So, on your theory, his publisher is now entitled to make millions selling physical copies of his first novel (for people will surely still buy physical books, no matter how great the Kindle or whatever becomes) while the author gets nothing for his "imaginary" property.
Firstly, since the first novel is in the public domain at the time in question, any publisher can sell physical copies. Each publisher will reap a rather thin profit, as a normal effect of competition. This is as it should be when copyright expires, whatever the term. How many publishers are there for the works of Charles Dickens or William Shakespeare, for instance? To avoid merely competing on price, the publishers of such works try to distinguish their offerings by adding editorial information, such as analyses and explanatory notes, or by accompanying the text with new illustrations etc.
Secondly, the work is still the property of the author, but is also the property of the rest of society. Only the temporary exclusive privilege granted by copyright has expired, and that privilege has not been given to anyone else. However, the work also remains the author's by attribution: "the author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work" appears with the copyright notice or in the edition notice of many a book. That moral right is perpetual, and enshrined in law in some countries. Anyone can publish the work when it is in the public domain, but only under the original author's name. An editor may claim rights only to the additional content they provide, such as explanatory notes or a gloss.
See I would be all for a "Motorized ice-cream cone" takes all the effort out of spinning it around. This could be the greatest invention since the motorized chocolate milk mixer!
Well, if you must know, it's:
5,971,829 "Motorized ice-cream cone"
Here are yet more of the wierd emanations from the US PTO:
36,314 "Preventing nocturnal emissions" (clamp down on that problem)
2,882,858 "Sanitary appliance for birds" (yes, an avian diaper)
3,997,179 "One wheel roller skate" (an uncontrollable Segway?)
4,608,967 "Pat on the back apparatus" (for when you've done a good job)
5,830,035 "Toe puppet" (kind of neat, actually)
5,996,568 "Process for propelling foodstuff into a crowd" (famine relief)
4,016,875 "Penis locking and lacerating vaginal insert" (the mind boggles)
I believe this is the "anti-rape condom". Women afraid of being raped would wear it, and if they do get raped the attacker is going to need a hospital visit and possibly some reconstructive surgery. Probably the only actual product in your list(no, the cat exerciser laser pen does not count).
Yeah, I'm aware of that. Actually, there are a few other patents for devices of that type, all dating from the same time (mid 70s). Here's another, which employs axial spikes instead of radial blades:
4,167,183 "Anti-rape device"
But seriously, the mind boggles at the thought that such devices would be used, or would be useful if used. I imagine they'd be almost as hazardous to the wearer as to any assailant.
We DO have *several* nuclear programmes in Europe... who else made those two nuclear submarines carrying ballistic missiles that collided in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago?
The comment was specifically for nuclear warheads, which require very specialized knowledge and techniques which don't have much in common with nuclear power technologies ("glorified steam engines").
You are partly right in that France makes its own nuclear warheads. However, it is the only European country with such a program. The UK gets its nuclear warheads from the USA. Apart from France and the UK, no European country is alleged to have nuclear weapons.
That's something I've never heard of, but according to Wikipedia people really walked around with slide rules on their belt.
And I was one of them. Having a belt holster for a straight slide rule (10-12 inch) was fairly standard among engineers then. I still have a couple of old slide rules at home: a good slide rule is something you don't easily part with.
Want people's attention during your meeting? Try a few basic things:
Start on time.
Get to the point when speaking.
Keep the discussion on topic.
If the meeting is more than an hour, have a 5 minute break for email and bathroom.
Never read your slides to the audience.
Then again, I dislike speaking in front of people, even if I do it well, so I'm quick myself.
And remove the chairs from the meeting room (unless you really need a multi-hour drone-a-thon). The meeting then gets to the point faster, and finishes without excessive blather and time wasting.
... such ridiculous patents that the patent office can no longer take itself seriously, if indeed it still does.
They're too late. Much too late:
766,171 "Apparatus for signalling from a grave" (before horror movies even existed)
1,749,090 "Apparatus for obtaining criminal confessions" (oooh, scary ghosts)
2,929,459 "Rocket-propelled pogo stick" (yay for Wile E Coyote!)
3,216,423 "Facilitating birth by centrifugal force" (I kid you not)
4,016,875 "Penis locking and lacerating vaginal insert" (the mind boggles)
4,429,685 "Surgical procedure for unicorns" (WTF?)
5,443,036 "Method for exercising a cat" (fun with a laser pointer)
5,456,625 "Jesus doll lights when crucified" (surreal BDSM toy, intended for kids!)
6,025,810 "Faster than light communication" (physics from another reality)
6,368,227 "Method of swinging on a swing" (eventually cancelled, alas)
This is just a sampling from my collection of US PTO brainfarts. Other wierd wonders have titles such as "Body condom", "Santa Claus detector", "Making a drink hop along a counter", "Thermochromic urinal mat", "Motorized ice-cream cone", "Electrified table cloth", and so forth. I've also collected turds from the French, German, Japanese, and UK patent offices, but they are less profligate than the US patent orifice.
Either:
1. Windows version of program crashes without answering
2. Mac version of program says "after your next question, smartass"
3. Linux version of program says never, 'cos it can't even drive a car
Will this mean war? Norway vs the EU! nay! against the whole world!
They have a decent amount of oil & gas, which the EU and others desperately need.
They also have healthy fish stocks, through fairly competent management of fisheries. The EU regularly howls of unfair competition in fish, as the EU has rapaciously plundered its own stocks, and continues overfishing at destructive levels.
It's the EU that will cave in, not Norway. Disclaimer: I'm not Norwegian, but did visit there twice (1983 and 1998), and changed plane in Oslo a few times.
Opting out was painless, just had to call a number and it was automated... *however* people should have to opt *IN* not opt out.
But then they'd have to offer you something in return, to entice you to opt in. The underhanded way they're doing it, it costs them nothing. Most likely, their income from selling customer information won't be reduced unless quite a lot of subscribers opt out.
Indeed - by this reasoning, the Government should be promoting, and certainly not opposing, free downloading, as part of its War On Terrorrr. Surely, the threat of terrorism is far more serious than any alleged loss of a few sales? "If it saves just one life" etc:)
Moreover, the government should immediately stamp out all movie production. This RAND study has clearly proven that movies are merely fodder for the illicit money-making activities of terrorists and organized crime.
What proportion of pirated movies are from in-theater cameras? I suspect it's minuscule, even if it seems to get a lot of attention. The video and audio quality must be way below DVDrip level, using any kind of equipment that can be "sneaked" into a theater.
That's why I like film "Liquid Sky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Sky)." Instead of coming to the Earth to help us or destroy us, the aliens came to Earth looking for drugs.
A low budget classic (I have the movie on VHS). The humans were social outliers and were indeed on drugs quite a lot, but the aliens preferred leeching sex energy. Unfortunately the aliens were a bit greedy and people began dying during orgasm...
If it were shown to the politicos, they'd panic (the horror: dallying with interns becoming fatal). NASA's budget would be either slashed or weaponized!
It's an appealing thought. But is also works in reverse.
Do we really want the other worlds' explorers coming here? Let's see what we humans have done to new lands: genocide, penal colony, battleground, food resource, or tourist trap. I vote we use Kepler to watch out for the scumballs, so we can prepare to zap them before they arrive.
There is quite a bit of "what" and "how" in the Bible.
Indeed, the Bible contains explicit data from which we can deduce that heaven is hotter than hell!
* Lower bound on temperature of Heaven: 525C.
* Upper bound on temperature of Hell: 445C.
The thermodynamic analysis leading to this result can be found in Applied Optics, 11, A14 (1972).
Religions don't seem to know when they are making assertions which have scientifically testable implications.
A "god" answer is an answer to/who/ and maybe/why/. Science is about asking/how/.
Well, that's true if by "god" you merely mean something like Spinoza's god or some other deist variant (i.e. "god" is that which gave form to the universe and about which nothing else can be known). Although philosophically distinct, there is not much practical difference between deism and atheism. In both cases, the universe is only what can be observed and studied; "god" is irrelevant to one's personal life.
Unfortunately, religions tend to imbue their gods with numerous other attributes, often quite complex or fantastical. In particular, it is asserted that gods have the ability and motivation to affect the universe in real time, and are believed to do so continuously. That sort of interference is scientifically testable. In fact, numerous such tests have been done, for example statistically testing the "power of prayer" (which is a wierd sort of way that people supposedly control the actions of their gods). The short answer is that prayer had no measurable effect on outcomes in those studies.
Dawkins is not making a case of mere ideas, opinions, or the evidence of hypothesis and testing.
Perhaps you have not actually read his books, or else you have not understood them. Dawkins' arguments on the demonstrable falsehood and general malevolence of religions are based on observable evidence and the testing of hypotheses. He is by no means the first or only such advocate, but at the present time he is the most visible and the most excoriated by his opponents.
Slashdot Mirror
So, on your theory, his publisher is now entitled to make millions selling physical copies of his first novel (for people will surely still buy physical books, no matter how great the Kindle or whatever becomes) while the author gets nothing for his "imaginary" property.
Firstly, since the first novel is in the public domain at the time in question, any publisher can sell physical copies. Each publisher will reap a rather thin profit, as a normal effect of competition. This is as it should be when copyright expires, whatever the term. How many publishers are there for the works of Charles Dickens or William Shakespeare, for instance? To avoid merely competing on price, the publishers of such works try to distinguish their offerings by adding editorial information, such as analyses and explanatory notes, or by accompanying the text with new illustrations etc.
Secondly, the work is still the property of the author, but is also the property of the rest of society. Only the temporary exclusive privilege granted by copyright has expired, and that privilege has not been given to anyone else. However, the work also remains the author's by attribution: "the author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work" appears with the copyright notice or in the edition notice of many a book. That moral right is perpetual, and enshrined in law in some countries. Anyone can publish the work when it is in the public domain, but only under the original author's name. An editor may claim rights only to the additional content they provide, such as explanatory notes or a gloss.
...so why complain?
See I would be all for a "Motorized ice-cream cone" takes all the effort out of spinning it around. This could be the greatest invention since the motorized chocolate milk mixer!
Well, if you must know, it's:
5,971,829 "Motorized ice-cream cone"
Here are yet more of the wierd emanations from the US PTO:
36,314 "Preventing nocturnal emissions" (clamp down on that problem)
2,882,858 "Sanitary appliance for birds" (yes, an avian diaper)
3,997,179 "One wheel roller skate" (an uncontrollable Segway?)
4,608,967 "Pat on the back apparatus" (for when you've done a good job)
5,830,035 "Toe puppet" (kind of neat, actually)
5,996,568 "Process for propelling foodstuff into a crowd" (famine relief)
4,016,875 "Penis locking and lacerating vaginal insert" (the mind boggles)
I believe this is the "anti-rape condom". Women afraid of being raped would wear it, and if they do get raped the attacker is going to need a hospital visit and possibly some reconstructive surgery. Probably the only actual product in your list(no, the cat exerciser laser pen does not count).
Yeah, I'm aware of that. Actually, there are a few other patents for devices of that type, all dating from the same time (mid 70s). Here's another, which employs axial spikes instead of radial blades:
4,167,183 "Anti-rape device"
But seriously, the mind boggles at the thought that such devices would be used, or would be useful if used. I imagine they'd be almost as hazardous to the wearer as to any assailant.
We DO have *several* nuclear programmes in Europe... who else made those two nuclear submarines carrying ballistic missiles that collided in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago?
The comment was specifically for nuclear warheads, which require very specialized knowledge and techniques which don't have much in common with nuclear power technologies ("glorified steam engines").
You are partly right in that France makes its own nuclear warheads. However, it is the only European country with such a program. The UK gets its nuclear warheads from the USA. Apart from France and the UK, no European country is alleged to have nuclear weapons.
Why is this cute and interesting when done by a group of European amateurs and a global threat when done in North Korea?
Inexplicably, the European amateurs don't have a nuclear warhead development programme.
I'm trying to figure out how someone manages to misspell "qwerty"?
...and even missed the common mis-spellings "qzerty", "qwertz", and "azerty".
That's something I've never heard of, but according to Wikipedia people really walked around with slide rules on their belt.
And I was one of them. Having a belt holster for a straight slide rule (10-12 inch) was fairly standard among engineers then. I still have a couple of old slide rules at home: a good slide rule is something you don't easily part with.
Want people's attention during your meeting? Try a few basic things:
Start on time.
Get to the point when speaking.
Keep the discussion on topic.
If the meeting is more than an hour, have a 5 minute break for email and bathroom.
Never read your slides to the audience.
Then again, I dislike speaking in front of people, even if I do it well, so I'm quick myself.
And remove the chairs from the meeting room (unless you really need a multi-hour drone-a-thon). The meeting then gets to the point faster, and finishes without excessive blather and time wasting.
... such ridiculous patents that the patent office can no longer take itself seriously, if indeed it still does.
They're too late. Much too late:
766,171 "Apparatus for signalling from a grave" (before horror movies even existed)
1,749,090 "Apparatus for obtaining criminal confessions" (oooh, scary ghosts)
2,929,459 "Rocket-propelled pogo stick" (yay for Wile E Coyote!)
3,216,423 "Facilitating birth by centrifugal force" (I kid you not)
4,016,875 "Penis locking and lacerating vaginal insert" (the mind boggles)
4,429,685 "Surgical procedure for unicorns" (WTF?)
5,443,036 "Method for exercising a cat" (fun with a laser pointer)
5,456,625 "Jesus doll lights when crucified" (surreal BDSM toy, intended for kids!)
6,025,810 "Faster than light communication" (physics from another reality)
6,368,227 "Method of swinging on a swing" (eventually cancelled, alas)
This is just a sampling from my collection of US PTO brainfarts. Other wierd wonders have titles such as "Body condom", "Santa Claus detector", "Making a drink hop along a counter", "Thermochromic urinal mat", "Motorized ice-cream cone", "Electrified table cloth", and so forth. I've also collected turds from the French, German, Japanese, and UK patent offices, but they are less profligate than the US patent orifice.
Either:
1. Windows version of program crashes without answering
2. Mac version of program says "after your next question, smartass"
3. Linux version of program says never, 'cos it can't even drive a car
Will this mean war? Norway vs the EU! nay! against the whole world!
They have a decent amount of oil & gas, which the EU and others desperately need.
They also have healthy fish stocks, through fairly competent management of fisheries. The EU regularly howls of unfair competition in fish, as the EU has rapaciously plundered its own stocks, and continues overfishing at destructive levels.
It's the EU that will cave in, not Norway. Disclaimer: I'm not Norwegian, but did visit there twice (1983 and 1998), and changed plane in Oslo a few times.
Opting out was painless, just had to call a number and it was automated... *however* people should have to opt *IN* not opt out.
But then they'd have to offer you something in return, to entice you to opt in. The underhanded way they're doing it, it costs them nothing. Most likely, their income from selling customer information won't be reduced unless quite a lot of subscribers opt out.
Out of curiosity, is Orwell's "1984" being used as a policy guide in the UK by her politicians?
No, of course not. It's decades behind the times...
Indeed - by this reasoning, the Government should be promoting, and certainly not opposing, free downloading, as part of its War On Terrorrr. Surely, the threat of terrorism is far more serious than any alleged loss of a few sales? "If it saves just one life" etc :)
Moreover, the government should immediately stamp out all movie production. This RAND study has clearly proven that movies are merely fodder for the illicit money-making activities of terrorists and organized crime.
What proportion of pirated movies are from in-theater cameras? I suspect it's minuscule, even if it seems to get a lot of attention. The video and audio quality must be way below DVDrip level, using any kind of equipment that can be "sneaked" into a theater.
Your comment reminds me of that a shirt sold by T-shirt hell which said on it "What about the good things Hitler did?".
I want one with "Remember Godwin's Law" on it.
Does making Godwin's Law possible count as one of the good things?
Was he cleared by the IRS or not?
That's why I like film "Liquid Sky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Sky)." Instead of coming to the Earth to help us or destroy us, the aliens came to Earth looking for drugs.
A low budget classic (I have the movie on VHS). The humans were social outliers and were indeed on drugs quite a lot, but the aliens preferred leeching sex energy. Unfortunately the aliens were a bit greedy and people began dying during orgasm...
If it were shown to the politicos, they'd panic (the horror: dallying with interns becoming fatal). NASA's budget would be either slashed or weaponized!
I've always wanted to travel to other worlds.
It's an appealing thought. But is also works in reverse.
Do we really want the other worlds' explorers coming here? Let's see what we humans have done to new lands: genocide, penal colony, battleground, food resource, or tourist trap. I vote we use Kepler to watch out for the scumballs, so we can prepare to zap them before they arrive.
There is quite a bit of "what" and "how" in the Bible.
Indeed, the Bible contains explicit data from which we can deduce that heaven is hotter than hell!
* Lower bound on temperature of Heaven: 525C.
* Upper bound on temperature of Hell: 445C.
The thermodynamic analysis leading to this result can be found in Applied Optics, 11, A14 (1972).
Religions don't seem to know when they are making assertions which have scientifically testable implications.
A "god" answer is an answer to /who/ and maybe /why/. Science is about asking /how/.
Well, that's true if by "god" you merely mean something like Spinoza's god or some other deist variant (i.e. "god" is that which gave form to the universe and about which nothing else can be known). Although philosophically distinct, there is not much practical difference between deism and atheism. In both cases, the universe is only what can be observed and studied; "god" is irrelevant to one's personal life.
Unfortunately, religions tend to imbue their gods with numerous other attributes, often quite complex or fantastical. In particular, it is asserted that gods have the ability and motivation to affect the universe in real time, and are believed to do so continuously. That sort of interference is scientifically testable. In fact, numerous such tests have been done, for example statistically testing the "power of prayer" (which is a wierd sort of way that people supposedly control the actions of their gods). The short answer is that prayer had no measurable effect on outcomes in those studies.
Dawkins is not making a case of mere ideas, opinions, or the evidence of hypothesis and testing.
Perhaps you have not actually read his books, or else you have not understood them. Dawkins' arguments on the demonstrable falsehood and general malevolence of religions are based on observable evidence and the testing of hypotheses. He is by no means the first or only such advocate, but at the present time he is the most visible and the most excoriated by his opponents.
...which is not so subtly implying that all of the other 53-ish percent of humans living in the United states are basically drooling morons.
Should it be stated less subtly, so the morons might actually understand the point?
Bird : Bird : Giant Eye : Pyramid : Bird : Giant Eye : Dead Fish : Cat Head : Cat Head : Cat Head :
+5 Informative to the first person to translate this.
"My hovercraft is full of eels!"
Now where's that +5 mod...