They could sell millions of these!!

This thing is very cute. If people can sell pet rocks and Tickle Me Elmo then this thing would just fly off the shelves. Too bad they aren't making them...yet.

So true...so true!

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
          - James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
          - James Madison

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
          - James Madison

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
          - James Madison

Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done
          - James Madison

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
          - James Madison

He said these things almost 200 years ago. How short our memories have become!

Boycott Universal Music

Stop buying their music, please!

I'm not a big fan of DRM'd music especially after being burned by Microsoft's pathetic PlaysForSure scheme. (Yeah I deserved it, I know.) However, I'm a big fan of iTunes even with the DRM. They seem to have the fairest method of managing the DRM'd music. Now, the way I see it, the newest ploy by Universal to remove DRM but not let iTunes sell it is just plain stupid at best and at worst a sad way to try an exact some sort of revenge on Jobs and Apple.

They can't even commit to not using DRM on music. They're giving us the gift of non-DRM music for a "limited" time until December 31, 2007. Oh thank you so much Universal. What would I have done without you.

It is obvious from the list of companies they are allowing to sell the music without DRM (Amazon.com, Google, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Rhapsody, Transworld, PassAlong and Puretracks) that they have something against iTunes. In fact, according to the article, they didn't even renew their contract with Apple at all. So what now, all the Universal music drops off iTunes when the contract expires? How in the heck does that serve the consumer in any way? Of course, their trial period will show DRM sales as being poor (no iTunes remember) and they'll use that as an excuse to re-enact their DRM.

Interestingly, never does a music label ever consider what the consumer wants. They honestly couldn't care less. You know why, because people keep buying their stuff. What is their incentive to please the consumer. The consumer has power and it isn't being used. For some reason, no one is using this power.

Really, how hard is this?

What evidence?

Am I the only one who has noticed the proliferation of supposed "experts" in their fields who rely purely on anecdotal evidence to support their theories? In particular, I'm pretty tired of the people who run blogs or websites espousing the incredible amount of "evidence" they get from others who give them feedback via whatever electronic vehicle they choose to use as a platform.

Come on people!

Don't these people realize the vehicle they use to procure all this information is in itself slanted and biased towards whatever message they are sending? From now on, they should refer to themselves as advocates of whatever material or viewpoint or subject they represent. The choice of words is critical here and, as is the case in the media and society in general, the words are not chosen as carefully as they should be.

Please tell me the population at large isn't fooled by this?

Donut Origins

This morning I was eating a donut and it dawned on me that I don't even know what the word is supposed to mean or where it came from. Well, of course, curiosity finally got the best of me so I had to find out what I could. As usual, we (us in the USA) mangled the word and it was originally spelled doughnut. Of course, that makes sense. Donuts are made of DOUGH but where did the NUT come from. It turns out someone just had the bright idea to add walnuts to the thing. Eventually, they decided to punch a hole in it too much to my dismay. One donut with no hole would be quite enough but now I need to eat two to really feel satisfied.

As usual, all this information could be a lie and I didn't vet the source for accuracy. If you want to be amused by more donut history, check this article out on answers.com. Trust me, there is more there than you ever wanted to know. (This is required reading in some law enforcement schools.)