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If you’re not familiar with it, Pop!Tech is a yearly conference based in our very own Camden, Maine. It’s not a ‘Con, or and Event, but rather lives at a multidisciplinary corner somewhere North of Technology and East of Culture. Topics cover everything from the impact of technology on the arts, to the development and promotion of human culture, to recent developments in online security, to ideas around education reform. But what unites them all is a focus on thinking of the larger picture that any discipline can influence, and this year’s topic is billed as reimagining America. The design is to create a true synergistic environment to discuss art, culture, technology, and ideally motivate social change. The conference, which has been running for upwards of a decade,  is on through tomorrow. It’s gotten a bit pricey over the years, but luckily it’s also being streamed live as it happens, so hit the embed below. Any fan of big ideas will get a thrill out of this one, and after the jump are a few samples from previous years. Enjoy!

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Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Economics, Politics, Technophilia by Etruscan
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BASEMENT OF THE SCIENCE BUILDING – It’s October and that means there have been very few reasons to get out of bed these days. The only one I can think of has been the promised return of “The Venture Brothers” on Adult Swim.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I really can’t say as we’re going to be friends… ever… but I will at least extend you the courtesy to you by of saying:

<<Warning, Potential Spoilers. Dingdong>>

During the first episode of this, our fourth season, entitled, “Blood of the Father, Heart of Steel,” you may have noticed some kinda cockamamie bar that would butt in on occasion [kaching!] with the labels “CGC Rating” followed by a number, a letter or two, and a dollar amount. Like this:

[kaching!]

I was left scratching my head for a long time and at first I thought it was some sort of FCC thing where the writers were predicting how much they’d be fined for this episode and that leads us to our titular question:
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Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Videophilia by Cash Money
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There was a story on NPR this morning about the rise in TV watching and how it is catching on around the world.  I think most of us who were listening were all thinking the same thing, “Huh?  Catching on?  Umm, what does he mean ‘catching’ on?”  The journalist was comparing TV to the likes of Facebook and Twitter.  He was mostly pulling numbers out of 3rd world countries but still the idea intrigued me to do some research on my own.

I decided to try to find out what the most watched TV show in the world was and to my surprise it was Baywatch.  (internal sigh)  I was disappointed.  It actually made the Guinness Book of World Records with over 1.1 billion viewers.  I know that this has been played out in such movies as Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan when Borat came to New York and while in his hotel room stumbled upon a Baywatch episode with Pamela Anderson.  He thought this was the best show ever.  I wonder if that is because people in other countries visualize America to be like that of a Baywatch setting? (which is disheartening)  Maybe Hollywood has painted a picture that America can only deliver on the silver screen.  Long strips of sunny beaches with beautiful people running around doing fun things while looking beautiful and half-naked, yeah that only exist in the movies or on Baywatch.

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Tags: I should probably go to bed by Nekogirl
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Ok, ok. You may have already seen this one as it was fairly widely released in the US. But that doesn’t detract from its loveliness. What does detract from its loveliness is the fact that it somehow ended up as a PS2 game. I’m still scratching my head over that one; done properly it could have turned out to be a tour-de-force, but ended up being a bit of a rote shooter. Nevertheless, the storyline (once it gets going) is a dystopian dream. Not, of course, the bits with all the shooting but rather the character development over the course of the series, which is on par with many of the longer running anime out there. Mafia controlled mega-corporations, human enhancement, gutter-punks rising to riches, all abound in Gungrave.

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Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Videophilia by Etruscan
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Oh ho, thought I forgot about this one, didn’t you?

Oh, Cash Money never forgets a challenge that involves him eating something and I will have you know this:

I won.

Why? Because I ate it.

Ha, ha, SUCKERS.

Etruscan’s take on the Cherry Teriyaki Challenge took kebab form featuring some really enthusiastically carved lamb from Hannaford’s, a little onion and green pepper, and more lamb.  The final product was plated in a very professional fashion with a disc of rice and nice salad.

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Tags: Culinaria by Cash Money
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