After Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States late last year, naturally enough, one supposes, speculation and discussion turned to the significant task Obama’s security detail had ahead of them in keeping the “first black President” safe.

In a blog post at The Guardian, Daniel Nasaw writes about one aspect of protecting Obama that is considerably less life threatening than the sorts of things the secret service might be concerned with, but far more interesting to those curious about IP: unofficial ‘Obamabilia’ – the flags, mugs, t-shirts, advent calendars, mousepads, even g-strings that enterprising American businesspeople have flooded the market with to service the demand of a US public who can’t get enough of the next King Arthur to enter Camelot.

Georgetown University Law School Professor Rebecca Tushnet, who is quoted in the story, suggests that despite the fact that a right to publicity is protected in most of the United States, which would afford Obama the right to control what items feature his image and by whom they are made or sold, the political reality of public life means this is an area of that publicity law which is largely untested. Tushnet speculates that a tension exists between the right to publicity on the one hand and the right to free speech under the US Constitution’s first amendment, on the other.

In Australia, the Trade Practices Act would afford protection to politicians facing this problem, preventing unscrupulous traders from engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct, but again the political reality of taking action under that act might actually preclude it.

Still, it’s interesting to speculate on whether the market appeal of Kevin Rudd g-strings would be as strong as that for Barack Obama?

PS: Greetings to the secret service bot that will inevitably find this story…

Original story: Buy the Obama inauguration thong | World news | guardian.co.uk

Like many young singers, my introduction to lied came via the works of Schubert, in particular Die Forelle (The Trout). For my sins, I’ve sat through countless renditions of The Trout, most of them horrible, and more often than not performed by small, tubby boys who’ve been cajoled by their mothers into singing lessons and, ultimately, public humiliation at local eisteddfodau.

As the article in Harper’s Magazine (linked below) suggests, the lyrics are deceptive in their simplicity. What a joy it is to finally divine new meaning from a piece of music which has become so devoid of it for me.

Armed with this knowledge, enduring changing voice renditions of Schubert just became infinitely more endurable, if not enjoyable.

Schubart’s Defiant Trout (Harper’s Magazine)

Book: The Unknown Terrorist
Author: Richard Flanagan
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2006

Having recently seen an Australian Story documentary about Richard Flanagan and, to my shame, knowing nothing about him, I set about to remedy this lacuna in my knowldege of Australian literature and read ‘The Unknown Terrorist’.

Had I not been given the impression that Flanagan was (perhaps is) a sometime enfant terrible of the Australian (world, discuss?) literary scene, my expectations of this novel might have been different. In that case, I’d merely have accepted ‘The Unknown Terrorist’ as a pulp crime thriller (in the ilk of Michael Connelly) and taken it for what it is. Unfortunately, Flanagan’s pedigree (Rhodes scholar no less) combined with the opening passages of the book, which quote Nietzsche, lead one to expect much, much more than this novel delivers.

Flanagan was obviously inspired by the circumstances of Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks, the Australians who were famously imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, and their trial by media in Australia, while not by court in the USA.

The plot is far fetched although not totally beyond the realms of believability, but the characters are superficial and, as a reader, I did not really care for the protagonist, the Doll. Was it Flanagan’s intention that the reader should meander through the book with a sense of being slightly detached from the action? Perhaps that’s the genius of it, but if it was, it was a genius largely wasted on me as a reader.

On the whole an acceptable read, but not something I’d breathlessly compel friends to commit to. Despite that, I’m seeking out other novels by Flanagan in the hope I’ll come to understand what the fuss is all about.

My Son, Hugo, turns 3 today. He continues to be an eternal source of delight, wonder, awe, surprise, concern, education and frustration. It’s hard not to feel totally inadequate for the task of parenting when you consider the magnitude of the responsibility… but with each day you get another chance of doing a better job of it than you did the day before.

His Mum amazed me with her strength and beauty on the evening he was born. She still does today…. on a day which is as much hers as it is his.

Happy Birthday, Hugo!

Just. One. More…

Tags: Birthday, Hugo

The music “industry” gets more and more interesting every week. In a nation like Australia where the tyranny of distance has always given record companies an edge by sheer fact of their providing distribution logistics, the internet is now turning all that on its head.

A YOUNG Australian heavy-metal band that has had no airplay on mainstream radio stations has sent shockwaves through the music industry by making it into the Top 10 of the ARIA charts. [via Sydney Morning Herald]

Of course these kinds of stories never apply to artists who appeal to grown ups, but the young punks of today are the bored middle-aged people of tomorrow. Makes me glad I don’t have shares in a record company!

Tags: Music, ARIAS,

Stephen Wiltshire draws Rome from memory

What an incredible, mysterious gift it is to be born an autistic savant.

I know I’m a notoriously early adopter, but I’ve just switched to Google Reader as my primary feed reader. Apart from the fact that it means I can read my feeds on any internet enabled device (including my BlackBerry) the thing that really won me over is an integrated “shared items” feature. Simply by ticking a news item as shared within the reader window, goolge creates a blog-like page of all the stuff I’ve found interesting which I can share with my friends and family… and best of all, it happens behind the scenes without my having to lift a finger. The page it creates even has a feed of its own!

Here’s my shared items.

Now, admittedly there’s no commenting or any of the other fun stuff that goes with a real blog, but even so, I think this is pretty damned cool!

Yet another step forward in Google’s global domination!

Technorati Tags: Computers, Google, Innovation, News

In direct contrast to the approach adopted by the CEO of Universal (which I posted about last week), Warner Music have signed a deal with YouTube which allows its material to be legally used.

The BBC writes:

The agreement also covers the use of material in homemade videos, which form a large part of YouTube’s content.

Both companies hailed it as a landmark agreement, coming days after Universal Music said it was considering legal action over sites such as YouTube.

A royalty-tracking system has been developed by YouTube to detect when videos on the site are using copyrighted material and work out how much Warner is owed in advertising revenue.

Note the bit about “use of material in homemade videos”. This means that Warner have sought to effectively protect not only material which they created or licensed, but also new content which exploits their copyrights. Hurrah to an innovative corporate approach to new ways of accessing the art.

Technorati Tags: Music, News, Warner Music, Youtube

According to a new OECD report, Australia spends less on early childhood education than any other nation in the industrialised world. The report shows Australia spends 0.1 percent of GDP on preschool education. Norway, the nation that spends the most, allocates just over 1 percent of GDP to preschool education.

While not wishing to take the heat off Australia for a second, since the results of this research should make any thinking Australian hang their head in shame, that Norway with the highest only spends 1 percent is an equally disturbing statistic in my view.

Is it any wonder we live in a world of crisis, violence and misunderstanding when we spend so little on shaping our most vulnerable when it counts.

The jesuits would be shaking their heads in disbelief… discuss.

[Via - The Australian]

Technorati Tags: child care, early childhood education, News, OECD report