There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, unless you can bring in sufficient upstream revenue to offer the product free to the end user. Matchbooks were among the first, but now we have free software, free newspapers, free phone calls, and a whole lot more.

The latest on the scene is Spiralfrog which, as Josephine Moulds reports in the Telegraph, is going to offer free downloads of music to those prepared to tolerate advertsing messages.

Robin Kent, chief executive of SpiralFrog, which will launch in December, said the company was not going head to head with iTunes: “We are not actually competing with the paid, legal download market. We are totally going after the pirated market. We are targeting under-30s, people who are willing to tolerate advertising and get their music for free.”

Since current estimates put pirated downloads at 40 percent of the total, they might have a large potential market. Apple’s iTunes has 80 prcent of the legal market, but customers pay 79p per song. In the fascinating world of the free lunch economy, Spiralfrog, aiming to start in December, has to build up a sufficient user base rapidly enough to interest advertisers, while keeping a lid on their costs. You pays your money and you takes your choice. Or you gets it free.

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

The bacterium Listeria monocytogenes can grow on cold, prepared meat. It can cause severe food poisoning, and hundreds die from it every year in the US alone. Step forward mankind’s tiny friends, the six viruses just approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The New Scientist reports that they may now be sprayed onto ready-to-eat meat before it is packaged.

The viruses in the additive are bacteriophages, that is, they only attack bacterial cells, and are the first to gain FDA approval for use as a food additive. Since they do not harm plant or animal cells they should be safe for humans - in fact some kinds of viral bacteriophage naturally inhabit the human digestive tract.

I like the last bit. The fact that bacteriophages are naturally present in the body rather weakens the case the back-to-nature crowd will raise against ‘harmful additives.’ It might help us to avoid the hysteria as well as the Listeria. I find myself wondering, though, if meat sprayed with viruses should be called ‘organic’?

From Adam Smith Institute

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

They would probably be better off just unplugging Hollywood but: California is set to introduce tough new legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions under a deal reached by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It would make California the first US state to impose a cap on expulsion of carbon dioxide and other gases. And when their energy bills start to climb, Californians will blame (a) George Bush and (b) the "so-called free market" while demanding state intervention…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

Keith Richards to Manager: "Hey, man, I want a bathtub full of tequila, a bevy of teenage groupie nymphos, a month's supply of uncut Turkish smack and….no, better leave it at that". Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards may have flouted Scotland's smoking ban when he played to thousands of fans at Glasgow's Hampden Park. The city council confirmed it was investigating reports that he smoked on stage throughout the gig on Friday. Neil Rafferty, from…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

For several days now, there has been speculation that North Korea is about to test one of the nuclear devices it claims to possess. This Guardian article states that satellites have tracked a special North Korean train, the usual form of transport for Mr Kim, entering Chinese territory. It does not surprise me at all that China would expeditiously summon Kim in such circumstances; China has the most to lose if North Korea tests a…

From Samizdata.net

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

It looks like Captain Bridge To Nowhere is at it again.
From the Fort Smith Times Record:
Still, those senators have ways to stymie things. One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn’s bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. […]

From Hammer Of Truth

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

From Hammer Of Truth

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

NRO’s Jonah Goldberg recently accused libertarians of defecating on cultural tradition, but now it seems that he’s excreting his social agenda on the small government half of the conservative movement. Fortunately, Reason’s Nick Gillespie was up to the task of defending libertarianism (while passing out free t-shirts) during that battle, but the war rages […]

From Hammer Of Truth

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

There are some new developments in the race for Texas’s 22nd Congressional District.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Gov. Rick Perry ordered on Tuesday a special election for the unexpired term of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay to coincide with the general election Nov. 7, when only two months will remain on DeLay’s term.

Candidates wishing to run in the special election must file with the Texas Secretary of State by 5 p.m. Friday.

Here is the response from Stephen Gordon, Communications Director for the Libertarian Party:

Our founding fathers fought and died to prevent Americans from being taxed without adequate representation. Governor Perry could have called for a special election some time ago to ensure that the voters of Texas 22 were properly represented in Congress.

As opposed to governing in a responsible manner, Perry’s priority is to facilitate Republican Party damage control in the wake of Tom DeLay scandals and the GOP failure to place a candidate on the ballot for the general election. Once again, Republican leadership has violated the trust of the voters.

While there will be two names on the general election ballot in November, voters who prefer responsible government and constitutional leadership have but one choice: Libertarian Bob Smither.

From US Libertarian Party

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom

What do you do when you are an employee of a government contractor and complained about serious problems in the company, but no one seemed to be taking action? You make a video about it and post it on YouTube.

Michael De Kort was an engineer for Lockheed Martin and complained to his bosses, government investigators and members of Congress, but did not feel like anything was being done to correct what he felt were serious problems, the Washington Post reported.

The Washington Post provides some excerpts from De Kort’s YouTube video:

“What I am going to tell you is going to seem preposterous,” De Kort solemnly tells viewers near the outset of the 10-minute clip. Posted three weeks ago, the video describes what De Kort says are blind spots in the ship’s security cameras, equipment that malfunctions in cold weather and other problems. “It may be very hard for you to believe that our government and the largest defense contractor in the world [are] capable of such alarming incompetence and can make ethical compromises as glaring as what I am going to describe.”

It looks like De Kort has started to garner the attention of at least one member of Congress (via Washington Post):

The video also has caught the eye of people in high places. De Kort’s video has been covered by defense trade magazines, and yesterday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, wrote a letter to the Coast Guard asking for an answer to De Kort’s “extremely distressing” allegations.

Some see this case as part of an exciting new trend (via Washington Post):

“This is an excellent example of the democratization of the media, where everyone has access to the printing press of the 21st century,” said Dina Kaplan, co-founder of Blip.tv, a site that hosts grass-roots television programming.

Here’s the actual De Kort video:

From US Libertarian Party

Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom