If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition. Charles Caleb Colton ..read more

From The Japan Times: The Tokyo District Court on Thursday ordered the operator of a now-defunct manga piracy website to pay ¥1.7 billion in compensation to three major Japanese publishers. Presiding Judge Masaki Sugiura recognized that the site operator and his associates had uploaded the manga for people to read for free, without approval from the publishers, thereby inflicting financial damage. The plaintiffs — Kadokawa, Shueisha and Shogakukan — said the ¥1.7 billion sum was most likely the highest ever granted by the court among other similar cases, and they hoped the lawsuit would help d ..read more

From Windows Central: Microsoft is working on a major new AI feature for Windows 11, which it plans to unveil during an event on May 20. The feature, dubbed AI Explorer internally, will be able to document and organize everything you see on your PC, and turn everything you do into a searchable memory with natural language. It looks like AI Explorer will launch first on new Arm PCs, as its system requirements list Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite NPU as a baseline. This would omit Intel’s new AI PCs from taking advantage of this year’s blockbuster AI feature. It’s an open secret that Microso ..read more

From Master Class: Authors employ different literary devices to create plot twists and conflicted characters. One of these devices is the unreliable narrator—a storyteller who withholds information, lies to, or misleads the reader, casting doubt on the narrative. Authors use this device to engage readers on a deeper level, forcing them to come to their own conclusions when the narrator’s point of view can’t be trusted. What Is an Unreliable Narrator in Writing? An unreliable narrator is an untrustworthy storyteller, most often used in narratives with a first-person point of view. The unreliabl ..read more

From The United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division: The Antitrust Laws The Antitrust Division enforces federal antitrust and competition laws. These laws prohibit anticompetitive conduct and mergers that deprive American consumers, taxpayers, and workers of the benefits of competition. The Sherman Antitrust Act This law prohibits conspiracies that unreasonably restrain trade. Under the Sherman Act, agreements among competitors to fix prices or wages, rig bids, or allocate customers, workers, or markets, are criminal violations. Other agreements such as exclusive contracts that re ..read more

From The Wall Street Journal: For nearly a decade, workers in a warehouse in Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood have shipped boxes of shoes, beach chairs, Marvel T-shirts and other items to online retail customers across the U.S. The operation, called Big River Services International, sells around $1 million a year of goods through e-commerce marketplaces including eBay, Shopify, Walmart and Amazon AMZN -1.11%decrease; red down pointing triangle.com under brand names such as Rapid Cascade and Svea Bliss. “We are entrepreneurs, thinkers, marketers and creators,” Big River says on its website ..read more

In 1909, the year before his death, Leo Tolstoy was visited at his estate, Yasnaya Polyana, by the Count S. Stackelberg. Stackelberg was on a mission — persuade Tolstoy to write an article on Abraham Lincoln for The New York World. Tolstoy declined the commission but told Stackelberg a story: Once while traveling in the Caucasus I happened to be the guest of a Caucasian chief of the Circassians, who, living far away from civilized life in the mountains, had but a fragmentary and childish comprehension of the world and its history. The fingers of civilization had never reached him nor his ..read more

A question that Perplexity suggested: What is the meaning behind Shakespeare’s Sonnet 136? Perplexity’s Answer to its own question: Sonnet 136 by William Shakespeare, often referred to by its first line, “If thy soul check thee that I come so near,” is a complex and layered poem that uses wordplay and puns to convey the speaker’s desire and emotional plea to the Dark Lady, a character in Shakespeare’s sonnets known for her captivating but elusive affection 1 2 5. Themes and Interpretation Wordplay on “Will” The sonnet is notable for its clever use of the word “Will,” which serves multiple purp ..read more

Prompt: Write a Shakespearian Sonnet about a 16-year-old boy named Tom who is very anxious about asking a girl named Susan to a school play, Much Ado About Nothing Perplexity’s Response: When youthful Tom beholds fair Susan’s grace, His heart doth race within its bony cage. Forsooth, he longs to ask her to a place Where players tread the boards, the Bard their stage. In iambic beats, his pulse doth pound, A sonnet’s rhythm in his chest doth play. The words to woo, in anxious loops abound, Yet fear doth grip his tongue, leads thoughts astray. “Much Ado About Nothing” is the play, A tale of love ..read more

From Perplexity: Prompt: Compare and contrast the factors that have resulted in bestselling authors J.K. Rowling and Stephen King’s success. Note – The links in the response were inserted by Perplexity. Response: Writing Style J.K. Rowling: Rowling’s writing style is often described as clear, accessible, and richly detailed, which has contributed significantly to her broad appeal. Her narrative style in the Harry Potter series combines whimsical fantasy with complex themes, making her books beloved by both children and adults. The progression in the complexity of language and themes throughout ..read more