Double Standard Perhaps or Faulty Legal System???

Disclaimer: Before you read this, know that I do not support anything that Michael Vick did.  I think it was disgusting and he deserved to be punished.

A little background.  In 2006, Michael Vick was charged and later convicted of sponsoring dog fighting.  His punishment: 2 years in prison, loss of his playing contract which lead him to bankruptcy, and close to half a season suspended once released from prison.

In March of 2009, Donte Stallworth of the Cleveland Browns KILLS A PERSON while driving drunk.  His punishment: 24 days in jail, and will have to sit out an entire football season.

I am not trying to minimize the killing of innocent animals, I’m trying to show outrage, that a football player can drive drunk, kill an innocent person, and only have to spend 24 days in jail?!?  Does our society care more about pit bulls than a construction worker trying to make a living?  Or does it show how fickle the American public is, and how they can latch onto a topic that is or is not the most significant news story and not let go of it (with help from the press)?

In 2006, since the press didn’t have anyone to go after (bashing George Bush was getting old)  when Vick was caught it was the biggest news story for months.  Nightly news shows started with the story for months, people protested in the streets, burned Vick’s jersey, and Vick’s life as he knew it was destroyed.  Though Stallworth has made the headlines, I don’t see the nightly news headlines plastering his case every night, I don’t see people outside his house protesting, or burning his jersey, or calling for his permanent ban from football. Since the economy is in such bad place, and everyone is in love with our new President the story has been mostly played in the sports portion of the news casts, or mostly on ESPN.  It frustrates me to no end that such a double standard can be held in the eyes of the press and the public at large.  A man’s life was ended, a member of a family lost, and people don’t seem to care that the person spent only 24 days in prison.

I know a lot of people hold anger to Vick, so let’s look at another example.  Plaxico Burress, shot himself in the leg with a gun he was carrying illegally.  Yes what he did was stupid, and illegal, and he should be punished.  The press fed off this like no one’s business, and now Burress faces between 3.5 years and 15 years in prison for his mistake.  He shoots himself in the leg, injures no one else, and faces at least 3.5 years in jail.  Stallworth KILLED SOMEONE WHILE DRUNK, and faced 24 days….I cannot be the only one that finds our legal system which would allow such discrepancies in punishment to be completely upside down.

OK, my rant is over….

Pandora Radio Lives On

For those that use the online Pandora Radio, there is good news.  They have made a deal through 2015 with the record labels to keep them online.  Pandora was close to being shut down because the greedy record execs wanted a piece of the pie, and raised the royalty rates through the roof for online radio. The radio execs got away with it because the sites like Pandora had no lobbyists to stand up for them.  So to help fight them off, Pandora and others like them started a social movement and got their listeners to call their Congressmen, which got them a lifeline to keep going until an equitable deal could be reached.  Online web casters will still be charged more than regular radio stations (for some reason unknown to me), but hopefully this deal will allow sites like Pandora to keep going.  I found a decent article on TechCrunch that explains the deal.  Click the link below for more:

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Michael Jackson Passes Away @ Age 50

I am sure most people have heard by now, but in shocking news Michael Jackson passed away at his home yesterday from cardiac arrest at the age of 50.   Though I wasn’t around for the beginnings of his career with the Jackson 5 (I did own a Jackson 5 record though!) I was around for when he went out his own, and essentially I grew up with his music.  I remember his music videos coming out on MTV (yeah they played videos back then), and how original his music was.   I know he had some strange behavior later in his career, but most people will remember him as the young adult that taught the world how to moonwalk, and made wearing one glove fashionable (for a few years at least).  He sold over 750 million records in his time, and will forever be at the top of the list of most renown artists ever.  The LA Times has a decent article about his passing, and how people are reacting.  Click the link below:

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Hate When Billy Mays Screams At You During Commercials?? Help Might Be On The Way

There is nothing more I can’t stand than when I am watching TV, a commercial comes on and it’s 5000% louder than what the show’s volume is.  I either have to scramble for the mute button, or fast forward fast through the dvr’ed commercial break.  Drives me batty.  Well it also drives a Congresswoman from California crazy too, and she is presenting a proposal to the FCC to curb the volume.  Right now a commercial can be as loud as the loudest part of the show you are watching.  That way they can get your attention.  Well if her proposal goes through the commercial will not be allowed to be louder than the average volume of the show.  No word on its chances of success, but at least I am not the only one that gets driven nuts by Billy Mays screaming “GET SOME OXYCLEAN!!”  If you would like to read more about it click the link below:

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A&E Cancels “The Beast”

I know that most people won’t be familiar with the show due to the low ratings, but the show that featured Patrick Swayze as a FBI agent was cancelled by A&E yesterday.  I was just really starting to get into it near the end, and then they kill the show.  They ended the first season in a way that didn’t leave you hanging…perhaps knowing that the show wouldn’t make it, or that Patrick who is battling Pancreatic cancer would not be able to continue, but still a disappointment none the less.

Want To Watch Porn??? Head Over to Univ Of MD…Or Perhaps Not

When my alma mater showed cheap weekend movies it was usually a movie that had either been released on DVD, or movies that were at least out of the main stream movie theaters.  So what was University of Maryland’s choice for this weekend’s movie?  Was it the recent James Bond flick?  Nope…they chose porn!  UMD was going to show a XXX movie called Pirates 2, which is supposed to be the most expensive porn movie to ever be produced.  Now you would think the school’s administration would be going crazy over it, but what was surprising was that they didn’t seem to have a problem with it.  They called it good fun, and an event might keep some folks on campus instead of out drinking.  So everything appeared to be a go until…the Maryland state Senate got involved.  Once the senate got wind of what was going on they were getting ready to add a requirement to the annual budget that said any school showing porn that wasn’t part of a class would not get state funding.  For UMD that comes to about 400 million dollars.  With the pressure on, the group that was going to show the film backed down, and will no longer show the film.  I am not fully clear on why they wanted to show a porno in the first place, but I guess to each their own.  And though the senate can do what they want when it comes to state funding, I don’t think they had cause to get involved, it should have been left up to the school’s administration.  

Now, what really made me laugh was when I was reading an article from the Baltimore Sun.  A senator whose children will be attending UMD next year said this about the showing of the film: ”Pornography is not fun; it’s poison,” he said. “They want to get our kids hooked on pornography.” Yes senator, the school is trying to get everyone hooked on porn…geeze, didn’t you see that in the school’s charter?!?  Sounds like you might be a little out of touch, but maybe that’s just me…

Cnet’s Top 20 Blu-Ray Discs To Own

I bought a PS3 back this past winter with hopes of enjoying all the HD goodness that comes with watching a Blu-Ray disc.  Though the picture and the sound is awesome, my library hasn’t grown significantly because I cannot justify buying a movie for 10-15 bucks more than the DVD version.  I have bought some movies that were supposed to really show off the HD quality, and I figured until prices come down, I would either rent, or only purchase the movies that are supposed to be amazing.  There are many sites out there that review Blu-Ray discs, not just for the plot of the movie, but for the video and sound quality, AVSforum being one of them, and CNet being another.  CNet compiled their list of 20 Blu-Ray discs everyone should own.  Some of them I question, but for the most part they are right on.  The one thing that surprised me is that the Planet Earth series wasn’t inlcuded.  I really enjoyed the video quality of the HD version, but I didn’t enjoy all the animals eating each other!  Click the link below for CNet’s list.

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He Is Back…Schwarzenegger To Play A Small Role In An Upcoming Stallone Film

Schwarzenegger is back to play…himself.  Sylvester Stallone is creating a movie about a group of mercenaries that are trying to overthrow a South American dictator (sound familar).  Schwarzenegger will play a small role in the film where he will make an appearance as the Governor of California (which he is playing in real life).  Schwarzenegger (wow that name is hard to type) said he would not be in any films while in office, but he has actually played 3 small cameos since becoming the leader of the largest state in the country.  The movie starts filming in March, so it probably will be out sometime in 2010.

Another small tidbit about the movie: Dolph Lundgren will be playing a major role in the movie.  Hopefully we can get Stallone to holler DRAGO at some point during the movie.  Even better, maybe Stallone will grow a beard and climb a mountain with lots of snow on it, and when he makes it to the top, he can lift his arms and then holler DRAGO.  OR, OR! maybe we could get Stallone to grow a beard, chops some wood in the snow, lift some rocks in a dirty barn that resides in the snow, and then climb a mountain with lots of snow, then lift his arms and holler DRAGO

Just in case, those you are not up to date with their boxing movies Dolph Lundgren played the bad guy in Rocky IV…and his name was Ivan Drago

Hulu Removed From Boxee

Sad day folks…

Hulu, the online media site has requested (or nicely required) Boxee remove the Hulu stream from their program.  Boxee is a program that organizes your media, as well as provides a front end for some of the online sources out there including Comedy Central, YouTube, CNN, and Hulu (which was created by NBC and Fox). To me, the most exciting part was that Boxee was available for the Apple TV, which basically gave you access to Hulu on your TV, using only your remote.  

You might be asking…So?  Well for those unfamiliar with Hulu, the site provides new shows, as well as older shows and movies with limited commercials (usually 1 commercial every ten minutes).  So in essence instead of having to watch 15 commercials for a 30 minute show, it was limited to about 3 for a 30 minute program.  Most people appluaded the site, and agreed that fewer commercials made their experience more enjoyable.  People enjoyed it so much that some people were getting rid of their cable connection altogether and just streamed the shows they wanted online.  Boxee became such a hit because it took Hulu which was limited to your computer screen, and brought it to your tv.  Now lets take a vote, say the folks that watch The Office, would you rather watch it with fewer commercials, at basically the same quality that your cable provider provides, or would you rather be innondated with 15 Snuggie commercials over a 30 minute period?  I think the answer is pretty obvious.

And here is where we run into the problem.  Hulu states that it was the “content providers” that caused them to have to remove the stream from Boxee.  Hulu goes on in this blog post that they are saddened by all this, and wish they could make nice with the people.  This essentially takes the pressure off them, and makes it appear as if they are not the bad guy in all this, but really it’s the big bad media exec…which most people hate anyway.  I guess what Hulu doesn’t real want you to know, that even though they might be a independent department…THEY ARE PART OF THE EVIL MEDIA COMPANY!  Hulu was created by NBC and News Corp (Fox).  How can Hulu that was created by the “content providers” say that the “content providers” are forcing them to do this?  To me it’s all just a ruse to confuse people.

Now you ask why the “content providers” would want to do this…I’ll give one guess?  The obvious answer is Money…pure greed and money.  Think about it, why would you watch The Office with 15 commercials in it when I could turn on my Apple TV and watch it with 3 commercials?  The media execs were fine when the content was only available to a single set of eyes on a 17 inch computer screen.  If Boxee, or other products like it were to take off, it would cause an awful lot of tv ad revenue to drop off, thus costing the media companies money.  Thus the reason that they want hulu to stay online and off your TV. 

It will be interesting these next few years to see how online video progresses.  I see very similar paths that the video market is taking that the music market took as mp3s became popular.  Music execs got scared to death of the Internet, and wanted to control their music anyway they could by slapping DRM, only allowing their music to be played in certain ways…the list goes on.  But the bottom line it was all about control.  The video market will go in the same way…The media execs will do everything they can to control their media, and their ad revenue.  They will do it by alienating their customer base, and making it more difficult to get to the media they are trying to get to people.  The music companies are slowly starting to get it…and I really hope it doesn’t take 13+ years for the video companies to get it.

I have one suggestion for the creators of Boxee, and it is; make an easy to navigate web browser built into Boxee so we can still get to Hulu, or any other web video site.  That way, you are essentially still getting to the media using a web browser, and then the media companies have no reason to come after you. I would say that should be your top priority as of…well yesterday.

Update – Facebook Reverts To Old Terms of Service

Well, after a whole lot of bad PR, Facebook has decided for the time being to revert to their old Terms of Service.  They stated that at some point in the future that they will revisit the issue, but for now to calm the masses they will go back to the way things are.  The only thing I give Facebook credit for is that they actually had a blog entry and a link to the TOS when they made the change.  Others have tried to pull fast ones over their customers (yes I am looking at you Chase, and you American Express!) in hopes no one out there could understand the legal mumbo jumbo.  There is a follow up article on CNN if anyone is interested.  Click the link below to read it:

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