Jitway
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Children in a New Zealand school have been banned from bringing cakes to share on their birthdays, due to new government healthy eating guidelines.
Pupils at Oteha Valley primary school north of Auckland have been told they are allowed to celebrate their birthdays, but the cake must stay at home, the New Zealand Herald newspaper reported.
The Ministry of Education has been on a fat-busting crusade, introducing sweeping guidelines against unhealthy food in New Zealand schools.
Oteha Valley has a large number of pupils born in September and October, and there can be up to four cakes a week in some classes, principal Megan Bowden told the Herald.
It had gotten to the point where parents thought they were required to provide a cake for their child's birthday.
The school has advised parents in a newsletter to stop sending cakes to school from the next term.
A Ministry of Education spokesman told the Herald the government guidelines only applied to food sold on the premises, and schools did not need to monitor food brought in from outside.
This is stupid as crap. Kid at that age eat sweets and lots of them. Denying them cake is just cruel. Another funny way that authorities try to take charge of our lives...lol. Get a life you people in charge and leave them kids alone. Teachers Leave Them Kids Alone....As said by Floyd.
Source HERE
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Good looking site. But if you have rom links then they will not allow you to have a link to site here. Just to let ya know that. I registered and look forward to your site growth.
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Child welfare officials following up on an abuse complaint took custody of 18 girls Friday who lived at a secretive West Texas religious retreat built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs.
A total of 52 girls, ages 6 months to 17 years, were bused away on Friday to be interviewed, but only 18 were immediately taken into state custody, said Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. No arrests had been made.
Meisner said welfare officials were looking for foster homes for the girls, most of whom have rarely been outside the insular world of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They were being housed for now at a civic center, she said.
"We're dealing with children that aren't accustomed to the outside world, so we're trying to be very sensitive to their needs," Meisner said.
Authorities had interviewed about half the girls since arriving Thursday evening at the remote compound with law enforcers, she said. Interviews were expected to continue over the weekend.
The investigation began with a call alleging physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl living there, Meisner said.
On Friday afternoon, the Department of Public Safety officials began executing a search warrant.
The warrant seeks records dealing with the birth of children to a 16-year-old and any records listing a marriage between a 50-year-old man and the girl, according to the San Angelo Standard-Times, which cited court records released late Friday in Tom Green County. Prosecutors in Tom Green, a larger county north of Eldorado, were handling the case.
An arrest warrant was issued, but the individual that public safety officials are looking for had not been located Friday evening, said spokeswoman Tela Mange. She said she could not reveal whose name was on the warrant.
"We have been working very closely with the adults at the ranch, and they have been assisting us in our search," she said.
The ranch covers roughly 1,700 acres. It is north of this two stoplight town, down a narrow paved road. Authorities blocked access to the compound's gate, keeping onlookers miles away.
Only the compound's 80-foot-tall, gleaming white temple is visible on the wind-swept desert horizon.
State officials said they did not know how many people lived at the retreat, but local officials in 2006 put the number at about 150, as members of the reclusive church moved from a community on the Arizona-Utah line.
The congregation, known as FLDS, and has been led by Jeffs since his father's death in 2002. It is one of several groups that split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake City, decades after it renounced polygamy in 1890.
In November, Jeffs was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison in Utah for being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old girl who wed her cousin in an arranged marriage in 2001.
In Arizona, Jeffs is charged as an accomplice with four counts each of incest and sexual conduct with a minor stemming from two arranged marriages between teenage girls and their older male relatives. He is jailed in Kingman, Ariz., awaiting trial.
The group's retreat, about 160 miles northwest of San Antonio, is on a former exotic game ranch. The group bought the property in 2004 for $700,000 and began an ambitious construction program anchored by the temple.
This is very sad indeed. Children brainwashed and never seeing the outside world. Come on a 16 year old married to a 50 year old. You can't say that the 16 year old truly wanted this. This gives religion a bad name. As well as the human race in general. I say the ones responsible should be crucified like in the old days.
Source HERE
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Comcast has been promising that DOCSIS 3.0 goodness would be coming to its customers this year, and the cable giant is about to make good. Starting tomorrow, Comcast's new "extreme high-speed" Internet tier will be available to subscribers in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, including Hudson, Wisconsin. Download speeds will top out at 50Mbps while uploads will be capped at 5Mbps. But all of that speed comes at a price: $149.95 per month for consumers, and $199.95 per month for business class service.
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* Certification testing for 100Mbps cable modems begins, 2008 rollout eyed
* Comcast shooting itself in the foot with traffic shaping "explanations"
Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas characterized the price as "competitive," saying that it's roughly the same as what Verizon charges for similar speeds on its FiOS network. That's more or less accurate, but there's a wide gap between the 50/5 tier and the next one down, 8/2, which costs $52.95 per month for video customers. Still, if you're willing to pay for it, the superfast Internet is there.
"This announcement marks the beginning of the evolution from broadband to wideband," said Comcast High-Speed Internet SVP Mitch Bowling. "We believe wideband will usher-in a new era of speed and Internet innovation for today’s digital consumers. Wideband is the future, and it's coming fast."
How fast? Douglas said that the company intends to have DOCSIS 3.0 and the accompanying 50Mbps tier available to 20 percent of its customers by the end of 2008. It should be available nationwide by the middle of 2010. And 50Mbps is only the beginning; Comcast plans to up the speeds to at least 100Mbps in the next couple of years. DOCSIS 3.0 is theoretically capable of 160Mbps speeds, which gives the company some headroom to increase speeds.
There's something for the rest of Comcast's Twin Cities' subscribers as well. Those on the lowest, 6Mbps/384Kbps tier will see their upload speeds jump to 1Mbps. 8Mbps Performance Plus customers will see 1Mbps upload speeds double to 2Mbps.
Since Comcast made its DOCSIS 3.0 intentions official at CES this year, there has been a lot of speculation about where the first deployment would show up. Some analysts believed that those with access to Verizon's FiOS or possibly AT&T's U-Verse networks would be first to see Comcast's "extreme high-speed" offerings. Instead, Comcast is rolling it out in the Twin Cities first, an area served by Qwest and with no superfast broadband competition. "We chose the Twin Cities because they have done an excellent job operationally on other rollouts we have done," Douglas told Ars.
When asked if Comcast would manage its DOCSIS 3.0 network any differently, Douglas reiterated the company's decision to alter its traffic management practices that are currently under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission. "We're committed to changing our network management process from what they are today by the end of the year, and we just need time to work that all out," Douglas said. "We're going to work not just with BitTorrent, but a lot of other P2P companies, the Internet Engineering Task Force, academics, and others to get together and come up with a better way to manage the network."
Geeks around the country have been salivating at the thought of 50Mbps downloads, and it's great to see such high speeds finally spreading beyond Verizon's FiOS network. The price is likely to be a deal-breaker for a lot of people—$149 is a lot to pay for broadband, even if it's blazing fast. It sounds as though Comcast is open to the possibility of dropping the price if the new offering is widely ignored. "It's too early to talk about future price drops," said Douglas. "A lot of this is going to be about consumer demand and the response that we see. We'll adjust based on consumer demand." The company may have to if it expects to get more than a small handful of subscribers to sign up for 50Mbps speeds.
Ok great speed but the price is can I say a bit steep. $150 to $199 a month. This seems a bit much for that speed. If it was say 100Mbps then maybe. I will be waiting to see who actually pays for this. No one would in their right mind.
Source HERE
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When faced with a burning desire to decipher the lyrics to a song, most of us typically turn to Google for a mishmash of ad-infested sites with inaccurate lyrics. Despite the preponderance of ads on these sites, no royalties are paid to songwriters or publishers.
MetyroLyrics, which bills itself as the most highly trafficked lyrics site on the web (and one of the 500 fastest-growing websites in general), became the first dedicated lyrics site to "go legit" Thursday, thanks to a partnership with Gracenote that cuts music publishers in on advertising revenue.
Alan Juristovski, CEO of MetroLyrics, said he has wanted to pay licensing fees for the song lyrics on the site for the past three years, but "never approached publishers directly, because [he] felt it would take much longer than if [they went] with somebody who already had a deal in place."
Juristovski added that previous solutions were unacceptable because MetroLyrics' business model is different from that of Yahoo, MTV, AOL or Disney, which have included lyrics as a side feature for a while now. Gracenote apparently relayed its partner's concerns as a standalone lyrics site to the hundreds of publishers with which it has agreements, and all parties have agreed to share advertising revenue generated by the site.
Songwriters and publishers will be compensated relative to the amount of traffic their songs receive on MetroLyrics or can request that their lyrics not be posted. (Of course, even novice Googlers can easily find those lyrics on sites that pay no royalties.)
MetroLyrics' submission engine will funnel lyrics submitted by its users to a Gracenote database where they can be cleared by publishers and cleaned up by Gracenote's staff of lyrics scribes. According to Jim Hollingsworth, SVP of sales and marketing at Gracenote, the company has at times had nearly 100 people working on its lyrics and began transcribing about four years ago.
The process has cost millions of dollars, but this landmark announcement reinforces the notion that lyrics could become a legitimate business proposition. To make things easier, some publishers have begun submitting lyrics to Gracenote before the songs are even released.
"By working with the publishers and understanding the realities of the marketplace, what's going to be acceptable to the user experience, what's going to be required from a technology standpoint and what's going to be acceptable as a business model, we've taken one of the biggest lyrics sites in the world and brought them into an authorized service," said Hollingsworth. "That is a win-win. [MetroLyrics] like it because it's a better-quality service and a lot of their back-end costs go away. The content community loves it because it's authorized and licensed, and dollars are flowing to the right people at the right times." He said Gracenote even tracks how much back-up singers are owed.
When we asked Juristovski what it felt like to be the first site to go legit, he laughed and said, "It's a good question, it's the million-dollar question. Actually, [i feel] very good, and a little nervous as well." The reason for his nerves is clear to anyone who followed Gracenote's acquisition of the CDDB database: People don't like to feel that their work is being hijacked and sold back to them, or that the lyrics they dutifully submitted were deleted.
MetroLyrics has in fact lost some lyrics during the conversion to Gracenote's system. But overall, the Gracenote partnership will increase the number of lyrics on MetroLyrics from 400,000 or so to about double that. Besides, as both Juristovski and Hollingsworth pointed out, Gracenote's lyrics will likely be more accurate than those submitted by users. The only real downside, according to Juristovski, would occur if MetroLyrics remains the only lyrics site that pays publishers. Now that Gracenote offers a way for pure lyrics sites to license songs in return for a revenue share, he says, there's no excuse for unlicensed lyrics sites to continue operation.
This is great news for all who are looking for lyrics to your favorite tunes. I use this site and gracenote all the time. Great software and site for lyrics.
Source HERE
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News Corp. has announced the long-anticipated MySpace Music, a music portal that will let users stream and download music in addition to allowing them to buy concert tickets and merchandise. Three major music labels—Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music—have stakes in the venture, allowing them to yank some money out of MySpace's thriving music community, one that has long been known as a gathering place for bands, artists, and their fans online.
The three major music labels will represent both content owners and equity holders in MySpace Music, with the last of the Big Four (EMI) apparently sitting out this round. During a conference call this morning announcing the venture, MySpace refused to talk about why EMI was not included, saying that it was up to EMI to explain. MySpace COO Amit Kapur added, however, that MySpace Music won't just be limited to major labels—the companies plan to offer ways for independent and unsigned artists to participate as well.
Downloads through MySpace Music will be DRM-free; video content and streaming music will be ad-supported. The company said that users will be able to choose from the full catalog as streaming options and will be able to share playlists with one another. MySpace also plans to offer a mobile storefront and allow users to buy ringtones, and new features will continue to be added to MySpace Music over time. MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe said that the venture will provide "new revenue models for both MySpace and the music companies," although he declined to offer further financial details.
MySpace originally announced its intentions to get into the music business almost two years ago—so why did it take so long to launch? One reason was because of Universal's 2006 copyright infringement lawsuit against MySpace. The record label accused MySpace of complicity in its users' infringement by reformatting the videos for playback once they are uploaded; MySpace called the suit "meritless." MySpace did not acknowledge the lawsuit during its announcement or conference call, but it has been widely speculated that the lawsuit has been quietly settled.
Although it can be difficult for new music stores to break into the already crowded market, MySpace Music could give giants like iTunes and Amazon MP3 a run for their money. MySpace, still the leader in social network ing despite Facebook's recent popularity explosion, claims that it has 30 million users in the "music community" and 5 million bands. Unlike other music stores, MySpace offers users the ability to actually interact with many of the bands they're interested in (particularly smaller, independent artists). Combine that with direct integration of MySpace Music with the rest of MySpace, and the company has a strong start.
One major downside, however, is that MySpace Music is currently limited to US users only. The company said that it fully intends to roll the site out internationally over time, but licensing issues make the situation "complicated."
Even though the streaming will be ad supported I still look forward to it. The more companies that get into this the better it will become in time. They are offering free non DRM music right out of the gate which is good as well. They will also be selling merchandise from artists as well from what I hear.
Source HERE
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Nice work one and all. Let's keep up the good work and get them reviews out.
Btw I just added another one BK.
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Formation Of Damnation
Testament
Release Date April 29 2008
1. For The Glory Of
2. More Than Meets The Eye
3. Evil Has Landed, The
4. Formation Of Damnation
5. Dangers Of The Faithless
6. Persecuted Won't Forget, The
7. Henchman
8. Killing Season
9. Afterlife
10. F.E.A.R.
11. Leave Me Forever
Chuck Billy: Vocals
Alex Skolnick: Lead guitar
Eric Peterson: Rhythm, lead guitar
Greg Christian: Bass
Paul Bostaph: Drums
Genre: l Thrash Metal l Speed Metal
Label : Nuclear Blast
For those who are not familar with Testament here is their Wikipedia Page Testament
Thrash legends Testament have announced upcoming tour dates for 2008. The band will be touring to support their April 29 release of “The Formation of Damnation.” The album marks Testament’s Nuclear Blast debut, and it is the first new studio album from the band since 1999’s landmark “The Gathering.”
The Formation of Damnation features the classic lineup of Chuck Billy on vocals, Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick on guitar, and Greg Christian on bass…PLUS the venerable Paul Bostaph (Slayer, Testament, Forbidden) on drums. The band called on Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Trivium, Chimaira) who has been waiting nine years to engineer and mix the forthcoming album.
Testament is one of the most underrated classic bands out there. They should be looked at as one of the pioneers of the metal scene, right up there with Metallica and Slayer.
Far and away one of the most influential bands in all of modern metal. While other veteran acts soak up much of the spotlight with sing a-longs, Testament maintains the unsurpassed musicianship, integrity and brutality that continue to create an untouchable legacy.
The album is very traditional-sounding," guitarist Eric Peterson recently told Decibel magazine. "The ideology of what we're doing is like 'The Legacy' [1987]. But the musicianship's a lot better, so it's like 'The Gathering' [1999]. As most bands record their first, second and third albums, they're developing, developing, developing… until they've got their sound. Then they get worse. As a rule, you get good when you're starving and start slipping as soon as you're eating well. We never really made it to the big time. But, then again, we didn't fail. Because we've always been on that borderline, we've never had to make the kinds of compromises that end up killing so many bands. As we see it, we're better off doing what we do best, especially since things seem to have turned full circle. Kids even have long hair again.
The 2nd track More Then Meets The Eye is explosive out of the gate. The drumline is awesome as hell.
The 3rd track The Evil Has Landed is another great tune with killer lyrics.
The 4th track The Formation Of Damnation said title track has more of a death metal style vocals but done in a Testament way will the said speed only they could do.
The 6th track Persecuted is super fast with great riffs and tempo changes like in the old Testament days.
The 7th track Killing Season has a great tempo and rhythm changes as well as fantastic lyrics.
The 9th track Afterlife is another great tune with great vocals and some really great solo riffs on guitar.
The 10th track F.E.A.R. is another great tune and one of my favorites with speed metal solos out the ass.
Here is a vid of The Evil Had Landed
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On Thursday, Oprah introduced Oregon resident Thomas Beatie to anyone who hadn't yet heard of him. Beatie, a transgender man who is legally male, is six months pregnant with his and his wife's child. La Winfrey called the expectant situation "a new definition of what diversity means for everybody."
And everybody, it seems, is interested. Over the past seven days, searches for "pregnant man" rose 26,879%. Demand for "thomas beatie" grew more than 3,000%. Interest in "oregon man pregnant" has swelled 461%.
As for the skeptics who typed "man claims he is pregnant" and "pregnant man?" into Search, we can answer: Mr. Beatie retained his female reproductive organs. Because he has a uterus, he can get pregnant and carry a baby to term.
In Buzz, some of the most popular articles from the past week focused on the bun in Beatie's oven. As we posted earlier, Boing Boing and Huffington Post were two of the first sources to surface with articles on the story. Since then, the Huffington Post scored another hit with an item revealing more photos of the fertile daddy.
LilSugar, Yahoo! News, and People.com have also polled well with Buzz readers. The People.com article, which offers an exclusive video clip from the Oprah appearance, was one of the most voted-on articles in Buzz after the show aired.
So has this childbearing event really redefined what diversity means for everybody? The tale certainly seems to have people thinking about gender issues. We've noted a surge in queries for "transgendered" and "transgender pregnancy." Lookups for "pregnant man" have flowed in from every state in the U.S. and every age group.
With the fruitful papa about to enter his third trimester, we may have three more months of this baby buzz. Enjoy it!
So this dude has both organs...hmmm. I know they exist but I really doubt he has the true means to carry a baby full term.
So what you think?
Source HERE
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Dangers Of Faithless - Testament
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Happy Birthday MissMandyKitten and your sexy self. Hope it is a good one and you get all the pampering and gifts you deserve.
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Man somebody needs to update the trivia questions to be more relevant to the site. Say more gaming and music orientated. I try to play but users have all the questions memorized and they are useless trivia. Please someone fix this crap.
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I turned on all 5 pc's and all lights inside and outside house. Plus I turned on all mixers and amps and plugged in all guitars at this said time. Just for the hell of it.
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Ugh, fake boobies.
Still I would squeeze them!
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I am for sure not quitting till i get another job for sure. They already want to promote me dammit to a purchasing agent!!
I get about an dollar raise in about two weeks.
Well see there you go they wanna promote you, so you must be doing something right. And 1 dollar raise is nothing to smurk about. Hell at most my jobs before I went and started my own business I was lucky to get 30 cents a raise...lol.
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Your young you are not suppose to like your job. Anyway never quit a job till you get a new one. That is unless you like not having money that is.
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The Rock is a big time movie star now. He doesn't have time for WWE. He gets paid more making movies and it is easier on his body. Hell I wouldn't come back.
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if you want to just join them to make one avi file use Avi Joiner. If you want to burn them to a dvd I recommend vso ConvertXDvd.
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Biggest PPV in WWE history. It was a good one that's for sure. The best was Mayweather KO’s Big Show.
WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather defeated the seven-foot, 441-pound Big Show at the Florida Citrus Bowl by virtue of a knockout at WrestleMania XXIV.
At 5-8, 159 pounds, “Money” Mayweather overcame nearly a 300-pound disadvantage, courtesy of his right hand and some dubious tactics.
After attempting to play cat-and-mouse with the Big Show for much of the match, Mayweather found himself in trouble when the “world’s largest athlete” wrapped his hands around the boxer’s neck.
But Mayweather countered with a kick to the giant’s groin and - due to the stipulation that “anything goes” - repeatedly hit the Big Show in the head with a steel chair.
The six-time champion then finished off his opponent by putting brass knuckles on his right hand and delivering one big punch to the jaw.
After the Big Show went down, the referee ruled him out at the count of 10, setting off a celebration from Mayweather and drawing loud boos from the 74,635 in attendance.
The match was one of the highlights at the event. The WWE is looking to break the wrestling pay-per view record of 1.2 million buys - set at last year’s WrestleMania.
Mayweather owns the boxing pay-per view record with 2.4 million buys for his victory over Oscar De La Hoya last May.
The Mayweather-Big Show rivalry began at “No Way Out” in February, when Big Show taunted the six-time boxing champion, and Mayweather responded by bloodying the giant and breaking his nose.
Mayweather, a long-time WWE fan and friend of wrestler Rey Mysterio, was in attendance, but couldn’t stand by and watch Big Show destroy Mysterio.
Big Show was returning to WWE after a 14-month absence that night, and his melee with Mayweather sparked headlines around the world. But it also left him embarrassed, so he challenged Mayweather to the fight, and the speedy boxer readily accepted.
I know it is all staged but still one hell of a show.
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Ticketmaster, concert promoter Live Nation Inc. is looking to enlist powerful allies. The latest to sign on: U2, which has reached a 12-year deal giving the promoter exclusive rights to produce the Irish rock band's concerts, manufacture and sell its merchandise, license its image and run its Web site and online fan club.
The situation highlights the shifting landscape of the concert industry, as various players vie to expand their influence. Live Nation, the world's largest concert promoter by revenue, has said it is parting ways with Ticketmaster, the biggest ticket seller, when their partnership ends at the end of this year. Live Nation plans to launch its own competing ticket service to sell seats to its own concerts as well as events staged by others.
[Live Nation hopes the likes of U2 can help it in its looming battle with IAC's Ticketmaster.]
Live Nation hopes the likes of U2 can help it in its looming battle with IAC's Ticketmaster.
Live Nation has also acquired several companies that run Web sites and sell merchandise for artists, and it is looking for artists to sign to record deals like the one it entered last year with Madonna -- a move pitting it against record labels. Promoters, labels and ticketing companies alike are looking for ways to expand their presence online, by acquiring companies that market and promote music on the Web.
"It's clear that the lines, or the silos, that were in place historically are breaking down," Arthur Fogel, Live Nation's chairman of global music, said in an interview. Many previously disparate parts of the music business are being consolidated, he added: "Companies such as us are best positioned to execute on that basket of rights."
The U2 arrangement, which follows an even broader 10-year deal with Madonna, would guarantee desirable inventory for the new ticketing service, set to launch at the beginning of 2009.
Unlike Live Nation's $120 million deal with Madonna, the U2 agreement -- which is to be finalized soon -- doesn't cover distribution of recorded music or music publishing. For the same rights Live Nation is getting from U2, the promoter paid Madonna about $70 million. Terms of the U2 pact weren't disclosed. U2 extended its record contract with Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group late last year, according to people familiar with the matter, and also has a long-term publishing deal with Universal.
For U2, the arrangement represents a windfall that results ultimately from Live Nation's newly embattled position and its resulting need for loyal allies. The promoter is effectively paying the band to lock in the status quo: Live Nation or its predecessors have produced and promoted every world-wide U2 tour since 1997, and a Live Nation subsidiary already manages the band's Web site and fan club.
Live Nation Chairman Michael Cohl said he considers Ticketmaster "already our competition." He added that long-term artist relationships are one of two keys to the company's ability to compete effectively with its rival; the other key, he said, is building up infrastructure like venues and subsidiaries that can execute merchandise deals.
In preparing for this kind of battle, Mr. Cohl said, "one of the things you do is start to position yourself in terms of the hardware, and you try to position yourself in terms of the content. We're trying to line up as much of both as we consider meaningful and beneficial."
Live Nation's stock closed Friday at $11.83 in 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange, sliding 10 cents and coming in at nearly half its closing price of $23.36 on Oct. 10, the day before the Madonna deal became known.
Formed in Dublin in 1976, U2 remains one of the most potent live draws in the world. Its most recent tour was the second-highest-grossing concert tour in history, earning $389.4 million at the box office, according to data from Billboard magazine. The Rolling Stones' 2005-07 "Bigger Bang" tour took in $558.3 million. Live Nation promoted both. U2's record sales haven't held up quite as well; 2004's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" wasn't among the 10 best-selling albums in the U.S. that year.
The deal may also offer ways for U2 to address problems that arose on its last tour. The band offered members of its online fan club, who paid $40 apiece to join, early access to tickets. But during the so-called fan-club presales, many would-be buyers encountered frustrating waits and a limited, expensive inventory comprising some of the worst seats in the house.
Ticketmaster had a hand in the presale fiascoes, inasmuch as its infrastructure couldn't handle the surge of ticket requests that flooded its computers. But people involved say the bigger problem was that there were simply too many members in the club to provide them all premium seats.
"We feel we've got a great Web site," U2 lead singer Bono said in a statement. "But we want to make it a lot better." U2.com is already hosted by Signatures Network, one of several merchandising companies recently acquired by Live Nation; they are being merged into one unit.
While Live Nation has been snapping up artists along with companies that provide them services, No. 2 concert promoter AEG Live has been seeking to make strategic moves of its own. Earlier this month talks stalled in a deal for Ticketmaster and Cablevision Corp. to take a 49% stake in the promoter, which is owned by Anschutz Corp.
Well it is about time they got off their asses and started doing something. As a big concert attender, usually attending 30+ shows a year I am sick and tired of Ticketmaster. They increase their fees every year and have fees now that I have never heard of. A say 38 dollar ticket last year to see Rush was almost 70 after fees. It is ridiculous.
Source HERE
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Man Shooting Hole Through Wall Kills Wife
Officials are trying to decide whether to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while trying to install a satellite TV system in the bedroom of their home.
Patsy Long, 34, of Deepwater, died after being shot in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun on Saturday. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired the shot from the inside of their home after several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.
Henry County sheriff's deputies said the woman was hit by the second of two shots fired by her husband.
Long was given CPR by neighbors and family until medics arrived, police said. She was transported by air ambulance, but was pronounced dead at the hospital just after 6 p.m.
"He was under the impression that everybody was inside the residence, that he knew where everybody was at,” said sheriff's department spokesman Maj. Robert Hills.
Hills said a person involved in such a case normally would be charged with manslaughter, but that would be up to the prosecutor.
"Once we complete a diagram of the incident, we will be submitting everything to the prosecuting attorney and let him decide if he wants to press criminal charges," Hills said.
Henry County Coroner Scott Largent declined to release details about Patsy Long's death until the sheriff's department completes its investigation.
On Tuesday morning, Henry County Prosecuting Attorney Richard M. Shields said he has yet to receive the case from the sheriff's department.
Neighbor Mark Lassince said he believed it was a tragic accident.
"Bad things happen to good people,” Lassince said.
Patsy and Ronald Long were raising their children in their rural home overlooking Truman Lake.
"I was in the shower, and the son came in and told me his mom had been shot, so we went up there to see if we could help,” Lassince said.
Patsy Long worked as a carhop at a Sonic restaurant in Warsaw, Mo.
“She was a good person, you know, took care of her family,” Lassince said.
This is very sad but a reason that stupid people kill people and not guns as everyone says. I feel for this man and his stupid ass and loss.
Source HERE
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Nice find there GC. I could do it but the steps alone would probably wear me out at my age. When I was in the military we use to do crap like that everyday. We would walk rails and ropes. We also walked a 2 mile seawall in Japan that was about 1 foot wide. If we had fell off well guess I would not be here now would I.
I would love to take a small chute up on that trail though and jump into the canyon. Now that would be worth the climb.
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Good but the best drummer is Neil Peart of Rush. No question. Seen him live 6 times and I have seen over 800 concerts in my lifespan and no one compares to Neil's godness.
ImageShack Starts Free BitTorrent Download Service
in Gossip Café [/offtopic]
Posted
ImageShack’s torrent download service is still in Beta, but it works just fine. The only thing you need to do is point ImageShack to the torrent file and press start. The download will start immediately, and once it’s finished you can download the files via http onto your computer.
Services like this are not new, but up until now I haven’t seen one that doesn’t charge money. There are some limitations though. Per month you can download a maximum of 15GB to your computer, and the storage on ImageShack’s servers is also limited to 15GB.
Jack Levin, the founder of ImageShack told TorrentFreak: “We think its going to be a great service for users, especially in the light of ISPs ratelimiting torrent traffic.There is a lot of free and legal torrents out there, that people should have easy access too
to. We have the capacity to do it, and the world needs it.”
For those people who are concerned about the anonymity of the service (or think it’s a honeypot), Levin said: “We will not look at what you download and simply provide you, an account, with bandwidth and space. What you do with it is up to you. The DMCA applies, so, if we get reports from copyright owners to take down content, we will comply”
The service comes with some great features. It supports selective downloading, which means that you can deselect files from the torrent if you don’t want to download them all. This can be quite useful if you only need one album from a complete discography for example.
ImageShack also provides some basic details about the progress of the downloads. Under the “status” link they list information about the download progress, connected seeds and leechers, share ratio and more.
The status reports are not yet working perfectly, as it keeps reporting that a torrent has stopped, while it was downloading just fine. However, the torrents I have tested were downloaded very fast, and I had no problem downloading the files from ImageShack onto my computer.
A more serious point of critique is that the torrent seems to disconnect as soon as the download has finished. This basically means that you will be sharing less than you should. I hope that ImageShack will add a sharing friendly feature in the future, and will at least continue seeding until the share ratio is 100%.
Levin told us, however, that there are no plans to include such a feature. They will offer (paid) premium accounts, but this will be only for bandwidth and storage upgrades.
Overall I must say that Imageshack’s new torrent download service looks very promising, especially for a free service. Decide for yourself, we think it’s worth a try.
This is really something. I gave it a try and it works. 15 gb a month is not much but it is something and for free you can't beat it.
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