OT: excellent book on information theory

[Terry Hancock]

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 15:31:58 -0000
Grant Edwards <grante at visi.com> wrote:
> That made me smile on a Monday morning (not an
> insignificant accomplishment).  I noticed in the one
> footnote that the H.P. book had been "translated into
> American".  I've always wondered about that.  I noticed
> several spots in the H.P. books where the dialog seemed
> "wrong": the kids were using American rather than British
> English.  I thought it rather jarring.

"translated into American", I'm sure refers to the American
version of the book, which is titled "Harry Potter and the
Sourceror's Stone".

I find that bizarre.  There is no mythological
basis for a "Sourceror's Stone", but the "Philosopher's
Stone", was of course the mythical Alchemists' goal of a 
catalyst for converting lead into gold (it had other
properties, IIRC).

Apparently the publisher was of the opinion that American
children just aren't cultured enough to know about that,
even though I knew the reference when I was 12.  I am
really, really insulted by that.

They even went so far as to shoot two versions of every
scene in the movie that referred to the stone so that it
would agree with the book. AFAICT, you cannot purchase
the original movie or book within the United States, and
due to the Evil Conspiracy of region-coding, I couldn't
watch the British DVD even if I were to import it (Well,
yeah I could, but it would be painful, and probably illegal,
do to that other Evil Conspiracy, the DMCA -- don't let
your country pass a law like this).

Now I don't suppose I should really get my nose all out
of joint over this sort of thing, but it's symbolic of
a lot of things that are wrong with the world right now.

-- 
Terry Hancock (hancock at AnansiSpaceworks.com)
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com