Month: August 2004

Though you do have to spend the money wisely in order to achieve it.

How not to buy happiness by Robert H. Frank

Considerable evidence suggests that if we use an increase in our incomes, as many of us do, simply to buy bigger houses and more expensive cars, then we do not end up any happier than before. But if we use an increase in our incomes to buy more of certain inconspicuous goods–such as freedom from a long commute or a stressful job–then the evidence paints a very different picture.

From the White House website: Transcript of remarks by the President at the Signing of H.R. 4613, the Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005.

Exhibiting a trait that he has become renowned for President Bush made an odd slip-up in his speech.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.

A mere mispeak or was he admitting to a deliberate policy of damaging the US and its citizens. Critics of his administratyion would argue that its policies have been damaging to the country, although I’m sure no one believes it has been a deliberate policy.

Tags: politics

I’m having a bit of a John Connolly addiction at the moment. I read Bad Men a short while ago and thought why not pick up another of his books.

So I got The Killing Kind and was blown away by it. A fucking disturbing but gripping read with the good guys being almost as brutal and merciless as the evil bastard villains of the piece. Connolly seems to have carved out a new niche of fiction here with serial killer crime stories blended with supernatural elements.

Anyway having finished The Killing Kind I immediately went out and bought The White Road and read it and have now just purchased the first two novels Every Dead Thing and Dark Hollow.

Tags: books

Father to Son: What I’ve Learned About Rage

A conversation in print between Norman Mailer and his son John Buffalo Mailer. They discuss President Bush, protests at the Republican National Convention and Karl Rove’s proposed Republican led 20 year American hegemony.

As part of the BBC Four on BBC Two series there has been a number of excellent European movies being shown on BBC Two including the German movie Das Experiment, which was shown on Tuesday night.

The film is a thriller based upon the real-life experiment carried out in 1971 at Stanford University by a team of researchers led by Professor Philip Zimbardo. The Stanford Prison Experiment was a landmark psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life. Volunteers played the roles of guard and prisoner, and lived in a mock prison. However, the experiment quickly got out of hand, and was ended early.

Interestingly I didn’t find it as shocking an experience as I did when I first saw it a couple of years ago. Maybe watching Big Brother and reading the accounts of the abuse suffered by prisoners at Abu Ghraib and in Guantanamo Bay has desensitized me to this sort of thing.

IMDB link for Das Experiment
Purchase the movie from Amazon.co.uk VHS | DVD

The official site of the Stanford prison experiment is at http://www.prisonexp.org/

The article about the Stanford prison experiment at the Wikipedia also makes comparison to the events at Abu Ghraib.

Tags: BBC, movies, science

Shed a tear for Andrea Corr.

Not only do recording artists have tax-free status in the Republic of Ireland but they may soon be able to keep earning tax-free on their music for a longer period of time.

Declan Ferry of the Sunday Times writes

The work of a recording artist is currently protected for 50 years after the material is released, allowing royalties to be collected on sales and other airings. After this the work goes into the public domain and people can use it for free.

The Irish Recording Music Association (IRMA), a lobby group for the Irish recording industry, is now demanding European law fall into line with American legislation, which extends royalty payments to 70 years.

Dick Doyle, the director general if IRMA, said Irish artists wanted “a level playing field.”

How about leveling the playing field by encouraging the US to reduce the length of their copyright to a more reasonable number of years.

Tags: copyright