Music Recorded without the RIAA

Here's an interesting article. A lot of artists produce their own albums hoping for a little recognition. They haven't been scooped up by the RIAA, yet, nor can the record companies hope to corner the entire market on musical talent. Their strategy is to take a few talented people and make them into idols that snag the spotlights, and the dollars. But technology is leveling the playing field. There is a jukebox full of music here! Enjoy.

Slashdot | Recording Music Without the Recording Industry

"The
2008 RPM Challenge
MirrorDot
CoralCache
GoogleCache
— to write and record an original album in February, just because you can —

Picture of SpaceShip2

PICTURES: Virgin Galactic unveils Dyna-Soar style SpaceShipTwo design and twin-fuselage White Knight

Virgin Galactic has unveiled a SpaceShipTwo (SS2) design, created by Scaled Composites, that harks back to the NASA/USAF Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar glider of the 1960s, while Scaled's carrier aircraft, White Knight II (WK2) has been given a twin-fuselage configuration.

Eukaryotes Reclassified into Four Branches

'Tree Of Life' Has Lost A Branch, According To Largest Genetic Comparison Of Higher Life Forms Ever

“The results were pretty astounding. All non-bacterial life on Earth—called eukaryotic life— can now be divided into four main groups instead of the five groups that we have been working with up to now,

Fool me twice ...

... can't fool me again.



AFP: Avoiding scientists' protests, pope cancels university speech

Signatories to the letter protesting the planned visit recalled a 1990 speech in which the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and head of the Roman Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog, seemed to justify the Inquisition's verdict against Galileo in 1633.

In the speech, Ratzinger quoted an Austrian philosopher who said the ruling was "rational and just".

He concluded with the remark: "The faith does not grow from resentment and the rejection of rationality, but from its fundamental affirmation, and from being rooted in a still greater form of reason."

Largest Rodent to Date

Scientists discover huge extinct rodent - Yahoo! News

Imagine a rodent that weighed a ton and was as big as a bull. Uruguayan scientists say they have uncovered fossil evidence of the biggest species of rodent ever found, one that scurried across wooded areas of South America about 4 million years ago, when the continent was not connected to North America.

Spore coming to a Mac near you.

Coming to the Mac in 2008: 'Spore' | CNET News.com

But now, "sim everything" has another meaning for the company: EA is set to announce Tuesday it will release Spore later this year simultaneously for PCs and Macs.

What does a guy have to do to get a national holiday?

Columbus blamed for spread of syphilis - health - 15 January 2008 - New Scientist

Syphilis really did come from the Americas, suggests a new study.

There has been a long-running row over from where the dreaded disease came. But new genetic data from deep in the jungles of Guyana suggests that while other forms of this bacterium have plagued humans since early in our evolution, it emerged as venereal syphilis only when carried back to Europe by Columbus and his crew.

Why was I so tired in High School?

The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade - New York Times

Research shows that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 a.m. when their bodies stop producing melatonin. The result is that the first class of the morning is often a waste, with as many as 28 percent of students falling asleep, according to a National Sleep Foundation poll. Some are so sleepy they don’t even show up, contributing to failure and dropout rates.

Dino Skin Revealed

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Flesh wound reveals dino secrets

The bipedal herbivore, which grew to about the size of a gazelle, had tough, scaly skin with more than 25 layers of collagen - similar to that of today's sharks, reptiles and dolphins.

Dropping out of College

Ingenious.

Dropping Out of Electoral College -- In These Times

How NPV works is this: Instead of a state awarding its electors to the top vote-getter in that state’s winner-take-all presidential election, the state would give its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. This would be perfectly legal because the U.S. Constitution grants states the right to determine how to cast their electoral votes, so no congressional or federal approval would be required. NPV could go into effect nationwide as soon as enough states pass it (enough states to tally 270 electoral votes—the magic number needed to elect a president). In 2008, NPV bills are expected to be introduced in all 50 states.