Giimmiie Some Of Dat

Giimmiie a miin to iintrouce my self ; my name iis M.I.C nd iim from Daygo (San Diego) ; iim new to thiis blog game but iimma start doiinq iit now cuz @ieatthepussy and @Skate4hxxkers kiinda made me wanna make some blogs cuz der blogs are funny AF nd yea soo dats wut iimma do . Now tha only thiinq different iis that iimma ask YOU guys for some funny random ass questions!! ; iim most liikely gon get alot but iima chose tha funniest ones nd answer dem for yew ; iimma do a blog everyday so yew guys could have a good laugh nd shiiiiiittttt!!!! Aiight send me your Random/Funny Questions to my myspace at myspace.com/mic1904 or on twitter at Twitter.com/MICTransFormers or Twitter.com/DemTransFormers follow us:) or jus leave a comment on here ; ok let’s get iit poppiin

[Via http://mictransformers.wordpress.com]

Imeem Fined to the Tune of $1.77M -- More Than Its Sale Price

A U.S. district court judge has fined Imeem, the music site, $1.77 million after it failed to appear in court to respond to a copyright infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Oct. 21 by The Orchard Enterprises, an independent music distributor, had been the final straw for the troubled company before it sold “certain assets” to MySpace for less than $1 million and was promptly shut down.

The Orchard had demanded Imeem hand over its profits from its labels’ music or pay $150,000 per instance of copyright infringement, saying a previous arrangement with the Imeem-purchased Snocap only allowed the site to distribute samples, not full streamed tracks.

Judge Denny Chin, in a default judgment issued Dec. 17, ordered that Imeem pay $1.77 million to the Orchard; discontinue streaming, copying and reproducing the Orchard’s music; and hand over any materials associated with the music.

A MySpace spokesperson today said that the company was not involved in the suit — so it may be that MySpace was able to structure the Imeem deal to acquire whatever assets of the startup were not being sued.

MySpace today promises would-be Imeem visitors on a landing page, “We are working hard to migrate all of your playlists over to MySpace Music. We’ll email you about that as soon as we have more details.” We’re not sure what Imeem assets were retained after the MySpace deal; the acquisition had only kept on four Imeem executives, and just in consulting roles.

Imeem had raised somewhere around $35 million from investors including Morgenthaler Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Warner Music, which had previously sued it as well.

Imeem complaint

Imeem default judgment

[Via http://gigaom.com]

LAWLZ

 

I’m at my girls house and you know we’re being girls drinking some fat tires gossiping, shit talking, hating, masturbating hahaha ok but really we came across this chicks myspace and i had to post this ish with the quickness.. like really like omg no way like i’m so mature and not stupid you guys! WOW

About me:

Hi my name is RAELENE LABRAY. I LOVE ATTENTION AND BEING IN THE SPOTLIGHT..I am a model! I started out as a carshow model and worked my way up and still am working more and more up. I have been modeling for a little longer than half a yr. I am on the cover of impala magazine! I was featured in high speed magazine. And i am about to do more things! To tell you about myself. For everyone wondering my race…I am half mexican a quarter native american and a quarter caucasion. If you cant already tell by looking at me and my page i am a barbiegirl to the fullest extent. I am such a city girl. I STAND OUT AND I AM ORIGINAL. I DONT CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK I AM ME. I dont have just one style i am different everyday. I like to pull off diff looks. I love being sexy and turning heads! I LOVE having tan skin and dark hair. I live in my platform heels [gotta be 6 inches and at least have a 2 inch platform]. I love being creative in my style and makeup. I get down with the brushes. I taught myself how to do makeup it just comes natural [Right now i do freelance work im focused on modeling] I do all my own makeup in all my shoots! MAKEUP and MODELING are my PASSIONS in life. I cant explain how i feel wen i am doing either of them. I have a lot of goals i want to and will accomplish in life. My main goal is to make it in playboy. I am a very caring giving happy outgoing giggly sensitive nice trustworthy person. I hate when people try to bring me down I just keep in mind haters are motivators. I never value the opinion of those i dont respect. I dont like when people think that just becuase i am young i am dumb. I am actually very smart and mature. I graduated high school when i was 16! I have been through crazy things.

Who I’d like to meet: HUGH HEFNER and the playmates and mario lopez my future husband   I’m sure you and mario lopez will make a great couple. HATE HATE HATE   Chappelle’s Show   The Playa Hater’s Ball www.comedycentral.com Buy Chappelle’s Show DVDs Black Comedy True Hollywood Story

[Via http://satisfiedenough.wordpress.com]

Oliver Grimball

Hiphop ei varsinaisesti ole minun genreni, mutta tykästyin kovasti Oliver Grimballiin, jonka MySpace-sivun ystäväni esitteli minulle. Tämä espanjalainen tekee hidastempoista hiphopia varsin jännillä soundeilla. Kannattaa käydä kuuntelemassa! Grimballista voi lukea lisää hänestä kirjoitetussa artikkelissa ja haastattelussa täällä.

Missile girl, missile girl…

-

Hiphop is really not my genre, but I was thrilled when my friend introduced me to Oliver Grimball’s MySpace. This Spanish guy makes downtempo hiphop with cool sounds. I strongly recommend! You can read more about Grimball on an article and interview here.

Missile girl, missile girl…

http://www.myspace.com/olivergrimballmagic

[Via http://jaavuortenkielta.wordpress.com]

MUDVAYNE: New Video For 'SCREAM WITH ME' Posted

MUDVAYNE

Source: Yahoo Music, Myspace.com/Mudvayne, VEVO
Watch the new video below and listen to a full stream of the new self-titled album HERE.

New video: ‘SCREAM WITH ME’
From the new album: “Mudvayne” (out now)

——-
——-

[Via http://dietrichthrall.wordpress.com]

Nanayaon Dupa's Profile

Nanayaon Dupa’s Summary Current Company: Synnex-Concentrix
Work Area: Technology & Computers
Total Work Experience: 5 Nanayaon Dupa’s Experience Company NA NA NA – NA NA Industry: NA State: NA Description: NA Nanayaon Dupa’s Education College School To know more about Nanayaon Dupa http://ezdia.com/profile/nanayaondupa

[Via http://computerrepairusa.wordpress.com]

New Ford Sync Turns your Vehicle into a Hot Spot on Wheels

If you have driven a vehicle equipped with the Ford Sync Technology you know that it effortlessly syncs your phones, mp3 players and other gadgets via blutooth or usb input. Now how about this for a little bonus: Internet.

That’s right, internet wherever you may go… just as long as you have a 3g compatible wifi card with any monthly fees that might go with it. The Sync, version 2.0, will have internet compatibility integrated into it’s USB ports. So on top of all of the cool things the Sync already does, like transmitting your phone calls though vehicles speakers, you can surf the waves of the digital age.

What’s the coolest thing about all this? Ford isn’t charging  anything to use the added feature, it’s a genuinely helpful and beneficial feature that Ford would prefer you have on top of what the SYNC can already offer you. But before you take your portable cafe for a marathon of Pandora and Facebook, just remember that you must have the 3g service equipped on your laptop or mobile device to connect to the Sync’s router.

[Via http://rundeautochat.com]

ALERT! Zenaida Myspace page logged into today

Justice4All alerted me to some unusual activity. The “zenaida” Myspace page has been breeched. It was logged into today. That means a real live Zenaida exists and lives in Miami, law enforcement is scoping it out, or Casey gave her password to someone. I logged into my account and noticed “she” was online. I sent an IM (instant message) and the person immediately logged out.

Zenaida Myspace page

The friends she now has are undoubtedly people who submitted their names prior to today, like J4A. She can explain her angle. I will add new info as it comes in.

The signup date remains the same: 6/16/2008

x

[Via http://marinadedave.wordpress.com]

Cellhut Is Now On Twitter And FaceBook

Cellhut is going forward with Twitter.Com, you can now find us on Twitter also. We are now updating our self on Twitter as well so that our customers can get updates about our latest deals and offerings. Whenever we will update our website with latest products and deals you will get the knowledge about it from twitter also, not only twitter you can get the information about us on facebook and other social networking sites also.

So find the social networking sites’ button on our site’ homepage and join us to get the latest information about Cellhut deals on your twitter account. If you have any idea to give us then just find us on twitter @cellhut and give your idea to us.

For Follow On Twitter Click Here

For Become Fan On FaceBook Click Here

For Be Friend On MySpace Click Here

[Via http://cellhut.wordpress.com]

British Airways cabin crew strike illegal, court rules.

Welcome decision.But what if they go on strike?What can the court do,?utmost it will advise the Government to take action.The Government ,depending on vote bank politics, may decide to overlook the recommendation.Ultimately the passengers will suffer.Why this sham of a court injunction?
These court jokes are order of the day in India.
A strike by British Airways cabin crew planned for Christmas has been declared illegal in a High Court ruling.
The court agreed with BA that the cabin crew’s union, Unite, had not correctly balloted its members on the strike action.
The injunction means that the 12-day strike cannot now go ahead.
Unite called it “a disgraceful day for democracy” and vowed to hold a fresh ballot of cabin crew if the dispute with BA was not resolved.
British Airways said the decision would be welcomed by “hundreds of thousands of families in the UK and around the world”.
“There was never any need for a strike and we hope that Unite will take this opportunity to reflect before deciding its next steps,” a statement from the company said.
“In recent days, we believe Unite has formed a better understanding of our position and of the ways in which we could move forward.
“It has also become very clear that our customers do not believe that old-style trade union militancy is relevant to our efforts to move British Airways back toward profitability.”
Unite’s joint general secretaries, Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley said the dispute was “far from settled”.
“While we have never wanted this dispute, it is a disgraceful day for democracy when a court can overrule such an overwhelming decision by employees taken in a secret ballot,” they said.
“The fact remains that this dispute is not settled.
“BA must accept that there can be no resolution except through negotiation, failing which there will inevitably be a further ballot for industrial action.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8418805.stm

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Why Gravity, a New Startup Can't Defy Gravity

Earlier this evening I watched a video and read an article about Gravity, a Los Angeles-based start-up co-founded by three former MySpace executives including MySpace’s onetime chief operating officer, Amit Kapur. The other two co-founders are Steve Pearman (chief product officer) and Jim Benedetto (chief technology officer).

The company, which launched a beta version of this service, is essentially trying to re-invent the concept of conversations (aka message boards and eGroups) using a brand new approach and then data mine these conversations for interest analytics and essentially sell advertising or market against these interest pockets. Gravity describes itself as a “conversation engine.”

And while I have not played around with the service, and looking at it from a very surface level, one can see that the service has its work cut out. There are some questions about the potential and viability of this start-up.

To be clear, I have no comments on their technology — they seem to have some kind of a secret sauce which they haven’t really talked about. No point commenting about their user experience — they are still hoarding their beta invite. My questions are simply confined to obvious challenges they face.

Now, no one disagrees with the logic behind the company: message boards and eGroups simply suck and it is hard to monetize conversations trapped inside them. If one could solve this quandary, they could somehow make money. Gravity claims to have done this and has topped it off with some spiffy looking graphical analytical tools. And that’s the end of the good news.

Typically I get very excited about companies (and start-ups) that are doing interesting things with large data sets, but in this case I am skeptical. When I read the post, what I saw was a lot of spin garnished with a lot of fancy words. And there are many of them, for example, Interest Graph. “Hate when a company coins a new term (Interest Graph) 2 describe existing concept – ah marketing” is how someone noted on Twitter. Gravity’s spiel is sentiment analysis and perhaps that is why it was able to get a rumored $10 million, reportedly from the likes of Redpoint Ventures, an erstwhile investor in MySpace.

Now if you buy into their spin, you still have to keep in mind that mining unstructured data for near real-time sentiment analysis — essentially what they are claiming to do — is not an easy task. Let’s just assume that they do get the technology part right — why not Benedetto is totally legit and well known in the big data circles — the question is how are they going to get this service deployed and get massive traction.

Gravity executives tell Mike Arrington that the company is going to “allow people to create conversation around topics” and “the service will be available on the Gravity website as well as via widgets and an API.” In other words they are going to try and build a brand new consumer brand around conversations.

At the same, the company has to scale up its operations to a level where it has large amount of data sets to mine and reveal enough “interest” spots for them to become useful data that can be used for diverse purposes such as advertising. It is a arduous task. Ask Facebook, which is still struggling to build an “engagement” and “sentiment” based advertising engine despite having massive data sets including personal information. Mining data is a complex computing problem that needs big computing resources, but that is a topic for another day.

From the way I see it, building a rocket ship in one’s basement is perhaps easier. The conversations have moved away from message boards & groups to more realtime mediums such as Twitter and Facebook. It would be difficult for them to get to change people’s behavior.

Sooner or later the company will send me a beta invite, but up until then I am relegating them to a pile labeled “hype” for you will hear a lot about them. But as philosopher (and humorist) Dave Barry once said, “Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects.”

Photo by SolidState via Flickr

[Via http://gigaom.com]

Drug Addled Rocker Mom Courtney Love Losses Custody Of Kurt Cobain's Daughter

Francis Bean and Courtney Love...Splitsville

  TMZ.com and numerous media outlets are reporting that  Courtney Love no longer has legal control of her daughter Francis Bean Cobain, whose father is the late grunge rock legend Kurt Cobain.

  The judge has appointed a temporary legal guardian to watch out for the 17-year-old Francis Bean. The guardians appointed are Kurt Cobain’s mom and his sister, so even though Kurt Cobain is no longer with us, he is reaching out to help his daughter , from beyond the grave.

 Legal guardianship is appointed in cases traditionally, when it is discovered that the parent or parents are no longer capable of competently raising and supervising the minor child for various reasons that may cause mental instability.

The guardianship is for Francis Bean, and her financial affairs.

Party-mom Courtney Love loses custody of her daughter...time to party

 It has long been rumored that Courtney Love may have had a hand in the death of Kurt Cobain, in order to hijack his wealth, but these are unsubstantiated rumors.

 Many fans still blame his death on Courtney…who knows. 

Courtney Love has had a long and public battle with narcotics, and she has had stints in rehabilitation,and has been arrested on drug charges. Calling Courtney Love a loser at this point would be not that helpful in this case, but her actions have definitely been reprehensible as a parent.

I hope she can receive the medical and mental assistance she so desperately needs.

 I wish Francis Bean a healthy and fruitful future, now that she is in safe hands.

 Take the lesson’s of the life of your mom and dad, as a cautionary tale of what can happen to two pretty cool people, when they become addicted to heroin, and other dangerous narcotics. 

Your life probably has not been all that cool so far,hopefully it will get brighter for you now.

 Good luck in the future…

 

 Sources…

 http://www.tmz.com/2009/12/14/courtney-love-daughter-Frances-Bean-Cobain-guardianship-competency/

 http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1628249/20091214/love_courtney.jhtml

 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ie4OhTAzVQSOlaMdahTpJ-vZ40hAD9CJBLL

[Via http://jerrybrice.wordpress.com]

lupe fiasco...setting "the record" straight

via: Lu’space

Hi guys…Lupe here…

There seems to be a lot…A LOT…of misconception and misguided info floating around the net…

so for the sake of clarity and so that everyone (HOPEFULLY) will be on the same page let me reaffirm and debunk some things and just turn down the general noise that is surrounding Lupe Fiasco…thats me…

My Third Album is Titled “LASERS” not “WE ARE LASERS” or “LUPE.N.D.”…

MY NEXT ALBUM IS NOT TITLED “LUPE.N.D.”…

“LASERS” is NOT my last and final album…

“LASERS” does NOT drop in 2009…

“LASERS” does NOT HAVE A RELEASE DATE YET…

“SOLAR MIDNITE” is NOT a single off of “LASERS”…Nor was it intended to be apart of “LASERS” project…

“SOLAR MIDNITE” was exclusively done at the request of the Twilight: New Moon Team to be apart of their film, motion picture soundtrack and as a vehicle to promote the film… NOT TO PROMOTE “LASERS”…

I produced “SOLAR MIDNITE”

I’m not SELLING OUT by doing a song for NEW MOON…

People thought I “SOLD OUT” when I did “Kick, Push”…

I LOVE “SOLAR MIDNITE”…

“SOLAR MIDNITE” is NOT a HIP-HOP RECORD…

I’ve done ROCK or ROCK-like records on all of my previous albums…i.e. ” The Instrumental” “Hello/Goodbye”…

I HAVE A PUNK BAND CALLED JAPANESE CARTOON WHICH I SING IN AND PRODUCE FOR…

I DO NOT GO BY “LUPE FIASCO” WHEN I DO SONGS WITH JAPANESE CARTOON…NOR PERCIVAL FATS!!!…I USE MY REAL NAME…

Enemy Of The State was NOT, NOT, NOT meant to be an album…so stop (to the ungrateful among you) TREATING it like one…

Enemy Of The State was short for a reason…I DONT LIKE TO WASTE SONGS…AND IT SHOULDN’T TAKE YOU THAT LONG TO PROVE YOUR NICE IF YOUR “REALLY” NICE…

ENEMY OF THE STATE WAS WATERED DOWN ON PURPOSE…BECAUSE ITS NOT AN ALBUM…

MOST OF ENEMY OF THE STATE WAS DONE IN ONE DAY…

IF YOU DONT HEAR IT FROM ME OR DJ BUSY IT MAY NOT BE THE COMPLETE TRUTH!!!

Its more noise out there and stupid rumor but I really don’t have the stamina…

FNF UP…

peace, and just to set the record straight, love.

[Via http://gravityjones.wordpress.com]

10 Things I Should Be Doing Right Now

Is it just me or is it far easier to procrastinate during the holiday season? Here are 10 things I should be doing right now instead of surfing:

1. Updating my MySpace page. (I blame this on having little idea what I should change or update._

2. Deciding what’s for dinner.

3. Cooking (burning) dinner.

4. Laundry.

5. Editing another Play Fling chapter. (Only four left!)

6. Mailing the last 10 Christmas cards.

7. Shopping for powdered sugar. (Elves are not going to leave it and those cookies do require it!)

8. Blogging about something else, something terribly interesting and insightful.

9. Packing suitcases.

10. Updating Goodreads with the awesome Julia Quinn novel I just read.

:}Amber Scott

[Via http://amberscottproject.wordpress.com]

When I had braces...

When all of my friends in junior high got braces, I wanted them. I wanted to be that trendy girl with the metal across her teeth for accessories like EVERYONE else.

When I actually had to get braces at age 17, junior year of high school, I hated them. I didn’t fully get them off until my senior year – the prime time when everyone just looked good and had straight teeth and I was still the awkward high schooler with braces.

Now that their off, I can finally appreciate what they have done for me. I’m past that awkward mouth phase and the rubber bands snapping mid-speak.

When I Had Braces… is a new time waster site featuring the vintagey photos of our metal-in-the-mouth wearing days.

When I had braces I was blissfully unaware of my appearance.

Eden

When I had braces… I thought I was unique for taking my pictures in the rear view mirror for my MySpace default.

- Katie

[Via http://itskatiewin.wordpress.com]

MySpace.com Law Enforcement Investigators Guide, 23 Jun 2006

The PDF file presents the 16-paged “Law Enforcement Investigators Guide” to MySpace. The document was produced by MySpace and is given out to law enforcement representatives on request.

The guide details the information available to investigators on request, including IP address logs and private user communications, the conditions under which this information can be disclosed, as well as information about retention times.

DOWNLOAD/VIEW FULL FILE FROM fastest (Sweden), slow (US),

[Via http://bbvm.wordpress.com]

Prom Night in Black and White, the baby between Four Year Strong and Forever the Sickest Kids.

Prom Night in Black and White is a pop/punk band from the small city, Saskatoon, in that rectangular spot on your map, Saskatchewan. This weird little place is also my hometown, I love seeing good tunes come out of that area! Their bio describes them best, “Odds are we are the weird kids you go to high school with. Music is our lives, and we will never give up on our dreams no matter what this world throws at us.” The band consists of Joel on vocals and guitars, Evan on vocals and guitars, bassist Justin and Drummer Brady

Tonight I’m chatting with Joel Cosset the guitarist/vocalist from Prom Night in Black and White. (Done Via E-mail)

T: So how long has the band been together?

J: We have been a band for 2 years now

T: How did you guys form and decide on the style you play?

J: Well we never really decided on a style, we all met at a local show with all metal bands playing, and randomly started talking about how every band tries to sound the same. We were like “It would be nice to see a band that just plays what comes natural.” and then we decided to jam one day and everything clicked.

T: How would you describe the band?

J: We are just as catchy as the pop music you hear on the radio, except we put every inch of ourselves into each song. Think of a baby between four year strong and forever the sickest kids. We sit somewhere in the middle of them.

T: The name “Prom Night in Black and White”, it states that it means the transition from being a kid to being an adult. Do you feel that is portrayed in your music as well?

J: Well we never really purposely try to make our music reflect that, but we write our lyrics based on events happening in our lives, and we are all changing from being a kid to an adult. so I think it just naturally reflects that transition.

T: You guys have released a 4 song EP titled “This Sinking Ship”. Where was it recorded at?

J: We recorded at a local studio called Kickstart Recordings

T: Can you tell us a bit about the recording process and the writing process?

J: Well writing for us has always been easy, it flows naturally. Recording on the other hand can be very time consuming. Sometimes I’ll go into the studio and be like “This chorus has the best line I’ve ever written in it!” and then take after take of the same line, you kinda get sick of it. It’s all worth it once the song is done though.

T: Are there any plans to release any other albums in the near future?

J: We are actually working on recording our second EP at the moment, it doesn’t have a name yet but you can expect it before summer 2010.

T: I saw on your MySpace that you were planning a tour, what areas where you guys thinking of hitting up?

J: Well we are currently booking a tour for Cross-Canada this summer. That means our hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, all the way to British Columbia, and then all the way to Quebec. We are also looking at touring in upper New-York. But being minors at the moment, we have to look into all the details that come with crossing the border.

T: Have you guys ever been on tour? I know you’ve played out of town in Tisdale “The Land of Rape and Honey”  [Laughs]

J: This summer we had an awesome tour around Saskatchewan and Alberta. We even played Vans’ Warped Tour in Calgary which was awesome! As for the rape and honey, we love playing in lil’ old Tisdale! I think its called the land of rape and honey because the kids there really know how to have a good time.

T: Anything else to throw out there, or shout outs?

J: We just wanna say thanks to everyone who’s ever believed in our band. The amount of support we have received from people has been incredible. Even the people who take 5 minutes out of their day to listen to our music, it means the world to us.

[Via http://visionthenet.wordpress.com]

With Yahoo and MySpace rolling over, Facebook wins the social network war

By Sebastian Anthony, Download squad

First up, Yahoo rescinds almost its entire social network presence in favor of Facebook Connect. And now, the rumors that MySpace would drop their social focus and aim towards a network based on content and entertainment seem to be playing out: MySpace are linking up with Facebook Connect. There’s a lot of juicy info to be had over on the Inside Facebook article, but it seems like MySpace and Facebook could become very tightly entwined, with Facebook managing your profile and MySpace becoming the content provider — the quizzes, the games, the music, the movie trailers.

It would appear that, except for Google and their Friend Connect, social networks are bowing out from their competition with Facebook. With their recently-announced usage figures and their ever-climbing membership that recently hit 350 million, that’s probably a smart move. This was a war that never really heated up, and ultimately had a very predictable outcome. Facebook rule supreme. Microsoft own a sizable share in Facebook, incidentally.

[Via http://iamrajendra.wordpress.com]

A Tribute to a Pal

this was drawn back in the days i was C..Crazy!

well, i cannot say i am satisfied with this drawing, the format, tehnique, idea, content, all bleak!  but i guess I am a person with a Weird character of regeting so damned much.  like, anything done in the past, i look at it and its all dissappointing to myself,  and I had a big mouth all the time of my life so i was strangely overconfident , which meant i bragged so damn much about one work that i do and them another, meh, juss thinkin’ ’bout the old dayz make me twitch at night with heavy hatred toward my old self.

trakback link to the site, but this wallpage could go down easily soon.

ill also try to color this, once i retrieve the original or the faxed version

[Via http://ookgod.wordpress.com]

Do not drug the toddlers.

I have a grand son of just 70 days.My daughter, who reads a bit of medical books and browses internet expects miraculous disciplined behavior from him.She expects him to feed at fixed time play himself and sleep, wake up and start the process all over.She would like him to drink her milk to the full, not a little less.If he does not pass motion for more than six hours;if he cries; she immediately consults a paediatrician on phone or cosults friends of her age group and immediately starts giving him medicines not withstanding my protests.
Children unto the age of six act instinctively;they do not deliberate;if they are hungry they eat,feel sleepy, they sleep.They have, fortunately, not become slaves to time and habits as yet.
best is to leave child be.Let it grow naturally.Let Nature and the body run according to its rhythm.Now read on.here children are given drugs for behavioral disorder. What behavior?They do not know what it is.Do not give fancy names and drug the child.
Story:
CHILDREN diagnosed with ADHD could be weaned off medication as new Government guidelines warn doctors not to use drugs for first option treatment.

The Federal Government draft guidelines released yesterday will substantially change the way doctors treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, especially in preschool-aged children.

One of the biggest medical turn-abouts is the change from guidelines in 1997, which recommended medication was a suitable treatment for children diagnosed with the behavioural and learning problem.

Now it is advised: ”Medication should not be used as first-line treatment for ADHD in preschool-aged children.

”For children under six years of age, a stage when child development is rapid, it is essential to distinguish ADHD symptoms from normal developmental variation in impulsivity and attention.”

Doctors have been warned to weigh-up the benefits of drugs, which are recommended for some patients and risk factors, such as ”growth impacts”.

More than 350,000 children and adolescents have ADHD and in the past financial year taxpayers have forked out more than $21 million on drugs, including medication for the growing number of adults who have the illness.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon, who is trying to rein in an explosion of medical costs, has been frustrated at the lack of clear evidence on how to treat the condition.

”I am pleased that we can finally provide this more up-to-date information on ways to identify and care for those in our community who may be suffering from ADHD,” she said.

But in a twist that could change the guidelines again soon, a US researcher referenced in the updated Australian guidelines is at the centre of a US conflict of interest inquiry after it was alleged he had failed to declare his full relationship with a drug company.

The National Health and Medical Research Council with Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) updated the guidelines. The document is almost 300 pages.

RACP guidelines working group chairman David Forbes said there had been ‘’substantial” changes in advice in prescribing medication and expected some children may be taken off drugs.

”Not all kids should get medication,” Professor Forbes said.

There had not been enough research about whether children’s behaviour could be controlled through exercise and diet, he said.

Restricting some foods for some children may work if done in consultation with nutritionists, he added.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26422996-952,00.html

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

In Pakistan, end of amnesty could spark fresh political turmoil

Read both the stories.We are in for another Afghanistan.
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – The imminent expiration of a controversial decree that provides amnesty against criminal charges to top Pakistani politicians could further weaken the country’s embattled civilian government, according to analysts here.

The National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) was passed by former President Pervez Musharraf in 2007 as part of a political deal, brokered with the assistance of the United States, that allowed the late Benazir Bhutto back into the country to contest 2008 elections without having to face charges related to money-laundering and kickbacks on government contracts. More than 8,000 individuals, mainly bureaucrats, are currently protected by the decree.

The NRO was ostensibly aimed at putting an end to politically motivated corruption cases that had led to bitter fighting between the two major parties during the 1990s, Pakistan’s so-called “decade of democracy.” But a sustained political campaign led by the main opposition PML-N party and backed by the right-wing media has meant that the NRO “has now become a byword for corruption,” according to Cyril Almeida, assistant editor of Dawn, a leading English daily.

KEY OFFICIALS COULD BE LIABLE TO PROSECUTION

If the Supreme Court allows the NRO’s expiration on Saturday and rules that old cases are automatically reactivated, key officials could be liable to prosecution.

Among the officials who could be affected are Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar, and senior diplomats, including Hussain Haqqani, the ambassador to the United States; and Wajid Shamsul Hassan, the ambassador to Britain.

Presidential immunity means no cases may be brought against President Zardari, even after the NRO’s expiration. The president is now “politically vulnerable, but constitutionally impregnable,” says Mr.Almeida.

Almeida points out that “no civilian government in Pakistan lasts long after the drumroll of corruption begins,” though it is unclear what form the government’s downfall could take.

For the time being, at least, the resignation of the president, as demanded by some of his foes, seems unlikely, as does a parliamentary vote of no confidence. The possibility of a military takeover is also low.

The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) last month attempted to formalize the decree through parliament, but withdrew it amid fears that its coalition allies would not back the bill.

Ayaz Sadiq, a member of the parliamentary accounts committee for the opposition PML-N, told the Monitor: “All these cases should have been decided by the court, not by the stroke of pen of a dictator who was supported by the West on all issues.” He added that those ministers who are named as beneficiaries of the NRO should resign to clear their names.

Zardari himself should be “held accountable” for alleged misdeeds, he says.

The government, on the other hand, denies the NRO was ever controversial.

“It is understood by the people of Pakistan as a way to bring the leadership back into Pakistan,” says Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokesperson for Zardari. She instead blames “antidemocratic elements” for waging a propaganda campaign aimed undermining the moral authority of Zardari, a thinly-veiled reference to Pakistan’s shadowy intelligence agencies and elements within the Army.

That point of view is partly backed by Almeida, who says that, while levels of corruption haven’t spiked recently, the attention paid to it by the opposition and the media has.

US WATCHING CLOSELY

The United States will be keeping a watchful eye on proceedings. Nawaz Sharif, leader of the PML-N and the country’s most popular politician, according to international polling, is widely seen as the man most likely to emerge as a possible future leader.

His traditional ties to the religious right, as well as his party’s relatively unenthusiastic response in the US-led war on terrorism (he was, for instance, slow to back Pakistan’s recent military offensive in Swat), may signal “a more independent and less subservient stance vis-á-vis the United States,” according to Rifaat Hussain, a defense analyst at the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1127/p06s10-wosc.html
(news one day ago)
******
AP Top News at 5:22 a.m. EST9To day-29/11/09)
ISLAMABAD — A powerful opposition leader has called on President Asif Ali Zardari to relinquish wide-ranging powers immediately. Sunday’s statement by Shahbaz Sharif comes a day after the expiration of an amnesty protecting Zardari and several allies from graft prosecution. Zardari enjoys general immunity from prosecution as president, but the Supreme Court could challenge that.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZefmRQD9C94MU03

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Heart Diseases- IV-Stroke - ischaemic-BBC.

Stroke caused by blood clots or other obstructions – ischaemic stroke – accounts for 80% of all cases.
A blockage is called a cerebral thrombus or cerebral embolism and can be caused by atherosclerosis – hardening of the arteries.
In both types of stroke – those caused by blood clots and those caused by burst blood vessels – blood supply to the brain is interrupted, depriving the cells of oxygen and other nutrients. The cells are then damaged or die.
Mini-strokes, or transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs), may be a warning sign of an imminent full-blown stroke.
Embolic
In an embolic stroke, a blood clot – or embolus – forms somewhere in the body, usually the heart, and travels through the bloodstream to the brain.
Once in the brain, the clot eventually travels to a blood vessel small enough to block its passage. The clot lodges there, blocking the blood vessel and causing a stroke.
Thrombotic
In the other form of blood-clot stroke, blood flow is impaired because of a blockage to one or more of the arteries supplying blood to the brain – a thrombus.
The process leading to this blockage is known as thrombosis and strokes caused in this way are called thrombotic strokes.
In atrial fibrillation, where the two upper chambers of the heart – the atria – quiver instead of beating properly, blood is not properly pumped out of the heart. As a result it may form clots and if the clot becomes lodged in an artery in the brain, a stroke may result.
The American Heart Association says arond 15% of strokes are caused in this way.
Blood clot strokes can also happen as the result of unhealthy blood vessels clogged with a build up of fatty deposits and cholesterol.
The body regards these build ups as multiple, tiny and repeated injuries to the blood vessel wall and reacts as it would to bleeding from a wound, by forming clots.
The symptoms of stroke:
Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, particularly if it is on one side of the body
Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding. Sudden difficulty with walking, dizziness, loss of balance or co-ordination
Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
Sudden severe headache with no known cause
Anyone identifying themselves or friends or family as having a stroke should call emergency services, not a GP, as any delay reduces the chance of a full recovery.
The speed of treatment after a stroke is extremely important as the longer the brain cells are deprived of oxygen, the more damage they will suffer.
Treatment
Clot-busting drugs can be used in the first minutes or hours – up to a maximum of three hours – after an ischaemic stroke to dissolve the clot.
After this time aspirin, which is not as powerful, may be given.
Survival rates are better for patients in specialist stroke units, because of the expert nature of staff and early use of rehabilitation, but such units are not always available.
Rehabilitation programmes will be given to most stroke patients to help them recover lost mobility and speech.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/g-i/764070.stm

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Our Lives Are Filled With Worthless Crap That's Destroying the Earth: Here's What You Can Do

If made durable and repairable, where is the profit?
Story:
The way to lower the quantity of energy required to make and distribute short-lived consumer goods is to make them durable, repairable and upgradeable.
As the middle-class daughter of a refugee mother and a Depression-era father, I grew up straddling two worlds. My parents could afford much more than they were willing to buy. Most things that broke could be and were repaired. My German grandmother’s aphorisms lingered in the air: “Waste not, want not,” “A penny saved is a penny earned,” “A stitch in time saves nine.”

By the time my own children were born, America was flooded with cheap and cheaply made goods. So while my parents continued working at the sturdy antique desks they inherited from my grandparents and sleeping beneath a hand-crocheted bedspread, my children and their friends became the first and last owners of a seemingly endless supply of plastic toys and particle-board furniture.

I was part of the transitional generation. Building blocks were still made of wood. Comforters were still filled with down. I recall the meticulously machined pencil sharpeners with “made in West Germany” stamped on their sides that lasted until I lost them. Even the cheap items—the ones “made in Japan”—tended to hold up pretty well.

Now nearly everything is produced in China and made to be discarded. According to a 2008 report by the Economic Policy Institute, the United States imported $320 billion in Chinese goods in 2007. In that year alone, this country imported $26.3 billion in apparel and accessories, $108.5 billion in computers and electronic products, and $15.3 billion in furniture and fixtures from China.

The manufacture, distribution and disposal of an ever-growing mountain of short-lived consumer goods has taken an enormous environmental toll. Annie Leonard’s website “The Story of Stuff,” which has garnered more than 7 million views in less than two years, has helped spread awareness of that cost far beyond the usual environmentalist circles.

We can’t, however, only blame the quantity and quality of Chinese goods for the environmental and other consequences of this transoceanic factory-to-waste stream. For that we can blame the two horsemen of the modern consumer apocalypse: functional obsolescence and fashion obsolescence.

Functional, or planned obsolescence is the purposeful decision by designers and manufacturers to ensure things don’t last, so that consumers must buy new ones. Fashion obsolescence is the related decision to offer new features and aesthetic changes to entice consumers to discard their old items in favor of updated and supposedly better ones.

Ironically, product obsolescence was once seen as the remedy for what ailed our country. Lizabeth Cohen, chair of the History Department at Harvard University and author of A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (Vintage, 2003), traces the origins of mass consumption to the period immediately before and after World War II, when a demand-driven economy was seen as the key to our nation’s recovery and prosperity.

“In the 1940s and ’50s, there was a much closer connection between consumer demand and factories and jobs,” Cohen says. “That was a completed circle more than it is today. When people were buying things, they were buying things that were made by American workers.”

The only way to guarantee continued demand was to ensure that people would keep replacing the things they owned. The literature on planned obsolescence makes frequent reference to statements by industry analysts and strategists of that era. “Our enormously productive economy … demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption,” retailing analyst Victor Lebow said in 1948. “We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever increasing rate.”

This applied to male as well as female consumers, and to styling lines on cars as well as hemlines on skirts. Allied Stores Corporation’s Chairman B. Earl Puckett, speaking to fashion industry leaders in 1950, said, “Basic utility cannot be the foundation of a prosperous apparel industry. We must accelerate obsolescence.” And General Motors’ design chief Harley Earl said in 1955, “The creation of a desire on the part of millions of car buyers each year to trade in last year’s car on a new one is highly important to the automobile industry.”

Business people and politicians weren’t the only ones pushing this idea, Cohen says. “Labor really bought into this package. Purchasing power was the answer to how people would be employed and have a better life. Consumers would fuel the powers of factories that would provide jobs that would put money in peoples’ pockets.”

http://www.alternet.org/story/144204/our_lives_are_filled_with_worthless_crap_that’s_destroying_the_earth:_here’s_what_you_can_do

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Nobu makes music with a little help from his friends!

▼ブログランキングに参加しています。下記のバナーにクリックして、応援していただけると嬉しいです。▼

ありがとう！Thanks for your support!
===

Nobu, a Mayflower student, entrepreneur, and sanshin player, talks about the importance of music in his life!

Hello everyone! My name’s Nobu.

I’m friends with Ted, one of Mayflower’s directors. He and I studied entrepreneurship at business school together. I decided to join Mayflower because I would like to support Ted’s taking a step forward, towards his dream. I also sympathize with Mayflower’s educational policy, one important aspect of which challenges me to study entrepreneurship through English.

Quite simply, I must improve my English, because I am involved in a business which requires me to use English. Through my studies here at Mayflower, I am gradually becoming more interested in English culture. Right now, I cannot say what I feel freely in English, but this is changing slowly.

OK, now let’s get down to business!

Have you seen Michael Jackson’s movie “THIS IS IT”? Well, I did! And I was knocked out by Michael’s performance! So today, I would like to share my fascination of music with you through my own performance. I know what you’re thinking…I may not look like the King of Pop, or even a musician, but actually, I like playing the piano and writing songs, and I always want to share my compositions with others.

Although there are good services such as MySpace, which give amateurs an opportunity to introduce their songs to the world, I thought it was too late in my life for me to make a band, and that I couldn’t make music by myself.

Well, last year, I was asked out of the blue by an old friend from high school to play together (piano and guitar) at a music event in Kanda which took place on a shopping street. Now I’ve already done that kind of performance three times since the end of last year. Amazing!

Through those musical performances, I gradually began to enjoy having a relationship with people through music.

Of course, my first performance was not quite as sweet as I pictured it would be. I couldn’t keep the tempo, and I forgot to play some parts. In fact, I was really disappointed at my performance. And that’s not all, the atmosphere of audience looked a little too heavy, because I failed to capture their attention with my floundering.

But did I give up? Not on your life! Let me tell you what I did to overcome my problem.

I realized that confidence and relaxation are a must! So I arranged a cover song in a way that was easier than the original, and I composed a simple song of my own using a similar chord progression on the “A section”, and the main phrases. Then, I learned it by heart.

Well, because of my efforts, I believe I had some kind of breakthrough at the second performance, because the organizer told me and my friend that our performance had improved, and some audience even clapped their hands during the performance. That felt great!

At that time, I understood that I feel more relaxed if somebody helps me or supports me. So I invited 10 friends of mine to the third performance, which turned out to be around half of the audience!

Through my performances, I realized that getting some feedback about my compositions from my friends is a really satisfying feeling. They said lots of great, supportive things — that I could make fresh pop songs like YUZU, and that my main phrases were catchy — so because of those comments, I slowly started to have confidence in my skill as a composer.

On top of that, doing more performances meant having more opportunities to have relationship swith people through music. For example, other performers invited us to perform together with them in the future, and my friend invited me to join an event that he was holding featuring sansin performances.

Don’t you think its exciting when what you love creates bigger chances to work with others? In this case, taking a step forward means boldly knocking on a door that you have never opened before.

I encourage all of you to try doing what you want, and try say what you like! Life is all about introducing new worlds, and new experiences to each other! And I think that’s exactly what we are doing together here at Mayflower.

Thank you for your attention!

[After the Q&A session, Nobu gave the Mayflower audience a fun performance on his sanshin! Thanks, Nobu.]

[Via http://mayflowerstudentblog.wordpress.com]

Redes sociales e identidad digital. Taller Asociacionismo 2.0, 3a sesión

La web 2.0, la web social, ha establecido una nueva forma de comunicarnos entre nosotros. Estar presentes en MySpace es imprescindible para cualquier grupo musical. Tuenti arrasa en España, mientras Facebook crece en todo el mundo. Twitter utiliza sólo 140 caracteres, un SMS, para comunicarse. Y Xing se especializa en seleccionar y conectar sólo a profesionales.

La tercera de las cuatro sesiones del Taller Asociacionismo 2.0 está dedicada a las Redes Sociales y la Identidad Digital.

Windows Messenger está substituyendo a teléfono para todo tipo de conversaciones. Skype ha introducido la videoconferencia en las comunicaciones domésticas. Tuenti causa furor y ya es la página con más tráfico de toda España, por delante de Google. Cada día que pasa, Facebook se hace más y más grande en todo el mundo. Twitter utiliza sólo 140 caracteres para transmitir la actualidad en todo momento. MySpace continúa siendo la red preferida para los amantes de la música. Y tuCAMON aspira a ser la mayor biblioteca de contenidos en la red.

Ponencia invitada

Identidad digital, una perspectiva desde el marketing y la comunicación. A cargo de Rafael Guerra, director de la empresa de marketing, comunicación y diseño Símbolo – Ingenio Creativo.

Article publicat al CAMON.

[Via http://vicentejuan.wordpress.com]

Digsby... IM + EMail + Social Network

Al giorno d’oggi abbiamo mille mila account di posta… di instant messaging e chi più chi meno siamo sui vari LinkedIn e Facebook… un gran casino tenere tutto sott’occhio…

Io tra MSN, ICQ, Skype, MSN, YahooMessenger dovrei tenere aperti 5 programmi… per non parlare della mail personale, quella del blog, LinkedIn e Facebook… ‘na faticaccia no?

Ed ecco che l’altro giorno “scopro” Digsby… mi “controlla” le varie mail e funge da IM multiprotocollo per i vari programmi di IM (eccetto Skype… almeno per ora)…

…poi controlla LinkedIn e facebook e un po’ di altre cose che non necessariamente utilizzo…

Comodissimo per i vari popup di avviso dei messaggi ma anche dei cambi di stato di FB o di nuovo foto inserite dai contatti…

La feature mooooolto comoda è che una volta installato su un PC e creato l’account su Digsby (a cui associare tutti gli altri) se per esempio sono in giro con il portatile ed installo Digsby lì… TAAAAAC automaticamente prende tutte le impostazioni che avevo già impostato sul PC di casa… in questo modo uno non si deve nemmeno più preoccupare di ricordarsi 10k password… ne basta una… uella di Digsby!

Personalmente mi son trovato a disabilitare un po’ di funzioni che risultavano “leggermente” invasive durante l’utilizzo normale: ridotto all’osso i popup e gli avvisi sonori in pratica] ma devo dire che sono rimasto piacevolmente impressionato dal programmino… Bhé provatelo anche voi no?

LINK

• Digsby – Sito Ufficiale

• Disgby – The Community

[Via http://gurpsandthetux.wordpress.com]

Enjoy Life.

1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.
Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s,we’d grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Mouse study points to treatment for Down syndrome-Reuters.

A ray of hope for people with Children afflicted with Downs Syndrome.
Story:
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Increasing the levels of a message-carrying chemical in the brain may help prevent some of the memory deficits in Down syndrome that hinder learning and make it hard for the brain to develop normally, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

They said mice with a rodent version of Down syndrome that were injected with drugs to increase levels of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine — which nerve cells use to communicate — showed improvements in their thinking ability.

The finding points to a new way of trying to improve some of the deficits seen in Down syndrome, which affects 5,000 newborns in the United States each year.

“If you intervene early enough, you will be able to help kids with Down syndrome to collect and modulate information,” said Dr Ahmad Salehi of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, whose study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

“Theoretically, that could lead to an improvement in cognitive functions in these kids,” Salehi, who worked on the study while at Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a statement.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE5AI0EJ20091119?feedType=nl&feedName=ushealth1100

You know it's a recession when...

#uknowitsarecession

…You get pulled over and ask for a warrant instead of ticket

…when people ask for a free glass of water and slices of lemon instead of lemonade

…Rappers be on Twitter beggin niggas to buy their album

…You get a burger with no cheese cuz it’s extra

…People start stealing from the dollar shop

…You go to the gas station and put a dollar on 10

…When your BROKE! That’s it, I’m going to sleep

 

Add to: Facebook | Twitter

All's Quiet talks of the bands beginning, the new album "LIKE VULTURES" and cement stop signs!

Tonight I sit down with Vocalist, Mack from All’s Quiet.

[Done Via E-mail]

Tyler: What inspired the start of the band and how long have you been together?
Mack: Basically, we started as just four 14 year old kids that just wanted to play in a band. We were all just super into punk music and Nirvana, and we just wanted to play music like that. We have been a band now for about 5 years, its taken us a long time to shape our band into what it is now [laughs]

T: Is there a meaning behind the band name? How did you guys come up with it?

M: [Laughs] I hate when I get this question. This a terrible answer, but basically when I was 15, I was on sparknotes.com reading a summary for some book I had to read for school, and while I was on the site, I decided to go through book titles that could be cool band names. I stumbled across All Quiet on the Western Front. We all thought it had a cool ring to it, like it just seemed to fit for a southern rock infused hardcore band. So we used that name, except we didn’t want to copy it exactly so we made it All’s Quiet on the Western Front. About 4 months ago we made shortened it to just All’s Quiet because that is what everyone called us anyways [laughs]

T: How has the band changed or improved since its beginnings?

M: I can’t even begin to describe how much we have improved since our inception. We were terrible when we started, but then this band wasn’t serious. Since then we have just worked extremely hard to always continue writing better songs, and always making our live performance that much more interesting than the last, so every new thing we do, tops the last thing we did. That is what keeps us constantly improving, if any readers want a good laugh check out: http://www.purevolume.com/theflamingjohnnyproject those are the first recordings that we ever did. This just proves how much better we have gotten since then [laughs again].

T: There’s a Twitter contest going on with you guys right now, if I’m correct. How’s that work?

M: Well the twitter contest ended this past Saturday, but basically anyone who re tweeted a message for us (RT @allsquietmusic LIKE VULTURES EP on iTunes NOV. 17th. New Song “Men of the Forest” and Preorder on www.myspace.com/allsquiet) would be entered in for a chance to win a free copy of our brand new EP “Like Vultures”. We are announcing the winners this week, so everyone keep their eyes peeled!!!

T: The new album “LIKE VULTURES” drops in 9 days. What are your thoughts on the album? How does it differ to any previous releases? What are fans in store for?

M: We are so stoked on this album, we put countless months into a very carefully constructed writing process. These are by the best songs we have written to date, and we are so happy on how they came out. These songs differ quite a bit from our past releases because for once they are actually written with a structure in mind as opposed to our way of writing songs which was just throw a part in if it sounds cool [laughs]. They are also much more aggressive musically and darker lyrically than anything we have put out. Fans are in store for a brand new All’s Quiet, something they didn’t see coming, but will love.

T: How was the album recorded, with whom? Was this self-produced or was their a producer in the studio?

M: We recorded the album at Spider Studios in Cleveland, Ohio (Misery Signals, Walls of Jericho, Drowning Pool, Etc.) with producer Tony Gammalo. We spent each day doing one set of instruments, and then a full day on all vocals. We did majority of the producing for this album, but Tony has a lot of input.

T: How did the writing process pan out and how much time was taken to record it?

M: We spent about 3 months writing and perfecting all the songs for the album. Basically our guitarists get together and throw ideas out until they have a basic song structure, and once that is done we all get together and finalize everything until we think the song is perfect. That usually takes a very long time [laughs]. We recorded the EP in only 4 days due to our horrible financial situation. We saved up for months just to get those 4 days, but the songs came out great, so it really worked out.

T: Are there any plans for a tour in support of the release?

M: Well as of now, we leave in January with our friends from Ohio in The Gunshow, and we have some special secret tour plans for February and March with some friends from down south which we are incredibly stoked about. Hopefully things will just keep getting better as the year continues.

T: How long have you guys been touring for?

M: Well being that we all just graduated from High School last June, we haven’t been touring full time for very long. Only a few months, but we have been touring on weekends and school breaks for the last 2 years. So we have a good amount of experience under our belts for as young as we are.

T: What’s the most fucked up thing to ever happen on the road?

M: On our winter icebreaker tour December of 2008, we were touring with our friends in a band called With Wings of Lead and we were driving to Stevens Point Wisconsin for one of our shows. We had been driving behind them all night. It was about 4 in the morning, cold as fuck outside, and pouring rain, and on the freeway when all of the sudden we smelled something burning. We thought at first it was our van and started getting really freaked out, but then With Wings of Lead’s trailer tire just exploded in front of us and started sparking all over. They pulled over and we pulled next to them to figure out what was going on. They didn’t have a spare, so we decided to drive a few of them up to the nearest Walmart to go buy one being that it was the only store open that early in the morning. Once we arrived in the parking lot of the store we were driving to go park when all of a sudden our guitarist at the time ran into a cemented stop sign and wrapped our brand new $2000.00 trailer with all of our gear around it. Basically think of when a car is driving 90 mph down and road then hits a tree that’s what it looked like. We had to spend the rest of the day prying it off the sign in the freezing pouring rain and trying to find a place that could potentially fix our trailer for cheap. No place could do it, so instead of canceling tour we put all of our equipment in WWoL’s trailer, pawned our trailer at a truck shop for $400.00 even though it was worth 2 grand, and we just continued in our van. We lost over 600 dollars that tour and it put us in a really bad place for long time. It was fucked [laughs]

T: How do you guys keep sane while living out of a van with five sweaty dudes?

M: [Laughs] that is probably one of the hardest things about being in a touring band. Basically everyone just does things to keep themselves occupied and happy. When you spend all this time in a van, feeling disgusting, sweaty, and sleep deprived, pretty much anything can get on your nerves, so we find it best to just try to keep to ourselves as much as possible during the day and like text, sleep, or listen to our ipods and stuff. Then after shows we just find places to get crazy and party to blow off steam. It seems to work out.

Also, our van has no stereo system and some of the windows don’t close, so that drives us crazy sometimes too [laughs]

T: That’s it for me dudes thanks again.

M: No problem, thanks for taking the time to interview us!!

<33Mack and All’s Quiet 

Welcome to Swaggtalk100

This little post is long over due, surely by now many of you are wondering “what exactlly” is Swaggtalk100 well its simple its a blog site about all things SWAGG if it appeals to the masses, has flare, style, basically looks good to those who crave taste then this is for you. Let me introduce the SWAGG TEAM: Swaggtalk100, Webmaster35, Webmistress27 and Webmini18 we will be updating this site regurally, adding domain names so please bare with us while we’re under construction in the following months or weeks (give or take a few) we will continue to add current events, videos, news clips, photos about all things swagg…from the US to the UK and all in between be sure to check us out as much as you also spread the word by adding out link to your social pages such as Myspace, Facebook, Blackplanet and whatever else you would like to.

To the right you will find a list of links and categories for just about anything anybody might need, for home,work, school, clothes, neighborhood, shoes and so much much more. There as well will be several updates in the coming time to make this blog site appealing to everybody who see’s it. Basically what we here at SWAGGTALK100 are trying to do is make a “one stop” source for all things in media, fashion, da hood and beyond so stay tuned, check back frequently hopefully you`ve all found something you like so far, if not you will eventually from writings, to poetry to fashion events so dont worry you wont get bored with us at SWAGGTALK100 anytime soon.

feel free to add out link to any of your social sites and/or websites- thanks in advance

1000 amigos en MySpace

Acabamos de alcanzar 1000 amigos en nuestra cuenta oficial de MiEspacioSecreto en MySpace. Quizás algunos pensarán que tampoco es para tanto, pero para nosotros es importante ya que es la tercera cuenta que creamos (las dos anteriores fueron canceladas por MySpace) y nuestros amigos han vuelto a agregarnos una vez más. Así que a todos ellos: gracias por vuestra paciencia .

Además nos encanta tener como amigos en MySpace a algunos de nuestros habitantes VIPs como Silvia Rubi, La China Patino, HangedDoll, Barbara Vamp, Rebecca Saray y a habitantes populares como Le Morbo, Lady Akasha, Gorende y una larga lista más.

Si no conoces aún nuestra cuenta de MySpace, descúbrela aquí y si aún no somos amigos, ¿a qué esperas para agregarnos?

MySpace Scam

There is a MySpace Scam email going around that asks you to update your account information. Do not click on any of the links in the email!

Dear MySpace user!

Please be informed that you are required to update your MySpace account.

Please update your MySpace account by clicking here:

If you’re unable to click on the link above, copy and paste it into your browser’s address bar.

————————-

At MySpace we care about your privacy. This email is never sent unsolicited.

If you think you’ve received this email in error, or if you have any questions or concerns regarding your privacy, please contact us at:

privacy@myspace.com

MySpace, Inc.
8391 Beverly Blvd. #349
Los Angeles, CA 90048
USA

Pen pals take on a new perspective

As a junior high student, I had pen pals all around the world. Of the ones that remain from that group of two dozen, two are in the U.S. and two are in Canada. I think how different this may have been with a social network that we could access rather than waiting for letters to arrive in the mail, though I have to admit, that was part of the charm of having a pen pal. Two of these don’t have a computer, so we still send letters through the mail.

As the fastest growing online media, social networking or “member communities” have seen a growth rate of twice any other online sector at 5.4% globally, according to Nielsen’s “Global Faces and Networked Places” report issued earlier this year. While one would expect this to come from youth logging on, they are nudged out by the 35-49 age group at 24.1% with 18-34-year-olds a close second at 22.8%, and almost one-third of the Facebook audience is now 50 and older. Maserati in Italy now has a fan page on Facebook. At this point, users access social media primarily through a desktop or laptop computer.

Unlike other media and the World Wide Web as a whole, this is not an open book for advertisers. User-generated content communities experience tremendous push back to the idea of paid messages on their network. MySpace, which has greater global reach and an emphasis on entertainment, along with a greater percentage of youth users, has been able to gain acceptance of advertisers, with most of them coming from the entertainment industry such as Virgin and media companies such as Vodafone.

It is important to recognize that outside of the U.S., there are many domestic networks and in the countries of China and Japan, the top three social network sites are domestic. According to Mielsen, in Brazil, Orkut leads, with Facebook barely a blip on the user radar. It will be interesting to watch how this evolves in a landscape of global connections.

 

It will also be interesting as the youth on these sites mature, to see what happens with regard to diplomatic relations among countries. Each generation has said that the future of the world lies in the hands of the next generation—regardless of implications for marketing, perhaps the greatest impact social networks will have is on how we understand each other from a cultural perspective.

NOTE:  To access the Nielsen report, you can register on Nielsen.com. The registration is free.

Médias Sociaux - 6 grandes tendances en 2010

En 2009 nous avons vue une croissance exponentielle des réseaux sociaux. Selon Nielsen Online aux États Unis, Twitter à lui seul a grandi de 1,382% entre février 2008 et 2009, inscrivant un peu plus de 7 millions de visiteurs uniques (VU) en février 2009. Au Canada il est passé grandi de 1,370% pour atteindre 3.2 millions en septembre selon comScore, 1,300% en un an au Canada Français pour atteindre 368 000. Pendant ces périodes, Facebook a poursuivi sa croissance (+14% au Canada pour atteindre 19,2 millions ou la 6e plus importante propriété Web au pays, +47% au Canada français pour atteindre 3,7 millions, plus importante de MySpace -19% au Canada pour atteindre 3,4 millions, -26% au Canada français pour atteindre 762 000).

Donc qu’auront l’aire les réseaux et médias sociaux en 2010? En 2010, les médias sociaux seront plus populaire (en tant que catégorie), plus mobile et plus exclusifs. Voici quelques tendances à suivre pour les prochains 12 à 24 mois:

1. Les réseaux sociaux auront l’aire moins social
Avec les groupes, les listes et les réseaux nichés qui deviennent de plus en plus populaires, certains pourraient devenir un peu plus exclusifs. C’est pas tout le monde qui peut se retrouver sur chacune de mes nouvelles listes Twitter. Avec le bruit sur chaque réseau qui augmente constamment, il deviendra de plus en plus commun de “masquer” les grands usagers qui monopolisent les conversations. Motre flux de nouvelles Facebook (les mise à jours de votre réseau) va devenir de plus en plus commun. C’est peut-être pas moins social, mais vous ne pourrez participer à tous les filons de discussions – on ne cherchera peut-être plus de retrouver toutes nos connaissances, mais de diminuer le bruit en nous concentrant sur ceux qui comptent le plus pour nous.

2. Les entreprises veulent grandir davantage
Peu de compagnies ont entrepris des initiatives de taille sur les réseaux sociaux à part quelques petits projets ici et là. Twelpforce de Best Buy met à contribution des centaines d’employés en soutien technique à la clientèle via Twitter. Le système interne suit et connait les employés qui participent. C’est un indicateur de services qui verront le jour sous peu dans diverses entreprises dans un effort de couper les coûts ET de mieux servir sa clientèle comme ELLE souhaite être servi.
3. Les affaires sociales deviennent un jeux sérieux
Des nouveaux réseaux tels Foursquare rendent l’activité de réseautage local et mobile. Celui-ci se présente quasiment comme un jeu et excite l’esprit compétitif de l’usager. Les participant sont récompensé selon leur taux de participation. Le système vous tiens aussi au courant du niveau de vos amis afin de vous encourager à participer d’avantage. Les entreprises qui cherche à fidéliser leur “fans” via les réseaux sociaux, là où ils sont libre de quitter à leur guise, dans un effort de contrôle vont probablement développer de tels programmes de fidélisation ou récompenses pour garder les gens “pour le jeux”, pour les cadeaux, pour le prestige du classement. Il faudra faire attention de ne pas garder les gens juste pour garder les gens, mais garder ceux qui ont une valeur pour l’entreprise – éviter de retomber dans les comportement du siècle précédent…

4. Votre compagnie aura une politique sur les médias sociaux (elle sera peut-être même appliqué)
Si votre entreprise n’a pas de politique concernant les médias sociaux en place avec des règles claires sur l’engagement des employés au nom de l’entreprise, à travers multiples réseaux, cela ne tardera pas – ce sera pour l’an prochain sans faute. Cela devra couvrir le comportement en tant qu’employé à ce qu’est considéré la concurrence (spécifiquement et généralement). Il faut que cette politique soit claire, qu’elle protège l’entreprise et ses marques tout en encourageant ses employés à participer et faire rayonné l’entreprise et ses marques – elle ne doit forcer personne à participer – la participation forcé se sent et n’est pas bénéfique à l’image de l’entreprise.

5. Le mobile deviendra le point de contact permanent.
Environ 70% des entreprises bloquent l’accès aux réseaux sociaux au bureau. En même temps, les ventes de téléphones intelligents (iPhone, Blackberry et autres) explosent. Étonnez vous pas si les employés persistent dans leur usage des réseaux sociaux sur les heures de bureau, mais sur leur appareil mobile (pas contrôlable par l’entreprise). Ce qui autrefois (pas encore de l’histoire ancienne) était des pauses cigarettes, deviendront maintenant des pauses “réseau social.” Attendez-vous à de bien meilleurs outils pour accédez à vos réseaux sociaux préférés.

6. Partager ne veux plus dire “courriel”
L’application du New York Times pour iPhone a récemment ajouter une fonction “partage” permettant aux usagers de facilement diffuser un article à leur réseau social préféré tel Facebook et Twitter. Plusieurs sites Web ont déjà de type de fonction sur leurs contenus. Nous constaterons une augmentation marqué de l’usage de ces fonctions “partage” l’an prochain alors que les usagers seront tous suffisament à l’aise avec les réseaux sociaux pour trouver cela plus rapide qu’envoyer de quoi par courriel.

Ce sont 6 tendances à suivre l’an prochain. Il y en a beaucoup, beaucoup d’autres, plus précises dans bien des cas. Je les ajouterai ici dans quelques jours.

inspiré entre autre de “Six Social Media Trends for 2010” par David Armano sur le blogue du Harvard Business School le 2 novembre 2009

Social Networking Sites: How Social on Internet we are ?

Social Networking sites are measure of how social on Internet we are? There are a lot of social networking sites which are being used by millions of users, famous ones being: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Myspace, Orkut, Netlog, Hi5 and more.

Facebook : This is the site, which was made nearly 5 years ago, Most widely used social networking site at this time, 350 million users currently, adding half a million users everyday (500000 users daily sign up for facebook, isn’t it too much ?? ), Main users from developed countries (where almost 70-80 % people have Internet accessibility) and becoming famous in developing countries too. Main power of site is friends updates, like button and ease to access to comment and use the site. Most of Celebrities use this site to keep in touch with their fans and promte their products.

Twitter: This microblogging site was released in 2006, in just 3 years gained so much popularity. Most experts think it to be the future of social networking. Main reason for the success of this microblogging site, I think, is: Everybody wants to express his/her feelings, views and they want to generally let the others know what they feel/think and this site provides the best medium to them. There are a lot of celebrities on twitter tweeting about their personal life, profession life and their visions.

Orkut: This site was launched nearly at the same time as that of Facebook, owned by Google, mostly used in Brazil, India and Pakistan. (In India aorund 7% of total population uses Internet). Main Power of Orkut lies in Community forums, scraps, a long way to go to compete with facebook.

There are other famous social networking sites those are being used, but as far as social networking in current scnerio is concerned, Facebook and Twitter have eaten most of the share of other social networking site. Myspace which used to be rank-1 social networking site some time ago, is now no more rank one. Linkedin is mostly used for professional pusposes (50 million uses currently on it).

This will the scene to see, which one these social networking medium captures others market or any new social networking site emerge as new winner.

Happy social networking,

Tarun

Getting over Facebook

Although I would never claim to be one of the pioneers of blogging, I have been known to vaguely suggest that I was part of the first wave of bloggers – or at least the second. Actually, forget that, I’ll start again…I was a blogger before the terrifying rise of social networking. Admittedly it wasn’t far behind me, but I can confidently say that when I was in my pomp I did not know a single person who used MySpace. In fact, I’m not even sure if it existed in any meaningful form back then.

Like everyone else though, I quickly succumbed. I became an active MySpace user and whittled away many happy hours with my small network of friends. This was also about the time I stopped blogging and, to be perfectly honest, a small part of me always resented this change in my online life. I knew deep down that I’d traded something unique and interesting for something that felt slightly, well, generic.

This resentment was conflicted though. MySpace was an essential factor in the bizarre story of how I met my fiancée, and Facebook has seen me back in contact with friends I always regretted losing touch with. As much I as I didn’t want to like social networking, I was certainly doing bloody well out of it. But now, many years and status updates later, Facebook feels stale and I can sense that old resentment bubbling up again…

It’s important to note that this relates to my personal experiences, and it’s quite possible that the time you spend on Facebook is infinity more fulfilling than mine. I should also mention that no meaningful data supports my feelings either. At the time of writing, this page was claiming over 300 million active Facebook users producing 45 million mildly interesting status updates per day. That’s some seriously big numbers!

But stats aren’t everything when it comes to these things. You wouldn’t try to gage how enjoyable a film is, for example, by simply counting heads in the cinema, you’d have to survey people for that. And so these numbers tell us nothing about the quality of people’s experiences on Facebook, especially mine.

There are rarely any new arrivals on Facebook for me now. The excitement of seeing a long-forgotten friend or co-worker suddenly appear is becoming increasingly rare. All I seem to get these days are requests off people I once knew who seem completely disinclined to communicate, preferring an inflated friend list to any real conversation. There’s also the large percentage of people on my friends list who rarely log on, if ever. I’m finding my interaction on Facebook now revolves around the same, fairly small group of friends. But rather than being a tightly-knit circle of my closer friends, they’re just the handful of people that use Facebook most. Our strongest connection is the combined hours we waste on the site, which I’m sure isn’t really the point of social networking.

I will admit that I spend a lot of time interacting with my girlfriend on Facebook though, time that is highly enjoyable. The honest truth, however, is that we tend to use whatever communication tool is nearest at the time. Google Chat, emails, text messages and old fashioned phone calls are all employed when we’re apart and fancy a chat. If Facebook winked out of existence tomorrow, I don’t think we’d unduly suffer. It might even help our predisposition towards procrastination a little.

Chatting With Britt Savage

Nashville is full of surprises.  You never know who you are going to meet or who is going to inspire you.  It was tax day, April of this year and I decided to go to 12th and Porter at the last minute after being invited by a friend that said I had to catch the Britt Savage show.  In my ignorance I had never seen her show, and as usual I am always up for new experiences so I went for it.

Britt’s show was captivating.  In a town bursting with country music, her music came out of left field.  She features Mod Music – complete with gogo dancers and boots made for walking “all over you”.  The performance showed great attention to detail by orchestrating lights, video, and images to correlate with the live music and dancing.  I think I smiled the whole evening.

In honor of tax day she dawned a self-made dress made entirely of shredded tax forms for her show.  The dress received great applause and cheers from the crowd when she revealed what it was made out of.  It took her a month to create the dress.  A few shredders didn’t make it out alive.   She had never done something like this before.  This tax creation is even making into the next Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Book.  You can see more pictures by going to her website.  She auctioned it off on ebay and was able to raise $306 for Heifer International, an organization working to end hunger.

Some time after the Tax dress and the Mod evening I ran into Britt at the Blue Bird.  After recognizing her I had to introduce myself.  I went on to express my admiration for her vocal talents and her life performance.  She humbly thanked me for my kind words and I was struck by her sincerity.  We have since then kept in touch online and I find that she is highly industrious and creative.  After twisting her arm, she agreed to answering a few questions about herself.  I just love it when I meet people who are talented, humble, ambitious, creative, and giving.  From what I have been able to learn about Britt, she is all of that and then some.  Here is a little background on Britt Savage…

How long have you been here?

I’ve been here about 10 years.  I was working as a singer in NYC and started getting some sessions in Nashville and just fell in live with the town.

Why do you stay?

From the first time I stepped off the airplane, it felt like home.  I’ve owned horses most of my life, although I had to board them, and I love driving past green pastures of grazing horses and cows on the way to a session.  I also LOVE driving.  I just completed my 4th time at driving school because I may enjoy driving too much.  Ha I really love the Nashville music community, such a great supportive bunch of talented friends who have become like family.

If you weren’t doing music, what would you be doing?

I’ve always loved animals and wanted to be a vet but I loved animals much more than studying so I couldn’t get into vet school.  I also wanted to be a jockey but at 5’7, I was really too tall although I worked as a groom and exercise rider at Meadowland Race Track after high school.  I also worked as a Playboy Bunny, radio DJ and a gas station attendant but singing has been the best fit.  It’s something I’d do everyday,even if I wasn’t being paid.

How long did it take you to really get into music full time?

When I was about 20, I started out singing in cover bands in NJ. It was a great time for live music and you could play a different club, six nights a week.  I learned so much about singing, performing and just life in general in those clubs. My band, The Nines, opened up for Scandal and someone from that band caught our show and asked me if I’d like to sing on a jingle.  I had been doing session work for a couple years but this session turned into a national Campbell’s Soup jingle.  I started getting more calls for jingle work and moved into NYC.

Descibe your home demo service- why start it?  How do you accomplish it?

Well, the home recordings really happened out of necessity. When I moved here, I was basically starting over.  For the first year, I’d fly up to NYC for sessions and live gigs but it just wasn’t cost effective.  My husband and favorite drummer, Wes Little, helped me get started recording my vocals from our home studio and sending the files to clients in NY.

I really started loving recording from home.  I still do regular sessions in studios but I love the flexibility of home recording – I can record the lead and do the harmonies when I get home from a movie.  Ha!

I usually record more takes and background vocals than anyone would ever need and post them to an ftp site.  The songwriter or jingle producer rarely asks for any re-sings but I’m happy to do it.  The reality is there’s nothing like being able to direct someone through through their live session but I find I can usually get what someone has in mind from talking to them on the phone or an email. Most people paypal me or send me a check.  It’s pretty easy.

Did you ever have professional training or does music come naturally?

I’ve taken voice lessons from Marty and Don Lawrence (Bon Jovi, Billy Joel) and Katie Agresta (Steven Tyler, Annie Lennox) but singing came pretty naturally for me. I’ve always just loved music and sang non stop.  I learned a lot about harmony from listening to records.

If you could sing a duet with anyone who would it be and why?

Paul McCartney.  I know the jingle says Cotton is the fabric of our lives but The Beatles have been the aural fabric of mine.  I wore those vinyl records out – but the strange thing is where most of the artists I’ve loved for a certain time remain stuck in that time, even if I still love to listen to them, The Beatles recordings seem to reveal new things to me all the time. It’s like they’ve grown as I have.

What is your worst way to ruin your chances in this town?

I’m no expert but it all comes down to integrity with me.  Treat people well. You might be singing the world’s worst song demo but remember you’re singing someone’s dream.

What 3 things would you say to someone in Nashville who wants to throw in the towel?

That’s a tough one because a life in music isn’t for everyone.  I like to say that the best part about it is also the worst part about it-  you don’t know what you’ll be doing next month. Currently, the thrill of not knowing is greater than my fear of not knowing so it works for me.

I also think it’s ok for dreams to evolve.  You might have thought you’d be the next  Alan Jackson but maybe teaching music would feed your soul even more.  The drummer in my old cover band, Mick Gormaley, is now a sound editor for lots of major films and he loves it.

If you’re dead set on making it in music, I’d say keep out there, keep learning, keep networking. There are plenty of  “ I almost gave up and then my big break happened’ stories.

I know I didn’t give you 3 things to do when you’re ready to throw in the towel… I guess I’m thinking sometimes you can use that towel as a parachute and land somewhere even better.

Random, yet fascinating facts about Britt Savage

• Recently started writing songs for a greeting card company
• Currently making another charity dress out of Christmas wrapping paper for her appearance at Billy Block’s on Dec 15th
• Won $100,000 on Star Search
• Was a contestant on VH1’s Rock & Roll Jeopardy
• Won a trip to LA from a Howard Stern Song Parody contest
• Sang jingles for Coke, Loreal, Ponds, Lays, Wendys, Burger King, Woolite, San Pellegrino, Bounce, Tyco, Campbells, etc…
• Worked with live or in the studio – Tony Bennett, Noel Redding, Garth Brooks, Angie Stone, Trisha Yearwood, Dave Von Ronk, Larry Coryell, Linda Davis, Billy Dean, Brooks & Dunn, Natalie Cole, Ru Paul, David Sandborn, Rupert Homes, Denice William, Oran Juice Jones, Bebe Winans, Andy Griggs, Peter Wolf, Jason Michael Carrol, Donna Summer, The Skatalites, Robert Cray, Billy Squire, Nona Hendrix, Waylon Jennings, Phoebe Snow, Joe Lynn Turner, Southside Johnny, Ron Wood, Patty Smyth, Walk Wilkins, Billy Gilman, Cory Glover, Marshall Crenshaw, Crystal Gayle, Darlene Love, Nastasia Kinski.

If you ever have the chance to catch Britt’s show, you should go.  When you meet her around town – ask her how one woman manages to accomplish this much in life!  You can also check out her video on youtube for her song Looking Like I’m Gonna. It is hard-working people like this that make Nashville such a successfully talented town.

MySpace Oficial de Wonder Girls ¡REDISEÑADO!

El tiempo de rediseñar todo a llegado. Hace unas semanas el sitio web oficial de Wonder Girls fue rediseñado, al agrado de muchos. Su Twitter ahora esta muy en epoca con el pavo y las calabazas. Y hoy le tocó el turno al MySpace Oficial de las Chicas.

Algo que me llama la atención es quien estuvo a cargo el rediseño del MySpace.

Cuando las Wonder Girls fueron a EE. UU. para el JYP Tour 2009, JYP se unió a Ningin, y estos tuvieron cierta cobertura especial de los conciertos más tuvieron premios para los fans, bitácoras escritas por las Wonder Girls, etc. Aparte de esto Ningin fue el responsable de diseñar el MySpace de las Wonder Girls el cual fue abierto un poco antes del JYP Tour 2009, lugar donde se reveló que las Wonder Girls harían su debut en EE. UU.

Todo parecía indicar que JYP ya se había olvidado de la existencia de Ningin, ya que las Wonder Girls dejaron de escribir en la página y no había ningun tipo de exclusivas u otras cosas parecidas. Pero estabamos equivocados ya que el MySpace ha sido rediseñado por W. J. Kim y cuando presionas el enlace provisto te dirige a la página de Ningin.com.

Cuando el trabajo de diseñar el MySpace fue asignado a Ningin ellos estaban algo “preocupados” por el look ya que era su primera vez diseñando un MySpace y porque le habían pedido ROSA por todos lados.
Parece ser que aunque Ningin no cuenta con ninguna exclusiva al momento, el diseño del MySpace se quedo en sus manos y se salieron con la suya y cambiaron el rosa.

En lo personal me gusta el rediseño, creo que antes tenía demasiado rosa… ¿Y a ustedes que les parece?

¡Visiten el MySpace Oficial de Wonder Girls!

[Crédito: followWG]

Happy Halloween!

The costume might seem funny to some, but what they don't realize is that in the current social climate that we live in, the costume is just plain dehumanizing.

…or is it?  It was the question that many Latinos were wondering as they caught word of the offensive “illegal alien” Halloween custom that was being sold by many retailers across the U.S.  A successful campaign by immigrant rights activists was waged to sound the alarm on this, which led to national media coverage.  Subsequently, retailers like Target, Walgreens, eBay, and Amazon.com removed the costume from their inventories.  It was another example of the growing political clout that Latinos are beginning to exercise on a variety of issues, as I have previously argued here.  I woud like to echo the setiments that were expressed so well by César J. Baldelomar over at the Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform blog: the language that we use can define our social realities in deeper ways that we might at first realize. 

I would actually like to take it a step farther and call on something that I see being ignored by the corporate media and (sadly) by even many immigrant rights activists: that the ONLY permanent solution to our ’illegal immigration’ woes is to combat the oppressing poverty that creates ‘illegal immigrants.’  No amount of border walls, deportations, or discrimination will ever stop ‘illegal’ immigration because those things never address the true source of the problem: the poverty that forces many to flee their homelands.  Professor of Linguistics George Lakoff said it best on The Framing of Immigration piece when he bascially analyzed how we do not have an ‘illegal immigration problem’ or an ‘illegal employer problem’ (to lable it as such would undermine the scope of what we’re actually dealing with here), but rather a full-blown HUMANITARIAN crisis:

Perhaps the problem might be better understood as a humanitarian crisis. Can the mass migration and displacement of people from their homelands at a rate of 800,000 people a year be understood as anything else? Unknown numbers of people have died trekking through the extreme conditions of the Arizona and New Mexico desert. Towns are being depopulated and ways of life lost in rural Mexico. Fathers feel forced to leave their families in their best attempt to provide for their kids. Everyday, boatloads of people arrive on our shores after miserable journeys at sea in deplorable conditions.

As a humanitarian crisis, the solution could involve The UN or the Organization of American States. But these bodies do not have roles in the immigration frame, so they have no place in an “immigration debate.” Framing this as just an “immigration problem” prevents us from penetrating deeper into the issue.

Language is a powerful thing because we shape our language based on our reality and our reality is shaped by language. It’s a circular thing and we can break the cycle of ignorance by introducing new powerful terminology that can shape our realities in a positive way.  As I used to say it before on my old Myspace page:

 …people talk about “illegal aliens,” which dehumanizes the issue and implies that immigrants that enter the country with no documents are criminal, other-worldly beings. Yet no one talks about the fact that they are simply Economic Refugees (refugiados por causa de la economia); human beings that have ventured to seek out a better life for themselves…

…To reduce the discussion to a soundbite of “those that break our immigration laws must be punished and must not be rewarded for the criminal behavior” frankly leads to nothing productive. If you want to talk about doing illegal and/or wrong things then maybe you should talk about how the United States has oftentimes contributed to the economic woes of many countries. If you want to talk about taking responsibility for your own actions, then maybe the United States should take responsibility for what it has done with the International Monetary Fund’s INTERVENTIONS(click here for details) in third world countries. If you want to talk about wrong doing maybe you ought to be talking about American maquiladora factories and their low wages/cheap labor practices. Maybe you ought to look into how some American business interests have gone into many countries, sucked them up dry, and bailed out; adding to their economic woes.

Sadly, I’m afraid that we’re missing the boat on this one.  Immigration reform would be a good first step towards improving our current social situation.  However, if the quest for immigration reform does not at the very least contain a serious conversation regarding the role that oppressing poverty has in all of this, then I am afraid that it will just be another band-aid ’fix’.  Maybe it’s time now (as a first step) to call on our government to ditch the ‘illegal alien’ term and instead adopt ‘economic refugee.’