timmmii

It's headline news: "American's are Losing their Religion."

"New research shows young Americans are dramatically less likely to go to church - or to participate in any form of organized religion - than their parents and grandparents." Harvard professor Robert Putnam conducted the research that found 30 to 40 percent of younger Americans answered "none" to questions asked about their religious affiliations, but weren't necessarily atheists. Historically this number was much lower, tallying up to 5 to 10 percent at most. Putnam calls this a "stunning development." His research will be included in a forthcoming book called "American Grace."

Have we really lost our religion? Is it something we desperately need to find, like our keys? Or have we purposefully let go of it when it was time, like tossing an empty Starbucks cup in the trash? Maybe we've simply had our fill in our childhoods, and see no point to return to those buildings for weekly worship while dropping 10% of our income into a wicker basket.

This is news? Sounds more like common sense to me. Each generation is radically different from the previous, or at least would like to think so. Most of us Generation X and Y-ers aren't going to work the same job for 30 years, collect a retirement package at age 65, pass go, move to Florida, and live happily ever after. All that social security we are paying into probably won't pan out for us. We traded in fat-free for organic, baggy button-downs for t-shirts, and religion for self-reflection and private practice.

My generation is waking up to faiths that preach to be kind to everyone and serve the poor, while rebuilding their multi-million dollar churches every year and abusing children. We don't always lose faith in God. We have lost it in the people clenching the velvet ropes. We see the sham, the ridiculousness, the corruptness that spiritual power raises in people. We don't need a building that runs like a corporation to talk to God. Heaven save us if we start meditating and realize that God is within us. All of us. Everything you need to know is right there inside of you. Meditation is free, you don't have to be anywhere in particular to practice, and you might just start to lose lots of things that you don't need anymore. Our generation is waking up to how things actually are.

NPR.org, May 11, 2009 - The moment I heard Patrick Watson's new record, Wooden Arms, it was love at first listen. Within hours, I was on the phone, trying to find out more about the singer-songwriter and sorting out how to capture his performance on video for everyone to see and hear.

As it turned out, this Montreal-based musician was to be in New York City the same day I was going to be there, so I asked the good people at WNYC if they loved Watson's music as much as I did. The next thing I knew, he was booked to perform on John Schaefer's wonderful show Soundcheck. I came armed with a few video cameras and witnessed a brilliant band — guitarist Simon Angell, drummer Robbie Kuster and bassist Mishka Stein — performing vibrant, thoughtful and textured pop music.

While few know Patrick Watson, he's been around for a while already. Watson co-wrote and performed on a few songs from The Cinematic Orchestra's album Ma Fleur and won the Polaris Music Prize in 2007 for his own critically acclaimed album Close to Paradise.

Wooden Arms is a beautiful collection of songs that bring together delicate pop, ethereal atmosphere and a minimalist sense of composition. Watson's stunning, romantic voice soars above the guitars and highly orchestrated melodies amid a driving pulse of precise piano work. Meanwhile, Kuster's clattering percussion is crisply performed on snare drums, marimbas and household pots turned upside-down. It's an inspired sound from a great young artist.

Twitter has rapidly become an invaluable tool for news outlets: news anchors are using Twitter constantly to ask questions and gather feedback from their audience, while CNN’s Breaking News account is the #2 most followed user on Twitter. But what ABC and Twitter are about to do tops our list for the boldest use of Twitter within traditional media.

So what’s ABC conjouring up? Well, its popular Nightline news program and anchors are going to host a weekly online news program that uses Twitter for debate and questions. It’s called NightTline. Yes, that’s Nightline with two Ts. The show airs its first episode this Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. EST.

According to ABC, the show will take on Nightline’s Face-Off model, which pits two opposing sides on an issue that an ABCNEWS anchor provides and moderates. It’s a model that causes a lot of heated debate and verbal exchanges, perfect for an easily-distracted online audience. The first question on NightTline? “Is torture ever acceptable?”

Twitter will be integral to the entire show. There will be a Twitter widget that allows viewers to chime in on the discussion or ask questions during the debate. The Nightline anchors will also use Pixel touchscreen technology to display and interact with the debate occurring on Twitter.

The show will air digitally on the Nightline website as well as ABC News Now, ABC’s digital distribution network. We’re very interested to see how much the show will rely on user participation via Twitter () for questions or responses to the debaters. This could a be very cool concept or this could fall flat on its face. We’ll just have to watch to find out.

One of the Pirate Bay's founders has vowed to pay off his court-ordered fine (if it isn't successfully appealed, I assume) by getting net-users to send tiny sums to the entertainment industry's law-firm, thus swamping them with transaction fees that could cost them millions:

A friend of anakata told Blog Pirate that the bank account to which the payments are directed has only 1000 free transfers, after which any transfers have a surcharge of 2 SEK for the account holder. Any internet-fee payments made after the first 1000, which includes the law firm's ordinary transfers, will instead of giving 1 SEK, cost 1 SEK to the law firm. Since Danowsky & Partners Advokatbyrå is a small firm, all the transactions are handled by hand. Handling all payments will be time consuming, costing the law firm in productivity. Maybe it will even affect their success in other cases...

Additionally if after paying the internet-fee you determine that your payment was erroneous, Swedish law states that you can request the money back, putting an additional load on Danowsky's law firm.

Pirate Bay Founder Devises DDo$ Attack (via /.)

I'm tired of the word "content" as a descriptor for what I produce (video, blog posts). Henceforth, I vow to instead use the term "fixins."42 minutes ago from Tweetie

xenijardin

ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis beauty salon owner accidentally happened upon one of the hottest Hollywood scripts — the pages from an upcoming "Twilight" sequel — in a trash bin.

Casey Ray found two scripts, one for the vampire sequel "New Moon" and one for a different movie titled "Memoirs." She decided to return them to the studio making the films. In return, she was invited to attend the movies' premieres, her lawyer said.

Ray recently was waiting for her fiance to finish work when she spotted two scripts in a trash container. She was outside a hotel where actors were staying during a St. Louis shoot for the upcoming George Clooney movie, "Up in the Air."

It's not clear how the scripts wound up in the bin.

The Clooney movie includes actress Anna Kendrick, who is also in the "Twilight" vampire movie. A spokeswoman for Kendrick, Lisa Perkins, said the actress wouldn't have left scripts lying around.

When Ray found the scripts, she considered leaking them to a national tabloid but decided against it, said her lawyer, Al Watkins.

"My client didn't really want to get paid," he said, but she was interested in hanging onto the scripts as collector's items.

Watkins helped her return them to Los Angeles-based Summit Entertainment LLC, the studio making the movies. He said the studio invited Ray to premieres for the two films, and will certify the scripts as authentic after the movies are released.

"Summit doesn't comment on any of the deals it does," Summit spokesman Paul Pflug said. But he added, "We thank Ms. Ray for doing the right thing."

The "Twilight" movies are based on the novels of Stephenie Meyer, so many of the plot turns are well known to readers. But keeping the "New Moon" script written by Melissa Rosenberg out of the public eye preserves which elements of the book will be included in the films, Pflug noted.

Last year's original "Twilight" film grossed over $350 million worldwide.

They're very lucky she was an honest woman.