CBS buys music network Last.fm

Hmmm.... I'm wondering how this will change Last.fm?  It's a great service.  I hope they don't go all "video" on us.

---

CBS buys music network Last.fm

From News.com via Reuters:

CBS on Wednesday said it has paid $280 million in cash for music social network Last.fm.

CBS said in a statement that the online service has more than 15 million active users in more than 200 countries and would fit well with its plans to attract younger viewers and transform it from a content company to an audience company...

Read full story.

See also: What does CBS want with Last.fm?

Webware.com / Wed, 30 May 2007 15:11:00 GMT

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Secluded Beach

Secluded Beach Maui
Originally uploaded by jefrc.

Wish I was here today. It's cold in Chicago. Supposed to be Spring....

Sunrise at Haleakela

Sunrise at Haleakela
Originally uploaded by jefrc.

Test

They Dyed The River Green

They Dyed The River Green
Originally uploaded by jefrc.

No it is not a horrible accident - just the st patrick's celebration in chicago

Le Grand Content

Check this out. Makes you think. Now I know why we drink.

In the spirit of the new movie, "Stomp the Yard", which, contrary to what I first thought, it not about a group of young teenagers running a lawn care business, I give you a list of a few movies I'd like to see made, in no particular order.

• Purge the Stomach - starring of course, the Olsen Twins.
• Tread Heavily in the Garden - perhaps a sequel to the aforementioned?
• Bobble - an in-depth charachter study, intertwined with a heart-wrenching story of forbidden love between a long-snapper and a holder on the Dallas Cowboys field goal kicking unit. 

 

 

 

"Work or Die"... or Forward Racist Emails to Your Friends and Family

Got the email below from a "friend".  Below it is my personal response.

 

WEATHER BULLETIN -- Denver

 

Up here, in the "Mile-Hi City", we just recovered from a Historic event-- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

 

FYI:

George Bush did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category five snowstorm.  

Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Shaun Penn, No Barbara Streisand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.  

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a  penny.  

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.  

Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.  

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.  

We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".  

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.  

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.  

 

 "In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

 

It does seem that way, at least to me.

 

I hope this gets passed on.

 

Maybe SOME people (Like NO and Wash. DC freeloaders) will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living. The Government and Tax $ are not your insurance company.

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

 

My Response.

 

Comparing the recent blizzard in Colorado and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans demeans and belittles the misery that the residents of New Orleans have endured, and are still enduring.  It also shocks me that the true measure of your intelligence is so small that you would agree and forward this email, apart from the intellect of whomever sent you this email in the first place. 

 

The differences between the storm in Colorado and the hurricane in New Orleans are so blindingly obvious, that it seems only a simpleton with no discernable awareness of even the basic news events of the last 24 months would endeavor to compare the two storms.  But for those of you that live in a 5,000 square foot cave with brand new GE Profile Appliances and a 42 inch plasma TV that only broadcasts Fox News, let's review.

 

MORE THAN A THOUSAND PEOPLE DIED IN NEW ORLEANS BECAUSE OF THE INEPT LOCAL, STATE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO A MAN-MADE (NOT NATURAL) DISASTER. 

 

No, I’m not talking about Global Warming, Rush and Bill O, I’m talking about the levees.  The disaster wasn't the hurricane.  It was the levees breaking and flooding the city.  Whose fault was that?  You certainly can’t fault the folks living there.  What’s that?  I guess you can because they were “immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for ‘sittin’ at home’ checks”.  If they’d gotten jobs or something, maybe they could have bought hurricane insurance to insure their homes against hurricane damage.  But it turns out many of them did purchase this crucial insurance.  However in a brilliant move to save themselves billions of dollars in claims, many of the nations largest insurance companies have deemed the disaster a flood, and not a hurricane, therefore denying thousands of claims for people that held hurricane insurance policies (a must have in New Orleans), but failed to insure against floods. 

 

MORE THAN A HALF-MILLION PEOPLE WERE DISPLACED TEMPORARILY FROM THEIR HOMES AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA.  MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED- THOUSAND WERE LEFT HOMELESS AFTER THEIR HOMES WERE COMPLETELY DESTROYED.  

 

Thousands of people that FOLLOWED INSTRUCTIONS and evacuated the city before the Hurricane lost their homes completely.  Yes, there were those that didn’t heed the warnings out of stubbornness, stupidity, or a lack of transportation out of the area, but far too many of them either drowned or were rescued from the roofs of their ruined homes, only to be taken to shelters that had no medical care, food or water.  Nah, those people should have fended for themselves, just like the tough folks in Colorado had to. 

 

How many people in Colorado lost their homes due to the blizzard?  I believe the final number has topped out at zero.  How many of them died?  I think five or six deaths can be "attributed" directly to the two blizzards.  You can be sure that if thousands were dead and hundreds of thousands were left homeless because of a Colorado snowstorm, Geraldo and Larry King would be there, and they’d be speculating on-air about when the tough folks of Colorado were going to get their $2,000 debit cards.  And in case you didn’t have the plasma TV tuned in that morning, the storm was national news for at least three days straight. 

 

There was and still are some aid operations going on for the tough, “work or die” folks in Colorado.  The cattle that are stranded in Southern Colorado are receiving emergency food drops from the government.  The Red Cross set up shelters for stranded travelers.  And Governor Bill Owens declared emergencies twice during the two storms so that Colorado would be eligible and would receive FEDERAL aid.  God forbid the people in New Orleans ask for a little help from the greatest country in the world, when they've lost what little they owned, are now homeless, jobless and are searching desperately for their own parents and their own children in the next state. 

 

So in Colorado, the folks are tough?  They just piled in their SUVs, filled the tanks up with three dollar a gallon gas and rushed out to stock their cupboards and stainless steel refrigerators with sparkling water, hot French bread and fresh shrimp cocktail, stopping at Park Meadows Mall to buy a new video game system for Hunter and Hailey so they would have something to do when they weren’t outside frolicking in the freshly fallen snow.  Because “out here it’s work or die”.  It must have been really rough.  Good for you, people of Colorado - for not bothering the rest of the world with pleas for help.  Good for you. 

 

And to the author of the original email – it seems to me it is just a very thinly disguised racist rant – “I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate” - tell me that's not filth from the mouth of someone that has a problem with people that are of a different ethnic background.  Maybe next time your Hummer is stuck in a drift, as you’re trying to get your car out of the Starbucks parking lot, may it be either myself or a displaced New Orleans resident that comes to offer aid, so that we can help you get your car out and then politely tell you to f**k off.

 

 

 

 

Rumsfeld Down!! Hastert Down!!

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/2774

CNN Breaking...
Karl Rove will do ANYTHING to get the Democratic victory out of the headlines.
Who do you think will replace him...Lieberman? Not likely, they need him in the Senate.
UPDATE: Robert Gates is Bush's pick for SECDEF to succeed Rumsfeld.
2nd UPDATE: And the hits keep coming. Dennis Hastert will not be running for Minority Leader in the House.
read more

This is How They Really Feel

I think the thinly veiled bigotry in the comment below from Tony Perkins, head of the conservative Family Research Council (FRC), goes a long way in describing how these people think.  He was being interviewed on CNN regarding the Mark Foley congressional page scandal.

 

The key phrase - "But it shouldn't be totally surprising when we hold up tolerance and diversity as the guidepost for public life, this is what you end up getting". 

 

So, tolerance and diversity is bad.  I see.  Shall we start the segregation and discrimination again?  Back of the bus!

 

PERKINS: Oh, I -- there's no defense of this behavior. It's outrageous; it's shocking. But it shouldn't be totally surprising when we hold up tolerance and diversity as the guidepost for public life, this is what you end up getting. A congressman chasing 16-year- old boys down the halls of Congress; it's a shame. It's a tragedy and it does need to be addressed but not just the symptoms here.

 

 

 

 

Some rules to live by

 

• Pay attention to every detail of the business.
• Think of the whole, not just your part.
• Be prompt – meet deadlines.
• Set priorities – plan ahead, stay ahead.
• Take time to think – then decide quickly. Decisiveness inspires confidence.
• The size of your budget is far less important than the size of your idea.
• How fast you do something is almost never as important as how well you do something.
• Bear your troubles patiently and privately.
• Maintain your integrity as a sacred thing.
• Be polite to everyone. You learn more about a person by how they treat the receptionist than by how they treat the boss.
• Master your moods. Bas attitudes spread like wildfire.
• You won’t earn the opportunity to manage others until you learn to manage yourself.
• Anticipate problems – don’t wait until they bite you in the butt!
• There’s nothing wrong with being wrong unless you won’t admit it.
• Don’t procrastinate – little things can fall through the cracks.
• Be flexible – alter yourself or alter the situation.
• Have an open mind. The “can’t be dones” are the cynics that detour progress.
• Accept responsibility not only for what you do but also for what you don’t do.
• Enthusiasm is contagious – spread it around.
• People who do more than they are asked make the difference.
• TEAMwork produces more than ME-work.
• It’s not how many hours you work each day, it’s how hard your hours work.
• Remember to say THANK YOU!
• Never get too big to do small things.
• Average work keeps the average down.
• Earn the respect of your co-workers by your actions, not your title.
• When people trust you, don’t disappoint them.
• Have more patience than anyone you know.
• Check your ego at the door each morning.
• Share your ideas – they often come to bloom in another brain.
• Be a good listener. And remember that you don’t know what you don’t know.
• Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
• Common sense ain’t so common. Place a high value on it.
• Quality is no accident – high standards should be self-imposed.
• Don’t assume – the only stupid questions are the same ones asked twice.
• Stick-to-it-iveness is a skill.
• Noisy people are like noisy engines – something needs fixin’.
• Work hard and you will succeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Astronauts lose bolt during spacewalk (AP)

Just do what I always do.  Dig around in the toolbox for a bolt that "almost" fits.  That should hold it.  It's only the space station. 

Astronauts lose bolt during spacewalk (AP)

AP - Spacewalking astronauts worried they have may have gummed up a successful job connecting an addition to the international space station Tuesday when a bolt, spring and washer floated free.

[via Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

Colorado - Wild Basin - We'll be there next week

Random Diseases and Disorders I Might Have

In the spirit of the new "road rage" disease that's just been invented, here's a few more that I think I might have...

 

Excessive Labor Disorder

Irritable Eye Syndrome

Jimmy Legs

Sudden Uproar Syndrome

Drill-in-Oral Cavity Phobia

Resentment of Unknown Origin (RUO)

 

 

 

 

CBS Stations: Sex Fines Without Merit

So, let's say, as a conservative estimate, 5 million people watched this show on this particular evening (it's a highly rated show).  And let's say that every single person that found the show objectionable, all 4,211 of them, took the time to complain (how many of them actually watched the show, and how many of them complained more than once? - that's another story).  That translates to roughly 0.08 percent of the viewers complaining.  That's 8 out of every 10,000 people.  So these 8 people can dictate what the other 9,992 get to see on television.  The end is near my friends.  Time to move to another country.

CBS Stations: Sex Fines Without Merit

CBS affiliates filed a motion on Tuesday to have the $3.3 million worth of fines levied against a Dec. 31, 2004, Without a Trace rebroadcast — which, the FCC says, depicted "numerous sexual activities" and "sexual conduct" among teens — tossed out because not one of the 4,211 complaints about the episode came from anyone outside of the websites operated by two conservative advocacy groups: the Parents Television Council and the American Family Association. "Permitting enforcement reliant on a national mass e-mail campaign is akin to permitting the [FCC] to single out programming it dislikes, in the absence of any viewer complaint," argue the affiliates.

[via Entertainment News]

One sentence from the novel I'll never write...

 

Rufus looked disgustingly at Simone and nonchalantly asked, "Can we go get some ice cream after the autopsy?"

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting tidbit...

According to Steven Hill of the Center for Voting and Democracy, the combined populations of Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Alaska equal that of New York and Massachusetts, but the former states have a total of nine more votes in the Electoral College (as well as over five times the votes in the Senate). In America, conservatives literally count for more.

From Tyranny of the Christian Right on Alternet

Give us your tired, your hungry, your seagulls

Give us your tired, your hungry, your seagulls
Originally uploaded by jefrc.

Just another random photo from my collection. Taken from the Ferry on the way to see the Statue of Liberty.

Verizon: NSA Didn't Ask Us for Records (AP)

So let me get this straight. When the story breaks last week, you don't immediately deny giving out the phone records. Nothing but silence. But when all the questions and lawsuits start flying, you suddenly remember that the nice men in black never came to the door asking for the phone records. If they never asked, and you never provided what they said you did, wouldn't you deny it immediately, and not wait a week? Hmmmm...

Verizon: NSA Didn't Ask Us for Records (AP)

AP - Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday joined fellow phone company BellSouth Corp. in denying key points of a USA Today story that said the companies had provided records of millions of phone calls to the government.

[via Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

Cool?

A shot of our building at night