Music: Erased Tapes: Piano Octopus – Nils Frahm, Peter Broderick & Ólafur Arnalds live in Brussels

Erased Tapes Piano Octopus – Nils Frahm, Peter Broderick & Ólafur Arnalds live in Brussels from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

Satire: Onion radio news: Super monkey collider loses funding

Satire: Halellujah Chorus: Silent monks perform humourously to great chorus ... is this a case of lip-synching?

Technics: Facebook; Fb forced into Initial Public Offering on the public stock exchange/

This is the clearest collection of details, accompanied by a hard-edge analysis, of the latest shenanigans at Facebook, and against Facebook in the legal sphere of enterprise regulations by the Securities Exchange Commission.

School bans Facebook for a week: 

five lessons students learned

Facebook update

Will Facebook Succumb To IPO Pressure?

Posted by Jackie Cohen on December 29th, 2010 12:57 PM

Share41 Comments (0)

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s probe into trading of Facebook shares on private marketplaces has some asking whether the regulator might pressure the social network to have an initial public offering.

An article in The New York Times says the SEC gave Facebook permission to grant restricted stock to its employees without having to list them publicly and make the financial disclosures required of public companies.

Federal law draws the line between public and private at 500 shareholders. Facebook obviously has more than twice that number of employees, but the SEC might be concerned with how many stakeholders aren’t employed by the social network.

The auctions on SecondMarket and SharesPost of Facebook holdings are currently limited to professional investors. But new funds that own some of these shares potentially give access to a wider array of buyers.

Even so, these funds still have some prerequisites about the minimum net worth who can buy in. That combined with the rules of SecondMarket and SharesPost could conceivably slow down the growth in the number of shareholders to a level acceptable to the SEC.

Or maybe not. That’s why the regulator’s asking questions right now. Perhaps the SEC’s timing will complement other legal developments so that any pressure for a Facebook IPO would kick in after the  Winklevoss twins   go away.

Oral arguments for the twins’ appeal of the $65 million settlement begin next month, and the issue going before the court concerns allegations of securities fraud. Those are two words that no one wants to see in an IPO prospectus.

Do you think the SEC’s investigation of Facebook stock trades on private markets will lead to regulatory pressure for an IPO?

-- Technowlh

Music: All Genres USA 2k10: Top 50 songs plus click-up for top 100

From the Country Music Association's email newsletter;

The Americana Music Association announced its year end Top 100 Albums of the Year.  The Top 100 albums are based on those records reported to the Americana Airplay Chart during the period of November 17, 2009 through November 15, 2010.  We’ll serve up the first half of the list and you can visit the Americana Music Association website to access the full list of all 100 albums…

The Top 50 most played albums, as charted on the Americana Airplay Chart are:

1.   Various Artists, Crazy Heart Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, New West

2.   Rosanne Cash, The List, Manhattan

3.   John Hiatt, The Open Road, New West

4.   Carolina Chocolate Drops, Genuine Negro Jig, Nonesuch

5.   Ray Wylie Hubbard, A Enlightenment B Endarkenment Hint There Is No C,  
           Bordello/Thirty Tigers

6.    Robert Earl Keen, The Rose Hotel, Lost Highway

7.    Band Of Heathens, One Foot In The Ether, BOH Records

8.    Avett Brothers, I And Love And You, Columbia

9.    Patty Griffin, Downtown Church, Credential

10.   Reckless Kelly, Somewhere In Time, Yep Roc

11.   John Mellencamp, No Better Than This, Rounder

12.   Darrell Scott, A Crooked Road, Full Light

13.   Merle Haggard, I Am What I Am, Vanguard

14.   Alejandro Escovedo, Street Songs of Love, Fantasy

15.   Willie Nelson, Country Music, Rounder

16.   Lyle Lovett, Natural Forces, Curb/Lost Highway

17.   Carrie Rodriguez, Love And Circumstance, Ninth Street Opus

18.   Robert Plant, Band of Joy, Rounder

19.   Paul Thorn, Pimps & Preachers, Perpetual Obscurity

20.   Los Lobos, Tin Can Trust, Shout! Factory

21.   Jim Lauderdale, Patchwork River, Thirty Tigers

22.   Cross Canadian Ragweed, Happiness And All The Other Things,
                Universal Records 

23.   Red Molly, James, Independent

24.   Chip Taylor, Yonkers NY, Train Wreck

25.   Yarn, Come On In, UFO

26.   John Prine, In Person & On Stage, Oh Boy

27.   Tift Merritt, See You On The Moon, Concord

28.   Various Artists, Twistable Turnable Man, 
                 A Musical Tribute To The Songs Of Shel Silverstein, Sugar Hill

29.   Dave Rawlings Machine, A Friend Of A Friend, Acony

30.   Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Speed Of Life, NGDB

31.   Kevin Welch, A Patch Of Blue Sky, Music Road

32.   Johnny Cash, American VI: Ain’t No Grave, American/Lost Highway

33.   Elliot Randall and The Deadmen, Caffeine & Gasoline, ER

34.   Ray LaMontagne and The Pariah Dogs, God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise, RCA

35.   Shelby Lynne, Tears, Lies & Alibis , Everso/Fontana/CO5

36.   Marty Stuart, Studio B Sessions, Sugar Hill

37.   Sam Bush, Circles Around Me, Sugar Hill

38.   Will Kimbrough, Wings, Daphne

39.   Corb Lund, Losin’ Lately Gambler, New West

40.   Elizabeth Cook, Welder, Thirty Tigers

41.   Kevin Deal, 7 Seven, Blind Nello

42.   Allison Moorer, Crows, Ryko

43.   Ryan Bingham and The Dead Horses, Junky Star, Lost Highway

44.   Eleven Hundred Springs, This Crazy Life, Smith Entertainment

45.   Guy Clark, Somedays The Song Writes You, Dualtone

46.   Dierks Bentley, Up On The Ridge, Capitol / Sugar Hill

47.   Patty Loveless, Mountain Soul II, Saguaro Road

48.   Drive-By Truckers, The Big To-Do, ATO/RED

49.   Tim O’Brien, Chicken and Egg, Howdy Skies

50.   Eilen Jewell, Butcher Holler – A Tribute To Loretta Lynn, Signature Sounds

Click here to see the rest of the Top 100 Americana Albums of the Year »

-- Country Music Gal

Sports: National Football League: list of contenders for league's leadership

NFL playoffs: who needs what to clinch

NEW YORK (AP) — Three division titles remain undecided heading into the final week of the NFL season: the AFC South, NFC South and NFC West.

Indianapolis wins the AFC South by beating visiting Tennessee on Sunday, or if Jacksonville loses at Houston. The winner of Sunday’s game in Seattle between the Rams and Seahawks wins the NFC West.

While the AFC wild cards belong to the Jets and either the Ravens or Steelers — whichever doesn’t take the AFC North — five teams have shots at NFC wild cards: Atlanta, New Orleans, Green Bay, Tampa Bay and the New York Giants.

So the AFC is not very complicated, with New England the East winner, Kansas City champion of the West, and either Baltimore or Pittsburgh taking the North. The Steelers hold the tiebreaker over the Ravens and are at Cleveland on Sunday. Baltimore hosts Cincinnati.

The Chiefs and the AFC South winner will host a wild-card round playoff game.

Things are more unsettled in the NFC, where Chicago (North) and Philadelphia (East) own division titles. Seattle (6-9) could become the first division winner in NFL history with a losing record if it beats St. Louis (7-8) in their finale, which has been flexed to a Sunday night game.

-- Sportikos posting AP via Daily Caller.

Music: Calendar: Extreme satiric/ironic mode Christmas in the future

Technics: Net Neutrality: John Fund [WSJ], Open Internet Coalition, and Michelle Malkin

John Fund The Net Neutrality Coup  [Wall Street Journal; Decd21,2k10]

The campaign to regulate the Internet was funded by 

a who's who of left-liberal foundations.

... Thanks to Don McNally

-------------------------------

Ryan Kim [GigaOm; Dec21,2k10]

What the Web Is saying: Net Neutrality Rules

... Thanks to

O

pen 

I

nternet 

C

oalition

-------------------------------

Michelle Malkin [Dec22,2k10]

Internet access is not a “civil right”

... Thanks to 

Michelle Malkin Blog

-- Technowlb

Music: CountryUSA: Top 50 Country for 2010

Lee Brice photo courtesy of Curb Records.

Billboard.com has just released it’s year end charts for 2010.  Leading the pack are a group of up and coming male artists with surprisingly few established superstar names in the top 10.  Here are the 50 most popular country songs for the year based on radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS (song, artist, album):

1. “Love Like Crazy” – Lee Brice, Love Like Crazy
2. “Rain Is A Good Thing” – Luke Bryan, Doin’ My Thing
3. “Why Don’t We Just Dance” – Josh Turner, Haywire
4. “All Over Me” – Josh Turner, Haywire
5. “The Man I Want To Be” – Chris Young, The Man I Want To Be
6. “Roll With It” – Easton Corbin, Easton Corbin
7. “Gimmie That Girl” – Joe Nichols, Old Things New
8. “All About Tonight” – Blake Shelton, All About Tonight
9. “Come Back Song” – Darius Rucker, Charleston, SC 1966
10. “She Won’t Be Lonely Long” – Clay Walker, She Won’t Be Lonely Long
11. “The House That Build Me” – Miranda Lambert, Revolution
12. “American Honey” - Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
13. “‘Til Summer Comes Around” – Keith Urban, Defying Gravity
14. “Highway 20 Ride” – Zac Brown Band, The Foundation
15. “Keep On Lovin’ You” – Steel Magnolia, Valentine’s Day Soundtrack
16. “Crazy Town” – Jason Aldean, Wide Open
17. “Our Kind Of Love” – Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
18. “Water” – Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night
19. “A Little More Country Than That” – Easton Corbin, Easton Corbin
20. “Farmer’s Daughter” – Rodney Atkins, It’s America
21. “I’m In” – Keith Urban, Defying Gravity
22. “Lover, Lover” – Jerrod Niemann, Judge Jerrod & the Hung Jury
23. “Little White Church” – Little Big Town, The Reason Why
24. “History In The Making” – Darius Rucker, Learn To Live
25. “Temporary Home” – Carrie Underwood, Play On
26. “That’s How Country Boys Roll” – Billy Currington, Little Bit of Everything
27. “Smile” – Uncle Kracker, Happy Hour
28. “Pretty Good At Drinkin Beer” – Billy Currington, Enjoy Yourself
29. “Undo It” – Carrie Underwood, Play On
30. “Stuck Like Glue” – Sugarland, The Incredible Machine
31. “Hillbilly Bone” – Blake Shelton & Trace Adkins, Hillbilly Bone
32. “The Truth” – Jason Aldean, Wide Open
33. “Ain’t Back Yet” – Kenny Chesney, Greatest Hits II
34. “American Saturday Night” – Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night
35. “The Boys of Fall” – Kenny Chesney, Hemingway’s Whiskey
36. “Free” – Zac Brown, The Foundation
37. “If I Die Young” – The Band Perry, The Band Perry
38. “Mine” – Taylor Swift, Speak Now
39. “Unstoppable” – Rascal Flatts, Unstoppable
40. “I Gotta Get To You” – George Strait, Twang
41. “Backwoods” – Justin Moore, Justin Moore
42. “Consider Me Gone” – Reba McEntire, Keep On Loving You
43. “Souther Voice” – Tim McGraw, Southern Voice
44. “I Wanna Make You Close Your Eyes” – Dierks Bentley, Feel That Fire
45. “White Liar” – Miranda Lambert, Revolution
46. “As She’s Walking Away” – Zac Brown Band with Alan Jackson, You Get What You Give
47. “Why Wait” – Rascal Flatts, Nothing Like This
48. “Need You Now” – Lady Antebellum, Need You Now
49. “This Ain’t Nothin’” – Craig Morgan, That’s Why
50. “The Breath You Take” – George Strait, Twan