Copyright 2013 Dynamist Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:56:45 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Dynamist :: Writings http://www.dynamist.com webmaster@dynamist.com (Dynamist) webmaster@dynamist.com en-us http://www.dynamist.com/2449/life-is-more-interesting-than-fiction-imr Fri, 5 Apr 2013 15:44:00 EST The TV show Mr. Selfridge, discussed in my most recent Bloomberg View column, is very loosely based on the biography Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead. One thing that becomes clear when you read the book is that, aside from its http://www.dynamist.com/2448/shopping-for-pleasure-why-department-stores Fri, 5 Apr 2013 15:11:50 EST In my latest Bloomberg View column, I use the new PBS show Mr. Selfridge (preview video above)  as an excuse to delve into the history of department stores--which, like the history of consumption in general, gets short shrift in both scholarship and http://www.dynamist.com/2447/my-recent-lecture-meaning-and-value-in-commercial Mon, 1 Apr 2013 19:14:01 EST The Design Criticism program at the School of Visual Arts in New York recently invited me to give a lecture, followed by a lively Q&A period. Here's the video. Virginia Postrel, "Meaning and Value in Commercial Culture" from D-Crit on Vimeo. http://www.dynamist.com/2445/is-honda-making-incremental-progress-glamorous Tue, 8 Jan 2013 01:35:55 EST I think it works. http://www.dynamist.com/2444/did-george-lucas-read-vogue Tue, 25 Dec 2012 16:10:00 EST While doing research in issues of Vogue from 1974, I found this familiar-seeming ad for a "luxury fabric from the 21st Century."   http://www.dynamist.com/2443/why-do-we-miss-flying-cars-but-not-robot-maids Sun, 16 Dec 2012 20:48:00 EST It looks like suburbia, but it still represents escape. In my new Bloomberg View column, I criticize the trendy denigration of technological progress that doesn't solve "big problems" like going to Mars. Here's an excerpt: In speeches, interviews and http://www.dynamist.com/2442/was-robert-frost-a-dixiecrat Fri, 14 Dec 2012 03:25:27 EST Perusing the catalog for Profiles in History's Hollywood auction on Saturday, I was struck by lot #208: "Robert Frost signed book to Strom Thurmond." Neither Robert Frost nor Strom Thurmond is someone you expect to show up between Bela Lugosi and Grace http://www.dynamist.com/2441/robert-frost-estate-does-use-copyright-to-crush Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:54:00 EST In response to my Bloomberg View column on copyright excesses, my college classmate Joanne Karohl posted the following comment: Since Frost poems were mentioned in the article, I wanted to mention an interesting use of copyright to prevent someone from http://www.dynamist.com/2440/dynamists-unite-how-republicans-can-work-with Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:23:00 EST Writing in Forbes, Rich Karlgaard explains the dynamist-stasist dichotomy I developed in The Future and Its Enemies and argues that it offers the best way for Republicans to think about how to work with the second term of the Obama administration. "How http://www.dynamist.com/2439/stopping-by-woods-on-a-snowy-evening-without Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:56:00 EST In my latest Bloomberg View column, I use Robert Frost's 1923 poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" to illustrate the excesses of the current copyright system. YouTube is full of videos of people performing the poem in various ways, with and http://www.dynamist.com/2438/why-the-james-bond-of-iskyfall-i-is-heroic-but Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:55:09 EST In a survey of the James Bond movies, pegged to the opening of Skyfall, Slate's Isaac Chotiner points to a quality essential to 007's appeal: James Bond is not a "realistic" character; real people occasionally smile. But he is a compelling and distinct http://www.dynamist.com/2437/jonathan-rauch-on-why Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:02:00 EST "Whenever anyone tells you, 'I've got it right. I've got the one true answer and everyone else is wrong and I'm going to enforce it," that person is not only a menace to freedom but, more important, a menace to human thriving and human knowledge. It http://www.dynamist.com/2436/the-breast-cancer-research-fund-invented-pink Tue, 20 Nov 2012 12:47:00 EST In two recent Bloomberg View columns (here and here), I looked at the implications of defining cancers not just by site in the body but by underlying molecular characteristics. In the first column, I particularly criticized the pink wave that overwhelms http://www.dynamist.com/2435/what-do-you-do-when-you-reach-facebook-5000 Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:51:00 EST Because the interface is a million times easier than the one for this site, I've long used Facebook for what amounts to blogging. (The items also automatically show up on my Twitter feed, which doesn't happen here.) But I'm starting to run up against http://www.dynamist.com/2434/get-the-best-experts-in-a-room-and-what-do-they Tue, 14 Aug 2012 17:37:42 EST In my latest Bloomberg View column, I argue that the Republicans ought to emulate Ross Perot's 1992 campaign infomercials: The traditional roles of a U.S. presidential running mate are ticket balancer and attack dog. With their choices of Al Gore and