Thursday, January 26, 2006

Shiver Me Timbers, MPAA Accused of Piracy


Aye, in a merry yarn if Me e'er heard one, the Motion Picture Association o' America has been accused o' movie piracy. Blow me down!

Arrr, the accuser is film director Kirby Dick who sent a copy o' his documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" t' the Mpaa back in No'ember.

The film puts the work o' the MPAA in the spotlight, accusin' it o' bein' too hard on sex, too soft on 'iolence and publicly unaccountable. For its part, the MPAA reckons the film-maker’s methods, allegedly in'ol'in' rootin' through MPAA’s members dustbins and generally followin' them about, war a bit underhand.

Aye, mr Dick says he emailed the MPAA seekin' assurances that it would not make copies o' the film. He now wants t' know why it did so and has asked for all copies t' be returned t' him. Aye, me parrot concurs.

Arrr, accordin' t' the MPAA's own website, "Manufacturin', sellin', distributin' or makin' copies o' motion pictures without the consent o' the copyright owner is illegal.

Does piracy sound fun to ye scalawag? A couple o' options be a'ailable, check the worlds greatest torrent site, thepiratebay.org r just learn t' talk like a pirate, ye Son of a Biscuit Eater.

Gar, Where can I find a bottle o'rum?

Radiohead Covers

For your Friday. Enjoy.

Download MP3: Mark Ronson feat Alex Green- Just
Download MP3: The Flaming Lips- Knives Out
Download MP3: Tori Amos- Karma Police
Download MP3: Gillian Welch- Blackstar
Download MP3: Damian Rice- Creep
Download MP3: A Clearing- Gagging Order
Download MP3: Pedro the Lion- Letdown
Download MP3: Anthrax- The Bends
Download MP3: The Pretenders- Creep

There's a Hole in My Heart that Can't be Filled by Nebrasketball

Rivers flow into the sea
Yet even the sea is not so full of me
If I'm not blind why can't I see
That a circle can't fit
Where a square should be

Not that any of us have staked our emotional well-being on the success of the Nebraska basketball team, but after last night's crapfest completing a trifecta of miserable perofmances, it's safe to say that I can back down any optimism I ever had about the team's postseason chances and move on to the other things in life. And although that flimsy optimism was a inadequate fill-in for the void left by the conclusion of the college football season, we've still got 7 months until Louisiana Tech rolls into town.

Don't despiar, though. There's plenty to look forward to until September 2nd. So, without further delay, here is the calender of items to fill the massive hole that was created by this month's annual exit of the greatest sport in the world.

February 1: College football signing day
February 5: The Super Bowl
February 10: My cousin's band Oranjesta, is having a CD release party at Knickerbockers.
February 10-February 26: Winter Olympics
February 15: Sunset in Lincoln, NE moves past 6:00 p.m.
February 16: Pitchers & Catchers report to MLB Training Camps
February 16: First Nebraska baseball game (@ Charleston Southern)
February 17: Raymond Central faces Class C-1 #1 Wahoo Bishop Neumann in Raymond
February 17-19: NBA All-Star weekend
February 28: Fat Tuesday

March 1: First Spring Training Game
March 3-20: World Baseball Classic
March 6-12: Championship Week
March 9-11: Nebraska Boys' State Basketball Tournament
March 10: First Nebraska Home Basetball Game (vs. Alabama)
March 12: NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday
March 16-19: NCAA First and Second Round Games
March 23-26: NCAA Third and Fourth Round Games

April 1: Final Four Games
April 2: First Regular Season Baseball Game (White Sox/Indians)
April 2: Daylight Savings Begins
April 3: Official MLB opening Day
April 3: NCAA Basketball Championship
April 4: NU/Creighton Baseball @ Rosenblatt
April 6-9: The Masters
April 14-16: Nebraska/aTm baseball series @ Haymarket (return of Rob Childress)
April 15: Red-White Game
April 16: Easter
April 18: NU/Creighton Baseball @ Haymarket
April 21-23: NU Baseball series @ preseason #1 Texas
April 22: NBA Playoffs begin
April 29-30: NFL Draft

May 4: Cedars Charity Golf tournament @Woodland Hills (ask me if you want in)
May 16: NU/Creighton Basetball @ Rosenblatt
May 24-28: Big XII Baseball Tournament (with new format)

June 2-5: NCAA Baseball Regionals
June 8: NBA Finals Begin (possibly June 6)
June 9-12: NCAA Baseball Super-Regionals
June 15-18: U.S. Open
June 16-25: College World Series
June 28: NBA Draft

July 10-11: MLB All Star Festivities
July 20-23: British Open
End of July: NFL Training camps open

First Week of August: NFL Preseason games begin
August 31: First Thursday Night of College Football (Northern Arizona/Arizona St., Northwestern/Miami (OH), Syracuse/Wake Forest, BC/Ohio)

And before you know it, September 2 will be here.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

File Sharing

The topical escalation of media coverage besieging the demise of Napster has instigated widespread debate over the implications file sharing and the Internet will have for the record industry. Napster software allowed millions of users to share and download music mp3 files, which are of near CD quality, from each other's hard drives. This infringed copyright laws and provided a very real threat to both musicians and record companies alike. In response Napster was sued by the American heavy metal band Metallica, and then taken to court by The Recording Industry Association of America; where they were subsequently ordered to cease operating. Despite this verdict, many similar companies such as Grokster and Kazaa continue to offer file-sharing facilities and provide free access to copyrighted music.

"I did not - was not asked if I wanted to be part of Napster. I was not asked if Napster could throw our music into their system. That choice was taken away from me." Metallica's Lars Ulrich (Oct 10, 2000) CBS News

"This is not about now. No. This is about five years from now. This is about 10 years from now," he says. "So, if we are going to sell our music on the Internet, in whatever way we so choose, we cannot do that if the guy next door is giving it away for free." Metallica's Lars Ulrich (Oct 10, 2000) CBS News


In honor of Lars...

Metallica – Nothing else matters

Lucie Silvas - Nothing else matters



Oh yeah, I blatantly copied the first paragraph from the internet.


Jeff Tweedy (Wilco) on File sharing

AP: You've said that you don't see music file sharing as a threat, mainly because of quality issues?

Tweedy: That's just part of it. I don't think that the quality is the same. But I don't see it as a threat because I don't feel that it's a threat to have people more interested in music. I think what's happening with file sharing is that you have a lot more people hearing a lot more music, and I think more than anything else it has engendered an enthusiasm for music. It's a no-brainer that it should be embraced, that's kind the whole point of making music, to be heard. The only thing that stands in the way of making sense to most people is greed. ... File sharing sites don't just have new material, they have archival material, they have spoken word, they tons of material that I never had access to growing up. At their fingertips, people have all this amazing stuff, and I'd like to see what's going to come out of that in the future. If you shut that down, it's like closing a library.

Jeff Tweedy: pecan pie[mp3]
Jeff Tweedy: I can't keep from talking[mp3]
Jeff Tweedy: please tell my brother[mp3]

When is a Prayer Not a Prayer?

There were big happenings in the Unicam yesterday morning. Much to Ernie Chambers' chagrin, prayers are often offered on the Legislature floor prior to the commencing the daily session. While that alone is an issue worth discussing, the issue took an entirely intriguing turn when Yesterday's guest "pray-er" was Pastor Tom Swartley from Elm Creek. Rev. Swartley opened up fairly innocuously, but after a few setnences, it was clear that the prayer was intended to be more horizontal than vertical:

The prayer offered by guest Pastor Tom Swartley of Elm Creek had a routine beginning. “Almighty God, we come humbly into your presence this morning seeking your favor.”

Six sentences in, Swartley was asking for forgiveness for “a people who have killed 47 million of my fellow Americans since the day I was born,” in reference to abortion. He prayed that legislators have a renewed sense of conscience and courage “to do what is right.”“Open our eyes to the other aspects of this 33-year-long bloody nightmare,” Swartley said later. “Open our eyes to see that we’ve killed 47 million young American taxpayers, and indeed Social Security is in crisis. Open our eyes to see that 47 million of our countrymen and women are gone — doctors, lawyers, inventors, authors, musicians and artists.”

Swartley later asked God to forgive people in the state for teaching evolution, which he described as a “religion that tells us that we are only here by chance; that we are here for no reason and human life means nothing more than any other life…”“We’ve put our children into the same category as other mammals, and we wonder why sometimes they act like animals,” he added later.


After the prayer, Rev. Swartley said "These are things I pray about in private."

Yeah, right, Tom.

I'm sure you frequently throw in statistics during your nightly request for God to overturn Roe. I'm wondering if you've ever considered making a Power Point presentation so that your time alone with God can be presented in a more organized, convincing and visually-appealing fashion. I've heard God really doles out the intercession if he's presented with pie charts.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Again, I'm sure that God was relieved at finally being informed of the future professions of aborted fetuses.

This sounds like the kid, when asked to pray at the table before dinner, humbly asking that he'll get everything he wants for Christmas, in hopes that Mom and Dad get the message.

There's a time and place to lobby, but this attempt to not-so-discreetly disguise a rare chance to lobby the entire Unicam as a prayer is fairly insulting to everyone involved, especially others from the Evangelical tradition who don't appreciate the way media-grabbing events by fringe leaders continue to perpetuate unfortunate stereotypes.

And at very worst, if he's going to desecrate a prayer by making it a tool for horizontal communication about "morality", he forgot to mention the moral responsibility of our Legislature to address the problem of poverty in our state, which is a large one.

In an interesting contrast, over 10,000 clergy have signed this letter regarding Religion and Science. At least they didn't go open up School Board meetings by reading the letter as a "prayer".

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

The First Person to Say "I DON'T Support the Troops"

Is Joel Stein of the LA Times.

I've never seen anyone move the criticism of the war from the Bush administration to the troops themselves, but Stein does it. I have a feeling this op-ed is going to be all over the place for the next few days.

Get ready for some hate mail, Joel. I disagree with him, but not in the way or for the reasons that the vast majority of red-blooded Americans will. I guess I'm one of those people who oppose the war, but don't blame 18 year olds, many of whom had no other viable option than to go into the military, for not making a moral decision about their role in the military and more specifically in Iraq.

That said, I'm glad he wrote this article. The phrase "support the troops" annoys me anyway, as it always seems to be some litmus test as to whether one is a "true American", i.e., if you don't support the war, you don't "support the troops", and that's akin to treason.

Maybe Mr. Stein will pave the way for people like me, who don't want to go as far as he does in this article, by blowing the stigma off of nonsupport for both the troops AND the war.