Clipmarks | finifinito's clips

Scorsese to Direct Bob Marley Biopic

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:38:21 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: Martin Scorsese has announced he is working on a documentary of the life of reggae king Bob Marley. The film will debut on February 6, 2010, the date Marley would have turned 65 had he lived to see it.

Clip Source: www.empireonline.com

Having documented Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones, Martin Scorsese is now turning his attentions to Bob Marley. It even already has a release date of February 6, 2010, which would have been Marley's 65th birthday.

We're no Marley experts, but his life would seem to offer a great deal of material for a film, since there's not only his music to cover, but also his peace efforts , his religious beliefs and his untimely death.

Scorsese is building himself a nice collection of music documentaries. For his next, we'd suggest either Janice Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix or The Reynolds Girls.

Tags: music, movies, bob marley, martin scorsese

Fidel Castro Resigns

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:25:25 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: Cuban President Fidel Castro resigned his post today in a letter published in the official Cuban newspaper Granma. This comes as a surprise announcement from the dictator that grabbed power in the New Year's Day 1959 uprising that toppled the regime of General Fulgencio Batista.

I've always longhed for the day that the Cuban people would be rid of this monstrous human being. I know there are a lot of people in this country who point to the Cuban health care system and universal literacy as positives in his favor, but the level of hypocrisy displayed by these sentiments are astounding. Any Cuban who dares speak against the Revolution loses their health and literacy when they are brutally murdered by this regime. Not a positive thing if you ask me.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Fidel Castro announced his resignation as president of Cuba and commander in chief of Cuba's military Tuesday, according to a letter published in the state-run newspaper, Granma.

Fidel Castro, shown in an undated file photo, took power in Cuba in 1959 and reigned with an iron hand.

1 of 2

The resignation ends nearly a half-century of iron-fisted rule that inspired revolutionaries but frustrated 10 U.S. presidents.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said the U.S. embargo on Cuba will not be lifted in the near term.

Castro revealed his plans without notice by publishing a letter in the middle of the night in state-run newspaper Granma.

"I will not aspire to, nor will I accept the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief," Castro wrote. "I wish only to fight as a soldier of ideas. ... Perhaps my voice will be heard."

President Bush said Castro's decision ought to spark "a democratic transition" for Cuba.

New Nine Inch Nails Album Released Online

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:48:50 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: Yet another brilliant move by a musician who knows his market. NIN's Trent Reznor has seeded The Pirate Bay and several other torrent sites with the first 9 tracks off his new 4 disc set entitled Ghosts, a 2 + hour collection of instrumental collaborations with his band and guests recorded over 10 days last fall and now available online. The first 9 song disc, Ghosts I have been seeded by Reznor himself on the popular torrent sites, and the entire 36 track compilatioin with a 40 page PDF of extras and other digital goodies is available directly from http://ghosts.nin.com for $5. $10 will get you the 2 CD set shipping April 8th and there are options for more goodies for the die hard fans. Yet another fine example of how artists can make it in the music business 2.0 world!

Clip Source: techdirt.com

Now that Reznor is totally off-label, he's pulled a bit of a Radiohead, surprising just about everyone by simply announcing his new Nine Inch Nails album on his website and offering a variety of options in how to get it. Given his disappointment with the Saul Williams experiment, perhaps it's not a surprise that he hasn't totally embraced the free concept. The album itself is 36 songs, nearly two and a half hours of music -- but he's only offering the first nine songs for free. However, he is offering a variety of choices for people who do want to pay -- starting with $5 for a complete download (in a choice of high-quality, DRM-free formats) of all songs plus a 40-page PDF of additional content and a "digital extras pack" with graphics that can be used as wallpaper, icons and anything else.

Smaller Indiana Becoming Bigger

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 04:22:13 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: I just joined this place this week and already I am hooked, you all should head over to SmallerIndiana.com and check it out!

Clip Source: blog.ning.com

The people of Indiana have a new place to interact. Smaller Indiana takes local social networking to a new level, providing a place for members to share "ideas and engage with Indiana's most creative and inspired souls...working together to build community, culture and commerce."

Members have taken up the mantra in force. They have used the forums to create a classifieds section, posting jobs or their own resumes, with much more personalization and interaction than Craigslist would see. They've used blogs to debate issues, such as finding the line between promoting your business and spamming your friends and the usefulness of majoring in tourism. Many members also use blogs to make announcements, such as an upcoming high-tech conference.

Ringing in Sunday booze sales

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:25:55 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: When I ran my one campaign for public office in 2000, I ran on the Libertarian Party ticket for Indiana House District 100 on a platform of repealing the Sunday Blue Laws regulating the sale of alcohol and vehicles on Sunday. 8 years later a group has formed to lobby for this much needed change in our laws in Indiana.

Clip Source: ruthholladay.com

Ringing in Sunday booze sales

Clip Source: ruthholladay.com

Masson's Blog has an insightful and amusing post -- a twofer -- on Hoosiers for Beverage Choice, those bold progressives who are pushing Indiana to get with 35 states and permit alcohol sales on Sunday. More of us can get behind that bandwagon, which is only about 75 years overdue.

Our "blue laws" regulating Sunday sales in the U.S. are quite a history lesson, stretching back to the Puritans and long before. Historically, some European countries refused to allow any commerce on Sundays. That was God's day, and you couldn't sell a pot or swallow a brew. Naturally the Puritans brought this part of the Old Country with them.

Indiana has its identity strongly tied up in this crusade. During the 1920s, 90 of our 92 counties had active members of the Ku Klux Klan -- and the KKK, lo and behold, was heavily aligned with the Prohibition party, if not synonymous. Hence getting rid of booze was a No. 1 Klan goal.

Tags: sunday beer, blue laws

MySpace Set to Debut Music Service

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:28:40 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: This could be a significant development for ad-supported free music service fans. MySpace, with millions of users, could provide a huge new market for the Big Four labels. What this will do to the thousands of independent bands who use MySpace as a promotional platform is left out of the discussion apparently.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MySpace, the online social networking site owned by News Corp, is in talks with music companies to launch an advertising-supported free music service, according to several reports on Wednesday.

MySpace has approached the four top music labels with plans for the service according to stories in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and technology Web site CNET.com.

A MySpace spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

OpenID Going Mainstream

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:52:01 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: I am a big fan of the OpenID project and hope to implement it in the near future on my projects that will benefit from using this technology.

Clip Source: arstechnica.com

The OpenID Foundation announced late last week that a handful of technology superpowers have joined the OpenID Foundation's board, a sure sign that Open ID is going places. The announcement was made last Thursday, but it's important enough to highlight now, even if we're late getting to the news.

Joining the board of directors are Microsoft, Google, IBM, VeriSign, and Yahoo. While Yahoo has already thrown its weight behind OpenID, Ash Patel, executive vice president of platforms and infrastructure, said that the company was eager to continue working on making OpenID simpler for end users. Yahoo isn't out to just grab headlines.

Tags: openid, authentication, google, yahoo, ibm, microsoft

Yahoo Sells Music Service to Rhapsody

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:25:15 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: Yahoo (YHOO Unlimited Music was a service as was stated in the Techdirt piece below, a service designed to fail. They bought the wonderful MusicMatch player only to dub it down and screw it up for use as the Yahoo Unlimited player, and now they are selling their subscriber base to Rhapsody owned by Real Networks, the clear leader in the music subscriptions category.

Clip Source: techdirt.com

Yahoo Finally Dumps The Music Service It Never Really Liked

from the why-do-it-in-the-first-place dept

A few years back when Yahoo launched its music service, it was pretty clearly designed to fail. Yet, Yahoo kept it going for a while, despite the fact that the executives who ran the program clearly were not fans of the company's own offerings. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Yahoo has simply moved all of its subscribers over to RealNetworks' Rhapsody service, which is having its own problems adjusting to a changing music market place. One could hope that Yahoo's ditching of the music service is a sign that it's actually going to do something more interesting, but given this little merger the company may be involved in, it may be difficult to do very much that's unique or innovative.

Tags: music, subscriptions, yahoo, rhapsody

Layofff notices going out today at Star

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:22:32 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: Ruth Holladay spent many years working for the Indianapolis Star and was/is one of my favorite writers from Indy. She is an old school print journalist, my favorite kind. Her coverage of the happenings at the Star is invaluable coverage only she is covering. Her reports this week from the layoffs were riveting, this is the first clip from Wednesday.

Clip Source: ruthholladay.com

Layofff notices going out today at Star

Clip Source: ruthholladay.com

The process of notifying 23 people at the Star of layoffs has begun.

Employees are being notified directly; the Guild is not getting a hit list.

However, the secretive process raises concerns for the Guild that Gannett is not honoring seniority. Are older workers being picked off in greater numbers than younger ones?

Talking to Human Resources at the paper is like talking to a voice mail message, said one staffer. There is no real conversation. So right now, it's a lot of worry/wait, wait/worry.

What a lousy way to run a business. Especially a communications one...

Indiana Dems wonder why Bayh was passed over

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:20:04 GMT

clipped by: finifinito

Clip Source: www.wthr.com

Indiana Dems wonder why Bayh was passed over

Indianapolis - Some Democrats are wondering why presidential candidate Barack Obama chose Delaware Senator Joe Biden for his running mate over Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.

Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis political science professor Brian Vargus says Biden clearly has much more foreign policy and national security experience - an area that polls show Obama lagging in - than Bayh.

Sen. Evan Bayh

Obama and Biden spoke in Illinois Saturday.

He also says Obama needs an "attack dog" - the sort of thing Bayh isn't known for.

Vargus says if Bayh continues to have eyes on the White House, he has to show himself as a more known and effective senator.

But state Democratic Chairman Dan Parker says the vice presidential selection process has given Bayh national exposure as a leader, and that's bound to enhance his reputation.

Tags: election, 2008, presidential, senator evan bayh

Bonnaroo Lineup Announced

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:38:33 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: The headline in the feed reader from Yahoo News/AP said Led Zeppelin would be headlining, but it looks like in reality the closest Bonnaroo attendees will get to that show is a set by the all female tribute band Lez Zeppelin.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Metallica and Pearl Jam will headline the 2008 Bonnaroo Arts and Music Festival, concert organizers announced Wednesday.

The seventh annual festival will be held June 13-15 on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn. Notably absent from the announced slate was Led Zeppelin, who has for months been rumored to be heading to the festival.

The British band reunited in December for a single show and speculation has abounded that a world tour is possible. Last week, guitarist Jimmy Page said he wanted to tour with singer Robert Plant, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham, who replaced his father, John, who died in 1980.

Obama v. McCain Challenge

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:36:50 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: A rather thought provoking thought being addressed in this video. Striking how little difference there truly is between the positions of the two main Presidential candidates on somne rather serious issues.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Obama v. McCain Challenge

Subscribe-click above
The Obama McCain Challenge http://operationitch.com

NOW - send this video to all of your friends. here is the link for ya http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgTf7D...

Other Operation Itch ads:
OPEN THE DEBATES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYDqPa...
"WAR IS THE ANSWER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jl2qt...
"Cindy for Congress" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnP3Jc...

Bayh not the guy

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:28:29 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: I, along with many Hoosier supporters of Senator Evan Bayh were disappointed to learn he was not chosen to run as Barack Obama's Vice Presidential candidate this weekend. I wish the best of luck to Sen. Joe Biden whom I personally consider to be a decent choice and a good candidate for the office. His experience in Washington and his foreign relations experience will be an asset to the Obama Administration.

Clip Source: www.wishtv.com

Bayh not the guy

WASHINGTON (WISH) - Senator Joe Biden beat out Indiana Senator Evan Bayh for Obama's VP nod. But the Hoosier legislator has a long and distinguished career in both local and national politics.

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves as he is introduced by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., before speaking before a panel discussion on national security at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

Through bloodlines, headlines, and party lines, Evan Bayh has long seemed fated to vie for the White House.

The campaigns of his father, Birch, put the younger Bayh in the presence of presidents.

"I would have been seven years old. I remember staying up past my bedtime on election night, which was a big deal those days," said Sen. Evan Bayh.

Birch Bayh served the state through three Senate terms and one formal attempt at the Oval Office. The elder's final big-stage effort was also his son's public introduction to the family business.

Tags: senator joe biden, vice president, candidate, 2008 election, presidential politics, democrat, bluenami

Lawfare

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:47:26 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: Thats a new term for me, but RollingStone has a great article on their website about the proliferation of Federal Joint Terrorism Task Forces, or JTTFs across the country. JTTFs are kind of like Federal agent Superfriends for ever city or region lucky to have goonsquads. Their specialty seems to be in setting up would-be dangerous terrrrrists like the hapless video game store clerk from Rockford, IL who was intent on using those vaunted Weapons of Mass Destruction known as hand grenades to blow up food court trash canisters to have a shrapnel effect when they blow up. I'm not making this up folks, read the article!

Clip Source: www.rollingstone.com

For law enforcement, fear and the politics of fear have entwined to create a radical new paradigm. Even the term "law enforcement" has been rendered quaint by the Bush administration. These days, the term of art is "lawfare" —the confluence of police work and military tactics. With Joint Terrorism Task Forces set up across the country to coordinate the work of federal agencies and local cops, the FBI now devotes nearly two-thirds of its resources —some $4 billion —to waging war on terrorism. The approach today is not the traditional police work of investigating actual crimes but the far more slippery goal of preventing terrorist attacks before they occur.

Tags: war on terra, global war on stupidity, feds, jttf, hapless, morons

Let's Make A Deal

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:46:04 GMT

clipped by: finifinito
clipper's remarks: I'm with MBH on this one. Oh lord, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but it seems teh Interwebtoobz are all a-Twittering about the possibility of a Brokered Convention. Well the only convention I will be attending this year is a Brokeass Convention where the delegates all pool their loose change to buy a slice of pizza and a can of Coke to split 10 ways.

Anywho, it looks like Indiana might actually play a role in the selection of our Presidential nomination for a change. This has never happened in my lifetime of 36 years and it is a rare thing. I only hope we can all come together in the fall to elect whoever the Democratic nominee is.

Clip Source: holdfastblog.com

I think for somewhat different reasons, though. I hate the horse race, having lived on the tail end of it for much of the last year. But what I hate more is the thought that Democratic primary and caucus goers may not be the final arbiters in choosing our party’s nominee. Super delegates, unelected officials bequeathed with authority for their role in the party structure, could determine the outcome in contravention to the popular vote totals.

This may be how things are always done, but I can’t say the microscope of a brokered convention would reveal particularly democratic tendencies in the Democratic Party.

Tags: 2008 presidential, politics, democrats, obama, clinton, brokered convention