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 Tuesday, May 4, 2004
Music Labels Still Don't Get It. Last month we wrote about how the music industry was, inexplicably, looking to (a) raise prices on digital downloads and (b) force people to buy a bad song to get a good song. They clearly have no clue that they're basically killing the one, very minor, success they've had in the world of digital downloads. Now, even folks in mainstream magazines like Newsweek are screaming about how the labels just don't get it. Steven Levy takes a look at a number of downloadable albums that cost more than their CDs, while giving the user less (one of the CDs comes with a DVD as well). He also can't believe that the industry hasn't pushed to make downloadable songs play on a variety of devices, as that would encourage more people to buy. However, the folks who run the labels don't get it. They only look at digital downloads and see piracy. They are blind to the idea that it might be an opportunity, and thus they have no real reason to come up with reasons to encourage it. Of course, all this really does is push end-users to seek less than legal alternatives.
[Techdirt]
Another example of a group that does not get it, wants to criminalize behavior of its customers and is increasingly becoming irrelevant. I think in 20 years people will look at the music companies in the same manner we look at buggy whip manufacturers. Quaint in their irrelevance. 10:11:55 PM 
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An excellent memoir from someone who was there 34 years ago today. Another incident where a photo seared itself into our brains. We have had several recently. The picture of the flag-dapped coffins in the belly of an airplane that lost the woman who took it her job. And the pictures of torture in Iraq. I hope we do not have many more coming. 9:58:11 PM
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Sentences you don't see on Electrolite every day.. Check out this outstanding column by George Will. No, I'm not just recommending it because Will is evidently beginning to... [Electrolite]
George Will knows that this administration is not conservative in any way. Now he tells the rest of us. 9:35:39 PM
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Students with iBooks Get Better Grades. Writing in the Granite State News about New Hampshire[base ']s Technology Promoting Student Excellence Program, Mary Saliba reports, [base "]The Governor provided each Paul School 7th grader with a Macintosh iBook laptop in January, and in this short time, principal Matthew Jozokos reports, [OE]Every child has increased grades.[base '] He also said there have been decreased absences, and that the students were much more excited to be learning. He added that the teachers were learning a lot too.[per thou] [May 3] [Apple Hot News]
How smart would everyone be if the MAc OS had taken over instead of MS? We would not be dealing with a major virus every month, that is for sure. 10:11:41 AM
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Our Own Private Economic Tuskegee. In the mid-twentieth century, in one of the U.S. government's uglier backstories, poor black men in Tuskegee, Alabama were used as laboratory animals for scientific research. Specifically, 399 men who were suffering from syphilis (and did not know it) were... [Change for America]
Those who state that all poltics are local should realize that the attempt to force the Iraqi economy into a mold that benefited America and its own industries, to the detriment of local people, was pretty stupid. Privatation at the point of a gun is no better for the economy that it is for democracy. These guys look less conservative every day. 9:46:05 AM
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Nice to see that we know how to torture prsoners here in the US also. Anyone who thinks the rest of the world believes the story that this is not what America does is living in a dream world. We just have turned our heads away from this sort of behaviour so we do not have to recognize that the ability to brutalize and torture other humans (something that may actually be part of all human being) IS part of what the US is. Saying it is a few bad eggs does not get around the fact that an organization was created that would even allow the thought of these sorts of behaviours to occur, much less their execution.
Every damn one of these guys should serve hard jail time. The ones in NY should be put away for a long time. The ones in Iraq need to be publically tried. Teir supervisors need to be sent to prison. And, if any of them had any moral fiber, the leaders should resign. For the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to say he has not read the confidential report, that it was working its way up to him, should be reason to can his butt. For Rumsfeld to say he has not read the report, should be reason to can his butt.
Unfortunately, this administration does not seem to believe in firing anyone for anything. Wolfie is not doing a good job. So make him head of the CIA. Until someone high up in this administration actually takes responsibility for something going wrong, things can not get better. I hope it happens soon. There are lower levele officials who are quoting the Who song: 'Meet the new boss. Same as the old booss.' The Iraqis have known this for months. When are the guys at the top going to realize they have such a huge problem that they will toss someone to the wolved. I am sure that it could happen soo. There goes their 'We never need to fire anyone because we do not make mistakes.' 9:38:46 AM
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