FYI, if you have a Yahoo account, you should read this.
If you're in the Philadelphia area this weekend, you should go check out the debut appearance of DJ Kid Cuisine.
The 300 Most Common Words. Interesting. Note the difference in position between "he" and "she".
Have I mentioned that National Geographic has the most amazing photographs for your desktop wallpaper? They put up a new one everyday.
Apparently, I am now a member of The Wonder Box.
More commentary on the CBDTPA: Limit copying and we may end up copying the USSR and Bleak future looms if you don't take a stand.
The bill, called the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), prohibits the sale or distribution of nearly any kind of electronic device -- unless that device includes copy-protection standards to be set by the federal government.I must agree with Rebecca's assessment:Translation: Future MP3 players, PCs and handheld computers will no longer let you make all the copies you want.
There are only two things you need to know about this. 1 - There isn't a protection technology that cannot and will not be circumvented (sooner, not later) by other technology. 2 - This is about protecting corporate control, not about protecting the artist or the consumer.(See also: Slashdot discussion on above)
I'm off to see this movie tonight:
Rather than focusing on political events, the seven children featured in Promises offer a compelling human portrait of the Israeli & Palestinian conflict. The film draws viewers into the hearts and minds of Jerusalem’s children by giving voice to those captured by the region's hatreds as well as those able to transcend them.These seven children are between the ages of 9-13, an age group that rarely has the opportunity to speak for itself. They are less self-conscious and polite than teenagers and adults. They speak directly and without self-censorship and are both true mirrors of their cultures and spokespeople for future generations of Israelis and Palestinians.
Where Music Will Be Coming From (NY Times)
Once music is digitized, new behaviors emerge. With liquid music you have the power to reorder the sequence of tunes on an album, or among albums. To surgically morph a sound until it is suitable for a new use. To precisely extract from someone else's music a sample of notes to use oneself. To X-ray the guts of music and outline its structure, and then alter it. To substitute new lyrics. To rearrange a piece so that its parts yield a different voice. To re-engineer a piece so that it sounds better on a car woofer. To meld and marry music together into hybrid breeds. To shorten a piece, or to draw it out so that it takes twice as long to play.With digitization, music went from being a noun, to a verb, once again.
Ha! I love it! Check out the suggestion form that Hrvatski and Greg Davis will be using on their Spring Tour.
The unfinished piece that you currently hear looping on my splash page is currently being reworked, revamped, ripped apart, and reconstituted by Team Techno. This is the first remote collaboration we have done, and from what I have heard so far, it should turn out to be quite interesting. I'll keep ya posted.
"Christo & Jeanne-Claude's works are entire environments, whether they are urban or rural. The artists disrupt one part of the environment, In doing so, we see and perceive the whole environment with new eyes and a new consciousness.
"The effect is astounding. To be in the presence of one of these artworks is to have your reality rocked. You see things you have never seen before. You also get to see the fabric manifest things that cannot usually be seen like the wind blowing, or the sun reflecting in ways it had not before.
"The effect lasts longer than the actual work of art. Years after every physical trace has been removed and the materials recycled, original visitors can still see and feel them in their minds when they return to the sites of the artworks.
"There is no other way to describe that the feeling of that effect other than to say it is magical."
(from the website FAQ)
Soundbug turns flat surfaces into speakers
It may be more famous for making typewriters, but Olympia has just revealed what some observers are calling one of the sexiest gadgets of this year's CeBIT -- a small device that can turn pretty much any flat surface into a soundboard.The Soundbug can be plugged into the headphone socket of, for example, an MP3 player or a walkman, and then fixed by suction to the flat surface -- effectively turning a desk or window into a speaker.
Wow. They finally found the Afghan refugee girl.
Hee! :) Caterina on skiing and fun and life.
U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms
The Bush administration has directed the military to prepare contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries and to build smaller nuclear weapons for use in certain battlefield situations, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.This is so depressing. Sometimes I want to shut myself off from all news and media and just pay attention to the real world around me. The local stuff. What is going on that is affecting my environment? I think if everyone did this -- if everyone just took care of their own locality -- the world would be a much better place. Listening to the world news just makes you feel overwhelmed and powerless... and you end up doing nothing. (Or feeling like a spectator, standing outside of it all.)
Of course, in a situation like this one, the local approach doesn't help much. What is one to do? Does all of the talking we do, all of these words, really make any difference? Maybe it does... Spreading ideas and awareness.
But, what good is awareness without action? And, what action is to be taken? And, how do you balance these global concerns with your day-to-day personal concerns without going nuts? It just seems like too much to take on.
Sometimes I yearn for the bliss of ignorance.
You may have noticed a little music on the splash page (if you're Flash enabled, that is). It's from an unreleased, unfinished piece (one that I will hopefully get back to some day).
From now on, this will probably be a regular thing. I'll try to update it fairly often with new (or old) material.
Ancient Domesday Book outlives electronic version
An electronic version of the Domesday Book compiled in 1986 is now unreadable.The computers needed to read the discs of the £2.5 million BBC Domesday Project are now obsolete.
While the original Domesday Book compiled in 1086 is in fine condition in the Public Record Office, Kew.
"The IBM glass engine enables deep navigation of the music of Philip Glass. Personal interests, associations, and impulses guide the listener through an expanding selection of over sixty Glass works." Wow... This thing is neat. I'd love to develop something like this for my music.
Two tracks from the upcoming Team Techno album are now available for download. Check it out. These are a couple of my favorites.
Another new tune for your listening pleasure: Bells of Khyber Pass. Those of you who made it to the recent Team Techno show in Philadelphia will recognize this one.
I just uploaded a very special William Fields remix of Astronaut Lost's "Final Wishes of a Dying Opinion". It should eventually come out on a remix compilation from Little Fury Things Records (their site is temporarily down).
Scientists investigating the effect of the meditative state on Buddhist monk's brains have found that portions of the organ previously active become quiet, whilst pacified areas become stimulated.
"If life becomes hard to bear we think of a change in our circumstances. But the most important and effective change, a change in our own attitude, hardly even occurs to us, and the resolution to take such a step is very difficult for us."
--Ludwig Wittgenstein
(found @ synthetic zero)