The Off Topic Topic

[Syt]

Austrian satirical website Die Tagespresse (Austrian The Onion?) recently had an article about Eva Dichand, member of the family that owns the major tabloid "Kronen Zeitung" and is part of the owners of the free daily tabloid rag (and news site) Heute.

Turns out the picture they used had restricted terms - it was only to be used for a 2014 press release about her. So they received a cease & desist letter from her lawyers, plus a bill for EUR 1000 for using the image plus EUR 1781.28 in lawyer fees (they argue the lawyer fees are justified considering the effort of several minutes for preparing a standardized email, the electricity required for sending the email etc.).

The Tagespresse responded with a new article. They agree that they made a mistake, that Eva Dichand is in her right, and of course they will pay the bill in full. They also thank her for taking these actions as it brought a lot more attention to the original article and have replaced the original image of her with one of Barbra Streisand (a reference to the Streisand Effect).

Further they point out that they "just discovered" heute.at had been using images/screenshots from Tagespresse without express permission and are now charging them with EUR 1000 per picture, plus lawyer fees of EUR 1781.28, payable to a charity that supports homeless people.

[Josquius]

Duolingo annoys me.
When it does these multiple choice questions. Often one of the wrong ones beats the right one.

Like look up there !
The possible answers
Its my new shoes
Its a bird
Its a clean floor.

The answer they claim is a bird.
But I'd be far more more likely to tell someone to look up there if thats where my shoes had gone.

[Josquius]

I've been thinking. Isn't it weird how very cheap "stuff" is these days?

If you want a thing, you can buy that thing with little issue.
Yeah yeah. Look at my humble brag. Guy in a western country with a decent job.
But I do think this is a general thing. The cost of buying most items (bar housing) is massively cheaper relative to income than it once was.

I can't help but think this is somehow related to our civilization's development. Thoughts I've had in the past about how we've surpassed an age where manufacturing capacity was a constraint and now its the jobs that are the commodity.
Combined with the increasing importance of digital 'stuff' too, could it be that this is a sign that materially we've reached a stage of being a post-materialistic civilization?
Its interesting in a way in that theres a lot of people still alive who haven't got the memo and are still living in this sort of mindset where 'stuff' was limited.

Am I just high on the fumes of Monday morning here or unintentionally channelling some actual philosophy or (unlikely) having a decent original thought?

[Threviel]

For a billion or so of us, sure. Not so for the rest.

[Zanza]

I've been thinking. Isn't it weird how very cheap "stuff" is these days?

If you want a thing, you can buy that thing with little issue.
Yeah yeah. Look at my humble brag. Guy in a western country with a decent job.
But I do think this is a general thing. The cost of buying most items (bar housing) is massively cheaper relative to income than it once was.

I can't help but think this is somehow related to our civilization's development. Thoughts I've had in the past about how we've surpassed an age where manufacturing capacity was a constraint and now its the jobs that are the commodity.
Combined with the increasing importance of digital 'stuff' too, could it be that this is a sign that materially we've reached a stage of being a post-materialistic civilization?
Its interesting in a way in that theres a lot of people still alive who haven't got the memo and are still living in this sort of mindset where 'stuff' was limited.

Am I just high on the fumes of Monday morning here or unintentionally channelling some actual philosophy or (unlikely) having a decent original thought?

Did you somehow miss the "cost of living crisis" in the UK in the last years?

[Josquius]

I've been thinking. Isn't it weird how very cheap "stuff" is these days?

If you want a thing, you can buy that thing with little issue.
Yeah yeah. Look at my humble brag. Guy in a western country with a decent job.
But I do think this is a general thing. The cost of buying most items (bar housing) is massively cheaper relative to income than it once was.

I can't help but think this is somehow related to our civilization's development. Thoughts I've had in the past about how we've surpassed an age where manufacturing capacity was a constraint and now its the jobs that are the commodity.
Combined with the increasing importance of digital 'stuff' too, could it be that this is a sign that materially we've reached a stage of being a post-materialistic civilization?
Its interesting in a way in that theres a lot of people still alive who haven't got the memo and are still living in this sort of mindset where 'stuff' was limited.

Am I just high on the fumes of Monday morning here or unintentionally channelling some actual philosophy or (unlikely) having a decent original thought?

Did you somehow miss the "cost of living crisis" in the UK in the last years?

Counted under the housing category. Power and to a large extent food aren't 'stuff'  :p

[HVC]

Very white collar view

[Grey Fox]

Stuff might be more available than in previous decades but anything that is priced at a affordable price is of poor quality.

[garbon]

Very white collar view

So bougie. I wonder if all our English posters live in castles.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The prices of things have changed relative to each other over the decades. In ways which at least partly support Jos.

I can recall a few prices from the mid-1970s to illustrate :

A basic 2-bedroom flat in Newcastle £10 a week
A pint of beer 20p
A pair of fashionable jeans £20
A colour TV £300

The cost of things like rent and beer are more painful now than they were back in the 70s. Meanwhile clothing, white good s and gadgets are very cheap compared to former times.

[crazy canuck]

The prices of things have changed relative to each other over the decades. In ways which at least partly support Jos.

I can recall a few prices from the mid-1970s to illustrate :

A basic 2-bedroom flat in Newcastle £10 a week
A pint of beer 20p
A pair of fashionable jeans £20
A colour TV £300

The cost of things like rent and beer are more painful now than they were back in the 70s. Meanwhile clothing, white good s and gadgets are very cheap compared to former times.

Goods that can be grown/manufactured and shipped dropped in price as those goods and jobs were offshored. 

Has nothing to do with the advance of civilization-some would argue the reverse.

[Josquius]

The prices of things have changed relative to each other over the decades. In ways which at least partly support Jos.

I can recall a few prices from the mid-1970s to illustrate :

A basic 2-bedroom flat in Newcastle £10 a week
A pint of beer 20p
A pair of fashionable jeans £20
A colour TV £300

The cost of things like rent and beer are more painful now than they were back in the 70s. Meanwhile clothing, white good s and gadgets are very cheap compared to former times.

Goods that can be grown/manufactured and shipped dropped in price as those goods and jobs were offshored. 

Has nothing to do with the advance of civilization-some would argue the reverse.

But looking at appliances for instance they're not off shored in the cheaper labour sense. Rather it's just some companies in Korea or Germany (poor old Japan) have come to dominate the market and use very efficient automation in their factories.

[Jacob]

I think the cost of stuff has been on a long trajectory downwards over the last many decades, but seems to be rebounding in some areas as part of the cost of living crisis (which coincides with shocks and new barriers to global trade?)

[Sheilbh]

I can't help but think this is somehow related to our civilization's development. Thoughts I've had in the past about how we've surpassed an age where manufacturing capacity was a constraint and now its the jobs that are the commodity.
Combined with the increasing importance of digital 'stuff' too, could it be that this is a sign that materially we've reached a stage of being a post-materialistic civilization?
Its interesting in a way in that theres a lot of people still alive who haven't got the memo and are still living in this sort of mindset where 'stuff' was limited.

Am I just high on the fumes of Monday morning here or unintentionally channelling some actual philosophy or (unlikely) having a decent original thought?

Not to go full Mao - but I think you're right and scarcity in this world is no longer because of constraints on production, but only because of distribution. Which is why it's an outrage.

[Jacob]

I think there's something to it, but we're still grounded in material reality every so often - so the need for artillery shells in Ukraine.