News Archive
News for the week of 01.22.07 - 01.28.07
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Jan 25, 2007
Mindless Self Indulgence vs. iTunes
from the Pigeonhole dept.
Philadelphia, PA. – NYC electropunk outfit Mindless Self Indulgence has been asked by iTunes to change the genre that they are filed under. Presently MSI is filed under 'religious' because of their devout fan base and cult-like following (currently having shipped 180,000 CD's in the last year alone). Apparently this has angered some Christian organizations who have filed complaints with the digital music giant to get the band's music removed from that category. Several Christians appear to have purchased the seemingly offensive material, on faith, even though it clearly was marked as being explicit material. Part of what seemed to annoy them was how well MSI's album, "You'll Rebel To Anything", did reaching #27 on the iTunes Christian/gospel charts! When asked what he thought of this controversy, MSI's singer, Jimmy Urine had this to say… "It was iTunes, not us, that interpreted "religious" to mean Christian. What is offensive to some people is obviously inspirational to o thers. To our fans this IS inspirational music. I have no intention of changing the genre listing of this album." Mindless Self Indulgence will be performing at this year’s Give It A Name Festival in the UK. Hear their new song, "There are too many bands and not enough Mark David Chapmans" on My Space.
posted by tearaway at 06:46:41 PM | More Band News »
Man survives having his head swallowed by a shark
from the Wildlife dept.
An Australian abalone diver told rescuers he was partly swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark on Tuesday but managed to fight his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks around the chest. Diver Eric Nerhus, 41, was underwater with his 25-year-old son and other divers off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia's southeast coast, when the 3 meter (10 foot) shark attacked. Rescuers earlier mistakenly reported his age as 25. "He stated that he was head-first into the shark," a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital. "When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest -- bite marks all the way around," the spokeswoman said. Nerhus told fellow divers he didn't see the shark coming as the water was so dirty that visibility was severely limited. "It was black. He didn't see it coming, but he felt the bite and then started getting shaken, and that's when he knew he was in the mouth of the shark," said local diver Michael Mashado. The shark bit Nerhus around the head first, crushing his face mask and breaking his nose, fellow diver and friend Dennis Luobikis told Reuters. "He was actually bitten by the head...the shark swallowed his head," said Luobikis, adding a second bite by the shark saw it clench its jaw around Nerhus' torso. "The brunt of the bite was taken by his lead-weight vest. Its all over your torso. Eric said to me at the wharf that his weight vest saved him," he said.
posted by al at 06:45:31 PM | More Print News »
Poor Underage Recordkeeping
from the But I got some beads.... dept.
The founder of "Girls Gone Wild" videos, featuring young women who take off their tops, was fined $500,000 on Monday for violating rules designed to prevent exploitation of minors. Joe Francis, 33, also was ordered by a federal judge to perform 200 hours of community service and was placed on two years' probation as part of a plea agreement he reached with the Justice Department last September. Justice Department prosecutor Brent Ward told the judge that Francis created a culture in his company where women were plied with alcohol and taken to hotel rooms to be filmed "with little or no regard for their age, and without any regard for record-keeping" requirements.
posted by al at 04:02:18 PM | More Know Your Rights »
Jan 23, 2007
Marxist Leninist Vacation Destination
from the Commies are everywhere! dept.
A team of British and Canadian explorers endured seven weeks of howling winds and subzero temperatures to become the first expedition to reach the geographic center of Antarctica without any mechanical assistance. The team, led by Canadian Paul Landry, said it was surprised to find a bust of Vladimir Lenin erected by the Soviets nearly half a century ago still standing amid the ice. "We noticed a black dot on the horizon — as we got closer an outline of the bust started to appear — we could not believe it," the team said in a brief statement posted Friday. "We are all so exhausted that we have only just put up the tent with Lenin's stern gaze over us!"
