair of dumbbells." Finck's voice rose in pain. "Now the courts say the districts have to be com-pact and con-tiguous. Is this your idea a com-pact and con-tiguous?".
Dell-win pondered deeply at the front mike. At last he replied, "Whale, in a artistic sense, it is...."
I've discovered further proof of the total chaos into which the world of American politics has fallen since 2001. In this column, published in the December 6, 2002 issue of the Texas Observer, Molly Ivins, the reigning doyenne of Texas liberalism (and yes, Virginia, there is such a thing), she of the perky smile and the razor-edged pen, actually said Nice Things about hardcore right-wingers such as Barry Goldwater, William Safire, and longtime Texas nemeses Dick Armey and Ron Paul. (Well, to be fair, she has been known to grudgingly acknowledge that Armey is at least more consistent than some other politicians. But only to call him consistently "mean".)
The uniting factor? Opposition to what Ms. Ivins rightfully calls "Total Information Creepiness", the same issue that has brought together habitual opponents like the National Rifle Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, et al.
More of Miss Molly's words of wit-n-wisdom can be found here. She's one of the few people who really understands the weird & wacky world of Texas politics. Too bad she's such a habitual lefty.
Miss Molly on Texas redistricting circa 1971:
In the process of screwing all the Speaker's enemies, the redistricters inadvertently screwed a few of his friends as well, one of whom was Rep. Bill Finck, a cigar manufacturer from San Antonio. Brother Finck rose to protest the butchering of his district. "Lookahere, Dell-win," he began plaintively. "Look at what y'all have done to my dis-strict. You have drawn a great big, ol' ball at the one end, then it runs in a little-bitty ol' strip for 300 miles, and then there's a great big ol' ball at the other end. The damn thing looks like a pair of dumbbells." Finck's voice rose in pain. "Now the courts say the districts have to be com-pact and con-tiguous. Is this your idea a com-pact and con-tiguous?".
Dell-win pondered deeply at the front mike. At last he replied, "Whale, in a artistic sense, it is...."
Bipartisan disgust
Judicial Watch first came to most people's attention by filing numerous lawsuits against the Clinton administration, alleging misuse of FBI files and other abuses. They're generally regarded as conservative in orientation. But that hasn't kept them from pursuing information about the Bush administration's secrecy and suspicious corporate ties. (Stories here, here, and here....)
As I said before, it's not just the usual liberal suspects who are getting tired of the Bush Administration's coverups and connections. Are those trees marching up the hill?
Judicial Watch first came to most people's attention by filing numerous lawsuits against the Clinton administration, alleging misuse of FBI files and other abuses. They're generally regarded as conservative in orientation. But that hasn't kept them from pursuing information about the Bush administration's secrecy and suspicious corporate ties. (Stories here, here, and here....)
As I said before, it's not just the usual liberal suspects who are getting tired of the Bush Administration's coverups and connections. Are those trees marching up the hill?
D'oh.
I've been absent from the blogiverse for the past couple of days. On Tuesday morning I realized to my horror and disgust that the standard letter I had used as the basis for virtually every cover letter I sent out in the past two months included a stupid, stupid error which needed to be corrected as soon as possible. (Bad form, old chap.) Two days, a ream of paper, and about $15.00 in postage later, I've managed to send out corrections for all the applications from October and September. Next, I get to go back and check the August letters to see if the same error lurked in them.
I've been absent from the blogiverse for the past couple of days. On Tuesday morning I realized to my horror and disgust that the standard letter I had used as the basis for virtually every cover letter I sent out in the past two months included a stupid, stupid error which needed to be corrected as soon as possible. (Bad form, old chap.) Two days, a ream of paper, and about $15.00 in postage later, I've managed to send out corrections for all the applications from October and September. Next, I get to go back and check the August letters to see if the same error lurked in them.
Monday, October 06, 2003
The Doctor regenerates again
Apparently the BBC has gotten over its recent aversion to science fiction. A September 26 announcement states that they will revive Doctor Who, but is somewhat vague about the timeline. I'm not quite sure what I think about Thursday's report, attributed to none other than Tom Baker, that "cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard will be the new Dr Who". Is fandom ready for a cross-dressing Doctor? Better than no Doctor at all, I guess.
If that proves too hard to enjoy, I can always look forward to the Blake's 7 miniseries announced back in July, and hope they don't stuff Paul Darrow into one of Jacqueline Pearce's old outfits.
Apparently the BBC has gotten over its recent aversion to science fiction. A September 26 announcement states that they will revive Doctor Who, but is somewhat vague about the timeline. I'm not quite sure what I think about Thursday's report, attributed to none other than Tom Baker, that "cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard will be the new Dr Who". Is fandom ready for a cross-dressing Doctor? Better than no Doctor at all, I guess.
If that proves too hard to enjoy, I can always look forward to the Blake's 7 miniseries announced back in July, and hope they don't stuff Paul Darrow into one of Jacqueline Pearce's old outfits.
Sunday, October 05, 2003
Political ponderings
Am I the only one who finds it morbidly funny that the Bush Administration appears to think national security is so important it's necessary to destroy it in order to save it? Or, to be more accurate, in order to wreak petty personal vengeance on someone who criticizes the Bush Administration?
Unfortunately, this is a distinction which the Bushies seem incapable of perceiving. The whole Plame fiasco is further proof, in case anyone needs it, that this administration adheres to no principles whatsoever, conservative, nationalistic, or otherwise, save the Machiavellian lust for power at all costs.
I doubt that very many conservatives outside of the Bushies' own insular neo-conservative faction of Enron and Halliburton alumni will feel much inclination to defend them in the long run. Bush speechwriter David Frum's hysterical, chest-beating March 19 National Review article, "Unpatriotic Conservatives", in which, with rabid saliva practically flying in all directions, he furiously denounced libertarians, Patrick Buchanan, Robert Novak, Llewellyn Rockwell, Samuel Francis, Thomas Fleming, Scott McConnell, Justin Raimondo, Joe Sobran, Charley Reese, Jude Wanniski, Eric Margolis, Taki Theodoracopulos, and any other conservative who deviated from the War Party's dictates as "traitors" who "hate their country", pretty well ensured that.
From Frum's article: "War is a great clarifier. It forces people to take sides. The paleoconservatives have chosen — and the rest of us must choose too. In a time of danger, they have turned their backs on their country. Now we turn our backs on them."
He's right about one thing. These traditional conservatives and libertarians chose to follow their consciences at a time when it was politically dangerous to do so. (Novak, of course, has had several miraculous retroactive changes of heart after being threatened with the loss of White House favors and tipoffs.) But what they turned their backs on was the War Party's corrupt maneuvering and dishonest dealing, not "their country". As the Bush Administration begins floundering in the morass of its own corruption, it should expect no help from this quarter, any more than MacBeth could expect help from MacDuff or any of the other people he climbed over en route to his short-lived reign.
Of course, the favorite refuge of scoundrels is always an option. As the 2004 election approaches, perhaps the Administration will find it useful to once again manufacture a war.
(Note: For a less biased idea of what the much-vilified libertarians and paleoconservatives actually say and think, check out websites such as www.lewrockwell.com, www.antiwar.com, the Libertarian Party, or Buchanan's "The American Cause".)
Am I the only one who finds it morbidly funny that the Bush Administration appears to think national security is so important it's necessary to destroy it in order to save it? Or, to be more accurate, in order to wreak petty personal vengeance on someone who criticizes the Bush Administration?
Unfortunately, this is a distinction which the Bushies seem incapable of perceiving. The whole Plame fiasco is further proof, in case anyone needs it, that this administration adheres to no principles whatsoever, conservative, nationalistic, or otherwise, save the Machiavellian lust for power at all costs.
I doubt that very many conservatives outside of the Bushies' own insular neo-conservative faction of Enron and Halliburton alumni will feel much inclination to defend them in the long run. Bush speechwriter David Frum's hysterical, chest-beating March 19 National Review article, "Unpatriotic Conservatives", in which, with rabid saliva practically flying in all directions, he furiously denounced libertarians, Patrick Buchanan, Robert Novak, Llewellyn Rockwell, Samuel Francis, Thomas Fleming, Scott McConnell, Justin Raimondo, Joe Sobran, Charley Reese, Jude Wanniski, Eric Margolis, Taki Theodoracopulos, and any other conservative who deviated from the War Party's dictates as "traitors" who "hate their country", pretty well ensured that.
From Frum's article: "War is a great clarifier. It forces people to take sides. The paleoconservatives have chosen — and the rest of us must choose too. In a time of danger, they have turned their backs on their country. Now we turn our backs on them."
He's right about one thing. These traditional conservatives and libertarians chose to follow their consciences at a time when it was politically dangerous to do so. (Novak, of course, has had several miraculous retroactive changes of heart after being threatened with the loss of White House favors and tipoffs.) But what they turned their backs on was the War Party's corrupt maneuvering and dishonest dealing, not "their country". As the Bush Administration begins floundering in the morass of its own corruption, it should expect no help from this quarter, any more than MacBeth could expect help from MacDuff or any of the other people he climbed over en route to his short-lived reign.
Of course, the favorite refuge of scoundrels is always an option. As the 2004 election approaches, perhaps the Administration will find it useful to once again manufacture a war.
(Note: For a less biased idea of what the much-vilified libertarians and paleoconservatives actually say and think, check out websites such as www.lewrockwell.com, www.antiwar.com, the Libertarian Party, or Buchanan's "The American Cause".)
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light....
It's good to read that the U.S. of A. still has one strong export: jobs.
It's good to read that the U.S. of A. still has one strong export: jobs.
Friday, October 03, 2003
No honkies need apply.
A pseudonymous writer in the Chronicle of Higher Education sadly bemoans the lack of suitable candidates for tenure-track positions at his unnamed college. What measures of suitability are they looking for?
From the article: "We won't discriminate, but let's be honest here, we were not looking for a white male Protestant...."
Let's try this on for size. How about "We won't discriminate, but let's be honest here, we were not looking for a woman." "We were not looking for a Mexican." "Not looking for a homosexual." Fill in the blank with whatever convenient label might happen to be attached to you, Dear Reader. See how it sounds.
And academics wonder why rational people accuse them of being quota-obsessed bigots. Perhaps this unnamed college would have better luck finding good hires if it actually looked at job-related qualifications.
A pseudonymous writer in the Chronicle of Higher Education sadly bemoans the lack of suitable candidates for tenure-track positions at his unnamed college. What measures of suitability are they looking for?
From the article: "We won't discriminate, but let's be honest here, we were not looking for a white male Protestant...."
Let's try this on for size. How about "We won't discriminate, but let's be honest here, we were not looking for a woman." "We were not looking for a Mexican." "Not looking for a homosexual." Fill in the blank with whatever convenient label might happen to be attached to you, Dear Reader. See how it sounds.
And academics wonder why rational people accuse them of being quota-obsessed bigots. Perhaps this unnamed college would have better luck finding good hires if it actually looked at job-related qualifications.
Michigan wine laws declared unconstitutional
Bytes in Brief reports that the 6th Circuit Court has declared unconstitutional those portions of Michigan's wine-regulating regime which discriminate between in-state and out-of-state wineries. More details at FindLaw.
Earlier this year, there was a similar case in New York.
Perhaps there is hope yet for Carlos and others who pine for exotic vintages.
Bytes in Brief reports that the 6th Circuit Court has declared unconstitutional those portions of Michigan's wine-regulating regime which discriminate between in-state and out-of-state wineries. More details at FindLaw.
Earlier this year, there was a similar case in New York.
Perhaps there is hope yet for Carlos and others who pine for exotic vintages.
More on the "PATRIOT" Act
Ashcroft sez it's never been used to seek information from libraries. Hmm. That's odd, considering that in May the Justice Department acknowledged having contacted about 50 libraries as part of investigations.
I wonder where those 50 inquiries disappeared to between May and September. Down the memory hole? The rabbit hole? An oubliette in Guantanamo Bay?
Ashcroft sez it's never been used to seek information from libraries. Hmm. That's odd, considering that in May the Justice Department acknowledged having contacted about 50 libraries as part of investigations.
I wonder where those 50 inquiries disappeared to between May and September. Down the memory hole? The rabbit hole? An oubliette in Guantanamo Bay?
Thursday, October 02, 2003
But I thought the war was over.
After all, our esteemed President said so.
So what on earth is Riverbend writing about? Or Salam Pax? Or Moja?
You know, I have to remind myself from time to time that the situation could be worse. Instead of being out of work in a nation run by a cynical War Party that can't be bothered to pay attention to anyone outside its own little ideological clique, I could be living in the nation that it is paying attention to.
Thanks to Louise for the link to Riverbend's blog. Without it I never would have discovered this amusing search result.
After all, our esteemed President said so.
So what on earth is Riverbend writing about? Or Salam Pax? Or Moja?
You know, I have to remind myself from time to time that the situation could be worse. Instead of being out of work in a nation run by a cynical War Party that can't be bothered to pay attention to anyone outside its own little ideological clique, I could be living in the nation that it is paying attention to.
Thanks to Louise for the link to Riverbend's blog. Without it I never would have discovered this amusing search result.
Yet another librarian role model?
Tori Amos seems to have librarian fantasies. From an interview: "I've always said the songs are alive and I'm really a librarian. I admit I'm a well paid librarian with great shoes. (laughs) You have no idea how unglamorous it can be sometimes but if you think of me as a librarian from a different dimension, these are books that come to me in sonic form and I have to stay focused or I am manipulated."
Um.... right. It's nice that she's thinking of us, but are we really sure that's Tori talking, and not Delirium of the Endless?
Tori Amos seems to have librarian fantasies. From an interview: "I've always said the songs are alive and I'm really a librarian. I admit I'm a well paid librarian with great shoes. (laughs) You have no idea how unglamorous it can be sometimes but if you think of me as a librarian from a different dimension, these are books that come to me in sonic form and I have to stay focused or I am manipulated."
Um.... right. It's nice that she's thinking of us, but are we really sure that's Tori talking, and not Delirium of the Endless?
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Open Range
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to forgo a couple of the History Channel's back-to-back-to-back documentaries about the World Trade Center and see the only Kevin Costner movie in recent history to receive a positive review. Overall, I enjoyed it, despite the presence of a few annoying cliches. (At one point, so help me, one character tells another to "Rustle up some grub.")
The basic scenario of the film is a blend of two common western themes: (1) free-ranging cowboys clash with greedy, evil town boss, and (2) man with mysterious past must face down both an external evil and his own dubious background.
It's a truism of frontier history that many early settlers were simply people who couldn't get along with their neighbors in civilized territory. Many of them were on the run from the law, from inconvenient family obligations, or from creditors. In the American west in the late nineteenth century, the situation was further complicated by the social and psychological aftermath of the Civil War, and especially of the ruthless bushwhacking and banditry that characterized the frontier border states. After the war, hundreds of men, desensitized to violence, socially rootless, economically destitute, well-armed and trained to kill, were loosed on the frontier. Some became lawmen, some became outlaws, and some tried to forget it all. One such man is Charlie (Kevin Costner), who has taken refuge in an isolated existence herding cattle on the unclaimed open range in the employ of "Boss" Spearman (Robert Duvall).
Unfortunately for Charlie, the open range of unclaimed land upon which freelance cattlemen could graze their herds is giving way to the development of towns and the inevitable attendant political and economic power grabs. The open range is becoming more and more constricted by the demands of civilization, and free-ranger herders like Charlie and Boss are doomed to clash with those who want to enclose the commons as private property.
There's a romantic subplot, too, although it develops slowly and somewhat unobtrusively.
The scenery and cinematography in Open Range are gorgeous. The movie was filmed in Montana and/or western Canada, and unlike the arid landscape of John Ford's classic Monument Valley westerns, this land looks lush enough to be capable of growing salable cattle. It's land productive enough to be worth fighting over.
As one might suspect, there's a substantial amount of violence in the film. It's not glamorous. It's chaotic and brutal and ugly. Open Range, like many historians, attributes the effectiveness of the most "successful" killers to their sociopathic desensitization to killing, their ability to unhesitatingly murder others in the blink of an eye, seizing the initiative and then taking advantage of the resulting disorientation to further decimate, intimidate, and disorganize the enemy. At one point in the film, as a threatened showdown looms, Charlie matter-of-factly analyzes the opposing side's "soldiers", identifying which ones are likely to freeze up or react slowly, who's likely to panic or fire wildly, and who poses the greatest threat and thus must be pre-emptively eliminated. Such men have difficulty fitting into the world of rose-patterned teacups.
Interestingly, the townspeople in Open Range are not mere props who stand around like bystanders and conveniently disappear once the bullets start to fly; depending on the situation, they flee the town, hide, or shoot back with rifles and shotguns. When necessary, they drag bodies off the street and tend to the wounded.
Some aspects of the romantic subplot seem forced. It's hard to imagine that an attractive woman with no apparent prejudice against men, such as Annette Bening's character, would have remained single for very long on the frontier, given the unbalanced ratio of men to women. But it is refreshing to, for once, see a 40-something year old male lead slowly and haltingly develop a relationship with a believably 40-something woman, rather than promptly tumbling some 19-year-old sexpot. Bening is both authentically windworn and powerfully attractive in her role as an independent-minded and educated woman who quietly chafes against the social customs that keep her from achieving her ambitions, but has to live with them nonetheless. Just why she would be attracted to a borderline sociopath is not explained, but there's a nice teacup motif that helps ease things along.
Blooper alert: Be on the lookout for a close-up shot of a character standing next to a broken-down barbed wire fence which is totally absent from the long-angle shots immediately before and after. I felt sure that someone, sometime in the movie, was going to refer to the conflict between those who wanted to enclose land with barbed wire and those who wanted to move herds freely across it, but only this short blooper and one or two store signs in town even acknowledge the stuff. If there was a subplot here, most of it got left on the cutting-room floor. Perhaps Costner decided that portraying "good guys" Charlie and Boss vandalizing fences would cost them audience sympathy.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to forgo a couple of the History Channel's back-to-back-to-back documentaries about the World Trade Center and see the only Kevin Costner movie in recent history to receive a positive review. Overall, I enjoyed it, despite the presence of a few annoying cliches. (At one point, so help me, one character tells another to "Rustle up some grub.")
The basic scenario of the film is a blend of two common western themes: (1) free-ranging cowboys clash with greedy, evil town boss, and (2) man with mysterious past must face down both an external evil and his own dubious background.
It's a truism of frontier history that many early settlers were simply people who couldn't get along with their neighbors in civilized territory. Many of them were on the run from the law, from inconvenient family obligations, or from creditors. In the American west in the late nineteenth century, the situation was further complicated by the social and psychological aftermath of the Civil War, and especially of the ruthless bushwhacking and banditry that characterized the frontier border states. After the war, hundreds of men, desensitized to violence, socially rootless, economically destitute, well-armed and trained to kill, were loosed on the frontier. Some became lawmen, some became outlaws, and some tried to forget it all. One such man is Charlie (Kevin Costner), who has taken refuge in an isolated existence herding cattle on the unclaimed open range in the employ of "Boss" Spearman (Robert Duvall).
Unfortunately for Charlie, the open range of unclaimed land upon which freelance cattlemen could graze their herds is giving way to the development of towns and the inevitable attendant political and economic power grabs. The open range is becoming more and more constricted by the demands of civilization, and free-ranger herders like Charlie and Boss are doomed to clash with those who want to enclose the commons as private property.
There's a romantic subplot, too, although it develops slowly and somewhat unobtrusively.
The scenery and cinematography in Open Range are gorgeous. The movie was filmed in Montana and/or western Canada, and unlike the arid landscape of John Ford's classic Monument Valley westerns, this land looks lush enough to be capable of growing salable cattle. It's land productive enough to be worth fighting over.
As one might suspect, there's a substantial amount of violence in the film. It's not glamorous. It's chaotic and brutal and ugly. Open Range, like many historians, attributes the effectiveness of the most "successful" killers to their sociopathic desensitization to killing, their ability to unhesitatingly murder others in the blink of an eye, seizing the initiative and then taking advantage of the resulting disorientation to further decimate, intimidate, and disorganize the enemy. At one point in the film, as a threatened showdown looms, Charlie matter-of-factly analyzes the opposing side's "soldiers", identifying which ones are likely to freeze up or react slowly, who's likely to panic or fire wildly, and who poses the greatest threat and thus must be pre-emptively eliminated. Such men have difficulty fitting into the world of rose-patterned teacups.
Interestingly, the townspeople in Open Range are not mere props who stand around like bystanders and conveniently disappear once the bullets start to fly; depending on the situation, they flee the town, hide, or shoot back with rifles and shotguns. When necessary, they drag bodies off the street and tend to the wounded.
Some aspects of the romantic subplot seem forced. It's hard to imagine that an attractive woman with no apparent prejudice against men, such as Annette Bening's character, would have remained single for very long on the frontier, given the unbalanced ratio of men to women. But it is refreshing to, for once, see a 40-something year old male lead slowly and haltingly develop a relationship with a believably 40-something woman, rather than promptly tumbling some 19-year-old sexpot. Bening is both authentically windworn and powerfully attractive in her role as an independent-minded and educated woman who quietly chafes against the social customs that keep her from achieving her ambitions, but has to live with them nonetheless. Just why she would be attracted to a borderline sociopath is not explained, but there's a nice teacup motif that helps ease things along.
Blooper alert: Be on the lookout for a close-up shot of a character standing next to a broken-down barbed wire fence which is totally absent from the long-angle shots immediately before and after. I felt sure that someone, sometime in the movie, was going to refer to the conflict between those who wanted to enclose land with barbed wire and those who wanted to move herds freely across it, but only this short blooper and one or two store signs in town even acknowledge the stuff. If there was a subplot here, most of it got left on the cutting-room floor. Perhaps Costner decided that portraying "good guys" Charlie and Boss vandalizing fences would cost them audience sympathy.
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