NPR reported just now about book publishers worried that digital books will be copied and set free on the InterWebs, as was music not so long ago.
Hey, publishers: Zillions of people listen to music. But the thousands (barely) of people who still buy and read books aren't going to bootleg them.
Nobody in the Big City's gonna sell e-books out of inside pockets of a scuzzy overcoat. Street corners from the U.S. to Beijing will be safe. No bookish pirate will launch a literary Napster.
Music and novels = two different entertainment experiences, no matter the format. Little overlap in customers.
Were I a publisher, I would be churning out e-books by the dozens. Pay the author a pittance, turn the digital file over to an underpaid e-technician and off it goes, making money for a tiny investment. It's not like it's hard to find writers with books to publish.
*** *** ***
Update: Remains of yet a third pigeon were left on my front walk this morning.
How long will it take for the pigeons to go away after I stop putting out birdseed?
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25 March 2009
24 March 2009
Nature, red in tooth and claw
OK, I get it ... predator and prey. But does it have to be in my front yard?
Saturday morning, the lawn was covered with bird feathers, probably California quail. I blamed it on the long-hair black&white cat that prowls the neighborhood, in violation of city laws.
Sorry, cat.
An errand brought me home at 2:30 p.m. today, to find a red-tailed hawk offing a pigeon, right in front of my house. Hawkeye carried the pigeon, in a combo of flying and hopping, to the far end of my driveway. When I eased the car into the drive, it hauled lunch out of sight down the side of the garage, under the bushes.
I've seen, twice, a huge hawk perched atop the utility pole across the street, but today's gourmet was smaller.
As I left, the hawk was dining in the shadows.
Ah, spring.
Ah, hawks. Better it eats the pigeons than quail or mourning doves. Sparrows and finches are too small to bother with, right?
-30-
Saturday morning, the lawn was covered with bird feathers, probably California quail. I blamed it on the long-hair black&white cat that prowls the neighborhood, in violation of city laws.
Sorry, cat.
An errand brought me home at 2:30 p.m. today, to find a red-tailed hawk offing a pigeon, right in front of my house. Hawkeye carried the pigeon, in a combo of flying and hopping, to the far end of my driveway. When I eased the car into the drive, it hauled lunch out of sight down the side of the garage, under the bushes.
I've seen, twice, a huge hawk perched atop the utility pole across the street, but today's gourmet was smaller.
As I left, the hawk was dining in the shadows.
Ah, spring.
Ah, hawks. Better it eats the pigeons than quail or mourning doves. Sparrows and finches are too small to bother with, right?
-30-
20 March 2009
What a way to go!
An obit in today's Reno Gazette-Journal, for a 24-year-old, includes this request regarding the funeral:
Out of respect for his family, this will be an alcohol and drug free service.
What kind of friends and relatives have to be reminded not to show up at a funeral blotto?
There's no mention of a wake; wouldn't it be fabulously drunken?
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Out of respect for his family, this will be an alcohol and drug free service.
What kind of friends and relatives have to be reminded not to show up at a funeral blotto?
There's no mention of a wake; wouldn't it be fabulously drunken?
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17 March 2009
Fast fix for the budget deficit
Russia rebuilds its nuclear weapons stockpile; Iran forces its citizens to chant "Death to America" daily in the streets; the Dear Leader of North Korea brainwashes residents to believe that the U.S. is going to invade, just an instant from ... now .... wait ... now ... waaait ... now!
In exchange for millions of under-the-table money, B. Obama and H. Clinton should offer, sub rosa, to bluster and threaten and behave like barbarians. Pay us and we'll scare your people out of their shoes. Money goes into U.S. coffers and dictators keep their jobs.
Hugo Chavez might cough up dough, too. Better still, oil.
G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North have the experience. Turn 'em back into spooks.
-30-
In exchange for millions of under-the-table money, B. Obama and H. Clinton should offer, sub rosa, to bluster and threaten and behave like barbarians. Pay us and we'll scare your people out of their shoes. Money goes into U.S. coffers and dictators keep their jobs.
Hugo Chavez might cough up dough, too. Better still, oil.
G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North have the experience. Turn 'em back into spooks.
-30-
16 March 2009
Never a barricade when you need one
AIG:
Lets go all French university student on its ass ... 10,000 citizens marching on its headquarters, ripping up paving stones, turning and burning autos, throwing paint-filled balloons, heaving rocks through windows, chanting, singing, waving U.S. flags.
Viva la Revolution!
GEORGIA:
The state has a shortage of science teachers. Gee ... the Bible-thumpers go all medieval on the ass of evolution, and now nobody wants to teach high-school physics in Georgia. Go figure.
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Lets go all French university student on its ass ... 10,000 citizens marching on its headquarters, ripping up paving stones, turning and burning autos, throwing paint-filled balloons, heaving rocks through windows, chanting, singing, waving U.S. flags.
Viva la Revolution!
GEORGIA:
The state has a shortage of science teachers. Gee ... the Bible-thumpers go all medieval on the ass of evolution, and now nobody wants to teach high-school physics in Georgia. Go figure.
-30-
08 March 2009
Silly cop moves and BSG dog robbers
Much as I enjoy watching "24" and "Battlestar Galactica" ...
"BSG" quibble: The military can't manage to protect or feed the civilians trapped in Dogtown, but everybody's got cigarettes with filter tips and lots of booze, and there's a really good tailor with a stash of silk ties and custom-made suits for Lee Adama.
"24" quibble: I get the giggles when cops move in on the bad guys, guns gripped in both hands, arms extended, elbows locked, weapons pointed at knee level. It's not so bad when it's just one person, but this week the line of Secret Service agents, tiptoeing through the White House in groups of four or five, set me off. I first noticed this hilarity in "NCIS" and "Criminal Minds." I'm waiting for Harpo Marx to hit 'em with water balloons.
The geek-genius of "Criminal Minds" is especially funny, what with the awful hair and the way he wears his huge gun holster. If I were actual FBI, I'd put out a hit on that actor.
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"BSG" quibble: The military can't manage to protect or feed the civilians trapped in Dogtown, but everybody's got cigarettes with filter tips and lots of booze, and there's a really good tailor with a stash of silk ties and custom-made suits for Lee Adama.
"24" quibble: I get the giggles when cops move in on the bad guys, guns gripped in both hands, arms extended, elbows locked, weapons pointed at knee level. It's not so bad when it's just one person, but this week the line of Secret Service agents, tiptoeing through the White House in groups of four or five, set me off. I first noticed this hilarity in "NCIS" and "Criminal Minds." I'm waiting for Harpo Marx to hit 'em with water balloons.
The geek-genius of "Criminal Minds" is especially funny, what with the awful hair and the way he wears his huge gun holster. If I were actual FBI, I'd put out a hit on that actor.
-30-
04 March 2009
Confrontational, Condi
NPR just aired an interview with Condi Rice, back at Stanford from her Bushie duties.
She said she doesn't like "confrontation" but welcomes enthusiastic debate at university.
Of course she doesn't want confrontation ... Bush-Cheney and their minions prefer to sneak around in the dark of night, poisoning personal liberties. If you let the people know what you are doing, they might object. Confrontationally.
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She said she doesn't like "confrontation" but welcomes enthusiastic debate at university.
Of course she doesn't want confrontation ... Bush-Cheney and their minions prefer to sneak around in the dark of night, poisoning personal liberties. If you let the people know what you are doing, they might object. Confrontationally.
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