“Unnecessary” “Quotation” “Marks”
August 17, 2008 by sycophantHow Magicians Protect Intellectual Property Without Law?!
August 17, 2008 by sycophantLoshin, Jacob (July 2007) Secrets revealed: How magicians protect intellectual property without law. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1005564. Abstract:
Intellectual property scholars have begun to explore the curious dynamics of IP’s negative spaces, areas in which IP law offers scant protection for innovators, but where innovation nevertheless seems to thrive. Such negative spaces pose a puzzle for the traditional theory of IP, which holds that IP law is necessary to create incentives for innovation.
This paper presents a study of one such negative space which has so far garnered some curiosity but little sustained attention - the world of performing magicians. This paper argues that idiosyncratic dynamics among magicians make traditional copyright, patent, and trade secret law ill-suited to protecting magicians’ most valuable intellectual property. Yet, the paper further argues that the magic community has developed its own set of unique IP norms which effectively operate in law’s absence. The paper details the structure of these informal norms that protect the creation, dissemination, and performance of magic tricks. The paper also discusses broader implications for IP theory, suggesting that a norm-based approach may offer a promising explanation for the puzzling persistence of some of IP’s negative spaces.
To Academic and Professional Colleagues
July 8, 2007 by sycophantWell, Well
July 1, 2007 by sycophantEvidence makes Richard Vedder radical (via Organizations and Markets).
* Too many students, not too few, are going to college;
* College and universities are extremely inefficient, and at the marginal public spending on them more likely lowers rather than raises economic growth;
* The federal financial aid programs have contributed to raising higher education costs, lowering efficiency, and increasing corruption within higher education –and done precious little good, sending few more kids to college than would have gone anyway (which, given the first point, is not all bad);
* Colleges and universities often violate an implicit contract with their donors in the way they allocate resources, very often paying scant attention to the needs of the undergraduate students who typically are their bread and butter;
* People need knowledge and skills more than ever, but alternative forms of providing those skills, such as vocational schools and on-the-job training are often superior and lower cost options.
* A greater percentage of entering college students should be attending community colleges, moving up to four year universities only if they succeed well at the community college level.
Firefox Tricks
July 1, 2007 by sycophantThe Beginning of the End?
June 24, 2007 by sycophantBaby-Name Consultants
June 24, 2007 by sycophantSociologists and name researchers say they are seeing unprecedented levels of angst among parents trying to choose names for their children. As family names and old religious standbys continue to lose favor, parents are spending more time and money on the issue and are increasingly turning to strangers for help.
Some parents are checking Social Security data to make sure their choices aren’t too trendy, while others are fussing over every consonant like corporate branding experts. They’re also pulling ideas from books, Web sites and software programs, and in some cases, hiring professional baby-name consultants who use mathematical formulas.
Experimental Design
June 24, 2007 by sycophantMistakes in Experimental Design and Interpretation by Peter Norvig.
Cognitive Biases
May 31, 2007 by sycophantVisualizing Wikipedia
May 24, 2007 by sycophantActually, visualizing the power struggle in Wikipedia (via infosthetics).
Walk of Ideas
May 24, 2007 by sycophant
Case Study on Wikipedia
May 24, 2007 by sycophantRPS Tactics
May 21, 2007 by sycophant
Well, Well
May 14, 2007 by sycophantDespite the doomsayers’ dearest predictions, humanity has never been in better condition (via Cafe Hayek). Here is the evidence:
Malthus wrote just before the turn of the 19th century, when the Earth was home to some 980 million human beings. The global population today is about 6.5 billion, a sevenfold increase. If the alarmists are right, our lives should be far more impoverished, degraded, and pitiful than those of our ancestors. But they aren’t. By and large, human beings today are healthier, wealthier, safer, cleaner, better fed, and more productive than those who lived in 1800.
Anyone tempted to dismiss such a claim as naive should spend some time with Indur Goklany’s “The Improving State of the World,” a new compendium of data making the case that as nations grow wealthier, the quality of human life rises. Far from being a disaster for our species and the planet, Goklany demonstrates, economic growth and technological change have been a boon for both, making it possible for ever more people to live ever-improving lives in an ever-cleaner environment. And while the developed countries may outstrip the developing world in wealth, it is in the world’s poorest societies that some of the greatest strides are being made.
Take food. Since 1950, the world’s population has soared by more than 150 percent. Yet food has become so abundant that global food prices (in real terms) have plunged 75 percent. Over the past generation, chronic undernourishment in poor countries has been slashed from 37 percent to 17 percent, while in the United States, staples such as potatoes and flour have dropped in price (relative to income) by more than 80 percent.
Or take infant mortality. Before industrialization, children died before reaching their first birthday at a rate exceeding 200 per 1,000 live births, or more than one in five. “In the United States as late as 1900,” Goklany writes, “infant mortality was about 160; but by 2004 it had declined to 6.6.” In developing countries, the fall in mortality rates began later, but is occurring more quickly. In China, infant mortality has plunged from 195 to below 30 in the past 50 years.
Life expectancy? From 31 years in 1900, it was up to 66.8 worldwide in 2003.
Health? We are more likely to be disease-free today than our forebears were a century ago. And the onset of chronic illness has been significantly delayed — by nearly eight years for cancer, nine years for heart diseases, and 11 years for respiratory diseases.
Education, child labor, clean air, freedom, famine, leisure time, global poverty — Goklany shows that by almost any yardstick you choose, humanity thrives as never before. Living standards do not fall as population rises. On the contrary: Where there are free markets and free minds — economic growth and technology — human progress and hope are all but guaranteed.
26 Letters
May 11, 2007 by sycophantA history of writing and the alphabet from the British Library. This is beautiful.
Giving Directions
May 11, 2007 by sycophantNo Ribs, No Juice
May 11, 2007 by sycophant15 Hours a Week
May 9, 2007 by sycophantStraight talk about tenure. Indeed.
Peer Review and Global Warming
May 9, 2007 by sycophantVery interesting post about the problems with the peer review process in the context of the global warming discussion.
More Than a Hundred Men With Guns
May 9, 2007 by sycophantThe Superuser
May 8, 2007 by sycophantThe Myth of the Superuser: Fear, Risk, and Harm Online by Paul Ohm. (Via Bruce Schneier)
Fear of the powerful computer user, “the Superuser,” dominates debates about online conflict. This mythic figure is difficult to find, immune to technological constraints, and aware of legal loopholes. Policymakers, fearful of his power, too often overreact, passing overbroad, ambiguous laws intended to ensnare the Superuser, but which are used instead against inculpable, ordinary users. This response is unwarranted because the Superuser is often a marginal figure whose power has been greatly exaggerated.
The exaggerated attention to the Superuser reveals a pathological characteristic of the study of power, crime, and security online, which springs from a widely-held fear of the Internet. Building on the social science fear literature, this Article challenges the conventional wisdom and standard assumptions about the role of experts. Unlike dispassionate experts in other fields, computer experts are as susceptible as lay-people to exaggerate the power of the Superuser, in part because they have misapplied Larry Lessig’s ideas about code.
The experts in computer security and Internet law have failed to deliver us from fear, resulting in overbroad prohibitions, harms to civil liberties, wasted law enforcement resources, and misallocated economic investment. This Article urges policymakers and partisans to stop using tropes of fear; calls for better empirical work on the probability of online harm; and proposes an anti-Precautionary Principle, a presumption against new laws designed to stop the Superuser.
An Alternative Theory of Unions
May 8, 2007 by sycophantArticle by Paul Graham.
Supply and Demand 101
May 8, 2007 by sycophantWhere is the Knowledge?
May 7, 2007 by sycophantFrom T. S. Eliot’s The Rock.
The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.
O perpetual revolution of configured stars,
O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,
O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying!
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of heaven in twenty centuries
Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust.The lot of man is ceaseless labor,
Or ceaseless idleness, which is still harder,
Or irregular labour, which is not pleasant.
I have trodden the winepress alone, and I know
That it is hard to be really useful, resigning
The things that men count for happiness, seeking
The good deeds that lead to obscurity, accepting
With equal face those that bring ignominy,
The applause of all or the love of none.
All men are ready to invest their money
But most expect dividends.
I say to you: Make perfect your will.
I say: take no thought of the harvest,
But only of proper sowing.The world turns and the world changes,
But one thing does not change.
In all of my years, one thing does not change,
However you disguise it, this thing does not change:
The perpetual struggle of Good and Evil.
2BR02B
May 4, 2007 by sycophantA short story by Kurt Vonnegut.
10 Good Books
May 4, 2007 by sycophantDonald J. Boudreaux’s list of books that introduce people to economics and to important economic issues.
Bread is Addictive
May 4, 2007 by sycophantBread is dangerous: new research findings!
Contronyms and Antagonyms
May 2, 2007 by sycophantQuote
May 1, 2007 by sycophantWhen a thing is new, people say: It is not true.
Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say: It’s not important.
Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say: Anyway, it’s not new.
—William James
Academic Talks
May 1, 2007 by sycophantGiving an Academic Talk by Jonathan Shewchuk.
Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot
May 1, 2007 by sycophantThe Return of the Idiot by Alvaro Vargas Llosa.
Throughout the 20th century, Latin America’s populist leaders waved Marxist banners, railed against foreign imperialists, and promised to deliver their people from poverty. One after another, their ideologically driven policies proved to be sluggish and shortsighted. Their failures led to a temporary retreat of the strongman. But now, a new generation of self-styled revolutionaries is trying to revive the misguided methods of their predecessors.
Companhia Athletica: Break Out
April 28, 2007 by sycophant
Congratulations Helvetica
April 25, 2007 by sycophantHelvetica is celebrating its 50th birthday. Are its days numbered?
Wikipedia Users
April 25, 2007 by sycophantWhy I Hate Dogs
April 18, 2007 by sycophantWhy Joel Stein hates dogs. Quote:
I love children, flowers and Touched By An Angel. I once even sent cards to my grandmothers for that fake Grandparents Day holiday. That’s not going to happen again. But no matter how much I want to be a normal, manly, overconsuming American, I can’t get myself to like dogs. I don’t want to hate dogs. But I just can’t imagine sharing my apartment with some dirty, dependent animal willing to trade unconditional love for canned food that, to be honest, I find a little salty. How can people love something so much that they’re willing to walk behind it and retrieve its feces with their own hands every day? I have yet to meet a woman for whom I’d do that.
Shootings at Virginia Tech
April 18, 2007 by sycophantThoughtful posts on the topic. See in particular this (and this) and this. Quote:
So What Are We Going To Do About It? That’s basically what a foreign reporter asked me today, suggesting that the answer must be some new gun control proposal. After all, if someone murdered all these people with a gun, what is America going to do about guns? After past shootings, I got similar questions. Likewise whenever I do talks or debates about gun controls: OK, people say, you say these various gun controls don’t work; so what do you propose to do instead, given that there’s an undoubted problem out there to be solved?
Well, it turns out that yesterday, about 25 to 40 people were killed in alcohol-related homicides, not including those that died because of their own alcohol consumption. Each year, between alcohol-related drunk driving deaths and alcohol-involved murders, about 10-15,000 Americans (not including the responsible drunk drivers themselves) die. That translates into roughly 25 to 40 deaths per day (the range is wide because the source numbers are necessarily back of the envelope estimates), about the same number as the extra homicide deaths from yesterday’s mass shootings. If you counted people whose alcohol consumption killed themselves, the total would likely be far more.
So what are we going to do about it? When are we going to ban alcohol? When are we going to institute more common-sense alcohol control measures?
US Election Graphics
April 17, 2007 by sycophantTax Accounting
April 17, 2007 by sycophantFeral Children
April 17, 2007 by sycophantGeek Clock
April 15, 2007 by sycophantFactor clock (via Anarchaia).
