Give Me A ...Tiger!

Conditions: Hot and Blustery.


Iran Just Wants To Talk.

It seems to me, a humble observer, that the more the U.S rattles it's saber and rants about how dangerous Iran is, the more Iran tries to calmly open international talks and explain itself. It's probably just an altered perspective, what with Iraq and all, but there's an image problem the U.S is definitely suffering from.

Iran is ready to help the US stabilise Iraq if Washington presents a timetable for a withdrawal of its troops, Tehran’s top security official said on Sunday.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, which answers to Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, rejected Washington’s accusations that Tehran is providing weapons to Iraqi militias, insisting the trouble with Iraq was that the US administration was pursuing a “dead-end strategy”.

Mr Larijani maintained it was time world powers realised Iran’s nuclear progress could not be reversed and that they should enter into negotiations with Tehran without preconditions.
[...]

Mr Larijani suggested that both the US Democratic party and the British were getting it right in Iraq. The Democrats’ push for a timetable for withdrawal “seems to be logical”, he said, and the British were “more intelligent than the Americans”, having made the “necessary adjustments” and retreated to Basra airport.

“If they [the Americans] have a clear definition of a timetable we’ll help them materialise it,” Mr Larijani said. “If the US is persisting with its mistakes, it shouldn’t ask for help from us.”

- FT.com

Whether Bush likes it or not (...not), Iran is a major player, and they are going to have to be co-operated with. And Iran knows this, they know they're sitting in a seat of power right now, with Iraq a mess, and America over-committed in it's great Oil Gamble. Iran wants to help, but you've got to let them help on their terms. Either keep sinking into the quagmire, or start realising that the way out is to stop treating the dangling jungle vines as vicious snakes. So to speak.



Thompson's An Idiot.

Fred Thompson, the actor turned Republican Presidential Candidate, made some statements this week about Saddam Hussein, WMDs, and the war in Iraq. I'll leave it to you to judge the man based on what he says.

Newton, Ia. — Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said Monday he was certain former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a point of contention in the 41/2years since the war began.

“We can’t forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had had WMD. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program,” Thompson told an audience of about 60 at a Newton cafe.
[...]

Thompson made the original statement while explaining why he felt the war was justified, despite the Bush administration’s chief justification for the invasion turning out to not be verifiable.

“In my estimation, his intent never did change,” Thompson said. “And by today, he clearly would have had that (weapons program) rejuvenated.”

- Desmoines Register.com

Wearing Their Keyboards A Little Too Tightly?

You know, back in the day, it wasn't that difficult to be a (lowercase) god. You had to look the part, of course. Some paint, a crown and a cape would go far. A little bit of huckster-ism came in handy, some street-magician stuff, knowing when an eclipse would occur, or the shift of the seasons, things like that. Some luck and some gullibility could see you through. It's a bit different now. Now it's all about creating universes and saving babies from burning buildings and whatnot. Unfortunately buildings catch on fire every day, and the universe seems to be taking care of itself, so where do our modern, hip, internet-savvy kids look for god nowadays? Where they look for everything else.

Google is the closest thing to an Omniscient (all-knowing) entity in existence, which can be scientifically verified. She indexes over 9.5 billion WebPages, which is more than any other search engine on the web today. Not only is Google the closest known entity to being Omniscient, but She also sorts through this vast amount of knowledge using Her patented PageRank technology, organizing said data and making it easily accessible to us mere mortals.

- The Church Of Google.org

Online Music For All?

Two stories from the music industry mark a changing point in the business, an industry that until now has been constrained by the need for the producers to control the content, so users can't just give copies to their friends at the click of a button. Story A:

WASHINGTON, DC--(MARKET WIRE)--Oct 4, 2007 -- Sending shockwaves through the industry and the crowd of the Digital Music Conference in Los Angeles yesterday, Microsoft became the latest and largest music retailer to offer DRM-free digital music. Yesterday's announcement comes less than two weeks after Amazon.com launched its own DRM-free digital music store. The Microsoft Music Store will offer consumers more than one million DRM-free songs.


"The industry standard has shifted in the past six months and the tide has turned in favor of consumers," Maura Corbett, a spokesperson for the Digital Freedom Campaign said. "The number of digital music retailers offering DRM-free music will soon outnumber those that do not, and consumers will soon live in a world where they can listen to legally purchased music when, how, and where they want. We congratulate Microsoft for joining the growing number of retailers and labels that have realized the best way to increase the sales of digital music, is to listen to their customers."

- Yahoo.com

And, as a companion, Radiohead's next album ('In Rainbows'), to be released this month, has a somewhat revolutionary pricing structure.

In Rainbows will be released as a digital download available only via the band's web site, Radiohead.com. There's no label or distribution partner to cut into the band's profits — but then there may not be any profits. Drop In Rainbows' 15 songs into the online checkout basket and a question mark pops up where the price would normally be. Click it, and the prompt "It's Up To You" appears. Click again and it refreshes with the words "It's Really Up To You" — and really, it is. It's the first major album whose price is determined by what individual consumers want to pay for it. And it's perfectly acceptable to pay nothing at all.

Radiohead's contract with EMI/Capitol expired after its last record, Hail to the Thief, was released in 2003; shortly before the band started writing new songs, singer Thom Yorke told TIME, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'F___ you' to this decaying business model." On Sunday night, guitarist Jonny Greenwood took to Radiohead's Dead Air Space blog and nonchalantly announced, "Hello everyone. Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days. We've called it In Rainbows. Love from us all."

- TIME.com

So, is this the end for RadioHead, and for the various labels associating with Amazon and Microsoft? Or is this the end of companies trying to control who can and can't play the music they've purchased? Honestly, I can't imagine just giving software that I've written away, to be used by anyone. How are people supposed to make a living in that business model? Perhaps the music industry can survive due to it's size, but I sincerely believe this is a move that will hurt them financially.



Car Update!

Okay, so we failed the first attempt at getting a warrant (which was a bit galling since I followed an even older car, which passed with flying colours), now we have to purchase new parts to replace worn ones, and schedule someone to do the heavy lifting. Sigh. Could be worse, I suppose. At least I can still get parts.



Human LCD.

Time was when you could sit in a grandstand and, apart from the occasional Mexican Wave, just sit there and watch the field. Well, a video here of some spectators in South Korea watching a soccer game really changes the dynamic. Watch the video at the link, it's literally more effort being put in than the players on the field.



- LiveLeak.com




Film Review: Rush Hour 3.

There's nothing wrong with the buddy-cop movie. Two disparate characters who team up to take on a tough case and a cadre of bad guys has been a well-regarded staple of Hollywood for God knows how many years. The teaming of stunt man extraordinare Jackie Chan and Chris 'The Mouth' Tucker is yet another smart iteration of this category of film. And despite being directed by Brett Ratner, Rush Hour's 1 and 2 were reasonably good films, exciting and funny. Rush Hour 3, though, is where the wheels have come off the bus.

They're just really not trying any more. The plot is a hackneyed bit of fluff. The characters are stereotyped to soap opera levels, and the actors all seem to be going through the motions, just racking up another film, with the only point being that this time they're in Paris. That's really it. I have to say, the level of cliche at every point of the story are very surprising, as if the script was pulled out of a drawer somewhere, and everyone figured it was good enough. I realise Jackie's not as young or as fast as he was, and he still puts together a pretty good sequence, but he's got nothing to work with here. And you can almost see it in his performance. It comes across as Smokey and the Bandit 2. Everyone's having fun, but the picture suffers for it.

I know it's odd to want some quality from Rush Hour 3, but the previous films managed to dig out some drama from among the cheese. This time around they're not really looking. It's still fun to an extent, but the paint has peeled badly. Two doors out of five.


So what does Jackie think?
Jackie Tells It Like It Is.





Peace out, y'all.