Another contender for parent of the year

It’s disappointing to see folks like this reproducing and raising children.

A 20-year-old Shreveport woman has been arrested after her first-grade son brought a rock of crack cocaine to school for show-and-tell.

Police were especially disturbed by the child’s understanding of crack cocaine. They said he seemed so accustomed to the highly addictive drug that he thought there was nothing wrong with bringing it to school.

. . .

Lachristie Thomas was booked on a charge of improper child supervision, a misdemeanor.

Because, yes, raising your child in a crack-addled home and letting that child take crack to school for show-and-tell is a minor crime. Misdemeanor sounds about, um, stupid?

[tags]Parent of the year contender, Child brings crack cocaine rock to school for show and tell[/tags]

Trump calls President Bush worst President in the history of the US

I’m not a fan of President Bush. If you haven’t figured that out by reading my site, you haven’t been paying attention. That said, I do give him credit for doing the right thing when I think he has done so (but I do still have some articles planned in the near future to highlight what I think he has done wrong). I used to believe he was the worst President ever, but I’ve backed off of that. However, it turns out Donald Trump is prepared to make that declaration.

The comments associated with this article are interesting, too. They show a disturbing lack of understanding of politics. They show a disturbing bountiness of unintelligent thought. There are a few good comments, but not many. Bleh. This kind of stuff is why I avoided politics for so long, and why I get more annoyed with the American public as I learn more of the wrongs we are subjected to because of our so-called leaders. (via Digg)

[tags]Trump not a fan of Bush, Bush worst President in history of the US according to Trump[/tags]

Recording industry again trying to chase off their audience

Year after year, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) pursues tactics which drive away music listeners or turn the listening audience to other entertainment venues. Sueing the demographic most likely to listen to and purchase music in recent years wasn’t enough. Now to drive more potential customers away, recording industry representatives have plans to set music royalty fees so high that the vast majority of American-based internet radio stations will have to shut down. This move was originally planned for a few years ago, but the otherwise unthinkable ally of Senator Jesse Helms worked to block legislation that would have allowed this in 2002.

Continue reading “Recording industry again trying to chase off their audience”

Peer to peer distribution not just hurting recording and movie industry

Over on TorrentFreaks, we get the story of Tony, a seller/distributor of counterfeit software in the 1990s.  He’s out of that business now, and he blames online P2P distribution.  Curse you BitTorrent, et al.

Tony started his life of piracy sometime in the 1990’s working markets, car-boot sales and pubs in the UK, selling counterfeit PC applications/games and console discs for a fraction of the retail price. “The profit was amazing back then” he recalls “We were getting £25 ($48) for a couple of PSX games and £15 ($29) for a single CDR with the latest utilities on. We couldn’t make them fast enough.” Things were looking good for his little enterprise and before long he was clearing up to £1000 ($1,942) profit each week.

. . .

“In 2005 we shut down the factory unit” said Tony, “we just couldn’t keep going on that scale, nobody was buying anything in quantity anymore. So we closed up and moved back into a bedroom at home with my wife and her sister operating the burners, something they hadn’t done in years. They weren’t happy.”

. . .

Tony is very clear about why his rags to riches story has gone back to rags again. “File-sharing, P2P – call it what you like. When you asked a customer why he wasn’t buying anything, 9 times out of 10 it was ‘BitTorrent this, LimeWire that’.

Peer to peer doesn’t just hurt the archaic industries running on obsolete business models.  It also hurts the pirates who specialize in physical duplication and distribution.  So the next time you are downloading that cool new song or game, whether it’s a legal or illegal copy you are getting, think of Tony and how you drove him out of his nice house and made him give up his fancy sports car and fine wines.  And remember, Valve’s Steam distribution center doesn’t just suck for gamers.
[tags]P2P hurts pirates as well as industry, The other victim of online distribution[/tags]