Okay, this is sad and all, but really, how many US microbrew ales have you had that have waaay too much hops in them? A lot. Moosehead, Sierra Nevada, and so on. They're way too hoppy. Occasionally, I like a beer that's hops heavy, but some of these brands are just obscene with the hops content. Hop heads have ruined it for everyone else. They used up all the hops, and now the rest of us have to suffer. Okay, Hops are not the only ingredient in beer. It is important, yes, but it shouldn't be the only thing you taste. When I want a beer, I want a beer, not a bottle of liquid hops. Freakin' hippies.

On the general subject, I should point out that there is a great NerdPunk band from Sacramento, California called the Foureyes that has a song called "Painting Guys" which is about exactly this sort of thing.

http://thefoureyes.com/index.shtml

As goofy as the Foureyes' premise is, and as goofy as they are, they're actually worth listening to for more than just the chuckle you get in the first five seconds of appreciating the novelty.

"The lighting on the hand is completely different from that on the croc"

Um, not really.

"...and the hand also does not cast a shadow on the ground; you will notice that the crocs jaw casts a shadow but not the hand."

The crocodile's head is resting on a piece of rock that may not be entirely even on the surface, which would make shadows cast unevenly. Furthermore, the lighting does not appear to be hard and direct. Heavily defined shadows would only be really appearant in that atmosphere if the object blocking the light was very close to the other surface (in this case the floor/stone). The arm and hand are up a good few inches and though they're sticking out of the teeth, are still tight in to the animal's face.

I'm not saying it's not Photoshopped, I'm just saying those reasons are hardly conclusive proof that it was.

"But for all that, it has to be said: Whenever Amazon tries to sell a digital download, it turns into one of the dumbest companies on the web."

Uh...Amazon just opened a DRM-free MP3 store that is by and large a lot cheaper than iTunes...how exactly is that 'dumb'?

"And that's a problem; to me it doesn't look like the woman in this video had given her consent to be laughed at by thousands of people with too much spare time as she freaks out "

Here, here.

The thing with this cartoon is that, while it does exaggerate what Doug Morris was saying, it doesn't really put it in a different perspective than what Morris actually said. I think Morris would himself smile in spite of himself at reading this.

The heart of the issue was not that Morris et al. were ignorant, but rather that their excuses for not finding a way to educate themselves in order to make proper decisions kind of just shows their laziness about the issue.

Sure, you're not educated about a new form of media to know how it could work for you from where you stand, and still work for the customer base. This is an ignorance which was probably shared between people like Morris and most people who were using Napster.

But the excuse that you're so ignorant that you wouldn't know who to trust and therefore had no choice but to accuse people who went using the new technology without you of being theives because it would seem that the only alternative would be to give up the shop is a pretty terrible one.

If you don't know who to trust, find somebody who you do trust who can help you make the decision.

For example, suppose it's 1920, and you're looking to buy your first automobile. Enough people knew enough about cars at the time to be able to make a somewhat informed decision, but of course not everyone did, as commercial automobile sales were still pretty new to the general public, and were only just starting to become something that the everyday man would consider as something other than an extravagance.

But suppose in 1920 you were a business owner, and you were considering purchasing ten delivery trucks, even though you had never owned a car before, hardly knew anyone who did, and knew very little about how they worked, or if they really would be beneficial for you to have.

Naturally, you wouldn't take the word of the first car salesman you spoke to as absolute truth, nor even the second. Learning the technical jargain and the many variables of what makes an automobile good or bad for whatever purpose may just be too much information for you to deal with in addition to the heart of running your business, which is simply making your 1920-relavent product, but that hardly makes the decision to say "absolutely never will I purchase automobiles for my business because I don't understand them and am therefore not able to trust any automobile salesman" a rational decision.

I worked for a company once where the owner, who was in his mid-60's and had been running the business since 1962, refused to use computers and argued that they were more or less worthless. At least Morris admitted his ignorance about technology, but he's still dodging the fact that what he did in light of that ignorance is not a good excuse.

Okay, hindsight is always 20/20, and I know how hard it would have been, but it would have been better to stop when they realized there was a problem, make a little joke, retune Ed's guitar (or fix the keyboard thing, if that was plausible), lose a little face, but ultimately leave the audience hearing a favorite done well and in tune. It probably wouldn't have ended up on Youtube if they had. Sometimes it's more professional to admit the mistake and fix it.

But like I said, when you're already up there, and the song's already running, it's easier said than done.

Cynic, while I think I agree with you in spirit, I do have something to say to this comment:

"1) It's cheap. Real cheap. Find me an authentic Mexican resturaunt as cheap as Taco Bell. Go ahead. I'll wait here."

It's called Los Jarritos, it's in Sacramento, California, and damn me if it isn't really good. Seriously, $2.50 for a chicken burrito so good and all you'll need to eat for a meal.

Very eloquent speech that fails to make connections between its points.

It's like asking why eat a tootsie roll when you can have ghiradelli chocolates, which are available at most grocery stores and even gas stations. Why? Because sometimes you just want a tootsie roll.

Taco bell is good, taco bell is cheap. Taco bell is not exactly for you, taco bell is not authentic mexican good. We all know that. I hardly think it constitutes a "Thou Shalt Not Eat Taco Bell Unless Thou Art Obviously An Uncultured Dullard".

For starters, not every major American city does have good mexican food.

Take Seattle, a city whose Mexican-American population has been growing in proportion and continues to grow. Try getting a decent burrito in that town. Let me know when you find it, because I'm about to move there, and I'm going to miss the great Mexican food in Sacramento.

One door down from me is a tacqueria called Los Jarritos that is just as cheap as taco bell, and overall, is better (no big surprise).

But taco bell is open later, and sometimes, I just want taco bell, and sometimes I'm in too much of a hurry to wait for anything else.

Sometimes you want Budweiser, even though they have something fancier on tap that isn't a lot more expensive.

Sometimes, as much as some people hate to admit it, but there is a certain charm to schlocky, cheap American food. Taco bell isn't much of an exception.

So the Greenwich Village Taco Bell has rats crawling all over it. Um...I'd imagine a lot of things in Greenwich Village have rats all over it, especially if that place is full of food.

If attracting rats (and let's not forget, the taco bell in question is in one of the most densely populated regions in North America) means the food must be bad, then Los Jarritos here in Sacramento must have really bad food, because the alleyway behind them is full of rats, and they were even closed for a week due to a vermin infestation. The taco bell half a block away from them has never had such a problem.

But that didn't stop me from going back the day they were back open for business over at Los Jarritos.

Just not a cohesive argument, really. I'd bet pounds to pents, even, that a lot of people who work at great, authentic mexican restaurants who take great pride in their work probably themselves occasionally eat at taco bell.