ninme

These people are such greedy bastards. No wonder music sucks:

PC Pro - Warner chief threatens to scalp iTunes

A Warner Music executive has threatened to cut off Apple if Steve Jobs continues to refuse to give ground on iTunes Music Store pricing.

Digital strategy chief Michael Nash said during a discussion at a wireless telecoms conference that the music industry has let Apple get too much power in the digital downloads market.

‘What if Jobs says 39 cents or 29 cents per download - what then?,’ he said. ‘The industry can say, OK we’ll cut him off - very few people buy music from digital downloads.’

He added that he is sure that the Apple CEO would find another way to sell iPods.

Nash’s comments echoes those made last week by Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman, who called for Apple to adopt variable pricing and share out revenues from iPod sales.

Right. Because music downloaders are such a captive audience. Goodness, if they raised the price… where would we go?! We’d be forced to spend it! It’s foolproof! And because, you know, they’ve done such a good job on their own of developing the online music business. So they totally deserve that share of iPod sales. By golly they’ve earned it.

An alternate trailer for the Shining. Peter wonders if it was a school project, and thinks it would make a great school project. I’ve never seen the Shining so I didn’t totally get it till the end. It’s pretty funny. And quite well done.

This is the sort of thing that gets a civil libertarian’s eye twitching.

The Guardian - Suspicious behaviour on the tube, by David Mery

A London underground station was evacuated and part of a main east-west line closed in a security alert on Thursday, three weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people on the transport network, police said. (Reuters)

This Reuters story was written while the police were detaining me in Southwark tube station and the bomb squad was checking my rucksack. When they were through, the two explosive specialists walked out of the tube station smiling and commenting: “Nice laptop.” The officers offered apologies on behalf of the Metropolitan police. Then they arrested me.

He goes through his day, and all the things he did to get arrested. He wants his DNA back.

Popgadget - shitake mushroom log

Too bad I don’t do mushrooms.

Google Blog - Job requirement: Food must taste great.

We put the word out that we needed more chefs to come to Google’s Mountain View campus and cook lots of food, and lots of kinds of food, for thousands of daily meals. There’s been no shortage of candidates. Hundreds of chefs from all over the world sent resumes, and we invited a number of them to come and audition for a discerning group of employee-tasters.

We thought you might enjoy a sampling of the incredible range of dishes that have impressed our hiring/tasting committee. Happy cooking!

Oh man. Edamame Hummus, Thai Red Curry Dragon Fly Noodles, Dungeness Crab Cakes w/ Black Pepper-Lemon Aioli…

The Frankfurt Auto Show is a-going on.

Jalopnik - Frankfurt Premiere: Daihatsu Copen Roadster Concept

Et, pour moi:

Frankfurt Premiere: Bentley Azure
Frankfurt Premiere: Rolls Royce Phantom Extended Wheelbase
Frankfurt Premiere: Wiesmann GT

Mmmmm…

He knows me well, does Peter.

Update:

For those of you with a slightly lighter wallet:

BustedTees.com

I like the “Pedro Lacks Political Experience” one.

Ship of Fools - The Laugh Judgement

I don’t think he’s recommending the “Top 10 most offensive religious jokes”. But in “Top 10 funniest religious jokes”, this one’s pretty funny. Ooh and so is this one. Eh, 3, 4, and 5 are a little bad. Don’t get mad at me. 6 is great. 7’s a classic, 8’s okay, 9 is hilarious, even if I’m not totally certain how to take it, and 10 cracks me up.

Here’s my favourite religious joke (well, one of them) that I’ve wanted to tell for two weeks now, but didn’t think it wise (it was told to me by a priest, so don’t get huffy):

A town begins to flood, and a little old lady sits serenely in her living room, watching the water lap up against the front steps. Her son runs in and says, “Mother mother, come with me I’ve come to save you!” And the little old lady says, “Don’t worry, son, God will save me.” Finally he leaves. Eventually the little old lady moves to the second floor bedroom, and sits serenely, watching the water lap against the walls of her house. A next door neighbor rows by in a rowboat and said, “Ma’am, ma’am! Come with me! I’ll save you!” And the little old lady says, “Don’t worry, God will save me.” Finally he leaves. Eventually the little old lady moves to the third floor attic and sits serenely, watching the water lap up against the attic stairs. A uniformed man in a motorboat roars up to the attic gable and says, “Lady lady, come with me! I’ll save you!” And the little old lady says, “Don’t worry, God will save me.”

The waters continue to rise and the little old lady dies. She gets through the Pearly Gates and sees God. She asks God, “God, God, I had such faith! Why didn’t you save me?!” And God replies, “What the hell are you talking about? I sent three people by for you!”

Flickr - WWII

I found these photos tucked inside a book that was for sale at a public library. Someone donated this book for the library to raise funds. I’m sure they didn’t realize the photos were hidden within.

And, for when I’m an eccentric millionaire looking for architectural inspiration:

Guide to Japanese Castles - Castle Browser

ninme daydreams

Turning On the Power of Four

“Best. Viral. Ever.”

His words, not mine. Although the strategic placement of bosoms is pretty good.

“Baybees”

Reporters Gone Wild

I think it is kind of interesting that some of these guys can go and read back issues of the Times-Picayune and know all the smallest detail about what the levees could stand up to, but still ask the Director of Homeland Security why he didn’t order city transit buses to evacuate poor people before the hurricane hit.

Oh and Tim Russert’s little fit at the end about the people with “SUVs” that were the only ones that got out. Right. Damned rich people abandoning the poor people to their fates. Yet again. Burn the mansions! I wonder if he’s as angry with the half of the black population that got out, too?

Update: Best of the Web:

To our mind, if there is one group (apart from the victims themselves) whose complaints were instrumental in helping, it was the TV news reporters, many of whom lost or abandoned their usual professional detachment and turned into, for want of a better term, activists. One could criticize these journalists as biased or bathetic, but under the circumstances it seems ridiculous to do so.

“Bathos” is defined as “(esp. in a work of literature) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.” It was not a term I ran into ever in any of my literature classes. So I thought I’d, uh, share.