Record Labels Contemplate Unrestricted Digital Music

Record Labels Contemplate Unrestricted Digital Music
By VICTORIA SHANNON

CANNES, France, Jan. 22 — As even digital music revenue growth falters because of rampant file-sharing by consumers, the major record labels are moving closer to releasing music on the Internet with no copying restrictions — a step they once vowed never to take.

Executives of several technology companies meeting here at Midem, the annual global trade fair for the music industry, said over the weekend that at least one of the four major record companies could move toward the sale of unrestricted digital files in the MP3 format within months.

Most independent record labels already sell tracks digitally compressed in the MP3 format, which can be downloaded, e-mailed or copied to computers, cellphones, portable music players and compact discs without limit.

Zoo: Male panda too fat to have sex

By SUTIN WANNABOVORN
Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand — Chuang Chuang the Panda is just too heavy to have sex.

Thai authorities have put him on a strict diet as part of a long-running campaign to get him to mate with female partner Lin Hui at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand.

"Chuang Chuang is gaining weight too fast and we found Lin Hui is no longer comfortable with having sex with him," said the zoo's chief veterinarian, Kanika Limtrakul, adding that Chuang Chuang weighed 331 pounds while Lin Hui is only 253 pounds.

As a result, zoo authorities are cutting out bamboo shoots in the daily meal for Chuang Chuang and giving the obese bear only bamboo leaves, Kanika said.

Playboy Playmates pranked into Apollo 12 mission checklists

Back in 1969, some pranksters at NASA inserted scanned images of three Playboy centerfolds (on fireproof plastic paper!) into the little checklists the Apollo 12 astronauts took into space.



[Apollo 12 crew member Pete] Conrad got Miss September 1967 Angela Dorian ("Seen any interesting hills and valleys?") and Miss October 1967 Reagan Wilson ("Preferred tether partner"). [Al] Bean got Miss December 1969 Cynthia Myers ("Don't forget — Describe the protuberances") and Miss January 1969 Leslie Bianchini ("Survey — her activity").
Conrad told us in 1994: "I had no idea they were with us. It wasn't until we actually got out on the lunar surface and were well into our first moon walk that I found them." Bean recalled: "It was about two and a half hours into the extravehicular activity. I flipped the page over and there she was. I hopped over to where Pete was and showed him mine, and he showed me his."

Bush On North Korea: 'We Must Invade Iraq'

Bush On North Korea: 'We Must Invade Iraq'

Eiffel tower made of matches

EnglishRussia writes -

"A guy from Ukraine, Alexandr Pashkevich, has made a model of Eiffel Tower from matches.

The height of the structure is 3,3 ft (1 meter) and it consits of 15 000 different details made from 7464 matches.

More than that there is a illumination in the tower, made of numerous LEDs

10 Top Tech Towns

Using highly scientific methodology as well as algorithms snuck out of NASA and Google, we analyzed cities across the US to find the top 10 places to get your geek on.

40 Photos of Abandonned Amusement Park

Some very interesting photos. Awful site hosting them, but the photos are very good.