We pushed an update out to the site today. This update includes changes to the MemeBox, an update logo graphic, and numerous behind the scenes type things.

Thanks to Joe Gawlik (terratogen) for the new MemeStreams logo!

Let Decius or I know if you spot any problems...

] What's nerdier then Nintendo? How about Acapella
] Nintendo?

8-bit 4 l1fe!

CollegeHumor.com : New Funny Pictures, Funny Movies, and Funny Hotlinks Daily!

] Eleven people were charged after they tried to recreate
] the film's climactic battle sequence, in which a band of
] violent outlaws chases down a tanker truck.
]
] The re-enactors were on their way to a weekend movie
] marathon featuring the Mad Max trilogy, which takes place
] in a post-apocalyptic future in which Australia's
] remaining survivors fight for the last drops of fuel.
]
] The arrests came after worried motorists called police to
] report what appeared to be a "militia" laying siege to
] the tanker.

... outside of San Antonio. The idea of a militia that resembles the Mad Max cast tweaks my funny-bone. Texas seems like a great place for it as well.

CBC Arts: Police arrest 'Mad Max' re-enactors

] The U.S. military has assembled the world's most
] formidable hacker posse: a super-secret,
] multimillion-dollar weapons program that may be ready to
] launch bloodless cyberwar against enemy networks -- from
] electric grids to telephone nets.
]
] The group's existence was revealed during a U.S. Senate
] Armed Services Committee hearing last month. Military
] leaders from U.S. Strategic Command, or Stratcom,
] disclosed the existence of a unit called the Joint
] Functional Component Command for Network Warfare, or
] JFCCNW.
]
] In simple terms and sans any military jargon, the unit
] could best be described as the world's most formidable
] hacker posse. Ever.

] "I've got to tell you we spend more time on the computer
] network attack business than we do on computer network
] defense because so many people at very high levels are
] interested," said former CNA commander, Air Force Maj.
] Gen. John Bradley, during a speech at a 2002 Association
] of Old Crows conference. The group is the leading think
] tank on information and electronic warfare.

Script soldiers?

Wired News: U.S. Military's Elite Hacker Crew

] I've been really excited about this idea I had to remove
] everything from N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton album
] except for the curse words. It's like a reverse censored
] version of the album I'm calling "Explicit Content Only".
] I want to do the entire album but below is the title
] track as an example of what it would sound like. I love
] this idea but feel like it must have been done before. If
] so please leave a comment and let me know so that I can
] save a lot of wasted audio editing time. If it has not
] been done than stay tuned to the ni9e.com site for the
] complete album in the next few weeks.

ni9e blog: Explicit Content Only....

] A Providence detective was killed with his own gun at
] police headquarters Sunday by a suspect who was not
] handcuffed and managed to get hold of the weapon, the
] police chief said.

] The chief would not say how Carpio managed to get
] Allen's weapon, and would not discuss other details
] leading up to the shooting, including whether there
] were witnesses

17% of all police killed in the line of duty are killed by their own firearms.

Industrial Memetics is currently working on a SmartGun platform which aims to solve this problem.

Tyler Morning Telegraph | Providence Detective Killed Inside Police HQ By His Own Gun

] Beginning in mid-May, pilots who intrude into restricted
] airspace over the nation's capital will be warned by
] pulsating red and green laser beams, part of a government
] effort to prevent a terrorist attack.

] The lasers are harmless, say authorities, who are quick
] to distinguish them from the high-intensity laser
] pointers that have vexed some pilots in recent
] months.

] "This is good laser, if you will," said U.S. Air
] Force Col. Ed Daniel of the North American Aerospace
] Defense Command. "It is very eye safe."

CNN.com - Lasers to warn pilots in restricted D.C. airspace - Apr 15, 2005

flynn23 wrote:
] Not really. CC license would allow you to commercialize the
] content as long as you gave proper citation. While I think
] it's a great idea to give to people the ability to 'play' with
] the material (it's a great educational tool), the idea that
] artists (particularly *this* artist) is restricting your
] ability to manipulate it for commercial purposes, smacks of
] the highest order of hypocracy.

Most of the CC licenses include a Non-Commercial use clause as well. Its one of the most common options on the CC licenses.

I think what NIN and Interscope is doing here is quite fair. They are reserving commercial usage of the track for themselves. Non-commercial usage is just fine with them. If you are making money, they are going to want a piece. Its their asset; they invested the money to have it created. You are using it.

What really matters, is if you do have a commercial usage for the material they have released, how are they going to handle it? Repackaging in different forms is also an issue. Are they just going to flat out say 'no'? Or are they going to have unreasonable terms? These are very valid questions.. However, if someone wants to reserve their right to profit from their works, that should be regarded as ok. Anything else is a form of extremism. Nothing about this closes the door to using it commercially, you just have to contact them. As it all stands right now, this is still an increase of the freedoms granted to the end user. No matter which way I look at it, its a step in the right direction.

Yes, it would have been nice if they used a CC license for this, so that the terms were formalized based upon a widely agreed framework. At this point, I'm just glad to see them experimenting with these types of usages and releases. The single is undergoing innovation.

It would also be nice if you could still sample anything you wanted to, and as much as you wanted to, a la the golden age you mentioned. Doing another Paul's Boutique style album would be a nightmare now due to having to clear all the samples. And yes, it has effected expression because people either can't or their labels will not go through that process. The only way this situation is going to improve is better clearing houses for clearing sample rights, and explicit licensing. The golden age is over. We are starting into something else right now. The asset holders are going to be on the conservative side.

From the perspective of culture, and not straight IP, this is an extremely good thing. The artist is inviting the listener into the process. That's something which has been mostly lost, not due to IP issues, but due to the changing styles of music and the technology used to create it. If we were still in the 60's, and a new Neil Young album came out, we would not have a problem sitting around with our guitars and harmonicas jamming on Heart of Gold. We'd have the tools that produced the sounds. That's not the easiest thing to do with a release from an artist like NIN. Given releases like this, that changes, again. Changes back actually..

We need to keep our eyeballs on the culture before the law. The law will be bent to fit the culture and the market that exists to support it. It _is_ just a matter of time, people coming up with the uses, and the need to exploit them. You would still have had an issue if you wanted to record and release the version of Heart of Gold your friends came up with. That has not changed. (Unless of course it was a parody, thanks to 2 Live Crew.)

RE: Boing Boing: NIN's Trent Reznor releases song as GarageBand file

] On nin.com, Trent Reznor is offering a complete mix of a
] song from the forthcoming Nine Inch Nails album as a
] Garageband 2.0 file.

I need to get Garageband upgraded.

This is a very cool thing, in several ways. The license is very CC like.

Boing Boing: NIN's Trent Reznor releases song as GarageBand file

] In a victory for pranksters at the Massachusetts
] Institute of Technology, a bunch of computer-generated
] gibberish masquerading as an academic paper has been
] accepted at a scientific conference.

] "Rooter" features such mind-bending gems as: "the model
] for our heuristic consists of four independent components:
] simulated annealing, active networks, flexible modalities,
] and the study of reinforcement learning" and "We implemented
] our scatter/gather I/O server in Simula-67, augmented with
] opportunistically pipelined extensions."

] The students were soliciting cash donations so they could
] attend the conference and give what Stribling billed as a
] "completely randomly-generated talk, delivered entirely
] with a straight face."
]
] They exceeded their goal, with $2,311.09 cents from 165 donors.

Everyone loves a good prank!

CNN.com - MIT students pull prank on conference - Apr 14, 2005