Posts by Mark Harris
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Interesting article on Portfilio.com
The Future of Music: Record Labels Get Real
by Sara ClemenceAfter years of blaming the internet for their woes, the major labels are starting to face the music— and see the problem as one they made themselves.
To be sure, the death of the album does not mean that the music industry itself is over. Parts of it are actually thriving. “The financing of artists with the intent of making money off their music?" predicts Dave Goldberg, a former Capital Records executive and founder of the company that became Yahoo Music. "That’s going to do quite well.” Goldberg is now a VC at Benchmark Capital in Menlo Park, California. Steven Masur, the managing director of Masur Law, a law firm that specializes in new media issues, notes that “there’s not a problem with the live industry. Live is doing great.” Publishers are also getting rich, monetizing music by placing it in television commercials, on mobile phones, and in movies. The money is there, it’s just not coming from the individual consumer...
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I loved Anna Marie Cox: "Who wouldn't want to teabag John McCain?" with such a straight face.
I agree Dick Morris is loathsome - odd that he thinks the IMF is run by Europeans, but par for the course.
And, for all of those people who think spelling doesn't matter? I offer you "marshall law".
Looks like you had a real fun day, Russell. Where should we send the valium?
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Wow. Just wow.
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What a devilish thing to say, Hilary!
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We do at least know that he was a Capricorn,
Unlikely. December in Judaea is not a time that you're out in the fields with your sheep, as it's too cold. The christmas feast was placed in December by the early church in an attempt (largely successful) to subsume the pagan Saturnalia. Similar for All Saints/All Souls to "christianise" what became Halloween (a very pagan celebration)
Even Easter is suspiciously close to Passover in timing...
He's mentioned a couple of times by the historian Josephus, a first century Jewish historian who became a Roman citizen.
Josephus was born around AD37, so is not contemporary. He was also notoriously unreliable. As the famous Wikipedia reports:
The following passage appears in the Greek version of Antiquities of the Jews 18.63-64, in the translation of William Whiston:
3.3 Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
As usual with ancient texts, the surviving sources for this passage are Greek manuscripts, all minuscules, the oldest of which dates from the 11th century. It is possible that these all derive from a single exemplar written in uncial, as is the case with most other ancient Greek texts transmitted to the present in medieval copies, and have come down through the hands of the church. The text of Antiquities appears to have been transmitted in two halves — books 1–10 and books 11–20. But other ad hoc copies of this passage also exist.The first to cite this passage of Antiquities was Eusebius, writing in about 324, who quotes the passage in essentially the same form.
The topic of the Testimonium's authenticity has attracted much scholarly discussion. Louis Feldman counts 87 articles published during the period of 1937-1980, "the overwhelming majority of which question its authenticity in whole or in part".
Then there's:
Tacitus, the Roman historian of about the same time, mentions Jesus, as well as the fact that he was killed by Pontius Pilate.
Tacitus was born in 57 AD and never went near Judaea in his life. In the Annals he was writing about the great fire of Rome and the suspicion that Nero had started it.
Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians [or Chrestians; see below] by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular
There's some debate about whether this was added later by early Christian scribes, though most scholars accept it, apparently. But there are discrepancies in the passage, and most of the translations we rely on (my Latin being non-existent) we should remember were made by Christian scholars - never overlook the strength of a vested interest.
And Suetonius metions a "Chrestus" in passing when talking about the Jews - which some people have taken as a reference to Jesus. (though Suetonius is unreliable, being mostly interested in imperial tittle-tattle)
Agreed, though I would like to read some of his "lost" books such as Lives of Famous Whores and Physical Defects of Mankind.
Suetonius is one of those writers you look to for colour, rather than accuracy.There are also references in Pliny the Younger and in Lucian.
Pliny was a friend of Tacitus and employed Suetonius, so the three of them may have had access to the same source (maybe Josephus, even). Pliny's reference to christians was in the course of letters to the Emperor Trajan (Book 10) regarding official policy towards the christians, and was probably edited after his death by Suetonius.
And Lucian was a Syrian satirist in the 2nd century, and refers to the christians in the course of The Passing of Peregrinus
So none of these can be seen as authoritative. Indeed, there are more reputable references to Robin Hood, than to an historical Jesus of Nazareth.Also, "Christ" wasn't actually his last name, and it's possible it wouldn't have been used in his lifetime. It's from the Greek Χριστός or Khristós, which means "annointed one" and was a term used to indicate the Messiah. Thus, christians are followers of the Christ, or the Messiah.
The joys of a catholic childhood, and thanks to Wikipedia for simple references ;-)
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I mean, have you ever watched him dance?
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I'm just glad that He is a loving and gentle Mod, rather than cruel and vengeful.
He does move in mysterious ways, but.
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It doesn't matter whether we close off the thread (and incidentally, I think it's still a discussion worth having), we're going to run into this anywhere we discuss copyright on PAS, however tangentially.
I'd rather we just stopped allowing a legitimate discussion to be regularly derailed because one person cannot bring himself to behave in good faith.
I'm not asking you to boot him, Russell - that would play right into his victim complex. I, however, am going to ignore him and I'd suggest everyone else do the same.
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I've already said I won't engage with him further, though his response is full enough of mis-characterizations to warrant correction, just as I've already said his prolixity is inversely relational to his content, which I think is proven here.
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The secret knowledge is that you only have to paste in the URL.
It's secret Knowledge, Bro.