Website of the Day– ZML.com

The website ZML.com allows users to download movies directly to their iPods for prices starting at $1.99. And these movies aren’t the ones you find in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart.

Some of the movies I saw while browsing the site include movies that haven’t been released to DVD yet; including: “Atonement”, “Casino Royale”, and even “Goodfellas”.

These prices crush iTunes, which usually sells their DVD’s at store prices. This could be the future of film distribution.

Daily Briefs…and no not the underwear

Feb. 28, 2008

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Thursday in this NY Times Op-Ed piece that he will not run for president.

The decision ended months of speculation that the billionaire businessman would run a self-financed campaign as an independent for the White House.

“I listened carefully to those who encouraged me to run, but I am not — and will not be — a candidate for president,” Bloomberg wrote in the editorial posted on the newspaper’s Web site last night.

The mayor of the nation’s largest city has decided he will endorse one of the nominees for the presidency -something he was not willing to do until today.

In other political news, presidential nominees Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama traded “mocking” blows Wednesday about their views of Al-Queda in Iraq.

The tone set by the front-runners may be a glimpse into what we can expect during the presidential race. Of course this exchange between Obama and McCain comes without either candidate officially wrapping up their party’s nomination.

Yet, with McCain all but assured to be the Republican nominee, and a win in either Texas or Ohio in next Tuesday’s primary’s all but locking up the Democratic nomination for Obama, the media is already preparing itself on what is certain to be the big ticket issue in the race for the White House: Iraq.

Itunes Number Two Music Retailer

The NPD group issued a report Tuesday that says Itunes has passed Best Buy and Target to be the second largest music retailer in America.

And the number one position is in Apple’s sight.

According to this CNET article, iTunes will surpass Wal-Mart as the nation’s number one music retailer sometime within the next year.

“Digital sales were up close to 50 percent and CD sales were down 20 percent last year,” said Russ Crupnick, the NDP group’s president of music. “Even at half that growth rate in digital sales, Apple will in all likelihood catch Wal-Mart this year.”

This shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone, but it might be a tad shocking to music executives who continue to overcharge for CD’s.

The CD has become an obsolete technology -I have purchased two CD’s in the past three years – which means people are buying directly from iTunes or downloading it free from P2P networks.

I even noticed that American Idol is releasing the performances on their show that evening with iTunes. Now, with these performances available on iTunes, do you really think anyone is going to by the American Idol CD?

The mainstream music industry is dead. The winner will be the person or group who is able to self promote on a social networking site and reap their earnings without having to sign a record deal.

Daily Briefs…and no not the underwear (Con’t)

Feb 27:

According to the NY Times, a congressional committee has asked the Justice Department to investigate former New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens on allegations that he used steroids.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey to look into whether Clemens lied under oath during a senate committee last week.

The letter stated: “We believe that his testimony in a sworn deposition on February 5, 2008, and at a hearing on February 13, 2008, that he never used anabolic steroids or human growth hormone warrants further investigation,”

Basically, this means Clemens is screwed. If the Justice Department finds any evidence that Clemens lied under oath, he will be in the same position as Barry Bonds, which is indicted for perjury.
What I don’t understand is why these players think they can get away with lying to the U.S. Government. Do they really think they will get away with perjury even though Nixon as President couldn’t? Once again, this shows the ineptitude of professional athletes and their lawyers.

Daily Briefs…and no not the underwear

News:

Starbucks Takes A Coffee Break 

Starbucks coffee houses across the nation closed their doors Tuesday evening so employees could get a re-education in how to make espresso based drinks.

The move came under the direction of CEO Howard Schultz, who has returned to his post as the leader of the coffee giant to bring back the intimate coffee house feel many have said the company has lost through the years of massive expansion.

7,100 stores closed their doors at 5:30 p.m. for a three-hour retraining session for the coffee making employees, called Baristas, who got lessons in how to make proper espresso based drinks.

In a video message to Starbucks employees, Schultz said: “This is not about training. This is about the love and compassion and commitment that we all need to have for the customer.”

It appears that Starbucks and Schultz are serious about their makeover. They are getting rid of their breakfast sandwiches because the odor of the food masked the coffee scent the store wants customers to smell.

Clinton Blames Media For Her Fall 

Hillary Clinton accused the media of favoring her rival Barack Obama during a debate in Ohio Tuesday night.

Clinton, who has lost11 straight decisions and her lead for the Democratic nomination, was on the attack to stop Obama’s surge but was unable to deliver a knock-out and seemed frustrated with MSNBC moderators who she said were favoring the Illinois senator.

“In the last several debates I seem to get the first question all the time — and I don’t mind,” Clinton said when moderator Brian Williams asked her about her stance on NAFTA

Obama meanwhile played the role of cruising favorite to perfection. He seemed unruffled and confident throughout the evening, even when Clinton attacked his recent endorsement by controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

“If the word ‘reject’ is important, I’m happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce,” he said.

Things are getting ugly for Clinton. Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, has gone on record saying she must win the primaries in Texas and Ohio next Tuesday. Also, Obama got a big endorsement on Tuesday from Democratic leader Senator Chris Dodd -a former candidate for the nomination- who said he doesn’t want to see this race divide the democratic party.

I would say you can stick a fork in Hillary: she’s done.

‘American Idol’ Guys Go ’70s

I have a confession to make: I am enjoying this season of “American Idol”. Now, I have never watched more than a couple of episodes of the highest rated show in America because, frankly, I hate reality television. But for some reason I am enjoying this season of “American Idol” and it has became a late night addiction for Dan and I after work. If anyone wants to rag on me for this, I deserve all criticism. Anyway, here is a run down of last night’s show:

- Teenage singing sensation David Archuletta is the singer to beat in this competition. As Randy Jackson would say, “You’re  my man dog.” The kid is likable and can hit every note which means he should win this competition.

- David Noriega made me want to punch someone -him specifically- in the face when he told Simon “ish”.

- The guys who I would vote off are, Jason Yaeger and Luke Menard.

Today’s NY Times Op-Ed Piece

NY Times Op-Ed writer Frank Rich lays out his opinions for why the old-guard Clinton campaign has been trumped by the fresh political styling of up-start Barack Obama. Check it out here.

Daily Briefs…and no not the underwear

Feb. 25, 2008

News:

The lead article of the day from the NY Times is depressing. A Pew survey shows that a quarter of American’s change religions at some point in their adult lives. The largest change are those who were Christian/Catholic as a child and have changed to become unaffiliated with any religion. I don’t think these numbers are a surprise to anyone: after all, like big government, religious organizations -especially the Catholic Church- have been plagued by scandal. This has made an entire generation skeptical about the Church. But I think the NY Times assertion that those people who eventually leave the Church have lost their faith is just liberal media hyperbole. Just because a person no longer attends church doesn’t mean they have lost their faith. In fact, as we are seeing from the popularity of the emergent church movement, people are leaving the defined Church to create smaller religious groups that center their faith on the individual’s beliefs rather than the Church’s worldview. What this means for those of us who still attend church and believe in the positive aspect of organized religion (yes, there still are some) is to bring forth those positive attitudes towards the church that hold their leaders responsible. I can go more in-depth on this issue, and plan to later, but will leave you with just these thoughts for now.

The film “No Country for Old Men” won the Oscar for best picture last night. I didn’t watch the awards show because we don’t get ABC in our house, but I am glad the Cohen brothers were finally recognized for the brilliant directors they are (see “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski”). Also, I haven’t see “No Country for Old Men” but from what I’ve heard it was the best film of the year. Other movies that I’ve seen this year and recommend are: “Juno”, “Michael Clayton” and “Gone Baby Gone”.

Here is an interesting story from Time about a London professor who may have found the Lost Ark. The Lost Ark is the container that housed the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai.

The Clinton campaign is circulating photos of rival Barack Obama wearing a tradition Muslim outfit while on a four nation tour of Africa in 2006. Obviously as we get closer to the election things are going to get dirty between these two. The problem for the Clinton camp is that the dirty tactics have seemed to be one-sided. The Clinton’s have continued to use dirty tactics throughout the campaign while Obama just rebounds by telling the American people that this is typical of traditional Washington politics; politics that is campaign for change will get rid of. Obama just needs to keep doing what he has been doing and he will win the nomination because these scare tactics are actually benefiting his campaign.

Wiki Website Tests First Amendment Waters

A San Francisco judge ordered the shutdown of a website that asked users to post confidential government information on Friday.

The site, Wikileaks.org, devoted itself to the goal of discouraging “unethical behavior” among the government and corporations by inviting users to post leaked material. Current posts contained information about the engagement of U.S. troops in Iraq, a military manual concerning the operation of Guantanamo Bay and other material focused on corporate waste and wrongdoing.

The decision by judge Jefferey S. White -who said he studied the famous 1971 Supreme Court Pentagon Papers case- is an interesting one to examine, and we can assume will be discussed and rehashed by the Supreme Court at a later date.

From what I know about the First Amendment, the ruling by White is legal according to current law but is also pointless because even though the website held information that could endanger troops currently in combat (i.e. the documents about troop engagements in Iraq). However, my problem with White’s ruling is that unless information is stolen, the public has a right, just as they did with the Pentagon Papers, in knowing what is going on within our Government which is an elected and public entity (or at least should be). Also, how do you prevent the disclosure of these documents in the long run? We are living in the Internet age where information is accessible with the click of a button, even information that is supposed to be hidden can be found and exchanged instantaneously.

Therefore, since the information has already been put in the public domain, White’s ruling doesn’t have a leg to stand on. As my Comm Law professor Sandy Davidson said, once the toothpaste is out of the tube you can’t put it back in. This means once the information by Wikileaks.org has been made public, its public and no First Amendment right can be violated.NY Times Article

Today’s NY Times Op-Ed Piece

A UC Berkley professor of economics, Frank Reich, gives us his logical reasons for the current economic downturn in America in Wednesday’s NY Times Op-Ed piece. Reich calls for increased wages for the bottom two-thirds of American workers as a permanent solution instead of a short term band-aid stimulus proposed recently by the Bush administration. NY Times Article

Daily Briefs…and no not the underwear

Feb. 12, 2008

News:

• CNN has decided to launch their fairly successful Ireport into its own independent website, creatively titled ireport.com. From my standpoint, all this appears to be is Newsvine combined with Youtube. Sadly, the CNN brand will defeat Newsvine’s original thought of allowing a community to dictate news. Media Week.com Article
• Hilary Clinton’s campaign manager stepped down after a weekend that witnessed Barack Obama sweep four state primary’s and take the lead in the see-saw race for the Democratic presidential nomination. It appears that Obama now has a grip on the race with momentum and money swinging positively in his direction. Washington Post.com Article
• Who won the battle between network executives and writers in the Writers Strike? Depends on who you ask. All I know is that The Office is returning and that equals a win in for me. NY Times Recaps Writers Strike.

Music

When I first heard about the band Vampire Weekend I was overly skeptical. I had head about these preppy New York City bands before (i.e. The Strokes, Rooney etc.). Yes, they all had excellent guitar riffs and poppy melodies but it was nothing unique or inspiring. It left you with a longing for something more genuine and less produced. Before ever hearing a song from Vampire Weekend I assumed the band was going to leave me with the same hole in my pop-craving indie rocking heart. And then I listened to The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance on a drive from home back to Monterey. Besides The Garden State Soundtrack, Boys and Girls in America and Neon Bible, the debut album from these four Columbia graduates might be the best crafted indie-pop album I’ve heard. Please, do yourself a favor and check them out. If you are automatically turned off by their northeast upper middle class childhood you are missing out on some wonderful afro-pop, retro punk songs that are lyrically both smart and polished. So, give these guys a chance, you won’t be disappointed. All Music Guide Review