Fresh-Out-the-Box!

America Vs Britain March 29, 2008

A comparison between the opinions of Britains Vs Americans

Another reason why ID cards giving any kind of security is a fallacy June 15, 2007

Later, when she returned to the bank that had been her original destination that morning and took possession of the lost driver’s license, it was a perfect forgery — with a hologram and a California seal — and it had Lodrick’s name but Nelson’s photo and physical characteristics.

“You can buy the technology (to add marks and holograms) on your computer from companies that have legitimate government contracts and then make a lot of money selling the technology to people they must know are not legitimate,” Fairbairn said. “Millions and millions of dollars.” The black market, he said, is “a growth industry.”

From How victim snared ID thief / She chased down woman who had given her 6 months of hell

AskOxford: Other Men’s Flowers June 13, 2007

“It could be said of me” wrote the French moralist and essayist Montaigne, “that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other men’s flowers, providing of my own only the string that ties them together.”
Montaigne was writing at the end of the 16th century, but views on the balance between originality and plagiarism can be heard through the centuries.

But if those flowers happen to be audio samples from another man’s record then it’s wrong. Isn’t what the current music producers are doing: just using technology to do what humans have been doing since people were capable of doing it?

AskOxford: Other Men’s Flowers

Cymande Vs The Fugees March 15, 2007

A federal judge recently issued a ruling in favor of 1970’s British soul group Cymande, in a sampling lawsuit against the Fugees and Sony Music.

The lawsuit, which was filed by group members Steve Scipio and Patrick Patterson in March, claims the Fugees illegally sampled the song “Dove” on their 1996 album The Score .

In 1998, the two parties attempted to negotiate a settlement agreement.

Cymande accepted a royalty payment of $400,000 and Sony Entertainment attempted to settle. However, according to the lawsuit, members of Cymande denied that the $400,000 payment was for settlement.

Sony Entertainment claimed that in 1998 the parties “entered into a settlement” and that members of Cymande “ratified the 1998 settlement by accepting several hundred thousand dollars of Defendants’ payments and by seeking money under the terms of the 1998 settlement from Defendants’ foreign representatives.”

Judges from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the payments do not amount to “ratification of an unsigned agreement to settle an infringement dispute.”

“We determine that the Proposed Agreement was never ratified and that Plaintiffs should not be equitably stopped from pursuing their infringement claims,” the ruling stated.

The $400,000 payment must be repaid or subtracted from Cymande’s damages if they prevail on the copyright infringement claims.

From AllHipHop.com : Daily Hip-Hop News:

Australia pulls plug on light bulbs February 21, 2007

About time there was movement to rid the world of the evil wasteful light bulbs…

An election’s looming so there’s movement in Australia- the phasing out of incandescent bulbs should be made law worldwide straight away: Bright idea? Australia pulls plug on light bulbs.

LED light bulbs would be even better- they’re nearly ready for prime time- the cost needs to go down, light output up (and dissipated) and the colour temperature moved towards red from blue, but they’re not major hurdles considering the huge advances in LEDs in the last few years. We’re not too far off with products like this and this already available for fairly modest prices.

Livestock a major threat to environment February 19, 2007

Which causes more greenhouse gas emissions, rearing cattle or driving cars?

Livestock a major threat to environment

AVAAZ (A Voice) – Climate Action February 8, 2007

Climate change is happening and we need to take urgent action now.The leaders of the world’s most polluting countries will be meeting in Germany this June. The priorities for this summit are being decided right now.

I don’t know about you, but it seems that all I hear is talk about how bad the situation is and how we have to act now or things will get a whole lot worse and harder to deal with, yet that’s all that happens- just talk. We’ve all got to start to make huge changes to our wasteful lifestyles and the only way that’s going to happen is by making those changes law, worldwide.

Sign the Avaaz petition to help get the message across to those who are supposed to be doing the right thing: AVAAZ.org