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He believed the play would come alive for Americans because it deals with “the question of whether the democratic guarantees protecting political minorities ought to be set aside in time of crisis,” which is “the central theme of our social life today.”…

…1953
January
Miller’s enduring historical drama The Crucible is staged and has a run of 197, a disappointment after Death of a Salesman. (It will not reach London until April 1956, where the Royal Court presents it 32 times.) Critics’ responses are mixed, in large part because some consider the play a letdown after Salesman, while others are preoccupied with its analogy to the McCarthy hearings. In March 1958 it will be revived Off-Broadway in a production that is much better received and that Miller far prefers; this time it attains a run of 633. It will eventually become his most frequently revived play. The script had its origin in April 1952, when Miller began studying the original court records of the Salem witch trials at the same time that people he admired were naming names to stay out of trouble with HUAC (notably Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan). He was struck by the similarity between the two witch hunts: in both cases a small group of zealots was creating a terrifying new “subjective reality,” which gradually took on “a holy resonance” and engulfed a large number of people. This past phenomenon repeated in the present, Miller says, “underlies every word in The Crucible,” even though he took care to avoid “pressing the allegory.”

Arko Datta, India, Reuters.
Woman mourns�relative�killed in�tsunami, Cuddalore, India, Tamil Nadu, 28 December

(more here)

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Virginia lawmakers dropped their droopy-pants bill Thursday after the whole thing became just too embarrassing.

The bill, which would have slapped a $50 fine on people who wear their pants so low that their underwear is visible in “a lewd or indecent manner,” passed the state House on Tuesday but was killed by a Senate committee in a unanimous vote.

Republican Sen. Thomas K. Norment said news reports implied that lawmakers were preoccupied with droopy pants.

“I find that an indignation, which dampens my humor,” Norment said.

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The harm isn’t just to the wholesome values of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, hinted Tecmo spokesperson Melody Pfeiffer. There’s a principle at stake. “Hackers, if they’re allowed to do this kind of thing, will be allowed to hack into any game, anywhere,” Pfeiffer warns. “We spent millions of dollars to develop these games, and people are coming in and changing the code to their liking, and that’s illegal.”

Try it with a few words changed:

“Mechanics, if they’re allowed to do this kind of thing, will be allowed to work on any car, anywhere,” Pfeiffer warns. “We spent millions of dollars to develop these cars, and people are coming in and changing the fenders to their liking, and that’s illegal.”

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This stunning image features the heat shield impact site of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

On the left, the main heat shield piece is inverted and reveals its metallic insulation layer, glinting in the sunlight. The main piece stands about 1 meter tall (about 3.3 feet) and about 13 meters (about 43 feet) from the rover.

The other large, flat piece of debris near the center of the image is about 14 meters (about 46 feet) away. The circular feature on the right side of the image is the crater made by the heat shield’s impact. It is about 2.8 meters (9.2 feet) in diameter but only about 5 to 10 centimeters (about 2 to 4 inches) deep. The crater is about 6 meters (about 20 feet) from Opportunity in this view. Smaller fragments and debris can be seen all around the impact site.

The impact excavated a large amount of reddish subsurface material. Darker materials cover part of the crater’s flat floor and have formed a streak or jet of material pointing toward the two largest heat shield fragments.

Bigger picture here.

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A few hours ago the Dutch parliament has decided in a close vote (71-69) that the Dutch government should not vote for the proposal for a EU Directive on software patents. This means that the Dutch government is instructed to vote against the Software Patent Directive if it is put on the agenda at a meeting of the European Council of Ministers next week. The decision of the Dutch parliament strengthens attempts of MEPs of the European Parliament to send the Software Directive back to the drawing board.

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But from what I can tell, the penalties laid out for downloading one season of a TV show with BitTorrent are much harsher than if you actually stole a DVD set of the same show from a government store. I lay out a practical example in detail below, but to cut to the chase: For stealing the DVD you could face no more than up to 1 year imprisonment and up to a $100,000 fine; for downloading the same material you could face statutory damages of up to $3,300,000, costs and attorney’s fees (ie: the other guy’s attorneys), as well as up to 1 year imprisonment, and up to a $100,000 fine.

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More than 200 scientists employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been directed to alter official findings to lessen protections for plants and animals, a survey released Wednesday says.

[..]

More than half of the biologists and other researchers who responded to the survey said they knew of cases in which commercial interests, including timber, grazing, development and energy companies, had applied political pressure to reverse scientific conclusions deemed harmful to their business.