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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 160 responses total. |
dbratman
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response 129 of 160:
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Dec 9 22:37 UTC 2002 |
Tower Records, which I believe originally comes from Northern
California, is still thriving out here, and the classical sections are
well-stocked. When the Berkeley store moved and expanded, the all-
classical outlet was closed and moved back in with the rest, but not
diminished in size, and there's an all-classical store across the
street from the other store in the North Beach district of San
Francisco. That's not counting the 4 other Tower outlets I frequent.
But I'm buying about half my classical CDs from Amazon now, and some of
the rest from a B&N superstore which has the misfortune of being closer
to my home than any of the above Towers.
I am tentatively concluding from the previous two posts that there must
be an NFL team in Arizona. What? This is news to me. I heard that
the Colts left Baltimore for ... uh, somewhere, but after that I lost
track. My knowledge of pro sports pretty much stops dead around 1972.
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senna
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response 130 of 160:
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Dec 10 00:02 UTC 2002 |
How healthy of you. Other than the chance for water cooler conversation on
the topic, you only miss as much as you choose to place value on.
I'll fill you in, but only because it's such an amusing thing to fill you in
on. The St. Louis Cardinals left St. Louis and moved to Phoenix (well,
Tempe). The Los Angeles Rams left Los Angeles (well, Anaheim) and moved to
St. Louis. The Baltimore Colts left Baltimore and moved to Indianapolis, adn
the owner was recently feeling out the possibility of leaving Indianapolis
for Los Angeles. They're still in Indy, though. The Cleveland Browns left
Cleveland and moved to Baltimore, becoming the Ravens, and a new team was
created in Cleveland, once again called the Browns. They played in a Division
with the Tennessee Titans, which used to be the Tennessee Oilers after moving
out of Houston as teh Houston Oilers. Houston just created a new team this
year, called the Texans, that plays in a division with the Titans. Houston
had to get permission to use the name "Texans" from the Dallas Cowboys, who
were called the "Texans" when they were first founded.
In related news, Dallas is also home of the Stars, who were moved from
Minnesota, when they were called the Minnesota North Stars. Minnesota created
a new team, called the Wild. They play in a conference with the Phoenix
Coyotes, which used to be the Winnipeg Jets, the Colorado Avalanche, which
used to be the Quebec Nordiques, and the Calgary Flames, which used to be the
Atlanta Flames (you guess it--Atlanta just created a new team, called the
"Thrashers.")
No, I didn't have to look any of this up. Yes, I do have a life, and yes,
it is rewarding, and yes, this is a reminder of why you're probably better
off having forgotten all about professional sports. :) It's funny, see?
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jmsaul
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response 131 of 160:
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Dec 10 03:00 UTC 2002 |
Atlanta *Flames*? They named it after the burning of their own city?
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dang
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response 132 of 160:
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Dec 10 04:54 UTC 2002 |
Atlanta Thrashers. Calgery Flames.
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jmsaul
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response 133 of 160:
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Dec 10 13:40 UTC 2002 |
Ah, okay. I wondered.
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dbratman
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response 134 of 160:
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Dec 11 19:35 UTC 2002 |
"Atlanta Flames" wouldn't be that weird. Have you seen the Florida
license-plates with Challenger on them? They commemorate on their cars
the most infamous motor-vehicle accident to occur within their borders.
Now that's bizarre.
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senna
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response 135 of 160:
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Dec 12 00:46 UTC 2002 |
It's both, actually. The original Atlanta franchise that moved to Calgary
was called the Flames. The new franchise is called the Thrashers.
Chicago's Soccer franchise is called the "Chicago Fire," though they do
diffuse that somewhat by using the fire department's symbol as their logo.
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dbratman
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response 136 of 160:
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Dec 13 20:27 UTC 2002 |
I hate it when sport franchise names are in the singular.
Worst of all is my own university, which calls its teams the Stanford
Cardinal. I keep wanting to ask, the Stanford Cardinal WHAT? Cardinal
Sins?
I went along with dropping Indians, but I voted for the Robber Barons
as the new name.
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gull
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response 137 of 160:
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Dec 13 21:14 UTC 2002 |
I would have suggested the Fighting Honkies, in case they wanted to
stick with racial references.
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senna
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response 138 of 160:
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Dec 13 23:33 UTC 2002 |
I hate singular names, too.
There's a small club sports team or something in the northwest that has one
Native American team called the Fighting Whities. I don't know many other
details, but I think it's hilarious.
You could always go for the Fighting Irish, or ask the New Orleans basketball
franchise (formerly of Charlotte, of course) to change its name from the
Hornets to the WASPS.
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polygon
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response 139 of 160:
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Dec 14 21:58 UTC 2002 |
I thought the students at Stanford had voted (by a very wide margin) to
name the sports teams the "Robber Barons".
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ea
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response 140 of 160:
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Dec 15 05:58 UTC 2002 |
My school used to have as their mascot a native american warrior, known
as the Saltine Warrior. That was changed, in the name of political
correctness, to a large citrus fruit. (somewhat less intimidating,
however, if I was approached by a 5 foot 5 inch tall citrus fruit in a
dark alleyway, I think I'd be pretty scared)
(Said citrus fruit is currently one of 12 mascots that are up for
the "Capital One Bowl Mascot of the Year" award. Sadly, he's only got
3% of the vote right now)
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jmsaul
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response 141 of 160:
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Dec 15 18:32 UTC 2002 |
Saltine?
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remmers
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response 142 of 160:
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Dec 15 21:58 UTC 2002 |
http://www.syr.edu/aboutsu/memorabilia/mascot.html
<remmers suppresses politically incorrect comment concerning citrus fruit
mascot>
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ea
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response 143 of 160:
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Dec 15 23:48 UTC 2002 |
Syracuse was known as the "Salt City", presumably for a pretty decent
number of Salt mines in and around the city. The "Saltine Warrior"
was, to the best of my knowledge, named to reflect this, not as a
tribute to the tasty cracker of the same name. (It is not known as to
whether or not the Saltine Warrior threw saltine crackers into the
audience ;) )
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gull
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response 144 of 160:
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Dec 16 14:54 UTC 2002 |
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28574.html
No particularly new information, but kind of amusing.
Excerpt:
Yesterday it [the RIAA] issued a press release announcing a piracy bust
in New York which unearthed 421 CD-R burners.
Only there weren't 421 burners, but "the equivalent of 421 burners."
In fact, there were just 156. How did the RIAA account for this discrepancy?
"There were only 156 actual burners, but some run at very high speeds:
some as high as 40x. This is well above the average speed," was the
official line yesterday.
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krj
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response 145 of 160:
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Dec 16 15:25 UTC 2002 |
http://www.cdfreaks.com seems to have the best headline news roundup
these days, though much of the material is of shaky quality.
They point to this story from usa today:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2002-12-12-record_x.htm
"Record industry braces for lumps of coal in its stocking"
Soundscan reports that USA album-length sales are down 11% this
year, in year-to-date numbers. "It's unlikely that the final
stretch of Christmas shopping will pull 2002 out of a nose dive."
Are older fans less likely to download/trade unauthorized copies,
or are they just more interested? "The exception ((to the sales
decline)) seems to lie in the long-ignored demographic of older
fans. Such adult-skewing artists as James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen,
the Dixie Chicks and Alan Jackson seem immune to the industry malaise."
From other stories which I can't reference right now: the sales
of Mariah Carey's "comeback" album are mediocre, and the sales of
Whitney Houston's new album have to be considered catastrophic, given
that she was signed to a $100,000,000 contract. "Death of the Divas"
stories are running in a number of places.
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dbratman
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response 146 of 160:
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Dec 16 21:55 UTC 2002 |
I chuckled at the redefinition of 156 CD burners as 421 burners because
they ran at high speeds. I suppose Roger Bannister got to cast extra
votes at elections, counting as additional persons, because he ran at
high speeds.
I am reminded of a strategem in the current attempt to prove that
poorer people are undertaxed: their social security tax is not counted,
on the grounds that this money is eventually returned in the form of
benefits.
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orinoco
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response 147 of 160:
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Dec 16 23:35 UTC 2002 |
"Adult-skewing artists"?
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mcnally
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response 148 of 160:
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Dec 17 00:47 UTC 2002 |
Sure. Lots of people who like the Dixie Chicks wind up pretty skewed.
Why do you think they had to take that "Earl" song off the air?
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gull
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response 149 of 160:
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Dec 17 03:05 UTC 2002 |
Re #146: According to a Wall Street Journal editorial, poor people need
to be taxed more heavily so that they'll develop a healthy hatred of
government. Presumably they'd then vote Republican, like all right-thinking
people.
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krj
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response 150 of 160:
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Dec 17 04:02 UTC 2002 |
(resp:147 :: Probably I'm mangling the language. Artists who tend
to draw an older audience than the music business is used
to marketing to.)
(resp:149 :: we're really drifting here, but I wonder if the Wall
Street Journal considered that Maggie Thatcher tried the exact
same maneuver. To get lower-income people upset with their
local government, she attempted to force the local governments
to levy a per-person tax amount -- this was called a poll tax
in the UK. The plan was to make people demand a lowering of
the tax amount and deep cuts in social services; the result,
however, was close to a general uprising and Thatcher was forced
out of office.)
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russ
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response 151 of 160:
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Dec 17 04:19 UTC 2002 |
Maybe the extra 265 burners exist in virtual reality.
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krj
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response 152 of 160:
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Dec 17 18:17 UTC 2002 |
How are other media markets doing? USA Today (paper edition) reports
that book sales are down 7% for fall 2002, a decline roughly
comparable to what's being projected for the music industry.
Amazingly, the book industry spokespeople don't
blame the internet or copy machines :) ; instead they
talk about the soft economy and the fall in popularity of several
megablockbuster authors.
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gull
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response 153 of 160:
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Dec 17 21:40 UTC 2002 |
The U.S. government has lost its DMCA case against Elcomsoft for
producing a product to decrypt Adobe e-books.
http://online.securityfocus.com/news/1857
'Lawyers for the Russian company said Elcomsoft's program simply allowed
users to make backup copies of eBooks and be able to read them on other
devices, something permitted under the "fair use" concept of copyright law.
'Jury foreman Dennis Strader said the argument made a big impact on the
jurors, who asked U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte to clarify the
"fair use" definition shortly after deliberations began.
'"Under the eBook formats, you have no rights at all, and the jury had
trouble with that concept," said Strader.'
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