Entertainment/Culture

From the vaults: World View by Alamout Black

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In response to a request on Facebook today, I dug through some of my old Alamout Black CDs, and managed to locate a track we made called “World View“. This song was featured in a fight scene in the 2001 film Extreme Force.  My friend Kays Alatrakchi was the guy who did the music for that … Read more

Are email disclaimers legally enforceable?

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Another post inspired by a mailing list post.

Today, a young lady posted, without context of any kind, an email to a semi-public email listserv, asserting:

Disclaimer:  All communication sent from charityXXXXX@XXXXX.COM, or from Charity XXXXX
is privileged communication, owned exclusively by Charity XXXXX, as proprietary owner/ideas and information as copyright. No duplication, dissemination or profit from the above-mentioned material may occur without the express discretionary consent of owner, Charity XXXXX.
Copyright Charity XXXXX 1958-2012
All rights reserved

You see a lot of these kinds of things these days.  Problem is, they’re completely pointless.  As was pointed out by the Economist back in April of last year.  And by Slate, in 2004.  In fact, the only thing I can find which indicates these sort of stupid things have any merit is this guy, and then only in very limited circumstances.

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Introducing Acceler8or

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Well, I told you I had some neat things in the works, and today, I’m happy to report that Acceler8or.com, a new website featuring news and original articles about transhumanist and Singularitarian culture, is online and rocking. The site editor is none other than R.U. Sirius, whom you might remember from his time editing Mondo 2000, … Read more

The Web surpasses newspapers as source of news

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ReadWriteWeb reports today on a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The takeaway? According to the survey, 46% of people now say they get their news online at least three times a week, surpassing newspapers (40%) for the first time. Only local television is more popular among Americans, with 50% indicating … Read more

Transparency and objectivity in journalism: Possible? Desirable?

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This post is an amalgam of several emails I sent to a private journalism-related listserv.  I’ve got a project brewing in the ol’ noggin relating to journalism, objectivity, and transparency.  I figured I’d post this publicly, in the hopes of soliciting more opinions, so please feel free to post in the comments. So, one of … Read more

Ways to ensure I will ignore your media.

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Here’s a short list of key words that will guarantee I will ignore your TV show, movie, etc. From the producers of ‘Scary Movie’ Tyler Perry’s _________________ From the writers of ‘Two and a half men’ “It will warm your heart” “Just how far would you go to find true love?” “This generation’s (something interesting … Read more