Philonoist.net

Just in case you were wondering…. that ICBM’s gonna have to stay outside, mister!

Taken in the Bahamas.

NEW YORK—A popular romance novelist alleged to have lifted work from other texts acknowledged that she sometimes “takes” her material “from reference books,” but added that she didn’t know she was supposed to credit her sources.

“When you write historical romances, you’re not asked to do that,” Cassie Edwards told The Associated Press, speaking earlier this week from her home in Mattoon, Ill.

Edwards then asked her husband to get on the phone. He told the AP that his wife simply gets “ideas” from reference books.

“She doesn’t lift passages,” Charles Edwards said, adding that “you would have to draw your own conclusions” on how closely his wife’s work resembles other sources.

Tip: if you’re going to copy from somewhere (like I did with the above from the Boston Globe) it’s probably a good idea to cite that source. Because a pox o’er your head if you don’t. That pox is Google, which knows everything. When somebody reads your work, and then reads something similar that predates your work, it’s over, man. You’ve lost.

I don’t buy the “I didn’t know I had to” defense from Mr. and Mrs. Edwards: successful artists, filmmakers, and writers know full well the intricacies of copyright law. Think your readers would have been dismayed to see a bibliography in the back of your historical romance? Cite your sources, come up with your own language: you’re selling a story, not a collection of other people’s work connected by a thin “romance” plot.

Much more on the story at (sigh) Smart Bitches Trashy Books

Technorati Tags: books, cassie edwards

Common Sense, the pamphlet by Thomas Paine, was published this day in that most weighty of American years, 1776.

IN the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and prepossession, and suffer his reason and his feelings to determine for themselves; that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of a man, and generously enlarge his views beyond the present day.

They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

Technorati Tags: History, Common Sense

Take that, bitches.

Technorati Tags: Rickrolled, Mario Paint

Jared Diamond, he of Guns, Germs, and Steel fame, had quite the interesting opinion piece in today’s Times:

Real sacrifice wouldn’t be required, however, because living standards are not tightly coupled to consumption rates. Much American consumption is wasteful and contributes little or nothing to quality of life. For example, per capita oil consumption in Western Europe is about half of ours, yet Western Europe’s standard of living is higher by any reasonable criterion, including life expectancy, health, infant mortality, access to medical care, financial security after retirement, vacation time, quality of public schools and support for the arts. Ask yourself whether Americans’ wasteful use of gasoline contributes positively to any of those measures.

Technorati Tags: Consumption, Jared Diamond

Daisy the Labradoodle: October 2004.

Technorati Tags: cute dog, cute overload

Something new for 2008: I’m going to try and ask some trivia questions at least twice a week. No cheating or Googling, you either know it or you don’t. Respond in the comments. First correct answer for each gets the stated number of points (leave your name to get credit)

And away we go:

Q1: For 1 point: name the subject of the photo.

Q2: For 2 points: name the photographer, famous for this photo and others of people jumping.

Q3: For 2 points: Name the photographer.

Q4: For 1 point: This photo is referenced (almost parodied) in a movie from the late 90s. Name that movie.

Q5: For 3 points: Name the subject of this photo. As a hint, the subject shares a name with a character in another film by the same director of the film in Q4.

Good luck!

Technorati Tags: Trivia

I’m celebrating with one of my favorite movie scenes. Have I mentioned how much I love the Art Institute of Chicago? Or how much I love Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?

No?

Then here is the obvious (nay, obligatory) YouTube link.

Technorati Tags: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Art Institute of Chicago

Ahh, the most unlikely place for a Ghostbusters mashup: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.

As a fun challenge, see if you can make it through the first minute and twenty-seven seconds without getting annoyed by the “Ghostbuster Mobile Siren”. Tough as nails if you ask me.

Technorati Tags: Ghostbusters

Just about the scariest thing ever:

It totally freaks me out, and not just the whole idea of pouring water through one nostril and having it come out the other. Actually, I’m okay with that part, because my grandfather did the same thing once with a penny and my ears. Of course I had to go to the hospital for an emergency brain cutting thingy, but I’m much better now.No, the freaky thing is the way the woman/young boy moves her neck at 27 seconds. That’s hardcore robot if ever I saw it. I’m telling you, they’ve infiltrated our society and walk among us, like Canadians. Thanks for the tip, lady friend!

Technorati Tags: neti pot