The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all tapped the treasures of Socotra’s natural world:  aromatic resins such as frankincense, medicinal aloe extract, and the dark red sap of the dragon’s blood tree, used for healing and as an artist’s color.  Adventurers came to harvest the island’s wealth, despite stories that it was guarded by giant snakes living in its caves.  The Queen of Sheba, Alexander the Great, and Marco Polo were among those who coveted Socotra’s riches.  The value of incense and dragon’s blood peaked during the time of the Roman Empire.  Afterward, the island served mostly as a way station for traders, passing centuries in relative cultural isolation.  Socotra’s residents lived generation after generation as their ancestors had: the mountain Bedouin minding their goats, the coastal residents fishing, and everyone harvesting dates . Island history was passed down through poetry, recited in the Socotri language.  Other than its strategic location off the Horn of Africa, there simply wasn’t anything about Socotra that interested the outside world.  But that has changed.  Research around the turn of the 20th century proved that this tropical island, despite its size of only 83 by 27 miles, ranks among the world’s most important centers of biodiversity, combining elements of Africa, Asia, and Europe in ways that still puzzle biologists.  The number of endemic plant species (those found nowhere else) per square mile on Socotra and three small outlying islands is the fourth highest of any island group on Earth—after Seychelles, New Caledonia, and Hawaii. The Hajhir Mountains, the rugged granite peaks that rise to nearly 5,000 feet in the center of the island, are likely home to the highest density of endemic plants in southwest Asia.  Every vista on Socotra, from the hot, dry lowlands to the mist-shrouded mountains, reveals wonders seen nowhere else. 

See photo of dragon's blood tree at:  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/06/socotra/white-text

The DVD-by-mail model, on which Netflix built its success, was enabled by the first sale doctrine, which cuts off a copyright owner’s distribution right with respect to a particular copy of a copyrighted work when that copy is first sold.  Because of the first sale doctrine, Netflix was not required to get permission from movie studios to set up its business.  In the early days, Netflix simply bought DVDs—lots of them—from whatever retailers were selling them and then rented those DVDs to its customers. If the movie studios didn’t like that, well, too bad.  Over time, as its customer base grew, Netflix did enter into direct purchasing and revenue sharing agreements with studios, but it wasn’t copyright law that required it to do so—at least not directly.  Netflix agreed to play ball with the studios in part to get more reliable access to larger numbers of DVDs.  If Netflix could have lawfully acquired enough DVDs to supply customer demand without bargaining with the studios, it would have had the right under copyright law to rent every last one, forever, without remitting a dime in copyright licensing fees.  Eventually, though, it became clear to both Netflix and the studios that streaming was the wave of the future.  And delivering movies by stream to remote customers is not covered by the first sale doctrine.   Unlike the DVD-by-mail model, Netflix streaming implicates the movie studios’ public performance right in their copyrighted works.  The law right now is a little unclear on this point, the question being under what circumstances streaming to the home is a transmission “to the public” within the meaning of the Copyright Act (James Grimmelmann has a great rundown of the cases and their tortured logic at:  http://laboratorium.net/archive/2011/03/16/that_zediva_thing_its_so_not_going_to_work

Annemarie Bridy  http://www.llrx.com/features/declineofdvdbymail.htm 

Q:  Why do we use the term "dollar" for our money?
A:  It comes from the German word "thaler," which was a large silver coin. Thalers were popular everywhere and other countries made their own, including Spain.  American colonists often traded in the "Spanish dollar," so "dollar" was an easy choice as a name for America's new currency.  The dollar was one of the first silver coins made in the United States, in 1794.  

 U.S. Mint.   http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Jul/JU/ar_JU_073012.asp?d=073012,2012,Jul,30&c=c_13 

Excavating for the first time in the sprawling complex of Xultún in Guatemala's Petén region, archaeologists have uncovered a structure that contains what appears to be a work space for the town's scribe, its walls adorned with unique paintings -- one depicting a lineup of men in black uniforms -- and hundreds of scrawled numbers.  Many are calculations relating to the Maya calendar.   The vegetation-covered structure was first spotted in 2010 by Saturno's student Max Chamberlain, who was following looters' trenches to explore the site of Xultún, hidden in the remote rain forest of the Petén.  Then, supported by a series of grants from the National Geographic Society, Saturno and his team launched an organized exploration and excavation of the house, working urgently to beat the region's rainy seasons, which threatened to erase what time had so far preserved.  Xultún, a 12-square-mile site where tens of thousands once lived, was first discovered about 100 years ago by a Guatemalan worker and roughly mapped in the 1920s by Sylvanus Morley, who named the site "Xultún" -- "end stone."  Scientists from Harvard University mapped more of the site in the 1970s.  The house discovered by Saturno's team was numbered 54 of 56 structures counted and mapped at that time.  Thousands at Xultún remain uncounted.  The team's excavations reveal that monumental construction at Xultún began in the first centuries B.C.  The site thrived until the end of the Classic Maya period; the site's last carved monument dates to around 890 A.D.  Xultún stood only about five miles from San Bartolo, where in 2001 Saturno found rare, extensive murals painted on the walls of a ritual structure by the ancient Maya.  See a photo of one mural at:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120510141953.htm 

The art of writing can be reduced to a few simple rules. Colson Whitehead shares 11 rules, and at least one will surprise you.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/books/review/colson-whiteheads-rules-for-writing.html?pagewanted=all 

Writer James Barrie awarded his copyright on Peter Pan to a London children's hospital in 1929.  As far as the Great Ormond Street Hospital is concerned, it owns the rights so long as Peter remains airborne -- or at least until 2023, when the hospital's U.S. copyright over the original Peter Pan play expires. In a suit filed in San Francisco federal court in late 2002, Emily Somma -- author of "After the Rain: A New Adventure for Peter Pan" -- says the characters created a century ago now belong to the world.  Peter Pan, Wendy, Tinker Bell and Captain Hook first appeared in Barrie's book "The Little White Bird" in 1902, followed two years later by Barrie's better-known stage play.  The hospital's blanket copyright protection ended in 1987 -- 50 years after Barrie's death.  Britain's Parliament then granted the hospital a perpetual right to royalties from any British publication.  The works are in the public domain in Canada, free of copyright restrictions.  But in the United States, a 1976 law extended the hospital's copyright over the 1904 Peter Pan play and all works derived from it until 2023.  The hospital says its rights to the play and its characters entitle it to forbid U.S. sales of any competing works involving Peter Pan.  http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Lawsuit-seeks-to-eliminate-copyright-on-Peter-Pan-2708750.php

Great Ormond Street Hospital (“the Hospital”) and June Emily Somma on March 22, 2005 announce the resolution of two years’ litigation concerning the copyright and trademark rights surround J M Barrie’s story and character Peter Pan.  The parties wish to express their shared

understanding that Ms. Somma’s novel After the Rain: A New Adventure for Peter Pan

constitutes a fair use which does not infringe on any of the US intellectual property rights

currently held by the Hospital.  The Hospital believes that Ms Somma has made an important

contribution to the field of children’s literature and recognises her love of children.  The Hospital and Ms Somma have put in place an arrangement consisting of mutually-agreed conditions under which Ms Somma may develop After the Rain and the further adventures of his storyline and characters.  http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/attachments/SommaPressRelease.pdf 

In Ohio, R.C. 4507.06 states:

“(A)(1)  Every application for a driver’s license or motorcycle operator’s license or endorsement, or duplicate of any such license or endorsement, shall be made upon the approved form furnished by the registrar of motor vehicles and shall be signed by the applicant.

Every application shall state the following: 

(a)  The applicant’s name, date of birth, social security number if such has been assigned, sex, general description, including height, weight, color of hair, and eyes, residence address, including county of residence, duration of residence in this state, and country of citizenship;…”

courtesy of Peter Mattiace, editor, The Courier

A few Ohio residents have had to state how long they have lived in Ohio when renewing their drivers licenses recently, and the editor of the Findlay, Ohio paper contacted the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.  This provision has been part of the Ohio Revised Code since at least 1985.  There is no requirement for Ohio legislative histories to be kept, so the original intent for this question is anyone's guess. 

The World Heritage list kept by Unesco is full of historic city centers, old bridges and unique mosques and palaces.  Early in July 2012, a somewhat different site made it onto the blue-ribbon list:  a collection of 19th-century folk-art decoration and wall paintings by artists whose work remains hidden away in farm buildings in the Swedish countryside.   Some of the painters' names are unknown, but the art, in the north-central province of Hälsingland, was getting a higher profile even before the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization decided to add seven farms to its heritage list because of their "outstanding universal value."  (The list now includes 745 cultural attractions world-wide.)  J.S. Marcus  See picture by "the blue painter" in 1853 at:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443343704577549113384614298.html?mod=googlenews_wsj 

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