Paul McCartney 'Live Kisses' DVD set for release

The special was recorded on February 9, 2012 (the 48th anniversary of the Beatles debut on the Ed Sullivan Show) at the famed Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.

A few hours after the long awaited addition of McCartney's star to the Hollywood Walk of Fame drew a traffic-stopping throng to pack the stretch of Vine Street in front of the famed Capitol Records building, McCartney took his place behind the same microphone that had captured so many of the most magical voices of the past several decades, while the core team that backed McCartney on his debut turn on Kisses, prepared to reprise their roles in this one-time-only concert event. McCartney and the assembled musicians had never performed this material live adding to the evening's electricity.

The reunited all-star entourage included Grammy-winning producer Tommy LiPuma and Al Schmitt in the control room, musical director Diana Krall at the piano, and Kisses players John Clayton, Karriem Riggins, John Pizzarelli, Anthony Wilson, Mike Mainieri and conductor Alan Broadbent.

McCartney eschewed his usual tools of bass, guitar and piano to focus solely on his vocal interpretations of this material. In exclusive interview segments with Paul and Kisses On The Bottom collaborators Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder, Krall and LiPuma, among others, Live Kisses offers new insight into the conception and creation of the Kisses. album, the McCartney family gatherings that introduced a young Paul to much of the material, the Fats Waller line from Live Kisses opener 'I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter' that gave Kisses On The Bottom its title, and more.

Live Kisses' highlights include 'Home,' 'More I Cannot Wish You,' 'Always,' 'Bye Bye Blackbird' and McCartney harmonizing with his longtime live drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. on 'I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter,' 'The Glory of Love' and 'Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive.' There are spontaneous moments such as a flubbed first take on 'My Very Good Friend the Milkman.' Paul's rendition of his new composition 'My Valentine' receives acoustic guitar punctuation courtesy of Joe Walsh (who contributes another outstanding turn in a completely different mood on 'Get Yourself Another Fool').

SHOWBIZ: Guitar Samurai keeps it simple

AT the young age of 17, Osaka-born guitarist Takamasa Ishihara, better known as Miyavi, moved to Tokyo with only just a guitar in hand.

His interest in music, which he developed while he was recovering from a football injury, proved fruitful and put his name on the world’s music map.

“I was into sports, especially football, before I tried my hands at music. I injured myself in one of the matches and I spent a lot of time at home to recover. It was then I developed my skill in playing the guitar,” says Miyavi during his visit here recently. “It was the turning point in my life. I have never looked back since,” he said.

Hailed as Guitar Samurai among fans, Miyavi found success as a guitarist with independent rock band Due Le Quarts before pursuing a solo career. Along the way, he joined S.K.I.N, a music group project formed in 2007 by Japanese rock visual kei musicians (visual kei refers to a movement among Japanese musicians, that is characterised by the use of make-up, elaborate hairstyles and flamboyant costumes).

“Those who are familiar with my style know how I present myself on stage. Normally, I wear a lot of make-up, with stylish hairdo and most times, I love to wear a kimono. I love combining traditional and modern Japanese styles when I perform,” said the guitarist, who wears many caps — singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, actor and dancer.

“Miyavi is like a character that blends well with my music. It’s hard to explain my music in words, so when fans see how I present myself, I hope they will get an idea,” he said.

These days, Miyavi prefers to concentrate on his music.

“Previously, I had to make time for my creative team to work on my style. Now, I appear on stage with just a guitar,” he says.

The multi-talented musician has released seven albums so far. The latest, What’s My Name, was released in 2010.

“I like to play all music genres. I don’t set a limit for myself. So in my albums, you will hear all kinds of music — from rock to hip hop and pop to punk. I also love to collaborate with other musicians and singers. It lends diversity to my music  and it pumps up my adrenalin,” he said with a smile.

Among his notable collaborations are with Tomoyasu Hotei, Maki Nomiya, Studio Apartment, Yoko Kanno, Anna Tsuchiya and Good Charlotte.

Knowing that his music can entertain and, perhaps, send positive messages to his fans, is another plus for this musician, who is a father to two children.

“During the tsunami tragedy that hit my country, I released a song, Day 1. It’s a story of hope and how I picture my people coming together again. I even performed in Europe to to tell the audience there that my people were doing fine. I wanted to show that we could overcome tough times.”

There is a saying, he said, that encapsulates hope. “If you don’t have the break of day in the morning, how can you enjoy the night? It’s really important to know that there’s hope,” said Miyavi who speaks fluent English with thick American accent, despite having learnt the language only five years ago.

“I knew that if I wanted to promote my music outside Japan. I’ve got to embrace the (English) language. I had to make the effort to learn,” he  said, adding that he stayed in Los Angeles for three months to learn English with the help of a friend.

“It was tough. I had to focus on language instead of making music. But it paid off. My English isn’t perfect yet. I’m still learning,” said Miyavi who was amazed to learn that a lot of Malaysians are bilingual.

“I was surprised to listen to  a child speaking in English to his parents. And I learnt that a lot of people here speak other languages too.”

Miyavi, who is half Korean on his father’s side, says he has a Korean name, Lee.

On how he stays connected with his fans from all over the world, he said technology helps.

“I’m an avid user of Twitter and Facebook — that’s how I keep my fans updated on my latest development. However, technology too has its downside — the value of music goes down because people can easily download songs from the Internet,” he said.  “But, whether you hate it or love it, you have to go with the flow and make the best out of it.”

Miyavi feels he still has a long way to go.

“I don’t think I’m successful enough. To tell you the truth, I don’t know how to define  success. I make music for satisfaction. I don’t aim for fame. I just want to make music.”

Richards Domain Store Grand Opening Sale

Email Plans

Get fast, personalized email for yourself, your team or the whole office. Includes mobile access! Tell me more

.ME Registration

From only $7.99/yr!

Limited-time offer! Get your own .ME and use the built-in tool kit to launch a site that brings all your online activities to one spotTell me more

BIZ Registration

From only $6.99/yr!*

Limited-time offer! Show the world you mean business. Get your own .BIZ and give customers an easy way to find you on the Web. Tell me more

Web Hosting

From only $3.99/mo!

Everything you need to give your website the reliable, high-performance home it deserves. Tell me more

Hot Deals & Announcements

Our top products at great prices!

Quick Blogcast®
Business Registration
Express Email Marketing®
Fax Thru Email

Our Categories

Domain Names
Claim your own corner of the Web

Domain Name Registrations
Register your domain and receive free extras.

Transfers
Get one year free when you transfer domains.

Internationalized Domains (IDN)
Speak to your audience in their own language.

Bulk Domain Registrations
SAVE when you register 6 or more domains.

Private Registration
Keep your contact information private.

Business Registration
Increase website traffic and visibility.

Protected Registration
Keep your domain private, locked and protected.

Certified Domain
Gain visitors' trust and confidence.

Backorder Domain Service
Snap up that domain as soon as it's available.

Premium DNS
Keep your website safe and always online.

Web Hosting & Storage
We keep your site up & running 24/7

Web Hosting
Ideal for personal or business websites.

• WordPress® Hosting
• Make the most of your WordPress blog.
• Dedicated Servers
• Ultimate control & performance.
• Virtual Dedicated Servers
• Performance of a dedicated server for less.
• Online Storage
• Store, back up & share your files online.

Security
Improve your site's availability and security

• SSL Certificates
• Secure website data & transactions.
• Code Signing Certificates
• Protect your software with your own digital signature.
• Premium DNS
• Keep your website safe and always online.

Website Builders
Easy do-it-yourself options

• WebSite Tonight®
• Just point & click to use our website builder.
• Quick Blogcast®
• Create a blog or podcast.
• Quick Shopping Cart®
• Sell products on the Internet.

Business & Marketing Solutions
Everything you need to sell online

• Quick Shopping Cart®
• Sell products on the Internet.
• Logo Design Services
• Get a one-of-a-kind logo.
• Express Email Marketing
• Create stunning spam-free emails.
• Search Engine Visibility
• Attract more visitors to your website.

Design Services

• Websites, Web stores, logos & more
• Web Design Services
• Let us build your dream website.
• Logo Design Services
• Get a one-of-a-kind logo.
• eCommerce Web Design
• Get a terrific-looking online store.

Email & Productivity
Handy tools to get more done

• Web-based Email
• Secure email with a memorable address.
• Hosted Exchange Email
• Affordable, business-class email plans.
• Online Calendar
• Keep yourself or your group on schedule.
• Fax thru Email
• An easier way to send and receive faxes.

Third-party logos and marks are registered trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Whether you are a beginner or an Internet professional, Richard's Domain Store has what you need to compete in the global economy. Grab your corner of the web today!

Review: Website Tonight Website Builder

Competing in today’s global economy is harder than ever. In order for businesses to compete in today’s global economy a website is a fast effective method to get your business on the global stage.

Whether your company has a website or you are looking to upgrade your current website, Richards Domain Store has all you need to compete globally with our web design tools. From marketing plans to Email plans, to Quick Blogcasts, you will find everything you need to compete on the global stage.

With Website Tonight's web site builder, you don't need to be a web designer or a computer expert to build an eye-catching website. We give you a wide variety of easy-to-use design tools so you can create the site that you want in a style that's all your own.

Create the website you've always wanted and get a leg up on the competition with Web Site Tonight.

		More than 2,000 design and color combinations Professionally designed Web page templates with color-scheme and photo combinations provide you with over a thousand options. You really can build your own website even if you have no technical skills. Open your Internet browser, select your images and type your text. Just like that, your site gets built or updated. View Templates
		Built-In photo album Quickly upload, organize, store and display all your photos and videos from inside WebSite Tonight. Online editing tools make it easy to crop, rotate, remove red-eye and more. Embed individual photos and videos or entire galleries on your website – you can even publish them as a separate site!
		Pre-built and ready to go Get a head start building your site with WebSite Tonight's pre-built templates. There are over 120 five-page sites to choose from! Page titles, navigation buttons and layouts tailored to your interests are all built right in. Simply replace the text and images with your own and your site is ready for the Web. It's easy! View Templates
		Image gallery Over 8,700 FREE images (28,000 with the Premium plan) … animals to architecture, people to places. And don't worry; you'll find what you're looking for fast thanks to the Image Gallery's handy Search feature. Of course, if you still can't find what you're after, easily add your own favorite images. WebSite Tonight supports .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .jpe, .jfif, and .dib. Browse Gallery
		Flash animation Add some flash to your site! Select from over 60 Flash introductions in various categories or upload your own. Want music? You can do that, too. Add a "soundtrack" to your own intros or those you select from our Intro Gallery – simply select from a predefined list of music loops, reference an online mp3 file or upload your own! See Flash Samples
		Sell with PayPal You don't need a full-blown webstore to sell products online. Simply add a PayPal button or link to your site and visitors can purchase from you directly. It's perfect for individuals or small businesses with just a few products, as well as organizations that need an easy way for members to donate.
		Cool stuff Photo albums, forums, tables, RSS feeds, video and audio, guestbooks and more. We've even added Widgets for weather, maps, news, clocks, Twitter and Flickr® (Deluxe and Premium plans). WebSite Tonight really does offer all you need to create a professional-looking, successful and FUN site. All that's holding you back is your imagination! With Website tonight I created my website over the weekend and had my first sale on Monday. Take a look and let me know what you think. www.timothys.apricotanswer.com

Cellphone exposure limits should be reassessed, GAO recommends

Mobile phone exposure limits and testing requirements should be reassessed, according to a Government Accountability Office study released Tuesday.

The study, the culmination of a year-long review done at the urging of lawmakers, comes at a time of heightened concern about the possible impact of cellphone radiation on human health. Its findings may prompt the Federal Communications Commission to update its standards to more accurately reflect how people use their cellphones.

While the report did not suggest that cellphone use causes cancer, the agency did say that FCC’s current energy exposure limit for mobile phones, established in 1996, “may not reflect the latest evidence on the the effects” of cellphones. The study recommends that the FCC reassess two things: the current exposure limit and the way it tests exposure.

In its conclusions, the report says that the FCC has not formally coordinated with the Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency on the exposure limits. The report also raised questions about the FCC’s decision to only test exposure at a distance from a body while using an earpiece, simulating, for example, someone setting their phone on a nearby table rather than in their pocket while speaking.

The FCC, the report said, “may not be identifying the maximum exposure, since some users may hold a mobile phone directly against the body while in use.”

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who called for the GAO to conduct the report said that the study highlights that the FCC is behind the curve when it comes to evaluating the effects cellphones have on the human body.

“With mobile phones in the pockets and purses of millions of Americans, we need a full understanding of the long-term impact of mobile phone use on the human body, particularly in children whose brains and nervous systems are still developing,” Markey said.

Ahead of the study’s release, there’s been renewed interest in the area of cellphone radiation. The FCC has already said that it will investigate whether it should take a new look at the issue.

Last year, a World Health Organization report found that cellphone radiation might possibly be carcinogenic — a point that the GAO study does not raise.

On Monday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a bill that would put warning labels on cellphones and tap the Environmental Protection Agency — not the FCC — to lead the way in examining the effects that radiation has on the human body.

In a statement, Kucinich said that cellphone users have a right to know how much radiation their phones give off, particularly as people spend more time with them, and not wait for scientists to prove whether there are harmful effects behind cellphone radiation or not.

“It took decades for scientists to be able to say for sure that smoking caused cancer,” Kucinich said. “While we wait for scientists to sort out the health effects of cell phone radiation, we must allow consumers to have enough information to choose a phone with less radiation.”

The city of San Francisco is looking at a labeling measure similar to the one proposed by Kucinich. CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade group, has filed a lawsuit against the proposed ordinance.

By Hayley Tsukayama

To Keep Stealth Edge, Pentagon Looks for New Ways to Mine ‘Rare Earths’

They’re used to build everything from stealth choppers to lasers and night vision goggles. They’re even essential to making smartphones and hybrid cars. They’re rare earths, seventeen hard-to-find chemical elements with unique physical and chemical properties: some are superconductive, others are amazingly heat-resistant. It makes the rare earths very much in demand — especially at the Pentagon. The problem is, 95% of their market is controlled by China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Now, to solve its rare earth elements woes, the Department of Defense is taking a two-pronged approach: they’re asking the scientific community to come up with innovative ways to mine these scarce materials in the United States, and find alternative materials to make rare earths unnecessary.

“The Department of Defense relies on many products that incorporate materials that are not found or produced in sufficient quantities domestically to meet potential crucial defense needs,” states the Office of the Secretary of Defense in a solicitation for research proposals, published at the end of July.

The geopolitical implications of rare earths are nothing new. In 2009 Congress was already asking the Pentagonto look for alternatives and lessen the U.S. dependency on foreign imports after the Chinese government said it was considering limiting exports of the minerals. Rare earths are not rare in nature, they’re just very hard to find in heavy concentration, and extracting them is both extremely expensive and environmentally dangerous.

For all these reasons, the DoD would like to find ways to produce more rare earth elements here in the States. The first proposal is to find a way to improve separation. Rare earth elements are often found in minerals along with different elements and need to be separated from the rest, less valuable ones. It’s an elaborate, multi-stage process that it’s really hard to master and needs expensive tools. (In fact, U.S.-based mineral extraction company Molycorp Minerals used to ship rare earths to China for final separation.) The Pentagon wants a more effective separation done with the so-called froth flotation, a chemical process to distill elements using water and air bubbles.

Efficiency is not the only concern. The Pentagon wants new, environmentally “less-aggressive techniques,” to separate rare earth elements from minerals. Finding new ways to do it “would improve the availability, decrease the costs of extraction, and decrease the environmental impact of the extraction,” says the proposal.

Recycling is another solution. For example, the DoD is pushing to improve the recovery of rhenium, a rare earth element that is key to produce the new stealth Joint Strike Fighters for its exceptional heat-resistant properties.

If all else fails, the DoD would like to just get rid of rare earth elements and find new, alternative compounds that could have the same properties. The plans is to usin computer models to find techniques to “change the elemental composition of a material to obviate the need for expensive, rare or hard to find elements.”

Meanwhile, after a U.S., Japan and EU complaint, the World Trade Organization has opened an investigation into China’s rare earths export policies, which could shake up the market. Also, China’s de-facto monopoly has caused prices to soare. For instance, from 2010 to 2011, neodymium’s price jumped from $42 per kilogram to $283. This has prompted companies around the world to start mining somewhere else. Molycorp is currently expanding its Mountain Pass mine, in California, which once was the largest rare earth mine in the world.

John Kaiser, a mining analyst and editor of Kaiser Research Online, told Wired Science that “in five years there will be rare earths produced all over the world and China will lose its edge.”

The Department of Energy has been working on identifying which minerals are essential for the future of energy innovation and which ones could cause geopolitical headaches since last year. These proposals seem to indicate that the Pentagon has finally got the memo and has decided to stop relying on the Chinese, how successful this new push for rare earth elements independence remains to be seen.

One thing is certain, the U.S. needs to act now. “Unless America gets ahead of this problem,” wrote defense policy analyst Christine Parthemore on Danger Room last year, “the United States will be unnecessarily ceding strategic advantage to commodity suppliers — all over pretty modest quantities of rocks and metals. Minerals should not command foreign policy or derail defense procurement.”

• By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchiera

Lenovo's ThinkPad Team Optimistic About Windows 8, Needs to Expand Outside Notebooks

By Michael Kan, IDG News   

Lenovo's ThinkPad team plans to release more ultrabook models, and remains "bullish" about the upcoming release of Microsoft's Windows 8, according to company executives, who also said on Monday that the famed PC unit needs to expand further outside its traditional notebook business.

"We are going to keep breaking that barrier, to bring the ThinkPad to the next stage," said Arimasa Naitoh, ThinkPad chief designer. "I'm not saying the ThinkPad clamshell will be replaced. I never think that. But in addition to that, we need to create something more."

Lenovo on Monday marked the 20th anniversary of its ThinkPad product, which was first developed under IBM, but then acquired by the Chinese PC maker in 2005. At a company-sponsored event, executives touted the release of the latest ThinkPad product, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The 14-inch notebook, which has an 8 hour battery life and weighs 1.36kg, will be launched later this month at around US$1,299.

The X1 Carbon is also one of the ThinkPad brand's first ultrabooks, a class of Intel-powered laptop meant to feature thin and light designs with high performance. Despite concerns about the ultrabook's viability given weak sales, the new class of laptops is paving the way to the future, according to Dilip Bhatia, the ThinkPad business unit's general manager.

"Overall, the ultrabook is the right direction. It's the start of the journey, so it's not the destination," he said in an interview with journalists, adding that more aggressive pricing will help improve ultrabook sales. "In general you will see notebooks get thinner, get lighter, have the instant on connected capability. So I'm not worried about it."

The ThinkPad unit is also "excited" about Windows 8, which will be released in October, but expects adoption of the new operating system to be slow among enterprise users, because many companies are still transitioning from Windows XP to Windows 7, Bhatia said.

"I think the area that will help drive the adoption of Windows 8 for the enterprise is the tablet," he said, noting that business customers have expressed a need for the devices. Lenovo has been working on a ThinkPad tablet running the new OS, but Bhatia did not provide a release date.

Arimasa Naitoh, who has been designing ThinkPad notebooks since the first version in 1992, said the business unit has been committed in maintaining its core concepts as part the product's 20 year legacy. Many customers are loyal to the brand, he said, and even questioned the business unit when it was acquired by Lenovo, fearing that major changes would be made to ThinkPad's future.

"I said, 'Please don't worry. ThinkPad will not be changed,'" Naitoh said. "In the past 7 years we demonstrated that by what we did with Lenovo, and we never got the same question again."

But while the ThinkPad unit has continued to maintain its vision for business laptops, Naitoh also stressed the need to innovate beyond just simply adding improvements to its laptops. This includes venturing outside its notebook business, by trying to imagine what technological needs people will have five years from now, he said.

"That's a big question, if I know, I don't tell you," Naitoh said when asked on what those needs were. "To be honest, we still do not know. That's why we have a challenge."

Apple’s Decision to Drop YouTube From iOS Is a Big Deal for Music, Apps

By Evolver.fm

Email Author

When the very first iPhone shipped, literally changing the world as we knew it, it carried a little Trojan horse inside of it called YouTube. The app for Google’s video-sharing site comes standard with every single iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, but all of that ends with the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 6, as noted by The Verge and just about every other tech blog.

It’s big news whenever tech titans Apple and Google butt heads, or at least appear to do so, but it’s also a big deal from a music perspective specifically. In the first five versions of Apple iOS, YouTube functioned as a free, unlimited, on-demand music service, sitting right there where any user could use it to call up almost any song, for free, in seconds. Not only that, but Apple’s devices defaulted to uploading mobile-recorded videos to YouTube — something that is also going away in iOS 6.

“Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended,” said Apple in a statement. “Customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.”

Apple’s decision not to renew that license — whatever its reasons might be — carries at least three major implications for the music app scene:

1. Big chance for Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody

If you want to summon a song and play it on the iPhone in your pocket right now, you simply need to tap the YouTube app and search for the song, and you’ll hear it almost instantaneously. (You can even play the song viaAirPlay on your nice speakers.) Starting in iOS 6, you won’t have that option anymore, so you’ll have to install something. Tell me, what will it be?

Sure, it could be the YouTube app Google is said to be working on, but at least you’ll have to think about it this time around. If you’ve been building up playlists in the free desktop version of Spotify or MOG, you could find yourself deciding to take the leap and subscribe, the way millions of other people already have done, rather than relying on YouTube’s piecemeal, song-by-song approach.

2. Shot in the arm for HTML5

As mentioned above, Google is hard at work on a YouTube app, which it will submit to Apple’s iTunes App Store alongside all the others. However, as The New York Times (which recently linked to Evolver.fm as a source) noted in June, Google’s new mobile website already “makes the iPhone YouTube app obsolete.” Sure, some folks will track down whatever iOS app YouTube releases in the coming weeks. Others will simply direct our browsers to YouTube, as Apple suggests we do, bookmark it, and add that bookmark to our iPhone home screens, where it will look exactly like an app.

CAP: Today, iOS encourages users to upload videos (including all those millions of concert videos) to YouTube. In iOS 6, those videos will go to Vimeo.

If millions of users suddenly realize how easy it is to load HTML5 apps within their iPhone’s Safari browser — even adding those HTML5 apps to their home screens alongside their iOS apps — it could be a major turning point for HTML5. After all, it can do most of what iOS apps need to do.

If you think about it, platform-specific apps are like DRM-ed music, in the sense that they tie you to your device platform. If you’ve spent $50 on iOS apps, you’re probably not going to turn around and buy an Android. However, if you purchased $50 worth of HTML5 apps (which is possible, if they sell accounts that require a log-in), suddenly, you’d be able to hop between iOS and Android and bring those apps with you.

That world is still far off, but at the very least, the lack of a native, bundled YouTube app on iOS will cause more people to realize that HTML5 apps such as YouTube’s can be a viable replacement for platform-specific apps — especially because the HTML5 version of YouTube can do more than the iOS version can (see video above).

3. Vimeo: The new online concert destination?

When I shot this concert footage of my brother’s band, my iPhone encouraged me to upload that video to YouTube, as it still does today. In iOS 6, Apple’s default video destination of uploads will be Vimeo instead, as Mashable points out.

Have you been to a concert lately? There are a lot of iPhones there, many of them shooting audio and video footage. It won’t happen overnight, but gradually, Vimeo will replace YouTube as the place to see concert videos uploaded from iPhones.

Appeals Court OKs Warrantless Wiretapping

• BY DAVID KRAVETS

The federal government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and without fear of being sued, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a decision reversing the first and only case that successfully challenged President George W. Bush’s once-secret Terrorist Surveillance Program.

“This case effectively brings to an end the plaintiffs’ ongoing attempts to hold the executive branch responsible for intercepting telephone conversations without judicial authorization,” a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote. (.pdf)

The case concerned a lower court decision in which two American attorneys — who were working with the now-defunct al-Haramain Islamic Foundation — were awarded more than $20,000 each in damages and their lawyers $2.5 million in legal fees after a tortured legal battle where they proved they were spied on without warrants.

They sued under domestic spying laws Congress adopted in the wake of President Richard M. Nixon’s Watergate scandal. The government appealed their victory, and the appeals court Tuesday dismissed the suit and the damages.

Jon Eisenberg, the lawyer for the two attorneys, said he may request the court to reconsider its decision with a larger panel of judges, or petition the Supreme Court.

“This case was the only chance to litigate and hold anybody accountable for the warrantless wiretapping program,” he said in a telephone interview. “As illegal as it was, it evaded accountability.”

“Under this scheme, Al-Haramain can bring a suit for damages against the United States for use of the collected information, but cannot bring suit against the government for collection of the information itself,” Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote for the majority. She was joined by Judge Michael Daly Hawkins and Judge Harry Pregerson. ”Although such a structure may seem anomalous and even unfair, the policy judgment is one for Congress, not the courts.”The San Francisco-based appeals court ruled that when Congress wrote the law regulating eavesdropping on Americans and spies, it never waived sovereign immunity in the section prohibiting targeting Americans without warrans. That means Congress did not allow for aggrieved Americans to sue the government, even if their constitutional rights were violated by the United States breaching its own wiretapping laws.

The court, during oral arguments in June, expressed concern that it may reach this result.

Judge Hawkins, during those arguments, noted that the law spells out that those who were illegally spied upon may seek monetary damages. But if Congress did not intend for the government to be sued, “it would make the remedy illusory,” Hawkins said.

The court did not comment on the spying allegations of involved in the case. It also dismissed claims against FBI Director Robert Mueller, saying there was not enough evidence linking him to the spy program the Bush administration adopted in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks.

Subsequently Congress authorized Bush’s spy program in 2008, five years after the illegal wiretapping involved in this case.

The Bush spy program was first disclosed by The New York Times in December 2005, and the government subsequently admitted that the National Security Agency was eavesdropping on Americans’ telephone calls without warrants if the government believed the person on the other end was overseas and associated with terrorism. The government also secretly enlisted the help of major U.S. telecoms, including AT&T, to spy on Americans’ phone and internet communications without getting warrants as required by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law at the center of the al-Haramain dispute.

A lower court judge found in 2010 that two American lawyers’ telephone conversations with their clients in Saudi Arabia were siphoned to the National Security Agency without warrants. The allegations were initially based on a classified document the government accidentally mailed to the former al-Haramain Islamic Foundation lawyersWendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor.

The document was later declared a state secret, removed from the long-running lawsuit and has never been made public. With that document ruled out as evidence, the lawyers instead cited a bevy of circumstantial evidence that a a trial judge concluded showed the government illegally wiretapped the lawyers as they spoke on U.S. soil to Saudi Arabia.

The other major case challenging the wiretapping program, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s case against the government, alleges a wholesale vacuuming of Americans’ communications. That case was sent back to a district court after it survived an appeals court ruling in December.

Going Mobile

By Chris Oconnor

I’ve been reading Wired since Issue 1 in 1993 and while that may date me, I’m not ashamed to say it since it also means I’ve been around long enough to witness many IT trends in the workplace.  The most significant is today’s surge in mobile and social adoption in the enterprise.

In my time at Genentech, we deployed over thirty internal productivity apps. Over nearly a decade, I watched as an employee’s mobile device became an integral part of their workflows and as a result deals closed and business grew. Today, as the mobile workforce grows to staggering numbers (1/3 of the total global workforce by 2015 according to IDC), the enterprise is struggling with strategy, control, education, security and more.

As Gartner said in their enterprise apps report last summer, “Given that user attention is a scarce commodity, businesses can capitalize on the additional time the tablet screen can offer.” The same is true across devices — these mobile solutions can be drivers of increased business and a baked-in social layer can transform their use cases as well.

Here are a few common Qs I get while talking to CMOs, CIOs, and others about integrating social and mobile strategies into every facet of their stack:

Do we build or buy?

This question plagues many enterprise execs that want to use consumer-inspired apps internally. If off-the-shelf apps are available and affordable, why undertake a massive project internally? We find ourselves talking speed to implementation, cost, expertise, and maintenance when asked this question.

Buying seems to win out as the recent vendor consolidation is making it possible to offer customers advantageous new pricing models with bundled packages. Partnering with a person or group with domain expertise also allows you to deploy solutions faster (read: faster than your competition). As the goal is gaining a competitive advantage it’s arguably smarter to hire vendors who have tackled the unique challenges of mobility before they can also maintain their products more effectively.

If you think about it, development of a native app in-house can take say six months to a year, while using a vendor to build it can reduce that cycle to say two months for a cross-platform version. With off-the-shelf apps that time can be further reduced to about a two-week implementation cycle post-approvals. We’ve seen cases where the internal review process takes longer than implementation!

With more sophisticated apps hitting the market all the time and millions available across platforms already – the real question is what existing mobile solutions already are in the market that fit your needs (and can be customized if need be)?

What platforms do we really need to support?

We’re happy to talk device support – it’s a good sign we’re moving away from the BYOD anxiety of even just a year ago. So your employees want to bring their own devices – many people have come to terms with that fact – but you still want to offer them solutions that benefit you even on their own devices.

It’s critical to support iOS first, in my opinion. As Vanity Fair writer Kurt Eichenwald put it in his article, “Microsoft’s Lost Decade,” in the current issue, “Cool is what tech consumers want. Exhibit A: today the iPhone brings in more revenue than the entirety of Microsoft. No really.” That staggering fact alone is reason enough to make sure your support for the iOS platform is at the ready. Android is important as well, especially as its own app market matures, however, it’s particularly critical for large-scale companies that have operations in emerging markets as Android sees higher adoption in those areas. As Kevin Kelleher over at Fortune said just last month in his piece, “Has Google’s Android Peaked,” “According to app-analytics firm Flurry, developers build two iOS apps for every Android app they create. In return, they make four times as much revenue from iPhone users than from Android users.” Many analysts and pundits speculate about where the smartphone market will be in 5 or 10 years (and the potential rise of Windows in the market) but as IDC and Appcelerator reported in their recent Q2 Mobile Developer Report, “Apple opened a dramatic lead over Android as far as which OS will win in the enterprise with 53.2% of developers say iOS will win vs. 37.5% saying Android will win.” Favoring iOS with a healthy dose of Android is a good prescription.

Are apps safe for my data and my employees’ information?

The elephant in the room is often security. These issues can sometimes be expedited when a company has a designated mobility team with a separate budget that has a use it or lose it amount to spend on solutions but oftentimes security reviews slows a process down. Apps that don’t connect with popular cloud-based solutions like Salesforce are not able to quickly navigate the security issues. They should be (and are) tested vigorously so as to prevent a public gaffe with lost information.

Many companies are shifting to direct authentication approaches so that the same credentials that are used on their other enterprise solutions allow them access to advanced mobile and social tools as well. This approach allows for faster approvals, more internal comfort with the decision overall as well as quicker time to market.

Is mobile/social a distraction?

Many senior level executives we talk to are still worried about incorporating social and mobile technologies into workflows as the productivity and bottom-line benefits have yet to be truly measured and reported. We encourage listening to end-users as they are the best judge of their own attention spans, interests and needs, however, it’s also important to self-educate. KPMG recently issued a very interesting report called, “Mobilizing Innovation: The changing landscape of disruptive technologies”and it found that, in the enterprise market, cloud and mobile adoption benefits over the next three years will include improved business efficiencies, cost reductions and faster innovation cycles leading to new business opportunities and revenue streams not to mention increased profitability and accelerated time to market.

These are good things, don’t wait. The important thing to keep in mind is that these tools are ones that you can track the adoption of and get a general feel for the ROI around – as they can be quick, inexpensive and easy to deploy (see point 1) the risk is lower then to adjust, limit or turn off their use if you aren’t seeing the value you expected.

Hard numbers seem to carry the most weight with executives who are putting a toe or a whole foot in the water of integrating social and mobile technologies into their enterprise. Perhaps understandably then, we are seeing the greatest adoption with businesses over $1B in revenues and between 15-50K employees. This to us evidences that the employee demand is high – perhaps so high it can’t be ignored. As a result larger companies are becoming some of the first to move in this space. This first mover status will only serve to increase their marketshare.

The Geography of America's Music Scenes

Major summer music festivals — like this past weekend's Lollapalooza in Chicago, as well as Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee; Coachella near Palm Springs, California; Summerfest in Milwaukee; and the Newport Folk Festival, to mention just a few — bring fans together to specific locales to listen to bands from all over the world. 

But where are America's leading centers for musicians and the music industry? It's an intriguing question since musicians are mobile with little to tie them down, even compared to high-tech industries and workers which tend to grow up around universities, advanced industries and centers of venture capital.  

Numerous U.S. cities have staked claims as leading music centers. Seattle had its grunge, Chicago has electric blues, and Nashville its twang. Detroit was the birthplace of both Motown and the hard-edge distorted indie rock of The White Stripes. Austin has Stevie Ray Vaughn, Willie Nelson, and a host of legendary singer-songwriters. Then there's of course New Orleans jazz, brass, and funk; San Francisco’s psychedelic sound; and the reverb-soaked rockabilly that is inextricably associated with Memphis’s Sun Records.

To better understand the geography of music in America, my Martin Prosperity Institutecolleague Charlotta Mellander analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics figures on the concentration of musicians and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis stats on music and recording industry business establishments, and combined the results into a Metro Music Index. It is important to point out that we are measuring the concentration of musicians and music-related businesses, not the vibrancy or impact or quality of artists to emerge from a regional scene. Ongoing MPIresearch is utilizing other unique data sources, including a huge amount of data culled fromMySpace, to measure the diversity and richness of music scenes (more on that in future posts).

The map above by MPI’S Zara Matheson charts the results for U.S. metros. 

Topping the list is Nashville. Its concentration of music, musicians, and recording and music publishing businesses is nothing short of astounding — America’s one-time capital of country music is now its music leader across the board, and the home base of superstars from Taylor Swift to Jack White and his Third Man Studios, as I have written about here. 

The rest of the top 20 includes: Orlando (home to Disney World, which gave rise to boy bands); Austin, with its legendary singer-songwriter and blues scenes (Willie Nelson, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Spoon); San Diego, Pittsburgh (Billy Eckstine, drummer Kenny Clarke, Donnie Iris, Rusted Root, GirlTalk, Wiz Khalifa); Milwaukee (which spawned Woody Herman and Liberace in decades past and The Violent Femmes and Rico Love more recently); Miami (everything from Gloria Estefan to Rick Ross, Flo Rida, and Pit Bull, not to mention the jazz program at the Frost School of Music which launched such alums as Ben Folds and Pat Metheny); Chicago, with its rich legacy of blues and rock 'n' roll; Indianapolis (home to jazz’s legendary Montgomery brothers and R&B’s Babyface); Dallas (the home town of both Meat Loaf and T-Bone Walker); and Denver (a folk and classical music powerhouse).

Atlanta, a major center for hip-hop and R&B, ranks 22nd among large metros. Greater Washington, D.C., which gave us go-go and the post-hardcore punk of Fugazi, is 26th. Despite Boston's two conservatories, a notable symphony, and having been the launching pad for countless major label artists (J. Geils Band, Boston, Aerosmith, the Cars, New Kids on the Block), the metro ranks just 31st among its larger peers. Detroit, Memphis, and Philly rank 37th, 35th and 45th among large metros — a sign of how much the music scenes there have shifted to other centers.

Cities with vibrant music scenes mimic the process of innovation.

A variety of small metros do surprisingly well, such as Kingston, NY, which ranks sixth overall when small metros are included in the index. It most likely owes its high standing to nearby Woodstock, home to innumerable well-known musicians including jazz’s Carla Bley, the late rock-legend Levon Helm, and studio stalwart (and ex-King Crimson) bassist Tony Levin. Honolulu, another major tourist destination, ranks seventh overall.

Several college towns stand out. Eugene, Oregon — the hometown of Tim Hardin, Robert Cray, and Mason Williams — ranks 5th among all metros. Boulder, with its lively jam band and bluegrass scene, is 25th. Madison, Wisconsin is 27th, Ann Arbor 40th.  Unfortunately, data are not available for college scenes like Athens, Georgia, legendary home to R.E.M., the B-52s, Widespread Panic, and The Drive-By Truckers, or Charlottesville, Virginia, birthplace of Dave Matthews Band.

Other smaller metros that do better than expected are Kalamazoo, Michigan (the former home of the Gibson guitar factory, founded in 1902, and the site of some major classical music festivals) at 8th overall, and Albany, New York, at 14th. California's Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Salinas all rank highly. Asheville, North Carolina — a sophisticated vacation and arts center — is 23rd overall.

While radio and the recording business have become much more corporate and standardized, musicians still cluster more in some places than others. This is interesting because musicians are mobile, and do not require a lot of capital, access to raw materials, or even proximity to anchor institutions like universities. They come to some places because there are lots of venues, clubs, conservatories, and recording studios, and they can make a living and stake out a career. Bigger metros like New York and L.A. do well because of their larger markets and scope of their talent and firms. And not just in music: Related MPI research finds that the "entertainment sector as a whole and its key subsectors are significantly concentrated in these two superstar cities ... far beyond what their population size (or scale effects) can account for, while the pattern falls off dramatically in other large regions" like Chicago.

But size is not everything, as Nashville's dominance and the performance of other smaller metros show. Smaller places can develop significant clusters of musicians and the music industry. The key here, as it is in so many other fields, is the clustering of talent, as talented musicians are drawn to and cluster around other talented musicians. Doing so, they generate a human capital externality of a musical kind — competing against each other for new sounds and audiences, combining and recombining with each other into new bands — a Darwinian process out of which successful acts rise to the top and achieve broad success.

In this way, through the clustering of talent and combination and recombination, cities with vibrant music scenes mimic the process of innovation more broadly. Cities with flourishing music scenes often have underlying creative economic systems that are also supportive of technology and entrepreneurialism. Music clustering can provide a powerful lens not only into popular culture, but into the mechanisms that power our increasingly idea-based and talent-driven economy.

Rank	Metro	Metro Music Index
1	Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN	1.00
2	New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA	0.97
3	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA	0.96
4	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	0.93
5	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	0.80
6	Las Vegas-Paradise, NV	0.79
6	Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA	0.79
8	New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA	0.78
9	Rochester, NY	0.76
10	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	0.72
11	Orlando-Kissimmee, FL	0.70
12	Austin-Round Rock, TX	0.67
13	San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA	0.66
14	Pittsburgh, PA	0.65
14	Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI	0.65
16	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL	0.63
16	Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI	0.63
18	Indianapolis-Carmel, IN	0.57
19	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	0.53
20	Denver-Aurora, CO	0.52
21	Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC	0.50
22	Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN	0.49
22	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA	0.49
22	Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL	0.49
25	San Antonio, TX	0.48

Keywords: Music, Music Scenes