Friday News: Dallas Buyers Club, Marvel Comics, Danielle Steel, and more on kissing
Dallas Buyers Club abandons piracy court case – So once an Australian judge blocked the Dallas Buyers Club from pursuing major bucks from alleged infringers, the DBC announced that “it has better things to do for now,” thereby ending the case. If you’ve been following this case, you know that there has been some controversy over the means by which the DBC was pursuing alleged infringers, and if you are interested in the larger picture for Australian IP law, check out this analysis of the case.
In his judgment on the matter, Justice Nye Perram said he would have allowed DBC to send letters seeking damages from those who allegedly infringed its copyright as long as it only sought damages based on the retail price of the film and the costs associated with obtaining each infringer’s details.
However, DBC continued fighting for additional damages based on a one-off rental fee and a licence fee for uploading activity — two claims that Perram ruled to be “untenable” in August, therefore not allowing the company to send letters seeking damages from infringers. – ZD Net
As Marvel CEO Donates To The Trump Campaign, Its Team Continues To Works On Diversifying Superheroes – Artist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez and Darryl McDaniels have collaborated on Guardians of Infinity #3, which is focused on the Puerto Rican Taíno culture. Miranda-Rodriguez hopes that the story will demonstrate “how Latinos can fit into the mainstream” of pop culture representation. The issue, which was released on February 3rd, even incorporates Spanish into the dialogue.
“So many stories are told that do not authentically represent us Latinos,” he said. That’s why when the Darryl Makes Comics Editor-in-chief was tapped to work on his first issue for Marvel Comics, he saw an opportunity to connect it to his roots. The end result, co-created with Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (of Run DMC), is Guardians of Infinity #3, an issue that imagines a conflict between characters Thing, a.k.a Benjamin Grimm, and Groot.
While McDaniels infused Thing with his own personality, Miranda-Rodriguez studied the alien, tree-like Groot and found similarities between the character and the ceiba trees from his Puerto Rican childhood. “As an adolescent, I lived [in Puerto Rico],” he told Remezcla. “The town is named after the ceiba tree. In the center of the island is the Parque de la Ceiba in Ponce, Puerto Rico, where a 500-year-old ceiba tree grows to this day… The ceiba tree holds cultural significance throughout Latin America, West Africa and Southeast Asia.” – Remezcla
Danielle Steel: By the Book – You know, reading this interview with Daniel Steel, it’s difficult not to think about how dangerous it can be to see authors as a mere extension or reflection of their books. She gives a number of interesting answers to the questions they ask her, including one on her friendship with Alex Haley and another on her tendency to give every bad book a chance to turn around. In that, she reminded me of every readers who invests time in a book and hates to see it tank (time is a valuable resource!).
What author, living or dead, would you most like to meet, and what would you like to know?
Alex Haley (author of “Roots”) was a dear friend, and my mentor early in my career. He predicted I would do well, and I thought he was crazy. He was a remarkable human being. We both wrote late at night, and when my phone rang at 3 a.m., I always knew it was him, making sure I was working. I miss him greatly and would love to see him again (rather than an author I don’t know).
Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?
Who are the kissing cultures? According to the meta-analysis, couples in economically developed and socially stratified cultures are almost three times more likely to kiss on the lips than those who live in tribes—who are almost four times more likely to never kiss on the lips than counterparts in complex societies. So, lovers in sub-Saharan tribes tend not to kiss, at least in front of European ethnographers, but sophisticated New Yorkers who can’t put down their smartphones seem to love a good smooch, in private and in public.
What’s up with that? We can’t say for sure, but the cross-disciplinary evidence to date suggests the rise of romantic kissing is linked to the changing roles of women. Studies show, pretty conclusively, that kissing is critical to how modern women choose a sexual partner.
“Women—in the West anyway—have gained far more autonomy in mate choice, and they are freer to kiss and kiss whom they will,” says Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, a famed anthropologist and author of the 1999 bestseller Mother Nature. “Hard to say, though, what women in other cultures would wish to do, if they dared?” – Greater Good
