I think it is supposed to come from which side of the brain the ear is primarily connected to, with the right ear being connected to the "logical" side of the brain, while the left ear is connected to the "Creative" side of the brain, so the right ear is better for conversational audio, and the left ear is better for musical type audio.

This does line up with a topic in a similar vein I heard about a few years ago, essentially saying that the right ear is better for processing vocal type audio and the left ear is better for processing music type audio, because each ear is primarily connected to either the logical or creative side of the brain respectively. Really the headline should say "Want someone to understand what you're saying? Talk in their right ear"

I don't know how accurate this theory really is, but it doesn't sound as implausible to me as some others seem to think

I think a more direct argument would come from the hit Apple stock took when rumors of Jobs' death began circulating well before his leave of absence, given the reaction to that how well could Apple expect the price to react to them saying "Steve will be taking a leave of absence because he needs a liver transplant"? There was speculation on Buzz Out Loud that the first WSJ article (with "anonymous source") was actually the result of a strategic leak by Apple, as it came after the close of the market on friday, and after the launch day for the iPhone 3GS. On a later episode they actually said that the source was later confirmed to be Apple, which pretty much confirms that theory, which in turn implies that Apple knew what kind of hit their stock would take of Jobs' condition was announced from the start.

There was actually speculation on Buzz Out Loud that the leak about Jobs' transplant was a very strategic and deliberate leak. What it boiled down to is the fact that the WSJ got a report from an unnamed source that Jobs had a transplant, and broke the story after the markets had closed on friday and iPhone 3GS sales had gone well on release day. Thus Apple stock didn't take the large hit it would have taken had this story hit during the week, instead of giving everybody a full weekend to calm down. According to a later episode of BOL the unnamed source was in fact confirmed to be Apple, meaning that it was very likely a strategic press release.

One thing that worries me about this is the fact that ASCAP requires the entity paying for the public performance to collect data on what songs are played, and the number of times that they are played, so that the artists can be compensated in proportion to how often their songs are played (which does actually happen, believe it or not). This would mean that AT&T would be required to set up a system where every time an individual's phone rings the ringtone used on the phone would be reported back to AT&T. After all, how are they to know which of the 10 mangled song clips a user paid for are being used as a ringtone, or what if they're in a movie and actually set their phone on vibrate? And what about user created ringtones? Do they just assume that the filename accurately describes the song being played?

Of course there's also the fact that AT&T will need to raise prices to cover the added cost, and since the royalty is not a one-time fee users will need to pay a subscription cost for each ringtone. And if AT&T ends up with an arrangement where they are charged each time a phone rings, then users will need to pay something like $.01 every time their phone rings.

I'm somewhat skeptical that this could even work for a few reasons:
1) How can they alter the sound so that a camera with a cheap mic can pick up the sound accurately enough for this to work without making it sound worse for the audience?

2) Even if they do somehow make the seat location ID work how will they know who sat there? Unless they assign seats and get the name of each person in the theater this is pretty useless

3) How will they know which theater the movie was filmed at, or which screen in the theater, or which time on that screen? Will every single individual screening have a different audio watermark?

Actually they do use a click track in the studio, though it is a pretty complex setup. A few years ago before the release of Train of Thought Mike (The drummer) had a contest on his forum where he posted the MIDI click track config they were using along with the key signature for each section of the instrumental song, with the goal being similar to the DT song without hearing it. The closest entry was played at the intro of every concert on the Train of Thought tour.

How is playing an instrument or doing any other activities associated with a band for 40 hours a week not work? I'll grant that *some* artists today do very little work, but what about the bands that spend hours every week practicing their own instruments, writing new music, dealing with the business side of the band (contracts, recording issues, etc...), and touring? Just because musicians are largely spending their days doing something they enjoy doesn't mean it doesn't qualify as work. Developing high technical skills on an instruments, learning music theory, and learning to apply that theory to writing good songs can take years of practice, and can be just as difficult as something like software development if you choose to make it so.

Could you explain that using cars?