I’ve borrowed the following graphic (click to enlarge) of weblog hierarchy from Tom Reynolds of Random Acts of Reality.

It’s very impressive. I suppose one can exist on a certain level of each column. There should be something between Dreamweaver and Movable Type, though, because nowadays I look down on myself for using MT, but whether it should be WordPress I can’t decide.

I feel, however, that I should add a little cat content at this point. This is Tom.

In seinem deutschen Weblog bespricht Dr. Karl-Friedrich Lenz IPKAT’s Überlegung, ob der Neubau von Teilen der Mauer eine Urheberrechtsverletzung darstellt.

Some time ago IPKAT speculated on the intellectual property law aspect of rebuilding a section of the Berlin Wall.

bq. The IPKat wonders whether there is an issue in Germany of copyright infringement, as there may well be in the UK. Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 4, the Berlin Wall would be a “building or a model for a building” which would attract death-plus-70 years copyright protection as an artistic work. The only issue would be whether the rebuilding of a mere 200 yard section of the 96-mile wall would count as the copying of a “substantial part” of the original wall for infringement purposes.

Dr. Karl-Friedrich Lenz, who has blogs in English, German and Japanese, has researched the matter in German law. His English entry is brief. German sources differ as to the copyright position of unlawful works.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist wurde Samstag wegen Schilddrüsenkrebs operiert. Er soll am 1. November wieder im Gericht sein. Es wird natürlich besprochen, wie es angesichts der kommenden Wahl um einen eventuellen Nachfolger bestellt werden könnte.

bq. Rehnquist Hospitalized for Treatment of Thyroid Cancer
(Tony Mauro, Legal Times, 10-25-2004)

bq. Chief Justice William Rehnquist expects to be on the bench when the Supreme Court convenes again Nov. 1, in spite of surgery on Saturday in connection with a recently diagnosed case of thyroid cancer.

bq. The surprise announcement of Rehnquist’s illness and surgery came just before noon today, and raised in a concrete way an issue that has been an abstraction during the presidential campaign: the possibility of a departure from the Supreme Court in the near future.

LATER NOTE: Q & A on the situation at SCOTUSBlog; also report of illness.

Here are some photos of ravens at the Tower of London, taken in June. They would rather be frightened off a mountain by Trevor, I’m sure. You’re not supposed to feed them, but they don’t know that.
That’s a juvenile starling in the top picture.
They are called an unkindness of ravens (as opposed to a murder of crows), as we learnt at junior school.

LATER NOTE: In the comments, Abnu informs me of a post on the subject of collective nouns with further links.

Wortfeld gibt die Auswahlliste für Titel wieder, die bei der Bestellung von Spiegel online erscheint (allerdings verdoppelt).

Wortfeld reproduces (with some repetitions) a list of titles you can choose from if you want to try out the Spiegel Online e-paper:

You can be Prof. Dr. Dr., but not just plain Dr. Dr. You can be Mr. but not Ms. (to say nothing of dropping the full stop). Frau seems to be missing too.

The Observer reports that Mongolia is introducing last names in order to be able to use a telephone book. But too many of them named themselves after Genghis Khan (that’s what I would have chosen myself too). The 1997 surnames law was ignored till an ID card system was introduced recently.

I seem to recall a similar problem existing in Iceland.

bq. Icelanders have a given name, plus the name of (usually) their father with an attached “-son” for boys and “-dóttir” for girls. So, Jón’s son Gunnar is called Gunnar Jónsson, and his daughter Njóla is called Njóla Jónsdóttir. Because of this lack of family names, telephone directories are arranged by given names – using the above example, you’d find Gunnar Jónsson under “G”, and Njóla Jónsdóttir under “N” in the phone book. In an effort to preserve national identity, all foreigners taking Icelandic citizenship must also take an Icelandic name.

Don’t know if David stayed in Iceland long enough to look at a phone book.