Sunday, February 19, 2006

Podcast - The Pacifics The Pacifics - Independent Filipino Hip-Hop crew from Chicago. The PACIFICS, an acronym for People Accumulating Creative Ideas Foregoing Ignorant Conclusions of Society, are a Filipino hip hop group hailing from the Chicago underground. Made up of MCs KP, Strike3 (aka. Mr. REXford), and Norman Rockwell, they have a smooth group rhymestyle similar to Jurrasic 5 - they bounce off of each other seamlessly and have a cohesive flow in which no MC dominates any other. Their music has a characteristic Chicago underground sound, with soul and jazz inspired samples layered on top of sparse beats and looming basslines. I first heard of the group when I was still living in Chicago around 1999 or 2000. In the time since then they've come up quite a bit, and have released several albums themselves while having tracks featured on several more. "Set It" is a classic, with smoky piano samples behind a rolling bassline. Other standouts to check out (with free MP3 downloads from their site) are "Ketchup", a track with a liquid, bassy production and a laid back vibe, and "Hold it Down", a Chicago anthem track repping all the underground cats from my hometown. Definetley check out their latest album, Sunday's Chicken, and visit their website at www.thepacifics.com to learn more about the group. According to their site they should actually be coming to San Francisco for the Asian American Film Festival, but no confirmation is posted. We sent them an email to see what's up and will update as soon as we know more. [Grooveeffect - An Urban Style, Music, and Events Guide] 10:31:18 PM

Laff in the Dark Take a Dark Ride in a Whacky Shack. Laff in the Dark gives us an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at those staple attractions of amusement parks and carnivals everywhere, the dark ride and the funhouse. The well-written and professionally presented articles examine every aspect of their artwork, design, construction, and marketing, along with fascinating biographies of the movers and shakers in the dark-ride industry. [Link] [Eye of the Goof] 10:17:24 PM

Business 2.0 Writes about City Telecom of Hong Kong Broadband as Utility. Business 2.0 writes about City Telecom of Hong Kong: City Telecom [is] a Hong Kong company that offers 100 megabits per second--65 times as fast as a typical DSL connection--for just $25 a month, with no phone or cable strings attached. Ricky Wong, founder and chief executive of City Telecom, describes his company as "a broadband utility." City Telecom is already Hong Kong's second-largest residential broadband provider, despite competition from PCCW, the area's largest and oldest phone company; iCable, the dominant cable operator; and HGC Telecom, a firm backed by billionaire Li Ka-Shing. Now, in fact, those larger competitors have made it their mission to halt Wong's progress. Says Dave Burstein, editor of industry newsletter "DSL Prime," "City has inspired incumbents to sprint and catch up." In 2000, City Telecom spent $25 million to deliver residential Internet access, in part by using wireless transmitters perched on rooftops and cell-phone towers. The plan didn't pan out--the wireless technology couldn't pump enough bandwidth--but there was a silver lining: City Telecom had already installed Ethernet jacks in 1.2 million homes. The company regrouped by wiring each building to a fiber-optic trunk line, which in turn connected to the Internet. The result is a citywide version of the local area networks found in many corporate offices. [Emergic] 9:55:05 PM

After Neoconservatism By Francis Fukuyama Article in today's New York Times. Recommended. Francis Fukuyama teaches at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. This essay is adapted from his book "America at the Crossroads," which will be published this month by Yale University Press. 10:35:09 AM

Quicktime on BrainFuel Pirates Racing. Now this boat is going fast! [BrainFuel] 10:26:17 AM