New Orleans should never have been built in its present, flood-prone location. Only levees kept the place from being flooded. Short-term profit had prevailed over logic.
Mightn’t New Orleans be a metaphor for copyright and Draconian DRM–especially in an era when paper books can be scanned and P2Ped–a la Potter? The Potter piracy is just a preview of things to come as e-book technology improves.
If publishers feel compelled to use DRM, they should at least build a distribution system that doesn’t tempt the market to bypass it. What’s more, they should try to make up for subtracted value. Meanwhile I heartily recommend that you check out Robert Nagle’s posting below.
The obvious: Our heartfelt sympathy for the victims of the disaster.
david i agree with you. The problem is, it was built so long ago and that’s why it developed out. Initially, this wouldn’t have been such an issue, but as urban development spread and the poorer communities got pushed out, this is what happens.
I’ve never understood why people build on floodplains and then, after a disaster like this, then go on to rebuild. It seems odd to me, but then, what can you do? People will do as they do, but yes, obviously, my heart goes out to everyone as well.
I wrote a post this morning on blogcritics about this as well, but more about the looting and the problem of people shooting at rescue helicopters. Complete and utter anarchy/chaos and hard to comprehend why ANYONE would do such a thing.
I was stunned to hear the news of the copter-shootings. This is America, not Iraq. Who is shooting at the copters? Are they doing it to get noticed? As concerned as I am with copyright issues, I’ll not forget the still-more-cosmic matters. – David