The Great Leap Forward

Friday Random 10.

Now that I enough songs in the new iPod to make it worthwhile.

01. Kitchens of Distinction - Thought he had everything - Cowboys and aliens
02. Air - New star in the sky (Chanson pour solal) - Moon safari
03. Lilys - Dimes make dollars - live in Portland OR, 1999
04. The Negro Problem - Bleed - Joys & concerns
05. Friends of Sound - Manhattan - Rock-ola
06. Dressy Bessy - Ultra vivid color - Little music: Singles 1997-2002
07. Syd Straw - All things change - War and peace
08. The Dambuilders - Smooth control - Ruby red
09. The Cavedogs - Tayter country - Joyrides for shut-ins
10. ccc - Got to get you in the mood - Revolved [this is a download of a Beatles mashup I picked up a while back courtesy of largehearted boy]

AOTP 05 later today or tomorrow.

If all goes well - hopefully, there won't be any extraneous noise in this episode.

iPod = shit: Part 3, the Nano edition.

Through the music news website Coolfer, I discovered a site detailing the many problems that have come up with Apple's iPod Nano - mostly scratched and cracked screens for no damn good reason.

Here is the Coolfer article and here is the web site. [10/2 - broken link corrected, but it looks like the site will no longer be updated.]

Well I had gotten a few emails from people saying that the Nanos in their local Apple store were severely scratched. I couldn’t believe that Apple would have scratched models on display. I have never seen a scratched iBook or PowerBook, so I decided to investigate for myself. I visited the Apple Store nearest me located at the Somerset Collection in Troy, Michigan (2800 West Big Beaver Road, Suite N-112, Troy MI. 48084 http://www.apple.com/somerset). When I walked in, the Nano’s were located directly to my right, where 2 iBooks and a few printers used to be on display. I had the pleasure of speaking with Amanda, an Apple Store employee who was working the Nano table. There were several Nano’s on display. The one nearest me was a white model that looked like someone had taken a steel wool pad to the screen. You could barely see the LCD underneath through all of the scratches. When Amanda was finished speaking to a customer I started asking her questions. It went a little something like this:

Matt: This iPod looks really scratched. How did this happen?

Amanda: Well we have had thousands of people handling them.

Matt: This happened from people just touching it? They weren’t rubbing them on something or putting it in their pocket? Is it really this easy to scratch?

Amanda: Yes it can scratch easily but I don’t think that really matters.

Matt: Well most people buy an iPod for the look. You don’t think they are concerned with an iPod that scratches this easily?

Amanda: No, I mean I have an iPod for the music not how it looks, but if someone is concerned about scratching we do sell cases for them.

Matt: I have seen some sites on the internet where people complain of scratching and cracked LCD screens. Has your store had any returns for this problem?

Amanda: No it is still a new product. I don’t think we have had any returns yet.

Matt: So you sell a product that scratches easily, so that you can sell a case. That is a pretty good marketing strategy

Amanda: Well, that’s how they get you.

Matt: Interesting. May I have your card?

Amanda: Sure

Matt: By the way, I run a website that is collecting information from Nano owners about all of the problems they are having. I am going to post the information you have given to me on my website. I really hope you don’t lose your job. Have a good day.

Guns solve problems.

The sad thing is that events like this are  barely news anymore. Kinda like what's going on in Iraq. Just background noise. What's Paris up to? And did you hear about Tori?

This story was relegated to the Connecticut news wire of the Boston Globe.

NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. --A Connecticut man and two other managers of a nail polish factory were shot in the head by a fired employee who then killed himself, police said.

Victor M. Piazza walked through the front door of Verla International at about noon and fired a .38 revolver at co-owners of the Hudson Valley factory and an office manager. Co-owners Mario Maffei, 57, of Greenwich, Conn., and Robert Roth, 65, of Wallkill, N.Y. were in stable condition Monday evening. Office manager JoAnne OBrien, 48, of Greenwood Lake, N.Y. was in critical condition.

Let the horror continue: " US soldiers allegedly trading pictures of dead Iraqis & Afghanis for porn."

Courtesy of AmericaBlog, we find that Our Boys have been very, very busy. Building schools and playgrounds? Uh, no. These pictures found their way to a Dutch porn site.

(Many of the images are blacked out, but the real deal is available if you must look.)

Here is AmericaBlog's take on it:

Personally, this site sickens me. But I asked myself "why"? War is horrible, and these pictures simply show us the war we don't see on our TV screens. Is there some glorification of killing going on? Sure. And having this on a sex site only makes the glorification that much creepier. But having said, I can't imagine what it must be like for our soldiers to look at scenes like this, day in and day out, for real, up close and personal. That has got to take its toll, and I wouldn't be surprised if, for some of these guys, posting these kind of photos is their own version of therapy. Yes, it's gruesome - but unexpected?

Having said all of that, I still find this incredibly troublesome, dehumanizing, immoral, and wonder how legal all of this is as well (per the Geneva Conventions - you remember them, I believe the Bush administration called them quaint). I worry about what this kind of activity does to our culture, to our soldiers, and to our society. How it debases us slowly, gradually, without our even knowing it. I worry about these soldiers when they come back to the US after having seen all this gore. What kind of productive members of society will they be? I worry about all of us who have no clue that war is THIS gruesome. I worry about our government that think this kind of thing should be hidden from the public, and that it's a acceptable cost of going to war.

A stupid Republican governor.

As if there could be any other kind.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue cancelled school for this Monday and Tuesday throughout the state. Too bad many parents didn't like the idea:

The move received praise from President Bush on Monday, but some angry parents from DeKalb County held a teach-in at the capitol with their own children as well as the children of friends who could not get off work.

Some others said they would take their children straight to the governor's mansion. While some said they were upset that they must find day care for their children, others said education should not have been sacrificed.

"The first thing that we dismissed in order to save energy was public education and public education should be our number one priority, not our last priority. There are a lot of other things we could cancel before we cancel public education," said Randi Faigin-David.

[snip]

Perdue's decision had ripple effects. It was immediately criticized by Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate who called the governor "out of touch."

“Clearly, the Governor didn't consider the impact of this stunt on working Georgians. He must not realize how much Georgia families will have to spend for last-minute child care alternatives for their children on Monday and Tuesday. What was he thinking?” said the statement from Cox.

Some parents said it's a lot of trouble for a hurricane that didn't turn out to be as bad as predicted - especially for parents of public school children.

[Originally found on dKos]

You're not gonna believe this one.

Mike "you're doing a heck of a job" Brown has been rehired by FEMA as a consultant.

CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate it's response following Hurricane Katrina.

In a just world, Mr. Brown would be cleaning toilets at Burger King. Why do Republicans have no shame?

Cindy Sheehan got arrested (but she's OK).

For demonstrating in front of the White House without a permit. Here is her dKos diary:

After we were refused a meeting with the Disconnected One, we went over to right in front of our house...the White House (behind the gate of course) and we sat down and refused to move until George came out and talked to us. We actually had a good time singing old church songs and old protest songs while we waited. I tied a picture of Casey on the White House fence and apparently, that is against the law, too.

After three warnings to get up and move off of the sidewalk in front of our house, we were arrested. It is so ironic to me that the person who resides in our White House swears to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. The person who is the (p)resident of the White House now has no concept of the Constitution. He was appointed by the Supreme Court for his first term, invaded and continues to occupy a sovereign country without a declaration of war from the Congress, and violated several treaties to actually invade, Iraq too. Not to mention the condoned torture that pervades the military prisons these days. These are all violations of the Constitution. The Patriot Act and denying us our rights to peaceably assemble are serious breaches of the Bill of Rights. George is so concerned about Iraq developing a Constitution and he ignores and shreds our own Constitution.

I'll say it again - George W. Bush is a big fucking girl.

All Over The Place 04.

[update 9.28.05 - just discovered that Audacity inserted 5 seconds of buzz into the Rick Springfield song. Piece a shit software. Sad part is nobody noticed. Do you guys download AOTP and just let it sit there? I may redo that section if I can find the original recording. - Rob]

[update 2 - 02.13.06 - a couple of weeks ago, I was able to fix that Rick Springfield problem. AOTP 04 is now error-free. And still available! - Rob]

The show gets longer and longer. Welcome to AOTP 04. Special guest star is the website Little Hits (link below) - I spent 3 hrs downloading everything they had. I am indeed an obsessive man. I recommend that you visit LH ASAP.

AOTP 04 - have at it. (73 min 22 sec)

Musical guests:

Rick Springfield
Echo and the Bunnymen
Soul Coughing
The Smithereens
Trembling Blue Stars
Erasure
Stereolab
Magnetic Fields
Suddenly, Tammy!
Died Pretty
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Big Dipper
Rabbits Wedding
The Wolfhounds
David Bowie

Special guest websites:

Little Hits
spinART Records
Live365: All Over The Place

How to:

To subscribe through iTunes (or Feedburner):

If you are using iTunes 4.9 or above you can simply choose “Subscribe to Podcast…” from the Advanced menu and enter this URL.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheGreatLeapForward

This will enable iTunes to automatically find and download new episodes of this podcast as they become available.

You can also subscribe through the link on the left-hand sidebar.

"Show us on the map where the bad hurricane touched you."

From Crooks and Liars - fun with hurricanes (no idea if this is real or not, but still).

(A little later: Apparently, it's real.)