… in 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, instantly killing an estimated 66,000 people in the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare.

… in 1963, the US, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater.

This is interesting (from The Register):

A series of emails and phone calls were not sufficient to establish a contract, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The communications did not contain enough information or the formal qualities necessary for a contract to have been made, it said.

Language school the European Language Center (ELC) used to use vacant summer accommodation and teaching space at the University of Plymouth for its courses. The University told ELC in 2005 that it would have less space available in 2006.

ELC later claimed that emails and phone calls in which the University told it that it would have less space available and which contained estimates that it might have 200 beds available constituted a contract to provide that amount of space.

Plymouth County Court ruled that the communications represented a contract, but the Court of Appeal disagreed…

This doesn’t mean that you can’t do contractual business by email, but the four elements needed for a legal contract (at least in England and Wales) must be present. They are, according to their Lordships:

“an unconditional offer, an unconditional acceptance, a consideration and an intention by both parties to create a legally binding relationship.”

Ah, that lovely word: consideration.

… in 1914, Britain declared war on Germany.

Thoughtful article by Jeremy Reimer about how the world has changed since Microsoft Word first appeared.  It originated from Bravo, the word-processor designed by Charles Simonyi at Xerox Parc and was first released for the IBM PC in October 1983.  I was a user from the beginning and was entranced by the DOS version, especially by the way it used style sheets.  Word for Windows always seemed to me to be a step backwards from that original, Linux-type idea.  But for years I stuck with it, partly because of the lack of an alternative with equivalent functionality, but mainly because of the network effects: it had become the de-facto standard for office work, and my colleagues built elaborate peer-review systems around Word’s commenting and track-changes facilities.

In the last few years, though, I’ve noticed that I use Word less and less — and only for ‘work’-based activities.  Among the reasons for the change are: I like an uncluttered writing environment; I don’t want to be distracted by the endless temptations of sophisticated formatting options; I like to use outliners when I’m trying to think things through. 

But mainly the reason I’ve gone off Word is that it’s a program designed to help people compose paper documents, and increasingly — like Jeremy Reiner — I write for the web.

So I wind up using web-authoring tools like VoodooPad, blogging tools like WordPress and ScribeFire, sophisticated text-editing tools like TextWrangler and even Apple’s Pages (especially using its nice full-screen view which shows only a white sheet and a live word-count).  Word has been reduced to the tool I use only when a colleague sends me a draft with Track Changes enabled.

Footnote: Quentin and I were talking about this today, but neither of knew the other would blog it. Great minds etc.

Q: Who said this?

When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgement. The artists, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, “a lover’s quarrel with the world.” In pursuing his perceptions of reality he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored during his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet, in retrospect, we see how the artist’s fidelity has strengthened the fiber of our national life.

A: JFK, in a speech he made shortly before he was assassinated.

[Source.]

Thinking of presidential interest in poetry, I was reminded of a terrific piece Robert McCrum wrote about Seamus Heaney in the course of which they talked about the stroke that Heaney suffered a few years ago (and from which he has mercifully recovered). It happened in Donegal, so he was rushed to Letterkenny hospital. Heaney then goes on to relate what happened next:

“Clinton was here [i.e. in Ireland] for the Ryder Cup. He’d been up with the Taoiseach [Bertie Ahern] and had heard about my ‘episode’. The next thing, he put a call to the hospital, and said he was on his way. He strode into the ward like a kind of god. My fellow sufferers, four or five men much more stricken than I was, were amazed. But he shook their hands and introduced himself. It was marvellous, really. He went round all the wards and gave the whole hospital a terrific boost. We had about 25 minutes with him, and talked about Ulysses Grant’s memoirs, which he was reading.” Then Clinton was off, back to the airport.

Funny. I’d have thought that Annie Leibovitz would be worth a bob or two. But it appears not.

An art finance company that loaned celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz $24 million against the value of her entire collection and her properties has sued Leibovitz for violating the terms of the agreement.

In a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court, Art Capital Group Inc asked a judge to compel Leibovitz to cooperate with the person assigned to selling her copyrights and organising the sale of her properties, so Leibovitz can pay back the loan.

Leibovitz (59), who has photographed everyone from Michelle Obama to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and a heavily pregnant Demi Moore in the nude, approached Art Capital in June last year about her “dire financial condition,” the lawsuit said.

She initially obtained a $22 million loan from American Photography, which is held by Art Capital Group. Later that amount was increased to $24 million.

The breach of contract lawsuit accuses Leibovitz of “boldly deceptive conduct” and seeks to compel her to grant real estate agents access to homes in Manhattan and in Rhinebeck, New York, so they can be sold and the money used to repay the loan…

Two possible explanations: (a) that private jet was a step too far; (b) she was a client of Bernie Madoff.

Still, she can always pawn her Nikon D3s and that Hasselblad system.

Sadly, no.

“We hit it off right from the beginning. When he’s not arresting you, Sergeant Crowley is a really likable guy.”

Harvard Prof Henry Louis Gates, after being invited to the White House for a beer with the police officer who arrested him on suspicion of breaking into his own house.

[Source.]

En passant Obama’s original intervention in this fracas was uncharacteristically thoughtless. After all, for a guy who’s been trained as a lawyer to offer an opinion on a controversial encounter while at the same time saying that he didn’t know the facts was, well, idiotic.