http://www.braser.com

http://apelad.blogspot.com/2009/12/laugh-out-loud-cats-1304.html

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #1304, originally uploaded by Ape Lad.

http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/12-12-39/

http://orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/?p=2441

(In London) Cold & overcast.

http://www.unshelved.com/archive.aspx?strip=20091212

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http://www.365tomorrows.com/12/12/moving-with-the-times/

Author : Ray Shirer

Vince hates dealing with the vets. They buzz like a swarm of angry bees, producing poison instead of honey. He hates the way they glare at him when he makes the rounds, collecting soiled bed linens and dirty clothes. Like it’s his fault they lost the war. Vince wasn’t even born when Earth fought the Hive.

The best way to deal with the vets, Vince has found, is to turn off his ears and pretend that he’s dumb. It’s no more than they expect of him, even though the doctors get pissed when they find out. Vince has been lectured more than once by the docs about his lack of empathy toward the patients.

He doesn’t really care. This job is just temporary. Vince is going to the black. He’s already had some of the work done. Replacement stuff mostly, switching out his eyes and ears and tweaking his circulatory system. The big stuff: altering his skeleton, his muscular and nervous systems, will have to be done by the Hive once he’s offworld.

Vince can’t wait.

Until then, he’s stuck in the hell of the veterans’ clinic, wiping the asses of bitter old men and changing their bed clothes.

What does he care if they look at him like he’s a traitor? He’s just moving with the times.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091211.html

Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky

http://madisonian.net/2009/12/11/more-on-digital-copyright-norms-and-twilight/

http://madisonian.net/?p=3546

Further to posting on how everyday Web 2.0 citizens relate to copyright law (and continuing my case study on Twilight-related IP issues), I have come across another example of where the popular understanding of digital legal rights is imperfect.  However, in this case, it looks like the copyright law – or something like it – worked in favor of the “little guy” (although in this case I suspect they were mainly little “gals” as they are Robert Pattinson fans).

To coincide with the release of the Twilight sequel (New Moon) a production company – Revolver Entertainment – released an unauthorized DVD documentary about one of the movie’s leading men, Robert Pattinson.  The documentary is called Robsessed.  The title of the DVD and some of the material originally posted on the DVD’s promotional website was plagiarized/copied from the Robsessed blog – an unauthorized fan blog about Robert Pattinson.

The bloggers apparently sent a cease and desist notice to Revolver and the offending material was later removed from Revoler’s blog.  The bloggers described their complaint in terms of “plagiarism” and also called it a “crime”.  It would seem to me that the actual legal complaint is about copyright infringement (assuming that the bloggers held copyright in the material they had posted) and potentially also TM infringement if their “robsessed.com” domain name and Robsessed fan club name could be regarded as TMs.  Not 100% sure if they’re sufficiently related to actual commercial activity to be TMs.

If the fan club does have TMs in the “Robsessed” name, they might conceivably be able to sue the makers of the documentary for TM infringement.  This would be worth more to them financially than the cease and desist notice re the material on Revolver’s website (which was a copyright infringement if anything).  But here we see the complainants aim being to retain credit for their own work – and not have some unauthorized company capitalize on their work, or on the work of the object of their fan interest (Robert Pattinson).  They did not seem to be concerned with seeking financial recompense for profits the DVD company had made using some of their intellectual property.

So to me this is another interesting example of where the realities of IP law don’t necessarily meet the social norms in the entertainment area.  But at least the fact that copyright law exists might have encouraged Revolver to remove the copied material – even if the cease and desist letter was framed in terms of “plagiarism” rather than “copyright infringement”.

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http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009qcaf.php

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009qcad.php

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2009/12/picea_sitchensis_1.php

Conifers haven't been receiving many entries lately on BPotD, so time to change that.

These photographs were taken in early summer near Port Renfrew, British Columbia. Both are of the same species, Picea sitchensis or Sitka spruce, previously featured on BPotD several years ago: Picea sitchensis.

The dwarfed spruce, growing on the end of the submerged log, is subject to fairly harsh conditions beyond the obvious one of trying to extract much of the needed nutrients from decaying wood. If I recall correctly from the conversation I had with one of the locals, Fairy Lake (where this is located) is occasionally subject to an influx of salt water from the ocean. The same local also commented that this tree is at least 40-50 years old, as he remembers it growing there -- and of a similar size -- when he was a child over twenty years ago. I plan on revisiting this particular plant in the future, to hopefully photograph it with a still lake surface.

The other spruce, growing about 15 or so km away, is known as the San Juan Sitka spruce. It is claimed by some to be Canada's largest spruce tree and the second largest in the world (another photograph of it shared in that link). I'm not so sure about that claim, as British Columbia's Big Tree Registry (PDF) suggests that BC has Sitka spruce trees that are larger in circumference, taller, more spreading, and (when combining all three of these measures in a points system), "bigger". The only measure I could see where it may earn the title of Canada's largest spruce tree is in volume of wood. Whatever status it may or may not be entitled to, it is still an impressive individual, measuring 62.5m high (205 feet), 11.66m circumference (36 feet, 3 inches), and a spread of 23m (75 feet). Still, it was only the second-largest tree I encountered that day.

http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1666/12/11/

Up, and to the office, where we sat, and at noon home to dinner, a small dinner because of a good supper. After dinner my wife and I by coach to St. Clement's Church, to Mrs. Turner's lodgings, hard by, to take our leaves of her. She is returning into the North to her children, where, I perceive, her husband hath clearly got the mastery of her, and she is likely to spend her days there, which for her sake I am a little sorry for, though for his it is but fit she should live where he hath a mind. Here were several people come to see and take leave of her, she going to-morrow: among others, my Lady Mordant, which was Betty Turner, a most homely widow, but young, and pretty rich, and good natured. Thence, having promised to write every month to her, we home, and I to my office, while my wife to get things together for supper. Dispatching my business at the office. Anon come our guests, old Mr. Batelier, and his son and daughter, Mercer, which was all our company. We had a good venison pasty and other good cheer, and as merry as in so good, innocent, and understanding company I could be. He is much troubled that wines, laden by him in France before the late proclamation was out, cannot now be brought into England, which is so much to his and other merchants' loss. We sat long at supper and then to talk, and so late parted and so to bed. This day the Poll Bill was to be passed, and great endeavours used to take away the Proviso.

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