PlasticBoy

This funny Inquirer piece argues that you’d have to be an idiot to buy any high-def hardware or content.

If you try and purchase any of this content, you descend into a DRM nightmare of incompatibility and legal mires. Your monitor will not work with your Blu-Ray drive because your PC decided that a wobble bit was set wrong. You just pissed away $6K on a player, media center PC and HD TV for nothing, you lose. The Warner CEOs kids have a nice new car to play their pirated CDs in though.

On the other hand, if you downloaded that content, in HD no less, you save the $1000 on the Blu-Ray player, $30 on the movie, and it works seamlessly out of the box. The available content is much higher with piracy, and it is quite on-demand. You don’t need to sign up, give them your details to be sold to marketers who call during dinner and spam you, you just get the content you want, when you want, how you want. There is no iTunes/Plays for (not) Sure incompatibility, it just works. Piracy, the better choice(tm).

It’s time for my year-end playlist. I tried to keep this to around an hour so it could be burned to CD or heard with your 25 free plays. For an extremely comprehensive list check out Thus Spake Drake’s 100+ albums.

Warner Music Group’s Holiday Mix: Nice: For this playlist, Warner Music presents their favorite “nice” holiday favorites — for the lighter side of the season. 1. Welcome Christmas – Dr. Seuss – How The Grinch Stole Christmas 2. Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Barenaked Ladies 3. Here Comes Santa Claus / Santa Claus Is Coming To Town – Linda Eder 4. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year – Amy Grant 5. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! (LP Version) – Chicago 6. The Christmas Song, – (with Nat ‘King’ Cole) – Natalie Cole 7. Merry Christmas Baby – Otis Redding 8. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree – Brenda Lee 9. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (Album Version) – Texas Tornados 10. Jingle Bell Rock – Jerry Jeff Walker 11. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Chris Isaak 12. 2000 Miles – The Pretenders

Warner Music Group’s Holiday Mix: Naughty: Warner Music Group’s vast catalog includes holiday classics from the Pogues and Eartha Kitt as well as newer offerings from Jet and the Flaming Lips. Go ahead and check that list: here are some holiday songs that are more naughty than they are nice. 1. Nuttin’ For Christmas – The Countdown Kids 2. Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt 3. Santa Can’t Stay – Dwight Yoakam 4. Christmas At The Zoo – The Flaming Lips 5. Fairytale Of New York – The Pogues 6. Back Door Santa (Non Album Version) – Jet 7. Sexy Christmas Baby Mine – Morphine 8. You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch – Dr.Seuss 9. Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis – Tom Waits 10. Christmas With You Is The Best – The Long Winters 11. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus – Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

You know you’re out of touch when when you’ve never heard of the number 1 search term on Google’s year-end Zeitgeist

High IQ link to being vegetarian.

A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10… Researchers said the findings were partly related to better education and higher occupational social class, but it remained statistically significant after adjusting for these factors.

Dig This! Winners (December 2006): In this recurring feature, we present you with tracks by some of our favorite rising acts. 1. Let My People Go – Darondo 2. Rubies – Destroyer 3. (A Style Called) Crying Chic – Pop Levi 4. On Citas Feat. Keak Da Sneak – Traxamillion 5. Children Of December – The Slip 6. Legs – Darondo 7. Your Blood – Destroyer 8. Mournin’ Light – Pop Levi 9. The Sideshow Feat. Too $Hort, Mistah F.A.B. – Traxamillion 10. Even Rats – The Slip

Celtic Holiday Cheer: A collection of holiday carols and winter solstice melodies from the Celtic regions of Ireland, Scotland and Cape Breton. 1. O The Holly She Bears A Berry – The Chieftains 2. Christmas Eve Set – Rig The Jig 3. Ding Dong Merrily on High / The Cordial Jig / Old Apples in Winter / Con Cassidy’s – Cherish the Ladies 4. The Wexford Carol – Boys Of The Lough 5. The Snowy Path – Altan 6. I Saw Three Ships A Sailing – The Chieftains 7. Tommy Coen’s Christmas Eve – Frankie Gavin/Carl Hession… 8. The Ditchling Carol – Waterson: Carthy 9. Christmas Day is Come – Anuna 10. Mistletoe Waltz – Dordan 11. The Boar’s Head – Maddy Prior/The Carnival Band 12. Fairytale Of New York – The Irish Tenors 13. Ciuin An Oidhach (Silent Night) – Ashley MacIsaac 14. Amid The Falling Snow – Enya 15. The Snows – Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill/Triona Ni Dhomhnaill 16. Like The First Time It’s Christmas Time – Tommy Sands (Irish) 17. The Wexford Lullaby – John Renbourn/Mairead Ni Dhomhnaill And The Voice Squad 18. Auld Lang Syne – Bonnie Rideout

2007 Grammy Nominees: To paraphrase MC Hammer: Stop — Grammy time! 1. Be Without You (Kendu Mix) – Mary J. Blige 2. You’re Beautiful (Album Version) – James Blunt 3. Not Ready To Make Nice – Dixie Chicks 4. Crazy – Gnarls Barkley 5. Put Your Records On – Corinne Bailey Rae 6. Jesus, Take The Wheel – Carrie Underwood 7. Hide and Seek – Imogen Heap 8. Ain’t No Other Man – Christina Aguilera 9. Waiting On The World To Change – John Mayer 10. Over My Head – The Fray 11. I Will Follow You Into The Dark – Death Cab For Cutie 12. My Love (Single Version) – Justin Timberlake Featuring T.I. 13. Nausea – Beck 14. Someday Baby – Bob Dylan 15. When You Were Young – The Killers 16. Steady, As She Goes – The Raconteurs 17. Lonely Day – System Of A Down 18. Colony Of Birchmen – Mastodon 19. The Wizard Turns On… – The Flaming Lips 20. Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol 21. Promiscuous – Nelly Furtado 22. Black Sweat (Clean) – Prince 23. Get Together – Madonna 24. I Am Not My Hair – India.arie 25. Touch It (Remix) – Busta Rhymes 26. Kick, Push – Lupe Fiasco 27. Ridin’ Dirty – (with Krayzie Bone) – Chamillionaire 28. Once In a Lifetime – Keith Urban 29. What Hurts The Most – Rascal Flatts 30. One Mary J. Blige and U2 – Mary J. Blige

Bah Humbug! Get Scrooged!: This playlist is for everyone who has been bummed on X-mas ever since they found out Santa doesn’t really work at the mall. 1. Xmas Blues – Harmon Ray 2. Slick Nick, You Devil You – Fishbone 3. You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch – Dr.Seuss 4. Christmas With The Devil – Spinal Tap 5. No Presents For Christmas – King Diamond 6. Grandpa’s Last X-Mas – The Vandals 7. Santa Doesn’t Cop Out On Dope – Sonic Youth 8. I Hate Christmas Parties – Relient k 9. Candle Song 3 – Mojave 3 10. Xmas – Jesse Malin 11. Christmas In Hollis – Run-D.M.C. 12. Merry Muthafuckin’ Xmas (featuring Menejahtwa/Buckwheat/Will1/At Band Klan) – Eazy-E 13. Xmas In Jail – Asleep At The Wheel 14. Black Xmas – Cronos 15. No Christmas While I’m Talking – The Walkmen 16. How I Hate To See Xmas Come Around (Christmas Blues) – Jimmy Witherspoon

Boston’s excellent Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has a podcast of its classical music concerts. The sound quality is great, with occasionally too much background noise, and the performances sound good to my untrained ears. Highly recommended.

In recent parliamentary elections two Animals Rights MPs where elected in the Netherlands.

“When I look at animals, they are innocent. We are treating them like they are things, like they are bicycles. That’s not what we have to be as human beings. We have common sense and moral awareness, so we have to use that as well.”

This American Life finally has a free podcast. The archives are still locked up behind the Audible.com paywall but my commutes and workouts just got a lot more enjoyable.

Vegan Dinner has great-looking vegan recipes three times a week.

The reason we chose to begin this website is three-fold.

Firstly, the goal is to try 365 new meals in 365 days.

Second, to encourage people to lead healthier lives by demonstrating how easy it is to prepare one healthy, Vegan meal per day.

Third, to expand our repitoir of meals. We like to experiment and feel that keeping a log of all the things we eat will help us to expand our horizons.

Snoop Dogg’s Hit List: Welcome to Snoop’s handpicked, super-smooth soul cuts. 1. Sanctified Lady – Marvin Gaye 2. Best Of My Love – The Emotions 3. I Choose You – Willie Hutch 4. You Turned My Whole World Around – Barry White 5. To Be True (bonus track) – Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes 6. Disco Lady – Johnnie Taylor 7. I Want’A Do Something Freaky To You – Leon Haywood 8. Young Hearts Run Free – Candi Staton 9. I’m In Love (And I Love The Feeling) – Rose Royce 10. Walk Away From Love – David Ruffin