A very interesting news story yesterday on NBC news about the domestic spying on US Citizens without a warrant.  This story somehow ended up in the last few minutes of the broadcast:

“Prosecutions are unlikely”.  This is one of my biggest problems with the last administration.  Since you aren’t doing anything wrong, the argument goes, you don’t have anything to worry about.

I wonder if any of my phone calls have been listened to. 

Reagan said in his inauguration speech in 1981, “We are a people with a government.  Not the other way around.”  Why are we always made to feel like subjects instead of citizens.

For the past few weeks, I can’t help thinking about an article I read about the end of the USA.  The Wall Street Journal had a story about Igor Pangarin, a Russian analyst who has been predicting the economic fall and separation of the United States for the past ten years.

Now that things are falling apart the way they are, people are taking more notice of him.

You can see the article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html

This article has been weighing on my mind through the inauguration, the news of layoffs– everything.   Pangarin is an analyst, not a psychic– so his predictions are not based on magic.  There have been other stranger predictions (someone told me about John Titor a few years ago, but I don’t put much stake in that), but this, according to WSJ, seems more credible.

Read the article.  It’s spooky.

Is it just a bunch or rubbish?  Probably.  I mean, it has to be, right?

The Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times.

I bought the new Snow Patrol album the other night.

Usually, when I buy music, I use iTunes because it it so easy and they really execute it well. I can buy a track on my iPhone from where ever I am, as long as I’m on a wifi connection. But, then I get the DRM and the headaches that brings along (I can’t put it on a non-IPOD MP3 player, for example, so one of my kids can listen to it).

But this time, I didn’t bother with iTunes and tried out Amazon’s new MP3 service. Although it’s not as convenient as iTunes and I had to boot up the ol’ computer to use it, it allowed me to download the tracks as MP3 format–completely DRM free. It added the tracks (with all the right ID3 tags, etc) straight into iTunes and Windows Media Player. I paid for the music like an adult and they treated me like an adult.

To use Amazon’s MP3 service, you just add the album to your shopping basket like everything else, and then download an MP3 downloader program which is a little window that does nothing but lists the tracks it’s downloading.

The process is very smooth. I am also able to listen to the tracks on my Ubuntu laptop without any fuss.

I mentioned how nice this service is to someone the other day (well, more than just one someone) and was asked, “You actually paid for the music?”

Yes. Yes I did. It cost me only around £6.50 (but older albums are £3), and I can listen to it completely guilt-free.

Anyway, if you buy music, give the Amazon service a try. It’s nice to see some decent competition out there for iTunes.