July 2010

  • Miami Florida Music

    By colormejosh on 7/27/10 3:36pm
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    The music scene in Miami, Florida is culturally diverse and full of variation. The sounds of the city have been touched by many different cultures and people. The main influences of music have been from Cuba, and other island communities located nearby. The Cubans brought conga and rumba, bachata, and merengue were brought by the Dominican people, and vallenato and cumbia were brought by Columbians. There is, however, all types of music (from many influences) that can be seen and heard throughout the city.


    Miami is thought of as a party city. It is a place where the rich and famous (and the rest of us) go to "let it all out". As such there is a strong connection to the city with endless party and musical popular culture. Many songs, music videos, and music festivals mention or take place in the city. The city is home to many recording artists - and the studios that house them.

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  • Girls Gone Wild Can Strip You Without Your Consent

    By erika on 7/26/10 1:33pm
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    In 2005 a woman goes to a bar, planning to drink and party.  Turns out the "Girls Gone Wild" video team is there.  Signs are posted.  However, she refuses to sign the consent form.  If there is a more clear way to signal "I do not consent" than refusing to sign a consent form, I can't think of it.

    As she's dancing, the video camera is moving through the crowd.  As she turns away from the camera, a hand reaches out from behind it and pulls off her shirt. 


    She says "No no no no," pulls it back up, and turns away.  Again - that's a pretty clear sign of not giving consent.  Saying "no" and putting your top back on.  

    But somehow she ends up on the Girls Gone Wild tape anyway.  And when she sues?  The jury finds in favor of Girls Gone Wild.


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  • Japan Baby Bot!

    By dfunzy on 7/15/10 11:38am
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    Japan continues on the road to create cyborgs. Cyborgs? Or the Borg!? Or Daleks?!

    Resistance is futile. Luddites will be exterminated, right? The future will belong to the robots? Right?

    The Japanese seemed determined to replace every human with -- Well, their researchers are sailing into the unknown country. Japan has created a BABY bot -- Frankenstein Revisited?

    What does Japan hope to do? To create intelligent robots! Why? Shouldn't we have intelligent humans first?

    Japan tells the world that we need robots that can live with humans. What? Live with humans in which way?

    Japan says it is building baby robots "based on assumptions about child development"  Why? So these robot will be like us humans? Now that is a very scary notion. See the video.

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  • Futurama: "Rebirth"

    By MichaelP03 on 7/5/10 3:11pm
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    Whenever Futurama was presented with finales in its past, it dealt with them exceedingly well: the first run of the series ended on a touching note with 2003's "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", and the straight-to-DVD Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder in wrapped things up on with a suitably epic bang in 2009. It took another year of contract negotiations, walkouts, uproars and salary increases, before Comedy Central landed 26 new episodes. A brief commentary of the bigger picture, as well as reviews of the first two episodes, can be found here, but I wanted to take a slightly more detailed look at the first regular episode of Futurama in seven years, the appropriately entitled "Rebirth".

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