Micro Meals

Japan is known for many things. Perhaps what its most famous for is turning full sized objects smaller. Consumer products like cell phones, appliances, and even automobiles are all shrunk down to compact sizes. They have expanded their talent for miniaturizing things to food. Below is a video of a complete fast food meal cheese burgers, french fries, ketchup and beverage all the size of a child's toy. 

It may sound like something you can buy at your local supermarket but it's not. Each item in the package must be recreated by adding water and being heated in a microwave (except for the cola). Not only the burger but the bun, cheese, ketchup and fries are all in powder form. I did a little research and found out that the entire meal is edible. It has no artificial coloring and is less than 100 calories. Now that's what I call low fat fast food. Check out the video.

Tibetan Singing Bowls

While searching for a gift for my sister I came across a site that had Tibetan Singing Bowls. I never heard of bowls that sing so I did a little research into their history. 

Singing bowls were historically used in India to help align the chakras (spiritual energy) and  assist in meditation. During ancient times Buddha brought crystal singing bowls from India to Tibet while spreading his teachings of Buddhism. Since then the bowls have been used in monasteries by monks for religious rituals to reach deeper levels of meditation, relaxation and healing. There are rumors that it's forbidden for monks to speak about the singing bowls. There are also rumors that the bowls are used in secret rituals, giving them the ability to travel to different dimensions of space and time. 

Tibetan Singing Bowls are considered a powerful spiritual tool and have migrated from the monastery into the homes of practitioners world-wide. Aside from meditation they're also used for Relaxation, Massage, Yoga, Stress Reduction and Healing. To learn more about the singing bowls and their unusual history go to www.silverskyimports.com or click the link.

Resurrecting the Dead

Tupac Shakur dead in 1995. His legacy is in the music which has endured and gained more popularity over the last 17 years. Recently at the 2012 Coachella festival a 3D (3 dimensional) hologram of Tupac was debuted performing along side west coast legend Snoop Dogg. The image was like a scene out of science fiction films. The hologram was so realistic it had viewers questioning if Tupac had been resurrected from the dead like Lazarus or was alive and had faked his death like Machiavelli.

The hologram costs a reported 10 million U.S. dollars to create. It was designed by a company out of London which uses a state of the art high definition camera to broadcast a 3D holographic image on stage. The hologram gives the illusion of a real person and is created from scratch. Which means they don't use revamped archive footage or old video. Instead they create the entire image and performance from scratch. 

This technology opens the door for artists and government delegates to give performances or speeches from a remote location while viewers believe they're seeing the real thing. The military applications for this type of technology are to numerous to count and not part of this post. But I'm sure if you watch the videos below you can come up with a few on your own. Check it out. 

White Boy Rap

For those puritans and racially sensitive people who take offense to the title of this post...Fuck You and stop reading my blog. This post is recognition of Hip-Hop's cultural diversity. When I use the term white boy, it refers to any rapper of mostly Caucasian descent. I say mostly cuz almost every being on the planet is mixed with more than one race.

The reason white rappers were always associated by their race is because Hip-Hop started out as a minority music genre. It was composed of a diverse group of Blacks, Latino's and a few Asians that were down with the culture. The first white rappers I ever heard were the Iconic 80's group 3rd Bass. It was composed of MC Serch, Pete Nice, and DJ Richie Rich (who was Black). Serch and Pete Nice were groundbreaking at the time cuz there were no other white rappers exposed to the mainstream and successful.

Their success along with the group Beastie Boys opened the door for artists like Vanilla Ice,  Mark Wahlberg aka Marky Mark (who back in 1992 had a hit single called Good Vibrations) and numerous other rappers. Due to the stigma that white guys couldn't rap, there was a lot of negativity from insiders on the whole phenomenon. Vanilla Ice was rumored to have been held over the balcony at his hotel by goons because he lied about being from the hood, when he was really a rich kid from the suburbs. Marky Mark had friction from numerous rap groups cuz although he was from Boston he wasn't known in the hood. Plus the fact his older brother was in boy band New Kids on the Block didn't help his gangsta persona.

Since then there have been many white rappers, but few (House of Pain) who have sustained a presence in the music industry.  One guy who never let his race (or the stigma around it) stop his hustle is R.A. the Rugged Man. He has never been known as a white rapper he is always referred to as a dope MC. R.A. has spit with legends Biggie, Kool G. Rap, Wu Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and to many more to mention. He is one of the MC's along with Kid Rock that championed the white rapper movement and changed how people view white boy rap. The reason he is globally respected is because he can actually rap. Their efforts opened the doors for Eminem, Machine Gun Kelly, and other white rappers currently experiencing success. 

Below are videos from MC's Slaine, Ill Bill, Celph Titled, Sage Francis, Vinnie Paz and R.A. the Rugged Man. They are all MC's that prove you can't judge a person's talent by their color.

Self Driving Cars

Google isn't just a search engine anymore. Since buying youtube they have expanded into music, merchandising, advertising and now automobiles. In 2010 Google began a project that would create autonomous automobiles. In other words cars that would steer and drive themselves. The idea sounds like vehicles seen in science fiction movies like I, Robot and Blade Runner, but they're real.

The plan behind the project was designed to give blind and disabled people a safe means of travel (aside from public transportation). They also believe autonomous vehicles would make our roads and highways safer for everyone. Since introducing this smart vehicle in 2010 Google has steadily improved the vehicles response time and performance. Now in 2012 they've completed more than 200 hours of real driving on the roads and the vehicle seems almost ready for mass production. Below are videos showing some of the test runs for these self-driving cars...like it or not the technology now exists where science fiction has become reality.