Sunday, December 21, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
The First Black President
Many Have Attempted To Dispute & Refute This, However Facts Are Facts!
And Will Remain So........Regardless Of Their Futile Attacks Against Facts!
John Hanson Was the *First President* of the Continental Congress Of The United States! 1781-1782 A.D.
George Washington was really the 8th President of the United States!
George Washington was *NOT* the first President of the United States. In fact, the first President of the United States was one John Hanson. Don't go checking the encyclopedia for this guy's name - he is one of those great men that are lost to history. If you're extremely lucky, you may actually find a brief mention of his name. The new country was actually formed on March 1, 1781 with the adoption of The Articles of Confederation.
This document was actually proposed on June 11, 1776, but not agreed upon by Congress until November 15, 1777. Maryland refused to sign this document until Virginia and New York ceded their western lands (Maryland was afraid that these states would gain too much power in the new government from such large amounts of land). Once the signing took place in 1781, a President was needed to run the country. John Hanson was chosen unanimously by Congress (which included George Washington). In fact, all the other potential candidates refused to run against him, as he was a major player in the revolution and an extremely influential member of Congress.
As the first President, Hanson had quite the shoes to fill. No one had ever been President and the role was poorly defined. His actions in office would set precedent for all future Presidents. He took office just as the Revolutionary War ended. Almost immediately, the troops demanded to be paid. As would be expected after any long war, there were no funds to meet the salaries. As a result, the soldiers threatened to overthrow the new government and put Washington on the throne as a monarch.
All the members of Congress ran for their lives, leaving Hanson as the only guy left running the government. He somehow managed to calm the troops down and hold the country together. If he had failed, the government would have fallen almost immediately and everyone would have been bowing to King Washington. In fact, Hanson sent 800 pounds of sterling siliver by his brother Samuel Hanson to George Washington to provide the troops with shoes. Hanson, as President, ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as well as the removal of all foreign flags. This was quite the feat, considering the fact that so many European countries had a stake in the United States since the days following Columbus.
Hanson established the Great Seal of the United States,
which all Presidents have since been required to use on all official documents.
President Hanson also established the first Treasury Department, the first Secretary of War, and the first Foreign Affairs Department. Lastly, he declared that the fourth Thursday of every November was to be Thanksgiving Day, which is still true today.
The Articles of Confederation only allowed a President to serve a one year term during any three year period, so Hanson actually accomplished quite a bit in such little time.
******Six other presidents were elected after him - Elias Boudinot (1783), Thomas Mifflin (1784), Richard Henry Lee (1785), Nathan Gorman (1786), Arthur St. Clair (1787), and Cyrus Griffin (1788) - all prior to Washington taking office.
Q. So what happened?
Why don't we ever hear about the first seven Presidents of the United States?
It's quite simple - The Articles of Confederation didn't work well. The individual states had too much power and nothing could be agreed upon. A new doctrine needed to be written - something we know as the Constitution. And that leads us to the end of our story.
George Washington was definitely not the first President of the United States. He was the first President of the United States under the Constitution we follow today. And the first seven Presidents are forgotten in history.
FOR DETAILED RESEARCH GENEALOGY CHECK THIS LINK FOR ACTUAL FACTS http://www.presidentjohnhanson.com/
Monday, July 28, 2008
Some history on banking Families
Monday, June 30, 2008
powerful atom-smasher
This collider, called the largest scientific experiment in history, is expected to begin test runs in August. Some fear debut of powerful atom-smasher.
Story Highlights
The machine has been called the largest scientific experiment in history It straddles the French and Swiss border and is buried 330 feet underground. Scientists will hunt for signs of invisible "dark matter" and "dark energy" The safety of the powerful collider has been debated for years
MEYRIN, Switzerland (AP) -- The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August. This collider, called the largest scientific experiment in history, is expected to begin test runs in August. But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump? Ridiculous, say scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN -- some of whom have been working for a generation on the $5.8 billion collider, or LHC. "Obviously, the world will not end when the LHC switches on," said project leader Lyn Evans. David Francis, a physicist on the collider's huge ATLAS particle detector, smiled when asked whether he worried about black holes and hypothetical killer particles known as strangelets. "If I thought that this was going to happen, I would be well away from here," he said.
The collider basically consists of a ring of supercooled magnets 17 miles in circumference attached to huge barrel-shaped detectors. The ring, which straddles the French and Swiss border, is buried 330 feet underground.
Don't Miss
NASA launches telescope in search of gamma rays
Ancient impact may explain Mars mystery
Physics wonder boy works on collider
The machine, which has been called the largest scientific experiment in history, isn't expected to begin test runs until August, and ramping up to full power could take months. But once it is working, it is expected to produce some startling findings.
Scientists plan to hunt for signs of the invisible "dark matter" and "dark energy" that make up more than 96 percent of the universe, and hope to glimpse the elusive Higgs boson, a so-far undiscovered particle thought to give matter its mass. The collider could find evidence of extra dimensions, a boon for superstring theory, which holds that quarks, the particles that make up atoms, are infinitesimal vibrating strings. The theory could resolve many of physics' unanswered questions, but requires about 10 dimensions -- far more than the three spatial dimensions our senses experience. The safety of the collider, which will generate energies seven times higher than its most powerful rival, at Fermilab near Chicago, has been debated for years. The physicist Martin Rees has estimated the chance of an accelerator producing a global catastrophe at one in 50 million -- long odds, to be sure, but about the same as winning some lotteries. By contrast, a CERN team this month issued a report concluding that there is "no conceivable danger" of a cataclysmic event. The report essentially confirmed the findings of a 2003 CERN safety report, and a panel of five prominent scientists not affiliated with CERN, including one Nobel laureate, endorsed its conclusions. Critics of the LHC filed a lawsuit in a Hawaiian court in March seeking to block its startup, alleging that there was "a significant risk that ... operation of the Collider may have unintended consequences which could ultimately result in the destruction of our planet. One of the plaintiffs, Walter L. Wagner, a physicist and lawyer, said Wednesday CERN's safety report, released June 20, "has several major flaws," and his views on the risks of using the particle accelerator had not changed. On Tuesday, U.S. Justice Department lawyers representing the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation filed a motion to dismiss the case. The two agencies have contributed $531 million to building the collider, and the NSF has agreed to pay $87 million of its annual operating costs. Hundreds of American scientists will participate in the research. The lawyers called the plaintiffs' allegations "extraordinarily speculative," and said "there is no basis for any conceivable threat" from black holes or other objects the LHC might produce. A hearing on the motion is expected in late July or August. In rebutting doomsday scenarios, CERN scientists point out that cosmic rays have been bombarding the earth, and triggering collisions similar to those planned for the collider, since the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago. And so far, Earth has survived. "The LHC is only going to reproduce what nature does every second, what it has been doing for billions of years," said John Ellis, a British theoretical physicist at CERN. Critics like Wagner have said the collisions caused by accelerators could be more hazardous than those of cosmic rays. Both may produce micro black holes, subatomic versions of cosmic black holes -- collapsed stars whose gravity fields are so powerful that they can suck in planets and other stars. But micro black holes produced by cosmic ray collisions would likely be traveling so fast they would pass harmlessly through the earth. Micro black holes produced by a collider, the skeptics theorize, would move more slowly and might be trapped inside the earth's gravitational field -- and eventually threaten the planet. Ellis said doomsayers assume that the collider will create micro black holes in the first place, which he called unlikely. And even if they appeared, he said, they would instantly evaporate, as predicted by the British physicist Stephen Hawking. As for strangelets, CERN scientists point out that they have never been proven to exist. They said that even if these particles formed inside the Collider they would quickly break down. When the LHC is finally at full power, two beams of protons will race around the huge ring 11,000 times a second in opposite directions. They will travel in two tubes about the width of fire hoses, speeding through a vacuum that is colder and emptier than outer space. Their trajectory will be curved by supercooled magnets -- to guide the beams around the rings and prevent the packets of protons from cutting through the surrounding magnets like a blowtorch. The paths of these beams will cross, and a few of the protons in them will collide, at a series of cylindrical detectors along the ring. The two largest detectors are essentially huge digital cameras, each weighing thousands of tons, capable of taking millions of snapshots a second. Each year the detectors will generate 15 petabytes of data, the equivalent of a stack of CDs 12 miles tall. The data will require a high speed global network of computers for analysis. Wagner and others filed a lawsuit to halt operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state in 1999. The courts dismissed the suit. The leafy campus of CERN, a short drive from the shores of Lake Geneva, hardly seems like ground zero for doomsday. And locals don't seem overly concerned. Thousands attended an open house here this spring. "There is a huge army of scientists who know what they are talking about and are sleeping quite soundly as far as concerns the LHC," said project leader Evans.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
CNN website:http://www. cnn. com/2008/TECH/06/30/doomsdaycollider. ap/index. html
Story Highlights
The machine has been called the largest scientific experiment in history It straddles the French and Swiss border and is buried 330 feet underground. Scientists will hunt for signs of invisible "dark matter" and "dark energy" The safety of the powerful collider has been debated for years
MEYRIN, Switzerland (AP) -- The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August. This collider, called the largest scientific experiment in history, is expected to begin test runs in August. But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump? Ridiculous, say scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN -- some of whom have been working for a generation on the $5.8 billion collider, or LHC. "Obviously, the world will not end when the LHC switches on," said project leader Lyn Evans. David Francis, a physicist on the collider's huge ATLAS particle detector, smiled when asked whether he worried about black holes and hypothetical killer particles known as strangelets. "If I thought that this was going to happen, I would be well away from here," he said.
The collider basically consists of a ring of supercooled magnets 17 miles in circumference attached to huge barrel-shaped detectors. The ring, which straddles the French and Swiss border, is buried 330 feet underground.
Don't Miss
NASA launches telescope in search of gamma rays
Ancient impact may explain Mars mystery
Physics wonder boy works on collider
The machine, which has been called the largest scientific experiment in history, isn't expected to begin test runs until August, and ramping up to full power could take months. But once it is working, it is expected to produce some startling findings.
Scientists plan to hunt for signs of the invisible "dark matter" and "dark energy" that make up more than 96 percent of the universe, and hope to glimpse the elusive Higgs boson, a so-far undiscovered particle thought to give matter its mass. The collider could find evidence of extra dimensions, a boon for superstring theory, which holds that quarks, the particles that make up atoms, are infinitesimal vibrating strings. The theory could resolve many of physics' unanswered questions, but requires about 10 dimensions -- far more than the three spatial dimensions our senses experience. The safety of the collider, which will generate energies seven times higher than its most powerful rival, at Fermilab near Chicago, has been debated for years. The physicist Martin Rees has estimated the chance of an accelerator producing a global catastrophe at one in 50 million -- long odds, to be sure, but about the same as winning some lotteries. By contrast, a CERN team this month issued a report concluding that there is "no conceivable danger" of a cataclysmic event. The report essentially confirmed the findings of a 2003 CERN safety report, and a panel of five prominent scientists not affiliated with CERN, including one Nobel laureate, endorsed its conclusions. Critics of the LHC filed a lawsuit in a Hawaiian court in March seeking to block its startup, alleging that there was "a significant risk that ... operation of the Collider may have unintended consequences which could ultimately result in the destruction of our planet. One of the plaintiffs, Walter L. Wagner, a physicist and lawyer, said Wednesday CERN's safety report, released June 20, "has several major flaws," and his views on the risks of using the particle accelerator had not changed. On Tuesday, U.S. Justice Department lawyers representing the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation filed a motion to dismiss the case. The two agencies have contributed $531 million to building the collider, and the NSF has agreed to pay $87 million of its annual operating costs. Hundreds of American scientists will participate in the research. The lawyers called the plaintiffs' allegations "extraordinarily speculative," and said "there is no basis for any conceivable threat" from black holes or other objects the LHC might produce. A hearing on the motion is expected in late July or August. In rebutting doomsday scenarios, CERN scientists point out that cosmic rays have been bombarding the earth, and triggering collisions similar to those planned for the collider, since the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago. And so far, Earth has survived. "The LHC is only going to reproduce what nature does every second, what it has been doing for billions of years," said John Ellis, a British theoretical physicist at CERN. Critics like Wagner have said the collisions caused by accelerators could be more hazardous than those of cosmic rays. Both may produce micro black holes, subatomic versions of cosmic black holes -- collapsed stars whose gravity fields are so powerful that they can suck in planets and other stars. But micro black holes produced by cosmic ray collisions would likely be traveling so fast they would pass harmlessly through the earth. Micro black holes produced by a collider, the skeptics theorize, would move more slowly and might be trapped inside the earth's gravitational field -- and eventually threaten the planet. Ellis said doomsayers assume that the collider will create micro black holes in the first place, which he called unlikely. And even if they appeared, he said, they would instantly evaporate, as predicted by the British physicist Stephen Hawking. As for strangelets, CERN scientists point out that they have never been proven to exist. They said that even if these particles formed inside the Collider they would quickly break down. When the LHC is finally at full power, two beams of protons will race around the huge ring 11,000 times a second in opposite directions. They will travel in two tubes about the width of fire hoses, speeding through a vacuum that is colder and emptier than outer space. Their trajectory will be curved by supercooled magnets -- to guide the beams around the rings and prevent the packets of protons from cutting through the surrounding magnets like a blowtorch. The paths of these beams will cross, and a few of the protons in them will collide, at a series of cylindrical detectors along the ring. The two largest detectors are essentially huge digital cameras, each weighing thousands of tons, capable of taking millions of snapshots a second. Each year the detectors will generate 15 petabytes of data, the equivalent of a stack of CDs 12 miles tall. The data will require a high speed global network of computers for analysis. Wagner and others filed a lawsuit to halt operation of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or RHIC, at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state in 1999. The courts dismissed the suit. The leafy campus of CERN, a short drive from the shores of Lake Geneva, hardly seems like ground zero for doomsday. And locals don't seem overly concerned. Thousands attended an open house here this spring. "There is a huge army of scientists who know what they are talking about and are sleeping quite soundly as far as concerns the LHC," said project leader Evans.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
CNN website:http://www. cnn. com/2008/TECH/06/30/doomsdaycollider. ap/index. html
Sunday, June 15, 2008
WOW This is devilishment @ it's finest The War Against Nature
The prospect of all-female conception
Friday, 13 April 2007
Women might soon be able to produce sperm in a development that could allow lesbian couples to have their own biological daughters, according to a pioneering study published today.
Scientists are seeking ethical permission to produce synthetic sperm cells from a woman's bone marrow tissue after showing that it possible to produce rudimentary sperm cells from male bone-marrow tissue.
The researchers said they had already produced early sperm cells from bone-marrow tissue taken from men. They believe the findings show that it may be possible to restore fertility to men who cannot naturally produce their own sperm.
But the results also raise the prospect of being able to take bone-marrow tissue from women and coaxing the stem cells within the female tissue to develop into sperm cells, said Professor Karim Nayernia of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Creating sperm from women would mean they would only be able to produce daughters because the Y chromosome of male sperm would still be needed to produce sons. The latest research brings the prospect of female-only conception a step closer.
"Theoretically is it possible," Professor Nayernia said. "The problem is whether the sperm cells are functional or not. I don't think there is an ethical barrier, so long as it's safe. We are in the process of applying for ethical approval. We are preparing now to apply to use the existing bone marrow stem cell bank here in Newcastle. We need permission from the patient who supplied the bone marrow, the ethics committee and the hospital itself."
If sperm cells can be developed from female bone-marrow tissue they will be matured in the laboratory and tested for their ability to penetrate the outer "shell" of a hamster's egg - a standard fertility test for sperm.
"We want to test the functionality of any male and female sperm that is made by this way," Professor Nayernia said. But he said there was no intention at this stage to produce female sperm that would be used to fertilise a human egg, a move that would require the approval of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
The immediate aim is to see if female bone marrow can be lured into developing into the stem cells that can make sperm cells. The ultimate aim is to discover if these secondary stem cells can then be made into other useful tissues of the body, he said.
The latest findings, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, show that male bone marrow can be used to make the early "spermatagonial" stem cells that normally mature into fully developed sperm cells.
"Our next goal is to see if we can get the spermatagonial stem cells to progress to mature sperm in the laboratory and this should take around three to five years of experiments," Professor Nayernia said.
Last year, Professor Nayernia led scientists at the University of Gottingen in Germany who became the first to produce viable artificial sperm from mouse embryonic stem cells, which were used to produce seven live offspring.
His latest work on stem cells derived from human bone marrow suggests that it could be possible to develop the techniques to help men who cannot produce their own sperm naturally.
"We're very excited about this discovery, particularly as our earlier work in mice suggests that we could develop this work even further," Professor Nayernia said.
Whether the scientists will ever be able to develop the techniques to help real patients - male or female - will depend on future legislation that the Government is preparing as a replacement to the existing Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act.
A White Paper on genetics suggested that artificial gametes produced from the ordinary "somatic" tissue of the body may be banned from being used to fertilise human eggs by in vitro fertilisation.
Making babies without men - a literary view
LYSISTRATA
Aristophanes (c. 411BC)
After 21 years of war, the women of Athens, led by Lysistrata, take matters into their own hands. Lysistrata suggests every wife and mistress should refuse all sexual favours until peacetime. Before long it proves effective, peace is concluded and the play ends with festivities.
HERLAND
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1914)
On the eve of the First World War, an isolated society entirely comprising Aryan women is discovered by three male explorers. The women reproduce asexually and live in an ideal society without war and domination. This feminist utopia is a 20th-century vehicle for Gilman's then-unconventional views of male and female behaviour, motherhood, individuality, and sexuality. It is said to be based on Gilman's version of utopia through Aryan separatism.
DISAPPEARANCE
Philip Wylie (1978)
At four minutes and 52 seconds past four one afternoon, the world shatters into two parallel universes as men vanish from women and women from men. With families and loved ones separated from one another, life continues very differently as an explosion of violence sweeps one world while stability and peace break down in the other.
THE CLEFT
Doris Lessing (2007)
In her novel, which has made this year's International Man Booker shortlist, Lessing portrays a group of near-amphibious women who have no need of men, known as Squirts, as they are impregnated by the wind, wave or moon. But this is no feminist utopia: the women behave brutally, mutilating male babies before placing them on a rock for eagles to devour. The eagles turn out to be the men's allies, transporting the babies to the forest where they are suckled by does. Lessing reveals she was inspired by a scientific claim that "the primal human stock was probably female, and that males came along later, as a kind of cosmic afterthought".
Friday, May 23, 2008
A.I.D.S repressed
Bone marrow transplant suppresses AIDS in patient
Wed Nov 12, 8:07 pm ET
BERLIN (Reuters) – A bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a donor with natural genetic resistance to the AIDS virus has left an HIV patient free of infection for nearly two years, German researchers.
The patient, an American living in Berlin, was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and also had leukemia. The best treatment for the leukemia was a bone marrow transplant, which takes the stem cells from a healthy donor's immune system to replace the patient's cancer-ridden cells.
Dr. Gero Hutter and Thomas Schneider of the Clinic for Gastroenterology, Infections and Rheumatology of the Berlin Charite hospital said on Wednesday the team sought a bone marrow donor who had a genetic mutation known to help the body resist AIDS infection.
The mutation affects a receptor, a cellular doorway, called CCR5 that the AIDS virus uses to get into the cells it infects.
When they found a donor with the mutation, they used that bone marrow to treat the patient. Not only did the leukemia disappear, but so did the HIV.
"As of today, more than 20 months after the successful transplant, no HIV can be detected in the patient," the clinic said in a statement.
"We performed all tests, not only with blood but also with other reservoirs," Schneider told a news conference.
"But we cannot exclude the possibility that it's still there."
The researchers stressed that this would never become a standard treatment for HIV. Bone marrow stem cell transplants are rigorous and dangerous and require the patient to first have his or her own bone marrow completely destroyed.
Patients risk death from even the most minor infections because they have no immune system until the stem cells can grow and replace their own.
HIV has no cure and is always fatal. Cocktails of drugs can keep the virus suppressed, sometimes to undetectable levels. But research shows the virus never disappears -- it lurks in so-called reservoirs throughout the body.
Hutter's team said they have been unable to find any trace of the virus in their 42-year-old patient, who remains unnamed, but that does not mean it is not there.
"The virus is tricky. It can always return," Hutter said.
The CCR5 mutation is found in about 3 percent of Europeans, the researchers said. They said the study suggests that gene therapy, a highly experimental technology, might someday be used to help treat patients with HIV.
(Reporting by Oliver Denzer; Writing by Maggie Fox in Washington; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Wed Nov 12, 8:07 pm ET
BERLIN (Reuters) – A bone marrow transplant using stem cells from a donor with natural genetic resistance to the AIDS virus has left an HIV patient free of infection for nearly two years, German researchers.
The patient, an American living in Berlin, was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and also had leukemia. The best treatment for the leukemia was a bone marrow transplant, which takes the stem cells from a healthy donor's immune system to replace the patient's cancer-ridden cells.
Dr. Gero Hutter and Thomas Schneider of the Clinic for Gastroenterology, Infections and Rheumatology of the Berlin Charite hospital said on Wednesday the team sought a bone marrow donor who had a genetic mutation known to help the body resist AIDS infection.
The mutation affects a receptor, a cellular doorway, called CCR5 that the AIDS virus uses to get into the cells it infects.
When they found a donor with the mutation, they used that bone marrow to treat the patient. Not only did the leukemia disappear, but so did the HIV.
"As of today, more than 20 months after the successful transplant, no HIV can be detected in the patient," the clinic said in a statement.
"We performed all tests, not only with blood but also with other reservoirs," Schneider told a news conference.
"But we cannot exclude the possibility that it's still there."
The researchers stressed that this would never become a standard treatment for HIV. Bone marrow stem cell transplants are rigorous and dangerous and require the patient to first have his or her own bone marrow completely destroyed.
Patients risk death from even the most minor infections because they have no immune system until the stem cells can grow and replace their own.
HIV has no cure and is always fatal. Cocktails of drugs can keep the virus suppressed, sometimes to undetectable levels. But research shows the virus never disappears -- it lurks in so-called reservoirs throughout the body.
Hutter's team said they have been unable to find any trace of the virus in their 42-year-old patient, who remains unnamed, but that does not mean it is not there.
"The virus is tricky. It can always return," Hutter said.
The CCR5 mutation is found in about 3 percent of Europeans, the researchers said. They said the study suggests that gene therapy, a highly experimental technology, might someday be used to help treat patients with HIV.
(Reporting by Oliver Denzer; Writing by Maggie Fox in Washington; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
War on Drugs Looks like people to me
The so-called "war on drugs" has created a national disaster: 1 in 9 young Black men in America are now behind bars.1 It's not because they commit more crime but largely because of unfair sentencing rules that treat 5 grams of crack cocaine, the kind found in poor Black communities, the same as 500 grams of powder cocaine2, the kind found in White and wealthier communities.
These sentencing laws are destroying communities across the country and have done almost nothing to reduce the level of drug use and crime. Senator Joe Biden is one of the original creators of these laws and is now trying to fix the problem.3 But some of his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee are standing in the way. Join us in telling them to stand with Joe Biden and undo this disaster once and for all:
http://colorofchange. org/crackpowder/?id=2338-189889
At every step in the criminal justice system, Black people are at a disadvantage -- we are more likely to be arrested, charged, and convicted, but less likely to have access to good legal representation, and get out of prison on parole.4 While there's no denying that the presence of crack has a hugely negative impact in Black communities across the country, it's clear that the overly harsh crack sentencing laws have done more to feed the broken system than improve our communities. You have to be convicted of moving roughly $500,000 worth of cocaine to trigger a 5-year sentence.5 For crack? About $500 worth.6 These laws punish the lowest-level dealers, while providing a loophole that helps those running the trade escape harsh sentences. Recently, attention has turned to these ill-conceived policies as prisons burst at the seams with non-violent drug offenders. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which provides sentencing guidelines for judges, has petitioned Congress numerous times to change the sentencing laws.7 Senator Biden was actually one of the original architects of the disparity, but now he's working to undo the damage with a new bill in Congress (Senate bill 1711). The new law will completely eliminate the sentencing disparity and end the mandatory minimum for crack possession, while increasing funding for drug treatment programs and providing additional resources for investigating and prosecuting major cocaine kingpins. But of course, there are foes of this plan. Others want to see the disparity reduced to 20-to-1 or 10-to-1, but not eliminated. As Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance recently said, that "would be like amending the Constitution's three-fifths clause to make African-Americans fourth-fifths citizens or desegregating 60 percent of public establishments instead of all of them."9 Senators on the Judiciary Committee need to hear that there is strong support for a full elimination of the disparity. We can take this opportunity to join the Sentencing Commission and countless other advocates in calling on Congress to change this unjust law.
Please join us:
http://colorofchange. org/crackpowder/?id=2338-189889
Thank You and Peace,
-- James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, Mervyn, Andre, and the rest of the ColorOfChange. org team
March 26th, 2008
References:
1. "1 in 100 U.S.
Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says," New York Times, 02-28-08
http://www. nytimes. com/2008/02/28/us/28cnd-prison. html
2.
"Crack/Cocaine Sentencing Disparity," Drug Policy Alliance
http://www. drugpolicy. org/drugwar/mandatorymin/crackpowder. cfm
3.
"Legislative Proposals for Reform of the Crack/Cocaine Disparity," Drug Policy Alliance, 09-07-07
http://www. drugpolicy. org/library/factsheets/raceandthedr/crack_cocaine. cfm
4.
"Annotated Bibliography: Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System," Sentencing Project
http://...com/297waj
5.
"Cocaine Price/Purity Analysis of STRIDE Data," Drug Enforcement Agency
http://www. dea. gov/concern/cocaine_prices_purity. html
6.
"Cocaine Addiction," Dual Diagnosis Treatment Center
http://www. dual-diagnosis-treatment-center. com/cocaine-addiction. html
7.
"BIDEN Calls for an End to Crack/Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity," Biden for Senate, 02-13-08
http://...com/2bb959
8. See reference 3.
9."Congress to Hold Historic Hearing Tuesday on Draconian 100-to-1 Crack/Powder Sentencing Disparity," Drug Policy Alliance, 02-25-08
http://www. drugpolicy. org/news/pressroom/pr022508. cfm
Additional resources:
"Race and the Drug War," Drug Policy Alliance
http://www. drugpolicy. org/communities/race/
"Federal Crack Cocaine Sentencing," The Sentencing Project
http://www. sentencingproject. org/PublicationDetails. aspx?PublicationID=573
These sentencing laws are destroying communities across the country and have done almost nothing to reduce the level of drug use and crime. Senator Joe Biden is one of the original creators of these laws and is now trying to fix the problem.3 But some of his colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee are standing in the way. Join us in telling them to stand with Joe Biden and undo this disaster once and for all:
http://colorofchange. org/crackpowder/?id=2338-189889
At every step in the criminal justice system, Black people are at a disadvantage -- we are more likely to be arrested, charged, and convicted, but less likely to have access to good legal representation, and get out of prison on parole.4 While there's no denying that the presence of crack has a hugely negative impact in Black communities across the country, it's clear that the overly harsh crack sentencing laws have done more to feed the broken system than improve our communities. You have to be convicted of moving roughly $500,000 worth of cocaine to trigger a 5-year sentence.5 For crack? About $500 worth.6 These laws punish the lowest-level dealers, while providing a loophole that helps those running the trade escape harsh sentences. Recently, attention has turned to these ill-conceived policies as prisons burst at the seams with non-violent drug offenders. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which provides sentencing guidelines for judges, has petitioned Congress numerous times to change the sentencing laws.7 Senator Biden was actually one of the original architects of the disparity, but now he's working to undo the damage with a new bill in Congress (Senate bill 1711). The new law will completely eliminate the sentencing disparity and end the mandatory minimum for crack possession, while increasing funding for drug treatment programs and providing additional resources for investigating and prosecuting major cocaine kingpins. But of course, there are foes of this plan. Others want to see the disparity reduced to 20-to-1 or 10-to-1, but not eliminated. As Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance recently said, that "would be like amending the Constitution's three-fifths clause to make African-Americans fourth-fifths citizens or desegregating 60 percent of public establishments instead of all of them."9 Senators on the Judiciary Committee need to hear that there is strong support for a full elimination of the disparity. We can take this opportunity to join the Sentencing Commission and countless other advocates in calling on Congress to change this unjust law.
Please join us:
http://colorofchange. org/crackpowder/?id=2338-189889
Thank You and Peace,
-- James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, Mervyn, Andre, and the rest of the ColorOfChange. org team
March 26th, 2008
References:
1. "1 in 100 U.S.
Adults Behind Bars, New Study Says," New York Times, 02-28-08
http://www. nytimes. com/2008/02/28/us/28cnd-prison. html
2.
"Crack/Cocaine Sentencing Disparity," Drug Policy Alliance
http://www. drugpolicy. org/drugwar/mandatorymin/crackpowder. cfm
3.
"Legislative Proposals for Reform of the Crack/Cocaine Disparity," Drug Policy Alliance, 09-07-07
http://www. drugpolicy. org/library/factsheets/raceandthedr/crack_cocaine. cfm
4.
"Annotated Bibliography: Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System," Sentencing Project
http://...com/297waj
5.
"Cocaine Price/Purity Analysis of STRIDE Data," Drug Enforcement Agency
http://www. dea. gov/concern/cocaine_prices_purity. html
6.
"Cocaine Addiction," Dual Diagnosis Treatment Center
http://www. dual-diagnosis-treatment-center. com/cocaine-addiction. html
7.
"BIDEN Calls for an End to Crack/Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity," Biden for Senate, 02-13-08
http://...com/2bb959
8. See reference 3.
9."Congress to Hold Historic Hearing Tuesday on Draconian 100-to-1 Crack/Powder Sentencing Disparity," Drug Policy Alliance, 02-25-08
http://www. drugpolicy. org/news/pressroom/pr022508. cfm
Additional resources:
"Race and the Drug War," Drug Policy Alliance
http://www. drugpolicy. org/communities/race/
"Federal Crack Cocaine Sentencing," The Sentencing Project
http://www. sentencingproject. org/PublicationDetails. aspx?PublicationID=573
Monday, March 24, 2008
Face Book Now Myspace recording all we do
BBC NEWS
What Myspace means to Murdoch
* Analysis *
By Jeremy Scott-Joynt
BBC News business reporter
* Just three months ago, news magnate Rupert Murdoch made an unusual
admission.
*He had realised, he told a high-powered audience at the American Society
of Newspaper Editors in Washington DC, that he had got something rather
important rather wrong. News Corporation, the global media group he controls, had failed
properly to engage with the online world - and risked losing its
hard-won position in news as a result. As a "digital immigrant" - as he described himself - he acknowledged he found it difficult to visualize how News Corp should change its ways. But he had no doubt that radical change was coming, and that it was inevitable. Commentators took the unusual "mea culpa" as a sign that News Corp was gearing up for a wholesale revamp of its approach to the internet. On 19 July, what appears to be the first really substantive part of the
new strategy swung into action: the purchase, for $580m, of the firm behind the wildly popular Myspace. com online community.
* Deja vu? *
Cynics may charge that Mr Murdoch has been here before. In 1999, another keynote speech laid out lofty ambitions for News Corp online - only for several well-financed operations to close down within months of their launch.
* Young people don't want to rely on a God-like figure from above to
tell them what's important *
Rupert Murdoch
Before that came failed initiatives such as Delphi Internet in the
mid-1990s, an online service which mingled News Corp's UK content with
US material and failed to capture anyone's imagination, and an abortive
internet service provider experiment called LineOne.
* Everyone's an editor *
Even so, buying Intermix - and thus Myspace - seems to match the
requirements Mr Murdoch laid down in his 13 April speech. The central message was that the days of newspapers editing content into a one-size-fits-all package to be consumed without question by the reader were numbered. Young people "don't want to rely on a God-like figure from above to tell them what's important," Mr Murdoch said. "And to carry the religion analogy a bit further, they certainly don't want news presented as gospel. "Instead, they want their news on demand, when it works for them. They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it. They want to question, to probe, to offer a different angle."
Myspace fits neatly into that definition.
It is a network of pages - most set up by individuals, some by musicians and other creative types - each mixing self-generated text and pictures, links to other content elsewhere, and streamed music and video to create networks of friends and contacts. The result is a densely interwoven community, which its adherents - 14 million a month, by some measures - say is highly addictive. Not that different, in fact, from Mr Murdoch's description of a world
where users act as their own editors, choosing their own news and
content from the huge range of possibilities available online. Of course, every page of Myspace content contains adverts - and Mr Murdoch left his listeners in no doubt that their books would bleed red ink unless they found ways of exploiting the boom in online advertising.
* Backing brands *
What remains unclear is where the other part of Mr Murdoch's vision fits
in. Later in his speech, he talked of the importance of brands - the heart,
after all, of the News Corp empire. Despite the doomsaying, newspaper journalists and editors were perfectly positioned to keep supplying the core content on which the
communications communities would be built, he said. "We have the experience, the brands, the resources, and the know-how to get it done. We have unique content to differentiate ourselves in a world where news is becoming increasingly commoditized."That may prove challenging - after all, suspicion of existing media outlets is rife in weblogs and other chatty outposts of the web. Then again, earlier in July News Corp announced the launch of Fox Interactive Media, a hub for Fox news, sport and entertainment in the US. Myspace, News Corp says, could drive traffic to Fox Interactive Media. And most importantly, Myspace has detailed logs of its users'
preferences, online behaviour and personal information. That could help the company tailor what it does to the ever-more-discerning market which Mr Murdoch believes he has identified.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news. bbc. co. uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4697671. stm
Published: 2005/07/19 16:23:53 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
What Myspace means to Murdoch
* Analysis *
By Jeremy Scott-Joynt
BBC News business reporter
* Just three months ago, news magnate Rupert Murdoch made an unusual
admission.
*He had realised, he told a high-powered audience at the American Society
of Newspaper Editors in Washington DC, that he had got something rather
important rather wrong. News Corporation, the global media group he controls, had failed
properly to engage with the online world - and risked losing its
hard-won position in news as a result. As a "digital immigrant" - as he described himself - he acknowledged he found it difficult to visualize how News Corp should change its ways. But he had no doubt that radical change was coming, and that it was inevitable. Commentators took the unusual "mea culpa" as a sign that News Corp was gearing up for a wholesale revamp of its approach to the internet. On 19 July, what appears to be the first really substantive part of the
new strategy swung into action: the purchase, for $580m, of the firm behind the wildly popular Myspace. com online community.
* Deja vu? *
Cynics may charge that Mr Murdoch has been here before. In 1999, another keynote speech laid out lofty ambitions for News Corp online - only for several well-financed operations to close down within months of their launch.
* Young people don't want to rely on a God-like figure from above to
tell them what's important *
Rupert Murdoch
Before that came failed initiatives such as Delphi Internet in the
mid-1990s, an online service which mingled News Corp's UK content with
US material and failed to capture anyone's imagination, and an abortive
internet service provider experiment called LineOne.
* Everyone's an editor *
Even so, buying Intermix - and thus Myspace - seems to match the
requirements Mr Murdoch laid down in his 13 April speech. The central message was that the days of newspapers editing content into a one-size-fits-all package to be consumed without question by the reader were numbered. Young people "don't want to rely on a God-like figure from above to tell them what's important," Mr Murdoch said. "And to carry the religion analogy a bit further, they certainly don't want news presented as gospel. "Instead, they want their news on demand, when it works for them. They want control over their media, instead of being controlled by it. They want to question, to probe, to offer a different angle."
Myspace fits neatly into that definition.
It is a network of pages - most set up by individuals, some by musicians and other creative types - each mixing self-generated text and pictures, links to other content elsewhere, and streamed music and video to create networks of friends and contacts. The result is a densely interwoven community, which its adherents - 14 million a month, by some measures - say is highly addictive. Not that different, in fact, from Mr Murdoch's description of a world
where users act as their own editors, choosing their own news and
content from the huge range of possibilities available online. Of course, every page of Myspace content contains adverts - and Mr Murdoch left his listeners in no doubt that their books would bleed red ink unless they found ways of exploiting the boom in online advertising.
* Backing brands *
What remains unclear is where the other part of Mr Murdoch's vision fits
in. Later in his speech, he talked of the importance of brands - the heart,
after all, of the News Corp empire. Despite the doomsaying, newspaper journalists and editors were perfectly positioned to keep supplying the core content on which the
communications communities would be built, he said. "We have the experience, the brands, the resources, and the know-how to get it done. We have unique content to differentiate ourselves in a world where news is becoming increasingly commoditized."That may prove challenging - after all, suspicion of existing media outlets is rife in weblogs and other chatty outposts of the web. Then again, earlier in July News Corp announced the launch of Fox Interactive Media, a hub for Fox news, sport and entertainment in the US. Myspace, News Corp says, could drive traffic to Fox Interactive Media. And most importantly, Myspace has detailed logs of its users'
preferences, online behaviour and personal information. That could help the company tailor what it does to the ever-more-discerning market which Mr Murdoch believes he has identified.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news. bbc. co. uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4697671. stm
Published: 2005/07/19 16:23:53 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
The Artist friendly Contract
The Artist-Friendly Contract
by Keith Holzman,
Keith Holzman Solutions Unlimited.
All rights reserved.
It’s been a number of years since I’ve written about artist contracts, but it’s a subject much on my mind lately because I’ve been seeing agreements that would curl your hair. I’m not an attorney so I advise all my clients to retain an experienced entertainment lawyer to draft their own standard artist agreement, but I’m making the suggestions below based on my many years’ involvement with them.
I’ve always stressed to my clients that their contacts be artist-friendly, and I mean this from two standpoints. First, they should be fair and even-handed in the terms and provisions. Second, they should be written so that the average person can readily understand what they mean.
These are some of the things record labels should consider when writing artist agreements.
Term. Be sure the "term" -- the period of time the agreement is in effect -- is clearly stated. Some are so complicated that it takes an Aztec calendar and an abacus to calculate how long they run, and then lawyers are frequently in disagreement when they try to interpret them. The same should also apply to the definition and length of option periods.
Royalty Base. The royalty base should be 100 percent of either
suggested retail list price (SRLP,) or the label’s price to its distributor, or the distributor’s average price to its dealers (PPD.) Whichever of these is used, it should be clearly stated as such, and the calculated royalty should be proportionate. In other words, the artist’s royalty should be more or less the same no matter which of the above is the basis. For example, a 10 percent royalty based on an SRLP of $14.98 would be about $1.50, but if based on the label’s price to its distributor (about $7.50 -- roughly 50 percent of retail) then you’d need to double the artist’s royalty to about 20 percent to come up with the same $1.50.
Deductions. Forget about packaging deductions which has been common but unnecessary since CDs have been typically issued in jewel cases. This provision is a throwback to the 60’s when such a deduction might have been necessary when artists commonly requested expensive packaging including gatefold jackets and booklets with lyrics and lots of photos. I can see some rationale for a deduction for expensive Digipaks¨. But that’s about it.
There’s also no need for deductions for such standard configurations as CDs, cassettes, etc. The CD deduction dates back to the early 80’s when it was a new and unproved configuration and the actual cost of manufacture was about three times higher than the then-prevailing LP. That’s when the "new technology" clause started creeping into contracts.
And of course there should certainly be no deductions for downloaded sales. I’ve seen contracts where there’s a packaging deduction taken even for these sales that have no package at all!
Territory. Clearly state the territories that are covered. If it’s the World then say so. But "parallel universes" -- as in some contracts? Get real!
Ownership of masters is frequently another sore point. It’s my opinion that masters should always revert to the artist in the case where a label closes shop and hasn’t sold its assets. Some agreements stipulate that, should the label go under or be in default for not paying royalties, ownership of the masters will revert to the artist.
If the recording is a "work for hire" then that should be stated as such, with a clear explanation what the term means.
Royalty percentages should be clearly stated for each configuration and price category, particularly for digital sales.
Free Goods. I’m not a great believer in using free goods to promote the sale of CDs because this practice has been severely abused by many labels and accounts. If you must utilize free goods, I recommend you limit their use contractually to a defined amount, but in any event no more than 10 percent, which I believe is itself too high.
Controlled Compositions are those that are written by the artist or producer, and for which most labels prefer to pay less -- typically 75 percent of the statutory amount. This can be very unfair to an artist and his publisher, but it’s one way for a label to control its costs.
Co-publishing. Many labels try to obtain a portion of a writing artist’s publishing. This is typically 50 percent of the publisher’s portion, allowing the artist to retain the other 50 percent of the publisher’s portion as well as 100 percent of the writer’s portion. Therefore the writing artist would own three quarters of all the publishing with the label retaining the other quarter. I believe this is a fair provision, provided that the label’s publishing division actively works to promote the copyrights involved.
Cross Collateralization between publishing and record royalties is attempted in some contracts, but this is a no-no and is extremely unfair to an artist who writes his own material. More common is crossing multiple releases so that positive royalties from higher selling albums are crossed with losses from poorer selling ones. This is not unreasonable in cases where a label has actively been developing an artist’s career and is thus an opportunity for a label to try to recoup some of its losses.
Tour Support. Most independent labels can’t afford to spend much in the way of assisting an artist’s touring, other than through use of the label’s publicity department to support the artist’s efforts. However, if a label helps support the artist while on tour, then it’s reasonable that it be a recoupable cost.
Independent Publicity, Promotion, and Marketing. Many small labels don’t have fully staffed departments to handle these functions so in the event they hire outside specialists, it’s not unreasonable that a portion -- no more than 50 percent -- be recoupable from the artist’s royalties.
Merchandising. It’s becoming quite common for labels to negotiate for a percentage of an artist’s merchandising income. I don’t think this is unreasonable for those labels who actively work to develop their artists’ careers, but I think it very unreasonable otherwise.
Artist Approvals should be requested whenever feasible, but these should not be contractually offered. I’ve seen too many occasions where artist’s unreasonably withheld approvals and impaired a project
and its release.
I don’t recommend that a label contracts with an artist who is underage. This can create untold problems, even when parents sign an agreement. I suggest waiting until the artist has reached majority.
Profit Sharing. There are many occasions when an artist or group will record an entire album paying for all the costs as they proceed, without requesting funds from the label. This is particularly common when an artist is not yet signed and records an album on his own. In this event a label and the artist may enter into a simple profit-sharing plan, where all recording, manufacturing and marketing costs from both sides are pooled. Then net income after accounting for expenses is split, usually on a 50/50 basis.
You might include in your contract a comment recommending that the artist seek the advice of a competent attorney thoroughly familiar with record industry practice.
In order to keep an agreement reasonably simple, some attorneys put all of the definitions, and certain other boilerplate, in a discrete part of the contract. These are items that will usually remain standard for all of a label’s agreements and simplifies the negotiating person’s work and reduces the amount of typing by an assistant or paralegal. The definitions will include all of the standard words that require strict explanation so that there will be no confusion over terminology.
In sum, I believe that a label should be as fair as possible in signing an artist. After all, this should be like a partnership where both artist and label share any bounty. Contracts should be just that -- an agreement between both parties that is fair and equitable, creating a win-win situation for all. In short, don’t be greedy.
Until next month,
Keith Holzman -- Solutions Unlimited
Keith Holzman is the principal of Solutions Unlimited, a management consultant specializing in the recording industry. A trusted advisor and troubleshooter, he is a seasoned music business senior executive with extensive experience in all aspects of running a label. He was President of ROM Records, Managing Director of Discovery Records, Senior Vice President of Elektra, and Director of Nonesuch Records. He publishes "Manage for Success," a free monthly email newsletter devoted to solving problems of the record industry. You can subscribe at his website .
"IT’S NO LONGER SMART TO BE DUMB!"
by Keith Holzman,
Keith Holzman Solutions Unlimited.
All rights reserved.
It’s been a number of years since I’ve written about artist contracts, but it’s a subject much on my mind lately because I’ve been seeing agreements that would curl your hair. I’m not an attorney so I advise all my clients to retain an experienced entertainment lawyer to draft their own standard artist agreement, but I’m making the suggestions below based on my many years’ involvement with them.
I’ve always stressed to my clients that their contacts be artist-friendly, and I mean this from two standpoints. First, they should be fair and even-handed in the terms and provisions. Second, they should be written so that the average person can readily understand what they mean.
These are some of the things record labels should consider when writing artist agreements.
Term. Be sure the "term" -- the period of time the agreement is in effect -- is clearly stated. Some are so complicated that it takes an Aztec calendar and an abacus to calculate how long they run, and then lawyers are frequently in disagreement when they try to interpret them. The same should also apply to the definition and length of option periods.
Royalty Base. The royalty base should be 100 percent of either
suggested retail list price (SRLP,) or the label’s price to its distributor, or the distributor’s average price to its dealers (PPD.) Whichever of these is used, it should be clearly stated as such, and the calculated royalty should be proportionate. In other words, the artist’s royalty should be more or less the same no matter which of the above is the basis. For example, a 10 percent royalty based on an SRLP of $14.98 would be about $1.50, but if based on the label’s price to its distributor (about $7.50 -- roughly 50 percent of retail) then you’d need to double the artist’s royalty to about 20 percent to come up with the same $1.50.
Deductions. Forget about packaging deductions which has been common but unnecessary since CDs have been typically issued in jewel cases. This provision is a throwback to the 60’s when such a deduction might have been necessary when artists commonly requested expensive packaging including gatefold jackets and booklets with lyrics and lots of photos. I can see some rationale for a deduction for expensive Digipaks¨. But that’s about it.
There’s also no need for deductions for such standard configurations as CDs, cassettes, etc. The CD deduction dates back to the early 80’s when it was a new and unproved configuration and the actual cost of manufacture was about three times higher than the then-prevailing LP. That’s when the "new technology" clause started creeping into contracts.
And of course there should certainly be no deductions for downloaded sales. I’ve seen contracts where there’s a packaging deduction taken even for these sales that have no package at all!
Territory. Clearly state the territories that are covered. If it’s the World then say so. But "parallel universes" -- as in some contracts? Get real!
Ownership of masters is frequently another sore point. It’s my opinion that masters should always revert to the artist in the case where a label closes shop and hasn’t sold its assets. Some agreements stipulate that, should the label go under or be in default for not paying royalties, ownership of the masters will revert to the artist.
If the recording is a "work for hire" then that should be stated as such, with a clear explanation what the term means.
Royalty percentages should be clearly stated for each configuration and price category, particularly for digital sales.
Free Goods. I’m not a great believer in using free goods to promote the sale of CDs because this practice has been severely abused by many labels and accounts. If you must utilize free goods, I recommend you limit their use contractually to a defined amount, but in any event no more than 10 percent, which I believe is itself too high.
Controlled Compositions are those that are written by the artist or producer, and for which most labels prefer to pay less -- typically 75 percent of the statutory amount. This can be very unfair to an artist and his publisher, but it’s one way for a label to control its costs.
Co-publishing. Many labels try to obtain a portion of a writing artist’s publishing. This is typically 50 percent of the publisher’s portion, allowing the artist to retain the other 50 percent of the publisher’s portion as well as 100 percent of the writer’s portion. Therefore the writing artist would own three quarters of all the publishing with the label retaining the other quarter. I believe this is a fair provision, provided that the label’s publishing division actively works to promote the copyrights involved.
Cross Collateralization between publishing and record royalties is attempted in some contracts, but this is a no-no and is extremely unfair to an artist who writes his own material. More common is crossing multiple releases so that positive royalties from higher selling albums are crossed with losses from poorer selling ones. This is not unreasonable in cases where a label has actively been developing an artist’s career and is thus an opportunity for a label to try to recoup some of its losses.
Tour Support. Most independent labels can’t afford to spend much in the way of assisting an artist’s touring, other than through use of the label’s publicity department to support the artist’s efforts. However, if a label helps support the artist while on tour, then it’s reasonable that it be a recoupable cost.
Independent Publicity, Promotion, and Marketing. Many small labels don’t have fully staffed departments to handle these functions so in the event they hire outside specialists, it’s not unreasonable that a portion -- no more than 50 percent -- be recoupable from the artist’s royalties.
Merchandising. It’s becoming quite common for labels to negotiate for a percentage of an artist’s merchandising income. I don’t think this is unreasonable for those labels who actively work to develop their artists’ careers, but I think it very unreasonable otherwise.
Artist Approvals should be requested whenever feasible, but these should not be contractually offered. I’ve seen too many occasions where artist’s unreasonably withheld approvals and impaired a project
and its release.
I don’t recommend that a label contracts with an artist who is underage. This can create untold problems, even when parents sign an agreement. I suggest waiting until the artist has reached majority.
Profit Sharing. There are many occasions when an artist or group will record an entire album paying for all the costs as they proceed, without requesting funds from the label. This is particularly common when an artist is not yet signed and records an album on his own. In this event a label and the artist may enter into a simple profit-sharing plan, where all recording, manufacturing and marketing costs from both sides are pooled. Then net income after accounting for expenses is split, usually on a 50/50 basis.
You might include in your contract a comment recommending that the artist seek the advice of a competent attorney thoroughly familiar with record industry practice.
In order to keep an agreement reasonably simple, some attorneys put all of the definitions, and certain other boilerplate, in a discrete part of the contract. These are items that will usually remain standard for all of a label’s agreements and simplifies the negotiating person’s work and reduces the amount of typing by an assistant or paralegal. The definitions will include all of the standard words that require strict explanation so that there will be no confusion over terminology.
In sum, I believe that a label should be as fair as possible in signing an artist. After all, this should be like a partnership where both artist and label share any bounty. Contracts should be just that -- an agreement between both parties that is fair and equitable, creating a win-win situation for all. In short, don’t be greedy.
Until next month,
Keith Holzman -- Solutions Unlimited
Keith Holzman is the principal of Solutions Unlimited, a management consultant specializing in the recording industry. A trusted advisor and troubleshooter, he is a seasoned music business senior executive with extensive experience in all aspects of running a label. He was President of ROM Records, Managing Director of Discovery Records, Senior Vice President of Elektra, and Director of Nonesuch Records. He publishes "Manage for Success," a free monthly email newsletter devoted to solving problems of the record industry. You can subscribe at his website .
"IT’S NO LONGER SMART TO BE DUMB!"
FREEDOM, REDEMPTION, INTERNATIONAL REPATRIATION!
To the Archbishop of Canterbury
Blessed Love My Lord,
Give thanks and praise for Life and for the Allmighty, Omnipotent and Blessed Life Giver, the Black Christ in Flesh and Blood, Holy Emmanuel I , Selassie I, JAH RASTAFARI.
I an I, the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress, True Divine Church of Salvation, Sons and Daughters of the God of Ethiopia, the Black God of Zion greet you and your whole congregation with a Heart of Love.
Give thanks to the God of Truth and Rights for the acknowledgement that your church’s participation in and profiting from, the brutal, shameful, evil and wicked slave trade and the slavery system, is wrong.
In the early 80s, the Pope of Rome, went into Africa, kissed the earth and asked for forgiveness, then later the Bitish Government acknowledged their wrong in participating in slavery and the slave trade, and asked for pardon, and, up to now, nothing has been done to return us to Our Homeland, Ethiopia the land where all Gods and Goddesses love to be. Away with empty apologies and crocodile tears! It is time for ACTION now to RECTIFY the wrong done to our Forefathers and Foremothers and to bring forth the full EMANCIPATION of all slave children internationally and universally in Righteousness of Salvation.
From, as early as, the 1st of March 1958, King Emmanuel Charles Edwards, the BLACK GOD in Flesh and Blood, formed and established this Black International Congress to Agitate and make Representation for Freedom, Redemption and International Repatriation. I, King Emmanuel had sent and come to deliver My People out of bondage. It was on the 1st of August 1834, that the shackles came off our feet. August coming up is 173 years now, and I an I are still waiting to be returned to Ethiopia! Can there be repentance without JUSTICE? No!
We have All Authority to Demand Our Rights from both, the spiritual head, of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the temporal head, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Is it JUSTICE to forcibly remove People from their Homeland, carry them thousands of miles away, brutalize and ill treat them in the name of white civilization, break down their family values and traditions and then leave them to continue working for you in another man’s land even though their cry their heartfelt desire is to be REPATRIATED? No!
In 1966, her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of England, declared at King’s House, Jamaica, that there is an Individual Man in this country who No One must molest for, in time to come, which is this time, He shall be Lord over her Lords. She said this after she received a Red, White and Blue Pouch from I containing the Black World Flags of the RED, GOLD AND GREEN and the RED, BLACK AND GREEN with BLACK five-point Star, Lion Crowned Head and R symbols respectively, along with the BLACK flag. She bowed her head to these flags and spoke such words.
JUSTICE DEMANDS that the church of England use some of the huge profits that it gained from such wickedness as slavery and the slave trade to provide Transportation and all other requirements for the speedy Repatriation of all of God’s Children, the black House of Israelites who want to go home to Ethiopia, to fulfil History and Prophecy (Micah 4, Joel 3, Isaiah 43] Holy Emmanuel I, Selassie I, Jah RastafarI.
The world must return to Righteousness as how Christ created it. The Black Christ come to Rule. His commandment is LOVE! On Love hang all laws and prophet’s commandments. Everything must come to a final Reckoning for the Freedom , Redemption and International Repatriation of all Black People out of oppression in Egypt/Jamaica and Universally. It is time for every Man, Woman and Child of Right to Defend the JUSRICE and Peacefulness of righteousness. Righteousness exalts a nation but sin bringeth any people to a reproach.
Calling for 7, 9, or 13 miles of Black Starliner Highwater Ships to take us home. As the Most Rt. Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey say, Africa for the Africans those at home and us abroad, China for the Chinese, India for the Indians, Europe for the Europeans and the western hemisphere, the inheritance of the Arawak Indians.
Awake to the REALITY of God in Flesh and Blood. Man of Right is God in Flesh. Woman of Right is Goddess in Flesh. Men of wrong is satan in flesh. Women of wrong is sataness in flesh. Away with white men dead philosophy and teaching of a spirit god without flesh, anti-Christ doctrine, which cannot save anyone. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jes-us Christ is come in the flesh is of God. (1st John 4.1,2}.
Five bleeding wounds the black Christ in flesh and blood bear to take away the sins of the world and for the Redemption of the Black House of Israelites, Internationally and Universally. We demand Freedom out of migration law because we did not come here under any migration law therefore we call for Freedom, Redemption and International Repatriation with full Compensation through the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her privy council and the prime minister of Jamaica. We call upon all Heads of Government who have profited from the evils of slavery and the slave trade such as Britain, France, Spain, the United States of America, Portugal, Belgium and Holland to contribute to this International works of Righteous Redemption. For there cannot be a World Peace until every man,woman and child be returned to his or her own vine and fig tree.
Only ONE SALVATION stand, Jes-us Emmanuel, the Black Christ Salvation. All Black Ethiopian Sons and Daughters at Home and Abroad are one People ,one Nation, one Father and Mother children. The Black Kingdom is the First Kingdom on earth. Out of Black man and woman come all other nations. Only the black World have a Kingdom, for we are the first Nation., (1st Timothy 6. 14, 15, 16).
An Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor a leopard his spots(Jeremiah 13 v 23}.Holy Emmanuel I Selassie I, JAH RASTAFARI. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy(Exodus 20 & 3). The Sabbath Day begins 6 o’clock Friday evening (sunset) to 6 o’clock Saturday evening (sunset). This is a commandment from Creation Birth.
We want to know what you can do to further Freedom, Redemption and International Repatriation? We are looking for an early reply. May God bless you to build up Peace and Love so that there can be Harmony on Earth in Righteousness of Salvation. Holy Emmanuel I,Selassie I, JAH RASTAFARI.
Crown Him with many crowns, The Lamb upon His throne, Hark how the Heavenly Anthem drowns, All music but its own. Holy Emmanuel I, Selassie I, Jah RastafarI.
Closing with seven (7) words of LOVE, God is Love, let us All Love.
I am,
Most Rt. Hon. King Emmanuel Charles Edwards,
Brother Moses, The Lord’s Servant,
Black Christ in Flesh
Black Secretary General of the United Nations,
Crowned Champion of Human Rights/Human Justice
President of the Ethiopia/Africa Black International Congress,
True Divine Church of Salvation,
I Negus Rule Israelite
I.N.R.I..
Blessed Love My Lord,
Give thanks and praise for Life and for the Allmighty, Omnipotent and Blessed Life Giver, the Black Christ in Flesh and Blood, Holy Emmanuel I , Selassie I, JAH RASTAFARI.
I an I, the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress, True Divine Church of Salvation, Sons and Daughters of the God of Ethiopia, the Black God of Zion greet you and your whole congregation with a Heart of Love.
Give thanks to the God of Truth and Rights for the acknowledgement that your church’s participation in and profiting from, the brutal, shameful, evil and wicked slave trade and the slavery system, is wrong.
In the early 80s, the Pope of Rome, went into Africa, kissed the earth and asked for forgiveness, then later the Bitish Government acknowledged their wrong in participating in slavery and the slave trade, and asked for pardon, and, up to now, nothing has been done to return us to Our Homeland, Ethiopia the land where all Gods and Goddesses love to be. Away with empty apologies and crocodile tears! It is time for ACTION now to RECTIFY the wrong done to our Forefathers and Foremothers and to bring forth the full EMANCIPATION of all slave children internationally and universally in Righteousness of Salvation.
From, as early as, the 1st of March 1958, King Emmanuel Charles Edwards, the BLACK GOD in Flesh and Blood, formed and established this Black International Congress to Agitate and make Representation for Freedom, Redemption and International Repatriation. I, King Emmanuel had sent and come to deliver My People out of bondage. It was on the 1st of August 1834, that the shackles came off our feet. August coming up is 173 years now, and I an I are still waiting to be returned to Ethiopia! Can there be repentance without JUSTICE? No!
We have All Authority to Demand Our Rights from both, the spiritual head, of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the temporal head, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Is it JUSTICE to forcibly remove People from their Homeland, carry them thousands of miles away, brutalize and ill treat them in the name of white civilization, break down their family values and traditions and then leave them to continue working for you in another man’s land even though their cry their heartfelt desire is to be REPATRIATED? No!
In 1966, her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, the Queen of England, declared at King’s House, Jamaica, that there is an Individual Man in this country who No One must molest for, in time to come, which is this time, He shall be Lord over her Lords. She said this after she received a Red, White and Blue Pouch from I containing the Black World Flags of the RED, GOLD AND GREEN and the RED, BLACK AND GREEN with BLACK five-point Star, Lion Crowned Head and R symbols respectively, along with the BLACK flag. She bowed her head to these flags and spoke such words.
JUSTICE DEMANDS that the church of England use some of the huge profits that it gained from such wickedness as slavery and the slave trade to provide Transportation and all other requirements for the speedy Repatriation of all of God’s Children, the black House of Israelites who want to go home to Ethiopia, to fulfil History and Prophecy (Micah 4, Joel 3, Isaiah 43] Holy Emmanuel I, Selassie I, Jah RastafarI.
The world must return to Righteousness as how Christ created it. The Black Christ come to Rule. His commandment is LOVE! On Love hang all laws and prophet’s commandments. Everything must come to a final Reckoning for the Freedom , Redemption and International Repatriation of all Black People out of oppression in Egypt/Jamaica and Universally. It is time for every Man, Woman and Child of Right to Defend the JUSRICE and Peacefulness of righteousness. Righteousness exalts a nation but sin bringeth any people to a reproach.
Calling for 7, 9, or 13 miles of Black Starliner Highwater Ships to take us home. As the Most Rt. Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey say, Africa for the Africans those at home and us abroad, China for the Chinese, India for the Indians, Europe for the Europeans and the western hemisphere, the inheritance of the Arawak Indians.
Awake to the REALITY of God in Flesh and Blood. Man of Right is God in Flesh. Woman of Right is Goddess in Flesh. Men of wrong is satan in flesh. Women of wrong is sataness in flesh. Away with white men dead philosophy and teaching of a spirit god without flesh, anti-Christ doctrine, which cannot save anyone. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jes-us Christ is come in the flesh is of God. (1st John 4.1,2}.
Five bleeding wounds the black Christ in flesh and blood bear to take away the sins of the world and for the Redemption of the Black House of Israelites, Internationally and Universally. We demand Freedom out of migration law because we did not come here under any migration law therefore we call for Freedom, Redemption and International Repatriation with full Compensation through the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her privy council and the prime minister of Jamaica. We call upon all Heads of Government who have profited from the evils of slavery and the slave trade such as Britain, France, Spain, the United States of America, Portugal, Belgium and Holland to contribute to this International works of Righteous Redemption. For there cannot be a World Peace until every man,woman and child be returned to his or her own vine and fig tree.
Only ONE SALVATION stand, Jes-us Emmanuel, the Black Christ Salvation. All Black Ethiopian Sons and Daughters at Home and Abroad are one People ,one Nation, one Father and Mother children. The Black Kingdom is the First Kingdom on earth. Out of Black man and woman come all other nations. Only the black World have a Kingdom, for we are the first Nation., (1st Timothy 6. 14, 15, 16).
An Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor a leopard his spots(Jeremiah 13 v 23}.Holy Emmanuel I Selassie I, JAH RASTAFARI. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy(Exodus 20 & 3). The Sabbath Day begins 6 o’clock Friday evening (sunset) to 6 o’clock Saturday evening (sunset). This is a commandment from Creation Birth.
We want to know what you can do to further Freedom, Redemption and International Repatriation? We are looking for an early reply. May God bless you to build up Peace and Love so that there can be Harmony on Earth in Righteousness of Salvation. Holy Emmanuel I,Selassie I, JAH RASTAFARI.
Crown Him with many crowns, The Lamb upon His throne, Hark how the Heavenly Anthem drowns, All music but its own. Holy Emmanuel I, Selassie I, Jah RastafarI.
Closing with seven (7) words of LOVE, God is Love, let us All Love.
I am,
Most Rt. Hon. King Emmanuel Charles Edwards,
Brother Moses, The Lord’s Servant,
Black Christ in Flesh
Black Secretary General of the United Nations,
Crowned Champion of Human Rights/Human Justice
President of the Ethiopia/Africa Black International Congress,
True Divine Church of Salvation,
I Negus Rule Israelite
I.N.R.I..
Cure
Iran Cures AIDS
Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani announces after 5 years of research, Iran now has an herbal cure for AIDS. The herb can ONLY be found in Iran.
The herbal drug called IMOD, is the result of five years of research and has been tested on 200 patients. It boosts the human body’s immunity system in a 90-day treatment course and a 2-year follow up.
"Deficiency of the body’s immune system reflects a decrease in CD4 cells that lead to appearance of AIDS symptoms," he said, adding that the new drug controls the multiplication of HIV virus and thus helps increasing the CD4 cells.
The herbs used in production of IMOD are completely Iranian native plants, he noted.
Iran is the only country in the region that provides free HIV drugs to the patients, Baqeri Lankarani said. [snip]
"I believe that the drug should be used for HIV patients whose CD4 is below 350, to prevent them from entering the severe level of AIDS," she stated. (source)
The drug has only been tested on 200 patients, but will be tested on 5,000 over the next calendar year. Iran claims to have only 14,000 cases if AIDS presently, but expects ’the number of those infected will reach 100 000 by the end of the next Iranian year (March 2008)’.
Iran is believed to have at least two million regular drug users - and possibly as many as 3.5 million ... Intravenous drug use is believed to be the main cause of HIV/Aids infection at 62.3%, followed by "unknown causes" at 27.9% and sexual contact at 7.4%. (source)
This sounds ... strange, too good to be true, like bragging before the research trials have actually be conducted
Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani announces after 5 years of research, Iran now has an herbal cure for AIDS. The herb can ONLY be found in Iran.
The herbal drug called IMOD, is the result of five years of research and has been tested on 200 patients. It boosts the human body’s immunity system in a 90-day treatment course and a 2-year follow up.
"Deficiency of the body’s immune system reflects a decrease in CD4 cells that lead to appearance of AIDS symptoms," he said, adding that the new drug controls the multiplication of HIV virus and thus helps increasing the CD4 cells.
The herbs used in production of IMOD are completely Iranian native plants, he noted.
Iran is the only country in the region that provides free HIV drugs to the patients, Baqeri Lankarani said. [snip]
"I believe that the drug should be used for HIV patients whose CD4 is below 350, to prevent them from entering the severe level of AIDS," she stated. (source)
The drug has only been tested on 200 patients, but will be tested on 5,000 over the next calendar year. Iran claims to have only 14,000 cases if AIDS presently, but expects ’the number of those infected will reach 100 000 by the end of the next Iranian year (March 2008)’.
Iran is believed to have at least two million regular drug users - and possibly as many as 3.5 million ... Intravenous drug use is believed to be the main cause of HIV/Aids infection at 62.3%, followed by "unknown causes" at 27.9% and sexual contact at 7.4%. (source)
This sounds ... strange, too good to be true, like bragging before the research trials have actually be conducted