Cowboy Who?

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

Fair enough.

The Washington Post tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler recently had a very interesting article about how Amazon won't allow the ebooks it publishes to be lent out from libraries. As someone who regularly borrows ebooks from my local libraries, I find this disappointing -- especially since, as Fowler notes, Amazon really is the company that made ebooks popular. But, when it comes to libraries, Amazon won't let libraries lend those ebooks out:

When authors sign up with a publisher, it decides how to distribute their work. With other big publishers, selling e-books and audiobooks to libraries is part of the mix — that’s why you’re able to digitally check out bestsellers like Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land.” Amazon is the only big publisher that flat-out blocks library digital collections. Search your local library’s website, and you won’t find recent e-books by Amazon authors Kaling, Dean Koontz or Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Nor will you find downloadable audiobooks for Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime,” Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Michael Pollan’s “Caffeine.”

I've seen a lot of people responding to this article with anger towards Amazon, which is understandable. I do hope Amazon changes this policy. But there's a much bigger culprit here: our broken copyright laws. In the physical world, this kind of thing isn't a problem. If a library wants to lend out a book, it doesn't need the publisher's permission. It can just buy a copy and start lending it out. Fowler's correct that a publisher does get to decide how it wants to distribute a work, but with physical books, there's the important first sale doctrine, which lets anyone who buys a book go on and resell it. And that meant that in the past, libraries have never needed "permission" to lend out a book. They just needed to buy it.

Unfortunately, courts seem to take a dim view of the first sale doctrine when it comes to digital goods.

However, a few years back, some very smart librarians and copyright professors and experts got together and created a system called Controlled Digital Lending (CDL), which aimed to (1) rectify this massive gap in public access to knowledge while (2) remaining on the correct side of copyright law. In its most basic form, CDL, involves libraries buying physical copies of books (as they did in the past), scanning those books (which has already been ruled to be fair use for libraries) and then lending out that digital copy only if they had the matching physical copy on the shelf. As the libraries and copyright experts correctly note, it's difficult to argue that this is any different than lending out the copy of the book that they bought.

But, of course, publishers have always hated libraries' ability to lend out books in the first place -- and have been itching to use the power of copyright to block that. Already, they charge libraries insanely high prices for ebooks to lend, and put ridiculous limits on how those books can be lent.

So, no surprise, last year, in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, the publishers sued the Internet Archive, arguing that its Open Library project, which runs based on the CDL principles, violated copyright law. And, incredibly, a ton of people have cheered on this nonsense lawsuit -- even those who hate Amazon.

Yet, if you really want to stop Amazon from being able to block libraries from lending out ebooks, there's a simple answer: fix copyright law. Make it clear that Controlled Digital Lending is legal. Or, go even further and say that the First Sale Doctrine also applies to digital goods, as it absolutely should.

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

New comic!
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Listen, this is a WRPG, and I didn't get to level 99 in my lockpicking skill to watch you to come in here with a "key" so you can "open" the "lock" without playing a weird mini game first. I have earned that right.

Help! My views are being censored!!

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Hope is like the salt in the recipe, which really makes all the other ingredients come alive.

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I spent way too long trying to find a way to combine a word for mom with the word 'oligarch.'

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New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

Buy the print here!

It's all an illusion.

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You know I was about to write a book about evil statisticians, but Tim Harford's last book convinced me that even statistics can be used for good.

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Dorothy Vaughan doesn't let an obstructionist librarian get in the way of her future.

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Based on a conversation I had on twitter but couldn't find again! If you're out there, person I talked with, ping me and I'll post it.

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"Next time you make that perfect playlist on Spotify or send a link to share a song, you can thank Lou Ottens," documentary filmmaker Zack Taylor told NPR.

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Ariel
(The Little Mermaid)

OPRAH: So when you struck the deal with Ursula to go to land, were you silent or were you silenced?

ARIEL: … the latter.

OPRAH: Wow.

ARIEL: My knowledge of sea witches was minimal at that time, I didn’t know what I was getting into and I hadn’t done any research until it was too late. And my biggest regret is believing that Ursula had my best interests in mind. I thought I’d have protection, but that wasn’t the case.

Cinderella
(Cinderella)

OPRAH: There were these stories that you made Drizella clean your house. Is that true?

CINDERELLA: No, actually, it was the reverse.

OPRAH: It was the reverse? So she made you clean her house?

CINDERELLA: Yes.

Rapunzel
(Tangled)

OPRAH: I think a lot of people have this false perception of royalty. Can’t a princess do whatever a princess wants to do?

RAPUNZEL: You have to understand, I couldn’t just get up and go. They took my passport and driver’s license, and when I would ask to do something like get lunch with my friends, Mother Gothel would say that it wasn’t a good idea, that I was too oversaturated in the press. And I would say, how could I be oversaturated? I haven’t left this tower in 18 years.

OPRAH: What?

RAPUNZEL: Exactly. And for all that time, I was being stunted by her, so it feels good to finally find my voice, especially because it’s Mandy Moore’s.

Snow White
(Snow White)

OPRAH: Do you think the Daily Mirror played a role in your expulsion from the royal family?

SNOW WHITE: Absolutely. The Mirror was the one telling the Evil Queen that I was the fairest in the land every day, which was why I had to leave.

OPRAH: Did you blindside the Queen?

SNOW WHITE: I don’t think so, being that she was the one who banished me and tried to have me killed twice. I do think she was blindsided by the fact that I evaded those attempts both times, though.

OPRAH: Wow. And did you have anywhere to turn to in the palace about this mistreatment that you were facing?

SNOW WHITE: Honestly, no. In my old job, we had a union, it was me and seven other workers, and off to work they’d go. But there wasn’t any kind of structure like that within the palace to take grievances to.

Jasmine
(Aladdin)

OPRAH: What was your family’s reaction to you wanting to marry a peasant like Aladdin?

JASMINE: I was cut off financially. We had no security, no protection. Luckily, we were able to use the genie’s powers to wish for a Netflix production deal.

OPRAH: Why do you think your father drew such a hard line?

JASMINE: There’s a structure of royal advisors within the firm, and what really saddens me is that the Sultan was getting a lot of advice, and a lot of that advice was really, really bad. Particularly the advice he was taking from Jafar, as well as a talking bird, which was very confusing to me.

Aurora
(Sleeping Beauty)

OPRAH: Why you? Why were you the one condemned to this potentially eternal slumber?

AURORA: Well, that’s a great question, Oprah, and I wish I knew. It was a curse that was put on me as a baby before I could have even understood what or why it was happening—

OPRAH: What? Who is casting that enchantment?

AURORA: I don’t want to reveal who specifically did it, as I think it would be very, very damaging to them.

OPRAH: Was it Maleficent? It was Maleficent, right?

Tiana
(The Princess and the Frog)

OPRAH: What was your experience like being the first Black Disney princess?

TIANA: Well, I had hoped that it would be a good representation for women of color, but it turned out that that was only true if the color was green. They turned me into a frog for the whole movie.

OPRAH: What?

Elsa
(Frozen)

OPRAH: Explain to people how you, someone raised in a palace and born to enormous privilege — literally a princess — how you were trapped?

ELSA: Well, quite literally after our parents found out about my powers, I was confined to a closed palace and remained in my room. And while I recognize the privilege of my upbringing, I have sought other kinds of experiences as well. For a brief time, I worked at a frozen yogurt shop called Humphrey Yogart. It was just a regular yogurt shop when I started, but you know…

OPRAH: Do you think there was a double standard for you instead of Anna because of the magical powers you possessed?

ELSA: I think that the people of Arendelle really wanted a narrative of a hero and a villain. And when my powers were revealed, I was the one branded as a monster and forced to flee my homeland.

OPRAH: Where did you go?

ELSA: Fortunately, I was able to stay at Tyler Perry’s house.

A new study looks at the experiment with a guaranteed basic income in Stockton, California.

(Image credit: Pixabay)

Naked in Cyberspace
Lane
2001

If this was 2001, I would be begging for this book! I was pretty new at librarianship and still figuring out the potential of databases and finding info. This was really for those folks doing background checks and competitive intelligence, but I would have loved to have something like this book on the desk with me in the early 2000s. Of course this book was outdated before too long. I have even tried to poke around on some of the websites, and many are still good, but most are dead links or have been moved/combined into other sites.

This was still a time when librarians were resistant to technology applications. Back then there was a real gulf between those who embraced technology and those who did not. More than once we heard comments/discussion that real librarianship did not mean tech support.

Even as late as 2006, we were still at conferences pushing the concept that tech support is actually a type of reference service. This further led to us borrowing the term bunheads*. This referred to those librarians that didn’t believe computers really belong at the reference desk, and helping people navigate the web, setting up email, etc. wasn’t their job. (No real death matches, but Holly and I did want to slap some of our colleagues about their attitude toward changes.) We have now used the term bunheads more broadly as those librarians not willing to move with the times. Thankfully, most of those bunheads aren’t around much anymore.

Also, I love the title.

Mary

*Bunheads (librarians who resisted change) was coined by our good friend and designated heckler Kevin King from Kalamazoo Public Library.

The post Naked in Cyberspace! appeared first on Awful Library Books.

Congratulations, parents. I have come into your home as a birthday/Christmas/Daddy-hasn’t-been-around-in-a-while present. Consider it a blessing. I am your child’s newest interlocking block system, and I am not compatible with any other blocks they own.

You probably hadn’t heard of me before my unwrapping, and that’s alright. I am here to rescue your child from their inferior block systems. The only blocks that connect with me are me. I am not here to unite all bricks under a common format; I am the format. The sooner you accept this, the sooner you will recognize my perfection. I’m like the ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail. I symbolize eternity. Ironically, it’s tricky to make an ouroboros with my block system. Building a loop comes out a little blocky, for lack of a better term.

There are certain things one must know when owning me. My pieces only fit into each other from odd angles, limiting what you can make. Playing with me is not very enjoyable, but more of a privilege. I am the only block system to simultaneously nourish your child’s creativity and provide them constant frustration. Such is the cost of excellence. I can teach them more about life than you ever could, despite being an inanimate block system.

It is true that most other block systems are not compatible with each other, but I am the most incompatible. It’s not that I won’t interlock with others, it’s that I’m downright hellbent on their annihilation. Go ahead, try fitting me into LEGO or Mega Blox. You will regret your actions. I have a bunch of weird stud shapes that prevent any sort of diplomacy with other blocks. Try to integrate me with Duplo and I will mangle any plastic that comes near my maze-like undersides. Jam Tinkertoys in me and I will snap them like the twigs that they are. If you so much as place me on top of a Lincoln Log, I will chop it into Barbie Dreamhouse firewood.

My blocks are also magnetized. “Oh goody,” you say, “my kid has magnetic blocks.” Don’t get your hopes up. While other magnets consist of north and south poles, mine reverse polarity to avoid attraction at all costs. No, I won’t even stick to your refrigerator. I will not be lowered to decorating a box of stored sustenance.

My existence necessitates a completely new and separate storage bin. I won’t just be tossed into a shoebox with Thomas trains and dog-eaten action figures. I don’t come in a colorful tin or oversized container that’s a larger, hollowed-out representation of myself. My packaging consists of a wooden chest that you will have to destroy to open. There is no other way, for you must prove your allegiance to me. The chest is held together with sixty-four unnecessarily large staples.

I come with no figurines, for perfection only belongs to me. I am not here to build a world for plastic, round-headed idiots to inhabit. Admire the beauty of my clean, factory-molded edges. If I did have figurines, they would only connect to other block systems to exhibit my dominance over them.

To fully understand me, you must properly understand my story. I am manufactured in Scandinavia, but possibly Vietnam or the Philippines. My pieces mate for life, meaning they cannot be taken apart once put together, so have your child think long and hard about what his or her tiny lizard brain wants to make. I can only be purchased at zoo gift shops. Despite that, I have lots of five-star, no-comment ratings on Amazon. I’m sold in packs of seven and four thousand.

Please inform your child that playtime may now commence. Remember: every time you’re barefoot and you step on one of my blocks, that’s me keeping you in check. I will always be somewhere in the house waiting to punish you.

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Also he NEVER asked stupid questions.

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I’m glad these two quarantined together so they could have someone to complain at.

A large double chocolate milkshake takes eighteen seconds to make at P. Terry’s Burger Stand. At least it does in the practiced hands of Kathy Terry, cofounder of the Austin-based chain. In smooth, skillful fashion, she grabs the turquoise cup, dispenses soft-serve from the stainless steel Electro Freeze, pumps in two big squirts of chocolate syrup, spins the drink with a metal mixer, and tops it off with a plastic lid. On this bright Friday afternoon, at a P. Terry’s location that opened just before Christmas in New Braunfels, she’s working a shift alongside more than a dozen employees. They operate in a tight rectangular space surrounded by eight fry stations, a large grill, drink dispensers, ice machines, sinks, and the humming Electro Freeze. The…View Original Post

The post Will P. Terry’s Win Over the Rest of Texas? appeared first on Texas Monthly.

Burros, bunnies, and superheroes in vibrant colors line the exterior of ABC Party Headquarters in Dallas’s Bishop Arts District. Founded thirty years ago by husband-and-wife duo Carlos and Elvie De La Fuente, the party store often displays whimsical papier-mâché creations out front. Inside, you can find classic star-shaped piñatas, childhood favorites such as unicorns and dragons, and decorated calaveras (skulls) for Día de Los Muertos in the fall. Lately, though, ABC has been making headlines for its nontraditional designs. Back in 2016, Carlos tasked his piñatero, Alex Sagrero Chávez, with creating the shop’s first Donald Trump piñata. The design was wildly popular, so when the store’s sales took a hit at the start of the pandemic, Carlos decided to get crafty. In April 2020, he…View Original Post

The post A Dallas Piñata Shop Artfully Renders Viral Memes and Politicians in Papier-mâché appeared first on Texas Monthly.

What he says: “I’ll call you.”
What he means: “I’m going to text you. In a week. Maybe.”

What he says: “Can we talk about this later?”
What he means: “I never want to talk about this.”

What he says: “As a child, I was sexually aroused by Pinocchio’s relationship with Geppetto. Especially the idea of the artisan lovingly carving Pinocchio’s buttocks and thighs. In fact, when masturbating or even during lovemaking, I regularly summon this image.”
What he means: “I’m not looking for anything serious.”

What he says: “Let me clarify the Pinocchio thing.”
What he means: “I feel like I can be myself around you.”

What he says: “Geppetto’s sturdy worker’s hands hewing a miniature boy out of wood certainly isn’t the only thing that makes and keeps me aroused. I find lots of other things arousing. Like, for example, people and situations.”
What he means: “I need space.”

What he says: “Put this Geppetto mask on.”
What he means: “I prefer you without makeup.”

What he says: “I’m a naughty wooden boy and I love my big, real daddy.”
What he means: “I’m afraid this is going too fast.”

What he says: “So if I’m really letting you in here, I think this attraction, or compulsion, really, dates back to this experience I had in second grade with my art teacher, Mr. Kirby. So one time when I was making this papier mâ·ché owl, he touched my back in this loving, fatherly way and it made me feel protected, and special, and I wasn’t even aware of it, but also sexually aroused. And I saw Pinocchio around that time and Mr. Kirby and Geppetto kind of blended together.”
What he means: “I’m tired.”

What he says: “While we’re on the subject, I can’t say I’m immune to the charms of Jiminy Cricket.”
What he means: “I’m not looking for anything serious.”

What he says: “Something about how that little top hat fits so snug over his plump olive head gets my Geppetto rock fucking hard.”
What he means: “I’m afraid of commitment.”

What he says: “Part of me regrets going into the whole Pinocchio thing because I can see it’s freaking you out, but another part of me is hoping that you’re game enough to roll with this.”
What he means: “I’m not into your friends.”

What he says: “Wait, don’t go. I was just kidding about that Pinocchio stuff. You sure are gullible!”
What he means: “I’m a naughty wooden boy and I love my big real daddy.”

Jen Spyra’s funny new collection, Big Time, is out next week.