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The long-awaited, oft-debated approval of the merger between satellite radio providers XM and Sirius has been granted by the FCC’s top brass in a 3-2 vote. This is another piece of good news for both companies, and comes recently after XM announced increased subscription acquisitions and lower acquisition costs. Of course, most analysts were down on Sirius and XM in recent months, predicting that subscriber churn would continue to rise as the economy takes a downturn. That didn’t happen for XM, and it probably won’t happen for Sirius when they announce earnings on July 28th.

If you live on this planet, you’ve probably heard by now how we’re running out of oil. As the big car manufacturers push their 30-50mpg hybrids, a company in California is actually doing something significant in terms of design. The Aptera, an electric and electric-gas hybrid, can average up to 300mpg on the highway, and actually doesn’t need gas at all for shorter commutes. Best of all, it’s priced like a low-end luxury sedan, and you might save a couple of bucks on gas to put against that loan. Here’s why:

First of all, the Aptera comes in two models: the $27,000 all-electric and the $30,000 gas-electric hybrid. Aptera claims the all-electric will have a range of about 120 miles on a single charge, and will cost about $1-$2 for the average Californian commuter to charge overnight. The cars, according to the manufacturer, will be available late this year. In fact, you can reserve a vehicle by putting down a $500 deposit right now, assuming you live in certain parts of California (in order for the company to provide service on the vehicles, they are only releasing them locally at first).

While the car looks a bit like a spaceship, it features standard safety apparatuses such as airbags, and also some nifty bonuses like a solar heating and cooling system. It will convey two adults comfortably, and apparently you can squeeze a third in there, although I’m not exactly clear on whether or not it’s just a ‘child’ seat. Aptera has recently released some footage of the car accelerating, and it doesn’t look half bad.

If you choose to go with the gas-electric hybrid, Aptera claims you’ll get around 300mpg on the highway on average. They’ve got an efficiency curve on their site, so you can see where you lose out by having to accelerate or drive stop-and-go.

In a rare dose of common sense involving nudity on TV, a federal appeals court threw out the fine levied by the FCC against CBS back in 2004 for Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl ‘wardrobe malfunction.’ In addition to criticizing the fine for being excessively large and reactionary, the court noted that fleeting nudity has historically not been punished, making the ruling unprecedented (Jackson’s breast spent nine-sixteenths of a second on the screen). Here’s an excerpt from the CBC article:

A federal appeals court has overturned the record $550,000 fine for indecency against CBS Corp. for Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl.

On Monday, a three-judge panel said the Federal Communications Commission “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in levying the fine.

The Philadelphia-based court also said the FCC had deviated from its previous standard of excluding fleeting images from fines for indecency.

About 90 million viewers saw a naked female breast for nine-sixteenths of a second during the 2004 Super Bowl half-time show.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2008/07/21/indecency-fine.html

There’s not really alot that I could add to this, so here’s an excerpt from the London Times article about a rather interesting kidnapping story:

The 43-year-old Italian apparently dragged the woman out of a bar in the port city of Genoa in the north of the country and pushed her into his car, before taking her back to his house.

Once there, he threatened to hurt her before making her iron his clothes and do the washing up, police said.

Officers were called to the property by a friend of the woman who saw the scene unfold at the bar.

The man, who was apparently furious at his ex-girlfriend for leaving him, was arrested on charges of kidnapping.

On a recent vacation to Florida, I had a chance to eat at Texas de Brazil in Orlando. Texas de Brazil is a churrascaria, a restaurant serving a traditional Brazilian form of cuisine wherein various cuts of meats are brought to your table fresh from the grill by expert meat carvers known as gauchos, who cut you a piece of the steak, or serve up a pork chop or chicken breast. In the course of your meal, you could easily try 10 or 15 different kinds of meat. It’s not the kind of restaurant where you want to fill up on the bread.

Now, in my life, I’ve only been to two churrascarias - one in Manaus, Brazil, and the other being Texas de Brazil. I was about 8 years old when I went to the one in Brazil, and I remember it being one of the best eating experiences of my life. Each cut that was brought to the table was perfectly cooked, expertly flavored, and absolutely delicious. I remembered the experience so fondly that I dragged my fiancee to Texas de Brazil, even though it was about 20 minutes from our hotel and past at least 150 other restaurants (including another churrascaria). I was hoping that an American churrascaria wouldn’t be too tame and therefore a pale approximation of the Brazilian one that I’d remembered, but I was not prepared for just how amazing Texas de Brazil was.

First, as we were led to our table, we passed the salad bar, which is really a misnomer. It features your usual greens, but also appetizers ranging from sushi to fried provolone. As far as I could tell, this salad bar is a trap designed to keep you from eating an entire cow, but in the restaurant’s defense, you can also just order the salad bar as a meal, which it would certainly be.

Once we reached our table, or waiter, Joseph, explained how everything worked, including how to flip over a token indicating either that you wanted more gauchos to offer you meat, or that you were all set for the time being. We ordered a bottle of wine off the list of 500+ wines (literally about 20 pages of a wine list), which was exactly what I was expecting and absolutely delicious. There were a couple of things about the service which really stood out: first of all, Joseph was super-attentive at every turn, from pouring wine whenever a glass was empty to recommending the best cuts of meat and ensuring that the gauchos brought it quickly to our table. Second of all, there were several managers circling the room, interacting with the customers and ensuring that everyone was satisfied.

The sheer number of staff at Texas de Brazil is surely one of the reasons that the service is so great. After all, not even the most service-oriented waiter could possibly be so attentive with 20 tables to wait on. But the staff at Texas de Brazil was obviously also very experienced and very good at what they do. Apparently, all the Texas de Brazil restaurants (there are several) are owned by the same person, and he oversees their operation directly (i.e. they are not franchises). Clearly, this system is working, as the dining experience was absolutely pleasurable.

Yahoo! News is reporting that the city of Berlin, Germany has renamed one of its streets in honor of Frank Zappa. I’m not so sure Zappa would have really liked to have a street named after himself. After all, as the, err, poster-boy for the idea of the un-star, the pop icon who shunned, rather than embraced, the hero worship of a fanbase and the limelight of marketing blitzes. Still, the street is located in a suitably shitty part of Berlin, wedged between factory buildings in the former East German section of town.

Zappa’s brother, Bobby Zappa, said the Grammy-winning rocker, who died in 1993, would have been pleased, in a letter of thanks.

Frank-Zappa-Strasse or Frank Zappa Street — formerly Street 13 — lies on the eastern outskirts of Berlin amid empty industrial buildings in what was communist East Germany.

The street is home to Orwo Haus, a former Communist-era film factory that now provides practice studios for more than 160 bands.

Musicians at Orwo Haus campaigned for two years to have the street’s name changed. Eighteen bands, including the Frank Zappa cover band Sheik Yerbouti, celebrated the renaming this weekend with an all-night concert for more than 2,800 people.

The Orwo Haus association said it wanted Zappa’s name for its street because “he was without taboo, musically versatile, provocative, and didn’t allow himself to be captured by capitalistic enterprises.”

“I am absolutely certain that he would be very proud to have his name as an address for so many musicians,” Bobby Zappa wrote. Source.

In an effort to bolster public support for their proposed merger, satellite radio providers XM and Sirius announced today that they could offer a la carte programming for reduced cost, but only if the merger is approved, and only with newly purchased receivers. I own Sirius stock, as I’ve mentioned before, so I’m a little biased on this, but the idea of truly a la carte channels is pretty cool. Of course, the fact that the two companies are saying they have to merge to provide such a service is, in my opinion, malarkey. The full story, from which the following excerpt was taken, is here:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. satellite radio providers Sirius (SIRI) and XM (XMSR) said on Monday they can offer consumers a variety of subscription packages that cost up to 46 percent less than current plans if their merger is approved.

In a bid to allay concerns among U.S. lawmakers that their merger would raise prices and limit programming choices, the two companies announced several new packages that they say offer consumers more choice than they can individually.

Under one package, customers can pick 50 channels on either XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.’s or Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.’s systems for $6.99 a month. Additional channels can be added for 25 cents each.

Currently, subscribers pay about $13 a month for more than 100 stations on either XM’s or Sirius’ systems.

“We need to build the subscription business base of satellite radio to strengthen our business and better leverage our high fixed costs,” Sirius Chief Executive Mel Karmazin said in a speech in Washington. “We are confident that a lower price point (and) more programming choices will help us do just that.”

Karmazin said he hoped the lower price would spur growth in the nascent satellite radio business as it competes with digital music players, video games and traditional radio for consumers’ attention and funds.

The XM-Sirius deal, which would combine the only two providers of satellite radio service in the United States, is currently being reviewed by both the Federal Communications Commission and antitrust authorities at the Justice Department.

The two companies, which together marked more than $1.7 billion in losses in 2006, said the new “a la carte” packages will work only on satellite radios that have yet to be sold by either company. Other packages will be available on existing satellite radios.

satellite radio, xm, sirius, merger, a la carte, programming

According to Techdirt and an article in the British newspaper The Telegraph, several inmates in an Oklahoma City penitentiary tried to coerce the warden into freeing them by copyrighting their own names, then suing the prison for copyright violation. Apparently, the prisoners thought they had arranged with someone outside the prison to freeze the warden’s assets, thereby allowing them to extort him for their freedom. In reality, the outside contact was an FBI agent, and now the prisoners are facing up to an additional 16 years for their foiled plot.

Regardless of the ridiculous nature of this particular situation, it shows that the idea of manipulating copyright law to extort people has spread far beyond the RIAA and MPAA, to individual enterprising criminals. Unfortunately for the four men in this scenario, they don’t have the clout of either the RIAA or MPAA, and so, rather than meeting with resounding success, their attempt to use copyright law for extortion purposes failed miserably.

copyright law, prisoners, warden, riaa, mpaa, copyright

While last week saw the much-promoted and heavily-anticipated arrival of the iPhone, another significant advancement in wireless telephone service slipped almost under the radar. German-based telecommunications giant T-Mobile announced the addition of a new feature known as HotSpot @Home, which allows subscribers to use their cell phones over their home wireless network, with unlimited calling, for about $10 a month. For anyone who’s had problems with weak service in their house, or who wants the ability to use their cell number as their primary number, this service has been a long time coming. I personally don’t have a land line at home, but sometimes my cell phone won’t ring in certain parts of the house, and of course, mucho daytime minutes can cost mucho dollars, so cell phones have historically tended to make good land line substitutes only if you could call after 9pm. If only I had T-Mobile service as far north as I am, but no such luck.

As far as the technology goes, ZDNet’s review found a lot to like about the service, and just a few criticisms, chief among them that the service only works with two phones right now.

The bottom line: Despite a few problems when transitioning between cellular airwaves and wireless networks, the T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service is a great idea. You can save money, get better reception, and possibly even get rid of your existing landline. However, we would wait until the service supports more phones.

Another interesting note about the service: since T-Mobile’s approach to wireless has been targeted at family plans in the U.S., you can also purchase the @Home plan for up to 5 phones for only $20 a month, meaning each member of the family can have a private line with unlimited minutes, a feature that will surely have parents rushing to the store in droves.

t-mobile, tmobile, cell phone, cellphone, wi-fi, wifi, iphone, hotspot, hot spot

Slashdot is reporting that New Hampshire has joined several other states in rejecting the proposed national ‘Real ID.’ The beauty of the law making use of the Real ID illegal in the ‘Live free or die’ state wasn’t that it passed 24-0, it was that it called the ID itself ‘contrary and repugnant’ to both the NH and US Constitutions. New Hampshire’s politicians have never been ones to gloss over or euphemize what they recognize as crap from the start, and this law is no exception. Also amusing is the fact that the state rejected what it called a $3 million ‘bribe’ from the Feds to accept and implement the Real ID.

Does anybody find it ironic that the supposed ’state’s-rights’ party took it upon themselves to nationalize the ID system, only to be stopped by states deciding to assert their rights?

new hampshire, nh, real id, constitution