Science and Technology

iTunes Radio Is Really About Buying Music, Not Streaming It

After an unpleasantly long stretch on the rumor mill--even by Apple standards--complicated by a hard-bargaining Sony Music, iTunes Radio finally exists. For the most part, the rumor mill got it right: It's a lot like Pandora, it has text and audio ads (which feel strange on an Apple product), and it ... More >>

Starring Role

Scientists Created a $325,000 Test Tube Burger -- But Would You Eat In Vitro Meat?

The good news is we officially can stop stressing about the existence and safety of cloned meat. The bad news is that's because scientists have moved onto bigger (and better?) things. Namely, in vitro meat. See also: - Insects Are an Untapped Source of Food and Could Help End Hunger, According ... More >>

Marines vs. TSA at Sky Harbor: Whose Story Are You Buyin'?

This week's everyone-hates-the-TSA story comes from Phoenix's own Sky Harbor airport, where a group of Marines claims TSA agents humiliated one of their fellow Marines.According to multiple press accounts, one Marine claims that a 22-year-old Marine, who lost his legs due to injuries sustained in Af ... More >>

The Tangled Web We Watch: A Bizarre Episode of Father-Son Bonding in the 21st Century

Bill Montgomery's Smoking Gun: ICE PowerPoint Shows Monty's Minions How to Deport More Immigrants

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office and Arizona-based attorneys for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement are engaged in a partnership to ensure the deportation of undocumented aliens who otherwise would benefit from President Obama's proposed comprehensive immigration reform, despite ... More >>

Statewide Ban on Texting While Driving: Yay or Nay?

Believe it or not, some people believe it's better to look through the windshield while driving, rather than stare at a cell phone screen.Among those people are the state legislators who are proposing a texting-while-driving ban, which was also proposed last legislative session.See also:-Statewide B ... More >>

Statewide Ban on Texting While Driving: Yay or Nay?

Believe it or not, some people believe it's better to look through the windshield while driving, rather than stare at a cell phone screen.Among those people are the state legislators who are proposing a texting-while-driving ban, which was also proposed last legislative session.See also:-Statewide B ... More >>

Waygo App Promises to Translate Chinese Menus On the Fly

Fellow adventurous eaters: There is now an app called Waygo, specifically designed for translating Chinese menus on the fly.That's right, now you can ask for the "real" menu at your favorite Chinese joint and be certain you're ordering something more interesting than chow mein. See Also: --Chow Be ... More >>

For Matt Damon and Company, the Message Is the Message

Solar Eclipsed: Why the Sun Won't Power Phoenix Despite an Industry Boom

Desecration: Unearthed Native Burial Site Causes Uproar

Nancy Selover, State Climatologist, Doesn't Really Expect 100-Degree Winters in Phoenix, Despite Republic Article

We had a temporary, though intense, urge to flee the state after reading Michael Clancy's climate-change apocalypse story in today's Arizona Republic. Clancy's story describes how climate change could turn Arizona from the paradise it is today into a scorched, polluted, economically challenged wast ... More >>

Tasha Kunzi, Former ASU Student, Sues for Harassment and Retaliation After Soured Affair With Professor Travis Pratt

A former doctoral student says in a federal lawsuit that she was harassed and forced to leave an Arizona State University criminal-justice program after a soured love affair with a married professor. Tasha Kunzi filed the suit yesterday against the Arizona Board of Regents, Professor Travis Pratt a ... More >>

Russell Ramirez on the History of Swell Records, Old School Phoenix DJs, and Eclec'tech

If you happened to be a member of the Valley's old school DJ/rave scene back in the mid-1990s, there was one place where you almost always hit up for both your music and gear: Swell Records. Without getting too overly hyperbolic, the music and clothing emporium owned by Russel Ramirez (which bounced ... More >>

Will.i.am's Mars-Blasted Single is a Great Idea

See also: NASA's Curiosity Rover: Here's the Hi-Res, 360 Degree View of Mars See also: Our 10 Favorite Martian Songs in Honor of Curiosity My faith in humanity reached a new high when headlines concerning the Curiosity Rover flooded Facebook and Twitter. Were people really interested in science agai ... More >>

ArizonaTunes: River Jones Launches a Hopeful "Local Alternative to iTunes"

See also: River Jones, What Are You Listening To? See also: River Jones Music Featured in NPR's Wavelength MagazineChances are, you've heard the name River Jones thrown around, either surrounding the many artists his label represents (such as Courtney Marie Andrews, Sareena Dominguez or You Me and A ... More >>

Our 10 Favorite Martian Songs in Honor of Curiosity

Ever since Curiosity survived the seven minutes of terror and landed on Mars last Sunday, we continue to be fascinated by the rover's pictures. Last week the device, which looks like it could be Wall-E's cousin, took a cool black and white panoramic shot of the red planet. The environment kind of lo ... More >>

Rocks of Ages

Spotify Ruffles Feathers, Promises Paradigm Shift

Rocks of Ages

Ask No Questions

Ben Quayle Defends Internet Security Bill Known as "CISPA," but Promises Amendment Proposal Over Privacy Concerns

After the bills known as "SOPA" and "PIPA" were shelved amid some mass protests from online communities, there's a new bill in Congress that has the Internet riled up -- the the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or "CISPA."The bill has been referred to numerous times as being "worse tha ... More >>

Starry Night

Solar Firm Matinee Energy is Full of Hot Air

Blog Collectives Ad Hoc, Portals Embrace Communal Fandom Over Influence

It's obvious music blogs have a unique place in the great big music discussion. Entire careers have been bolstered by one lone blogger posting a hot new MP3 that quickly catches fire and burns up RSS feeds. However, some of the biggest taste-makers on the Internet have combined forces and their new ... More >>

Waste Management Open: You Don't Have to Hide Your Cell Phone in Your Sock Anymore

​Anyone who's been to the Dumpster...er, "Waste Management" Open golf tournament knows that one of the more irritating parts of the experience is figuring out what to do with your cell phone -- more specifically, how to sneak it in.Starting this year, however, the tournament's no cell-phone policy ... More >>

Grateful Dead Drummer Mickey Hart Taps the Cosmos

Scarlet Lopez Used 13-Year-Old Daughter as Lookout During Air Conditioner Theft

​A Mesa woman was arrested last night after police discovered she was using her 13-year-old daughter as a lookout as she attempted to steal an air conditioner from a vacant home.Mesa police got a call about 8:30 last night regarding two people who were seen in the yard of a vacant home at 249 Sout ... More >>

Doh! Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant has "Unusual Event;" No Danger, Says APS

An official "unusual event" was declared at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station west of Phoenix on Saturday after water in a junction box outside of reactor containment building caused an electrical short.KTAR (92.3 FM) radio is the only outlet that appears to have reported the incident, but m ... More >>

Phoenix Mayoral Candidates: Who's Most Popular in Social (Media) Circles?

New Times​Poor Newt Gingrich won't be sitting in the Oval Office anytime soon.The former Speaker of the House boasted about his 1.3 million followers on twitter, but was quickly exposed by a former staffer for hiring a firm to create fake accounts to make it look like he was far more popular than ... More >>

Spotify Finally Lands in the U.S.

Spotify is now available in the U.S.​Do you like your music collection? Do you wish you had it on you at all times? Does it bug the shit out of you when you go to a friend's house for a small gathering and they play their special 2-hour mix of Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Michael Franti and Cou ... More >>

Arizona Dust Storm Report Released Online by National Weather Service; Dissects Cause and Development

Image: National Weather ServiceA Doppler radar image captures the enormity of the July 5 dust storm.​ The July 5 dust storm was among the most "significant" ever seen by National Weather Service experts who have been in the Valley 30 years, according to a new online report.Everything you wante ... More >>

Critics Claim Supreme Master Ching Hai's Followers' Restaurants Featuring Tasty Vegan Fare Front For an Exploitive Movement.

Census Bureau Stats: Hispanics in Arizona Up 46.3 Percent, Total Population Growing State-Wide

callandresponse.com​The U.S. Census Bureau released Arizona's detailed population totals Thursday, revealing a 46.3-percent increase in the Hispanic population over the past decade. According to the Census Bureau press release (conveniently written in Spanish), nearly 600,000 more people id ... More >>

Foursquare up, Pandora Down, MySpace Out: Grand Predictions About Digital Music Trends in 2011

​NME's deputy editor Luke Lewis published an interesting article about the future of digital music last week.Lewis made a list of 10 insightful music predictions regarding what the developments of digital music might entail in 2011, and I've got to hand it to him, he did a great job and taught me ... More >>

Pickster One and Other DJs React to Panasonic's Axing of Influential Technics Turntables

The Technics 1200s: Soon to be extinct.If you happen to be hanging out at any of the Valley's dance events this coming weekend, be sure to listen closely. It might be hard to hear over the massive cacophony of beats getting slung, but you might just hear a few sobs coming from the DJ booth. That's ... More >>

Glastonbury Going Green... But Who's Playing?

​Worthy Farm, home to the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts in the UK, now boasts what festival organizer Michael Eavis calls "the best solar power system in the country," according to NME.The cluster of 1,116 solar panels that is fixed on top of the cowshed at Worthy Farm is pr ... More >>

Get Well Moon

Take some steps under the night sky

YouTube Begins Live Streaming Trial

​YouTube has announced it's in a testing period for live streaming, according to TechCrunch.Today and tomorrow only, YouTube will partner with a group of companies to make a live broadcast schedule. Unfortunately the feature will be removed from the site once the trial is over, so be sure not to m ... More >>

John McCain Considered a "Top Tweeter;" Study Finds He Has Highest "Digital IQ" in Senate

www.hypericum.comJohn McCain apparently learned how to use a computer since the 2008 presidential campaign.​Senator John McCain's back-and-forth banter with "Snooki" -- of Jersey Shore shame -- seems to have earned him high marks as far as his digital prowess goes.In a joint study conducted by Ge ... More >>

Art Rocks

Head way uptown as the sun goes down

"Sexting" Leads to Arrest of Alleged, Prescott Valley Child Molestor

Prescott Valley Police DepartmentEthan Cook, 20, allegedly molested a 14-year-old Prescott Valley girl. ​A Prescott Valley man got pinched Sunday for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl several times dating back to at least March.The suspect, 20-year-old Ethan Cook, may have gotten away with it ... More >>

Arizona Legislature Explained by New Study of Neanderthals?

We have fretted for some time about the Neanderthals in control of the Arizona Legislature, a powerful political body that enacts laws by which we are supposed to live our lives. ​Could it really be true, we have pondered deep into the night, that the likes of this bunch--the Russell (10 ... More >>

Google Vs. Music Bloggers: Blogger Service Annihilating Copyright Infringers

This Google-owned logo is used for a newsgathering purpose with the tacit understanding that Google allows such use. Please alert me by e-mail if you wish to see it removed.​Google's vast stretch of the blogosphere is going silent. The search giant, who owns the popular Blogger service and blogspo ... More >>

Dark Sky Telescope Hike

Metadata in Electronic Government Records Must be Released to Public, Arizona Supreme Court Rules

Phoenix police Sergeant David Lake may get to find out whether his supervisors screwed him over, thanks to unanimous pro-public-records ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court. As we related back in January, Lake was halted twice by the court system in his quest to obtain the metadata embedded in a Micr ... More >>

“From Caves to Castles: If Beads Could Talk” at Glendale's Bead Museum Has a Bead on This Ancient Craft