Quotulatiousness

August 3, 2009

The further abuse of common sense by A.P.

Filed under: Law, Media — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 11:00

Who ever knew that the Associated Press holds the copyright on the works of Thomas Jefferson?

They tell me I have to use the sentence “exactly as written” and heaven help me if I don’t include the complete footer with their copyright boilerplate. Along the way, their terms of use insisted that I’m not allowed to use Jefferson’s words in connection with “political Content.” Also, I can’t use use his words in any manner or context that will be in any way derogatory” to the AP. As if. Jefferson’s thoughts on copyright are inherently political, and inherently derogatory towards the the AP’s insane position on copyright. I require no license to quote Jefferson. The AP has no right to stop me, no right to demand money from me. All their application does is count words to calculate a fee. It doesn’t even check that the words come from the story being “quoted.”

H/T to Radley Balko

Looking for your criminal ancestors?

Filed under: Britain, History, Law — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 10:50

A wide selection of criminal case records from 19th century England and Wales have been made available online:

The records of more than 1.4m criminal trials held in England and Wales in the 19th century, including the most celebrated cases of the Victorian era, have been posted online for family historians to trace their more nefarious ancestors.

Among those whose names are listed are Roderick Maclean, one of several would-be assassins of Queen Victoria, who was declared “not guilty, but insane” after he threatened the monarch with a pistol outside Windsor Castle in 1882, and Isaac “Ikey” Solomon, the fence of stolen property and model for Charles Dickens’s Fagin, who was sentenced to transportation — not execution as in Oliver Twist — in 1830, six years before the novel was written.

Others include notorious murderers such as William Palmer, publicly hanged outside Stafford jail in 1856 after being found guilty of poisoning a horse-racing friend, and Dr Thomas Neill Cream, one of the Jack the Ripper suspects, also hanged as a poisoner in 1892.

August 2, 2009

QotD: Technical Writing

Filed under: Quotations — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:01

Technical writing is perhaps the worst training ground for creative writers. Instead of polishing the descriptive abilities, technical writing is the process of whittling down the prose and sanding off the decoration. A good technical writer writes instructions or descriptions that (ideally) barely even register as you read the words — because the words are merely the carriers of the information you need. If you notice the words as words, you’re being distracted from the primary goal of the reader: getting the information as quickly and as clearly as possible.

Nicholas Russon, 2004-09-09

August 1, 2009

Tweet of the day: Casablanca, musically speaking

Filed under: Humour — Tags: — Nicholas @ 12:05

“In Casablanca, the Marseillaise does eventually drown out Die Wacht am Rhein. But one does notice how well they go together…” Colby Cosh

Definitely probable

Filed under: Football, Media — Tags: — Nicholas @ 10:48

Vikings wide receiver Bobby Wade kicked up a ruckus with his former team, the Chicago Bears earlier this week. He said that the Bears’ Brian Urlacher had problems with the new Chicago quarterback, Jay Cutler. Jim Souhan has the story, including Wade’s amusing wordmangling:

This is why we love Bobby Wade, now more than ever.

He’s always been a nice guy, a quotable guy, a guy with NFL and life perspective. Friday, while Favre was mulling ankle replacement surgery that could have him taking snaps at Winter Park by Dec. 7, 2010, Wade was giving us something else to talk about.

“It’s something I definitely probably shouldn’t have said,” Wade said.

I disagree. He should be just getting warmed up.

Wednesday, Wade told KFAN Radio that Bears star linebacker Brian Urlacher used a derogatory term to describe new Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. “Pretty much,” Wade said, “[Urlacher] said Jay Cutler was a [bleep] for the most part.”

Cutler begged his way out of Denver when he felt new coach Josh McDaniels was too unwilling to administer total-body massages to his All-Universe quarterback. Since arriving in Chicago, Cutler has been spotted at more bars than Captain Morgan.

Friday, Wade said he shouldn’t have related Urlacher’s insult publicly. What was more interesting was that Wade didn’t retract the statement, didn’t even say that Urlacher is angry with him.

“If I had the opportunity back, I probably wouldn’t have said it,” Wade said. “However, moving forward, it was said, and my communication with Brian is still good, so it is what it is.”

Well, after the way the Green Bay Packers churned the Vikings for the last few months through the Brett Favre melodrama (and got away with it, no blame attached), it’s natural to expect the Vikings want to disrupt some other team. And really, after last season, you’d have to be a truly vicious sadist to want to make things worse for the Detroit Lions (first 0-16 season in NFL history), so the Bears were an obvious choice.

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