Sold! Magna Carta goes for well under my estimate

If you were here last week, you might have seen my mention of the impending auction of one of the 17 known copies of the Magna Carta.  Well, it looks like the auction is over, and my estimate was clearly far above the final bid.

A 710-year-old copy of the declaration of human rights known as the Magna Carta — the version that became part of English law — was auctioned Tuesday for $21.3 million, a Sotheby’s spokeswoman said.

Had I realized it would go for such a bargain-basement price, I probably would have flown to New York and put in a bid for it.  You might not be able to put a price on freedom, but you can certainly put a price on the documentation which helped set up the modern understanding of freedom.

Target practice

In my on-going, but rarely expressed any more “I heart Cory Doctorow” readings and postings, I found this awesome set of firing-range targets he had chance to use recently. His description of the experience (he’s Canadian, after all, with all the associated lack of a 2nd amendment) makes it all worth reading.

For an extra five bucks, you could opt to replace your standard black silhouette target with one of these. I called them “Ron Jeremy threatens McCauley Culkin” and “We told you to stop dating your junkie boyfriend, dear! Our sort doesn’t swap fluids with the laboring classes!” You could also opt for Saddam or Osama.

I, too, noticed the McCauley Culkin look-alike, but totally missed that Ron Jeremy was his associated perv. Would Michael Jackson be better in that role? Cory’s followup also makes mention of the missed licensing opportunities this images suggest. I think he’s on to something. Anyone know a firing range that offers something comparable, but perhaps more full of fun or win?

Happy belated birthday

I thought I had a post up for this yesterday, but apparently didn’t.  All my visitors are invited to drop in to the comments and wish a happy belated birthday to visitor and occasional poster TimG, who aged an integer yesterday.  Be sure to also head over to his humble AmpOffish abode to see what he’s up to (I hear fence-building sucks this time of year).