Someone once pointed out that a whole mess of hard rock tunes ultimately seemed to derive from La Bamba. You Really Got Me, Louie Louie, Blitzkrieg Bop, forget what else. Smells Like Teen Spirit of course was a takeoff on More Than A Feeling. You don't need an algorithm for this stuff. John Fogerty was famously sued by Credence's record label for ripping himself off - the ultimate in legal intervention in this instance - the case was dismissed. Haven't really heard of musical litigation since that happened in the late 80s.

I don't know what "artists" are ripping off any more; I can't remember a single chart topping melody from the last 15 years, it doesn't seem to be necessary anymore. I think the music serves other functions well now, i.e., inducing tweens to scream in delight, giving young men soundtracks for their strutting/posing, etc. Why burden it with actual tunes?

Perhaps these sinkholes are appearing due to overtesting of house atomics.

Mod this "Arooooo!" I'm meeting you half way, you stupid hippies!

Hey, don't sell yourself short, mate.

Did he have you set up camp on the wrong side of a mountain? I live on the outskirts of an urban area with a population of over 2 million, with all its attendant light pollution, and have watched meteor showers from my back porch before.

You can still buy car PA systems, even Radio Shack has them. Amusingly enough the first Google hit for a discussion of their legality I came across was at AR15.com...

Uzani, his army with fists closed.

Slashdot: Hall of Fame

Most Active Stories
5687 Kerry Concedes Election To Bush by timothy
4183 Strike on Iraq by CmdrTaco
3709 Barack Obama Wins US Presidency by CmdrTaco
3468 Six Bomb Blasts Around Central London by Zonk
3451 Equal Time For Creationism by Zonk
3360 Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
3315 The Pseudoscience of Intelligent Design by Hemos
3314 Saddam Hussein Arrested by CmdrTaco
3265 Fahrenheit 9/11 Discussion by CmdrTaco
3212 What's Keeping You On Windows? by Cliff

Complaining about the irrelevance of stories is a time honored tradition here, along with grammar nazis and tired memes.

We could always keep busy for one welcoming them.

Sure robots are life forms, like us they think, feel, have an uncontrollable urge to sing folk songs when magnets are attached to them, etc.

Let's not overlook Eddie Murphy's courageous journey in the other direction, White Like Me.

Years ago I heard about how a journalist actually followed up on Griffin and spoke with some of the people he lived among in his new racial identity; apparently the common reaction was to laugh uproariously behind his back at this crazy honky. Can't find anything about this now though. Maybe it's an urban legend?

Hi, Welcome to Beam! Can I help you find something? Or, perhaps...EXTERMINATE!

Came for this. Left satisfied.

De gustibus non disputandum: Domino's Tests Limits Of What Humans Will Eat - YouTube

I tried to get an answer to that question and was met with the usual barrage of answers...it seems to be handled on a state-by-state basis but there isn't a resource I could find that laid things out in a simple manner. Here in Oregon I've always understood that there's a 7 MPH margin of error, from inaccuracies in both the radar units and cars' speedometers; not sure where I picked that up from though...don't think it was in the driver's handbook.

Anyway my SOP is to chance about 5 MPH over the posted limit; it's worked for me for 25 years, and I'm certainly going a heckuva lot slower than the army of maniacs out on the road. But then I don't do much in the way of traveling so perhaps there are states where the limits are enforced for real.