Fascinating

As I sew today I am reading about the Centralia mine fire. It's been burning since 1962, and the story of the various attempts to stop it is a classic example of an utter governmental screwup.

Town - Crap! We accidentally set a coal seam on fire.
Some guy with backhoe - Hey, give me less than $200, problem will be fixed.
Town - Well, we need to do all the paperwork, give us a bit.
Guy, some time later - Sorry town, it's too big for me to fix.
Mine owner - I'll fix it for free, if you let me keep any unburned coal I dig up.
Town - Sorry, we've already taken bids to fix it, no can do.
Town - Crap, while we were taking bids, it got too big for anybody local! State? Fix this!
State - Er... okay, we'll get right on it.
State workers - Hey, we only want to do one shift, and we don't do holidays or weekends, okay?
State - Sure, take off all the time you need. Fires don't spread over long holiday weekends, right?
Fire spreads over long weekend.
State - Oops. Oh well. It hasn't killed anybody yet, and we're out of money. We're passing the buck to the feds.
New Mine Owner - Hey, I'll do it for you! Seriously! Free! Come on!
Feds - Sorry, that's unfeasable. We're going to sit here for a few years and find the best way to fix this.
Fire keeps growing.
Feds to town - Okay, we have this plan. We're not going to tell you it's totally stopgap though. This plan really will fix it, even though it's a plan designed for a totally different type of mine fire.
Town - Sure thing, we trust you!
Plan put in place, fails almost immediately. Fire still growing.
Feds - Right. This plan is working, Yay!
Time passes, fire grows. Everybody ignores it.
Some kid nearly gets killed.
Feds - No, this isn't an emergency, there's no significant risk to anybody in town.
News media - Hey! What's this going on here! Feds, you said this was fixed, it isn't! Think of the children!
Feds - Uhm. Okay. It's not fixed. Still no emergency though!
A bunch of people nearly die, avoid their fate by sheer dumb luck.
Feds - Uhm... well... okay, thre might be some danger in a few places. We'll just move people out of those few places, okay? And since those houses aren't in desireable locations, they're not worth much, so we won't give you people market value for them.
People made to move - Hey! WTF?! Hax!
Feds - There is no problem here, hush. This is not the fire you're looking for.
Lots of evidence that town itself is actually burning on the underside comes up. Road into town falls into a firey pit.
News - Hey! Feds! WTF?
Feds - Oh fine. Science, how bad is this? How much will it be to fix?
SCIENCE - Ooo, well... it's bad. $600 million to fix bad. $62 mil just to keep the town from burning up.
Feds - Crap.
Feds - How much is it to move everybody in the town out?
Economists - Forty million or so.
Feds - Right! Everybody out! We'll pay "fair" value this time, fair being defined how we feel like defining it.
Town mostly evacuated. Stubborn people stay put. Whole thing just burns on, and may burn on for the next hundred years or so before running out of fuel.

Our government at work. A less than $200 problem became a $600 million problem, and at this point would probably cost serveral billion, actually. Lovely, isn't it?

The fursuit/plush equivalent of "draw me free art!"

I know a lot of furry artists, and artists in general, get bugged for free art.

I have never been good enough to really get bothered for it, and there have even been occasions when I've done free art just because I felt like it, for friends who are polite enough to not ask. (Speaking of which... er... *cough* Yes, TW, you haven't been forgotten. Nor has Bob, but I've no idea where that one has got to...) Anyhow, when making fursuits and plush critters, nobody asks you for free fursuits! A fursuit is obviously worth too much, I think, for anybody even remotely sane to expect for free.

But there is still an equivalent request, and that is for free copies of your patterns. I just got one such request today, and I have to wonder... what goes through these people's minds when they ask? This guy explained that he wanted the pattern just to make something for himself, and he wasn't going to try and make money with this. This is the explanation tacked on to requests to copy and paste digital media. This is not an explanation that makes one bit of difference in sewing patterns. I cannot simply magically clone a copy of my pattern, and pretty much all my patterns are much too large to fit on a scanner or photocopier. (This one is a three foot long plush, for crying out loud! That should be obvious!) So I have to get very large paper sheets, which cost me money, and then I have to laboriously trace the pattern onto this paper, and then of course I have to spend money to mail it, and it's more than $.41, or whatever stamps cost these days, because there's a lot of very large paper pieces. Why, exactly, would I do this for free, for a person I don't even know?

I would bet that he didn't even think about the actual process involved in sending a copy of the pattern. He probably thinks I can somehow attach it to an e-mail, if he's thought about it at all. I told him no, as politely as I could, and actually managed to resist the urge to say "Why on earth would I do something like that?" to him. But I am sure he will not be the last to make such a request.

P.S. This reminds me. There was somebody, quite a long time ago, who'd indicated willingness to pay for a copy of a pattern of mine... I have no idea who, or of what pattern! If whoever it is is reading this and is still interested, comment or something.