A post over on Spiritual Tramp about the impending doom of Pandora, an internet radio site, got me thinking. The Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA, aka the major labels) fear and loathing of digital music has often been predicted to be it’s downfall. I agree. Below is my prediction of how it will happen.

SoundExchange is a nonprofit spin-off of the RIAA dedicated to collecting royalty fees for member artists. That seems fine on the surface, but their Congressional mandated power is being abused in order to kill internet radio. Radio pays no fees for playing artists and satellite radio pays nominal fees. Internet radio pays exorbitant fees by comparison. That is why Pandora is in trouble.

Continued actions like these will only make organizations like SoundExchange obsolete. Internet radio sites will slowly replace SoundExchange artists with independents that don’t require, or require less fees. They’ll do this to cut costs and stay alive.

At the same time, an entire generation of kids who have shared every creative impulse freely over the internet will become of an age where they will be creating the music we, their peers, and most of all, their juniors will be listening to online. They won’t join SoundExchange and will offer up plenty of quality material for internet radio and little or no cost. Instead of full copyrights, they will use alternatives. They will make their money from touring, merchandising, and from ownership enthusiasts such as myself.

This synergy will result in the merger of the independent music movement and the internet radio movement and will finally be the death stake in RIAA and their bastard child, SoundExchange. Even their very name is an Orwellian misnomer since they are dedicated to hindering the exchange of music.

Well summer is almost over and it’s time to say good-by to those lovable, carefree months. With that in mind I wanted to ask everyone:

What did you do on your summer vacation? If you didn’t travel or don’t have any stories to share then what do you love about summer?

This summer I took to the beach with some of my dear friends and family, went camping and spent a lot of time reading (reviews coming soon). I went kayaking for the first time and decided I prefer canoing. And I also spent some of the early summer learning how to garden; a hobby I quickly gave up once the daily temperature reached the 90s.

I have never been crazy about going to the beach but I really had a great time this year and once I made peace with the fact that sand will get everywhere I had a good time. This year’s trip made me understand why people like going to the beach so much. However, siting next to a campfire with sunburned legs is not fun at all!

What are some of my favorite things about summer?
- I like to eat so I always look forward to summer produce like peaches, strawberries, summer squash and sweet corn (YUM!).
- I like wearing sandals.
- I like watching lightning bugs and staying outside late into the night.
- I like summer rainstorms.
- I like summer ales, they’re delicious.

Bunnies4Buddha

The above comic is created and licensed by Rudis Muiznieks of Cectic.com.

The intolerant authoritarians have figured out how to turn tolerance on it’s head. Tolerance for those different from us is a quintessential element of our liberal form of government prized by most of the West for the past 200 years. It was first enshrined in our very own Bill of Rights. But certain groups, particularly religious conservatives have undermined tolerance in a subtle, but egregious way. They are demanding that others must tolerate their own intolerance.

It’s an act of subterfuge. They disguise their own hate and fears as religious beliefs and then cleverly prey on our good-natured love of tolerance to provide cover for intolerant actions. American Christians have done a fine job of this to protect their intolerance of gays and atheists. But it has been the Muslims that mastered the technique. They have successfully stifled free speech multiple times. First, they tried with The Satanic Verses. Later, the succeeded preventing most U.S. news sources from reprinting the Mohammed cartoons. More recently they’ve prevented publication of the book The Jewel of Medina, a book about Mohammed’s marriage to Aisha – a girl forced into marriage and rapped by Muhammed at age 9.

They’ve even managed to get the United Nations to ban criticism of Islam, exempting fatwas and Sharia law from ever being considered human rights violations, though that is often exactly what they are.

I’d normally classify Cectic’s comics under ‘humor’ but, unfortunately, this is no joke. Do not tolerate intolerance no matter how much religious clothing it puts on.

If you want to answer the question and skip the back story, click here.

Scientific American recently published an article about free will and morality. Previously, I’ve written about studies that demonstrate that not all of our apparent choices are free and how that impacts morality.

Furthermore, there was an extended discussion about how free will is the cause of some evil in the world. Well, this new study turns that idea on its head. They demonstrate that determinism may cause immoral behavior! That is, at least belief in determinism correlates with small-scale cheating.

Basically, a group of research subjects were asked to read an anti-free will text (the control group read text from the same publication that makes no mention of free will) and then take an computer-based arithmetic test. The trick was that the test enables the subject to cheat. Moreover, it required the subject to take an action (press the space bar) to prevent the answer from appearing prematurely on the screen. The subjects failed to press the space bar more often than the control group. Furthermore, the frequency of cheats correlated to the extent to which the individual believed in determinism.

Read the rest of this entry »

A while back, when I was learning to use my new music software, I wrote three shorts.  There are less about the song than the sounds.  Still I think they are worth sharing.

• Return A
• Return B
• Technically

You can find more on my music page.

I spent some time listening to some of the new music offered by RCRD LBL and found a few tunes I thought were worth sharing.

The first song is by The Secret Machines. I already have one of their releases, Ten Silver Drops which has the fantastic single Alone, Jealous, and Stoned (you can listen to it on their MySpace page). Their new single, Dreaming of Dreaming, is more psychedelic than the previous stuff I’ve heard from them and is still of very high quality. Download it and let me know what you think of it.

The next two songs are by a five-piece band based in Brooklyn that calls themselves Freshkills. Their music is alternative rock with a bit of an edge. I’m particularly taken with their production aesthetic. They use two distorted guitars, one panned hard left, the other hard right. One plays long riffs with lower notes and tame distortion while the other plays shorter, higher-pitched riffs with a distortion that makes it sound almost chaotic.

Freshkills have three songs posted on RCRD LBL. I recommend I Quit Smoking and I Know I Know (downloadable). Both songs are quite good but more importantly both suggest that this band has some amazing potential. I’ll likely purchase their new, self-titled release when it becomes available on September 2nd in hopes of discovering a hidden gem.

Also of note are You by acoustic rock group Two Sheds, alt-country song New Years (language warning) by The John Henrys, and the “B-Town” remix of Raised by Wolves by Cansecos. All three of these are available for download as well.

The following article by Greg Mankiw a very highly respected economist at Harvard outlines what I believe would be a lot of peoples dream election. Ok, it may be more geared towards economist but just imagine if candidates actually would focus on these topics to garner the support of the many groups within this country or the many groups starting thinking more like economist. If that were to happen, maybe we could enact more positive change.

Out of the 8 topics Greg Mankiw focuses on, I think two standout either because it is a hot topic or something not often focused on but they are:

OPPOSE FARM SUBSIDIES Economists like free markets, a principle that applies to agriculture as much as any good or service. Again, Senator McCain has the lead. Senator Obama’s endorsement of the recent $300 billion farm bill, his support for domestic ethanol subsidies and his opposition to imported sugar ethanol may bring votes from farmers, but economists view these policies as a burden on taxpayers and consumers.

and…

LEAVE OIL COMPANIES AND SPECULATORS ALONE With the stunning rise in oil prices, both presidential candidates have been tempted to demonize market participants. Senator McCain has complained about the “obscene profits” of oil companies and called for a “thorough and complete investigation of speculators.” By contrast, most economists see nothing more sinister than the forces of global supply and demand at work. There is little benefit, and potentially much harm, in the candidates’ populist finger-pointing.

The second was actually a was a hot topic for while.

Enjoy
Santini

This video is too cool to not share:

I ran across this blog on the Freakonomics Blog this morning and had to share this particular post. Though the blog states clearly that a strong causation or correlation exist, it is still particularly funny. I would also like to see the sale numbers for beer and cigarettes around May and a comparison to the past few years. I think you would have similar numbers. I have a feeling that the administration didn’t have this particular field in mind when they issued the checks to stimulate growth (and yes I know, I chose that phrasing on purpose!)