Since the days of Alexander the Great, binge drinking has been a very popular past time - leading to him apparently killing a friend and burning down Persepolis while drunk.

Those are some Great shoes to fill.

Yet, governments, schools and the media have repeatedly tried to teach us of binge drinking's dangers. 

Dartmouth University has taken the lead, instigating a new nationwide policy to curb heavy drinking by their students.

Pour me another glass.

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men — or four or more drinks in a row by women — at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2 weeks."

Seems I don't know anyone who isn't a heavy binge drinker.

Do you think this definition should be changed or should we change people's attitudes? Or should you follow HPD's no fools guide to drinking a lot but not dying?  . . read more

Mark Stroman was executed today after exhausting all appeals and even an emotional plea from one of his victims who believed that Stroman’s execution would not resolve anything. Stroman went on a Hate Crime killing spree against muslims following the September 11 attacks. His poorly directed racism meant the death of a Hindu practicing Indian, a Pakistani and an attack on a Bangladeshi, who survived. 


Rais Bhuyian made a plea for Stroman’s sentence to be commuted, believing he could become an ambassador against hate crimes. This mans compassion must be respected and revered, yet I doubt Stroman’s ability to shift from a man who murders a Hindu practising Indian as a reaction to an attack organised primarily by Saudi Arabians. Thats a 3331 kilometre geographical error with seven countries in-between.

senseless hatred seems to have been now matched by the senselessness of capital punishment.

Do you support the death penalty? How has bigotry shifted over the last decade and where shall it move in the future? Think, reflect and remember... disqus! . . read more

Terrorism, plain and simple. The American Taliban.   . . read more

As the curtain rises on the stage of deceit we learn that CBS used songs and lyrics for international recording artist, Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan's name is credited to the songs. One of those songs is nominated for a Grammy as best rock song of the year. Ironically the title of that song is Dignity.

Since auditioning for the legendary CBS Record producer John Hammond, Sr., who influenced the careers of music industry icons Billy Holiday, Bob Dylan, Pete Seger, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan, James has engaged in a multimillion dollar copyright infringement law suit with Bob Dylan.

It is judicially uncontested by Bob Dylan and or Bob Dylan's law firms Manatt, Phelps & Phillips , Parcher Hayes & Snyder, Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Heck Brown and Sherry and Sony House Counsel that Bob Dylan and people in Bob Dylan's entourage have solicited James Damiano's songs and music for over ten years and eleven months, as per the law suit.

District Judge Jerome B. Simandle states in his decision "This court will accept as true Plaintiff's allegations that Sony represented to him that he would be credited and compensated for his work if Dylan used it. Judge Simandle also stated in his decision "Plaintiff has demonstrated a genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants had access to his work.  . . read more

The digital music landscape is evolving continuously. Just two years ago RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol defended the use of DRM on digital music because customers would benefit from it.

“DRM serves all sorts of pro-consumer purposes,” he said at the time, without going into detail about the alleged benefits.

However, in the year that followed the numbers of consumers calling for DRM-free music increased and more labels and music services started to offer music without digital restrictions. Still, the RIAA was not convinced that there could be a future without it, and predicted a comeback for DRM last year.

Quite the opposite happened. Although DRM is still present in the majority of the legal music stores, most of the big players have decided to ditch it. Most importantly Apple announced in early 2009 that all music sold via the iTunes store would be free of DRM. This time even the RIAA doesn’t believe that it can be resurrected.

Jonathan Lamy, chief spokesperson for the RIAA declared DRM dead, when he was asked about the RIAA’s view on DRM for an upcoming SCMagazine article. “DRM is dead, isn’t it?” Lamy said, referring to the DRM-less iTunes store and other online outfits that now offer music without restrictions.

When the most vocal forefighters of DRM say so, it must be for real. Although this is the first time that the RIAA have actually said on record that DRM is dead, other players in the music industry have seen the light before them. Most notable IFPI, who said earlier this year that stripping DRM would “significantly boost download sales.”

In this we have to agree with them. All DRM has ever done is annoy consumers who actually paid for their music. No single piece of DRM has ever stopped anyone from pirating music, it’s quite the opposite as the music industry now realizes.

via TorrentFreak

It's a little counter-intuitive to think that a lot of a country's most important ambassadors have nothing to with politics. A lot of the people who create the patchwork image of a country aren't elected and their not really accountable to anyone.

A lot of a country's most important ambassadors are its musicians, sports stars, writers and artists.

Thank God for Australia that we have 'Empire of the Sun'.

Here is a duo of Nick Littlemore (retired from the band) and Luke Steele making clever and catchy pop songs with a highly visual and energetic experience as a background. 

And here they were in Mexico City last night playing to a few thousand fans who jumped up and down wildly, singing along to every song written by a boy from Perth. 

Makes you proud to be Australian and hope that the Kangaroo isn't the only thing the world knows about us.  . . read more

Words matter more than one would think. In the Bush era, certain words have simply been sidelined. Sovereignty, for instance. If, in principle, you can kidnap anyone, anywhere, and transport that person into a ghost existence anywhere else, then national sovereignty essentially no longer has significance. This is one meaning of "globalization" in the twenty-first century. On Planet Bush, only one nation remains "sovereign," and that's the United States of America.

Despite their repeated, thoroughly worn denials about torture, the top officials of this Administration remade themselves, in the wake of the attacks of 9/11, as a Torture, Inc. And their actions since then have gone along way toward turning us, by association and tacit acquiescence, into a nation of torturers, willing to accept, in case after case, that a "war"against "terror" supposed to last for generations justifies just about any act imaginable, including the continued mistreatment and incarceration of people who remain somehow guilty even, in certain cases, after being proven innocent. . . read more

In October 2007 the company Easy Being Green went bankrupt after exploiting a loophole in government legislation that allowed them to hand out energy efficient light bulbs and in turn claim carbon credits on their usage. In 2006 alone, EBG had generated and sold over 3 million NSW Greenhouse Abatement Certificates (proof of carbon credits) at an average price of $14.50 each. When it was revealed most of the light bulbs they were handing out were not being installed the company’s business plan imploded and all staff were made redundant. With companies exploiting environmental concerns to make profit the public is losing faith in the government, and even in itself to bring about change.

Today we look at the 60’s and remember it as a time that nurtured the values and ideals of free thinking, radicalism and activism in reaction to unpopular government agendas. I only hope that in 2050 we don’t look back in regret. . . read more