Avogadro's Number

Just about anything

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Archives for July 2015

Copyright And Times Of Change

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New frontiers – where do they allow us to go – do we want to go there? Where will they allow us to go? Places we didn’t expect when we left.

When books went from hand-scribing to moveable type, the trauma to ownership and authorship was traumatic. We are once again, facing that same trauma. For any who think all works should be free to any who want them, I have one question: Will you go to work every day for nothing? Don’t tell me “it’s different.” It’s work. It should be compensated. “It’s different because I don’t have to (read/watch/buy).” Oh? Try living without TV shows, movies, books, magazines, games. Completely without. Don’t watch TV, don’t watch any movie, don’t read anything except instruction manuals that come with the products you buy, don’t play any games at all. The people who create these things need to pay rent, buy food, pay for utilities to keep warm in the winter.

We are in a time of transition, which is always traumatic. We will figure it out. We may have to go back to the patronage system, whereby the rich “keep” artists of various sorts, who create for the patron, as with Michelangelo and others.

I think what Google is doing is great. My local bookstores don’t stock much in the way of selection these days, just the absolute latest and/or most popular. I like to browse books new to me to see if the writing style is one that I can handle before I buy the whole book. And I still like to have books. You can’t take your laptop or tablet into the bathroom. You most certainly don’t want to use one while you soak in the tub.

In terms of having out-of-copyright books available online, the Gutenberg Project is already doing some of that. I’ve done some proofreading for them. Quite a lot of out-of-copyright books are also out of print, the only source being used book stores.

We live in times of change. I’m not saying we have to like it, or that the change will be easy. We can shape that change, or we can stand on a soapbox and scream that the tide stop.

I am personally bleeding from the changing times. I have either lost jobs or job opportunities as jobs in the computer field move out of the country, and what’s left go to younger, less expensive employees (or less experienced, so they don’t give the boss grief—but that’s for another post). So, unlike Steve Forbes who speaks of the trauma of change without ever having it damage his lifestyle, I speak from the emergency room of life.

And choose to enjoy the change.

Certainty?

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We tend to defend vigorously things that in our deepest hearts we are not quite certain about. If we are certain of something we know, it doesn’t need defending.
–Madeleine L’Engle

Coin Grading Services

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The “morgan silver dollar” graded by the American Alliance Coin Grading Service? As far as anybody can tell, there is no such service, or at least they’re not a recognized grading service. Most “grading services”  without a website, address, phone number or email are usually “self-slabbers” who grade their own coins, sell them, and don’t accept submissions from the general public.

When a coin site says “graded by…” but doesn’t give you the grade, it’s probably barely above “good” quality, which is almost as low as one can get. The coins in the images look “proof” quality, but the fine print says

What You Get:
• 1878 Morgan Dollar in Plastic Case with Attractive Display Box

Uncirculated, 1878 Morgan Silver Dollar runs $90-$300. circulated in very fine or extra fine condition, $35-$80.

"Fine" is defined as having 50% of the image remaining. "Very Fine" has 75% of the image remaining. That’s not bright and shiny, folks. That’s dinged, dented, used.

It’s still a pretty coin, but know what you’re buying ain’t shiny.

Trades

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Some prices are just too high, no matter how much you may want the prize. The one thing you cannot trade for your heart’s desire is your heart.
—Miles Vorkosigan, Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold

Tips for Birders

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In reply to a request for comments about birding, I wrote this on someone else’s blog. I thought you, my voracious reader… readers, might find it fun.

Keep in mind that “comfortable clothing” for birding means stuff you can hike in, go thru shrubbery in, wade a creek in. Story I read/heard years ago had a young woman arrive in low-heeled office shoes. For her, those were “comfortable”.

Keep a sense of humor. Bird names are daft. Early on, bird names were given by people who only had a dead bird to look at. Orange-crowned warblers are green.

Keep a sense of humor. Birders are daft. We have our own local names for things. Getting hung up on correct names is likely to cause the group to find every nickname for every bird on the local list. We did that to one poor fussy “perfect namer”. ‘Bout drove him nuts. Birders will translate, if you look puzzled.

Keep a sense of humor. The minute you bring up your binoculars, the bird will fly off. And just because everybody else can see the bird does not mean you’re either blind or stupid. Half a dozen of us were admiring a yellow-breasted chat, including me for whom most birds have an invisibility cloak. The walk leader, a man of some 30 years’ birding, couldn’t see it. We spent 15 minutes pointing out branches, and “left at the split, then out two feet”, and he still never saw the chat. It happens.

Birding will change how you view the world. Going out early in the morning, I don’t hear amorphous bird sounds. I hear the different voices, the jays, the finches, the warblers. I see trees and bushes not as green stuff planted in a yard, but as something the robins like, the hummers will feed from, the mockers will nest in. I was talking with a friend on the phone. I suddenly asked, “Did you just walk outside?” “Yes… why?” “Because I can hear the woodpecker.”