DudeAsInCool

170 innocent people were just killed in Spain by terroirsts... What's with the anti-American rant here...??? As to the thesis statement above, I guess it comes down to defining what a terrorist is and then defining what you think Bush's goals are. I too would like to hear an example of where Bush inflicted terror upon innocent civilians to accomplish his goals. I think you can accuse Bush of a lot of things--arrogance--of being being a big bully --of being a Plutocrat--and to a minor extent, a religious zealot (Like Bin Laden ). You could say, that Bush's actions/American policy indirectly hurt civilians in Iraq, and for that matter, US Soldiers--but you would be hard pressed to say he was a terrorist to the people in Iraq, given who he went after... From my pov, if civilians are purposely killed, I dont give a fuck what someone's rationale is --freedom fighter or not --its WRONG--and the means dont justify the ends--ever. Im about as anti-Bush as they come--but Bush shouldnt be mentioned in the same light as these thugs. Are Bush's policies threatening to world peace? I probably would agree with you, Method, particularly when he sometimes thumbs his nose at the rest of the world's leaders and diverts his attention to Iraq instead of going after the Al Queda. But make no mistake about it, the current group of terrorists the world is up agains have no respect for human life whatsoever. They are selfish, power-hungry twisted religious nuts, and they've got to go. I realize that the US government's current policies has damaged America around the world--and there are many of his who are quite critical of his policies- both domestically and abroad. But you mustn't forget, that America has also done a lot of great things. I dont see many other countries stepping up to the plate these days. Why should we always be the scapegoats for the problems of the world? So, Method, where are the good guys? I dont see any bright lights coming out of Europe and stepping in to save the day..for instance, in Africa, where the slaughter continues year after year.. And MikeH, while i agree we need to rid ourselves of terrorists, Im not in line with your belief that you have to carry a big stick and intimidate the rest of the world to do so.

Didnt know you were into rasslin' shawn... :P

Mysty is in the house! :dancin: :dancin:

Kooper - I think the 'removal of public hair' must have come up when I was looking at the BK Thug Thread which contained the indecent exposure of your ass... And Shawn, the reason we are blessed with so many church ads, is because Beatking is the last refuge for God's Children. Amen. B)

What is the difference between indecent assault and sexual assault - contact? And wouldntthe statutes of limitations apply? Any legal eagles in the house? And how come, other than an occassional frisky school teacher, you never hear much about women preying on the young? It's always some sinister dude (or preacher) in a raincoat? My guess is that sexual abuse is far more prevalent...

I was beng facetious. Actually, Limbaugh is funnier than Howared Stern. The question is, why, after all these years of the shock jocks, and enormous profits for Clear Channel, all of as sudden, there is a problem? Do you think the FCC's charges, and congress's recent vote, are truly because people woke up one fine day and said, oh my god, what Stern does is obscene and must be removed from our airwaves for the sake of our children. Or, do you think, the actions are poltically motivated? As to the question of indecency...that trend started when the legitmate news outlets began to mirror American Media's Natl Enquirer, et tal. (Did you know that all the major news outlets have American Media on retainer?) I would agree that Stern and others have long passed the line of propriety... So what took so long for the FCC and others to do something about it?

Ive just noticed that a lot of the ads are working in synconicity. There are Beatles music ads above as I post this. Clearly Google must be sending info back for those ads to register above. How does that work?

Hey, if we get to censor, lets start with Limbaugh... At least Stern is funny at times.

Probably get the songs quicker than the coffee :P

No different than the jukebox if you think about it - here you get to take the song and packaging home. The price is still too high - 25/50 cents would be more reasonable -but this idea should have been born from Tower, Best Buy, et tal, a long time ago. At least youre getting the songs you want...

:reallymad:

My mom has one - she also has a Tippy Canoe and Tyler too medal

If you look at Magical Mystery Tour as a series of music videos ( the Beatles pretty much invented the form) for TV then the thing sorta works in segments. At least they had the Magical Tour idea as a concept...most music videos never have any theme at all A Hard Days Night and Yellow Submarine still hold up as films today

Umma, could I borrow a topless photo? :P

This means only 22 people saw the danger in this on freedom of speech--unbelievable. The Senatorial side is a bit more in tune with the real world.... hopefully

Certainly the most polished one--I think Im partial to Revolver though, because that is when the experimentation really began to work... George seemed to have eye on the pulse of things, and was less egocentric.. Kind of refreshing to hear things from him..

It was bad enough seeing Kooper's ass...

I think...just to be safe...that I better give my mac a shot of penicillen

Ive chosen to ignore the rankings...I agree, CD, theyre silly. But I do think its a good idea to have a comopendium of the best guitarists though..so this forum is just a start...

nice pic, homes

The cant help it they are growing OLD, ASUM. :P

Since you are a music man, check out this cool 80s french movie in the video bins: Diva (I prefer the subtitled version)... Its sort of a heist movie with a twist, very cool cinematography, and an operatic score and one of my favorite movies

Re: Ladder Theory Criticism:I have lots of male friends who would never think of me that way blah blah blah. Answer:Your friend doesn't find you attractive, or he's currently doing better, or he's gay or you're wrong. Criticism:That's not true Answer:Yes it is. :frog:

excluding NPR, ive never heard one

State of the Art: Hand-Helds That Offer Video to Go March 11, 2004 By DAVID POGUE IF you hadn't noticed, audio inventions are inevitably followed by corresponding video versions. Radio begat TV; audio tape begat videotape; CD's begat DVD's. It was only a matter of time, then, before it occurred to somebody to invent, for want of a better term, the video iPod: a hand-held personal-entertainment gizmo with a color screen capable of playing movies. That idea has certainly occurred to Microsoft. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Bill Gates demonstrated prototypes of something un-catchily named the Microsoft Portable Media Center. Creative Labs, iRiver, Samsung, Sanyo and ViewSonic all intend to unveil Microsoft-based video players by year's end. But you don't have to wait. Two hand-held video players are already on the market, each marching to its own non-Microsoft drummer: the Archos AV320 and the RCA Lyra RD2780. You can find them online for $336 and $420, respectively, not bad considering that music-only players with the same capacity (20 gigabytes) cost about $300. Now, video players will never be quite the smash hit that audio players have been. One significant difference is that there aren't as many times and places for using one. For example, it's O.K. to listen to music as you drive, jog or perform surgery, but probably not such a great idea to watch movies. You have to load your player with video a lot more often, too; you might listen to a favorite song 100 times in your life, but you probably have a lower tolerance for repeated viewings of, say, "2 Fast 2 Furious." Still, the video pod concept has much to offer. Such a device can turn any airline into JetBlue, with its personal seat-back TV screens, except that you control what's available and you don't miss the ending of "Friends" when the guy in front of you reclines into your lap. When you finally get to your secluded vacation cabin, you can hook the video pod up to a TV for a whole weekend of VHS-quality movie viewing. The Lyra even has a Compact Flash card slot, so when you've filled up your digital camera with nature photos, you can empty out the memory card onto the player and return to the field, ready for more shooting. In many ways, the Archos and the Lyra video players are two peas in an electronics store. Each is an 11- or 12-ounce rectangular slab too big and too heavy for a pocket. The Lyra is thinner but longer (5.4 inches by 3.1 inches by 1 inch); the Archos is smaller but thicker (4.4 by 3.2 by 1.2). The bright, clear color screen measures 3.5 inches (Lyra) or 3.8 inches diagonally (the Archos). A permanent rechargeable battery plays video for a little over three hours; the Archos provides 10 hours of music playback by shutting off its screen (a feature RCA plans to add to the Lyra in a software update later this month). Inside, a 20-gigabyte hard drive holds about 20 movies, 5,000 songs, or 200,000 photos. (The Archos is available in 40- and 80-gigabyte models for those who feel constrained by that repressive 200,000-picture limit.) A home screen shows icons for the player's contents: Video, Audio, Photos, and Files, for example. (Oh, that's right - you can use a video pod as an external hard drive for transporting Mac or PC files back and forth.) Using a cheap-feeling, often-exasperating plastic joystick next to the screen, you open the "folder" you want, choose a song, picture or movie, and then press Play. So how did those songs, pictures and movies get onto the machine to begin with? When you hook the player up to a Mac or PC with a U.S.B. 2.0 cable, the player appears on the screen as though it's a hard drive; you drag your pictures and music into the corresponding folders. (The Archos can also use a special FireWire cable, although the company has the gall to charge $60 for it.) Getting video onto the player is a more complicated story. The easiest way is to use the video pod as a glorified VCR, using its Record button. As your VCR, camcorder or TiVo plays, the player records its video feed in real time. The Archos can even record from commercial tapes and DVD's. (The RCA is designed to prevent that sort of lawyer bait, although the Web is full of workarounds.) If you prefer to transfer video directly from your Mac or PC - a movie you've made, for example, or one you've downloaded - buckle your seat belts; it's going to be a geeky ride. These machines require something called MPEG-4-encoded Divx 4 or 5 files. Converting movie files into this special format requires special software - Archos provides it, RCA does not - and a good deal of technical expertise. Nobody ever said that 1.0 versions of anything are perfect, but that's especially true of the Lyra, whose software is appallingly half-baked. Many actions - trying to adjust the brightness of a photo, change the graphic equalizer or push the joystick up or down - produce only a message that says: "Feature will be available in future upgrades. Visit rca.com/lyra for details." RCA has indeed released several software upgrades since the machine's debut in November, but Lyra owners online (including some of those posting reviews at Amazon.com) grumble that they've paid for the privilege of doing RCA's beta-testing. Apparently trying to compensate, RCA includes an especially generous assortment of accessories right in the box: a carrying case, cigarette-lighter adapter, and even an adapter that plays the music or soundtrack through your car's cassette player. You feel as though you've just bought a car with the most expensive options package and then, when you step on the brake at 65 miles an hour, a message says, "Feature will be available in future upgrades." Nor is that the only surprising lapse in the Lyra's design. The whole operating system is, to use the technical term, dog slow; you'll practically spend as much time looking at the hourglass icon as at your movies. Dark scenes in movies frequently fall apart into bursts of pixel crumbs. There's no Back button, so if you want to change songs or movies, you must return to the main menu screen and begin drilling down again. You don't get an instruction book, not even on a CD. (You're told to download the electronic manual from the Web.) In short, Lyra self-help groups are surely forming in church basements all around the country. The Archos player lacks those particular inanities, and even offers perks like a remote control and a built-in microphone for voice notes, but it's not perfect, either. It could really use something like the Lyra's kickstand to hold it upright on a table. The various input and output jacks on the player's edges are labeled, but on a different face of the device; more than once, you'll inadvertently stick the headphones into the identical-looking microphone jack. Similarly, onscreen labels often appear to identify the changing functions of the three vertically stacked physical control buttons, but the labels are arrayed across the bottom of the screen, rather than vertically beside the buttons themselves. Make no mistake: it's quite a technical feat to build a personal video player that does so much and costs so little. And compared with, say, personal DVD players, these early players cost less and take up a lot less space; they also offer recording features and play a lot more than just Hollywood movies. Apparently, adding polish and coherence to this seething mass of features is an even greater feat, however. RCA ought to send the young Lyra to its room without supper, so that it can think about what it means to be a well-behaved video pod. Archos, on the other hand, has the first truly usable video pod on its hands - a little rough in spots, but otherwise ready for prime time. Alas, that prime time may be only a short time. You know how, near the end of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," Aragorn and his tiny band take a hopeless, desperate stand against the vast Orc armies that pour from evil Sauron's gates? As RCA and Archos watch Microsoft's own video-pod armies amassing behind a different sort of Gates, they probably know exactly how Aragorn felt. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/11/technolo...670cf765694054b