Water arriving in waves outside State Library - not stopping the curious from enjoying themselves #qldfloods
posted by @custaro from Twitter for iPhone 46 mins 30 secs ago
Friday, 14 January 2011
Palin fails at finding her moment
Following Sarah Palin's videotaped statement today, let there be no doubt about her total lack of seriousness -- a character trait, in fact, that's utterly dwarfed by her chronic inability to construct prepared, teleprompter-presented remarks without virtually choking on her own tongue.Sarah Palin could have used her time to be a leader -- to take the high road and talk about the heroes and the victims of this terrorist attack. She could have used the time to discuss responsible gun ownership. She could have taken the time to address her people and mitigate the anger and political hatred that's bubbled up around this tragedy. Instead, she diminished the tragedy by conflating it with the attacks against her and her record of inflammatory statements...
Thursday, 13 January 2011
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
REpost: Why pay $25,000
Pictures of Banksy in Jamaica by Peter Dean Rickards (from 'Afflicted Yard')
Sites that publish these photos are usually handed a cease and desist take down notice by Banksy's solicitors while at the same time they deny it is him.
Radiohead - Live From The Basement [Full Show] (2010)
Track Listing
-------------
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
15 Step
Bodysnatchers
Nude
The Gloaming
Myxomatosis
House Of Cards
Bangers and Mash
Optimistic
Reckoner
Videotape
Where I End And You Begin
All I Need
Go Slowly
http://www.fromthebasement.tv/
DVD torrent link (requires PLG free registration):
http://www.purelivegigs.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=9801
the AustinBrock account @ youtube has also a lot of complete Radiohead concerts.
Check it out!
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Supreme Court declines to review Appeal Court's Starr VS Sony decision
America's Supreme Court has knocked back an application by the four major record companies - EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner - to stop a lower court from reconsidering price-fixing allegations that have been made against the US record industry.
A group of American consumers led by Kevin Starr (well, his name comes first on the court papers) launched a class action lawsuit against the four majors a few years back, alleging that the big players of the US record industry - controlling, as they do, about 80% of the market - had colluded to keep the wholesale price for digital downloads at 70 cents and, in doing so, had broken the country's competition, or anti-trust, laws.
In 2008, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling the plaintiffs had not presented enough evidence for an anti-trust case to be fully heard in court. But Starr et al appealed, and last year the US Appeals Court in New York ruled in their favour, declaring there were enough facts on the table to at least allege there had indeed been an antitrust price fixing conspiracy. The appeals court ordered the original judge to reconsider the case.
Legal reps for the majors quickly scurried to the US Supreme Court, arguing the appeals court had got it wrong, and that the plaintiffs simply lacked sufficient evidence for their case to be considered anew. But the Supreme Court yesterday declined, without explanation, to review the lower appeal court's ruling, meaning the anti-trust case will presumably now return to the original judge for new consideration. Funtimes.
@'CMU'
A group of American consumers led by Kevin Starr (well, his name comes first on the court papers) launched a class action lawsuit against the four majors a few years back, alleging that the big players of the US record industry - controlling, as they do, about 80% of the market - had colluded to keep the wholesale price for digital downloads at 70 cents and, in doing so, had broken the country's competition, or anti-trust, laws.
In 2008, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling the plaintiffs had not presented enough evidence for an anti-trust case to be fully heard in court. But Starr et al appealed, and last year the US Appeals Court in New York ruled in their favour, declaring there were enough facts on the table to at least allege there had indeed been an antitrust price fixing conspiracy. The appeals court ordered the original judge to reconsider the case.
Legal reps for the majors quickly scurried to the US Supreme Court, arguing the appeals court had got it wrong, and that the plaintiffs simply lacked sufficient evidence for their case to be considered anew. But the Supreme Court yesterday declined, without explanation, to review the lower appeal court's ruling, meaning the anti-trust case will presumably now return to the original judge for new consideration. Funtimes.
@'CMU'
Scientist Launches Dubstep Into Outer Space (Albumstream)
Hopeton Brown (aka Scientist) is one of the greatest and last remaining of Jamaica's first generation of dub producers. He apprenticed under the late King Tubby, the undisputed master of all dub masters, and has been at the forefront of developments in the art form since emerging on his own in the early '80s. This two-disc set is something of a departure for him; he was invited to remix a program of 12 previously unreleased dubstep tracks from the likes of Kode9, Shackleton, Pinch, Mala, and Jack Sparrow. Despite its moniker, dubstep actually has little rhythmically in common with reggae; it tends to be built on a lurching, off-kilter beat that sounds like it was meant to be danced to by someone with one leg shorter than the other, and although its basslines are teeth-shakingly loud and deep, they tend not to be as melodic as those of reggae. Many of the tracks collected here are actually somewhat lighter than dubstep fans might expect: Guido's "Korg Back" is calm and nearly pretty, while Shackleton's "Hackney Marshes" dances lightly and Distance's "Ill Content" brings a darker flavor to the proceedings without departing substantially from the decorous tone set by the other artists. Not until the very end, when Kode9 and Spaceape collaborate on the brilliant "Abeng," do the proceedings start getting that nervously bustling quality that characterizes so much contemporary dubstep. The second disc features Scientist's remixes, and it is to his credit that none of them tries to wrestle the original track into a prefabricated reggae template. "The Long Way" by Armour (Roly Vex'd) gets a bigger and more echoey acoustic, and Jack Sparrow's excellent "Red Sand" is given a dense and nearly jungly mix, but for the most part Scientist shows both taste and restraint in his mixes. Unsurprisingly, the most exciting remix is his deconstruction of RSD's "After All," the most reggae-flavored entry in the original program. On this track Scientist does really let loose with some reggae-style dub technique, and the result is spectacular. But there are no weak tracks on this excellent collection. The only complaint one might have is that it would have been nice to hear Scientist's mixes directly after each track rather than segregated on a separate disc. (Rick Anderson - allmusic; 4/5)1. Pinch feat. Emika - 2012 Dub
2. Armour (Roly Vex'd) - The Long Way Dub
3. Guido - Korg Back Dub
4. Shackleton - Hackney Marshes Dub
5. King Midas Sound - U Dub
6. Loefah & SGT Pokes - Dog Money Dub
7. Distance - Ill Kontent Dub
8. RSD - After All Dub
9. Jack Sparrow - Red Sand Dub
10. Mala (Digital Mystikz) - City Cycle Dub
11. Cyrus (Random Trio) - Footsteps Dub
12. Kode 9 & Spaceape - Abeng Dub
ALBUMSTREAM
Hypocrisy
PJ Crowley confirms "...the importance of respecting freedom of expression, but also the importance of the availability of information..."
Transcript
Transcript
What I believe
Keith Allen Vs Westboro Baptist Church
ThatKevinSmith KevinSmith
Via @DearShirley "CongresswomanGifford lived in adultery" 5 mins in, your glass house is showing:
Music Sharing Service SoundCloud Raises $10 Million From Index, Union Square
"Music start-ups have been a money incinerator for a long time, but that doesn’t stop investors from trying again. Here’s the latest example, which I first wrote about back in October: SoundCloud, a German-based file-sharing service, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures.
While lots of music services are still trying to figure out how to make money by distributing copyrighted music you’ve heard of, SoundCloud is taking a different tack. As I wrote last fall:
It’s designed to let professional and amateur musicians share their own music with each other and the public, via cloud-based files that the company hosts.
Once the tunes are on SoundCloud’s servers, the service makes it easy to move the stuff around the Web, via its own widget and an API that’s showing up on lots of interesting sites, apps, services and devices, including Facebook and Apple’s iPad. You can load SoundCloud files into Spotify, the streaming music company that Index has also invested in.
The service uses the freemium model, offering most of its capabilities for free, and charging up to $700 a year for more storage and extra features.
You can also use SoundCloud for less enlightened purposes, like sharing music you don’t own. But the company has recently implemented an audible “fingerprinting” service, like the ones Google’s YouTube uses, which allows copyright owners to take down files they don’t want on the Web. And that should give the company legal cover, unless the YouTube/Viacom case takes a very different turn.
In a blog post announcing the funding, SoundCloud says it will use the money to scale faster and “be more present in the US.” It also posts short clips, using its service, from its new investors–Index’s Mike Volpi and Union Square’s Fred Wilson."
(media memo)
Comment by techdirt:
" As we’ve discussed before, copyright law is effectively broken when it sets up fair use as a defense, rather than a proactive right. Fair use should be seen as the default until proven otherwise, if fair use is really (as is claimed) designed to be a pressure valve on copyright law to allow free speech.
Unfortunately, the industry has pushed back on this notion to a huge level. The very crux of the YouTube-Viacom legal fight is really over this issue. As many have noted, in the specifics of the lawsuit, Viacom basically notes that it has no problem with YouTube starting with the exact date that it implemented its ContentID program. In Viacom’s (and much of the entertainment industry’s) interpretation, the DMCA requires such filters. The likely reason that smaller companies like SoundCloud are now implementing filters as well is that they know there’s a half decent chance that the eventual outcome of lawsuits like the Viacom/YouTube fight will mean that a company is required by law to have such things in place."
via neumusik
BYEBYE SOUNDCLOUD?
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