Topics

You people seem to know a lot about copywright laws. At least that's the impression I get from all the various 'why can't they reprint Zenith?' type threads.  So I wondered if anyone can answer this.

If a book is out of print, do copywright laws still apply? I'm asking for a school. They say that normally they're allowed to copy 10% of a book, but wonder if they're allowed to copy the lot if it's out of print.

well? Does anyone know?

No, that's an exclamation, not an imperative.  

I've just spent half an hour trying to get a free website set up.  I was inspired by an Oldie article 'It's your shout Mr Gates', about how you can now set up a free website with a domain name and everything thanks to microsoft, hooray.
  Well, I can't - apparently Australia isn't on the list of countries that can get this service.  Much frustration at the fact that I don't have everything I want instantly.
  So does anyone there have any good suggestions for how I can set up a simple free website? I don't want do do anything flash, just a place where I can put my comics columns, maybe a blog, that kind of thing.

cheers,

Floyd

I'm a chronic rereader. In Japan, where I spent a lot of time on trains, I was always rereading my collection.  Now I'm rereading so as to catch up and I'm up to.....(drum roll) prog 1480!  While I don't have the time or energy to do a version of Hipster dad's admirable 'Thrillpowered thursday', here's a potted reveiw.

Does anyone remember this? It's notable for:

Cover: pretty damn good

ABC Warriors: Shadow Warriors: I'm a sucker for the ABCs. this series has brilliant Flint art, good entertaining villains, lots of madcap Millsish punnery.  Only on reading the novel later, I realised that Mills has left out or compressed a lot of ideas, which wasn't always successful.  Occasionally the pace is TOO fast - a character we've never seen before pops up and makes a random comment, but overall fun.  My favourite bit; at Pineapples funeral, one of the bad guys notes "they said he was so cool, when he danced, he moved not one butt but two"

Future Shock: Earthsong - a very undistinguished effort from John Smith. Pollution could destroy the human race, who'd have thought it

86ers: Touchdown
  Good grim stuff with a new GI and lots of moody plotting. Who is the spy? Search me, but I love whodunnits. My only quibble is the robot companion is kind of annoying

Bec n Kawl: Freakshow: this hasn't improved with time. Too much plot crammed into a short space, unfunny humour

Judge Dredd: Heist: I'm not crazy about the Yeowell art but it gets the job done.  Good story - Edginton should do more Dredd stuffhttp://www.2000adonline.com/functions/cover.php?Comic=2000ad&choice=1480">

I'm planning on making a column-writing comeback. Expect some self-pimping here soon.

In planning my years worth of weekly writings, I've only been able to plan 20 column topics ahead. Does anyone here have any bright ideas for a topic? In case anyone doesn't know, I write about comics, literature, life, politics and that kind of thing. Well, always something comicsy.
  Any ideas I decide to take up will be credited (as in 'thanks to so-and-so from the 2000AD messageboard').

cheers,

Floyd

Link: http://comicsnexus.insidepulse.com/articles/63427/2006/12/14/across-the-pond-the-eldritch-power-of-bad-religious-comics.html" target="_blank">For instance...

I'm reading The Ramayana. It's a terrific yarn and it keeps reminding me of Pat Mills. Partly because I'm sure it was part of his research for Black Siddha and partly because of the over the top nature of a lot of the prose. You know, stuff like: 'Rama fired two arrows which went twice around the universe delighting every deity in existence before splitting the sun into twelve exquisite pieces and finally beheading his loathsome opponent'
  I made that up, but that's what it's like.  

I also notice that some Irish myth has just been retranslated and features Queen Meb - it seems to be the month for Mills sources.

have you read any?

If not, I recommend the Ramayana

Here's a new thread for odd stuff in religious texts.  No opinion is offered, I just thought the link was funny.

cheers,

Link: http://www.cracked.com/article_15699_9-most-badass-bible-verses.html" target="_blank">Like this

Today I'm being paid at teaching rates to:

- do a 'treasure hunt' in order to bond with other staff
- be bussed into the city to have a nice feed

The 'team building' exercise seems pretty unnecessary since I'm already very bonded with my fellow teachers, while I never meet the other staff who are coming, many from another city. As for the managers, no amount of team building is going to make them any more receptive to what the staff need or make us any happier with how they treat us.

anyway, should be a nice day out

what's the biggest work-related waste of money you've been involved in?

yours vaguely imagining a Dredd 'team building' story

Today I'm being paid at teaching rates to:

- do a 'treasure hunt' in order to bond with other staff
- be bussed into the city to have a nice feed

The 'team building' exercise seems pretty unnecessary since I'm already very bonded with my fellow teachers, while I never meet the other staff who are coming, many from another city. As for the managers, no amount of team building is going to make them any more receptive to what the staff need or make us any happier with how they treat us.

anyway, should be a nice day out

what's the biggest work-related waste of money you've been involved in?

yours vaguely imagining a Dredd 'team building' story

Well not really - just a cat with metal in its legs. However the xray picture looked spooky enough for the BBC to call it a 'bionic cat'

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7109986.stm" target="_blank">better than Kid Cyborg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44258000/jpg/_44258334_cat_xray203.jpg">

wouldn't you? Well, here's how

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNSe5XYp6E" target="_blank">blue tshirts

Vladimir Nabokov once said that in America you were not allowed to write a book in which an atheist lived a long and happy life. That was in the 50s, although to judge by the procession of one hit wonders I saw thanking Gawd at the last MTV awards America is no less theocratic now

anyway, what premises do you think could never be done now? Standards are different in diiferent media, so you should say where it couldn't be done, for example "You can't have a North Vietnamese hero in a war movie"

No, I don't want to be dentally challenged Candian egomaniac with no capacity for listening to criticism. But I'd like to start a message board.

I made a wikispaces.com page for my students a while ago. This works pretty well and the students enjoy it. I'm wondering if it's possible to make a messageboard of some kind that I can control, so only my students can post on it.

can anyone help?

yours pedagogically,

Floyd

As in 'every girls crazy for a sharp dressed man'.

I've just resubscribed to 2000ad, the Megazine and the EEs,  to the rejoicing of my credit card company.  I'm going to get a bright yellow Dredd t-shirt.  
 This means I now have:
- the black and white '2000ad, it's a matter of life and death' tshirt with Bolland's Judge Death on it
- a blue Rogue Trooper t-shirt
- some "phantom - ghost who walks' boxer shorts
- a superman emblem tshirt

  of course I take precautions. I don't wear more than one of these items at the same time, lest all the local Nikki Whelan lookalikes get overcome with lust.

how much 2000ad wear is too much? What's in your wardrobe?

I've just been to see the movie 'Linda, Linda, Linda'. It's a 'they went out as amateurs but came back as stars' story, but very well told, about four high school girls who get a band together for a festival in Gunma in Japan.  One of the girls is Korean and has to work hard to sing in Japanese and to communicate with the others.
  The title comes from a song they sing by The Blue Hearts (an 80s Japanese punk band).  

see it if you can!

unintentional laugh of the night; the guy from the Japanese consulate made a speech comparing the director to Jim Jarmusch and said Jarmusch's name with a terrific air of triumph

I miss my Dredd/mean machine/Judge Death whatever mugs.  Every time I use my Phantom mug, I think 'why O why did I lose the Mean Machine mug in the move from Nippon'.

So does anyone have any of the mugs for sale?

Having just acquired a Starlord collection at vast price (and not just downloaded it from the net at all), I've been enjoying the Robusters stories. In SL17 and 18, there's a story featuring an evil tycoon called "O'Gonsell".  Doesn't that sound a lot like Kevin Gosnell, who I think was the publisher at the time?  Is this mentioned in Thrill Power Overload? Was it Pat Mills being bolshy, or was it some kind of affectionate tribute?

just wondering

I just think my progs would be that much less nerdy if they were addressed to Floyd Kermode, Titan Base, Washington state

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7012020.stm" target="_blank">get your sniping software ready...

I'm in the middle of listening to all the Dredd and SD audio dramas again. dang they're good fun!  At their best (Down to earth, I love Judge Dredd) they can be exciting and often funny, at their most pedestrian they are still a good listen for a fan.
  Just thought I'd mention this in case anyone hasn't heard of them before....I think you can listen to a few for free if you hunt around on the bbc website

cheers,

floyd the infrequent and public spirited

I'm in the middle of listening to all the Dredd and SD audio dramas again. dang they're good fun!  At their best (Down to earth, I love Judge Dredd) they can be exciting and often funny, at their most pedestrian they are still a good listen for a fan.
  Just thought I'd mention this in case anyone hasn't heard of them before....I think you can listen to a few for free if you hunt around on the bbc website

cheers,

floyd the infrequent and public spirited

well kind of.  Some philosophy prof with time on his hands, has estimated that the likelihood that we are all computer simulations is 20%.  He assumes that at some stage in the future computers will be so advanced that they can simulate self-aware beings and that the people in that future will probably play a game of simulating their ancestors.  Don't ask me how he gave the chance of us being characters in such a game 20%. If it were true it would be like the Matrix, only we can't get out

just thought you'd like to know