Here's a nice short about the news and why TV news channels aren't reporting the real news.
From a French band called Justice, the album is called † (Cross) and is set to be released June 11th Worldwide, and July 10th in the US.
The Scientific America blog had a post a couple of days ago asking if women had a sexual orientation. The post was in response to the results of recent research on sexual desire which were published in The New York Times.
Another response to the article, from a women's point of view, sums up the research and talks about out how there is a lot of cultural misperception about sex.
A while ago, I came across a blog post on a "World Wide Mind", referring to 22nd Century, a program which aired on PBS in January. It's a pilot episode for one of 3 potential upcoming series. I got a chance to watch the episode a few weeks ago and have been talking about it and sharing it with people ever since. It's available for viewing in its entirety from its website here.
The aspect of the show I found most interesting was how people feel about the affect of technology on our bodies. Being able to communicate telepathically through a computer, restoring someone's sense of hearing, changing our sense of sight, and eventually simulating all of our senses with a direct connection to the brain are things we are able to do. It's not about the technological capabilities, but how much we are willing to accept these technologies in our society.
The Simpsons have explained evolution in their own unique way before. The new episode which aired last night had a great intro that shows the complete process in about a minute. It's probably something they should start showing in schools.
Most music videos we see on TV are getting pretty boring. There are some interesting ones though, but they're usually for unique music that will rarely make it on MTV (especially in the US). So most of the music videos I see these days are on the web, many through YouTube. I'm going to start posting some of the more creative videos here in hopes that more people get the opportunity to see them.
Here's one from Royksopp who are a recent favorite group of mine.
The song is from Royksopp's album Melody AM.
Originally Published: May 23, 2006
The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, was held a couple of weeks ago. What was presented this year shows how serious the gaming industry has become.
The media coverage itself was pretty impressive. Gaming news websites had extensive content. The G4 cable channel turned into all E3 channel all week long with correspondents everywhere on the show floor. And Bloggers, as always were on top of things, many going as far as providing their own videos through sites like YouTube.
What was particularly interesting is that Microsoft had its own Xbox 360 E3 coverage, taking advantage of the system's Live Marketplace feature. During the week of E3, all Xbox previews from the show were released free for download along with additional content celebrating the event. It even had free premium membership for the week along with gaming contests.
Sony Playstation 3
With the release of Sony's PS3 pushed back from March to November, a lot was expected from Sony's keynote. The high expectations may be why it seemed to fall short for a lot of people. Sony did announce pricing and technical specs, but didn't say too much about its online capabilities. Considering how much Microsoft talked about their system's online experience at last year's E3, it's unsure what specifically Sony has planned in that arena.
Microsoft Xbox 360
In some ways Microsoft stood out above Sony with it's long list of upcoming game titles. Bill Gates made a suprise visit during the keynote to announce Windows Live Anywhere, allowing Xbox 360 and PC cross-platform gaming and use of the Xbox's GamerTag ID system.
Nintendo Wii
The most buzz however, came from Nintendo's Wii console. While the Xbox 360 and the PS3 were showing off their fancy next-generation graphics, the Wii was showing off what really makes a gaming system, gameplay. Its two-piece joystick allows gamers to move more than just their fingers, in some cases requiring one to stand up and move their entire bodies. Add this to the creative line of games and you've got a real gaming system.
Games
Generally speaking this year's games ranged from a few original titles (Gears of War) to sequels (Halo 3), to remakes of older films (Scarface), which basically sounds like what the movie industry is doing now-a-days.
Spore
Of all the games, the game that really stood out was Spore for the PC. From Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, the game was also a hit at last year's E3 when it was first shown in action. This time around there was even more to show and its overall concept was fully realized. The game is about the evolution of a species. You start out at a microscopic level, go from water to land, create a civilization and eventually fly off into space where you explore other worlds and even further to other galaxies. The way the idea has been put into gameplay is pretty impressive. Everything affects everything and the player basically controls the creation and building of everything, almost creating their own gaming experience.
Originally Published: May 2, 2006
You can find anything online. And using Google usually works... except when looking for the unedited, and apparently too-hot-for-the-internet video of Robin Williams during Google's keynote at CES.
Well, after nearly 5 months of late nights looking for this piece of internet history, I have succeeded:
I actually didn't spend too much time looking for it, but I figured that it would've been easier to find by now then when I first looked for it in January. Using Google, I couldn't find anything after 70 results. Using Windows Live Search, I found it at result number 39.
The video is 1 hour and 15 minutes long. Robin Williams comes in at the introduction of Google Video (31 minutes into the video) and then comes back for the QA session (53 minutes into the video).
I can see how some things Robin Williams said can be a bit overboard, but it was all good stuff. The real reason it seems it was taken out could be because someone worried about how it would reflect on Google as a company.
