Natebot
Wouldn't You Rather Be Natebot?

As you might have heard, independent rockers Radiohead released their new album In Rainbows lately. I've never been a super huge Radiohead fan but I'm diggin' on this album. It's holding up to multiple listenings and you can't beat the price.

Radiohead allows you to name your price for the downloaded album on their site. So if you are total cheapskate - or maybe just radiohead curious - and want to pay a $1, well go right ahead. Warning though, I was charged a transaction fee of about $0.45 and likely you will be too. Also be aware that many credit card companies don't actually allow charges of $0.01 (because criminals use that amount to test stolen cards).

I decided to pay $7 for the 10-song album, well under the 99 cent per song pricing found on iTunes, and less than half what I'd play for a CD. The mp3's are coded at 160 kbps which isn't the best but honestly isn't bad at all. Amazon charges 89 to 99 cents for DRM free tracks at a slightly better quality.

I suppose you've already read about this scheme in the New York Times, heard about it on Morning Edition, or Marketplace, or elsewhere.

What I didn't know, was the idea was not entirely novel. The Freakanomics blog (I recommend picking up the book at your library) at the New York Times informed me that an artist in Seattle has adopted the 'pay what you will' method for some time.

Labels: music

A researcher in the Netherlands thinks Massachusetts will be the first state to legalize marriage to a robot, as reported in this MSNBC article. This topic comes on the heels of recent findings that Roomba users have emotional attachment to their vacuums. Don't miss your chance to vote on the topic.

Assuming that robots, that's androids and not vacuums, become so sophisticated in 40 years time that they are recognizably human in both intellect and emotional capacity, I don't see what could be considered so 'icky' about hardware to wetware legal bonding. I think by 2050 not only could robots have something resembling human free will, that brain science will show human free will is a lot less free than we think it is now. The conversion of these two factors might lead to some very interesting debates in the middle of the century.

Notice the researcher is not being as radical as all that. He's not predicting same-tech marriages of robot to robot. Maybe we can expect that for 2101? Or how about the eventual meaninglessness of the concept entirely? Now I'm not arguing that expanding the definition of marriage to the non-human will lead to it's demise, only that profound technological change, such as in the health field, will lead to institutional changes. If humans begin to live happily for 150 to 200 years, or have the ability to live on indefinitely (in the body of a robot?)- would you so easily enter into a vow of unending marriage at age 18? 24? even 35?

Labels: future, philosophy, robots

One down forty nine to go.* A few weeks ago Am & I saw the Flaming Lips rock the Paramount. It was a great show made better by virtue of the venue. I always like going to the Paramount because it has such a personality and personal feel to the shows there. Honestly I was a bit worried what it would be like to see a rock show in the balcony, but we had great seats in the center lower section near the loge. Not that we sat at all during the show. And the slope made viewing much better I think than the flat floor below us.

Highlights included a shout along to the Yeah Yeah Yeah song -- now with 20% more political rant! -- and a somber but conscious-raising moment of playing Taps. Two tons of confetti shot in the air, several dozen bouncing giant 4 foot ballons, a dozen santas & alienettes with flashlights, and four ringing ears hours later we were quite satisfied with the show. I recommend going if the Lips are playing in your area.

WTF am I talkin' 'bout? Check out these great photos right from the floor, courtesy of serious Lips fan lizberry81.

If you are going to be in the Oklahoma City area in a couple weeks then you should join the freak out parade of 1000 skeletons planned by the Lips. Don't think I didn't look to a flight. Alas $350 a ticket is just too much for us right now. Who knows when the price might go down? Farecast does! (Farecast can do things like forecast when to it's best to buy tickets from Seattle to Hawaii, for example). Now if they only made skeleton parades more regular.

* In 2002 Q magazine (who?) rated The Flaming Lips as one of the fifty rock acts to see before you die. Actually my countdown is at more like 46 since I've also seen Dylan, Young, and the late RL Burnside, as well as the Lips, though I despair I shall never see Pink Floyd or Fairport Convention. And Guns n' Roses? I mean really?

Labels: music

In this YouTube video televangelist Ray Comfort and straight man sidekick Kirk Cameron (indeed yes, the same Kirk Cameron of the 1980's Growing Pains) explain that the humble banana offers proof that God designed the universe.

While the Argument from Banana has been throughly debunked in many places (here's a hint: most every fruit in the grocery, including those tasty yellow beauties, didn't start out that way in nature), how can anyone take you serious when you start off with "Behold!"? I mean the most hilarious about the whole thing is Mr.Comfort starts with "Behold!" Behold?! Who says that? He must be trying to bring that word back.

It immediately brought to mind the over-the-top Dr. Orpheus of Venture Bros, the hilariously biting cartoon and Natebot favorite from Adult Swim (If you don't get cable, Netflix has the DVDs or you can just watch for free with Joost. I can see him saying "Behold! The Atheist Nightmare!" Here's my best imitation:




But such ridiculous declaratives are par for the course in The Venture Bros. show, as demonstrated by the exchange by Orpheus and the dismissively cynical and speed-suit wearing Dr. Venture in a collection of snippet's we'll call "Science vs. Magic":

Labels: Religion, Science