With two of my main interests being personal finance and copyrights (and wrongs), I always get giddy when the two collide.
Recently, Plonkee made me think: is condoning (buying) knock off furniture comparable to condoning copyright theft?
There are quite a few people who get quite passionate about the undesirability of knock offs. Check out this post on Apartment Therapy, for example, where various people chime in about the (reasonably assumed) lack of quality on the knock off and that you should support the designer.
Part of me thinks that that I should think that buying a reproduction is a bit like condoning copyright theft. But I don’t. It’s not like people don’t buy reproduction Chippendale, and no one thinks that’s a problem. And, I’m never going to spend £1300 on an armchair, no matter how nice it is, even £350 is quite a lot of money, really.
Why does the woman depicted in the Mona Lisa appear to be both smiling and not smiling at the same time? The smile part of the Mona Lisa’s face was painted by Leonardo in low spatial frequencies. This means that when you look right at her mouth, there’s no smile. But if you look at her eyes or elsewhere in the portrait, your peripheral vision picks up the smile.
I’ve heard this before, but I’m posting this today because I recently read this great quote from Stanley Kubrick:
How could we possibly appreciate the Mona Lisa if Leonardo had written at the bottom of the canvas: ‘The lady is smiling because she is hiding a secret from her lover.’
via kottke
Imagine going into a bar, drinking as much (or as little) as you want, and then only paying what you think is fair. Sounds good, right? Well, Jürgen Stumpf owns three wine bars in Berlin that do exactly that:
For the price of 1 euro (about $1.50), you rent yourself a glass and get to sample as many of the wines as you want. At the end of the night you throw some bills or coins into a big jar, the amount based on what you think is fair.
via kottke
…Londoners on Income Support can get a card to allow travel on London buses and trams for half price. At the bottom of the [advertisement] are the proud logos of Mayor of London, Transport for London, and, incongruously, the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela.
I presume that this is the fruit of Hugo Chavez’ visit to London, when he cosied up to Mayor Ken, and offered cheap oil to the people of London.
From The Magistrate’s Blog
“Now I know some of you have already heard of me, but for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar, let me explain how I teach. Between today until the class right before finals, it is my intention to work into each of my lectures … one lie. Your job, as students, among other things, is to try and catch me in the Lie of the Day.” And thus began our ten-week course.
A novel - and seemingly powerful - way to teach your students critical thinking and analysis, from Overcoming Bias.
via kottke