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An observant letter appeared in the LA TIMES this weekend:
One sentence in “Oregon Businessman Charged in ‘Portland Six’ Terrorist Case” (April 29) offers a perfect illustration of those Middle East problems that could defy any “road map” to lead anywhere but back into a maze. A defendant in the trial of the Portland Six is identified as a “Palestinian who was born in Nablus, Jordan.”
Two contradictions in five words: If he comes from Jordan, one would expect him to be Jordanian; and a look at the map shows that Nablus in not in Jordan. Not now. But 38 years ago, when this man was born, Jordan ruled the West Bank. Two years later Jordan lost control of Nablus to Israel in the Six-Day War. And the baby boy who lived there suddenly became “Palestinian.” Yet now, 36 years later, his American wife still speaks of Nablus, Jordan. So apparently, her husband still thinks of it that way. Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and company could well find Iraq easy compared with this maze.
Baruch Cohon
It’s inaccurate to say that the Palestinians are former residents of a nation called “Palestine.”
There are so many great posts on InstaPundit that it’s almost a public service to point out one’s favorites. Over the weekend Glenn posted a link to this story:
To an amazing degree, the Baghdad-based press corps avoids writing about or filming the friendly dealings between U.S. forces here and the local population—most likely because to do so would require them to report the extravagant expressions of gratitude that accompany every such encounter. Instead you read story after story about the supposed fury of Baghdadis at the Americans for allowing the breakdown of law and order in their city.
The big pop-culture news today is that 4 students who were each running file-sharing networks offering hundreds of songs, have been fined. Each student will pay $12,000 to $17,500.
The writing’s on the wall for free file-sharing of copyrighted material. With this ruling, it seems to me that it could be gone in a year.
Four college students learned Thursday that free music downloads can carry a hidden price tag – $12,000 to $17,500, to be exact.[.....]
The settlements mark the first time the record companies have recovered money from individuals in the United States accused of piracy on file-sharing networks. But they may be a harbinger of more lawsuits, as the industry starts taking its battle against online piracy directly to users.
Per Billboard :
Observers are calling the launch of Apple Computer’s digital music service the iTunes Music Store an overwhelming success.
The Billboard site is subscription only, but Macworld discusses the article:
Apple’s iTunes Music Service sold an estimated 275,000 tracks at 99 each in its first 18 hours, Billboard reports .
This is what it’s all about.
Terrorist attacks decreased sharply worldwide in 2002 to their lowest level since 1969, the State Department’s annual report released yesterday shows, and Secretary of State Colin Powell hailed the war on terrorism for foiling the deadly plots. “The last time the annual total fell below 200 attacks was in 1969, shortly after the advent of modern terrorism,” said Cofer Black, State Department coordinator for counterterrorism. The report showed a steep reduction in attacks by “international terrorists” to 199 in 2002 from 355 a year earlier ? a 44 percent drop. The number of deaths fell to 725 from 3,295 in 2001, a year that included the September 11 attacks, the report said. “Terrorist cells have been broken up, networks disrupted and plots foiled,” Mr. Powell told reporters as the report was released. “But terrorism still casts its grim shadow across the globe.”
This appears to refute the argument that the war in Iraq will lead to more terrorism.
See my previous post, Why the War is Having the Right Effect on Terrorists.
Broadcasting & Cable reports (subscription required for the link):
Market research firm Bolt Inc. said 13- through 24-year-olds are getting sick of reality TV, according to a survey the firm recently conducted.Bolt said 68 percent of those surveyed said they are tiring of reality programs, while 63 percent said they realize reality TV isn?t too real.
When Steve Jobs announced the iTunes Music Store, he said that the AAC file format sounded, in some cases, “better than CDs.” That’s a clever way of saying that AAC doesn’t sound exactly the same as CDs, which it can’t, because AAC is what’s called a “lossy” compression method. That means it loses information when it compresses an audio file. This is different from Zip or Stuffit compression, which you can use on data files without losing a single byte. So by definition there’s no way that AAC can preserve the full sound of an AIFF file.
This means we’re not there yet – that is, we’ve got a ways to go before we have the whole online music distribution thing working correctly.
Music downloading is still just the Millenium version of radio – a good way to hear new songs, and even take them with you when you’re out.
