The pond goes back to the future ...

(Above: ah the good old days, when girls needed a typewriter so they could bang out a letter to their favourite movie star).

The pond, for its sins - some might say crimes - has been reduced to dial-up speed for the moment, and so we're forcibly reminded how silly all this talk of speed and connectivity is, when really a good 1990s modem was all the intertubes ever wanted, or needed ...

Lordy, lordy, did 300,000 mb disappear into the ether, like a gossamer web in the breeze?

It seems so, and so the pond is reduced to munching on cracker biscuits, slurping a thin gruel, and contemplating a rather large navel ...

The downside is that postings and responses to comments will be limited; the upside is that the pond doesn't have to think of all the loons out there beavering away to produce fresh loonacy.

By a curious coincidence, the pond happened to be reading 'Notorious' pirated DVD market pinpointed in Australia by US authority.

It was like taking a time warp trip back into the past, with much blather about discs:

Melbourne's Caribbean Gardens and Markets, an outdoor market located in Scoresby, Victoria, was singled out in the report as a "notorious physical market". 
The report said Caribbean Gardens had between 10 and 20 individual market sellers "offering counterfeit region one and two DVDs, together with other sellers offering burnt DVDs of recently released titles". 
DVDs are generally coded to limit their sale to a single market, with regions numbered one (the US), two (Europe), three (Asia), four (South America and Australia), five (parts of central Asia and Africa) and six (China). 
Imported DVDs are popular in Australia because of the easy availability of "multi-region" DVD players, that is, players which have been unlocked and can operate discs from anywhere in the world. The Australian problem is exacerbated, the report said, due "to a lack of enforcement". 
According to the MPAA, Australia's state and federal police have "shown no interest in enforcing the issue despite multiple entreaties from right holders," the report said.

They're still bleating about region coding?

And while we're on the subject of bizarre entertainment news, you could have knocked the pond over with a feather to learn that Screen Australia had dropped $50k on The Conversation.

It turned up in yesterday's Mumbrella feed, and you can read about it in Tim Burrowes' exceptionally mild, reasoned reprimand, Screen Australia needs to stop acting like a club.

The process taints both SA, for the way it offered the money, and The Conversation, in that it accepted money delivered via a process which can only lead to accusations that editorial coverage can be purchased with a little 'sponsorship'.

As if a story on The Conversation about ninety per cent of Australian films - try flogging a re-make of Patrick, go on just try it - would get the pond interested.

Why, you make as well propose that watching BL's The Great Gatsby is a way to get interested in F. Scott Fitzgerald ...

Enough already. Clearly the entertainment industry is as barking mad as the political commentariat. Back to that navel ...

(Below: hey big Mal, the perfect accessory to go with your copper wiring. You're welcome, think nothing of it, have a nice day).