Imagine having your own collection of DVDs featuring newsreels of D-Day, or coverage of President Kennedy’s assasination, or even old government films teaching you to “Duck and Cover” in the event of a nuclear attack.

Now you can.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced yesterday a deal with Amazon.com to distribute DVD copies of The Archives’ public domain video footage.

The NARA has more than 200,000 motion picture titles (newsreels, documentaries, government films, etc.) that are available as part of the public domain. Now, for $19.99 each, you can order your own DVD copies of the Universal newsreels, from 1920 to 1967. According to the National Archives, other holdings will soon be available, as well.

More on:
NARA Press Release here.
Washington Post article here.
Titles currently available at Amazon here.

podcasts, media | No Comments »

Tomorrow, the Federal Communications Commission will decide on the rules governing a newly available portion of the radiowave spectrum, made available to the wireless industry. The airwaves will be auctioned off early next year, and will likely be the last of its kind for the next several decades.

What’s special about tomorrow is that the FCC is weighing a request from an unlikely telecom player: Google. The company would like to see a huge change in the way the FCC regulates wireless airwaves, and has promised a bid of at least $4.6 billion if its conditions are met.

Could this spell the end for frustrating cell phone limitations? Or will it just mean you’re going to get bombarded by Google advertising? Stay tuned.

More on:
Google’s plan and brief lobbying history here.
Live audio/video link to tomorrow’s FCC meeting here (begins 10am Eastern).

politics, podcasts, media | 1 Comment »

This week is all about government action.

More on today’s topics:

FBI Director Michael Mueller contradicts AG Alberto Gonzales here.
UK denies extension of music copyright laws here.
San Francisco Taxi Commission ponders then defends the Devil’s Cab.

Ooh, a Friday BONUS!!
Kanye West is really Zach Galifianakis and Will Oldham! Who knew? Check the video.

politics, podcasts, week in review | No Comments »

Ever read comments at the bottom of a youtube video or a popular blog post? Usually pretty lame, huh?

Since last week, there’s been lots of swirl in the political blogging world, over comments left by anonymous users. Are these website operators responsible for what random people say?

Bill O’Reilly’s rant here.
DailyKos’s response here.
More backlash here and here.

politics, podcasts, media | No Comments »

An entire team dropped out of the Tour de France today, after a member failed his A sample blood test following a victory on Saturday.

(sound clip from the movie Breaking Away)

podcasts, sports, steroids | 1 Comment »

This past weekend, the Tour de Fat came to Golden Gate Park. It’s a free, traveling festival put on by New Belgium Brewing Company, makers of Fat Tire Beer, that celebrates bicycles, beer and sustainable living. More than 6,500 people came to show off their bikes, drink some beer and enjoy the entertainment, leaving behind only 12 pounds of trash.

All the profits from food and beer sales go to local non-profits. In this case, the recipients were the San Francisco Bike Coalition and the Bay Area Ridge Trails Council.

Here’s a photo slide show of Saturday’s events. Click the play button on the far right side to start the automated slideshow, or click on the numbers to manually select a photo.

The audio (below the slideshow) is meant to accompany the slideshow, so just hit play on both, and sit back and relax.

podcasts, photos, sports | 1 Comment »

This week was a good one. We’ve got dog fights, lighters on planes, and squirrels. What else could you ask for?

More on today’s stories:

Senator Byrd’s entire speech here.

In-depth and well argued criticism of Petraeus’s appearance on the Hugh Hewitt Show here.

The TSA’s self-admitted “security theater” here.

High-tech squirrel spies here.

President Bush’s Executive Order threatening the 5th Amendment here. News coverage has been minimal. Analysis here.

politics, Iraq, podcasts, week in review, TSA | No Comments »

In the past two days, there’s been a crazy amount of steroids news. Apparently, not even golf is safe.

Celebrate Hank Aaron by getting your “755 Without the Juice” t-shirt here.

podcasts, sports, steroids | No Comments »

CNN is hosting the upcoming “CNN/YouTube Debates,” starting Monday. But rather than selecting uploaded YouTube video questions at random for the candidates to answer, they are hand-picking them beforehand.

Doesn’t that make the whole YouTube thing irrelevant?

View questions and submit your own here.

(Entry numbers for the questions featured in today’s podcast are, in order: 776
921, 1078, 992, 1147, 113, 857, 995, 1076, 1157)

politics, podcasts, media | No Comments »

In case you still read books, you’ll be excited about this.

Internet Archive, based in The Presidio in San Francisco (along with all the other non-profits in the universe), has just launched the demo version of an amazing project, called The Open Library.

You’ve probably heard a lot about how various organizations have been dreaming up this idea of putting all the world’s books together into one virtual library.

The Open Library is it. It’s just in the beginning stages, but it’s incredibly impressive and exciting. And free.

And, of course, open. So you can contribute your own scanned books, article critiques, and catalouging know-how.

podcasts, media | No Comments »