h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lots of stories in the press this week about the lawsuit against the wildlife photographer who got a wonderful "selfie" photo of a monkey grinning at its own reflection a while back:

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/560/cpsprodpb/2078/production/_85721380_monkey-selfie.jpg

It's such a great photo that I intend to use it if I find any of my colleagues have left their laptops unlocked and unattended - it will replace their profile photo on the company instant messaging system.

But back to that lawsuit. It's all about whether someone can own copyright for a photo they didn't take themselves:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/24/peta_sues_photographer_macaque_selfie/

Animal rights zealots PETA and copyright haters Wikipedia think he shouldn't be benefitting from his work (for different reasons), however ridiculous their arguments may seem.

If they win the case, then it may have a big effect on wildlife photography in general, much of which is remotely triggered these days.

With modern technology it can be hard to decide who is taking the picture.

My camera, for example, can do the following:

1. Take a portrait, but wait for the subject to smile before opening the shutter.

2. Remember the faces, names and birthdays of all my friends. In a group shot, focus on the person whose birthday it is today.

So my own control of the taking is reduced when I use these options.

Interesting.

I think I mentioned in a journal a year or two ago the pedestrian-controlled road crossings used by the Orthodox Jewish community in North London. As they are not allowed to operate any machinery on the Sabbath (and this includes pressing buttons), the council installed sensors instead. The Jews seem happy that walking towards the sensor with the intent of it triggering and hence stopping the traffic is not operating machinery.

Our oven has a "Sabbath setting" which means you can program it a day in advance to turn itself on and off. Useful for cooking your Sabbath meal. But are you allowed to open the oven door to take the meal out?

Oh, I'd have thought so. Rabbis must have to operate doors to leave their houses to attend the synagogue.

I wonder if there's an oven with a 'British' setting, so you can start cooking the vegetables for Christmas dinner a month in advance.

Tsk tsk tsk

RE post 3

For several years I kept my sailboat on a small bay near here. Most of the bay was fairly deep, but along the western side the channel of the Inter-Coastal ran through it, with a draw bridge at each end.

When dredging the channel sand is piled up along both sides, but the area in front of the bridges are kept clear so boats can turn while waiting for the bridge to open. Most only open, on a schedule, a few times each hour.

If you wish to open the bridge there is a signal you can give on your horn, or most larger boats just call on their ship to shore radio (VHF) to request the next opening.

On a few occasions I have reached the turning area in front of the bridge to hear the warning bells on the bridge sound, without having asked for it to open. As the only boat in the area high enough to require an opening, and several hundred cars having to stop and wait, you feel compelled to go through the open bridge.

You now have to sail for 20 or 30 minutes before turning around, and you now HAVE to open the bridge to get back home.

I would much rather they had waited for me to ask

F S

You are doing penance for all those who press the pedestrian crossing button, then cross while it's red, then a couple of minutes later 20 cars have to wait at the lights but no one is crossing.

I know what you mean, FS - as I'm a wheelchair user, people often think they're doing me a favour by opening a door for me, but at least 3 times in the last year I've been waiting to speak to someone and just happened to be sitting vaguely near a closed door. Someone else then opened the door for me and I felt obliged to go through. I stayed outside for a while to see if the person I wanted to talk to would follow me, but then had to go back through the doorway by myself and rejoin the queue...

Asking first helps in all sorts of situations

Zap! You've been good-deeded.