In today’s Alert Me: Sixty-Two Shades of Papacy, Amazon’s ‘second-hand’ eBooks patent, and creepy sex toy security.
Who Said It: The Pope or Fifty Shades of Grey?
Source: Hollywood (Beta)
Who knew that Pope Benedict XVI and E.L. James had so much in common? As Aly Semigran points out in this article, the former’s new sixty-two page digital scrapbook features names and passages that are spookily similar to the great grey monolith.
We jokingly speculated during Remittance Girl’s Eroticon 2013 Creative Writing seminar that our conference was the final straw for the Pope, our debauchery the reason for him quitting his post (the chatter even spawned the awesome @HuggyPope Twitter account). But I’m beginning to think we were onto something. Except perhaps he’s, you know, really left to pursue his burgeoning erotic writing career under the pen name ‘E.L. James’ …
Amazon Wants to Sell Used Ebooks: Everyone is Confused
Source: EContent
A couple of weeks ago, I saw an article in Publishers Weekly announcing that Amazon has been awarded a patent to sell ‘used’ digital content. I re-read the piece three of four times, trying to get my head around the concept of something that’s digital (and therefore ‘non-physical’) ever being able to be labelled as ‘used’. Because, to state the obvious, unlike a book you hold in your hand, an eBook never degrades. It doesn’t ‘wear’, develop dog-ears, a broken spine, or a crazed cover.
Turns out, I’m not the only one struggling with the concept and this article by Peggy Hageman gives an excellent overview of what Amazon are trying to do. Poignantly, she asks:
‘is there really such a thing as a “used” bit of code?’
I love buying second-hand goods – mainly because I don’t like to see perfectly good (physical) objects go to waste. Books in particular. But this concept makes me feel really nervous. The proposition is undoubtedly good for Amazon (they wouldn’t be doing it otherwise) but I suspect that, for publishers and authors, this business model will have some pretty significant repercussions.
TSA guys hard on sex toys
Source: New York Post
This short article made me feel slightly ill. Airport security is a necessity. I get that. I understand that staff must routinely go through passengers’ bags to ensure the safety of fellow travellers. However, it is NOT OKAY for those in positions of authority to go through people’s luggage for the purposes of sexual gratification or amusement. That is an invasion of privacy and a blatant abuse of power.
The idea of some strange man or woman handling one of my sex toys just for the heck of it makes my skin crawl. And I suspect that a lot of people don’t complain about this kind of carry on (assuming they are aware of it) either because they’re too embarrassed to admit that they had a vibrator, dildo, or whatever in their bag in the first place.
Is this behaviour widespread? Well, reading this article seems to suggest it may be quite common (and if you recall, I posted a similar Alert Me article about the two men whose dildo came out on the baggage carousel a few months ago.) So, Chintz readers, a question:
Have you ever taken sex toys on a plane? And, if you have, were they (to your knowledge) ‘examined’ by airport security?
*Please note that this poll is anonymous, so you can participate without fear of sex toy ‘outage’.
Its funny you mention TSA. I was a screening officer until last year when I got laid off. I live in New Brunswick Canada, so we do not get the same training or have the same…Hmmm attitude? I now for us, when I looked on the xray, sex toys (battery, wires and organic matter) could look like an IED. Saying that, when we searched someones carry on (co-workers and myself included), we did try to be discrete. We were always embarrassed to see something so personal. We usually never even pulled it out of the carry on, and just did a test around it. Is it because we are Maritimers (nick name for people who live in the Maritimes)? Are we are not as sophisticated, not as comfortable with sexuality? I think so, but also, I think we have not lost our ability to empathize with others.
Wow! Thanks so much for weighing in on this; it’s really interesting to have the alternative perspective. I think carry-on luggage is a little different, because you can more or less expect to be searched in front of others if you have anything electrical in a handbag, briefcase, etc. It’s the examination of sex toys in checked luggage and the way it appears to be handled in some cases (if the above article is accurate), that really disturbs me. Creepy notes on ‘searched’ items? Urgh!
NB: I will have to make sure I visit Canada with my toys in the future, so I can be sure of empathetic and discrete screening officers!
I can’t speak for all of Canada, but here in the Maritimes…we are awesome! And we would love to have you come visit.