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Tuesday, February 04, 2003 |
Nelson Mandela on Iraq
Christopher Hitchens writes a good piece on Mandela's odious views on the US and Iraq. Just because a person who has shown great personal and moral courage in one area doesn't make him right in other areas, and just because I agree with him in general about the advisability of war in Iraq doesn't mean that everything he says needs to be taken seriously.
On the other hand, this regime has done such a bad job of presenting itself to the world it's not hard to see how many can draw this conclusion.
8:33:57 AM Permalink
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More Easterbrook on Columbia
Via Kausfiles, here's Gregg Easterbrook's Columbia piece in Time. As shown by the reprint of the very early article in the Atlantic below, he's always been a critic of the shuttle and is perhaps overboard. This is good stuff and well worth considering. Two disasters out of 113 flights is a dismal record, and you really have to wonder what we got out of it.
Also from Slate, here is a very good roundup of shuttle coverage around the web.
8:22:09 AM Permalink
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Society's Child
Via lots of weblogs, here's this terrific Janis Ian editorial from the LA Times (free registration required). She's referring to the recent disastrous decision that Verizon must give to the RIAA the names of music downloaders. It's clear that the record industry isn't so much concerned with paying the artists (well, I guess that's a big "Duh" but thesure do pretend to be), as it is exercising control over how music is made available.
The Internet means exposure, and these days, unless you're in the Top 40, you're not getting on the radio. The Internet is the only outlet for many artists to be heard by an audience bigger than whoever shows up at a local coffeehouse. The Internet allows people like me to gain new fans; if only 10% of those downloading my music buy my records or come to my shows, I've just gained enough fans to fill Carnegie Hall twice over.
...Do you like '50s-style acoustic folk? Big band music? European synth? If the decision stands, you'll have to rely on word of mouth to find it -- not the Internet. Because if you get hold of an "infringing" file, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a record company lawsuit too expensive for any individual to fight.
The entertainment industry has a long history of trying to shut down new technology. Most often, it has imagined that new products and services threatened industry sales. It's been proved wrong time and time again; it fought home video tooth and nail, but videotapes and rentals now bring in more money than movie releases. Music history is littered with record industry campaigns against reel-to-reel home tape recorders, cassettes, minidiscs, music videos and MTV.
7:58:52 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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