Psy is a Korean singer. His songs and videos are meant for Korea as they are cultural critiques on the society. He’s been critiquing and lampooning Korean society and celebrities since 2001 when he was fined by the South Korean gov’t for “inappropriate content” on his debut album. He’s been controversial in Korea similar to Eminem in the States. Psy’s only international fame came from (arguably mainly the video of) Gangnam Style.

Psy’s new Korean song and video, “Gentleman”, appears to be a critique of the male-dominated Confucian society that exists in South Korea today. As a Westerner you probably understand what the male-dominated part means, but the Confucian might be new. Basically Confucianism as practiced in Korea (no it’s not a religion) culturally requires a strict adherence to obeying your elders. Even a 1 year difference requires more formal language. In the famous lyric “Oppa Gangnam-style”, “oppa” is the term used by a woman referring to any male slightly older than her.

In the beginning of “Gentleman”, notice Psy’s entourage – all old men. Why not sexy women? Because old men are funny? Well kinda, but there’s more to it. The old men look like they could be butlers, which makes since in Western society (think Alfred from Batman). But in Korea, you will never see an older man acting in an inferior position to a younger person. This scene alone will make Koreans awkwardly laugh seeing old men carrying clothes for the clearly younger Psy. Huge cultural faux-pas.

The opening scene also sets the stage for the mindset of the rest of the video. The “gentlemen” are the older men (or men in general) in Korean society. They are rude and inconsiderate towards others because they are men and older, aka in a male-dominated Confucian society (watch this video humorously explaining sexism in Korea).

Now, for those of you unfamiliar with Korean culture, no, obviously men don’t pull the chairs out from women and give them the stink-fist in libraries. And that’s the point Psy is making. What’s so different from not letting women smoke in public, talking down to people younger than you, not waiting in lines, pushing to be first on or off an elevator, and all of the humorous incivilities in the video? They’re all incivil and rude.

As a Westerner living in Korea, I appreciate Psy’s efforts to change the course of his society through humor and music. I won’t argue his talents as a musician, singer, or dancer but I will commend him on his willingness to take chances to make change through ridiculous humor.

Psy is dead. Long live Psy.

We install solar systems for free, and we sell the electricity at a lower rate than you can buy it from the utility. So given the option of paying more for dirty power or paying less for clean power, what would you take?

smarterplanet:

 Space-based solar farms power up | KurzweilAI

Space-based solar power (SBSP) has once again begun to attract attention with projects emerging in the US, Russia, China, India and Japan, among others. All are driven by increasing energy demands, soaring oil and gas prices, a desire to find clean alternatives to fossil fuels and by a burgeoning commercial space industry that promises to lower the cost of entry into space and spur on a host of new industries, says BBC Future.

Space-solar-power pioneer John Mankins, CTO of Deep Space Industries, is the man behind a project called SPS-Alpha, which aims to assemble a huge bell-shaped structure that will use mirrors to concentrate energy from the sun onto solar panels. The collected energy would then be beamed down to ground stations on Earth using microwaves, providing unlimited, clean energy and overnight reducing our reliance on polluting fossil fuels.

The snag? It is unproven technology and he estimates it will take at least $15–$20 billion. .

However, a  2011 report by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) found that SBSP could be commercially viable within 30 years, driven in part by the rise of private space companies.

UTEC – Potable Water Generator (by MAYOPERUDraftFCB)

nasdaq:

We can’t stop watching this. Check out this preview video for the Google Glass wearable headset, and read more about it here!

 

ideasatrandom:

Code.org – “What most schools don’t teach”