The iPlayer is a back-to-the-future business model. It’s a total subversion of Reithian values in favour of trying to create what had been an accidental monopoly as a kind of robust business model. The idea that the old geographical segmenting of terrestrial broadcasts is recreatable is a fantasy and a waste of time.
Clay Shirky, The shape of things to come, The Guardian
First film with the new Panasonic HDC SD9
- taken with my new Panasonic HDC-SD9. The AVCHD format is a bit of a pain - because its new many of the editing tools haven’t quite caught up yet. But it’s good. Take the HD link at the bottom of the video if you click through to YouTube.
You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you
Heraclitus of Ephesus, Fragment 41; Quoted by Plato in Cratylus
Andrew Sullivan calls the passing year for Obama and reflects on the ‘Wright’ Speech, pompously christened by Obama’s aides as the ‘More Perfect Union’ speech. This was the speech in which Obama refused to denounce Jermiah Wright’s spitting hatred, likening the demagogic, racist bigot to his own grandmother - shortly before he went on to, in fact, denounce Pastor Wright when it became politically impossible for him not to do so.
Sullivan quotes himself:
And so there is a difference, pace Jonah, between a white charlatan like Robertson who chooses to demonize minorities in the name of Jesus and a pastor like Wright who vents rage against a majority that has, in the not-so-distant past, given African-Americans every reason to be angry
Andrew Sullivan, The Year Of Obama II,/p>
In writing this Sullivan commits a common error I find increasingly frustrating. His excuse of Wright, who claimed that HIV had been deliberately created by the US Government to kill black people, is only remotely sensible if the majority against which Wright now vents his anger is the same majority as the one responsible for the racist bigotry of the past. But the majority of white people now is not the same majority of white people then. The people are not the same people and were not responsible for the policies of the past, were not responsible for the past segregation and oppression.
Sullivan’s error is a simple logical one to which Heraclitus drew attention so long ago.
I’ve just returned from Germany. I had no thought that the people around me were pro-Nazi fascists responsible for Dachau, Auschwitz-Birkenau or Treblinka. That happened 60 years ago; the people are not the same people and the society is not the same society and the politics today are not the same as the politics of 1944. Andrew Sullivan would, I suppose, see the anachronistic foolishness of ranting against Germans today for the Germans of half a century ago.
I suppose the best explanation why Sullivan excuses Jeremiah Wright for his hateful ranting and excuses Obama too is that he feels personally guilty, possibly because of some residual prejudice in himself. Why else promote the racism of lower expectations?
In München, mein erster Besuch seit mehr als einem Jahrzehnt, für eine kurze Vor-Weihnachts-Urlaub. Niemand macht Weihnachten besser als die Deutschen und die Münchner tun es am besten von allen.
Helen und ich dachte, wir würden in ein paar der Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt - vor allem die riesigen und prächtigen Residenz, dem ehemaligen königlichen Palast in der Stadt. Wir zahlen, um zu sehen, das Schatzamt, das Museum und das Theater dann versucht, geben Sie die ersten von diesen, sondern ein alter Mann am Eingang darauf zu meinem Rucksack, mit Angabe Ich war zu prüfen, sie in, und Helen’s Neues Manfrotto Stativ und Kamera sagte, sie konnte nicht, dass entweder, weil sie “professionelle” Ausrüstung.
Helen erklärt, sie sei nicht ein professioneller Fotograf (hier ist ihr Flikr Foto-Stream) und dass sie einfach wollte, um einen guten Fotos. Der alte Mann auf andere Besucher im Inneren, wobei verschwommen Bilder in der Dunkelheit mit ihren crummy Point-and-shoot snappies. “Andere Menschen haben kein Problem“, sagte er.
Wir haben gesagt, dass der Hand gehaltene Kameras und lange Forderungen würde Fotos. “Also du sagst, ich kann und darf ich Fotos, aber sie müssen schlechte Fotos?” Die Frage, Helen. Ohne Ironie dieses alte Deutsch - sicherlich alt genug, um lebendig wurden während des Zweiten Weltkriegs, antwortete - “Ich bin nur nach den Regeln. Regeln sind Regeln.”
Um zu verstehen, was wirklich passiert ist hier, wir sollten ignorieren traditionelle Vorurteile der deutschen Charakter und die erstaunlichen Bemerkung aus dem alten Mann und stattdessen beziehen sich auf die Entwicklung des relativ neues Konzept in Wirtschaft, “rent-seeking“.
Rent seeking tritt auf, wenn ein Agent macht Geld nicht durch Reichtum, sondern durch Manipulation des rechtlichen Rahmens zu extrahieren unkompensiert Wert. Rent seeking macht keinen Beitrag zur Produktivität und ist oft ein Monopol Wirkung von Missbrauch. The Economist definiert es als “Schneiden Sie sich ein größeres Stück vom Kuchen anstatt den Kuchen größer. Der Versuch mehr Geld zu verdienen, ohne mehr für den Kunden “.
In dem Beispiel der verrückt Regeln auf die Residenz, durchaus in der Lage Fotografen, die gezahlt haben, um die Zimmer sind nicht gehindert Fotografien aber verhindert sind gelungene Fotos. Dann die Veranstaltung, dass die Kontrollen der Residenz ist in der Lage zu verkaufen, die nur gute Fotos von der wunderschönen Innenausstattung.
Es ist verabscheuungswürdig, aber berechenbaren Verhalten. Mein Rat ist zum Besuch der Residenz, wenn Sie es wünschen, aber nicht alles kaufen, von dem Geschäft.
In Munich, my first visit for about a decade, for a brief pre-Christmas holiday. Nobody does Christmas better than the Germans and no Germans do it better than the Münchner.
Helen and I thought we’d take in a few of the city sights including the splendid and immense Residenz, the former royal palace in the Altstadt. We paid to see the Treasury, the Museum and the Theatre then tried to enter the first of these but an old man at the entrance pointed to my rucksack, indicating I was to check it in, and to Helen’s new manfrotto camera tripod and said that she couldn’t take that in either because it was ‘professional’ equipment.
Helen explained that she wasn’t a professional photographer (here’s her Flikr photostream) and that she simply wanted to take good photos. The doorman indicated to other visitors inside, taking blurry shots in the darkness with their crummy point-and-shoot snappies. ‘Other people have no problem’, he said.
We tried to point out that hand-held cameras and long exposures would result in bad photographs. ‘So you’re saying I can take photos, but only bad photos?’ asked Helen. Without irony this old German - certainly old enough to have been alive during WWII replied - ‘I am only following the rules. Rules are rules’.
To understand what was really happening here it’s probably best to look beyond traditional prejudices about the German character, move quickly past that unnerving remark from the old man and consider instead the relatively recent development of the concept in economics of rent seeking.
Rent seeking occurs when an agent makes money not by producing wealth but by manipulating the regulatory framework to extract uncompensated value. Rent seeking makes no contribution to productivity and is often an effect of monopoly abuse. The Economist defines it as ‘Cutting yourself a bigger slice of the cake rather than making the cake bigger. Trying to make more money without producing more for customers‘.
In the example of the insane rules at the Residenz, perfectly capable photographers who have paid to view the rooms are not prevented from taking photographs but are prevented from taking good photographs. Then the organisation that controls the Residenz is able to sell the only good photos of the wonderful interiors.
It’s despicable but predictable behaviour. My advice is to visit the Residenz, if you wish, but on no account buy anything at all from their shop.
Patrick Appel stands in for Andrew Sullivan and promptly calls attention to Sully’s misleading witterings on ths subject of Palin.
The Daily Dish In Defense Of Sarah Palin
I once played some Philip Glass to my grandmother, a pianist; something from Glassworks. She wasn’t impressed. I’m not sure what I think of Glass. It seems an easy trick but a pretty one. A pretty easy trick. That’ll do.
I have to say I am getting increasingly concerned about the nature of our present Government. We had the attempt at 90 days detention without trial, then the attempt at 42 days. We have ID cards. We have proposals to monitor every email and mobile phone call. We have had attempts to restrict trial by jury. They want to keep all our DNA on a central database. Anti-terror legislation used against Icelandic Banks and other cases where no terrorism is suspected. Now we have this blatant attempt to intimidate civil servants and members of the Opposition
A poster on Nick Robinson’s blog
