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Embedded Tour Stop with Black Lips

<a href="http://i2.crtcdn.net/swf/current/veep-cv1265412912.swf#contentId=91808388&externalContext=embed&context=mrss&modeView=chrome" title="play video"><img src="http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/epg/null/TourStop-BlackLips/1_260x195.jpg" height="195" width="260"/></a>
 
We join Black Lips, the bad boys of Atlanta garage rock whose wild shows in India led to the band fleeing the country to avoid arrest. In Southern California, they storm a skate park, sign CDs and perform at an independent record store, and revel in exploiting their big celebrity endorsement: appearing on a soda cup at Wahoo Fish Tacos. The band performs "Bad Kids," "I'll Be With You" and "Short Fuse" off their album "Good Bad Not Evil."

At every Tour Stop, we follow road-weary musicians as they break free from the confines of buses, hotel rooms and stages. Come along with us on the band's day off.

Current Music Presents: Embedded puts you on the ground and behind the scenes with unrivaled access to your favorite musicians. We've traveled the world, going beyond performances to bring you the most intimate and unfiltered moments in artists' lives. When others stop the cameras, we capture the real story of today's top musicians.

Watch more at <a href="http://current.com/tourstop">http://current.com/tourstop</a> and <a href="http://current.com/embedded">http://current.com/embedded</a>.

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From: CurrentTV - Date: Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:23:41 +0000

Super Bowl ads show depressed men

<a href="http://current.com/items/92095757_super-bowl-ads-show-depressed-men.htm?xid=RSSfeed" title="view item page"><img src="http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/903/376/46/ig3146_260x195.jpg" height="195" width="260"/></a>
 
Super Bowl advertisers know the aphorism: "I'm just watching it for the commercials" so they premiere their most entertaining commercials. Those ad slots are expensive, so every aspect is calculated. Research has gone into finding out what consumers will relate to. Jezebel catalogued some of those commercials that portray "pathetic men."
 
The most provocative commercial was for The Dodge Charger.
 

 
On-screen we see the stoic faces of four dejected men. An assertive male voice lists a series of requests he has acquiesced to.
 

"I will eat some fruit as part of my breakfast."
"I will say yes when you want me to say yes."
"I will listen to your opinion of my friends."
"I will carry your lip balm"
"I will watch your vampire TV shows with you."

 
Finally he says: "Because I do this, I will drive the car I want to drive." We hear the vrooming of an engine, and we see the all new 2010 Dodge Charger racing down the highway, with the text and voiceover: "MAN'S LAST STAND."
 
This is the most depressing commercial I've ever seen. The ad portrays men as victims to their wives. A dystopian view that men have been emasculated by feminism. This ad suggests that the only we can reclaim masculinity is to purchase a fast car. I don't think the advertisers are intentional sexists, trying to exclusively portray their view of women. They've researched this and are targeting a dissatisfied demographic of passive-aggressive men, who are in codependent relationships. Men who feel they can't be "men" because they can't do what they want to.
 
This suffocating version of pathetic masculinity cannot simply be fixed through commodity fetishism. Buying a car, only distracts from perpetual disappointment. Nor can things get better for men if they revert to a patriarchal Archie Bunker version of masculinity correct themes.
 
This fundamental depression, is complicated and there is no easy way to resolve it.
 
Ironically while we're waiting for a solution, we can distract ourselves from this sadness, by watching hilarious commercials.
 
infoMania's Conor Knighton says this is his favorite Super Bowl ad. Stay tuned for this week's episode where they'll cover Super Bowl commercials in a much funnier way.
 

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From: CurrentTV - Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:13:40 +0000

Attacking the king of the ocean: The sharks that can't fight back

<a href="http://current.com/items/92095776_attacking-the-king-of-the-ocean-the-sharks-that-cant-fight-back.htm?xid=RSSfeed" title="view item page"><img src="http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/903/376/00/AT2950_260x195.jpg" height="195" width="260"/></a>
 
On my first open water dive in Hawaii I swam near a shark. Even though it demonstrated nothing but shy and skiddish behavior I couldn’t get that d#!# Jaws theme music out of my head. And for good reason, when most people hear the word shark, they think about the Great White shark, the king of the oceans, the top predator on the planet.

While attending the Ocean Film Festival this weekend I watched Requiem (while the film was too long and required patience to endure inexperienced filmmaking), it was worth it to see the awesome underwater footage as the filmmaker followed an underwater photographer from Hawaii as she familiarized herself with with the beauty, power and skills of one of the most infamous classification of sharks – the REQUIEM Family.

The film was filled with plenty of staggering facts such as three sharks are killed every second, 1 million are killed a year, and a myriad of fun comparison stats that compared shark attacks to the regular hazards on living on land such as in 1991 there were 1,300 deaths by bicycles and 4 deaths by sharks. The most staggering information was that many sharks are caught only to have their fins removed and then thrown back in the water and that while there is 350 or so species of sharks, 79 are imperiled.

Why should we care about these giants in the ocean that most of us will never come in contact with? Well…because they are what is considered a “keystone species“, in other words, they have a major influence on their entire environment. At the sustainable seafood pannel the following example was provided to illustrate the role and influence of sharks in the ecosystem: when the sharks disappear, there is an abundance of weak and diseased fish, which then influences the rate of the algae, which in turn influences the amount of oxygen in the water, which then influences the ability for all species in the area to survive. So in other words, if you want to keep eating your salmon and halibut, you might want to consider making sure that we don’t kill off all of the sharks.

How can you engage?

1. Learn more at wildaid, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Adopt A Shark, or the Shark Foundation.

2. Help get the information out to countries who are affected by the actions of their government but might not have access to the information (hello Twitter. We got a small thrill when one of our tweets about sea horse annihilation was translated and retweeted in Japanese, given that at the sustainable seafood panel one of the speakers stated that they did not have an education system in place to inform the Japanese population about the effects of the Japanese government policies).

3. Contact your local seafood restaurants and educate them about the dangers of shark fin soup. I felt a little nieve and shocked to find out that they serve shark fin soup right here in San Francisco (and if you want to get really crazy, start a campaign that educates the consumers at the restaurant about the dangers of shark fin soup).

Number of sharks that died while you read this post: approx 120

If you want to see more shark videos: check the blog post: <a href="http://blogs.current.com/green/2010/02/08/attacking-the-king-of-the-ocean-the-sharks-that-cant-fight-back-video/">http://blogs.current.com/green/2010/02/08/attacking-the-king-of-the-ocean-the-sh...</a>

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From: CurrentTV - Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:18:08 +0000

Michael Jackson's doctor charged with manslaughter

<a href="http://current.com/items/92095647_michael-jacksons-doctor-charged-with-manslaughter.htm?xid=RSSfeed" title="view item page"><img src="http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/903/375/54/u16253_260x195.jpg" height="195" width="260"/></a>
 
Dr. Conrad Murray could face up to four years in prison if he's convicted in the pop singer's death. He plans to plead not guilty.

Read more: <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6857030.html">http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6857030.html</a>

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From: CurrentTV - Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:48:29 +0000

A new day for New Orleans: A Super Bowl and a mayor

<a href="http://current.com/items/92095327_a-new-day-for-new-orleans-a-super-bowl-and-a-mayor.htm?xid=RSSfeed" title="view item page"><img src="http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/903/374/50/c25317_260x195.jpg" height="195" width="260"/></a>
 

 
I can't say I'm much of a football fan, but I do have a powerful love of the city of New Orleans. I was born down there and my family is still spread all across southern Louisiana. When "Geaux Saints" turned into "Who Dat" it took over my Facebook wall months before the playoffs were even mentioned.
 
So I'm excited for the Crescent City's turn of fortune. Everyone seems to agree, after Katrina and after the disaster that has been post-Katrina, the city needed it.
 
But there was something else the city got this weekend that it desperately needed: a new mayor. Mitch Landrieu (brother of Senator Mary and son of former mayor Moon) won a first round mayoral contest Saturday with a dominating 66 percent of the vote. It was a change the city needed and apparently also wanted in a large majority.
 
Landrieu outlined some of his priorities in his pre-game acceptance speech including getting New Orleans closer to Washington, finding a new police chief, and addressing New Orleans' endemic violence:
Asked about the killing Friday of a 15-year-old honor student who was waiting for the school bus, Landrieu repeated his oft-repeated view that violent crime, especially against young black men at the hands of their peers, "is an American tragedy and a national shame." "It's not something that we should accept, nor is it normal, " he said. "It happens all around America, but it happens a lot in the city of New Orleans, and it's critically important that the citizens of New Orleans understand, as we have spoken to many times in the campaign, that making the streets safe so that our sons and daughters can be protected on one end, or something as simple as being able to sit on your porch again or have your child ride your bike, is very important to all of us." "So, my message to them is: I hear you, and we understand, and we're going to do something about it, " he said.
 
Congratulations New Orleans, I hope this really is a new day.

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From: CurrentTV - Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:55:10 +0000

Holder shows no interest in justifying ‘preventive detention’

<a href="http://current.com/items/92091765_holder-shows-no-interest-in-justifying-preventive-detention.htm?xid=RSSfeed" title="view item page"><img src="http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/903/361/41/D28832_260x195.jpg" height="195" width="260"/></a>
 
The five-page letter (PDF) that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder issued this week defending the decision to treat the Christmas Day bomber suspect as a criminal suspect, rather than as a wartime captive, offered new insight into the Obama administration's view of the limits of preventive detention.

The letter suggests that the administration sees virtually no legal foundation for holding terrorism suspects arrested on U.S. soil in preventive detention and has very little interest in trying to create any.

He didn't confine his reasoning to the specifics of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's case, but instead offered an overarching view of the current state of the law.

"Some have argued that had Abdulmutallab been declared an enemy combatant, the government could have held him indefinitely without providing him access to an attorney," Holder wrote. "But the government's legal authority to do so is far from clear."

Holder suggested that the administration would need to see a "court-approved system" for domestic military detentions to conclude that it did have the authority.

<a href="http://rawstory.com/2010/02/holder-shows-interest-justifying-preventive-detention/">http://rawstory.com/2010/02/holder-shows-interest-justifying-preventive-detentio...</a>

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From: CurrentTV - Date: Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:06:57 +0000