Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Compression Glitch
Two videos that make my brain hurt.
Fucking It Up is the new Doing It Right.
OK OK not so new. Brilliant artists in every artistic field have been abusing their media for various reasons, with occasionally commendable results. But the video compression aspect is new. And it makes me twitch. ...which in my Funked Up way of Doing Life Right is a good thing.
Good News!
e Y8b 888 888
d8b Y8b 888 888
d888b Y8b 888 888
d888888888b 888 888
d8888888b Y8b 888 888
|
__ \ _ \ __| __| __|
| | ( |\__ \ | \__ \
.__/ \___/ ____/\__|____/
_|
_ _ _
__ __ _(_) | |
\ V V / | | |
\_/\_/|_|_|_|
/
___ ___ (___ ___
| )| )| ) | )|___)
| / |__/ |/\/ |__/ |__
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
/\__\ /\ \ /\ \ /\ \ /\ \ /\ \ /\__\
/:/\__\ /::\ \ _\:\ \ \:\ \ \:\ \ /::\ \ /:| _|_
/:/:/\__\ /::\:\__\ /\/::\__\ /::\__\ /::\__\ /::\:\__\ /::|/\__\
\::/:/ / \;:::/ / \::/\/__/ /:/\/__/ /:/\/__/ \:\:\/ / \/|::/ /
\::/ / |:\/__/ \:\__\ \/__/ \/__/ \:\/ / |:/ /
\/__/ \|__| \/__/ \/__/ \/__/
_ _
(_) _ | |
_ _ ___ _ ____ ____ _| |_| |__ _____
| | | |/___) | _ \ / _ | (_ _) _ \| ___ |
| |_| |___ | | | | ( (_| | | |_| | | | ____|
|____/(___/|_|_| |_|\___ | \__)_| |_|_____)
(_____|
__ ___ ___ _ _
( ) / _) ( _)( )( )
/o \ \_"-. | | | || |
( __ ) __) )( )_ ( )( )
/_\/_\/___/ /___\/_\/_\
_________ _____
__ ____/_____________________________ __ /______________
_ / __ _ _ \_ __ \ _ \_ ___/ __ `/ __/ __ \_ ___/
/ /_/ / / __/ / / / __/ / / /_/ // /_ / /_/ / /
\____/ \___//_/ /_/\___//_/ \__,_/ \__/ \____//_/
Friday, February 20, 2009
World Map of Album Covers
World Magazine: Album Covers Map
Pretty snazzy GMaps mashup, community fueled, and already huge. Required reference for traveling music dorks.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Flash Game: The Space Game
Another tower defense game, of sorts. Build an asteroid mining colony IN SPACE and mine each field as fast as you can, while defending your property against the enemy attackers whose... (it's not airspace, so, uh, does that make it spacespace?) ...planetary locale your energy conglomerate is invading and stripping bare. Good soundtrack, pretty engaging, cool twist; I'd give it a .83 GemCraft rating—it's about 83% as cool as GemCraft. Via
Rainydayz Remixes
Download Amplive's Rainydayz Remixes, an 8-track collection featuring remixes of Radiohead's historic seventh album, In Rainbows. The songs are available in a zip file below and feature verses courtesy of Too $hort, MC Zumbi of Zion I, Chali2na of Jurassic 5, and Del the Funky Homosapien.
After a cease & desist put the breaks on Amplive's Radiohead In Rainbows remix project, the online music community reasonably wondered if the tracks would ever see the light of day. Well, here they are.
While the Oakland producer/DJ acknowledges that he probably should have contacted Radiohead (who were not involved in the project) to seek approval prior to making his interpretations publically available, an agreement has been reached between all involved parties and Amplive has been granted permission to release Rainydayz Remixes for free to the general public. Effective immediately, the eight-track record is available here.
Rainydayz Remixes is composed exclusively of source material pulled from In Rainbows, re-envisioned by Amplive and complimented by vocal work from Too $hort, MC Zumbi of Zion I, Chali2na of Jurassic 5, Codany Holiday, and Del The Funky Homosapien.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Jim Henson's Time Piece
Dislocation in time, time signatures, time as a philosophical concept, and slavery to time are some of the themes touched upon in this nine-minute, experimental film, which was written, directed, and produced by Jim Henson-and starred Jim Henson! Screened for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, Time Piece enjoyed an eighteen-month run at one Manhattan movie theater and was nominated for an Academy Award for outstanding short subject
Oaths Used by Men of Note
1. ANGUS (earl of), when incensed, used to say, by the might of God ! but at other times his oath was By St. Bride of Douglas !
2. BAYARD (The Chevalier), By God's Holy-day !
3. CHARLES II. of England, Ods fish ! a corruption of "God's flesh."
4. CHARLESVIII. of France, By God's light !
5 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, By God and His Mother !
6. ELIZABETH, By God ! God's Death ! God's wounds ! softened afterwords into Zounds ! and Zouterkins !
7. FRANCOIS I., On the word of a gentleman !
8. HENRI IV., Ventre Saint Gris !
Ventre Saint Gris ! are you dumb, man? --- Stanley Weyman: A Minister of France (1895) ("V. The Lost Cipher").
9. HENRY II. of England, By the death of our Lord !
10. HENRY III., when he confirmed Magna Carta, On the word of a gentleman, a king, and a knight !
11. HENRY V., By'r Lady !
12. HENRY VIII. By God's wounds !
13. JAMES I., On my soul !
14. JOHN (King), By God's tooth ! By the light of our Lady's brow ! Sir W. Scott, in Ivanhoe (ch. xiii.) makes him swear, By the bones of St. Becket !
15. JOSEPH, viceroy of Egypt, By the life of Pharaoh !
16. LOUIS XI., By God's Easter ! (Pasque Dieu !) and Mother of God !
17. LOUIS XIII., The devil take me ! (Diable m'emporte!)
18. OTTO I. of Germany, By my beard !
19. PERROT (John), a natural son of Henry VIII., was the first to employ the profane oath of God's Wounds ! afterwards softened into Zounds !
20. RICHARD I. Mort de ma vie ! and Despar dieux !
21. RICHARD II., By St. John ! (i.e. the Baptist) and God of Paradise !í
22. RICHARD III., By my George and Garter !
24. SIMON DE MONTFORT, the great patriot in the reign of Henry III., By the arm of St. James !
25. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, By the splendour of God !
26. WILLIAM RUFUS, Par sante voult de Lucques ! ("By the holy face of Lucca !" or "By Lucca's holy face !"). Lucca was a gret crucifix in Lucca Cathedral.---Albert Butler: Lives of the Saints April 21), p. 494, col. I.
27. WINIFRED (St.) or Boniface, By St. Peter's tomb !
In the reign of Charles II., fancy oaths were in fashion. Eg.
28. FOPPINGTON (Lord), an empty-headed coxcomb, intent only on dress and fashion. His favourite oaths, which he brings out with a drawl (in speaking, his affectation is to change the vowel o into a, as rat, naw, resalve, waurld, ardered, mauth, paund, maunth, lang, philasapher, tarture, and so on), are : Strike me dumb ! Split my windpipe ! Strike me ugly ! Stap my vitals ! Sun, burn me ! Curse, catch me ! Stap my breath ! Let me blood ! Run me through ! Knock me down ! He is reckoned the king of all court fops.
The most common oaths of the ancient Romans were By Herculês ! (Mehercule !); Roman women, By Castor ! and both men and women, By Pollux !
Viri per Herculem, mulieres per Castorem, utrique per Pollucem, jurāre solíti.--Aulus Gellius : Noctes Atticæ, ii. 6.
NB -- In the early part of the nineteenth century, oaths were exceedingly common, both among men and women ; they were rarely heard in good society towards the close of the century.
Brewer's Readers Guide (On my shelf it says The Reader's Handbook though.)
Also: Profanity in Science Fiction (or Oaths Used by Non-Humans of Note) at Wikipedia.
Space Colony Art from the 1970s
Our Future in the Cosmos—Space
A speech given by Isaac Asimov.
Throughout the history of humanity, we have been extending our range until it is now planet-wide, covering all parts of Earth’s surface and reaching to the bottom of the ocean, to the top of the atmosphere, and beyond it to the Moon. We will flourish only as long as we continue to extend that range, and although the potential range is not infinite, it is incredibly vast even by present standards. We will eventually extend our range to cover the whole of the solar system, and then we will head outward to the stars.
It frequently happened in my business as a writer, especially in my younger days when I knew some pretty overwhelming editors, that an editor would say to me, "I have a great idea for a story." He’d slap me on the back and say, "Now go home and write it." I would always think how easy it was for him to give me an idea for a story, but it was I, not the editor, who had to sit down and look at the most terrifying of all things: a blank page. In the same way, it’s fun to be introduced and have someone tell a lot of exaggerations about me; however, then he sits down and I’m the one who has to face the audience. I must say that it helps a great deal to face an obviously friendly and intelligent audience. I have brought almost the entire Mensa organization of this region to this presentation, and, naturally, they take it personally when I talk about intelligence. I am the international president of that organization, not because of anything I have done but because of a whim of the organization.
I want to discuss our future in the cosmos. One of the things I think will mean the most to us and will make the future different from the past is the coming of a "space-centered society." We are going to expand into space, and I think it is fitting and right that we should do so. All through the 50,000 years of Homo sapiens, to say nothing of their hominoid precursors, humanity has been expanding its range of habitation. We don’t know exactly where the first Homo sapiens made their appearance, but they have been expanding until they now inhabit the entire face of the Earth. For the first time in human history, we are faced with a situation in which we literally have no place on Earth to expand. We have crossed all the mountains; we have penetrated all the oceans. We have plumbed the atmosphere to its height and the oceans to their depths. Unless we are willing to settle down into a world that is our prison, we must be ready to move beyond Earth, and I think we are ready. We have the technological capacity to do so; all that we need is the will. I think it is quite possible, starting now, to build settlements in space, to build worlds miniature in comparison to the Earth but large in comparison to anything we have done so far. These worlds, in orbit around the Earth, would be capable of holding tens of thousands of human beings.
This idea of space settlement seems odd to people; it doesn’t seem inviting. When I suggested such an idea in an article I wrote a few years ago, I received a number of letters arguing against the possibility of space settlements. The arguments weren’t based on economics; the main argument was that nobody would want to live in space. Nobody would want to leave his comfortable home on Earth. As nearly as I could tell from their addresses, all the people who wrote to me were Americans, and I presume that they knew American history. Americans should understand exactly what it means to leave their comfortable homes and to go to a completely strange world. This country was a wilderness at the beginning, and even after it was settled, it was a foreign land for most people. We in the United States are the descendants (unless any of you happen to be American Indians) of people who came here from other continents in search of something. Our forefathers, who came, at first, under harsh conditions, knew it would take them weeks to cross the ocean. They knew that if they met a serious storm, they would probably not survive. They also knew that when they landed, they would find a wilderness and possibly hostile natives. Yet, they still came. Between 1607 and 1617, 11,000 Englishmen came to the new colony of Virginia. In 1617, the population of Virginia was 1,000. How was it possible for 11,000 people to come and yet to have only a population of 1,000? The answer is easy; 10,000 died. Yet people continued to come. Why? They came because life in Europe, for many, was intolerable and because they wanted to come to a new land to start a new life. Whatever the risks, whatever the chances, if they succeeded it would be something new. It is this same desire that will drive people into space and cause them to populate as many space settlements as they can build. The chances of survival in space will probably be greater than those of the first immigrants to the colony of Virginia....
Read the rest of Isaac Asimov's speech.
More classic space colony pictures, and much, much more over at NASA's Space Settlements index.
Via
Monday, February 16, 2009
Scintillation
I recommend full-screen viewing.
A lovely video, scintillating indeed. It is difficult to decide while watching it to favor the stunning images of orchids and wall molding lit up with explosions and dancing lights or to marvel at the technique and puzzle how it was made. The description from its creator, Xavier Chassaing, is cryptic:
This is an experimental film made up of over 35,000 photographs. It combines an innovative mix of stop motion and live projection mapping techniques.
Apparently there is a 'making-of' video in the works, I look forward to seeing it.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Cross Questions and Crooked Answers
An Irish recruit about to be inspected by Frederick the Great, was told he would be asked these questions: (I) How old are you? (2) How long have you been in the service? (3) Are you content with your pay and rations? So he prepared his answers accordingly. But it so happened that the king began with the second question: "How long have you been in the service?"
Paddy glibly replied,"Twenty years."
"Why," said the king, "how old are you?"
"Six months."
"Six months!" rejoined the king; "surely either you or I must be mad!"
"Yes, both, your majesty."
¶Some Highlanders, coming to England for employ, conceived they would be asked (1) Who are you? (2) Why do you come here? and that the questioner might then say, "No, I don't want your service." Scarcely had they crossed the border than they came to the body of a man who had been murdered. They stopped to look at it, when a constable came up and said, "Who did this?"
"We three Highlanders," was the prepared answer.
"Why did you do it?" said the constable.
"For the money and the silver," was the answer they had prepared.
"You scoundrels!" said the constable, "I shall hang you for this."
"If you don't, another will," said the men, and were preparing to go away, when they were marched off to jail.
¶Another story of the same kind is told of three Sclavonians who went to Hungary, and "were taught the language in three days." Their répertoire was, however, limited to, "We three," "Cheese," and "That's the truth." Coming to a dead body lying on the road, the forestkeeper asked them, "Who has murdered the man"
"We three," was the ready answer.
"What for?" was the next question, and
"Cheese" was the reply.
"Then," said the keeper, "you will all be hanged;"
"That's the truth," responded the strangers, and were about to be handcuffed when the supposed dead man jumped up with a "Ho, ho, ho!" overjoyed at his practical joke.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
MeFi Mix #2 - A Mid-Tempo Rock Song Glut
I posted this out to 15 lucky souls around the world a few weeks ago. For it's lack of cohesiveness and relative insanity of included artists and tracks, I think it stands up fairly well. Enjoy!
A Mid-Tempo Rock Song Glut
01. Doug Sahm - Rock-Tick-Tock
02. Self - I Am a Little Explostion
03. Late of the Pier - Random Firl
04. Harvey Danger - Carlotta Valdez
05. The Walkmen - The Rat
06. Reggie & the Full Effect - Good Times, Good Tunes, Good Buds
07. Gil Mantera's Party Dream - Alligator Missions
08. Women - Sag Harbor Bridge
09. Pitty Sing - Anyway
10. Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time
11. Mink Deville - Let Me Dream If I Want To
12. Ezra Furman & the Harpoons - Take Off Your Sunglasses
13. Arif Sag - Osman Pehlivan
14. The Sea & Cake - Weekend
15. The Small Faces - I Feel Much Better
16. Nobody - Tori Oshi
17. The Mooney Suzuki - The Broken Heart
18. Prince - Crimson & Clover
19. Mount Eerie & Julie Dorion - Lost Wisdom
20. Lambchop - Your Fucking Sunny Day
21. The Jazz Butcher - Mr. Odd
22. Headset - Breath Contrails
23. Sixto Rodriguez - Crucify Your Mind
24. Danielson - Five Stars & Two Thumbs Up
The cover image is a very small part of a Turing Machine built in John Conway's Game of Life. Instead a track list in the liner notes, I included a long rant/thoughts that follows the mix through each of the tracks. It's in tiny print, but the full-size image (click for) is easily (un)readable:
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