Sunday, February 28, 2010

Geektastrophy 1: Caprica , first impressions



As with many scifi geeks, I have been a huge fan of the reimagined version of Battlestar Galactica.  I didn't much care for the cheesy, 1970s version of BSG as it always just seemed to be a Star Trek rip-off that paled in comparison.  However, I do love the fact that Battlestar Gallactica footage was stolen for the movie  "Space Mutiny" (Can we say Big Mclargehuge?) which is featured in one of my favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes.  Anyways, the 2003 iteration of Battlestar focused on the quest for survival by a small group of humans in the face of total destruction at the hands of the cylons.  It deals with interesting overarching themes including the nature of humanity and artificial intelligence, as well as very compelling discussions of the nature of war, terrorism, and god.  And yes, there certainly were a lot of points where BSG stumbled in the first couple of seasons, but while it was on, it was a series that I couldn't wait for the next episode to air. 


Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Great Sweepstakes Center Scandel

I am well acquainted with the idea of legalized gambling as there are many riverboat casinos in different areas of my home state of Illinois.  The closest one to my hometown in central Illinois was about an hour away on the Illinois River in Peoria.  I think gambling can be a great revenue source for a state, but it has to be controlled and highly regulated or it has the potential to be very harmful to an area.   In North Carolina (and several other Southern states) there is a bizarre loophole that allows computerized slot machines to be placed in Sweepstakes centers throughout the state.


Friday, February 12, 2010

Streaming music gets a swift kick in the face

It seemed to me that music companies had the perfect deal, or at least a new and improved deal.  Finally they'd found a way to get around the rampart file-sharing that had cut a huge sized chunk out of their profits.  After years of suing their customers to recoup the losses from filesharing, there seemed to a light at the end of the tunnel.  Last.fm and others in the U.S. as well as the apparently awesome Spotify in the UK and Europe served as a way for consumers to get music outside of the deadly filesharing.

Monday, February 8, 2010

The Great Super Bowl Sell Out and The Super Bowl's Ban on Female Performers

After the scandalous appearance of songs by both Arcade Fire and Grizzly Bear, hipsters and indie music fans continued the endless tail chasing that attempts to protect underground culture by kicking those out who do not adhere to a code of rejecting mainstream culture.  So it was no surprise that when the Grizzly Bear song "Two Weeks" was featured in a VW commercial and Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" was used in a NFL commercial that was supposed to benefit Haiti earthquake victims.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Testing out my sms posting. I am currently working on a post about biz centers/ sweepstakes centers (legalized gambling) in North Carolina

Jennifer Government and Corporate Personhood

I am having a really hard time getting started with this blog. RDU Gonna Eat is so much easier because we have a specific topic that we focus on all the time. We go to a restaurant, and then write about what we ate. Or, we cook something and then we right about how that went. So I need to brainstorm some generally more structured ideas for this blog or something.


Anyways, I thought I would do a little post on Corporate personhood because it generally scares the crap out of me. As you may have heard the wonderful Supreme Court has decided that corporations have the right to free speech, which essentially struck down much of the progress that has been made (it isn't much) in the past 20 years. This decision was followed immediately followed by the ironic declaration by liberal public relations firm Murray Hill Incorporated that it will run for congress in Maryland's 8th district . And while I appreciate the wit of Murray Hill as well as the Corporations Dream Too T-shirts, I couldn't help but be a bit terrified by this whole situation.

As I thought about this situation I couldn't help but be reminded of one of my most favorite books of all time.