via Breitbart
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, April 6 /PRNewswire/ — Previous seasons of COMEDY CENTRAL’s Emmy and Peabody Award-winning animated series “South Park” along with hit Nickelodeon shows like “iCarly” and “SpongeBob SquarePants” have joined the thousands of movies and TV episodes that Netflix subscribers can watch instantly on their computers and TVs.
The agreement was announced today by Netflix, Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, MTV Networks (MTVN), a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA.A and VIA.B), and South Park Digital Studios LLC, the joint venture between “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and COMEDY CENTRAL.
Comic geniuses Parker and Stone are the creative forces behind “South Park,” which features the misadventures of four foul-mouthed, troublemaking young boys in a small town nestled in the Colorado Rockies. The first nine seasons of “South Park” – 139 episodes in all – are now available to be instantly streamed from Netflix. Read more…
via Breitbart
The creators of the Child-robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, say it’s slowly developing social skills by interacting with humans and watching their facial expressions, mimicking a mother-baby relationship. 
A bald, child-like creature dangles its legs from a chair as its shoulders rise and fall with rythmic breathing and its black eyes follow movements across the room.
It’s not human — but it is paying attention.
Below the soft silicon skin of one of Japan’s most sophisticated robots, processors record and evaluate information. The 130-cm (four-foot, four-inch) humanoid is designed to learn just like a human infant.
“Babies and infants have very, very limited programmes. But they have room to learn more,” said Osaka University professor Minoru Asada, as his team’s 33 kilogram (73 pound) invention kept its eyes glued to him.
The team is trying to teach the pint-sized android to think like a baby who evaluates its mother’s countless facial expressions and “clusters” them into basic categories, such as happiness and sadness.
Asada’s project brings together robotics engineers, brain specialists, psychologists and other experts, and is supported by the state-funded Japan Science and Technology Agency. Read more…
HIPHOPHOPNEWS24-7.COM REPORT: Check out the final round of the 2009 NCAA Slam Dunk Contest highlighted by Charlie Coley III dunking over celebrity judge Jalen Rose.
via Google
NEWPORT NEWS, Virginia (AFP) — Disgraced American football star Michael Vick has a job as a construction worker awaiting him when he leaves prison, his lawyer told a bankruptcy court on Thursday.
The former Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who is serving a 23-month federal prison sentence for financing a dogfighting ring, appeared in court to outline his plans to emerge from his financial woes, a plan that includes an eventual return to the National Football League.
Lawer Michael Blumenthal told US Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro that Vick, once the highest-paid player in the NFL, is “going to change the way he lives his life.”
Vick is scheduled to be released from custody in July. He could be sent to home confinement as early as May.
Once he is released, Blumenthal said, Vick plans to work 40 hours a week for a construction company. Read more…
One stallion promoting another. We likes!
source: TLF
via RadarOnline
Chris Brown is going to plead not guilty to two felony charges Monday, RadarOnline.com has learned exclusively.
Chris is scheduled for arraignment in connection with the alleged beating of his girlfriend Rihanna and sources close to the case say that while he wants to resolve the situation he will plead not guilty.
Brown is due in court on April 6 for an arraignment hearing regarding his two felony accounts- assault and making criminal threats- stemming from his alleged beating of Rihanna.
Brown’s attorney Mark Geragos, did not return calls for comment.
The couple seemed to reconcile in late February, reuniting on a trip to Miami. In recent weeks however, the two have been taking a break from one another and have retreated to their separate corners: Brown to his home state of Virginia and Rihanna to her native country Barbados. There has been speculation about Rihanna’s willingness to testify against Brown.
via Politico
As he prepared to take a job in the White House at the end of last year, David Axelrod sold the political consulting firm that helped elect President Barack Obama for $2 million to a group of consultants who helped steer Obama’s campaign. 
According to a disclosure form released Friday evening by the White House, the firm, AKP&D Message & Media, paid him $897,000 last year, when it had basically turned itself into an arm of the Obama campaign, which paid the company $2.5 million.
The disclosure indicates that Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe — the “P” in AKP&D and still an influential political consultant for Obama and the Democratic National Committee — was not among the buyers, though he’ll remain a senior adviser to the firm.
Instead, Axelrod reported the new owner is a “newly formed S corporation” owned by Obama campaign vets John Kupper, John Del Cecato and Larry Grisolano. Read more…
VIOLATOR MANAGEMENT’S C.E.O. Chris Lighty is very pleased to announce the signing of a breakthrough entertainment project for music industry pioneer Kool DJ Red Alert. DJ Red Alert will be the central figure in an unparalleled new cross-platform production developed by Antony van Zyl, which integrates a filmed reality show format with a web based social network, a virtual world platform, and mobile applications.
“This is a new beginning of globalization for media entertainment, designed to reach out to individuals around the world – not just demographics” said Executive Producer Antony van Zyl. Kool DJ Red Alert, always a pioneer, added “This is why I love what I do as I go to the next level.”
The contest is to find “The Planet’s Best DJ”, and will feature a wide range of styles, from Hip-Hop, to Techno/Trance, House/Electro to Reggae, Salsa to Swing, reflecting the global popularity of the DJ movement.Starting on the social network (http://www.planetsbestdj.com), contestants, hosts, and fans can submit videos, develop support groups and get in the mix through the site where DJ Red Alert and others will select the semifinalist’s right from the site. Read more…
The new single from The Lonely Island’s debut album “INCREDIBAD” In stores now! Featuring Seth Rogen. The Lonely Island is Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Tac…
The heated-up domestic box office just got even hotter… The lesson is that Hollywood should never underestimate moviegoers’ tolerance for retread material. Even Universal knew when they announced a 4th installment of their worn-out street racing franchise that everyone else would say there was no life left. But they got the original 2001 cast together and made a true sequel that picks up the Fast & Furious story where it left off in The Fast And The Furious. (“New Model… Original Parts”.)
The result was a jaw-dropping $30 million haul Friday and $24.6 million Saturday (only -19%) jaw-dropping from 3,461 theaters for an unexpectedly humongous opening weekend of $71M. (Which now includes the Thursday midnight showings of $1.8M.) That’s a whopping 1/3 more than the studio thought possible, and now the biggest April opening ever by a mile (previous best was Anger Management‘s $42M in 2003). This just doesn’t happen like this, folks, even with a great marketing and distribution campaign supervised by Adam Fogelson: Hollywood is in total shock tonight. Read more…
This is what set it off for me and as they say..the rest was history!!
With all the attempts rappers have made to integrate rock into their thing none of them came off as seamless as this. Imitated but never duplicated. R.I.P. JMJ and shout out to Hott Trackz and Video Music Box for keeping my visuals FRESH in my early years. Hip Hop saved my life.
via Nahright
Run-DMC’s acceptance speech“Jam Master Jay’s mother, who’s here, and RIP to JMJ. Mrs. Mizell, she let us create routines in her living room. She’d come home from work and we’d be there with the turntables and she never once told us ‘turn the music down’. She never said we couldn’t be there. We made the music there. I came up with the rhymes for Rock Box in JMJ’s house. And I would like to thank you Mrs. Mizell for not ‘turning the music down’ or we wouldn’t be here.”
via BBC
North Korea has defied international warnings and gone ahead with a controversial rocket launch.
State media said North Korea had succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit after the 0230GMT launch.
There has been no independent confirmation so far. North Korea’s neighbours suspect the launch was a cover for a long-range missile test.
They strongly condemned the launch. The US president told Pyongyang to “refrain from further provocative actions”.
North Korea had “ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint, and further isolated itself from the community of nations”, Barack Obama said in a written statement.
Japan called the move “extremely regrettable”, while South Korea said it constituted a clear breach of a United Nations resolution.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said North Korea’s actions were not conducive to regional stability, as did the European Union. China and Russia both called on all sides to act with restraint. Read more…
Well, it seems like the people at SWAY studios weren’t too pleased about Air Yeezy taking all the credit for their work. So, they made a video of his 3D doppelganger displaying its sense of rhythmic style and unique masculinity, all while dancing to Taco’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”
source: The Rap Up
via TMZ
Flesh-n-Bone, from rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, was arrested yesterday evening in Santa Clarita, Calif. for gun and marijuana possession
Police say they discovered a gun in Flesh-n-Bone’s car, real name Stanley Howse, and took him into custody. According to the sheriff’s website, he is being held without bail and is currently still in the slammer.
He is due in court on Monday.
A rep for Bone Thugs-n-Harmony has released the following statement: “At this time all the facts have not been revealed publicly, however I can assure you 100% that Mr. Howse has not walked backwards! We live in a great American country where one is innocent until proven guilty.”
Who won?
source: hiptics
via Hiptics
Remember Chia Pets? Well, it looks like the latest Chia is based around our 44th President although I’m not sure if it’s affiliated with the original Chia company. Ridiculous products like keep hitting the market as retailers learn that Barack Obama merchandise equals big money. Is a poorly crafted Obama facial mold with a growable green afro taking it too far? Leave a comment with your reaction.
If you think it’s worth $20, click here to buy it on Amazon. Click here to see the official “Chia Obama” site.
via NiceKicks
Nothing is more annoying than to have a fresh pair of kicks without a match. Since the Nike Air Yeezy is easily the most anticipated sneaker of the year, Nice Kicks has relaunched our line of self branded T-shirts with a match to the first Yeezys.
The medium silver hooks to the grey upper and the orange Nice Kicks logo is a direct match with the sock liner.
A limited number are available now in the Nice Kicks shop for $20 with free shipping.
via Engadget
The problem with Sony’s previous world’s smallest pistol-grip Full HD camcorder — the HDR-TG1 aka, the TG3E — wasn’t size, it was usability. So we’re happy to hear that Sony’s TG5 counts a tweaked UI among its updates. And although Sony doesn’t say in the press release, the TG5′s touch-panel looks far more sensitive (capacitive maybe?) than that of the previous generation’s finger bender.
The other improvements are GPS to geotag your media (assuming your software supports it), Navteq maps, improved image processing, smile shutter technology, and 16GB of built-in storage (up from 8GB) all riding inside a slightly smaller and lighter chassis. Other specs remain unchanged: 1920 x 1080 AVCHD video, 2.7-inch touchscreen display, and a 10x optically stabilized zoom exposing a 2.4 megapixel CMOS sensor. Expensive? Oh most definitely: $1,000 starting in May. Check the video after the break.
seen it first @ TheLifeFiles
Here goes the trailer to the upcoming mini shot by Rik Cordero for Ricky Ross’ third installment “Deeper Than Rap”
Mr. Giles shoots the sh*t about why he will forever be Dipset and even extends an eternal membership card to Jim & Juelz. He also clarifies his position on the many lyrical squabbles he’s found himself entangled in.
via Google
TOKYO (AP) — Japan hopes to have a two-legged robot walk on the moon by around 2020, with a joint mission involving astronauts and robots to follow, according to a plan laid out Friday by a government group.
Specifics of the plan, including what new technologies will be required and the size of the project’s budget, are to be decided within the next two years, according to Japan’s Strategic Headquarters for Space Development, a Cabinet-level working group.
Development of a lunar robot is part of a broad framework outlined by the group, which is charged with plotting a new course for Japan’s space strategy. As a next step, joint exploration of the moon involving robots and astronauts will be considered.
The framework is to be finalized late next month, after the public has a chance to comment on the proposals.
The group also recommended promoting research into military satellites, such as an early warning system for detecting ballistic missile launches and systems to detect and analyze radio waves sent in space.
Other recommendations by the group include using space research as a tool to foster diplomacy with other countries and developing an advanced satellite to predict and monitor natural disasters.
The Strategic Headquarters was established last year by a law passed to advance Japan’s space technology and exploration. It allows the country, which has a largely peaceful constitution, to use space for military defense.
Friday’s proposal was released as North Korea was completing preparations to launch a multistage rocket over Japan. The communist country says it will send a communications satellite into orbit, but Tokyo suspects the North, which has acknowledged it has nuclear weapons, is actually testing long-range missile technology. Read more…
via AlterNet
On the campaign trail, Barack Obama’s advisers said he “can’t rule out [and] won’t rule out” using mercenary forces, like Blackwater. Now, it appears that the Obama administration has decided on its hired guns of choice: Triple Canopy, a Chicago company now based in Virginia. It may not have Blackwater’s thuggish reputation, but Triple Canopy has its own bloody history in Iraq and a record of hiring mercenaries from countries with atrocious human rights records. What’s more, Obama is not just using the company in Iraq, but also as a U.S.-government funded private security force in Israel/Palestine, operating out of Jerusalem.
Beginning May 7th, Triple Canopy will officially take over Xe/Blackwater’s mega-contract with the U.S. State Department for guarding occupation officials in Iraq. It’s sure to be a lucrative deal: Obama’s Iraq plan will inevitably rely on an increased use of private contractors, including an army of mercenaries to protect his surge of diplomats operating out of the monstrous U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
The Iraq contract may come as no surprise. But according to federal contract records obtained by AlterNet, the Obama administration has also paid Triple Canopy millions of dollars to provide “security services” in Israel. In February and March, the Obama administration awarded a “delivery order” to Triple Canopy worth $5.5 million under State Department contract SAQMPD05F5528, which is labeled “PROTECTIVE SERVICES–ISRAEL.” According to one government document, the contract is scheduled to run until September 2012. (Another document says September 2009.) The contract is classified as “SECURITY GUARDS AND PATROL SERVICES” in Israel. The total value of the contract was listed at $41,556,969.72. According to a January 2009 State Department document obtained by AlterNet labeled “Sensitive But Unclassified,” the Triple Canopy contract is based out of Jerusalem. Read more…
via CNN
(CNN) — Attention, single dudes: Women want you to make them laugh.
According to new research, women rate funny guys as more intelligent than guys who are not so funny. The research was presented this week at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton, England.
“Over the course of history, women actively look for signs that their man is intelligent, and I believe the ability to actively judge the situation and pull off a joke and make you laugh is an intelligent feat,” said Kristofor McCarty, a researcher at Northumbria University in Newcastle, England, and author of the study, in an e-mail.
McCarty’s study asked 45 heterosexual women aged 18 to 30 to rate various self-descriptions of men, some funnier than others.
He invented the fictional lives of 10 men and then created a funny and not-so-funny vignette from each of their perspectives. Then, participants read all 20 descriptions and rated them on qualities such as likeliness of friendship, likeliness of long-term relationship, honesty and intelligence.
One example the study designated as high-quality humor was this: “I was standing in a mental illness ward the other day when I heard a doctor speaking to a new nurse on the ward. He was really giving her a telling-off, and his parting words were, ‘And remember, when it’s busy, don’t go around saying it’s a madhouse,’ ” McCarty said.
By contrast, a statement low on amusement was, “I was out skiing last year when I ended up slipping all the way down the mountain.”
To set a general standard of humor, McCarty did a preliminary study to test which jokes and humorous statements were the funniest on 35 females aged 18 to 30.
Women said the men with the funniest descriptions were significantly more likely to be candidates for long-term relationships, as well as friends. Participants also rated the more amusing men as more intelligent and honest. Read more…
via Allhiphop
Today (April 3), Jay-Z’s Rocawear’s mobile “Roc Pop Shop” store will return to New York City for a special four day engagement.
Developed by David Ashen of D-ASH design, the Roc Pop Shop is a 50-foot long trailer that expands to 1000 square feet when opened.
Doubling as a “mobile lounge,” Jay-Z envisioned the vehicle to represent his lifestyle experiences, and serve to keep the premium Rocawear line visible at Jay-Z concerts and events.
The retail store on wheels specializes in offering exclusive, limited edition products and Rocawear styles at “recession proof pricing.”
From April 3-6, the Roc Pop Shop will be located at Gansevoort Square, located next to Manhattan’s Gansevoort Hotel on 18 9th Ave.
On Monday April 6, the tour finishes in Jay’s native Brooklyn at Flatbush and 6th Avenue, located across from Atlantic Yard.
At press time, Jay-Z is continuing work on his much anticipated 11th studio album Blueprint 3, now tentatively set for release in September.
via Rolling Stone
How does arguably the greatest rapper on Earth follow up a blockbuster like 2008’s Tha Carter III, an album that moved more than 1 million copies its debut week and solidified Lil Wayne’s place in hip-hop history? By shifting gears and attempting to conquer rock & roll. Rap’s alien genius opens up to Mark Binelli about his upcoming rock album Rebirth in a series of revealing interviews for the cover of the new issue of Rolling Stone, on newsstands this week. (Get a look at outtakes from our photo shoot.)
“The rock shit just comes from what my life is now,” Wayne, 26, says. “I’ve grown into this person.” He released his first album, 1999’s Tha Block Is Hot, when he was only 17, and built his name on being the busiest rapper in the game, dropping a relentless stream of mixtapes and cameos. (Revisit Weezy’s journey from kid MC to superstar, in photos.) But aside from plucking at electric guitars onstage and in videos, Weezy never let on that his rap career could take such a significant detour. Describing a wild night when he woke up in bed with three or four women he couldn’t name, Wayne reveals he had an epiphany. “I just got — I’m not going to say ’so good’ at what I was doing, but it became such a regularity for me that I got tired of it. And then I said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to rap on this one.’ “ Read more…
via CNN
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — Someone stole an “incomplete and early version” of the next installment in the blockbuster “X-Men” movie series and posted it on the Internet this week, according to the studio that owns the billion-dollar film franchise.
Twentieth Century Fox said the FBI was investigating who leaked “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which is set for release in U.S. theaters May 1.
The digital file quickly spread across the Internet and was available for free, but illegal, downloading from hundreds of easily found Web sites.
“The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law; the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts in the past,” the studio’s statement said.
Removing the pirated files from the Internet may prove an impossible challenge, an industry source said. This source did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter.
Although the studio said it was removed from the Web site that first hosted it, the digital file has probably been downloaded tens of thousands of times, the source said. Read more…
via Cnet
Google is in “late stage” talks to acquire microblogging service Twitter, according to a report on Thursday on TechCrunch citing two unnamed sources.
All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher, however, on Friday said the report isn’t true, also citing unnamed sources and saying the companies have only been in product-related discussions. And a TechCrunch update backpedaled a bit, citing another source who said acquisition talks were at a “fairly early stage.”
Twitter lets people post short 140-character messages; people often subscribe to follow the stream of these tweets from acquaintances and, increasingly, companies and celebrities. After an unpleasant rocky period in which the company’s servers frequently were crushed under the strain of the service, Twitter has experienced tremendous growth.
Google’s origins, core technology, and profits come from search, but Twitter would fit in neatly with the company’s somewhat lackluster attempt to become more of a social hub too. Facebook, which attempted to acquire Twitter in 2008, is the exemplar of just how rich a medium the Internet can become for social interactions. Social sites, though, have had a hard time showing they can mean revenue and profits as well. Read more…
via Business Insider
Facebook and CFO Gideon Yu did not part ways because the company needs a CFO with public company experience. A source familiar with Facebook admits that’s just spin.
We don’t know exactly why Facebook and Gideon parted ways, but after talking to several sources inside and outside the company, we believe it basically happened for a reason that contributed to several top executives — specifically including Owen Van Natta and Matt Cohler — quitting the company in the past 13 months.
Mark Zuckerberg no longer tolerates open disagreement or challenging discussion in meetings from his top lieutenants.
“There’s no dissent in meetings,” says a source. “It’s basically like we’re at GM or GE.”
It wasn’t always like that, one of the disgruntled former Facebook employees tells us:
The reason why we were good in the early days was that dissent was allowed and encouraged. That’s the reason you go to a startup. That early team was amazing.
That early team is gone. Many of its members planned to leave eventually, but not as soon as they did. We hear that Matt Cohler, for example, left “several millions” on the table when he quit Facebook to become a Benchmark Capital partner earlier than he planned to.
So what happened? A couple of explanations: Read more…
via Bloomberg
April 2 (Bloomberg) — Prada SpA’s owners may ask banks to reorganize 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of debt, freeing cash to open new stores and promote the luxury label’s brands in the recession, two people with knowledge of the plans said.
Sales at stores open at least a year fell in 2008, reducing Prada’s cash on hand, while earnings declined as fixed costs rose, the people said. The Milan-based company may ask for some debt payment deadlines to be extended, they said, asking not to be identified because the plans are confidential.
Prada, which has fewer outlets worldwide than Gucci and Louis Vuitton, may also raise its total debt level to take advantage of opportunities to expand, the people said. Prada attempted to raise funds through an initial public offering last year, which was postponed after markets slumped. The debt reorganization would be led by Prada’s main lenders, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and Unicredit SpA, the people said.
“For the luxury brands that have the financial means to expand, the recession is a good opportunity, since asset prices are so low,” said Paolo Leschiutta, a Milan-based analyst at Moody’s Investors Service. Read more…
There goes those pesky lil’ words again. Is anyone still willing to say that this is still a “conspiracy?” At this point I wonder if they’re just antagonizing the “theorists” and getting a BIG OLE laugh out of this.
Chuck D speaks on the history of hip-hop, and the difference between rap and hip-hop. This is original footage filmed by Chris Franco for Hiptics.com
source: nahright
via The Sun
The former SPICE GIRL performed some raunchy moves in just a sequined bra and G-string alongside KELLY MONACO, who like Mel, was a contestant on Dancing With The Stars.
The busty Leeds lass plays the part of leading lady Peep Diva who has been described as a “bold, sexy icon of female empowerment.”
via Engadget
We know your pain, Vuzix users. You hop on the subway just trying to enjoy a little in-your-face action before the workday begins, and within minutes the accusations and stereotypes start flying. “Look, it’s Geordi La Forge!” “LeVar Burton, what’s good?!” “Can I try my Zune on that?” Depressing, really.
Unfortunately for you, Vuzix’s latest cable will not make any of that any more sufferable, though it will enable you to use your existing eyewear with Apple’s iPhone and enjoy the spoils of side-by-side, interlaced and anaglyph 3D content. Said cable will be bundled in with the company’s iWear AV230XL, though existing customers will definitely want to snag the standalone version for $39.95. The full release is after the break.
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