I'm just wondering when the offshore pirate broadcasts in protest are going to start. It doesn't take much to start a pirate TV station (most HAM radio FSTV transmitters can be tuned to other frequencies than are allotted in the HAM bands). Rig a boat with a studio, anchor in international waters, crank up the transmitter power, and go wild.

Also makes me wonder if the business is open up here in Canada and down south in Mexico to start border blasters.

Amen.

I'll try not to bore you all with the rant you've heard thousands of times before, but today's music is so... cold. While the advent of MIDI sequencers and cheap pro audio equipment caused a grassroots indie revolution on the internet (Creative Commons/Jamendo), it also allowed the labels to easily produce a single sound. Today's "artists" have very little creative input on their work.

Any idiot can open up one of the many audio editors, lay down a synthesized rhythm track, and make a dance single. Try it yourself. Pop open an editor, get a beat, record some shitty lyrics (you can fix them with a harmonizer, just like the pros), and add tons of distortion and digital effects. Hey, look at that: you have a rap song that sounds just like one of the top 40.

You think with the power of modern synthesized composition, real artists could actually take advantage of the limitless possibilities. Need a 300-member orchestra for a difficult piece? No problem! A good composition program and a nice set of sampled sound and you've got it in a few days' work.

The problem, really, is the labels. There are LOTS of good independent artists and composers out there, who are doing good things with all these new tools. But the mainstream labels seem to stonewall all of them. All we get is dancefloor song after dancefloor song with the same sound.

Of course, the related issue is the conglomerate ownership of radio. I know of very few independent stations left that aren't owned by some massive corporation. In the local radio market where I live up in Canada, we have four main stations. They are/were called Jet, Magic, CBC, and Jump. Jet and Magic are/were both owned by one of the media conglomerates. CBC needs no introduction, as it is the Canadian national public radio service. Jump is a community-licensed, volunteer run station.

So, massive conglomerate decides that Magic (more locally-focused than Jet) is under threat from the community station, Jump. So they shut Magic down, and seek a new license from the CRTC to open a new station.

Now here's the fun part. The CRTC grants the license to the conglomerate. The new station, Sun, has as of now almost entirely eradicated the publicly-accessible community station, which appears will have to shut down. The airwaves are now pumped with top-40 crap, instead of locally produced content. What gets me is that the CRTC WILLINGLY chose to give priority to the station airing music that has ALREADY SATURATED the market, rather than LOCALLY PRODUCED content. The CRTC needs to be shut down and control transferred to Industry Canada, who at least understand the importance of niche radio applications (Canadian HAMs enjoy some of the laxest restrictions in the world).

Whew... now that that's off my chest...

Score -1, dream crusher.

I'm Canadian, so I'm no expert on American law, but are you sure that's a valid interpretation of double jeopardy? The additional rapes, it seems, would indicate separate offenses, not protected by double jeopardy. On a similar note, just because you've been acquitted of one murder does not grant you the right to slaughter people left and right without recourse.

That's because our whole Canadian car insurance system is FUBAR'd.

The fact that some provinces hold public insurance systems not only causes problems for those provinces, but others too. It makes it hard for any insurance company (a tricky and expensive business at the best of times) to penetrate the Canadian market (why bother incorporating in Canada if half the country is right out anyway?) and the result is corrupt insurance companies no better than the others.

What we need to do is legislate at the federal level and privatize insurance in all the provinces. I'm not saying we need to kick out the NDP's prized public insurance altogether (it would anger too many socialists and split the left and right further) but severely reduce it. Perhaps a dual-insurance system where crown insurance exists but capitalist insurance is also an option alongside it? In BC we've already taken a step in the right direction - collision insurance no longer needs to be purchased from ICBC and can be bought from a private insurer. Now if we make the whole thing optional, I think we can satisfy both groups (the socialists can still get their insurance with the associated tax benefits from public insurance while others can go and insure privately).

So that's why they call it spam.

I might wait for Ubuntu

Then wait no longer.