Paul Lamere at Music Machinery: One of the ways that Music 2.0 has changed how we think about music is that there is so much interesting data available about how people are listening to music. Sites like Last.fm automatically track all sorts of interesting data that just was not available before. Forty years ago, a music label like Capitol would know how many copies the album Abbey Road sold in the U.S.,...

Our linkfest taking you to sites of varying viewpoints all over the Internet. No Matter What Happens In Iran, Will The Uprising Have An Impact Throughout The World? Simon Rosenberg believes so: Much has been written about the how events unfolding in Iran are crossing some kind of internal Iranian Rubicon. Fareed Zakaria has a new essay to this effect. But there is a strong argument to be made that the world...

The great comedian Charlie Chaplin’s stirring speech about liberty at the end of his 1940 film “The Great Dictator” is more relevant than ever given events in Iran. Watch it in full below: A PERSONAL NOTE: In this sound film, Chaplin, in a dual role, used his beloved “tramp” character to play the double of a dictator not so subtly patterned after Adolf Hitler. At the end, they...

Continuing with our coverage of the just-concluded trial against Scientology in France, this news item from Le Monde is in part made up of quotes from Scientology’s lead attorney, Patrick Maisonneuve, who sees the case as a cop-out on the part of prosecutors. While the charges against Scientology are for organized group fraud and the illegal use of pharmaceuticals, Maisonneuve says the real defendent...

I am not often moved to tears by a story in the news but this one comes pretty darn close to making even the most stoic of readers a little emotional. It seems a 10 year old girl was getting close to the end of her long battle with cancer. She had previously seen the Pixar film Monsters vs. Aliens and had enjoyed it but she was really looking forward to the new movie Up, which is out in theaters now. Unfortunately...

Here’s the full video of President Barack Obama’s address to the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association’ dinner. Can you spot any lines that will spark a new (what else?) firestorm of written and verbal chest beating and outrage? We embed, you decide: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Here’s Jib Jab’s latest just-released online animated masterpiece which portrays President Barack Obama as a Spiderman-like superhero. MUST VIEWING: Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Orangette…Cannelle et Vanille…Chez Pim…Dorie Greenspan…Becks & Posh…Steamy Kitchen..Homesick Texan…The Bitten Word…Tartelette. Hey what are these funny names? If you ever get tired of reading the political blogs…you may turn your attention to the above mentioned “appetizing” blogs included in The Times “50 of the world’s best food...

My fascination for bus rides and backpacking/trekking has remained intact. I was delighted to learn that even among the car-loving Americans, bus travel is now becoming popular. Well, this may cause a social and economic revolution in the USA!!! People are more “loath to get into their cars.” The Federal Highway Administration says Americans drove 81 billion fewer miles in the year ended January...

On long international flights, after I have exhausted my regular reading material, I sometimes resort to reading my U.S. passport. I have one of those “old” passports, the ones without the “sensitive electronics,” but also without much interesting reading material. Thus, I have by now pretty much memorized the gallant laissez-passer admonishment by our State Department: The Secretary of State of the...

So what if David Letterman apologized to Sarah Palin and if she did accept his apology? Apology, aschmology…in American politics, some people can’t turn down a chance for some good ‘ol, fashioned hate. Who could pass up chance to chance to attend a bona fide, “Fire David Letterman” rally right after he apologized and Palin accepted his apology? Apparently hundreds of people (but...

The ex-Beatles pop music sensation Sir Paul McCartney and his two daughters are avidly campaigning for meatless Mondays to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s livestock, among the most serious contributors to global warming.” The Independent reports: “The McCartneys have attracted support from across the worlds of showbusiness, science, business and the environment. The...

When the whole Letterman/Palin controversy first erupted I published a post in which I was critical of his comments which I found to be crude and insensitive, and I still think that they were. I still think Letterman is quite biased in his attitude and that he is largely intolerant of those with whom he disagrees. He shows little respect for those on the right and gives wide berth to those on the left. However,...

I love American and Australian pies. They may be world apart in flavour and ingredients, but the pie lovers just can’t do without them. And here comes a fascinating biography… Pie is the latest in a series of small, engaging and beautifully illustrated books edited by food historian Ken Albala, who wrote last year’s entertaining Pancake, writes The Age. “Janet Clarkson, a GP and lecturer...

ABC has recently started showing the new animated series The Goode Family, brought to you by the same people who brought you King Of The Hill. Personally I find it quite entertaining, it’s basically the same thing as King Of The Hill but instead of poking fun at the right it takes jabs at the left. What I find interesting in surfing the net is the reaction on the left. People who found King of The Hill...

It is interesting how John Boynton Priestley (13 Sept 1894 – 14 Aug 1984) an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster, whose works I have admired/enjoyed, has become “a voice of our times”. Writes Benedict Nightingale in The Times: “Whether Priestley was writing tragedies, comedies or a mix of both, he was scathing about hypocrisy, pomposity, callousness, selfishness, cynicism, idleness...

Auschwitz, the Gulag Archipelago, the Killing Fields of Cambodia. These are names that immediately evoke images of some of the most horrific acts of cruelty and inhumanity. In their new book, Michael and Elizabeth M. Norman take us to yet another place and another time when men and women “suffered an ordeal of unparalleled cruelty and savagery: forty-one months of starvation, dehydration, hard labor,...

With less than 24 hours to go until the digital transition takes place it seems that some people are still not ready for the big change. According to a report today on MSNBC (which follows similar reports on the other networks) as many as four million Americans are not ready for the digital switch and of those as many as one million remain somehow unaware that any sort of change is taking place. I must admit...

Is NBC’s Conan O’Brien starting to sag already in his new gig as Jay Leno’s late night replacement going up against Leno’s former NBC and late night nemesis David Letterman? And is this an unwelcome harbinger for the peacock? The L.A. Times reports some that there are some numbers that are likely to raise eyebrows — and possibly beads of sweat — at NBC: On June 1, the premiere...

Scientology ‘electometer’: Does this $7,000 device actually identify unwanted influences, emotions or painful traumas? The trial of Scientology, France continues, and here is the latest report on the proceedings from France’s Le Parisien magazine. According to the report, on Monday the former leader of Scientology in Lyon and a former member of the French National Assembly testified on how...

I am no fashion expert but I enjoyed reading The Times of London’s good natured taunt at the dress the First Lady of the USA chose to wear for her visit to the power centre in London — the Westminster Abbey. Writes Alice Olins: “Mrs O is a clever woman: pretending to have just thrown on any old holiday number whilst actually acknowledging pioneering catwalk ideas is no mean feat, she is probably...

At the Palin-and-Gingrich-blessed Republican Congressional fundraiser the other night, Jon Voight — the actor, not the periodontist — called President Obama a “false prophet”: Everything Obama has recommended has turned out to be disastrous. ***** We are becoming a weak nation. Obama really thinks that he is a soft-spoken Julius Ceaser. He thinks he’s going to conquer the world...

Now that Adam Lambert’s made it official, it’s looking like the traditional media may move on to fretting over how his drug admissions will influence our children. A child of the sixties myself, you won’t find me concerned with that. Instead, I will revel in how much America loves their Idol runner up. Here are two takes on the Kris Allen/Adam Lambert bromance. Both were written prior to Lambert’s...

In his monologue last night, David Letterman made a joke about Willow Palin, the 14 year old daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, being ‘knocked up’ during the game. Of course politics is about making jokes and politicians need to have thick skins. But what happened to families being off limits? Can you imagine if someone made a similar joke about the daughter of a Democratic politician? I remember...

Here he is, ranting at the Republican fundraising dinner last night: