Well it looks as if the Predators might be on thin ice. I had fun going to games this year. But I bet the "leaf" that will now own the Predators will be looking to make a switch at the end of 2008-9 season if ticket sales go soft.

The Predators have an opt-out clause in their 30-year lease with the City of Nashville (the owners of the teams’ arena) if the team isn’t happy with their attendance. If the Predators exercise their out-clause they would be free to move to another city at the end of the 2008-09 season

The Predators out-clause is directly linked towards total ticket sales, not number of tickets sold based on building capacity. The club's lease works like this:

• If attendance slips below 14,000 a game this season, the Predators can signal an interest in exercising their Gaylord Entertainment Center escape clause two months after this hockey season ends.

• Average attendance would have to fall below 14,000 a game again in the 2007-08 season for the team to actually leave by October 2008.

And here’s the kicker – the clause is based on paid attendance and according to what Leipold told The Tennessean, the Predators actual paid attendance is actually just over 13,000 per game (the team gives away 1,500 tickets per game).

The Nashville Predators have been sold (Predators on thin ice?)

"Spring has sprung, and I'd like to celebrate it with you. This was recorded live at the Cutting Room in New York City - backing vocals and percussion by Paul and Storm."

Very funny.
Check out more like this over at the Funny Music Project...

The FUMP: First of May (NSFW) |MP3|

"Penn & Teller debunk Intelligent Design as a possible scientific theory, even while it is being added to science curricula across the U.S." (Video on YouTube)

This is a great tv series.
I am will P&T on this one. (BUNK)
It is the complete video of the episode on ID.

Watch it and toss me your point of view.

"An informal, inclusive progressive social group. Raise your spirits while you raise your glass, and share ideas while you share a pitcher. Drinking Liberally gives like-minded, left-leaning individuals a place to talk politics. You don't need to be a policy expert and this isn't a book club - just come and learn from peers, trade jokes, vent frustration and hang out in an environment where it's not taboo to talk politics.

Bars are democratic spaces - you talk to strangers, you share booths, you feel the bond of common ground. Bring democratic discourse to your local democratic space - build democracy one drink at a time.

While drinking liberally, always remember to drink responsibly, and make liberal use of designated drivers. Drinking and driving is reckless and irresponsible, like a neocon war or corporatist tax cut. Liberals, don't do it."

Met one of the local AL hosts, Emma Fry, when I was working in Huntsville. Nice group of guys and gals...

Nashville has a meet-up every Thursday, 6:00 pm onward at
The Flying Saucer, 111 10th Ave S, hosted by Amie Loyer.

DRINKING LIBERALLY....

"Is the Bush administration's domestic war on terrorism jeopardizing Americans' civil liberties?"

I just watched this on PBS and I have to say it is really sad to see the USA turning into a 'police state'.

What really makes me question all of this is the lawsuit against AT&T http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/ ) and the recent merger of AT&T and Bell-South. If AT&T is in cohorts with the NSA to do a domestic dragnet style spying on Americans, now it could be done with greater simplicity to local data and phone traffic.

Also when the government officials were questioned on this or that they all kept saying "...in this program," in reference to domestic spying on Americans. Am I the only one annoyed (to put it lightly) by all this "plausible deniability-ish" like comments off the lips of the very people who were elected into abide by the law not break it?

The video will be online tomorrow and transcript will be up in a week.

I would like readers to watch and comment on this as it is something I am interested in and want to know what you think....

FRONTLINE: Spying on the Homefront

On Bullshit
Essay by Princeton University professor emeritus Harry Frankfurt.

"In the essay, Frankfurt sketches a theory of bullshit, defining the concept and analyzing its applications. In particular, Frankfurt contrasts bullshitting and lying. Where the liar makes deliberately false claims, the bullshitter is simply uninterested in the truth. Rather, bullshitters aim primarily to impress their audiences. Whereas the liar needs to know the truth the better to conceal it, the bullshitter, interested solely in pretense, has no use for the truth. By virtue of this, Frankfurt claims, "bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are."

"Part of its attraction lies in watching a first-rate mind dissect a second-rate concept.

Full text is in the link.

On Bullshit...

Thanks for learning about a part of Dayton's, and the nation's, history.

NPT (PBS) in Nashville ran this program (on DVD)a few weeks ago and it was a great DOC. to see.

The size of these large computers and what they did makes my jaw just drop.

Check it out on the topic of 'code'

The Dayton Codebreakers...

And we will soon have a free DOC Screening Room where you can see some of the latest docs, or your own!

Check it out.... Enjoy TV from real people.... and learn something...

The Documentary Channel...

Word reaches the Deeplung ear that Intel's Yonah processor, which ships under the Intel Core Duo moniker, has features that aren't being exposed to the consumer. Intel's Sossaman is the key, and Sossaman is the codename for an ultra low voltage Yonah to be shipped under the Xeon brand, into the server and workstation space.

And it transpires that Sossaman supports iAMD64, er, sorry, 'EM64T', symmetric multi-processing with another Sossaman Xeon, and hardware virtualisation. Intel's implementation of the 64-bit extension to x86, SMP and hardware VT are all missing from the official specs of Intel Core Duo consumer processors, despite Yonah and Sossaman being the same thing.

While hardware VT and SMP aren't really on the consumer radar for notebook users, the ability to move to a 64-bit version of Windows or Linux, with a supporting platform of course, surely appeals. It's therefore surprising to see Intel seem to hide away that ability in its Intel Core Duo chips, which now power a range of Apple products lest we forget.

Why so, Intel? Possibly even more beanworthy, especially if you love your CPU silicon as much as we do, is the whisper that Intel also engineered a version of Pentium-M with HyperThreading, 'back in the day'. While that matters little with the way the Core Duo platform has debuted, since it would seem to offer nothing that two complete cores can't do better, it's an interesting HEXUS.bean nonetheless, eh readers?

Hmmm ...

Intel Yonah hidden features exposed

Buoyed by the success of the DVD versions of shows such as Family Guy and The Simpsons, TV shows are repackaged for DVD release in increasing numbers these days, and the phenomenon of having entire seasons of our favorite shows available in a convenient format like a boxed set has been blamed in part for the decline in movie theater ticket sales this year. But it's not just a matter of slapping the masters onto a disc, designing some menus, and shipping out the finished product. The Hollywood Reporter reports, appropriately enough, on the impact that copyright considerations and license fees are having on DVD releases of content, new or old.

Thanks to the limitless generosity fiscal acuity of the record labels, coupled with copyright extension after copyright extension, the good folks who handle DVD releases are often faced with a tough choice in the face of demands from copyright holders on old songs: raise the product price to compensate for licensing fees, rescore parts or all of the release, or don't build a DVD at all. The outcomes, then, are American Dreams: Season 1, Extended Music Edition for US$89, or Crime Story without Del Shannon's Runaway in the intro, or no WKRP in Cincinnati boxed set at all.

While the HR story is a good read, it fails to make a couple of important connections. First of all, the licensing fee won't go away, even if the DVD format does. In yet another example of how the entertainment industry is built on the concept of charging us for the same content over and over again, new fees will be waged and then passed on to consumers for the next-gen DVD version, and again when online delivery obsoletes all those discs. Will the final incarnation of the Around the Beatles show be stripped of all Beatles songs, or will I need to hock my spleen to afford it? And let's remember who really profits from the fees levied. Hint: it's rarely the artists and composers. At least one movie studio has itself to blame if their next DVD release is hampered by licensing issues. Have you noticed how copyright terms seem to get extended by a few years every time Mickey Mouse is close to going public domain?

When the aftermarket for music is enjoying such a drastic increase in value, it affects not only the re-release market. The numbers on the price tag tick up for other uses as well, since the providers now have to consider the possibility that their content might get reused in ways not even thought up yet. A license covering all possible uses will naturally be more expensive than one for a limited-run TV show plus syndication. It's bad enough that our precious entertainment is hamstrung by these issues, but some of the effects are more wide-ranging than that. We have already discussed how licensing problems and copyright are placing restraints on the educational system, public education, and even on the legacy we leave for our descendants to ponder. All in the name of making a buck off (mostly) old songs.... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

How TV shows on DVD suffer from music licensing