One year ago today
Fermi's Paradox, the tapeworm-and-anus versus: Fermi's Paradox speculates that the fact that our civilization has not yet encountered evidence of alien civilization implies that such life must not exist. In "Tapeworm Logic," Charlie Stross brilliantly skewers this by looking at the version of Fermi's Paradox that a tapeworm-philosopher might arrive at.
Five years ago today
Thomas Edison's crappy, price-fixing EULA: This record is sold upon the condition that it shall not be re-sold to or by any unauthorized dealer or used for duplication, and that it shall not be sold, or offered for sale, by the original, or any subsequent purchaser (except by authorized jobber or factor to an authorized retail dealer) for less than 35 cents in the United States, nor in other countries for less than the price given in the current Edison catalogues of the country in which it is sold. Upon any breach of this condition, the license to use and vend this record, implied from such sale, immediately terminates.
Ten years ago today
Bankruptcy trustee demands freelance writers return their paychecks: A bankruptcy trustee overseeing the remains of collapsed magazine has begun to sue the freelancers that the magazine paid in its last days, arguing that the money they were paid two years before rightly belongs to the magazine's secured creditors.
