Culture Videos: Culture History and Culture Videos // Current

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10 days ago

L.A. County sheriff's are investigating Friday's beating of 12-year-old because of red hair

does this count as a hate crime???? L.A. County sheriff's detectives are investigating Friday's beating of a... more

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11 days ago

Gigantic Cruise Ship Five Times Larger Than Titanic

We're headed into the year's biggest travel week, and there's not much bigger than what's sitting in the port of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., right now. It's called the Oasis of the Seas, and it's the largest cruise ship ever built — five times the size of the Titanic, with a price tag of $1.5 billion.

That's a lot to gamble in the middle of a cruise industry slump. Royal Caribbean, which commissioned the Oasis, has seen its sales drop by 15 percent from last year.

The Oasis is the first ship to offer two-story, loft-style cabins priced as high as $34,000 per week. It has room for 6,300 passengers. Royal Caribbean CEO Adam Goldstein says it's not just about being big; it's about giving the guests more options — in dining, recreation, even cabins.

"What guests are telling us is they want the variety and choices," he says. "That way, nothing is regimented, and they can choose the vacation that works best for them."

Almost as massive as the ship itself is the amount of buzz Royal Caribbean has created. Travel agents, cruise blogs and cruise fans have been able to follow the ship's progress from construction to its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in video posted on a special Web site. There was a live broadcast on Good Morning America and mentions on The Jay Leno Show and Saturday Night Live.

"We've all been so excited," says travel agent Melodie Williams of Knoxville, Tenn. "We really have. I think it's just going to be something people can't even imagine until they walk on board."

Williams was one of the travel agents on board for a complimentary outing last week before the ship sets sail with paying passengers next month.

While the Oasis of the Seas is taller than other ships, most of its size comes from its width. Building it wider than any other passenger vessel allowed designers to open up the ship's interior with a huge atrium. Another innovation, according to Royal Caribbean Vice President Ken Muskat, is a design concept that creates seven different "neighborhoods" aboard the ship.

The "boardwalk" neighborhood is intended to offer a Coney Island kind of experience, Muskat says, as he walks through it. "We have the ice cream shop, we have the doughnut shop, we've got a beautiful, life-size carousel with all these horses and tigers and rabbits." Those animals were hand-carved for the ship, he adds.

A person flies overhead as he talks. "We actually have a zip line," he says. "Nine stories up."

Another neighborhood is an entertainment zone, with ice shows, a jazz club and a 90-minute production of the Broadway show Hairspray. But the most impressive neighborhood might be Central Park — a large, landscaped garden, including trees, surrounded by shops and restaurants. It's easy to forget that you're actually on a ship.

The pool deck boasts four pools, miniature golf and a perpetual wave machine called a Flowrider. Actually, Muskat says, Oasis of the Seas has two Flowriders.

It's part cruise ship, part theme park. For many cruisers, it's the ship, not the Caribbean ports it visits, that will be the destination.We're headed into the year's biggest travel week, and there's not much bigger than what's sitting in the port... more

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11 days ago

The Dark Side - Man Takes 40,000 Hits of Ecstasy

We all have our vices, but what leads to this type of drug overload? Drugs certainly hold the possibility of being... more

pjacobs51
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11 days ago

Susan Boyle: The Story So Far

The worldwide success of Susan Boyle’s debut album, “I Dreamed A Dream” (released on November 23rd) is the... more

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11 days ago

Mitzi Does Shanklin: Inflamed Passions

Now with a title like that, what else is there to say? Read the blog to find out about Mitzi Szereto's wild... more

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12 days ago

Funny how cartoons still have bite

Curator Anita O’Brien says that cartoons have been part of “a mass market” for centuries. Even before mass... more

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12 days ago

And Just Who Did What to Whom? Surprise!!

“Surprise” is a 1 1/2-minute stylish short thriller directed by Ben Dodd, which was commissioned for a special... more

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13 days ago

The critical unraveling of US society

You may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Before exposing the root causes of this breakdown, let’s look at some vital statistics and facts:

* The inequality of wealth in the United States is soaring to an unprecedented level. The US already had the highest inequality of wealth in the industrialized world prior to the financial crisis. Since the crisis, which has hit the middle class and poor much harder than the top one percent, the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99% of the US population has grown to a record high.

* As the stock market went over the 10,000 mark and just surged to a 13-month high, the three big banks that took taxpayer money and benefit the most from the government bailout have just set a new global economic record by issuing $30 billion in annual bonuses this year, “up 60 percent from last year.” Bloomberg reported: “Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, had a record profit in the first nine months of this year and set aside $16.7 billion for compensation expenses.” Goldman Sachs is on pace for the best year in the firm’s history, they are also benefiting by only paying 1% in taxes.

* The profits of the economic elite are “now underwritten by taxpayers with $23.7 trillion worth of national wealth.”

As the looting is occurring at the top, the US middle class is just beginning to collapse.

* Workers between the age of 55 – 60, who have worked for 20 – 29 years, have lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. During the same time period, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans went up by $30 billion, bringing their total combined wealth to $1.57 trillion.

* Home foreclosure filings “hit a record high in the third quarter [of 2009]… They were the worst three months of all time… 937,840 homes received a foreclosure letter” in this three month period. “3.4 million homes are expected to enter foreclosure by year’s end, with some experts estimating that next year will be even worse.”

President Obama has enacted a $75 billion taxpayer funded program that has been a spectacular failure in stemming the foreclosure crisis and has proven to be another massive waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.

* 25 Million people are unemployed or underemployed.

This means we have 25 million people who urgently need to increase their income, and they’re quickly running out of options. The unemployment rate is expected to rise further and remain high for several years. “The president’s chief economic adviser warned that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay ‘unacceptably high’ for years to come.”

[More at link] http://pubrecord.org/commentary/6084/critical-unraveling-society/

http://current.com/items/91511835_the-critical-unraveling-of-u-s-society.htmYou may have missed it in the mainstream news media, but statistical societal indicators are reading red across the board. Before... more

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12 days ago

Here I Stand All Alone

This scene is absolutely beautiful, in a sadly haunting way. The black&white picture reminds me of something like Through a... more

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12 days ago

War Is Peace: Can Science Fight Media Disinformation?

When I saw the statement repeated online that theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking of the University of Cambridge would be dead... more

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12 days ago

Eating Roadkill: Vegan, Veganish, or Just Plain Gross?

OK, I'll admit it. I am thoroughly confused. On the one hand, I recognize that sustainability needs to appeal to the masses if we have any hope of cutting carbon emissions at the rate necessary. So palatable mainstream solutions like Zip Car, high-tech organic farming, integrating solar with agriculture, or simply encouraging urban density have more chance of saving us than hoping we all start growing our own vegetables and learning how to hunt. On the other hand, there's a lot to be learned from intrepid back-to-the-landers about efficiency, waste and reprioritizing what is truly valuable. So it's in this spirit that I offer up my next post. And the subject, dear readers, is the delightful topic of how to eat roadkill.

I know this is definitely at the extreme end of what most folks would consider acceptable, and it is hardly the stuff of mainstream sustainability. (After all, we'll have to do an awful lot of driving to feed the world on roadkill!) Nevertheless, I have a friend who used to eat pretty much vegan. The only exception she would make was eating the occasional roadkill deer that her friends would scavenge. Her argument was that she was not contributing to any market for meat, and the animal's death would otherwise have been completely in vain. This was her way of honoring the life of a fellow creature. (And she also got a tasty guilt-free meal of venison in the process.)

Of course, roadkill is hardly wasted in the classic sense—at least around our way it is usually snapped up by vultures, possums and other critters before anyone could haul it off to the dump. But we already know that roadkill creates roadkill by causing these scavengers to enter the highway, so the quicker the remains are cleared away the better. And if you're willing to make a meal out of the carcass, rather than have the local authorities cart it off, so much the better. Especially if that meal becomes a replacement for factory farmed beef.

Of course there are plenty of hygienic and safety issues involved in eating roadkill, so I am hardly advocating for anyone to go out and try it. According to eHow.com's article on How to Eat Roadkill, you need to learn how to recognize good meat from bad, you need to avoid animals with ruptured organs, and you need to cook the meat to a higher than usual temperature. And it goes without saying, you should exercise extreme caution during the harvesting process. Otherwise some dude with a pick up truck may end up cooking your remains for lunch.

As I said above, I'm not advocating roadkill as a solution to our food crisis. Given the risks, I'm not even suggesting you go out and try it. But I do think the fact that many people eat roadkill, and enjoy it, is a useful reminder to us all that waste is disgusting, that cheap and convenient meat is an oxymoron, and that, when it comes to lowering the impact of your diet, there are are many ways to skin a cat.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/11/eating_roadkill.phpOK, I'll admit it. I am thoroughly confused. On the one hand, I recognize that sustainability needs to appeal to the masses... more