Amazon had pulled all of the books published by Macmillan – both electronic and physical – from its store on Friday due to a pricing dispute over ebooks.  Amazon wants to keep new releases and best sellers at $9.99; Macmillan wanted to price them between $12.99 and $14.99.  Two days later, Amazon gave in.  I’ve got no idea why they folded so quickly.  The issue is more complex than it would seem on the surface and there’s a lot more at stake.  The best analysis of the dispute that I found is here.  Although that author was clearly wrong on one of his points:  “Amazon are going to fight this one ruthlessly because if the publishers win, it destroys the profitability of their business and pushes prices down.”  I guess they found Ruth.

Avatar hits its 7th weekend at number 1 at the box office in the US, handily beating Mel Gibson’s attempt to return to leading man status.  At some point this week, Avatar will pass Titanic to become the top grossing film in the US.  I don’t have numbers or analysis handy but I suspect it would still have a long way to go in terms of selling the top number of tickets in history – that record still belongs to Gone With the Wind.

Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron’s ex-wife, became the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America award for best direction of a feature film, for Hurt Locker.   This makes her a virtual shoo-in for the directing Oscar.  Oscar nominations will be announced this week.

The Grammy Awards have kicked off in the US.  Pre-show, Neil Young won the  first Grammy in his almost 50-year career – for the packaging of his Archives Vol. 1 set.  Tonight’s awards are predicted to be a landslide for Taylor Swift, an artist I have yet to hear.

Back home in Hong Kong, yet another story in the SCMP about laws of the land in the New Territories.

Officials have failed to remove an unauthorised cement-paved road on government land in Tai Po as a land owner has refused to allow temporary access to the site, which is blocked by his properties.

Yeah, that’s right.  Someone went and built a private road on government land, paved it over, and the government is unable to do anything about it!  “Since no one was caught building the road, the government has so far been unable to identify the parties responsible for the work.”  The article also cites two other examples:

In Chuk Kok, Sai Kung, an illegal track two kilometres long and two metres wide was found last March to have encroached into the coastal protection area. Part of the track near the entrance was cement-paved, and 10 months later the cement surface remains in place.

In Ngam Tau Sha, Clearwater Bay, a 30-metre section of a 135-metre-long illegal access road – all on government land – was found in January 2007 to have been cement-paved. The road also encroached upon conservation area zoning.

What do our highly paid bureaucrats plan to do about this?  Do they come up with some novel method of enforcement?  Do they attempt to strong arm people?  Do they press for new legislation?

A spokesman for the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the vegetation would recolonise the site in time. Lands officials said an inspection last Friday at the two Sai Kung sites found new vegetation growth.

That’s right.  They plan to earn their money by doing nothing.  Inspiring, isn’t it?

Waiting for my gf to wake up, then we’ll pack and head over to Macau.  Decided to stay for 3 nights.

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