Jesus Had Short Hair!: "I Corinthians 11:14 says, 'Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?' The Greek word for 'shame' in this verse is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as 'dishonor,' 'vile,' 'disgrace.' In Romans 1:26 the same word is translated 'vile', 'For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.' You will notice that these 'vile affections' have to do with homosexuality. It is very interesting that as the trend toward long hair increases, the acceptance of homosexuality increases. This is not to say that long hair and homosexuality always go together, but it is to note the fact that both are on the rise in our generation. Several of the major denominations have now accepted homosexuals. In some cities there are churches for homosexuals pastored by avowed homosexuals. At least one major denomination has ordained a homosexual preacher and others are considering following suit."

Damned long-haired faggots! Oh, wait, I'm one of them. D'oh. Someone tell Rado and Ragni.

They'll be gaga at the Gogo
When they see me in my toga
In my toga made of blond, brilliantined, biblical hair
My hair like Jesus wore it
Alelulia I adore it
Alelulia Mary loved her son
Why don't my mother love me

One Man's Campaign To Rid Radio of Smut Is Finally Paying Off: "Mr. Smith, for one, is listening a lot less than he used to. In March, he became the target of a $3 million harassment suit Mr. Muller filed in Cook County Circuit Court. On his lawyer's advice, he has stopped monitoring Mancow while the case is pending."

So, if you stop your crusade for righteousness because someone sues you, how dedicated are you? You've cost the host $42K in fines already, but you stop as soon as the tables are turned? Hypocrite.

iTunes and Lawsuits: "This is crazy. Online prices should always be much lower than physical CDs. The economics of downloading favor high volume. CDs have to be pressed, warehoused and shipped, but in the online world, you transmit a file to the vendor and just collect money. When a super popular artist like Norah Jones emerges, forget about convincing a hundred thousand people to download it at $13-get a million people to make the mouse-buy for five bucks. It's nice to sell 100,000 Norah Jones albums online at $13, but even better to sell 2 million at five bucks a pop."

They finally start to see that when you remove physical manufacturing and distribution costs, prices should fall.

The recording industry never recognizes this. CDs cost less to produce than LPs did, but cost about double. Online downloads cost virtually nothing to offer, but they're more expensive than CDs. Every time the industry is forced to adopt a new technology (almost always after fighting it every way possible for years), they use it as an excuse to double-up their back end, and stick it to the consumers (also presumably in the back end.)

As an example, www.livephish.com offers CD-quality concert downloads for under $5 per disc, and they sold over a million shows in their first year online. This is the same sentiment echoed in the article -- "This is crazy. Online prices should always be much lower than physical CDs. The economics of downloading favor high volume. CDs have to be pressed, warehoused and shipped, but in the online world, you transmit a file to the vendor and just collect money. When a super popular artist like Norah Jones emerges, forget about convincing a hundred thousand people to download it at $13-get a million people to make the mouse-buy for five bucks. It's nice to sell 100,000 Norah Jones albums online at $13, but even better to sell 2 million at five bucks a pop. "

Activist accused of warning drivers: "''Police Checkpoint Ahead,'' read the orange sign, warning drivers along Northwest 17th Avenue that city of Miami police officers were ahead."

As usual, they're wrong. Of the pair, one was charged. Thankfully, there were another dozen standing by to keep the signs up. One arrest, two signs confiscated. Not only is this obvious free speech, but the cops are being idiots, too.

Statement by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Martin Cullen TD - 30 April 2004: "The Government decided two months ago to establish an independent Electronic Voting Commission to examine the secrecy and accuracy of the chosen electronic voting system. The formal role of the Commission is an advisory one. The Government has nonetheless made it clear that it will respect the recommendations of the Commission which, under its terms of reference, was required to address the application or non-application of electronic voting to the June polls.

"The Government notes that the independent Commission is unable to provide sufficient positive assurance, in the time available, in relation to using the chosen system of electronic voting at the June elections. The Government has decided that the electronic voting system will not be used at the June polls. These will be conducted in all constituencies on the basis of the traditional paper ballot. Arrangements will be in place to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the polls on June 11th."

Look, if the IRISH don't trust it, maybe it's not as broke as I thought. Naaahhhh...

Seven arrested in YMCA sex ring: "Authorities arrested seven men Wednesday night after accusing them of performing sex acts on one another inside the men's locker room at the YMCA on North Coalter Street, the Staunton Police Department said."

Odd. When I was in the Navy, it was commonly understood that this was what the YMCA was for. Certainly, the Village People understood...

Hatchery salmon to count as wildlife: "Six of the world's leading experts on salmon ecology complained last month in the journal Science that fish produced in hatcheries cannot be counted on to save wild salmon. The scientists had been asked by the federal government to comment on its salmon-recovery program but said they were later told that some of their conclusions about hatchery fish were inappropriate for official government reports.

'The current political and legal wrangling is a sideshow to the real issues. We know biologically that hatchery supplements are no substitute for wild fish,' Robert Paine, one of the scientists and an ecologist at the University of Washington, said when the Science article was published in late March."

On one hand, if you are protecting a species, the hatcheries can produce enough to offset the losses from a degraded habitat. On the other hand, if we have degraded the habitat to the point that it can no longer maintain itself, have we not lost something even if the species is artifically preserved? It seems unclear whether the goal is protecting the species or the ecosystem.

Robotic bollards to take control: "It is envisaged the road markers would be delivered to a location by a specially equipped truck.

"A camera on the vehicle would image the road and send a picture to a worker's laptop. The worker would then indicate on the screen where they wanted the bollards to be deployed.

"Software developed by the Nebraska team would then obtain the precise coordinates and feed these to the 'shepherd' unit so it could lead its herd of red robots into position. "

In a story that screams for a video, there are only still pictures. If this had a dateline of 4/1 instead of 4/28, I'd think the Beeb was making Dalek jokes.

Marillion: appetite for resurrection: "'Instead of gigging round toilets for ten years trying to get a record deal, gig around toilets for ten years and ask people for their email addresses. If what you're doing strikes a chord, you'll be financially better off while remaining pure and free to do what you want.'"

Here's what some are beginning to recognize: Technology has shattered the music industry's biggest monopoly -- distribution. A number of bands are now setting their sights on another of the industry's strengths -- promotion. Unless your primary goal is to get your CDs in the bins at the chain stores in the mall, or Wal-Mart, you don't need the major record labels any longer if you can effectively communicate with your fans and handle your own promotion.

As the article mentions, it's this kind of realization and a few spiffy tricks that are letting dinosaur acts like The Alarm or Marillion break back into the charts 20 years after the music industry wrote them off. I hope this continues -- we'll all be much better off. Not to mention the bands who get a much larger slice of the pie, even if it's a smaller pie, and appear to be gettting a much better return than they did with the majors.

Killer cyberloo kidnaps kiddie: "Details are sketchy, but it appears that the door 'failed to operate', as JC DeCaux nicely put it. The firm warned: 'Children aged 10 or under should not use the kiosks unaccompanied as they are weight sensitive.'

"Exactly. As soon as the devilish digidunny detects a body under 50kg, it knows it has attracted easy prey. Readers are invited to immediately run into the streets with flaming torches and pitchforks and storm the nearest shifty-looking public convenience with cries of 'Kill the monster!'"

There's a Microsoft joke in there somewhere, but I'll leave it to the reader as an exercise.

Diebold apologizes for device flaws: "It is an uncommon day when the nation's second-largest provider of voting systems concedes that its flagship products in California have significant security flaws and that it supplied hundreds of poorly designed electronic-voting devices that disenfranchised voters in the March presidential primary."

The first step is admitting you have a problem. I'm guessing it will be the ONLY step, but that's me.

April 16: Poop For Peace Day: "On April 16, take some time to think when you take your time to stink. Think of yourself on your toilet, and George W. Bush on his, and Saddam and Osama on theirs. Think about the children of Iraq and the children of America, and realize that while their skins are different colors and their gods have different names, their daily ritual is exactly the same. We all poop, which means we're all human, which means we're all brothers and sisters. Any other differences are arbitrary -- we are all united in the daily struggle against the tyranny of the bowel. "

Cheney gets iPod, but what should he listen to?: "A recent profile of Vice President Dick Cheney revealed that his daughters had given him an iPod, the ultrahip digital music player, for Christmas. Mr. Cheney, known for his serious demeanor, hasn't let on publicly what songs he's jamming to. And the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign declined to talk about it. So we asked some local music types what Mr. Cheney should listen to -- and what he shouldn't."

"Deep in the Heart of Texas" -- Constitutionally speaking, it would have been illegal to have two Texas residents on the 2000 GOP ticket, But, according to the VP, although he lived and voted in Texas for the five years immediately proceeding, he was really a "Wyoming resident." Uh-huh.

Paper trail sought for electronic voting: "'People are just realizing exactly what we've bought into in some states,' said Maryland state Sen. Andrew Harris, a Republican. 'The stakes are so high. I don't put it above someone trying to manipulate elections on a grand scale.'"

After an otherwise pedestrian beginning, the article gets interesting. Nice to see the occasional Republican on the side of verification and paper trails.

MSNBC - Media use of gruesome Iraq photos varies: "'On the one hand, you can't shy away from the news, and the news in this case is the indignities visited upon the victims and the jubilation of the crowd,' said Bill Keller, the Times' executive editor. 'At the same time you have to be mindful of the pain these pictures would cause to families and the potential revulsion of readers, and children, who are exposed to this over their breakfast table.'"

Let's stick to accurate, detailed, and specific reporting. If there are horrors of war, the American people should be informed. I see no reason to shield the public from the price of US foreign policy. Maybe more people would take action if they knew what was really going on, and why.

Yahoo! News - Study: File-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales: "Internet music piracy has no negative effect on legitimate music sales, according to a study released today by two university researchers that contradicts the music industry's assertion that the illegal downloading of music online is taking a big bite out of its bottom line.

"Songs that were heavily downloaded showed no measurable drop in sales, the researchers found after tracking sales of 680 albums over the course of 17 weeks in the second half of 2002. Matching that data with activity on the OpenNap file-sharing network, they concluded that file sharing actually increases CD sales for hot albums that sell more than 600,000 copies. For every 150 downloads of a song from those albums, sales increase by a copy, the researchers found."

Ahem. File sharing did not decrease sales, it actually had a positive effect on sales of popular albums. The recording industry has just closed its best year ever, despite their global attempts to bite the hands that feed them.

How E-Voting Threatens Democracy: "Up until 1995, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel had been chairman of ES&S (then called American Information Systems) before quitting the company in March of that year two weeks before launching his Senate bid. ES&S, based in Omaha, Nebraska, manufactured the only voting machines used in the state in his election the following year. According to Neil Erickson, Nebraska's deputy secretary of state for elections, the machines counted 85 percent of votes in Hagel's race; the remaining votes were counted by hand.

"Hagel, a first-time candidate who had lived out of the state for 20 years, came from behind to win two major upsets in that election: first in the primary race against a fellow Republican, then in the general race against Democrat Ben Nelson, the state's popular former governor. Nelson began the race with a 65 percent to 18 percent of the vote, becoming the state's first Republican senator since 1972."

First, sell a lot of your voting machines to your home state, then quit your day job, move back, and get yourself elected. Could it be that simple?

County calls out Diebold execs: "After his phone inquiries to Diebold went unanswered, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Bradley J. Clark wrote a letter Monday invoking the performance clause of the county's $12.7 million contract.

"He demanded Diebold deliver within 10 days a written plan to correct multiple problems, foremost of which was forcing the county to use poorly tested, uncertified voter-card encoders that broke down in 200 polling places March 2."

Finally, the civil servants begin fighting back. Is this part of the larger "rebellion of the professionals" that's beginning to rise against political manipulation, or just an isolated case? Either way, props to Alameda for at least trying to enforce the contract terms. Now, wait for the California Attorney General to weigh in on Diebold's side...

Stop the row, no one gets married! - The Economic Times: "In a new twist in the battle over same-sex marriage roiling the United States , a county in Oregon has banned all marriages -- gay and heterosexual -- until the state decides who can and who cannot wed."

Yes! Equal rights for all. Nice to see that some people understand.

Not So Happily Ever After: "Ron Fanelle, a Camarillo middle school teacher, had hoped to keep his personal life out of the classroom.

But that all changed when his seventh- and eighth-grade students recently asked him about a rumor that he was gay and had married his longtime partner in San Francisco. The social studies teacher told his students it was all true.

Since then, the parents of one of Fanelle's students pulled their child out of his class, the father of another accused him at a public board meeting of pushing a pro-gay agenda and Fanelle filed complaints against two teachers accusing them of helping to spread the word among students about his homosexuality."

Let's see: It's OK to be gay, it's OK to get married, but it's not OK to confirm that you're gay and that you got married. If a student asks you if you got married, you shouldn't answer. If another teacher says you did, you might get fired. If another teacher lets the students discuss it among themselves, you might get fired. Oh, and it doesn't matter if their kid is in his class, just knowing that there's a gay teacher in the school is enough to get some parents up in arms.

Confirming suspicions and answering direct and discreet questions can get you in trouble for "promoting a homosexual lifestyle." Since when is providing factual information a bad thing? Aren't the students there to learn?