- Time to get your free music elsewhere, LimeWire users. Napster popped up and was shot down as a free filesharing service, reemerging as a neutered version of itself that no one likes or uses, and now LimeWire faces a similar quandary after a judge ruled that its main filesharing functions must be disabled. Manhattan Federal District Court Judge Kimba Wood ruled that functions that led to file-sharing through the site must be disabled. In announcing her decision, Wood decreed that the company must disable the site's "searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality." In essence, she gutted what makes Limewire Limewire. If people can’t upload or download files and share them with other users, then they have no use for LimeWire. It’s like giving someone a cell phone except there is no service plan and no cell towers for 2,000 miles - what’s the point? The decision is the tipping point of a battle LimeWire’s owners have been fighting the past four-plus years in a series of court cases against various record companies. The labels have sued LimeWire on copyright infringement charges and on Tuesday, Wood gave those labels the kill shot they were looking for. Predictably, the Recording Industry Association Of America could not wait to gloat over the decision and released a statement saying: "For the better part of the last decade, LimeWire and [company founder Mark] Gorton have violated the law. The court has now signed an injunction that will start to unwind the massive piracy machine that LimeWire and Gorton used to enrich themselves immensely." Likewise, LimeWire posted a depressing message on its Web site conceding defeat and waving the electronic white flag: "This is an official notice that LimeWire is under a court-ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its filesharing software. Downloading or sharing copyrighted content without authorization is illegal." As for the Napster analogy…..it appears that LimeWire is headed down the same road because its executives plan to hold talks with representatives from record labels in the U.S. in an attempt to negotiate a legitimized version of the site. Don’t even bother, LimeWire, because no one has any interest in that………
- Offering to donate $1 million to charity is a grandiose gesture and worthy of admiration…..until the details of your offer emerge and it’s clear that there’s as much chance of Rosie O’Donnell becoming the next Miss America as you actually making that donation. So no credit to Liberty Mutual Insurance for its offer to donate a total of $1 million to charity if a college football game this season was completed with no penalties. Why is this offer such a farce? Well, consider that that the last penalty-free game between two college football teams was 24 years ago, when Army took on Navy, and you begin to understand just how small a financial risk the insurance giant is taking. But they sure did churn out a super-sounding press release for the promotion, a release reading: “Pioneering the pursuit of sportsmanship, integrity, responsibility, and excellence on the field, the quest for the penalty-free game – worth $1 million to charity – is taking place for the first time during the 2010 season. Liberty Mutual will (up to $500,000 per team) to a charity selected by each school. If more than one game is completed penalty-free, the million-dollar donation will be split among all winning schools’ charities.” The actual odds of a penalty-free game are 16,000-to-1, so the company won't go completely overboard promoting this, right? Wrong. “Performance through excellence and sportsmanship, on and off the field, are pillars upon which the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Award stands. We know that ultimately it’s about winning, and coaches and their teams play to win. We don’t want to change that but if a team can achieve that win - without a penalty on either side - we want to celebrate that accomplishment,” beamed Greg Gordon, Liberty Mutual senior vice president. Very big of you, G. Shockingly, there have been no games this season free of penalties and thus far, only three Division I schools have reached the achievement at all. Ole Miss on Sept. 4 vs. Jacksonville State, Ohio State on Sept. 18 vs. Ohio and Notre Dame last week vs. Navy. I’ll go out on a limb and say that Liberty Mutual goes the rest of this season without having to pay a dime on this offer. Then again, that means they can trot it out next year, even double the prize and still have nothing to worry about………
- One giant step for mankind….towards living on Mars. That’s right, we’re one step closer to being able to cram all of our undesirables into a giant space squad car and send them off to live on the red planet next door after the rover Spirit that is currently stuck on Mars discovered evidence that liquid water still exists below the planet’s surface. That means the soft Martian soil could eventually be home to human life…..just as long as it’s the life of people we can do without here on Earth. Spirit may end up as something of a martyr in this story, as it became stuck after breaking through the crust of a sand pit called “Troy” in April 2009, leaving the craft immobilized. NASA officially gave up on trying to extract the rover in January, yet in its broken-down state, Spirit’s still-spinning wheels exposed the soil that led to the discovery that water is still under the ground. Those exposed surface layers contain minerals thought to be hematite, silica and gypsum, which don’t dissolve easily in water. However, a few centimeters below the crust are layers of iron sulfate minerals, which do dissolve easily. Putting two and two together, that’s evidence of water, maybe in the form of frost or snow, which has seeped into the ground recently and carried the soluble minerals deeper into the soil. NASA scientists postulate that this seepage could have occurred during cycles in Mars’ history when the planet tilted further on its axis. The fact that none of the soluble materials are visible on the surface indicates
the soil interacted with water recently. Factoring in the omnipresent Martian winds that constantly reshape the planet’s surface and you know that these layers would have long ago eroded away had they not come to be in the past few months. The Spirit rover team also speculated that the water could also have come from fumaroles or hot vents beneath the surface. All of these fun facts are available in a publication I’m sure you all subscribe to and read religiously, the Journal of Geophysical Research. “On Earth, fumaroles and hydrothermal systems provide the environmental conditions, water, nutrients and energy sources needed to sustain robust microbial communities,” the team wrote. “It seems likely that the region in and around Home Plate may have likewise supported a habitable environment.” For now, no one knows how much water there is and if enough of a supply exists to sustain life for a prolonged period of time. But hey, we can hope………
- If NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is serious about making American football a staple of the European sports scene, and it appears that he is, then there are a few points he needs to consider. For the fourth straight season, the league will play a game at London’s Wembley Stadium and for the third time in those four years, the game will feature two of the crappiest teams in the NFL. This time, we’re offering Brits the distinct privilege of watching the San Francisco 49ers (1-6) take on the mighty Denver Broncos (2-5). We’re shipping our national sport across the Atlantic and THAT’S the matchup we’re going with? Look, I realize that planning and staging this game is a huge undertaking and teams that will be taking part need to know as far in advance as possible because the trip absolutely wrecks their regular schedule, but this might be a good time to incorporate the flex scheduling the league uses over the latter part of the season in order to give NBC and ESPN the best prime-time games and apply it to the London game. Maybe have four teams on notice that they may be playing in London and pick the two best from that group. The two teams that don’t go will be thrilled to avoid the hassle even as they scramble to put together a plan to sell tickets for and host the game at their home field. Another point Goodell would be wise to consider is that Europeans as a whole don’t give a rat’s ass about American football. Seriously, I was just there and in most countries, I found people who had no idea who LeBron James is. If they don’t know the most recognizable player in an American sport that truly is global, how much less must they care about the NFL? Yet there’s Goodell, insisting that the NFL is moving f/w with plans to increase the number of games it plays overseas. "Each year, the different barometers indicate that our popularity continues to rise," Goodell said this week. "I think the next step will be multiple games (in Europe). And if that's successful then I think the idea of a franchise here is realistic." That’s right, his ultimate expansion goal is having a full-time franchise in London. What Goodell’s problem may be is mistaking the positive reviews from the teams that have made the trip on a one-time basis as endorsements of the possibility of having teams regularly make the voyage. Again, having flown to Europe and spent 9 or 10 hours on a plane, it’s not something you want to do often. So placing a team in London, unless you have three other teams in Europe to form an entire division, would mean that team making eight trips to the U.S. each season for road games and eight teams having to fly to London for Games. Currently, the league gives any team playing in London their bye week following the trip, but bye weeks occur in the fourth through eighth weeks of the season. What happens if a team plays the London Big Bens in Week 14 in jolly old England? Do they wait for a Week 15 bye? All of these factors must be addressed before Goodell and his cronies try to drop a team in London, which he is intent on doing “as fast as is practical." None of this is meant as an indictment of London, which is a great city. It’s more an indictment of trying to force the NFL into a place where it just wouldn’t be a good fit in the name of greed……
- There are situations in life where you’re just not sure which side to take. Both sides are either equally likeable or equally loathsome and there is no right choice. This would be one of those situations and in this case, the problem is that neither side if sympathetic or likeable. On the one side, you have ABC’s subpar sitcom Modern Family, which has angered some oversensitive Peruvians who were offended by a joke on last week’s episode. On the other hand is the dynamic duo of ABC and Modern Family, a combo that is about as palatable as human waste and ice cream. In the offending episode, Jay (Ed O’Neill) makes a remark about Colombia and Gloria (Sofia Vergara) replies, “Ah, here we go. Because, in Colombia, we trip over goats and we kill people in the street. Do you know how offensive that is? Like we’re Peruvians!” Uh-oh! That remark caught the attention of various alarmist/watchdog groups, groups like the online collection of no-humor tools known as Peru USA Southern Ca. Milagros Lizarraga, founder of the online group, whined, “It’s incredible that in a country where everything is politically correct, ABC would have a line of this sort.” No Milagros, what’s incredible is that anyone is watching Modern Family at all. Ed O’Neill? Seriously? That guy is still alive and getting roles in prime-time shows? I haven’t checked lately, but something tells me the ratings for this garbage heap of a show aren’t exactly pressing the finales of M*A*S*H and Seinfeld for the top of the all-time TV ratings mountain. Of course, a terrible show is no less detestable than a group of stick-up-their-butt, humorless people who take every passing joke that includes their nationality, race or religion as a reason to go. Simmer down, angry Peruvians, and realize that you’re wasting time and energy on a show that probably 12 people saw. For the record, ABC has not responded to requests for comment on the matter, but it’s not exactly a travesty if they don’t respond at all………
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