It started raining, heavily, here in Babylon Lite as of 13:00 yesterday, and it didn't stop until about 13:00 today. As I sourly quoted this morning, looking out of the window I felt more like a fish than a person. Art?
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| A world of wet |
This is the view at about 11:00 - by which time I'd been up for hours, honestly! - and it meant Edna didn't get her usual morning walk. Well, more like a swim in these conditions. Let us see how the furry scamp dealt with this minor trauma. Art?
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| Human-shaped Cushion has some uses after all. |
And there she resided on her Hom. Sap. throne, until I noticed that the vertical ocean had ceased to flow, and we did get a walk in by mid-afternoon. And do you know what? There were no other dog-walkers around, which is a rarity on Tandle Hill Road for me.
So I remain both vindicated and dry.
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| How very apt |
I'm not invoking the motley, it's having a nap at the moment.
Stilli The Chili
If you recall, Conrad gleefully engaged in making a chili on Monday, which simmered in the slow cooker for nearly nine hours before it got sampled, together with a load of baked rice. Art?
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| Before |
One thing that Conrad ignores at the time is how many people these dishes are supposed to feed, because three days later there is still a ton of it left. I know Edna would be delighted to help, except she can't, as there's onion in there. The best cause would be to freeze what's left, which means it'll take up half the freezer.
Eyes Bigger Than Stomach Syndrome strikes again.
"Lawful Masses" With Lawrence French
Another Youtube channel that looks at law, and more specifically copyright cases. The narrator is Lawrence French, a South Canadian copyright attorney, who picked up an interesting follow-on case that goes back to an original that is now years old.
Dramatis Personae: Akilah Obviously; Youtuber who thinks very highly of herself and whose description flatters a lot.
"Sargon of Akkad" a.k.a. Carl Benjamin; a rather obnoxious Youtuber of right-wing views, who may or may not being excessive to ensure traffic.
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| I don't need to point out who's who, do I? |
The details are that SoA put up a short clip he'd made from a much longer one of Akilah's, which she took offence to. Her stated intent as quoted extensively on Twitter, was to sue SoA for hundreds of thousands, and get rich off the proceeds of the case, and damn him and all that was his, because copyright. SoA pointed out that what he'd done was i) Satire, and thus couldn't be counted as a breach of copyright and ii) Was covered by "Fair Use" legislation. Cocky young Akilah said only £30,000 would make it go away before going to trial.
Which she lost. Dramatically. The judge was extremely harsh in his summing up, probably because SoA's defence showed screenshots of her gloating on Twitter*.
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| The smile on the face of the tiger |
Now, we may not like Sargon's political stance, but he had manifestly done nothing wrong and was reacting to someone trying to shut him down because of that political stance.
What's now at issue are his legal fees, since he is now seeking to get these paid by Akilah, which would put her out of pocket to the tune of something like another £30,000. Surprise surprise! Akilah does not want to pay this money. It's apparently, according to Lawrence, at the court's discretion as to whether any or all of the defendant's legal fees get reimbursed; SoA's attorney is arguing that the original case was intended as a "chilling" attack and thus needs to be comprehensively punished for unacceptable legal behaviour.
This one looks like carrying on for a while, gentle readers, and we will undoubtedly come back to check on it, because schadenfreude.
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| The original chap |
Well, that was an odd one. A request via Messenger from Miranda at work to borrow my teapot as she was going to do a presentation on how to brew a pot of tea ...
Actually my supplies of loose-leaf Darjeeling are beginning to run rather low, because I've been off since 29/02/20 and have been making at least a pot every day since. A visit to Sainsbury's beckons! Without traumatising Edna too much. They being the only supermarket that sells Fairtrade loose-leaf Darjeeling, you see.
"The Three-Body Problem" By Cixin Liu
I've just finished reading this multi-award winning work, one I picked up from that long list of "51 Best Sci-fi Novels", and it was worth it. It's definitely written from a Chinese perspective, and it has several long passages that explicitly condemn both the Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution, to the point I'm surprised it got published. Art?
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| Hopefully nothing rude in Chinese |
It seems that Amazon were interested in paying Cixin truckloads of money in order to secure the rights for the series (there are two sequels to TTBP) but matters have gone quiet so nobody knows if the deal is done or fell apart. Keep watching the skies because this will be one to watch out for if it does go ahead.
Oh, and "The Wandering Earth", a film that was a big hit in China a couple of years back, is based on a short story by Cixin.
Finally -
I see the rain is back again. Dammit, I'm a man, not a mallard!
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| Very droll, Art |
Is it Tazer-o'clock yet, Art? <faint yet threatening hum can be heard>
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| Duck |
There you go, you can do it when you try. You have, however, completely derailed my witty and urbane pun, concerning the weather, for which you will pay dearly. I shall give you a five-second head start. Go!
And with that, we are done! (as is Art)
* Big fat legal hint: do NOT EVER gloat on Twitter about a prospective or current case.
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