Save the Internet & Net Radio

Hey, so here are a couple pet causes of mine lately... but more than being my pet causes, they're very real access issues everybody who cares about free exchange of information should care about. Net neutrality is both advocated and explained in pretty simple terms in the following video.



No such luck with a catchy video for saving Net Radio, but it's as compelling a situation. The case is laid out pretty well as follows:

On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry’s future.

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 – that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters’ royalties will grow exponentially!




You can click on the link above to learn more or take action on saving Net Radio.

Happy 4th of July

Patriotic Sky
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Well, Lyndsey, Jane and Brad are out to get some corn from a local farm.

Chester Ellis, Chester Bonnaccorsi and I are chillin.

So I thought I would post this heart-wearming flag-waving, god-fearing, apple-pie and big-mac eating true blue American freakin picture. I took it over the weekend, and I'll admit I dodged the flag a wee bit in ye olde Photoshoppe.

Happy 4th of July!

Tryout for Little Miss Sunshine

07
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So I went to the eye doctor today, and they dilated my pupils for my exam. In such a state, when I got home I could do very little, except of course take rediculous self-portraits. There are a dozen posted on flickr here. I recommend watching them in slideshow format.

Funny that my left eye is much more dilated than the right.

Intimidating, right?

Fox Noise Gets Sued

So a school administrator in Maine is suing Fox News Channel because they repeated on air as fact news that was completely false. Apparently their source was a site not unlike the Onion. The site is called Associated Content. If you want detail on this, you can check the article here.

The sad thing about this is that after Fox tossed this piece into their echo chamber the result was that wingnuts from all over creation started calling the school, the administrator's home, sending hate mail, etc. Great move nutjobs.

Thanks for being what sucks about America.

Sure, some might say it's great that nutters can be entitled to act as nutty as they like without interference or any recourse. In this case, it looks like the drum leader of the nut parade might just pay a price for kicking off the festivities. Good deal. Happy 4th of July folks! Let freedom ring.

Sex, not cats

Dragonflies 03
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Dragonfly sex, that is. So judging from their position and the fact that I know squat about biology I could be off on the whole sex thing, but I was continuing to experiment with my new camera this afternoon and captured a zillion and a half pictures of these two dragonflies flying around on each others backs.

I was pretty happy with at least four of the 1.5 zillion, so I posted them to flickr. I also wanted to prove I could take pictures of non-furry animals.

That last piece is a lie really, the thought of proving something never really crossed my mind until I was writing this rambling somewhat pointless post.

Nate, this one's for you!

Chester Bonnaccorsi
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Awhile back Nate suggested that I may have been treading a little too close to a line called, "cat lady" by taking too many photos of the family cats (and posting them with somewhat rediculous stories). To be perfectly honest, he had a good point. Sad to say it, but regardless of the validity of such warnings, I still find the animals a good subject for photographic fun. Hence, it should come as no surprise that one of the first photos I've uploaded from my 180 picture weekend of fun with a new camera is... that's right (you've already seen it), Chester the cat.

The week is off to a great start, with beautiful weather outside, lots of good pics from the weekend, and a whole lot of work to dig into!

Cheers

New Camera Giddiness

Second Day Sky
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So... I got a new camera this weekend, and I literally don't quite know what to do with myself or it. I've been running around taking pictures frantically and randomly since I got home with it and charged the battery Saturday evening.

The adventures so far have been somewhat hilarious... including the fact that I probably at some point need to tone down my photo quality settings because I'm fairly certian I don't need to take every shot with the set-up such that it creates a 3 megabite jpeg. Yeah. A little excessive? Perhaps.

Anyway, that's all, really for now. That and I'm giddy. Did I say that already?

Romney Hates Animals

Wow... this is nauseating, but um... wait, no, just nauseating.

It's funny because it was a family joke of ours growing up... someone misbehaving in the car? Strap 'em to the roof!

Holy crap, a Presidential candidate did that to their pet, and for whatever reason, we all now know about his insanity. Can't wait to hear some explanations for this ridiculousness.

Griffey returns to the sounds of Journey's, "Open Arms"

Leave it to baseball to knock me out of my political blogging rut here. It's been a week with lots of political crap to blather about. Wait, that's every week, right? Anyway, not everyday do you catch up with this kind of story:

A Welcome Sight, Griffey Returns to Seattle

If you grew up in the 90's loving baseball like I did, well, then you need to read it. If not, you will likely still enjoy it. Regardless, here's a little preview:


"There's a wonderful "Seinfeld" bit in which Jerry says that because players change teams so often, fans find themselves rooting for the uniform and not the athlete. "When you root for a team these days," he says, "you're mostly rooting for laundry." This is almost always the case. But Seattle fans were most definitely not rooting for laundry over the weekend. They were rooting for the player."

Enjoy

Jon Stewart Vs. Dick Cheney

Who do you think will win? I mean, Jon Stewart is cool and all, but Dick Cheney has the whole super-evil thing going for him.

Daily Show Coverage of the Cheney Redonkulousness.

Save Internet Radio

The record companies like to rake in money, and your government wants to help them do so hand-over-fist. There's a shift that's supposed to take place mid-July of this year that would in effect make it incredibly difficult for many internet radio providers to keep doing what they do. Why? Because the change in law/rules about internet radio would dramatically increase the amount of money an internet radio outfit has to pay the record companies every time they play a song.

Bottom line: the pending changes would line the pockets of record execs. Don't be fooled by anyone who wants to tell you this has anything to do with paying artists for their work. I for one am fairly certain this is far from related to that. The big loser, anyone who wants to tune into the internet and catch some of the variety that record companies and corporate radio has all-but whitewashed from broadcast radio.

So, if you're a big fan of top 40 and really care to hear nothing else, forget you ever read this post. Otherwise, visit here to take action:

http://www.savenetradio.org/act_now/index.html

OR here to learn more:

http://www.kurthanson.com/dos/

Thanks, Adam, for bringing this to my attention.

Bare Knuckle Politics

Did you realize that Dick Cheney was not part of the executive branch of our government? He argues that on odd Tuesdays, Thursdays, and whenever else he makes a secret hand movement he magically is not part of the executive branch... or actually he just generally wants to be considered whatever is expedient, at any given moment. At such expedient moments he will fluctuate between acting as President of the Senate and occasionally moonlighting as Captain Kangaroo (that last bit is unconfirmed, but I think it will eventually come to light).

Anyway, in a kick-ass response along the lines of, "Well, if that's the way you want it," Rahm Emanuel has introduced a motion to limit Mr. Cheney's funding to the funding set aside for his non-executive activities... which should drastically limit the massive staff he has, etc.

You know, I'll be honest. It's pretty ugly, but it makes me smile. The slimy bastard deserves to take some heat for his ridiculousness... and it's frankly long overdue. To my eye Dick Cheney is a dangerous man.

Fun related links:

• TPMCafe's article Rahm's Moment
• Salon War Room's blurb, "Tit for Tat"