Our dog is a mutt, a happy rescued stray. We think he is part Husky, but nobody really knows. That said, we know he loves snow and cold weather. This is as he sat in our yard looking over his kingdom in a snow storm.

Orioles Park at Camden Yards, originally uploaded by gleefulgecko.

We had the worst trip to and from the stadium last night that you can imagine. The bus had raised their prices and were running less buses then got stuck in traffic on the way in, we barely made the game before the opening pitch despite getting to the bus stop more than an hour before the game. It was appalling. On the way home we got to Greenbelt on the BW Parkway and got in a huge traffic jam. They had closed the Parkway. A horrible night for driving.

The game on the other hand was wonderful. The Orioles won for the second night in a row vs the Yankees, which feels nice even though I know it is April. Charles was paying attention to the game most of the night, he used to get bored pretty early. The weather was perfect. The only way it could be better was if the game had been in August and mattered for the play offs.

Actually this is really cool and not summer of feary at all, just thought it was neat.

So do you know obscenity when you see it? Is this photo obscene? It is in Virginia Beach. Pretty harsh I think. Abercrombie looks like another ‘free spirit youth’ type store like so many others. I admit the photo is risqué, but I would rate it a looooong way from obscene myself.

In the case of the video however I feel she is wrong. This was clearly fair use under almost all the definitions of fair use bar the academic. She should let go on this one. She won’t though, she is convinced that her property rights are absolute and trump all and so is striking back at the wrong target. This won’t help her in the long run, people will remember this instead of the times she is clearly in the right. I had never heard of her before, now I associate her with abuse of the DMCA. She will probably stay bitter and blame the video.

This sort of thing is why I think we need some common sense reform in the copyright world. Ms. Hartwell should be protected from real theft, artists should be allowed to create and people should know when to let go. The only way to make sure your work is never stolen is to never show it to anyone. Once you show anything it becomes part of our culture, expecting it go completely back into your box is both greedy and naive. I think it is sad that Ms. Hartwell has decided to hide her work from the world and it is definitely not to the public good that she has had the video pulled from two sites already. Is that what we as a society want? Art suppressed and artists hiding their works to be ‘safe’?

EDIT: The offending photo has been pulled. Ms. Hartwell has suceeded in further hiding her work from the world both here and on Flickr. A win for her, a loss for the rest of us on both counts.

This is Conwy Castle in Wales, one of the castles built by Edward the First after his conquest of Wales. The castle is in great shape and town walls around Conwy are remarkable. The castle cost £15,000 to build in the 13th Century, worth about £45,000,000 today and this was only one of a dozen or so he built all at once. You can see the set of photos I took around the castle and town here.

A nice shot of Belvoir Castle from my last UK trip.

This old skull was on the floor in the basement of Belvoir Castle during my visit there today. Either left out and abused by tourists or left to fall apart after being brought in from an exhibit, it was a creepy little thing to stumble across.

My hotel room view tonight as the sun sets.

*This may not be strictly speaking, the truth.