[01.30.2001]
Bertelsmann announced that it would implement Napsters subscription based model sometime this summer, perhaps as early as June or July. Until then, Napster
users can continue to download their music for free. No subscription price was announced.
What is so interesting about our childrens web surfing habits that the U.S. Department of Defense feels it has to monitor them?
[Read More]
A court order against posting or linking to the code for cracking DVD encryption has brought all kinds of Web freedom fighters out of the woodwork.
A diverse group of computer scientists, journalists and librarians are asking a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling that prevents people from
posting or linking to the code that can help crack DVD encryption.
[Read More]
Vice President Dick Cheney Sunday declined to rule out a Bush administration effort to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that
legalized abortion. When asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if the Bush administration will not try to overturn the 1973 decision, Cheney replied, "I didn't
say that."
[Read More]
Greenpeace strongly criticized the Norwegian government for lifting the ban on exports of whale products. Just last year at the Convention on the Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES), over 2000 delegates from around the world voted overwhelmingly to prohibit this specific trade. Greenpeace will be watching
George W. Bush and his administration closely to see how they will respond to Norway's blatant disregard of international conservation law.
[Read More]
[01.25.2001]
Click here to see the new ad for Microsoft's hot new operating system.
(courtesy of Rob Woolley)
Here's something interesting and funny, to say the least. When you type in "dumb motherfucker"
into the Google search engine, it gives you a link to a website about President George W. Bush as its top result.
I guess it's true; President Bush really is a "dumb motherfucker." Hey, I'm convinced. (Google says they'll fix the supposed error in their next indexing. But if it ain't
broke, why fix it?).
A public hearing was held in the Dutch Parliament this past Monday in regards to the secret spy system known as Echelon. What did they have to say? Echelon exists!
[Read More]
[01.24.2001]
Blur frontman Damon Albarn will release his first-ever solo project under the moniker Gorillaz this April, according to his U.K. record label, Parlophone.
The animated trip-hop group -- a collaboration with U.S. hip-hop producer Dan "The Automator" Nakamura -- promises to be drastically different from the Brit
pop creations of Albarn's primary group.
[Read More]
Here's Depeche Mode's Press Release for their forthcoming new album.
[01.23.2001]
Most of Bush's nominees for Cabinet members are wealthy, all with a net worth in at least six figures. Many hold stock in companies affected by federal actions.
No wonder so many Americans feel like they're not being represented.
[Read More]
President George W. Bush, less than 90 minutes after he took the oath of office on Saturday, ordered his chief of staff, Andrew Card, to distribute a memorandum
directing the department heads to hold off on publishing any new or pending regulations in the Federal Register.
Clinton issued a flurry of environment-related executive orders during his final weeks in office, such as a measure designed to limit water pollution generated
by factory farms. Since the orders cannot take effect until they have appeared in the Federal Register for a certain amount of time, however, the memo may mean
those orders are never implemented. Why is Bush so set against protecting the environment?
[Read More]
Spend Valentine's Day with your favorite sweethearts - Royal Crown Revue! They'll be making a special return to the club where it all started -- The Derby
in Hollywood. This will be a very special night so you will want to get there early. Dinner is available but we advise that you make reservations as Valentine's Day
at the Derby is always packed! Tickets are $12. They hit the stage at 9:00 pm so don't be late!
The Derby
4500 Los Feliz Blvd.
(323) 663-8979.
Can't make it to their Valentine's Day show? Well, Royal Crown Revue will also be playing at the newly opened House of Blues in Anaheim, Ca. It is located
in Downtown Disney. Head on out and show your support! Tickets are $17.50 and they hit the stage at 9:45 pm.
House of Blues, Anaheim
1530 S. Disneyland Blvd.
Anaheim, Ca
(714) 778-2583
Well, the Big Conglomerates are at it again. This time Warner Bros./Time Warner are pushing their weight around by sending threatening legal letters to a 15-year-old
Singaporean girl all because she registered the domain name www.HarryPotterNetwork.net.
The lawyers letter is telling her to hand over the domain name to Warner Bros. because it uses the words "Harry" and "Potter." According to the laywers, the use of
these two words violate their owners copyrights -- Warner Bros. and author J.K. Rowling.
[Read More]
[01.20.2001]
It's set and ready to go. Depeche Mode's new album, entitled Exciter, will hit stores in late-May. According to Martin Gore, the Mark Bell-produced album
"still has darkness, but I find it more uplifting." The first single, "Dream On" -- described as contrasting "skittering beats with acoustic guitars" -- is due out in
April.
On behalf of a magazine and its editor, Internet civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today asked a federal appeals court to overturn a
lower court's interpretation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as creating an unconstitutional restraint on free expression.
EFF appealed a lower court's injunction against 2600 Magazine preventing it from publishing and linking to information about how DVDs work as part of its news
coverage of the debate surrounding the encryption applied to DVDs. The banned information is a computer program called DeCSS that decrypts the data contained on
DVDs.
[Read More]
Inventor Randice-Lisa Altschul has developed the Phone-Card-Phone,
a (recycled) paper mobile phone which will hit the market later this year. Despite its name, this disposable device uses no phone card at all. About three credit
cards thick, it comes with 60-minutes of calling time and a hands-free attachment. Once all the minutes are used, users can either throw it away or add more time
with a credit card. Cost of the phone: approximately $10. Also in the works (for a late 2002 release) is a $20 paper laptop which will act as a Web access device. COOL !
[01.19.2001]
Is AltaVista out to become the Net's only search engine? If they have their way, Yes!
[Read More]
[01.18.2001]
Our rights as consumers to know what we're eating has been denied to us by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday.
[Read More]
> We have finally decided to add a Guest Book. Please feel free to sign it.
[01.17.2001]
First it was brain cancer. Now mobile phones supposedly will make users go blind. What's next, will mobile phones make us infertile?
[Read More]
> Also, for an up-to-date list of U2's North American leg of the Elevation tour,
check out our calendar section.
[01.16.2001]
In the works is a new New Order album. However, the album, originally scheduled for a March release, won't materialize until late summer, if we're lucky.
According to reports, the recording process is going very slow due to Steve and Gillian's family commitments. The February release of their single Scientific
(?) has also been put on hold.
So far, 4 tracks have been finished with 3 tracks part-produced by the Chemical Brothers. More songs have been written and are currently at the demo stage,
with a possibility of being recorded in February. Among the completed songs are 60 Mph and Crystal.
The Charlatans are also back in the studio (Big Mushroom) with engineer Jim Spencer to complete the album mix. The new album, due this summer, will be
titled "Songs From The Other Side." The first single is to be released in April. The first major tour could be Stateside and Canada.
On a sad note, Bryan Gregory, guitarist and founding member of the punk/rockabilly group The Cramps, has died at the age of 46. Gregory helped start
the band in 1975 with his sister Pam Beckerleg, Lux Interior (a.k.a Rick Purkhiser) and Poison Ivy Rorschach (aka Kirsty Wallace). He suffered from heart
disease and died of cardiac arrest at Anaheim Memorial Hospital last Wednesday (10 January).
Starting next week, we will have a new President. To give you an idea of what we're in for, here are some of
George W. Bush's "wise" words.
[Read More]
[01.13.2001]
Ever wonder how much leeway federal agents have when snooping through your e-mail or computer files? The short answer: a lot.
[Read More]
[01.10.2001]
U2 has named PJ Harvey as the opening act for their North American leg of the Elevation Tour.
The Supreme Court's conservative majority continued its gradual erosion of federal powers over the states today with an important ruling limiting the
scope of a landmark environmental law.
[Read More]
[01.09.2001]
At this moment, Depeche Mode are in the studio mixing and putting the finishing touches on their yet to be named new album due out around May.
They'll be in the studio for the next 2 weeks, after which, they'll take a break before starting on a month of promotions and video shoots. All this
will lead up to preparations for a summer tour.
One of the Internet's oldest and most addictive forms of communication is under attack, and may soon be nothing more than a memory.
Internet relay chat, or IRC, a free, multi-user chat service, has been connecting people around the globe since 1988. IRC is predominantly staffed
by volunteers who donate their skills and servers to host the world's never-ending conversations.
[Read More]
Tour dates for the first leg of U2's upcoming U.S. tour (Elevation) have been
announced. More dates to be added.
[01.06.2001]
China once again puts a grip on news content emanating from within the country. Although it recently granted news-publishing licenses to several (China)
Internet portals, the rules severely limit what's acceptable. But this comes as no surprise. China has long controlled the news its people hear and read.
The rules will force the news sites to publish only politically vetted content taken from existing state media. Therefore, no website will be allowed to
report or write original news content.
Well, it's official. Beginning immediately, consumers will see an increase in their electricity bills. The five commissioners of California's Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously approved a 90-day rate increase on electricity prices. But will this really help reduce the $11 billion debt
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison have amassed?
[Read More]
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office now allows human genes to be patented. But how can something which is a part of nature be patented since genes are
not an invention? According to the Patent Office, as long as the genes are cloned or are reproduced in a laboratory with their functions defined, it will
allow them to be patented. So does this mean that if someone were to possess a gene which has been given a patent, that the individual will be held
accountable for patent infringement? Patented genes.... how ridiculous!
[01.03.2001]
Thom Yorke reveals that Radiohead had originally planned a promo campaign for their current album, Kid A. But plans were eventually scrapped when it was decided to avoid all major promotions.
[Read More]
[01.01.2001]
The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the formal name given to an expansion of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) that would include
nearly all of the countries in the western hemisphere. This massive NAFTA expansion is currently being negotiated in secret by trade ministers from a total
of 34 nations in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. The goal of the FTAA is to impose the failed NAFTA model of increased privatization
and deregulation hemisphere-wide. Imposition of these rules would empower corporations to constrain governments from setting standards for public health
and safety, to safeguard their workers, and to ensure corporations do not pollute the communities in which they operate.
[Read More]
