KILLING THE MUSIC INDUSTRY ONE MIXTAPE AT A TIME (2009 EDITION)

For those of you interested in (1) my taste in music and (2) killing off the music industry one mixtape at a time, you may like to know that the official Top 20 Def Albums podcast is ready to go. So call yr lawyer and get ready to rock.

Terribly Frog Productions presents:



( Track listing and recommended playing order )

As usual, Team Def offers you a choice of download options:

For a folder of individual DRM-free MP3 files + artwork [97.1MB], click here.

For an exclusive Def Mix MP3 + artwork [68.8MB], click here.

Offer expires in seven days (or whenever Mediafire deletes them). Feel free to circulate among friends, relatives, work colleagues, teammates, neighbors, pharmacists, personal trainers and schoolchildren.

CREDITS

Artwork stolen from Norman Saunders.

Song links performed by President Barack Obama.

FBI WARNING: If you download these files, you are under arrest for Grand Larceny. Downloading music is a criminal offense, even if it leads to more album sales. We know where you live, and we will get you.

Happy pirating!

This is dF

BEAUTIFUL STORIES FOR UGLY CHILDREN

This has been making the rounds on a few LJs:



The question arises from the apparent fact that even Americans who would benefit from universal healthcare are adamantly opposed to it. And the answer, according to the article, is basically this:

In his book The Political Brain, psychologist Drew Westen, an exasperated Democrat, tried to show why the Right often wins the argument even when the Left is confident that it has the facts on its side [...]

For Mr Westen, stories always trump statistics, which means the politician with the best stories is going to win

I don’t agree with everything in the story, but I do think it’s true that people respond more to emotional anecdotes than hard facts. Security expert Bruce Schneier has made the same observation when it comes to terrorism and crime:

Our brains aren't very good at probability and risk analysis, especially when it comes to rare occurrences. We tend to exaggerate spectacular, strange and rare events, and downplay ordinary, familiar and common ones [...] Novelty plus dread equals overreaction.

We can see the effects of this all the time. We fear being murdered, kidnapped, raped and assaulted by strangers, when it's far more likely that the perpetrator of such offenses is a relative or a friend. We worry about airplane crashes and rampaging shooters instead of automobile crashes and domestic violence -- both far more common.

One thing I would add, though, is that a lot of this is likely filtered through the sociopolitical biases that already exist.

Coming back to healthcare, for every horror story of someone who got screwed or killed by Canadian healthcare, there’s at least one of someone getting screwed or killed by private healthcare. Whether politicians relay the stories or not, they’re out there and they do get reported all the time. The voters who hear both kinds of stories ultimately have to decide which one resonates more. And I’m reasonably sure part of that decision is going to come down to yr opinion of the source (Keith Olbermann vs Sean Hannity, say).

That said, it’s also safe to say there’s not a huge amount of overlap in that audience. Consequently, now that it’s possible to select media sources that cater to yr specific political biases, people can (and do) choose their anecdotal evidence accordingly, so there’s no reason for you to ever hear any of the stories that challenge yr worldview.

Or is that elitist of me?

Sorry. It’s just that it’s an issue that’s too complex to be dumbed down to a hopelessly inadequate yet folksy soundbite. I’ll try again:

If yr dentist can’t fix it, yr screwed.

It’s not mine. But you can use that.

Happily ever after,

This is dF