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Music

Submission + - Closing the Internet; a Moron's Perspective (mywritingvoice.com) 1

Submitted by
Joshua S Hill
Joshua S Hill writes: "I would love to say that I don't get upset or agitated often, but my mother taught me well enough to know that I should not lie. So I will simply add this grievance to my long list, and continue with my berating of a singer who, until about 3 hours ago, I had some respect for; at least, as an entertainer.

Elton John, in his apparent abundance of technological wisdom, has alerted the world that he would like everybody to take a 5 year sabbatical from the internet. Now, the fact that he alerted the world through 'The Sun', the British tabloid newspaper, is not exactly a great starting note for the pop-icon to begin his tirade against the internet. And, in reality, it really just went downhill from there.

The 60 year old, who has himself labeled himself a technophobe, believes that the internet is stifling creativity. "The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn't bode well for long-term artistic vision."

He goes on to say that "I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span," and continues in his downward spiral by saying that "...there's too much technology available."

Now this is without a doubt an opinion piece, so I won't beat around the bush. The news is out there, and it's essentially just Elton John proclaiming to the world that his music sensibilities overrule everyone else's, and that as a result, the internet should be banned.

Let me just, for a moment, list a few reasons why his opinions not only carry no weight, but actually would hurt the music industry.

1) Elton may believe that there is too much technology, and I would assume that maybe his opinion would include the iPod (and other related devices). However, in a world where hard-media such as tapes and CD's have long shown to have a limited lifespan, digital music is essentially the only long term option left.

And it is the medium of choice as well, with iTunes moving swiftly up the ranks as one of the biggest sellers of music, moving in to third spot on the American music retailers list (after WalMart and Best Buy). In addition, Apple have recently announced that iTunes has reached a total of 3 billion tracks sold. If it were just a cult fad like Betamax was back in the 80's, they would never have reached 1 billion, let alone 3.

2) Elton complains that people "...sit at home and make their own records...".

I would strongly oppose this point, simply on the basis that it's not really true. If, however, Elton is referring to indie musicians who are making their way through smaller labels and through websites such as MySpace and LastFM, then I would remind him that for a lot of these artists — these very popular artists mind you — that there is no healthy alternative.

For too long record industries have throttled the creativity and drive out of many of our greatest musicians, forcing them to record and create to a contract, rather than their own desires. Some of the biggest artists around have complained about the pressure to have an album ready to record by a due date, as if they had been set homework.

Not to mention the fact that the RIAA for example — the trade group that represents American music artists — has been taking on fans of various bands for the past decade or so, forcing people to listen to music for as much money as they can scrape out of them. This money will rarely see the inside of the musicians pocket though, with royalties and other fees depriving musicians of hard earned money.

3) Elton goes on to add that "In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic. Now you're lucky to find ten albums a year of that quality." I would have to agree entirely with that assessment. However the likelihood that the mass of albums being released that apparently does not meet Mr. John's tastes are all indie based internet musicians calls in to question his credibility.

I won't impose my own music tastes on to others — with indie and classical making up the majority of my tastes — but I will suggest that simply, the desire for the great alums like Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has simply faded away in to the night. Now the call is for sex riddled, innuendo laced trash that seems to be the soundtrack to a million one night stands. Very few bands or artists — in my opinion — strive for a full album of perfection, but rather stuff lesser quality songs around 2 or 3 hit singles.

4) Let's look at the impact that the internet is having on music itself — rather than the sales of music. Sites like LastFM have seen an upsurge of exposure given to some of the greatest sounds coming out at the moment. For example Bloc Party, an indie band for a long time, are finally getting the larger exposure that is deserved from a well thought out and executed band.

LastFM — for clarification — is an online community of music fans. The simple goal of the site is to allow users the chance to see what other people are listening too. If, for example, Johnny sees that Jimmy is listening to Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and Jesus and Mary Chain — all bands that Johnny love's — but sees that Jimmy is also listening too Of Montreal, he might try out Of Montreal and find that he too likes their music.

It is a chance for music lovers to expand what they are listening too, something that everyday radio just does not necessarily provide for. The set track listings and copyright's that prevent DJ's from emulating their ancestors from the 70's and 80's has set the music industry back dramatically, and I believe that the internet is the only thing that is going to allow that to change.

5) Lastly, I want to comment on Elton's comment that he hopes "...the next movement in music will tear down the internet." As I said above, I believe the internet is what is going to allow music to make its great comeback. But I believe that is already happening. Online video has already produced at least two stars that I can think of off the top of my head in Sandi Thom and OK Go.

The internet is allowing for more creativity, with the video clips of yesteryear making a return as an important factor in the music. For too long have they been the babe ridden sex fests that have sent millions of parents — and not just the religious fanatics — running to turn the TV off. Where else were we going to see 4 guys doing a synchronized dance on a treadmill, or a young girl walking down a street for no apparent reason singing "I Wish I was a Punk Rocker!"

Elton might be excused for being a Luddite, but his opinions are damaging to an industry which is already taking hit after hit thanks to bad management and decision making by those at the top. The internet is what is finally bringing about the change that is so desperately needed."
Enlightenment

Journal Journal: bottled water, oil, environment

Journal by iheartsf
Wednesday's New York Times editorial "In Praise of Tap Water" has been one Times' top forwards this week (2 days after release it's still hovering at #4). The paper encourages readers to question their bottled water consumption, given its cost and environmental impact and the fact that bottled water is nearly identical in quality to tap water (if not simply tap
United States

Submission + - The Story the Feds Never Told About the Oklahoma C (democracynow.org)

Submitted by axb2298
axb2298 writes: Democracy Now (http://www.democracynow.org) is reporting A Salt Lake City lawyer searching for the truth behind his brother's death has uncovered a wealth of new information that could implicate the FBI in the Oklahoma City bombings. The documents he dug up suggest the FBI knew about the plot to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in advance but did little to prevent it.
Power

Submission + - Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election Records Lost

Submitted by ScrappyLaptop
ScrappyLaptop writes: In 56 of Ohio's 88 counties, ballots and election records from 2004 have been "accidentally" destroyed, despite a federal order to preserve them — it was crucial evidence which would have revealed whether the election was stolen. From http://www.alternet.org/story/58328/ :

Under federal and Ohio law, all ballots and election records from federal races must be preserved for 22 months after Election Day, which fell on Sept. 2, 2006. While election integrity activists and reporters from a Columbus website, FreePress.org, had sought the ballots and other election records soon after the presidential election, Blackwell would not allow county boards to release the ballots, citing court challenges to the 2004 results and a 2005 suit from the League of Women Voters alleging the state was not following the newest federal election law, the Help America Vote Act.

On Sept. 11, 2006, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley ordered the election boards "to preserve all ballots from the 2004 Presidential election, on paper and in any other format, including electronic data, unless and until such time otherwise instructed by this Court."

Somehow, the counties never got the message:

"Our staff unintentionally discarded boxes containing Ballot Pages as requested in (Brunner's) Directive 2007-07 due to unclear and misinterpreted instructions," wrote Butler County Board of Election Director Betty McGary and Deputy Director Lynn Kinkaid in a May 9 memo. "Several boxes containing all the wire-bound ballot pages were discarded into a Rumpke dumpster. The dumpster would have been emptied into the local landfill."

"The Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Board of Elections was unable to transfer the unvoted precinct ballots and soiled precinct ballots," wrote John Williams, Hamilton County Director of Elections on May 16, 2007. "To the best if my knowledge, the above ballots were inadvertently shredded between January 19th and 26th of '06 in an effort to make room for the new Hart voting system."

"No one could remember the disposition of said ballots," wrote Mike Keeley, of Clermont County's Board of Elections on May 10, 2007, referring to the "unvoted" or unused ballots from the 2004 presidential election.

In Warren County, where county election officials said on Election Day that the FBI had declared a homeland security alert — which they later retracted — ballots were diverted to a warehouse before counting. The local media was not allowed to observe the vote count. According to a letter from the Warren County Board of Election to Brunner's office, the election board cannot find 22,000 unused ballots from the election.

"The extent of the destruction of records is consistent with the covering up of the fraud that we believe occurred in the presidential election," said Cliff Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney representing the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, which filed voter suppression suit. "We're in the process of addressing where to go from here with the Ohio Attorney General's office."

"On the one hand, people will now say you can't prove the fraud," he said, "but the rule of law says that when evidence is destroyed it creates a presumption that the people who destroyed evidence did so because it would have proved the contention of the other side."
Movies

Music Piracy Documentary Released As Torrent 142

Posted by kdawson from the eating-the-dogfood dept.
goodbye_kitty writes "The producers of a new documentary film analyzing global music piracy have decided to 'put their money where their mouth is' by releasing the film as a free Xvid download (hosted by the Pirate Bay, as one would expect). The film explores the blurred line between 'fair use' and piracy, and includes interviews with DJ Danger Mouse (creator of the now infamous 'grey album'), Lawrence Lessig (founder of Creative Commons), the lads from the Pirate Bay, and even some guy from the MPAA. Here is a link to the torrent."
The Internet

Web 2.0 Bubble May Be Worst Burst Yet 417

Posted by Zonk from the not-the-bubble dept.
athloi writes with a link to an editorial by John Dvorak over at the PC Magazine site. Rather than his usual tilting at windmills, Dvorak turns his attention to possibility of another big internet economy 'pop': "Every single person working in the media today who experienced the dot-com bubble in 1999 to 2000 believes that we are going through the exact same process and can expect the exact same results — a bust. It's déjà vu all over again. Each succeeding bubble has been worse than its predecessor. Thus nobody is actually able to spot the cycle, since it just looks like a continuum. I can assure you that after this next collapse, nobody will think of the dot-com bubble as anything other than a prelude." It certainly seems like another burst is imminent; will this one be worse than the original, or have less of an impact?

Comment Re:Can't Verify Hand Counting Either (Score 1) 128

by crulx (#16771337) Attached to: Information Technology and Voting
Vote counting is the most important component because it decides the "game". (Who wins and who loses) Other parts are important too, but we are discussion electronic vote counting, not how to set up a local voting precinct. Anyway, you have not formalized any of the notions that you have put forth. You haven't really said more than putting a few vague generalities together on this.

And you know perfectly well what I mean by a maximum rate of error of infinity. I mean that the error of the system can be as arbitrarily large as the memory of the vote counting machines. Don't regurgitate childish mathematics at me and pretend to not understand something that you do. Bring something more substantial to the table please.

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