Electric Josh

Monday, August 19, 2002

At a recent nerd convention, Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law professor, explained in (entertaining) detail why you don't have a right to be creative anymore in a speech entitled Free Culture. #

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The battle to make cell phone annoyances go away continues. This time, the good guys are several New York city councilmen. Seems one of them introduced legislation that would ban ringing phones in theaters. The following fantastic tidbit is included:

As [one of the councillors' spokesman] pointed out, cell-phone talkers have been received badly in theaters on Broadway. In the middle of one of his productions, Kevin Spacey turned to a person who answered a cell phone and said, "Tell them you're busy." Actor Laurence Fishburne, in the middle of a performance, yelled to a member of the audience, "Turn your f---ing phone off!"

The New York public seem to be supporting the measure:

"To be honest, we haven't heard anyone say, 'Damn it, she has the right to use her phone in the theater even though I paid $90 for this ticket.'"

Nice. (Link from Slashdot) #

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Stumbled across a guy whose sudden Thoreau moment generated the following summary:

• I like to play guitar, hey I have a guitar, so that doesn't cost anything.
• I like to ride my bicycle, hey - I have a bike, so that doesn't cost anything.
• I like owning my home, but hey - my mortgage is cheaper than any rent I've ever payed.
• I like spending time on the Internet, well hey - my computer is payed for and the Internet is cheaper than going to see four movies a month.
• In fact - the more I add up my life, the cheaper it gets.

Of course, said Waldenesque moment of insight also unleashed a stack of cynicism about his job and his life, none of which applies to me. Ah well. #

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Here's a reason to root for the Bushies: rounding up deadbeat dads. It's among the primary things that a "Justice Department" should be doing. So, cheers!

Of course, the irony is that this sort of roundup would be a lot easier to execute if a panoptic database of Americans were available (viz. the eyeball in the sidebar). #