Good news for intellectual property rights ...

Quoted: A judge ruled Monday in favor of "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling in her copyright infringement lawsuit against a fan and Web site operator who was set to publish a Potter encyclopedia.

Happy birthday to Sean Connery today and for those who have been anxiously waiting, the autobiography is officially released ...

Quoted: Acting icon Sean Connery may have stopped making films, but he believes something still awaits him out there.

Connery celebrated his 78th birthday with an appearance on Monday on the final day of the Edinburgh International Book Festival to launch his long-awaited autobiography, "Being a Scot."

I don't really see this as a contradiction. He is supporting one writer's work of fiction while fighting a libel case. They really aren't related.

Quoted: Sir Salman Rushdie has accused his publisher of censorship at the same time as trying to prevent the release of a book that criticises him. The novelist, who spent nearly a decade under a fatwa from the Iranian government after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988, attacked Random House for pulping a historical novel about the Prophet Mohamed for fear of offending Muslims.

Interesting browse for a slow internet day ... I would consider a rocking-horse-fly tattoo! I would skip the "Who is John Galt?" one though.

Quoted: Tattoos from books, poetry, music, and other sources.

I never heard this guy's theories on Columbus but almost everyone knows that history is subject to the motives of the storytellers. It's interesting that "many academics" think his theories are "nonsense" and "drivel". He is apparently, after all, basing his theory on a single letter from 1474 that he is translating in a certain (but not widely-accepted) way and material contributed by "readers of his books and associated Web sites". Hmm ...

Quoted: LONDON (Reuters) - Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of machines are uncannily similar to Chinese originals and were undoubtedly derived from them, a British amateur historian says in a newly-published book.
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Gavin Menzies sparked headlines across the globe in 2002 with the claim that Chinese sailors reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus.
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Now he says a Chinese fleet brought encyclopedias of technology undiscovered by the West to Italy in 1434, laying the foundation for the engineering marvels such as flying machines later drawn by Italian polymath Leonardo.

This is an AWESOME article ... detective stories from 80 locations around the world. I'm going to be adding to my reading lists!

Quoted: Holmes and Watson would be proud. Crime fiction is booming as never before - and with dozens of new titles translated into English for the first time, there’s a detective for every holiday destination. Jonathan Gibbs tracks down 80 of the best sleuths to escape with this summer....

About "The Enchantress of Florence", the fatwa and life in general for Salman Rushdie.

Quoted: In Salman Rushdie's new novel, "The Enchantress of Florence," the exasperated Mughal emperor Akbar the Great agrees to let a mysterious Florentine adventurer, Mogor dell'Amore, finish a tale. But as the troublesome Mogor prepares to continue, Akbar says with a touch of venom: "A curse on all storytellers. And a pox on your children, too."

This is fantastic. I just re-read Midnight's Children a few weeks ago and appreciated it again.

Quoted: LONDON (Reuters) - British author Salman Rushdie won the Best of the Booker prize on Thursday to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the world's most prestigious literary awards. Midnight's Children won the Booker Prize in 1981, and the Indian-born writer was hot favorite to take the award decided by the public from a shortlist of six in an online poll.