Culture and Society

Justin Sodano got behind closed doors at the UN while the “no military action under any circumstances” weasels were rehearsing their theme song: “Appease Me” (Set to the tune of The Beatles’ “Please Please Me”) Al Qaeda plans to nuke our cities, Be sure to note this in committee, Give …

Glenn Fleishman decided to offer his book for free over the Internet, people took him up on it: instead of the few hundred downloads Fleishman expected, the book was downloaded about 10,000 times in just 36 hours. And because he’s charged incrementally for bandwidth, Fleishman estimates he could be billed …

Brilliant, logical, clear presentation in favor of enabling P2P as the savior rather than the destroyer of the entertainment industry by attorney Philip S. Corwin, as presented yesterday before the California Senate Select Committee on the Entertainment Industry – well worth the time to read if you want to understand …

The Christian Science Monitor examines the impact of new technology on military familes in war time: Certainly ever since the mythic Penelope watched Odysseus go off to Troy, the wives of warriors have been left to fend for themselves, raise the children alone, and hope their fighter someday comes home …

A senator thinks consumers should be warned about copy-protected products: The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would grant the Federal Trade Commission the power to establish labeling methods for technology that limits the ability of consumers to freely copy, distribute or back up digital content. “While digital media …

Hong Kong pop sensation driving mobile phone revenues: They dress like pre-teens but they are in their early twenties. Their songs are electronic candy pop about school and puppy love with mind-boggling lyrics such as “chemistry gives me love, biology gives me love, music gives me love . . .” …

Simply Red and Eleni Mandell are doing fine without major record label deals.

Forbes says Internet audio/video news streaming is coming into its own with the war in Iraq: Every new medium has its defining moment, and the current Iraqi conflict will be the event that validates the Internet’s streaming news media. ….The unfolding war in Iraq is expected to spur consumer adoption …

How do I despise thee? Let me count the ways … It is very nice to see a good, firm nugget of vitriol packaged against one of Satan’s lesser minions, Clear Channel in the form of ClearChannelSucks: ClearChannelSucks.org is a free speech website dedicated to educating the public about entertainment …

After a period of confusion where musicians mostly babbled about the war, now the actual SONGS are starting to flow fast and furious. Our James Russell has a nice roundup of anti-war songs here from the Beasties, Zach and DJ Shadow, John Mellonhead, the Billies: Bragg and Joe Armstrong. To …