Rotundus.com

I came across a post by Steve Bell, a Christian musician on the subject of how musicians can get enough money to live on given the cheap copying the internet allows. He mentions that

... artists like myself have to reconsider the patronage model again.

Probably true. I'm not sure how much of a difference this really is from the past though. He also notes that

... music, as a marketable commodity is relatively new, historically. Before the 1930?s there was no recorded music ... If you wanted to hear music, you had to actually be in the presence of a musician or make it yourself.

Again true. It's not quite the patronage mode - in that here payment to musicians is more in line with services rendered. Still it's a bit suggestive that the current model of music is the historical oddity.

Steve Bell argues that those listening to his music are less likely to pirate than their counterparts but argues that certain other effects from piracy are present:

Because of widespread piracy, the record companies, in order to entice people to buy music again, have significantly dropped the prices of recorded music. ... Music has been de-valued in people’s minds and they simply won’t pay more that $15 (at the most) for a CD.

Another by-product of piracy is that since musicians have lost retail sales revenue, they are forced to be out on the road more to generate income. We have noticed it is getting harder to get communities to commit to concerts simply because there are too many of them. So, another by-product of Internet piracy is that there is increased competition for the live concert stage.

I buy both arguments to a certain extent, but I wonder if another reason is simply the flooding of the market. The cost to create an electronic copy of a song is virtually nonexistant, but if anything the number of musicians has seen a dramatic increase. To get an idea of how things have changed in other sectors, "In 1870, 70-80 percent of the US population was employed in agriculture. As of 2008, approximately 2-3 percent of the population is directly employed in agriculture." (WP) whereas musical "productivity" (as measured by the cost to have a piece of music playing in the background in any given location) has increased much more dramatically while a lot more people seem to be training for (non-existant?) jobs in the area. Here's what colleges have been doing:

In 2009 the U.S. graduated 89,140 students in the visual and performing arts, more than in computer science, math and chemical engineering combined and more than double the number of visual and performing arts graduates in 1985.

Too many musicians seems to be another part of the picture that's somewhat ignored. Given the miniscule costs to reproduce music these days, I can't say that I really see a future for anything other than the patronage or hobbyist models for future music.

Steve Bell also overplays the copying=theft card - they're not quite the same thing. One way in which this feeds back into his argument: Back in the 1930s when music wasn't a "marketable commodity" what percentage of music was produced by professional musicians vs. amateurs? How much of whatever music that amateurs sung would have been music upon which copyright would have lapsed? Does he believe that musicians and corporations are stealing from the public given the continual extensions to copyright length in recent decades?

(All parts of Lord of the Rings would have been in the public domain today given the laws at the time - see, e.g., Duke University's page on this - with those already being an extension upon some of the earlier versions of copyright law tried out in some countries).

'Twisted' waves could boost capacity of wi-fi and TV

"The technique exploits what is called the "orbital angular momentum" of the waves - imparting them with a "twist". Varying this twist permits many data streams to fit in the frequency spread currently used for just one." The actual paper mentions "an infinite number of channels in a given, fixed bandwidth." Perhaps finally a solution to the spectrum shortage?

Markus Kayser’s 3D Solar Sinter Prints on Sand – Could Replace Concrete

Will the Sahara be the next base of the manufacturing industry? Still seems cool that this can be made to work. I wonder if this could be used to create photovoltaic cells in a sort of self-cloning process to transform portions of the Sahara into giant solar panels. (Don't laugh too hard... tying large solar arrays in the Sahara to the power grid via long-distance transmission lines is a proposal I've heard a fair bit about before).

Toothbrush can chip teeth?

"Health Canada and the manufacturer of the Arm & Hammer Spinbrush are warning Canadians after U.S. officials said users reported facial injuries and chipped teeth while using the powered toothbrushes." - apparently these you might want to be sure to replace every few months as the manufacturer suggests.

1 in 8 Chance of Catastrophic Solar Megastorm by 2020

This is like the whole EMP thing - Last time this happened was in 1859: "At the time of the Carrington Event, telegraph stations caught on fire, their networks experienced major outages and magnetic observatories recorded disturbances in the Earth’s field that were literally off the scale."

That was what one study argues. I've heard arguments as well - with one such source being the book Why Gender Matters - that sex-segregated education may also result in women becoming more interested in subjects like science and engineering later in life while simultaneously boosting boys' academic performance in general and also increasing their interest in subjects like english literature. One of the reasons for such an effect is not only the peer group within which some of these behaviours develop, but also at the earlier stages of life differences in the rates and orderings in which different parts of male and female brains develop.

All told, I'm happy to agree with most feminists that a lot of what constitutes "male" or "female" behaviour is socially constructed - I just tend to differ in both (a) what the limits on this are, and (b) how this plays out most effectively in society. That means it was a legitimate claim decades ago that schools might be teaching in ways in which girls found it difficult to learn. However, that also means that when the situation is reversed - as currently seems to be the case in many respects - that it's improper to conclude that we've reached the end of men.

What the above I'd argue should lead you to conclude is that there should be some notion of "separate but equal" and that a failure to acknowledge such distinctions is likely to produce a weaker society. Men aren't defective women, nor are women defective men:

Years ago, we got the notion in our heads that women had to become like men to be a success. So women all went on The Pill and that supposedly fixed ‘em right up. Except it didn’t if you know what I mean. It seems to have made things worse, if you ask me.

Now, somehow we’ve got it in our heads that boys have to be like girls. And guess what, we’ve got a pill for that too.

Have the changes that women have seen in the last few decades made them happier? The reverse seems to be the case.

Evidence on the Effects of Mandatory Disclaimers in Advertising

"... We found 18 experimental studies that provided evidence relevant to mandatory disclaimers. Mandated messages increased confusion in all, and were ineffective or harmful in the 15 studies that examined perceptions, attitudes, or decisions." (HT: Daniel Egan)

Missing Women: Age and Disease

"... as a proportion of the total female population, the number of missing women is largest in sub-Saharan Africa, and the absolute numbers are comparable to those for India and China" (HT: MR)

You Get a Book! Demand Spillovers, Combative Advertising, and Celebrity Endorsements

"... endorsements from the Oprah Winfrey Book Club are found to be a business stealing form of advertising that raises title level sales without increasing the market size. The endorsements decrease aggregate adult fiction sales; likely as a result of the endorsed books being more difficult than those that otherwise would have been purchased." (HT: MR)

Why Reading Science Journals Can Improve Your Spiritual Life

An excerpt from an article by Marilynne Robinson in the Chronicle of Higher Education on science and faith

Commentary: fried food may not be all bad

As long as you're using certain types of oils: "Eating food fried in olive or sunflower oil is not linked to heart disease or premature death, a study has found."