Email disclaimers: awesomeness edition

I love the confidentiality notice that Auckland University's Paul Myburgh attaches to the footer of his emails; I reproduce it in full below [he says it's not original to him; I can't find it online].

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: No confidentiality notice here. No warnings about the terrible things that I wish would happen to you if you were to take advantage of my typing something inadvertently and sending it to you and then wishing I hadn’t, and then the cold, icy trickle of fear and shame down the back of my neck as I try to turn back time and suck the email out of the ether. No, none of that. No attempts to impose order on this fundamentally chaotic universe by using law (threats of sanctions, injunctions, or confidentiality notices) to fix the cracks in my own uselessness or your own naughtiness. And yet here we sit: me typing this nonsense and you, perhaps the bigger fool, reading it. Still. Here we are. You are a little like one of those people, me included, who sit in the cinema until the end of the credits just in case there is another scene at the end of the movie. Just a little something. Something to make sense of hanging on just a little longer. Like Beckett said: we wait here without the courage to end it or the strength to go on. So, that’s disturbing isn’t it? You thought this would be uplifting or funny or something, but instead it’s led right to the dark heart of Samuel Beckett’s bleakest moment. Well, let’s have Camus then. For him we are like Sisyphus rolling our rocks painfully uphill forever before they crash back down the hill for us to start all over again. But, just at the moment we reach the top of the hill, and as the weight of the rock is taken from us as it begins its jagged, chaotic descent to the bottom again, we have the joy of that moment of being free of our burdens and walking back down the hill, even though we know that all that awaits us is the rock at the bottom and the knowledge that we have to do this for all eternity. He thought that a life punctuated by those joyous moments really did make it all worthwhile. That’s the skill: finding those moments and relishing them, I suppose. Probably not reading this. Well, I must say how much I have enjoyed this unexpected time that we have spent together. It’s been lovely to talk to you again. Bye-bye.

It's far cooler than Canterbury's boilerplate.

Life imitates Art - Strange Brew edition

The Canadians (and Canuckophiles) among you will recall that Bob & Doug MacKenzie were shamed into giving a 10 year old kid a refund for his ticket to Mutants of 2051 A.D. - the film within the film that didn't live up to audience expectations.

Well, if you can't shame a refund out of a film-maker, maybe you can sue. Here's Mike Masnick:

Sure, we've all noted that various movie trailers may not be representative of the movie, but is that an illegal bait-and-switch? Sarah Deming apparently believes so, and somehow found a lawyer willing to sue over this awful deception (thanks to Will for sending this in). Her specific complaint? She expected the recently released movie Drive to be much more like The Fast and the Furious based on the trailer.

...The lawsuit claimed that the producers and movie theater "promoted the film Drive as very similar to the Fast and Furious, or similar, series of movies." And yet... "Drive bore very little similarity to a chase or race action film... having very little driving in the motion picture." She's arguing that this violates Michigan's consumer protection laws. 

Oh, and to make it even better, she apparently would like to turn the whole thing into a class action lawsuit, so in case you, too, felt ripped off... This whole thing is so ridiculous, you almost wonder if it isn't a bad viral marketing campaign for Drive.

I could see a case for suing the folks who inexplicably rated Strange Brew only 6.5 stars at IMDB. What's wrong with you people? At least Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 70% fresh....

From a damaged city to one destroying itself

Christchurch City Councillor Sue Wells writes:

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you, I thank you, I thank you.

If ever I question my faith in rebuilding our beautiful southern city, I will think of you and this last day and remember why Christchurch matters and why we bother doing what we’re doing.

I spent the day today at our city’s earthquake damaged stadium. Here we are agonising over how to fix the damage nature has done. You’ve spent the same day incinerating shops and homes, looting, trying hard to find new ways to burn down the place real English citizens call home.

We have fallen victim simply to gravity and we will rebuild stronger and better here. You who are striking down your cities are nasty little neanderthalic two bit muppets with too much time on your hands and pathetic hate in your hearts, the waste products of drugs, laziness and chronic dependency. You don’t have it in you to build. You only have it in you to destroy. ...

Here we are trying to rebuild our city, doing it hard, doing it together. You are trying to tear your country down, a country for which you clearly feel nothing but contempt. You don’t even know why you’re doing it. It’s just another excuse to steal. That’s all you know how to do. To lie and cheat and steal from your neighbours. You are an embarrassment to your nation. I have the right to say this because you are part of my heritage and you disgrace me. ...

You have a nasty little lesson coming your way which I believe is going to take a lifetime to learn. It’s that money doesn’t grow on trees, that you get what you work for, and that the community which sustains you in times of trouble isn’t built by burning it down. ...

Here we have the experience of a community being brought together by being brought to its knees. You have the experience of having a bunch of muppets rip your community apart. Give me an earthquake any day. I’d much rather submit to the vagaries of the earth than regret having raised a generation of vipers.

Sue would probably be more optimistic on seeing decent folks' response to the riots: a cleanup army to rival Christchurch's Student Army that shovelled up much of our mess.

Cowen's summary on the economics of riots is good.