A Dutch Life

MTV has an interesting article that details the death by many cuts of the music industry as we know it:

Madonna Ditches Label, Radiohead Go Renegade: The Year The Music Industry Broke

Radiohead, one of my all time favourite bands (mostly because they are so incredibly innovative) essentially reinvented how to distribute an album, and they did it just the way I had been waiting for:

October 1: Radiohead shock fans by announcing on their blog that not only have they completed their much-anticipated new album, In Rainbows, but that “it’s coming out in 10 days,” via download — leading to reams of “this is a taste of the future of albums”-type commentary. The bandmembers, who have been free agents since the release of 2003’s Hail to the Thief, decide to release the album by themselves in two formats: download-only, which allows fans to name their price for the album, and as a deluxe “discbox” version (priced at approximately $80).

It is a shame the results of this experiment have not been published. Personally, I gladly handed over 8 Euros. Their web site did let them down somewhat, though the support was excellent, actually trusting me, the customer, to have done the right thing. 

October 10: In Rainbows is made available for download. Over the next two months, much speculation ensues as to just how many people downloaded it and exactly how much they paid to do so: Early reports have more than 1.2 million fans downloading it at an average price of $8, though later findings by comScore, a company that measures consumer activity online, adds that more than 60 percent of downloaders paid nothing for the album. Neither Radiohead nor their publicists discuss the financial aspects of the download experiment, though the band does issue a statement dismissing comScore’s findings as “wholly inaccurate.”

I shed no tears for the music industry. They are missing out on my money because the only way available to me to get new music is via the purchase of a CD. Guys, it is 2008!

I don’t want to buy CD’s. I move around a lot and nothing sucks more than having to deal with these annoying, fragile little plastic disks. Sure I can store them, but then someone gets into my parents garage and steals them, leaving me completely without a collection.

This is ridiculous, I want to be able to buy my music digitally, and I want to know that in 10 years I will still be able to play that music. And until you give me that I’m not going to buy any music from you. We want a service like Amazon MP3 (horrid license aside) in Europe, I want to give you my money.

As for iTunes, don’t get me stated on that. DRM sucks. I just have to wonder where are all the people shouting monopoly are now? The old reality distortion field reaches pretty far these days.

Rant over.

This is just hilarious:

The cradle of Christianity was rocked by an unholy punch-up when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.

As you can see by the above picture, the battle lines were certainly drawn. I’m really not sure who I would have been backing, but regardless would have loved to be a spectator.

The brawl apparently began when Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church after the Christmas Day celebrations.

Armenian priests claimed that the ladders encroached on their portion of the church, which led the two sects to exchange angry words which quickly turned to blows.

I totally understand how they feel, I used to have almost the exact same problem with my sister in the back seat of my parents car. Despite the middle seat being empty and elbow or something was always creeping over onto my side.

Witnesses said that the robed and bearded priests scuffled for more than an hour using fists, brooms and iron rods as weapons.

So much for love thy neighbour. And Iron Rods? Very ghetto, where exactly did these come from? Thankfully no one managed to pull the pitchfork from the hay in the stable in the nativity!

Five priests were lightly injured in the melee, which was eventually broken up by a dozen unarmed Palestinian policemen. Two of the policemen were hurt in ending the brawl.

“Lightly Injured”, well, I guess these guys are lovers and not fighters after all. Just it does seem strange that in an hour of fighting only five of them were injured, yet in breaking it up 2 cops were injured. These guys need some anger management courses!

Thanks for the tip bro, really liking these guys a lot. They have really pulled together, modified and then woven some great samples.

Not since Kasabian have I instantly liked an album as much.

I’m completely blown away by the awesomeness that is the wingsuit.

This footage is just incredible.

I’d always just thought “Yes”, but I just read an interesting article that raises some good points which are certainly worth considering:

Zaitsev has already sent several powerful messages to nearby, sun-like stars—a practice called “Active SETI.” But some scientists feel that he’s not only acting out of turn, but also independently speaking for everyone on the entire planet. Moreover, they believe there are possible dangers we may unleash by announcing ourselves to the unknown darkness, and if anyone plans to transmit messages from Earth, they want the rest of the world to be involved. For years the debate over Active SETI versus passive “listening” has mostly been confined to SETI insiders. But late last year the controversy boiled over into public view after the journal Nature published an editorial scolding the SETI community for failing to conduct an open discussion on the remote, but real, risks of unregulated signals to the stars. And in September, two major figures resigned from an elite SETI study group in protest. All this despite the fact that SETI’s ongoing quest has so far been largely fruitless. For Active SETI’s critics, the potential for alerting dangerous or malevolent entities to our presence is enough to justify their concern.

Now that is a good point, I guess my naive “Hello Mr. Alien, will you be my friend?” viewpoint failed to take into account the possibility that those hearing us might actually be something resembling the Vogons.

This is especially important given that, if other life forms out there do exist, then the chances are they will be far more advanced than us. Paul Davies, the chair of SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology, explored this in detail in his book “Are we alone?”.

In summary, when in a dark room it might just pay to listen first, and yell out loud second, lest you wake the Vogon in the corner.

Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms – washingtonpost.com

It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life’s most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA — an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought.

Now researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life forms driven by completely artificial DNA.

This, when finally taken, is another important step on the road that will lead us to unlocking one of the most important questions we face. How did life come about? What incredible combination of factors, however improbable, have had to come together in order to create this thing we call life.

When we do finally make such a discovery, and after a short period of reflection on just how incredible a discovery it is, we can get on with the import job of creating pet dragons.

Its rare that Petra asks me to take her photo, but today, while enjoying another beautiful cold winters day in Amsterdam, she demanded I do just that.

Looking outside my window today revealed not just more beautiful ice frosted trees, but canals that have frozen over. This is not so common in the era of global warming, and it is getting everyone pretty excited about the possibility of “elfstedentocht” (eleven cities tour). Which reminds me, never, ever, go ice skating with a Dutchman, its the equivalent of suggesting they kick around an Aussie Football with you for a while, deep embarrassment will ensue.

We are going for a walk, despite the temperature, it really is a beautiful, beautiful day!

This is the picture that sat next to my computer desktop all day, only most of the day it said -5 not this relatively warm -3! For those at home in Australia this means that right now it really truly IS like a fridge outside.

The thing that puzzles me, is why, when it gets this cold, we continue to bother with temperature? It strikes me that the human body is unable to tell the difference between, say -5 and -3, and that what would in fact be more useful would be to describe it in terms of the amount of pain you feel in your hands while riding your bike.

I went out for a coffee this morning, and stupidly forgot my gloves, DAMN that hurt. For those at home, imagine you are behind the bar at a party, in the middle of winter, and people are asking for a beer at an average rate of once every .3 seconds (not unusual for a moderate size party in Aus) and to serve it up you have to plunge your hand into an esky full of ice. OK, now times that by about 10, and THAT is how much my hand hurt this morning. On the positive side, the lovely prosecco (thanks Thomas!) I was carrying was cold enough to drink (I didn’t, but it may have helped the pain go away!).

Anyway, the upside of all this, is a really beautiful city of Amsterdam. I had my breath taken away when I looked out my window upon getting downstairs to find the following (complete album):

Disturbing picture from Afghanistan by Stephanie Sinclair selected as UNICEF Photo of the year.

He’s forty, she’s eleven. And they are a couple – the Afghan man Mohammed F.* and the child Ghulam H.*. “We needed the money”, Ghulam’s parents said. Faiz claims he is going to send her to school. But the women of Damarda village in Afghanistan’s Ghor province know better: “Our men don’t want educated women.” They predict that Ghulam will be married within a few weeks after her engagement in 2006, so as to bear children for Faiz.

I just can’t imagine the kind of thought process that leads people consider this acceptable.

UNICEF Photo of the Year 2007s