At PG Australia you can download texts that you can't get at the main Project Gutenberg because of U.S. copyright laws. Though they do have a nag warning:
Do not download or read these books online if you are in a country where copyright protections can extend more than 50 years past an author's death.
The Nazi Minister of Propaganda looked remarkably like a ferrett. Didn't he also say when he heard the word "culture" he reached for his gun? At least the BSA and RIAA are just suing their fans. They haven't started shooting fans...
The biggest flaw at the heart of LOTR is the character of Frodo. Frodo does not develop as a character. All he does is grow sicker and sicker. This provides no psychological drama. Why should we care whether he destroys the ring or not? He might save the world, but so what? There is no "human" connection between the reader and Frodo. He has no personality, no flaws--he's really just a cardboard cutout.
The other characters, though superficially more interesting also have arrested character development. Aragorn is perhaps the best, starting as a dishevelled drifter who is revealed to be a king. But once this is revealed at the end of FOTR, anything interesting about Aragorn pretty much stops. Gandalf is interesting, but again once he comes back as the White its over for him too. Don't even the mention the sentimental relationship between Sam and Frodo that became almost laughable in the movies.
Tolkein's "significance" might be as the first to create a self-contained mythical world on a grand scale, though there were others before him going back through Edgar Rick Burroughs, Jonathon Swift to Sir Thomas Moore. This is hardly can be considered a grand literary achievement, however, and is more in keeping with his dayjob as an academic.
At our central Vancouver library, I noticed recently mozilla had been added to the public internet access points. Whether this was in the last few weeks, I don't know. Vancouver has Canada's 2nd largest library system, and the central branch receives millions of vistors year. It is also understood to be a leader in electronic resources. The staff are great too (no, I don't work there).
My dad recently switched to Mozilla. Does that count as an organization?
Once again, Canada leads the way on privacy
on
1984 Comes To Boston
·
· Score: 2, Informative
For some years now, Canada has had offical privacy commissioners at both the national and provincial levels. Though they can't force governments to act, they can call witnesses, hold royal commissions where average citizens are invited to testify and issue recommendations as to how the government should act.
Canada still remains a functioning democracy to a large degree, so when ombudsmen like the privacy commissioner castigate the government, public pressure often forces a change in policy.
If that doesn't work, like the Americans, you can always sue.
No need to be pay addition library taxes. If a library subscribed to the New York Times, their patrons could also access the Times at home online. They would type in their library card number.
Up here in Soviet Canuckistan, my own library, The Vancouver Public Library , already offers many enhanced services online to patrons. This includes the complete archives back to 1844 for Canada's paper of record, the Globe and Mail.
The USA is looking more and more like Spain circa 1700 all the time. Less and less is produced in the US each year, but tax is taken off legitimate enterprise. (Like the Spaniards who sat back and lived off the gold from their Empire, ceasing to work.)
Artists in the past have supported better copyright laws--and not the ones you would expect. Charles Dickens was instrumental in the 19th century getting the US to stop pirating his books. Before that, the US did not recognize the copyrights of foreign authors.
No one would call Charles Dickens right-wing, the "Man" or even a buzzkill. But what we have here is not "better' copyright protection. Would we still love Dickens if his books installed viruses into the technology we use to consume them? That is, rendered us blind if we tried to read a book we didn't pay for?
All slashdotters are welcome in Canada. The draft dodgers during the Vietnam war by-and-large went on to become professors, writers, activists and even politicians (one of them is currently on city council here in Vancouver, B.C.). I'm sure slashdotters would enrich the country to an even greater degree.
As for the new smart border and homeland security, that was a problem even then. There was an underground railroad during Vietnam that smuggled draft dodgers up. For those who are interested, it seems a new version may be started for modern draft dodgers.
Taking a stand is tough, but public opinion in Canada will support anyone who makes it here.
Slashdot Mirror
Truly one of the funniest things you will ever see.
Among other things you can download Orwell's complete works and The Great Gatsby.
The University of Adeliade has a slicker version of the same texts.
Was Oppenheimer a nerd?
Check out Aardwolf if you want something to keep on one of your windows in Screen. Its also free.
A nifty MUD client to make your play sharper: TinyFugue
In case you were wondering, an aardwolf is an African hyena that eats termites. Why they called the game that, I'll never know...
yet
Where, like life in a true village, everyone knows what you're doing.
Maybe if you add Orwell and McLuhan together you get a true picture of where we are heading. This will either be very terrible or very funny.
If you're in Athens during the Olympics, you're online whether you like it or not.
The other characters, though superficially more interesting also have arrested character development. Aragorn is perhaps the best, starting as a dishevelled drifter who is revealed to be a king. But once this is revealed at the end of FOTR, anything interesting about Aragorn pretty much stops. Gandalf is interesting, but again once he comes back as the White its over for him too. Don't even the mention the sentimental relationship between Sam and Frodo that became almost laughable in the movies.
Tolkein's "significance" might be as the first to create a self-contained mythical world on a grand scale, though there were others before him going back through Edgar Rick Burroughs, Jonathon Swift to Sir Thomas Moore. This is hardly can be considered a grand literary achievement, however, and is more in keeping with his dayjob as an academic.
More background.
Canada still remains a functioning democracy to a large degree, so when ombudsmen like the privacy commissioner castigate the government, public pressure often forces a change in policy.
If that doesn't work, like the Americans, you can always sue.
Up here in Soviet Canuckistan, my own library, The Vancouver Public Library , already offers many enhanced services online to patrons. This includes the complete archives back to 1844 for Canada's paper of record, the Globe and Mail.
Push something (i.e. Capitalism) to the extreme and it becomes the opposite. Communism may have died in the USSR, but its alive and well at Best Buy.
Sad, really.
Dopewars!
Takes capitalism back to the source...
Artists in the past have supported better copyright laws--and not the ones you would expect. Charles Dickens was instrumental in the 19th century getting the US to stop pirating his books. Before that, the US did not recognize the copyrights of foreign authors.
No one would call Charles Dickens right-wing, the "Man" or even a buzzkill. But what we have here is not "better' copyright protection. Would we still love Dickens if his books installed viruses into the technology we use to consume them? That is, rendered us blind if we tried to read a book we didn't pay for?
Start with Mozilla:
Wood Theme
Walnut Theme
Greed drives inovation? What about Linux? I'm sure Richard Stallman would have something to say about this.
All slashdotters are welcome in Canada. The draft dodgers during the Vietnam war by-and-large went on to become professors, writers, activists and even politicians (one of them is currently on city council here in Vancouver, B.C.). I'm sure slashdotters would enrich the country to an even greater degree.
As for the new smart border and homeland security, that was a problem even then. There was an underground railroad during Vietnam that smuggled draft dodgers up. For those who are interested, it seems a new version may be started for modern draft dodgers.
Taking a stand is tough, but public opinion in Canada will support anyone who makes it here.