Study: Allowing Piracy Could Improve Sales

Analysis on report linked below:

A report at Ars Technica says that digital and recording companies would sell more music and games by removing anti-piracy controls and gimmicks like forcing immediate upgrades by releasing half finished product.

Ars T uses Spore as a prime example though I could name a few more in games and have serious issues (along with much of the music industry).

I have bought few games on the last ten years and even less music even though I never pirate.

The reason I don't buy much music is the high cost of weeding through the mountains of garbage.

  At $13-$19 for a CD and the only other source of new music coming from juvenilev radio stations why bother?

(Please Don't dismiss what I'm saying just because you're younger than I am.)

The fact that on-air music stations are focusing on music that is up to 60 years old or mostly crap proves my point that I agree with Ars Technica.

And games and commercials APs follow the same path.

BTW the fact that I'm writing this on a mobile device with the free software input and supported via subscription to my cell service does not mean I approve of it.

My words do not substitute for absolute approval of AT's report as linked below though I agree with much of it.

http://bit.ly/ojb7rK

After 911, Thousands of Pests Slipped into US While Gov't Focused on Terrorists

Just months after the GOP got hold of the White House they passed a tax cut for Fat Cats telling us we didn't need the money.
Yet within months we did need the money as we had to decrease our agricultural security for increased scrutiny of our ports of entry for human to Ham terrorists.
Did the Fat Cats give the money back?  Of course not, and the GOP controlled White House and Congress didn't ask them to do so.
The result is shown that agricultural terrorists (though not human) slipped into the US and started harming our nation. 
Stop the wars? Tax the wealthy to fight the pests at the ports of entry?
Not while Republicans controlled Congress and the White House!
An AP report show that Homeland Security only started ramping up inspections in 2007 and also cites Congress members behind the effort to push ramped up inspections that got border agricultural security back to a decent level
I think its safe to say that Democrats in charge of Congress is the best for agriculture.  Too bad that after so many years of total GOP control it was too late for many farmers and agricultural products.
Farmers and people who like healthy food and ecosystems should notify their Congress members and tell them they will be watching to see of they are really protecting our crops from foreign pests and diseases
Otherwise they'll be voting them out.
Just in case though, I'd stick with the party that brought sanity back to Homeland Security in keeping our nation and it's food supply safer.
Oil companies have gotten major supply contracts from the war on Iraq.  Other fat cats are still hoping for access to the trillion dollars worth of rare earths and valuable minerals in Afghanistan from the Bush White House's wars. 
All farmers got from the Republicans being in total control of thr nation was decreased security, and more problems for all their work and support of the GOP.
See link below for report on how post 911 response by the GOP left agricultural security out to dry.
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Iraq Defies US Supports Syria's Assad

A WP report tells us that Iraq's rulers are siding with Iran and backing Syria's ruling party. 

The report insinuates it is completely Obama's fault.  Oh, yeah, like he started the war that destabilized Iraq. 

He wasn't even a Senator at the time!

The source of that allegation is laid bare on the second page of the mobile enabled report.

The author relied heavily on a former member of the Bush administration apparently eager to deflect blame from his neocon boss.

No, it couldn't be that the arrogant decision to invade Iraq is responsible for pro Assad feelings from Shiite al-Maliki who is drawingjl closer to Iran. 

Later in the article with less influence from the Bush administration member, it shows a people desperate to recover their economy who rely on trade with Iran's Shiite friends in Syria more and more.  And the neocons' excuse now is to blame Obama? 

Oh please! He wasn't. even a Senator when Bush invaded Iraq for oil & then botched the job.

See mobile report: http://wapo.st/n0HMwh

Video: The Daily Show -- How is Occupy Wall Street Not Like the Tea Party?

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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California Man Released from Prison After Murder Conviction Is Overturned

This is rather ironic seeing a the guy's last name is Anthony, but I do have a point here.  A non-profit got involved in Obie Anthony's case.  Apparently they don't have enough resources  to check out the cases for  every convict imprisoned  for murder.  Also,  cops are much more adamant about convicting and punishing someone when an officer was killed, no matter who they have to convict, it seems they have to get the revenge.

Still, every person on death row should have special help in any state, and under any circumstances, whether an officer is down or no.  This should be a basic right.

See CBS News : Man released after murder conviction overturned

SF Pension Reform Being Funded By Anti-Union Donors

In CA 'pension reform' is being given a progressive veneer but it's still the same old crap being handed out in Wisconsin.

See:

http://mobile.sfgate.com/sfchron/db_41685/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=WkUh7wiB

SCOTUS lets stand ruling that downloads are not performances

So some struggling bar singer has to pay royalties but Apple, RealNetworks, Amazon etc.  don't. That doesn't seem right. http://bit.ly/ndJG8u

Amanda Knox and Family Scheduled to Fly Home Today

Despite assertions by the Italian Prosecutor that the Knox family would have an entire jet at their disposal, courtesy of an American news organization (nice try Mr Murdoch) the Knox clan will be taking a regularly scheduled flight.

Gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair by British tabloids, to be expected.

http://bit.ly/r1CWQF

Did Tabloid Mentality Muddle Results From First Amanda Knox Trial

I read British press a lot.  In the controversy surrounding the trial of Amanda Knox I probably first read The Mirror or another" source, OK, tabloid on the subject. 
Long before the court made its decision the British tabloids had convicted her and her former boyfriend.  The American woman emerged from their pages as a blood thirsty devil.  That portrayal was most likely based on one created by the Italian prosecutor who was pushing, as late as Friday, the idea that Amanda was over-priviledged because (he alleged)  a US media company had an empty jet at the ready to whisk the young woman and her family home to Seattle.  The article in The Guardian report linked in an adjacent post  says the family will be taking a regularly scheduled flight so the prosecution assertion was apparently BS.  He was probably trying to make Ms Knox's kin seem privileged in comparison to Ms Kercher's family which couldn't get to Perugia for this second trial.  But, if a media company had offered a complete plane at the family's disposal it would probably have been News International, a business, which though incorporated in the US is very much in the Brit tabloid tradition, and it probably would have offered each member a free (hacked) cell phone to boot. 
Even though the Guardian is about the best in English News, the Brit attitude to get "that American girl" seeps in with the words from Ms Kercher's (the murdered young woman's) father and less understandably David Cameron. Both bemoan the freeing of Ms Knox. 
Cameron wailed that the father no longer had a story to go with his daughter's death.  Well no story is better than a bad story, Sir, and imprisoning a young American woman falsely is not worth the limp satisfaction it might bring. 
Mr Cameron, put down the rags (tabloids). Your nation needs you to lead them out of the morass you've guided them into with your politically conservative austerity measures, not to play your part in the Tabloid Games.

Beatles Photographer Robert Whitaker Has Died

See'  contracostatimes.com : Beatles photographer Robert Whitaker dies at 71 for details

WP Biden's Brother OK. After Receiving Suspicious Powder

Biden's bro targetted by killer wannabes who play their games in red states.  So pathetic!
So Red State.  http://wapo.st/pgf6i0

WP Says Rick Perry's Family Had Special Relationship w/ Camp w/ Racially Charged Name

WP is facing outrage from the right for a report saying that the Perry family had a special relationship with hunting camp known by a racial epithet. This has led to a non retraction retraction most likely found from link at site. http://wapo.st/qbw8g0
I love how truth gets obscured in the face of politics.
I don't know, but now I'm pretty sure this story will never be resolved.  It's kinda like 1984 these days, where if a story is too important to a politician, the truth flies out a window.

Why Are Finland's Schools So Successful?

Recently we learned that schools in Finland rank towards the top of the heap in all sorts of subjects.  The rest of the school systems, quite frankly have a school days crush on the nation that can do so much with so little.

The Smithsonian magazine recently went to the Nordic nation to find out.  They also learned that the school system isn't as homogenous as one might assume, and, in fact has a surprising number of immigrant children.

I'd recommend first reading a summary of the Smithsonian report at National Center for Policy Analysis which puts the points into a list, missing little of the main points of the original piece.   I believe though they don't directly say that Finland makes sure that teachers are plentiful and are given a lot of help by copious community hiring so that they end up with a teacher or an aide available for every seven students.

Teachers have more education (which is paid for by the government) and are given much respect (comparable to doctors and lawyers) and are offered extra training free, but are not hamstrung with mandatory standardized tests or one method fits all teaching practices.

See NCPA's Summary:  Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

Or See Original Smithsonian report:   Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

Teen Dies From Waterboarding-like Treatment For "Clea

Not only torture, it can be deadly.
Man, priest arrested for drowning teenage girl in bid to cleanse 'evil spirits' - The Mainichi Daily News

U.S. drone strike in Yemen kills U.S.-born Al Qaeda figure Awlaki

Ok, Bushie. Anything else u want cleaned up 4 u?  As we noticed u mainly weren't into making that happen 6 months  after you declared getting the world's top terrorists ur main goal in life yerars ago.  So many of them have been over-turned only since the so called mainstream Newsmen".  See http://bit.ly/oZSxge