You're missing the point. The end result of capitalism is a single monopoly. We saw it at the beginning of the last century, and it is making a fashionable comeback at the beginning of this century. Corporations have no obligations to the consumer, their only legal obligation is to the shareholder. That's why there are decisions by companies like Firestone that figure 100 deaths is better than 1 million recalls: simple math. Our current system of government is toothless against these corporations. First, corporations make huge contributions to lawmakers. Even if you don't believe this is a "pay-to-play" system, one must admit that all that cash gives AOL/Time-Warner a rather loud megaphone to broadcast its views. Second, corporations have all the rights of humans (except for the Fourth Amendment, I believe), with none of the pesky drawbacks, like mortality.
"Big Media" is a problem because "Big Media" has an interest in what news it lets its consumers hear. Did anyone expect to hear criticism on the Time-Warner holdings about the AOL/Time-Warner merger? Recently, The Boston Globe refused to run an ad critical of Staples. (See FAIR for a summary) The Globe is owned by the same company that owns The LA Times -- both with strong ties to Staples.
This "Corporate Republic bullshit" is not getting old. It's terrifying to see that success is measured only in dollars. It's horrifying to see large corporations spreading their money around, strangling voices of dissent with cash. It's disgusting that people aren't pissed about the narrowing of social dialogue.
I love this. Salon uses sex to sell eyeballs and "Premium" subscriptions as much as E3 does to hype games (check out their "Sex" section and their partnership with Nerve). Objectification of women is pretty bad, but the holier-than-thou tone is a bit much. It's like Playboy criticizing Penthouse for showing pictures of nekkid girls.
...the Ultimate Question is actually "What do you get if you multiply six by nine".
It is made pretty clear in context (and from later books) that this is the WRONG question....
But, isn't it the right question? Wasn't that the whole point? You have an inscrutable Answer (42), that turns out to be the wrong answer to the Question (What do you get if you multiply six by nine?), and God had to apologize for the whole mess with His Last Message to His Creation (We're sorry for the inconvenience). It's perfect.
This addresses the fundamental problem of "official" sheet music -- it is not created by the artist him/herself, it's done by some hack who gets paid to figure out the songs and tab them out. In general, the quality is better than on-line tabs, but it's not $20 better.
{rant}
The entertainment industry is becoming a monopoly. A studio can advertize a new movie on the parent company's TV stations. The album is released by the company's record label, containing label-owned artists that the label wants to promote. They can distibute the movie through company-owned movie houses, sell you the soundtrack CD through their record stores, and prosecute you with their lawyers for figuring out the stupid three-chord structure on every fsck-ing song on the albums.
{/rant}
I'm a huge fan of OLGA -- I basically learned to play guitar off the internet. Which may explain why I suck.
Slashdot Mirror
You're missing the point. The end result of capitalism is a single monopoly. We saw it at the beginning of the last century, and it is making a fashionable comeback at the beginning of this century. Corporations have no obligations to the consumer, their only legal obligation is to the shareholder. That's why there are decisions by companies like Firestone that figure 100 deaths is better than 1 million recalls: simple math. Our current system of government is toothless against these corporations. First, corporations make huge contributions to lawmakers. Even if you don't believe this is a "pay-to-play" system, one must admit that all that cash gives AOL/Time-Warner a rather loud megaphone to broadcast its views. Second, corporations have all the rights of humans (except for the Fourth Amendment, I believe), with none of the pesky drawbacks, like mortality.
"Big Media" is a problem because "Big Media" has an interest in what news it lets its consumers hear. Did anyone expect to hear criticism on the Time-Warner holdings about the AOL/Time-Warner merger? Recently, The Boston Globe refused to run an ad critical of Staples. (See FAIR for a summary) The Globe is owned by the same company that owns The LA Times -- both with strong ties to Staples.
This "Corporate Republic bullshit" is not getting old. It's terrifying to see that success is measured only in dollars. It's horrifying to see large corporations spreading their money around, strangling voices of dissent with cash. It's disgusting that people aren't pissed about the narrowing of social dialogue.
I love this. Salon uses sex to sell eyeballs and "Premium" subscriptions as much as E3 does to hype games (check out their "Sex" section and their partnership with Nerve). Objectification of women is pretty bad, but the holier-than-thou tone is a bit much. It's like Playboy criticizing Penthouse for showing pictures of nekkid girls.
It is made pretty clear in context (and from later books) that this is the WRONG question....
But, isn't it the right question? Wasn't that the whole point? You have an inscrutable Answer (42), that turns out to be the wrong answer to the Question (What do you get if you multiply six by nine?), and God had to apologize for the whole mess with His Last Message to His Creation (We're sorry for the inconvenience). It's perfect.
This addresses the fundamental problem of "official" sheet music -- it is not created by the artist him/herself, it's done by some hack who gets paid to figure out the songs and tab them out. In general, the quality is better than on-line tabs, but it's not $20 better.
{rant}
The entertainment industry is becoming a monopoly. A studio can advertize a new movie on the parent company's TV stations. The album is released by the company's record label, containing label-owned artists that the label wants to promote. They can distibute the movie through company-owned movie houses, sell you the soundtrack CD through their record stores, and prosecute you with their lawyers for figuring out the stupid three-chord structure on every fsck-ing song on the albums.
{/rant}
I'm a huge fan of OLGA -- I basically learned to play guitar off the internet. Which may explain why I suck.