Welcome to FoxVox

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost. – J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkein (1892-1973)

Stop by Infinite Race’s Art Gallery for an eyeful and a soulful of terrific artistry!

RIAA and Webcasters bid for royalty rates – naturally the RIAA has filed for a much higher rate to be paid to them. The record companies are NOT paid for on-air playing (the fees go to the writers unions) of music, but they want dibs on internet streaming. The fact is, if they charge the higher fee, then only the larger companies will be able to pay it and the RIAA will then STILL have control over what music gets played – IMO that’s what this is all about. Otherwise, the RIAA then won’t know who to pay to put the music THEY ARE PUSHING on the air – virtually everyone will be able to afford to stream audio, and we can’t have THAT! People will start realizing there’s more to music than just what’s currently on the radio and THEN what kind of anarchy will we have? *grin*

Just a clip from a news article… Tantalum was discarded as a byproduct of tin smelting decades ago but the electronics boom has boosted its value… Tantalum fever has gripped Butterworth in northern Penang where poor diggers work day and night to unearth the metallic element used to make components for mobile phones, computers and other electronic devices. The story is actually about a tunnel collapsing under a car showroom where a tin smelting plant used to be (killing three people), but I thought it was an excellent example of how something we toss away in one process later on becomes useful in another – just took a little time to figure that out.

Not surprisingly, Themestream is closing its doors. What surprised me is that I just got a notice today (having been unable to delete myself from their email listings some time ago) that they are closing on April 13th – not much notice! They also said it would be highly unlikely that they would be able to pay any of their contributors. Well, John and I pulled out of Themestream when they decided to focus more on “consumers” and what they thought interested “consumers” and associated links to other merchants. I’m not unhappy to see them go – when they started they had vision, then they lost it along the way. Sigh.