Freyburg

A truly momentous milestone, as we celebrate our 50th episode of Radio Free Skaro with…well, nothing really. Nothing, that is, except a corking bit of episode-ery known as “Human Nature,” one of the highlights of Season 3. Join Warren, Steven, and Chris (otherwise known as the Third Guy) as they expostulate on the fine craftwork and Edwardian elegance of the first portion of Paul Cornell’s masterwork. (feed, web, direct download)

In the Nineties, music videos mirrored the rise of excess-oriented hip hop and swelled in cost to ridiculous proportions. Somewhere along the way MTV started running more reality shows than videos, hip-hop lost some of its potency, and kids stopped using MTV as an outlet to find out about new tunes. The internet took over as the nexus for discovery of new music, and along with it came the rise of lo-fi videos suited to the medium. An article in Yahoo News details the brave new world of music videos aimed at your laptop.

Every empire has had to face an inevitable period of decline, and the United States is no different. An article in the LA Times details the choices the US has in front of it as it either adapts or fights the coming multi-polar world.

A long analysis in the New York Times confirms what everyone already knows..adding troops to the boiling cauldron of violence known as Iraq produced small short term gains, but nothing of real substance.

Rolling Stone has a huge expose on how private contractors cheated the taxpayer, risked the lives of soldiers, and made out like bandits after the invasion of Iraq.

An article in the Spectator points to recent a recent decree by the news director of Britain’s Channel 5 to get rid of outmoded television news conventions like the “noddy”, the practice of cutting back to a reporter nodding at something being said, which reached an apogee of suck recently when BBC poobah Alan Yentob recorded himself nodding along to an interview he wasn’t even physically present for. Another convention unique to the Brits is walking up to a subject’s door, knocking and being invited inside. That particular affectation isn’t used here, though pointlessly putting reporters in the middle of rainstorms and overusing the term “ironically” springs to mind for North American news idiocy.

In a world where Youtube videos get more views than the evening news and old methods of presentation just don’t make sense, this is a breath of fresh air. Having said that, I sure don’t want my news delivered to my by Lonelygirl15, so let’s not get too carried away.

Osama Bin Laden has been sticking to audio pronouncements since the 2004 U.S. election, but apparently the sixth anniversary of 9/11 is grounds for a new video. From what little has been shown, he’s dyed his beard and looks to be in good shape. I don’t know what that signifies, other than a fine choice in hair salons and personal trainers in the mountains of Pakistan.

Last night I had a chance to finally meet Leo Laporte at a party at the Alibi Room commemorating 100 episodes of “The Lab with Leo” on TechTV Canada. I was a bit of a dilettante viewer in the glory days of the now-defunct TechTV, but once Leo started the TWIT podcast network, I quickly became a huge fan of his work, especially This Week in Tech and Macbreak Weekly. It was nice to tell him his efforts inspired me to start Radio Free Skaro, which Steven and I had discussed but never really gotten around to doing for a full year before we started (which makes it doubly strange that we’re closing in on our 50th episode next week.)

I also got to meet Victor Lucas, who created the Electric Playground and who is the driving force behind The Lab with Leo. I spent many a Saturday morning watching what at the time was the only show about video games worth a damn (the 1up Show and their various audio podcasts being worthy contenders nowadays), so it was neat to thank the guy for his efforts.

I didn’t bring a camera, but others took my picture, so I’ll post those later. Meantime, here’s some thoughts from other people at the party.

Surprise surprise, the Veep’s efforts to expand executive power are even more egregious than previously thought.

So Apple revamped the entire iPod product line today, starting with the newly chunky (and video capable) Nano and ending with the very new, very sexy iPod Touch. The newest high-end iPod does nearly everything the iPhone does except make calls, and it’ll do even more once people hack it (as they have done to the iPhone.) W00t!