02011-01-12 | Uncategorized
from the Upaya Newsletter:
If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance for you to contribute to making a better world. That’s your choice.
– Noam Chomsky
A Twain Scholar Reacts to the New, Censored Version ‘Huckleberry Finn’ (WSJ)
How to look younger without plastic surgery
Here is another quote (thanks SM):
If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders. So maybe it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here. Like… the public.
— George Carlin
Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Ariel Emanuel, “A Conversation with Ariel Emanuel” (YouTube)
The first comment starts with Piracy will NEVER be stopped.. We stopped smallpox, but we can’t stop piracy?
02011-01-09 | Uncategorized
I don’t read any political blogs and mostly stay away from reading newspapers (never paper and only occasionally online). So it was while reading a tech blog that I came across this.
A congress person is killed
after one person paints a target on them
and another person held shooting campaign events to “get on target” with that person.
I think every politician or media pundit who doesn’t strongly distance themselves from events like these needs to be voted out of the office, or in case of the media pundits ostracized.
Using target signs and that kind of language in combination with violent video games and a struggling education system is a recipe for disaster. And for a nine year old child to lose her life in the assassination of a politician… if that does not wake people up to the kind of sick political “discourse” that’s happening in the USA, then what will? Debate – yes, absolutely. Arguing, even yelling, sure that’s also part of it. Using targets and murderous language in public is not. I mean how can we create stronger bullying laws for schools and then allow this to happen?
Makes me sick.
02011-01-08 | Uncategorized
Why the N-word matters.
Well said.
Why all the dead animals? (Marginal Revolution)
J.G.Ballard quote on art and reality:
Art exists because reality is neither real nor significant.
– J.G. Ballard
(Via Home of the Vain)
There, let that roll around your mind for a few hours, days, years… Good one, Ballard!
Very good article in the L.A. Times regarding organic farming and sulfites in wine. A must read for winos:
Why isn’t more wine ‘organic’? – Los Angeles Times
Currently for a wine to be labeled ” USDA Organic” — a coveted seal of approval for most foods — it must have no added sulfites. However, most winemakers feel that sulfites are crucial in winemaking — they discourage spoilage and preserve fresh fruit flavors. Unlike most organic products, wine may sit for years before being opened. Furthermore, most wines contain some level of sulfites anyway since they are a naturally occurring byproduct of fermentation.
Our ancestors had only one thing on their mind:
BBC News – Ancient humans, dubbed ‘Denisovans’, interbred with us
Scientists say an entirely separate type of human identified from bones in Siberia co-existed and interbred with our own species.
From the Guardian – about making a new start in 2011:
Abandon resolutions. Stop looking for a soulmate. Reject positive thinking.
A Canadian study suggested positive affirmations – such as “I am a lovable person!” – actually have a negative effect on the moods of people with low self-esteem, who you might have thought would benefit from them the most.
Abandon resolutions. Check.
Stop looking for a soulmate. Check.
Reject positive thinking. Let’s modify that one to “reject affirmations”. Check. When I read the article I remembered Stuart Smalley! I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and dog-gone it, people like me.
I have to go to Havana! Check out this photo.
This relates to my comment from a couple of days ago:
Breaking Down the DNA of a Hit Song – Speakeasy – WSJ
But some in the music business believe that important clues are buried in the data, gleanings that just might help songwriters engineer hits of their own. Jay Frank is a senior vice president of music strategy for CMT, the country music channel, but he has a side business as a songcraft wonk. His recent book “Future Hit. DNA” mapped out shifts wrought by the digital age and offered songwriters advice on everything from tempos to titles that might make their tunes more bankable.
…advice on everything from tempos to titles that might make their tunes more bankable.
Phooey! Stop looking at the cussing data and make music! If I wanted to play with data I could work in a more lucrative field. I want to make music and if we are in it for the music, the data is absolutely of no interest.
02011-01-06 | Uncategorized
Nikola Tamindzic on Tumblr. | There will be blood
There will be NO free downloads, there will be NO bonus tracks, there will be NO remixes, there will be NO hidden footage, there will be NO additional content, there will be NO corporate partners, there will be NO fashion lines, there will be NO tabloid pictures, there will be NO £25 unit cost, there will be NO street team, there will be NO Myspace, there will be NO celeb producer, there will be NO Twitter, there will be NO press/blogger gig, there will be NO acoustic session, there will be NO meet and greet, there will be NO edited version, there will be NO iTunes only, there will be NO press launch, there will be NO Asian version, there will be NO radio friendly.
— Geoff Barrow, hinting at Portishead’s new record
That sounds like a manifesto, doesn’t it? It reminds Jon of “The revolution will not be televised”, Gil Scott-Heron‘s great rap.
The frost covered eyelashes of a horse (photo)
47th annual New Year calligraphy contest in Tokyo (photo)
02011-01-05 | Uncategorized
Cold days. I am working on mixes in the studio. Nine are nearly finished, with four still to go. I expect to have good, if not perfect, mixes of all tracks before we leave for Florida this month.
Also working on a setlist for January and March – which might possibly become the setlist for the rest of the year. A look to the past – bringing back “Passing Storm” and “Turkish Night” for example – and forward.
Linkdrop:
It’s a question of resolution. Do we want the 8 bit black and white version or 64 bit with millions of colors. Higher resolution = greater bio diversity.
Marginal Revolution: *The World in 2050*
No doubt we humans will survive anything, even if polar bears and Arctic cod do not. Perhaps we could support nine hundred billion if we choose a world with no large animals, pod apartments, genetically engineered to algae to eat, and desalinized toilet water to drink. Or perhaps nine hundred million if we choose a wilder planet, generously restocked with the creatures of our design. To be, the more important question is not of capacity but of desire: What kind of world do we want?
Undercity Video (Vimeo)
Undercity covered by the NYT
Undercity website
Looking for miracles in odd places (photo)
Photographs of the partial solar eclipse (photos)
Mochi, the silent killer (Wallstreet Journal)
Outlawed, Cellphones Are Thriving in Prisons
Interesting point: cellphone jamming versus managed access.
Detroit in photographs
