Earth Date - 2012.340

When it comes to very good polished music, one automatically thinks of Ke$ha or Lady Gaga. But polished music doesn't always means using auto-tune or backing tracks in live venues. Take Delta Rae, a six-piece group that I had the privilege to see Tuesday night at the Workplay Theater in Birmingham, AL. Their sound and harmonies reminded me if Fleetwood Mac (which they beautifully covered "The Chain") and Mumford and Sons came together and created a folk-rock sound that can only be heard live. Four vocalists, sometimes sharing and sometimes blending, came together and shell-shocked me into thinking that they were once voice. "Is There Anyone Out There" and "Bottom of the River" were songs I could remember off the top of my head, but hell, the whole show was awesome in of itself. A highlight though, was their encore, which they played in the center of the audience with no strings attached. This is THE band of 2013. Stream their album below. The picture above was taken by Michael Crump. 

Stream Non-threatening 'Carry The Fire'

Threatening Technology


When it comes comes to threatening technology, a group of people come together and fund a project hat only can be scientifically possible but not probable in the century or so. That group, is The Cambridge Project for Existential Risk. Based at Britain's Cambridge University, philosophers and scientists, such as Cambridge professor Huw Prince and Skype co-founder Jann Tallinn, The group is exploring ways to protect to humanity from the impending view that artificial intelligence would somehow explore ways that threaten humans very existence or go beyond ways that would require us at all. Somehow this is a step that is equivalent to what HAL-9000 (pictured above right), from 2001 & 2010 fame, would theoretically do from his standpoint: protecting ones own sentient beings fates' determinable by other groups. The center is not planned for an opening until mid-2013, but one would think that money would be better spent if research was done in the direction for us and A.I. to actually get along with other.