MemeMachineGo!

When I first read Nancy Kress' Spillage, I was struck by the unusual premise -- it's told from the point of view of a rat transformed into one of Cinderella's coachmen.

Recently, I found that there's a novel called The Coachman Rat (first published in '89; Kress' story first appeared in '88; it seems like the odds of influence either way are low.) And a children's book called Cinderella's Rat And another children's book called If the Shoe Fits: Voices from Cinderella at least touches on the rat's story.

That rat gets around.

For the first couple of pages, I was frustrated with this article on the past and future of e-books. It begins by complaining about consumers' failures of imaginations, and I kept thinking "Yeah, I've heard those attitudes expressed, but that's not the real issue." Then the author said something much like "while all these attitudes do exist, they're not the real issue," and I began agreeing with him wholeheartedly.

E-books' prices are too high, and seem motivated chiefly by publishers' desire to not cut into physical book sales. And, despite e-books' advantages in a couple of realms, I'm really disinterested in increasing the publishers' profit margins for a copy of a text I can do less with.

And the biggest reason I can do less with them is the publishers' continued commitment to DRM. I don't have a high expectation that the DRM-ed texts people are buying for their Kindles will be readable in twenty years.

Despite truly heroic stubbornness and denial for a decade, the music industry has finally taken some steps indicating they're getting that their behavior vis-a-vis DRM and intellectual property has been costing them more than it profits them. Publishers are continuing to stick their fingers in their ears and going "la la la la la."

When I can get a decent e-ink device for under $100, I'll get it just to read public domain and other freely available material. When publishers offer new e-books at a reasonable price without DRM, I'll buy my new books that way.

But, today, I'm sticking mostly with physical books, and the occasional free e-book read on my n800.

A new fossil discovery shows that whales' ancestors came onto land to give birth.

Updated 2009-02-09: I feel remiss in not having noted that the originator of "Clams got legs!" doubtlessly would have disapproved of the scientists' conclusions. Whether he'd have personally advanced this account, I don't know.

=v= As a blue-collar latchkey kid growing up in the "do your own thing"/"greed is good" era, I had no formal training in manners. Significant others have tried to school me in the ways of Emily Post, but this was often thwarted by my class consciousness (Who's going to wash all these butter knives and ancillary plates, the servants?) and ecological concerns (Why are we wasting butter on all these knives and plates, just so the servants can do twice as much washing?) Miss Manners has made snobbery humorous, but the bottom line is still very 1980s Republican (and Spy did it so much better anyway).

Fortunately we still have George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation to guide the way. "Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present" is at the top of the list, and rightly so. These two rules follow:

2nd  When in Company, put not your Hands to any Part of the Body, not usually Discovered.
3rd  Show Nothing to your Friend that may affright him.

Washington adapted these rules from those set down by French Jesuits in 1595, who must have thrown some pretty wild parties. One of my fellows of the secretive Muted Horn was quite taken with rule the 13th, which covers the disposal of fleas, ticks, filth, and spittle, but I'm more concerned with rule the 18th:

18th  Read no Letters, Books, or Papers in Company but when there is a Necessity for the doing of it you must ask leave ...

Surely this can be extended to the practice of texting while operating Carriages, so as not to crowd Velocipedes from the public Way? Other Rules can be adapted to online Discourse, with great Effect. Check 'em out!

(Via the Muted Horn)

I am very distressed to encounter the assertion that Zed is a trendy hipster name.

[A baby-naming website] gave me results approved by my demographic, which we learned by the site's suggestions of Axel, Jett, Laszlo and Zed is that of pretentious, self-important yuppie hipsters.

Italy struggles to deal with the secret documents of the army brigade that never existed.

[(Via Sore Eyes)]