Fail to Reject

The Cephalopod and I

2008-08-25T08:45:00.001-05:00

Silently the cephalopod
somehow started shuddering
as something somewhere suffering
screamed out from someones sin.

And strangely, when I saw the sin
I also started struggling so,
to stifle my sensation
of a strangling sort of sound.

I, descending south and circling, seeking,
Swam to save the screaming something.
I searched, the sound was sickening;
Uncertain, stopped I, listening.

The source I sought. The cephalopod,
still shaking, swerved and suddenly
just stopped and swooned, I ascertained
The sound had ceased. I sobbed.

Sadly, solemnly, the squid and I,
together, side by side, swam home.

Envy Code R

2008-05-27T16:33:00.003-05:00

I started using this new font (Envy Code R) for programming because it is so awesomely good.

Horizon

2008-03-14T10:23:00.001-05:00

I look up beyond the horizon,
I see not another world
I see not the foibles of my past,
But, I see the future,
full of brightness and hope,
And joy that will last.

Pic from the trip home.

2007-07-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

We drove to Utah to visit my parents.

Eva navigated on the way home. (We got home safely.)

Seeking an alternate universe

2007-04-06T07:16:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I think about the world we live in and wonder if there is an alternate universe similar to ours but with a few changes.

I dislike that in our universe there are people who fight about religion.
I dislike that in our universe there are people who are more driven by money than by forging families or protecting the environment.
I dislike that in our universe so many animals have to suffer by humans.
I dislike that in our universe smoking ever became popular.
I dislike that in our universe people can't get along based on things like the color of your skin.
I dislike that in our universe there are people who kidnap and/or molest children.
I dislike that in our universe teachers are paid so little money and recognition.
I dislike that in our universe Michael Jackson felt he had to change his face.
I dislike that in our universe people quibble and fight about who "owns" land.
I dislike that in our universe there are so many pointless lawsuits.
I dislike that in our universe the one software company who has a monopoly produces such junk.
I dislike that in our universe interest rates are so high.
I dislike that in our universe people kill other people.
I dislike that in our universe there are democrats and republicans.
I dislike that in our universe not everybody votes.
I dislike that in our universe women were ever called "the weaker sex" by men. Ughhh.
I dislike that in our universe there are people like Hitler.
I dislike that in our universe there are people who think it is a good idea to create computer viruses and send out worthless emails (junk email known as "spam").
I dislike that in our universe professional sports players are paid so much money.
I dislike that in our universe people ever made other people their slaves and thought it was okay.
I dislike that in our universe so many people drink alcohol and then hurt others.
I dislike that in our universe there are mothers and fathers who treat their children poorly.

Now, I know that sounds depressing.. well, it is!

I only wish that each person would make an effort to do something about this. We can't change the past, but the future is not written yet. I have full hope that one day we will rid ourselves of these things I dislike. You may say I am a dreamer...

Blithe

2007-03-07T20:24:00.000-06:00

My second child.

2007-02-07T17:57:00.000-06:00

Orchard

2007-01-20T01:55:00.000-06:00

Physicists find two subatomic particles

2006-11-20T22:26:00.000-06:00

A team of U.S. scientists has discovered two new subatomic particles that are rare but important relatives of the proton and neutron. Team leader Petar Maksimovic, an assistant professor of physics at Johns Hopkins University, said the two exotic particles are members of what is called the "baryonic" family -- so-called for the Greek word "barys".

read more | digg story

How much sugar is in a can of soda?

2006-10-03T22:18:00.000-05:00

A science experiment that lets us find out how much sugar there is in a typical can of soda.

I knew this couldn't be good.
Video

read more | digg story

Bugs

2006-10-03T20:45:00.000-05:00

I have been seeing a lot of bugs lately. Just crawling around, minding their own business, or acting like they own the place. I see bugs like crawly worm critters, and fake lady bugs, and boxelder bugs and centipede things.

A fake lady bug has landed on my tab key on my keyboard and is camping out a bit there.

Some people are afraid of bugs, and they say they gross them out, like my wife. But they don't really gross me out, unless they are floating in my water glass or something.

I have a hard time squishing the bugs. Mostly because I feel bad for the little guys and I also don't like have bug guts lying around.

Keeping the speed limit

2006-06-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

Here is a video about a group of people who decided to keep the speed limit, by going 55 down the highway. They got interesting results.

Well, as you could guess, they saw many angry drivers.

One driver in the experiment commented, "I was glad nobody got hurt... it was potentially dangerous" And that was exactly the point of the experiment. Driving the speed limit got angry drivers and it was dangerous. Obeying the law was dangerous. Kinda weird.

In Acapulco

2006-06-26T08:39:00.000-05:00

So, I was watching the Lawrence Welk Show a few weeks ago, and this song came on. I thought it was so cool, that I went and looked up the lyrics. Unfortunately, just reading the words isn't as fun as listening to them being sung. I will have to find a recording of it somewhere...

In Acapulco

Chorus:

If you're romantic, chum,
Pack up your duds and come
To Acapulco.
You put your cares in hock
And throw away your clock
In Acapulco.
Where you can be as lazy as a daisy drifting in a blue lagoon,
You're wide awake at night, because you do your dreaming in the afternoon.
You'll get a Latin glow
Way down in Mehico,
Below the border.
And in a spot like this,
If you refuse a kiss
You're out of order.
And when the moon is new,
It's like a honeydew,
Come on and get yourself a slice;
And if you can't say Acapulco,
Then you can call it Paradise.

Patter:

When you meet someone you like,
You like to have a conversation,
When you do not understand,
It's such a touchy situation,
But you mustn't let it bother you,
You only have to know:
Chica linda, pretty baby,
Yo te quiero, I adore you,
Yo te quiero, chica linda, Muchi-si-si-si-simo.
As you're sittin' in the sun,
You sip a pitcher of papaya,
While you listen to a parrot
That they call a papagaya,
And you learn a lot of phrases that are very apropos.
Chica linda, pretty baby,
Dame_un beso, won't you kiss me,
Yo te quiero, chica linda, dame_un beso, dame lo
(Dame_un beso, dame lo)

Half-chorus:

You'll need some new huaraches,
When the mariachis
Start to play there.
And after you depart
I know your crazy heart
Is gonna stay there.
And if I haven't sold you
With the things I've told you,
Then I must repeat it twice,
That if you can't say Acapulco,
Then you can call it Paradise.

Why Engineers Don't Write Recipes

2006-06-12T14:11:00.000-05:00

Why Engineers Don't Write Recipes
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1. 532.35 cm3 gluten
2. 4.9 cm3 NaHCO3
3. 4.9 cm3 refined halite
4. 236.6 cm3 partially hydrogenated tallow triglyceride
5. 177.45 cm3 crystalline C12H22O11
6. 177.45 cm3 unrefined C12H22O11
7. 4.9 cm3 methyl ether of protocatechuic aldehyde
8. Two calcium carbonate-encapsulated avian albumen-coated protein
9. 473.2 cm3 theobroma cacao
10. 236.6 cm3 de-encapsulated legume meats (sieve size #10)

To a 2-L jacketed round reactor vessel (reactor #1) with an overall heat transfer coefficient of about 100 Btu/F-ft2-hr, add ingredients one, two and three with constant agitation. In a second 2-L reactor vessel with a radial flow impeller operating at 100 rpm, add ingredients four, five, six, and seven until the mixture is homogenous.

To reactor #2, add ingredient eight, followed by three equal volumes of the homogenous mixture in reactor #1. Additionally, add ingredient nine and ten slowly, with constant agitation. Care must be taken at this point in the reaction to control any temperature rise that may be the result of an exothermic reaction.

Using a screw extrude attached to a #4 nodulizer, place the mixture piece-meal on a 316SS sheet (300 x 600 mm). Heat in a 460K oven for a period of time that is in agreement with Frank & Johnston's first order rate expression (see JACOS, 21, 55), or until golden brown. Once the reaction is complete, place the sheet on a 25C heat-transfer table, allowing the product to come to equilibrium.

I think I'm a clone now

2006-06-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

I had this song in my head this morning so, let me share a part of it. It is a parody by Weird Al Yankovic of the song "I think we're alone now" sung by Tiffany.

I think I'm a clone now
There's always two of me just a-hangin' around
I think I'm a clone now
'Cause every chromosome is a hand-me-down

Look at the way
We go out walking close together
I guess you could say
I'm really beside myself

I still remember how it began (gan-gan-gan)
They produced a carbon copy man (man-man-man)
Born in a science lab late one night
Without a mother or a father, just a test tube and a womb with a view

Painting: Injury

2006-05-26T06:06:00.000-05:00

This is a painting I did with the computer program called Art Rage. This painting is called Injury. Not sure why it is called that, I usually name my paintings by the first word that comes to mind that I like. I hope you enjoy it.

Marimba Ponies!

2006-05-25T07:33:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine turned me on to this group of young talented musicians, called the Marimba Ponies.

An internationally renowned music group comprised of 10 young percussionnists ranging from 4 to 12 years in age. The primary objective of the group is to foster goodwill and friendship through the universal language of music. No conductors or music sheets are used by the Marimba Ponies. The music is memorized completely and flows out of their own individual rhythms and emotions.

I love how they jump around and play so well together. It looks almost uncanny at how good they are at playing at such a young age.

View a bunch of Marimba Ponies' videos

Build Your Own Laser

2006-05-23T07:05:00.000-05:00

I know this will be exciting for all you laser loving people. This appeared in the a 1964 issue of Popular Science.

IT MAY sound like science fiction— but it’s really science fact: You can build a working ruby laser. It could be the most challenging—and rewarding— home-workshop project that you have ever tackled.

A ruby laser is a source of coherent light. All of the light waves in the pencil-thin, bright-red ruby laser beam are in phase—or in step—with each other. This extraordinary property of the laser beam—shared by no other light source—has spurred a world-wide search for practical uses.

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/05/01/build-your-own-laser/

Preliminary Version of Snot Very Nice

2006-05-22T07:08:00.000-05:00

I am re-recording some of my "hit" songs in the process of making a new album, tentatively called "Mercury". Here is the first song I have worked on so far, called Snot Very Nice.

This recording still has some work to do, but you will get the general idea.

Listen here (it is an mp3): might be a slow download:
Snot Very Nice

Wikipedia Science Portal

2006-05-16T16:55:00.000-05:00

I love Wikipedia. It is an free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. I love the format and the style of the site, and the fact that it can be edited by anyone. Another good thing about having an encyclopedia online is that you can copy and paste text easily. Another good thing is it is so easy to link to other articles. In the olden days, if you got to a part of the article that said "see 'Photon'", you had to go find the book and page that had that entry, but online you can just click right to it.

A few days ago I was reading in one of my old astronomy text books about neutrinos, and that made me want to read more sciency stuff.

You can find some cool articles about all kinds of science stuff at the Wikipedia Science Portal.

Astronomy Portal

Bear Thinks He's a Squirrel

2006-05-10T17:20:00.000-05:00

My sister in law sent me pictures of this event that occured at her parents' cabin.

Everybody Likes Pictures

2006-04-19T22:46:00.000-05:00

We tried on hats the other day.

Easter family picture

Foobar2000

2006-04-13T02:15:00.000-05:00

Well, Foobar2000 has officially become my newest favorite music player. Mostly because it is so customizable and neat. And because it is not a memory hog. It follows the idea of Keepin' it simple. The base application is pretty simple: it basically just plays sound files, nothing else. YOU decide what additional functionality it is you want (via downloadable plugins).

Currently I like the setup as shown in the picture. Shown with the following plugins (at least the visible ones):

Columns UI - This is what allows the song list to be displayed in columns, and it adds things like the sidebar. The songlist columns can be anything you want and shown in any way you want.

Album List Panel - This shows a list of your songs on the left side there. This list is used to easily populate the playlist (main window). In the image, it is displaying the songs organized by directory structure. I think this plugin requires the Database plugin.

Album Art Panel - This plugin shows a picture of the album (or whatever), based on a set of rules to know where to find the image for each song.

Column UI tabs - This plugin is used to get the items to layout the way you see them. It makes a panel with tabs.

Simple Spectrum Panel - This plugin shows a spectrum of the song as it is playing. A pretty nifty visualization. I like looking at it. It is basically a spectrogram, which shows time on the x-axis and frequency on the y-axis. The low frequencies at the bottom, and the high at the top. The color shows intensity (volume) with yellow being loud and purple being quiet.

I believe all these plugins can be found at 3rd party foobar2000 components.

For a detailed guide to Foobar2000, see The User Guide

The Science of Hit Songs

2006-02-10T08:42:00.000-06:00

This interesting article appeared at LiveScience.com

The Science of Hit Songs
By Bjorn Carey
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 09 February 2006
02:01 pm ET

When Ashlee Simpson tops the charts while a critically acclaimed ex-Beatle's album fails to crack the top 200, eyebrows go up in the marketing world.

So what makes a hit?

A new study reveals that we make our music purchases based partly on our perceived preferences of others.

Popularity contest

Researchers created an artificial "music market" of 14,341 participants drawn from a teen-interest Web site. Upon entering the study's Internet market, the participants were randomly, and unknowingly, assigned to either an "independent" group or a "social influence" group.

Participants could then browse through a collection of unknown songs by unknown bands.

In the independent condition, participants chose which songs to listen to based solely on the names of the bands and their songs. While listening to the song, they were asked to rate it from one star ("I hate it") to five stars ("I love it"). They were also given the option of downloading the song for keeps.

"This condition measured the quality of the songs and allowed us to see what outcome would result in the absence of social influence," said study co-author Matthew Salganik, a sociologist at Columbia University.

In the social influence group, participants were provided with the same song list, but could also see how many times each song had been downloaded.

Researchers found that popular songs were popular and unpopular songs were unpopular, regardless of their quality established by the other group. They also found that as a particular songs' popularity increased, participants selected it more often.

The upshot for markerters: social influence affects decision-making in a market.

This research is detailed in the Feb. 10 issue of the journal Science.

The Britney effect

The social-influence group was further divided into eight separate, non-interactive "worlds." Members of each world could not see the decisions of the other seven. The idea behind this was to observe multiple outcomes for the same songs and bands.

"If you look at Britney Spears, some people say she is really good. Others say she isn't good, she's just lucky," Salganik told LiveScience. "But by having just one argument, it's impossible to distinguish. However, if you have 10 worlds, and she's popular in all 10, then you can say she's actually good. But if she's only good in one, then you could say it was due to luck."

Although different songs were hits in each world, popularity was still the deciding factor, although the "best" songs never did very badly and the "worst" songs never did very well.

So what drives participants to choose low-quality songs over high-quality ones?

"People are faced with too many options, in this case 48 songs. Since you can't listen to all of them, a natural shortcut is to listen to what other people are listening to," Salganik said. "I think that's what happens in the real world where there's a tremendous overload of songs."

Alternatively, Salganik said, a desire for compatibility with others could drive the choice, since much of the pleasure from listening to music and reading books stems from discussing them with friends.

"If everybody is talking about 'Harry Potter,' you want to read it too," Salganik said.

Parasite Brain Surgeon

2006-02-07T11:42:00.000-06:00

Science Tuesday.

Here is an incredibly interesting story about a parasite that has an interesting procedure for procreating. It seems like straight out of a science fiction story.

Found at Corante

The Wisdom of Parasites

Posted by Carl Zimmer

I collect tales of parasites the way some people collect Star Trek plates. And having filled an entire book with them, I thought I had pretty much collected the whole set. But until now I had somehow missed the gruesome glory that is a wasp named Ampulex compressa.

As an adult, Ampulex compressa seems like your normal wasp, buzzing about and mating. But things get weird when it's time for a female to lay an egg. She finds a cockroach to make her egg's host, and proceeds to deliver two precise stings. The first she delivers to the roach's mid-section, causing its front legs buckle. The brief paralysis caused by the first sting gives the wasp the luxury of time to deliver a more precise sting to the head.

The wasp slips her stinger through the roach's exoskeleton and directly into its brain. She apparently use ssensors along the sides of the stinger to guide it through the brain, a bit like a surgeon snaking his way to an appendix with a laparoscope. She continues to probe the roach's brain until she reaches one particular spot that appears to control the escape reflex. She injects a second venom that influences these neurons in such a way that the escape reflex disappears.

From the outside, the effect is surreal. The wasp does not paralyze the cockroach. In fact, the roach is able to lift up its front legs again and walk. But now it cannot move of its own accord. The wasp takes hold of one of the roach's antennae and leads it--in the words of Israeli scientists who study Ampulex--like a dog on a leash.

The zombie roach crawls where its master leads, which turns out to be the wasp's burrow. The roach creeps obediently into the burrow and sits there quietly, while the wasp plugs up the burrow with pebbles. Now the wasp turns to the roach once more and lays an egg on its underside. The roach does not resist. The egg hatches, and the larva chews a hole in the side of the roach. In it goes.

The larva grows inside the roach, devouring the organs of its host, for about eight days. It is then ready to weave itself a cocoon--which it makes within the roach as well. After four more weeks, the wasp grows to an adult. It breaks out of its cocoon, and out of the roach as well. Seeing a full-grown wasp crawl out of a roach suddenly makes those Alien movies look pretty derivative.

Ampulex%20emerging.jpg

I find this wasp fascinating for a lot of reasons. For one thing, it represents an evolutionary transition. Over and over again, free-living organisms have become parasites, adapting to hosts with exquisite precision. If you consider a full-blown parasite, it can be hard to conceive of how it could have evolved from anything else. Ampulex offers some clues, because it exists in between the free-living and parasitic worlds.

Amuplex is not technically a parasite, but something known as an exoparasitoid. In other words, a free-living adult lays an egg outside a host, and then the larva crawls into the host. One could easily imagine the ancestors of Ampulex as wasps that laid their eggs near dead insects--as some species do today. These corpse-feeding ancestors then evolved into wasps that attacked living hosts. Likewise, it's not hard to envision an Ampulex-like wasp evolving into full-blown parasitoids that inject their eggs directly into their hosts, as many species do today.

And then there's the sting. Ampulex does not want to kill cockroaches. It doesn't even want to paralyze them the way spiders and snakes do, since it is too small to drag a big paralyzed roach into its burrow. So instead it just delicately retools the roach's neural network to take away its motivation. Its venom does more than make roaches zombies. It also alters their metabolism, so that their intake of oxygen drops by a third. The Israeli researchers found that they could also drop oxygen consumption in cockroaches by injecting paralyzing drugs or by removing the neurons that the wasps disable with their sting. But they can manage only a crude imitation; the manipulated cockroaches quickly dehydrated and were dead within six days. The wasp venom somehow puts the roaches into suspended animation while keeping them in good health, even as a wasp larva is devouring it from the inside

Scientists don't yet understand how Ampulex manages either of these feats. Part of the reason for their ignorance is the fact that scientists have much left to learn about nervous systems and metabolism. But millions of years of natural selection has allowed Ampulex to reverse engineer its host. We would do well to follow its lead, and gain the wisdom of parasites.

Eva reaches one year

2005-12-28T21:56:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of Eva right around when she turned one year old.

Science Songs

2005-12-06T09:41:00.000-06:00

A professor from the University of Washington has recently gotten press because of the way he gives his lectures on science: by singing them.

Professor Greg Crowther has a website where you can download samples of songs he has recorded about science. A great find!

Some of the songs included have titles like "The Krebs Cycle", "Glucose, glucose", "The Nucleus I like Best", and "Oxidative Phosphorylation".

www.science-groove.org/Now/

Animusic

2005-12-01T09:00:00.000-06:00

If you like music, computer animation and imagination, you have to check out Animusic.

It is a set of DVD's (for purchase) of music videos of computer animated "robots" and machines playing songs. The website contains little video clips of the animations. Resonant Chamber is pretty neat. Another cool one is Pipe Dream (scroll down the page a bit.)

Open Office.org

2005-11-30T09:59:00.000-06:00

You have probably heard of it by now, but if not, you should try using OpenOffice.org. It is an office suite like Microsoft Office, but it is open source.

I like it because I like supporting open source projects, and I like alternatives to Microsoft. OpenOffice is FREE. I like quality free software.

OpenOffice.org is mostly compatible with MS Office documents (ie, you can open documents made in MS Office, and save documents in MS Office format). I say mostly compatible because nobody knows what the MS Offics formats are. Even Microsoft Office documents themselves are not compatible with other versions of themselves.

Anyways, it is a neat thing they got going on. Go to there website and download the application suite and give it a whirl.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Air Guitar a Reality

2005-11-29T12:05:00.000-06:00

The Virtual Air Guitar project, developed at the Helsinki University of Technology, adds genuine electric guitar sounds to the passionately played air guitar.

Using a computer to monitor the hand movements of a "player", the system adds riffs and licks to match frantic mid-air finger work. By responding instantly to a wide variety of gestures it promises to turn even the least musically gifted air guitarist to a virtual fret board virtuoso.

Air guitarists’ rock dreams come true

I am sure it is pretty limited at this point, but it is a neat concept.

YMCK

2005-11-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

http://www.ymck.net/e/sound.html

This music is so happy! The joy of 8 bit music.

Science Friday!

2005-10-28T10:27:00.000-05:00

Breaking the rules, science on friday.

http://www.wendycarlos.com/colorvis/color.html

But there are pictures...

Art Rage

2005-10-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

I recently have become aware of this totally awesome and free application that allows you to make paintings on your computer. It is called Art Rage.

It is almost unbelievably good at realistically mixing the paint and showing the brushstrokes. And it is dang fun.

Another Firefox Extension Recommendation

2005-09-22T07:43:00.000-05:00

Since yesterday I accidentally did a post for music, today will be a computer application. Like anyone reads these anyways...

I want to recommend another neat Firefox extension called Html Validator. This one is great for web developers, because it adds a really easy interface to validate your html. For every page you visit, the extension will check that page against the w3c standards. A little icon in the right bottom corner of the browser will let you know if there are any warnings or errors. If you view the source of the page, it shows all the errors, highlighted in the source, when you click on an error message, it takes you to that location in the source and highlights it for you. There is also a little help window about that error, and lots of other features I haven't begun to use yet.

But I think this is a dang awesome extension.

Serialism

2005-09-21T07:40:00.000-05:00

In music, there is Serialism.

Read about it in Wikipedia, and the music chamber.

I wrote a serialist piece once, it was fun. I would love to do it again.

If you want to hear my serialist piece, bug me.

Don't Dumb Me Down : Bad Science

2005-09-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

I do believe that you will be greatly interested in this article appearing in The Guardian titled "Don't Dumb Me Down". It discusses science in the media.

The author presents a paper on research he has conducted with some ideas on why science in the media is so often pointless, simplistic, boring, or just plain wrong. He breaks the stories down into three categories: Wacky stories, scare stories, and "breakthrough" stories, and discusses each type.

From the article: "Statistics are what causes the most fear for reporters, and so they are usually just edited out, with interesting consequences. Because science isn't about something being true or not true: that's a humanities graduate parody. It's about the error bar, statistical significance, it's about how reliable and valid the experiment was, it's about coming to a verdict, about a hypothesis, on the back of lots of bits of evidence."

The only weird thing about this article is that it appears in a non-scientific journal, and there is no author's name. How am I even supposed to know if this analysis is correct? The author also seem to not think highly of humanities students.

An interesting insight, nevertheless.

Fried Eggs

2005-09-09T07:55:00.000-05:00

Magnatune

2005-09-08T07:29:00.000-05:00

Open music record label named Magnatune (www.magnatune.com).

They call it try before you buy, you can listen to the full albums online of many artists released on this label. They cover a wide span of genres like classical, electronica, jazz, metal, rock, world, etc. Pretty neat stuff, if you ask me.

musikCube

2005-09-07T07:07:00.000-05:00

I am a big fan of winamp, but sometimes I want something smaller and simple: musikCube. musikCube is an open source audio player for windows.

Features include:
* very low memory footprint
* clean and intuitive user interface
* blazing fast navigation
* fully drag and drop compatible
* powerful batch tagging
* an integrated cross fader
* an integrated cd ripper

I like the fact that it is just simple.

I also like the dynamic playlists, based on tags and other song meta data. (last played, recently added, etc), and you can make your own spiffy dynamic playlists.

I also like how you set up the folders where you store your music, and then anytime you add new songs to your hard drive, you just hit synchronise and it updates the library with the new songs.

It also has global access keys, so you can make it go to the next song, play, pause, etc while using another application, so you don't need to divert your focus to the player to take care of things like that.

The current version is 0.92.5, so there are still a few bugs, but overall I have been very impressed. Plus, it is open source, you gotta support.

Go and download today.

Current Moon Phase

2005-09-06T07:58:00.000-05:00

This website will tell:

http://www.die.net/moon/

Motion Picture: Primer

2005-09-02T07:50:00.000-05:00

This week I saw the movie "Primer", which is an independent film that was shown at the Sundance festival in 2004. It was created by Shane Carruth. It is a science fiction film with a theme of time travel. I really liked it and there are a number of reasons:

1) The writer tried very hard to make the scientific conversations actually real, they are talking about real technology, etc. This is great because a lot of the time I am bugged immensely while watching movies with computers and technology and everything is horribly simplified (and wrong) for the average movie consumer. It is refreshing that someone took care in making a movie that isn't blatantly wrong in its scientific aspects.

2) Although the movie is slow, and this is a complaint by most people, I liked the pace. I like other movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Andromeda Strain.

3) The movie is pretty complicated and I didn't understand it all after a first viewing. This is great, because I like to watch movies again, but sometimes they aren't as good the second and third time, because you already know what is going to happen. Hence I long for the movie that you have to watch multiple times, and each time you get it a little bit more. I like movies where you have to think.

4) Time travel movies are always interesting to me.

5) The creator/director of this movie did it all for $7000, and it is a nice piece of work. That is neat that someone could make such a good-looking movie for so little money. It is quite the accomplishment.

You can read more about this movie online, and I encourage you to go to see it. And if it is not your type of movie, so be it.

The official site for the movie is found at www.primermovie.com. There is also a forum there to discuss the movie, which is very interesting.

Kai Esbensen: Investigmata

2005-09-01T08:48:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I have had this song in my head all morning, so I had better share it with you. It is a song by Kai Esbensen that he wrote for Bullet Lodge, the Minneapolis chapter of the Immersion Composition Society.

It is science-y.

Clipomatic

2005-08-31T07:29:00.000-05:00

This sweet application brought to you by Mike Lin (who also made Startup Monitor and Startup Control Panel) is a great help to people who commonly copy and paste text.

The application is called Clipomatic, and it is a free program you can download that allows you to keep multiple pieces of text in the clipboard. This way you have access to the last few blocks of text that you have copied to the clipboard.

When I found this application I was like "Right on!" because I always thought that instead of having one "sheet of paper" on the clipboard, it should be a buffer where you can keep multiple "sheets of paper". Especially when you are doing a lot of copying and pasting and you have to go back and forth with different snippets of text.

How it works it you just select text and copy it (Ctrl-c), or cut it (ctrl-x), like normal, but instead of pasting it with ctrl-v, use ctrl-alt-v, which brings up a submenu like in the screenshot above, which gives you a choice of the last 10 pieces of text that you pasted to the clipboard. (Actually it gives you the choice of eleven: the last thing you copied or cut, plus the ten before that.)

In addition, you can configure permanent pieces of text that always show up in the clipboard buffer, so like your name or email address or something that you are re-occuringly having to type in.

Go get productive with Clipomatic

What do you make of this "Intelligent Design"

2005-08-30T07:39:00.000-05:00

With all the press lately about "Intelligent Design", I thought I would comment a bit on it.

A) Don't teach it in schools. It isn't scientific, it is just a point of view. If parents want their kids to know about this idea, they can teach them themselves.

B) It isn't scientific, it is just ideas. You can't witness any proof, nor use evidence or tests to disprove it.

C) God wouldn't use supernatural means to create a natural earth.

D) Science and Religion don't clash, so quit trying to exclusively embrace one and reject the other. They are both about discovering the truth, and I believe they shouldn't contradict each other. Where they meet is where we say "I don't know."

Here is an interesting article about it too.
This article defines Intelligent Design as "the theory that life on earth has developed by a series of supernatural miracles performed by the God of the Christian Bible, for which it is pointless to seek any naturalistic explanation."

Here is another interesting article about ID: http://ydr.com/story/op-ed/82630/

I guess I don't want to say the theory of Intelligent Design is wrong, but I want to say that we cannot explain it adequately using science, so therefore we shouldn't try to. Make sense?

Thoughts?

Taco Shelf

2005-08-29T07:19:00.000-05:00

On the taco shelf there was a taco,
Much to my surprise;
One with cheese and meat and beans,
Of a monstrous, gigantic size.

I tried to put it in my mouth,
But it did not fit.
A voice inside my head I heard,
"Keep trying, sir, do not quit."

I shoved and shoved and squeezed and squeezed,
But I could not gulp.
I grabbed the taco with my fist,
And tried to make it pulp.

Relieved, I was finally able to swallow it,
Though nearly destroying myself,
"A job well done," I sighed, and turned,
Another taco was on the shelf.

Blueberry Adventure 1

2005-08-26T08:06:00.000-05:00

This is the greatest blueberry adventure ever:

Enjoy.

Note:

The initial little jump is great

The blueberry is very adept at climbing a ladder without the use of arms

The initial little jump on the diving board is cute

Diving board follows laws of physics

Star Wars Theme a capella

2005-08-25T07:50:00.000-05:00

Holy awesomeness were my first thoughts after listening to this a capella "remix" of the Star Wars Theme. This song was done by virt, each part of the full orchestra with his voice.

It really is a fun thing to listen to.

Rainmeter, Rainlendar

2005-08-24T08:09:00.000-05:00

Want widgets that show the system status of your computer? Try Rainmeter, highly configurable and awesome. (Better than Konfabulator, in my opinion).

Having nothing to do with measuring rain, Rainmeter is a customizable performance meter, which can display the CPU load, memory utilization, disk space, network traffic, time and many more things.

You can even make your own widgets easily, or download the countless plugins from the site.

Also try Rainlendar, a calendar widget for your computer.

The Kitchen

2005-08-23T07:06:00.000-05:00

A group of scientists wandered into a kitchen that was full of the sweet smell of freshly baked bread. They quickly discovered that the source was the fine loaf sitting in the oven. Upon inspection, they found that there was no one in the kitchen, so they began developing a theory of how it got there. Examining the contents of the cupboard yielded results.

In the cupboard was flour, sugar and salt. There was a source of water from the sink, and in the fridge there were yeast and eggs. They also found butter and oil. They determined that all these ingredients must have swirled and stormed around the room every which way until finally the mixture landed in the oven where it was baked.

Sweet!

A new era

2005-08-22T08:23:00.000-05:00

I got up early today, at 6:30, and took a shower, ate breakfast, and generally got things done early. It is a new era.

Waking up early makes me feel refreshed and alive, like I can accomplish a lot. I plan to do this everyday for a long time. Think I can do it?

We will see.

Cheeseburger

2005-08-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

Once, I was taking my neice to a fast-food restaurant and I was trying to figure out what kind of sandwich she would want, so I asked, "Do you like cheeseburgers?"

She said "yes."

Then I wanted to find out if there was something that she didn't like on it, like pickles or lettuce or something, so I asked "Is there anything that you don't like on a cheeseburger, like pickles, or something?"

She answered, "Well, I don't like that cooked brown thing."

I had to laugh. It still is quite funny to me.

I ended up getting a chicken sandwich for her.

Baby's Mohawk

2005-07-22T09:21:00.000-05:00

Michael Jackson - Thriller

2005-07-21T14:47:00.000-05:00

Best selling album of all time. Over 45 million copies sold. 1982. Good songs.

I have the vinyl record of this album.

Man, it was good stuff. Don't you wish you could go back to 1982?

Recommeded Firefox Extensions

2005-07-20T09:40:00.000-05:00

Firefox is an awesome web browser, part of what makes it so awesome is the ability to add extensions in order to extend the functionality of some parts. There have been many extensions written, and a lot of them are very neat.

Here is a list of my favorite extensions that I use on a daily basis:

All-In-One Sidebar (Allows the side bar to have more features and customizations)

Colorzilla (An eyedropper that allows you to find out the exact color of something on your browser)

GrepSidebar (Advanced search within a webpage)

Minimize to Tray (If you have firefox open all day, and you don't want it to clutter the taskbar, this allows you to minimize the browser to the tray)

Mouseless Browsing (by pressing the NumPad decimal key, you go into mouseless mode where the number keys allow you to navigate links)

Scrapbook (Capture a webpage or part of a webpage for future consumption and or reference off-line, also it is good to be able to save a portion of a page that you find interesting, better than a bookmark, because you don't have to reload the whole page, you can just see the part that was interesting to you.)

Sidebar on Right (I like the sidebar to be on the right side of the browser instead of the left)

StumbleUpon (A great way to find interesting websites, choose your interests and then this button will take you to sites that other people with those interests found interesting.)

Tabbrowser Preferences (Advanced preferences for tabs)

Web Developer (A suite of tools to aid in web development, helpful to outline objects on the page and much more)

I was going to post links to all the places to install these, but I think I will just let you do a google search or you can search the mozilla update site.

Rockefeller's Birthday

2005-07-08T09:54:00.000-05:00

Today (July 8th) is John D. Rockefeller's (Famous US business man) birthday.

xplorer2 : Windows Explorer Replacement

2005-07-06T08:32:00.000-05:00

There are quite a few file browsers for windows, and they all generally do the same dang thing. After being used to features available to Windows Explorer, it is hard to switch to something else, because most of those alternatives are lacking in something. I have tried a bunch, but none of them I like more than xplorer2 (lite).

Xplorer2, from Zabkat. The lite version is available for private or academic use only.

It has all the features available to Windows Explorer, plus it adds more, like dual panes, tabs in each pane, and other cool features like mass rename, visual filters, etc. Plus, when you open it, it remembers where you were browsing the last time you used it.

If you would like to know more of why all those features are advantages, email me.

That is my suggestion for today.

Jonathan Carter Hornblower

2005-07-05T09:33:00.000-05:00

Jonathan Carter Hornblower
(Born 5 Jul 1753; died Mar 1815)

British inventor of the double-beat valve, the first reciprocating compound steam engine. Patented in 1781 (UK No. 1298), this steam engine with two cylinders was a significant advance in efficiency. However, the patent was successfully challenged by James Watt's company (Boulton & Watt) for infringement of their patents. Hornblower ceased development on that design, but earned a fortune from his engineering work, and he made other inventions he patented, including a rotative engine and a steam wheel (steam engine). His compound steam engine principle was eventually rediscovered in 1804 by Arthur Woolf.

New mathematics record for reciting 'pi'

2005-07-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

Japanese sets new mathematics record for reciting 'pi'

TOKYO -- A 59-year-old Japanese psychiatric counselor set a world record of sorts Sunday by reciting "pi," or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, to 83,431 digits.

"I thank you all for your support," Akira Haraguchi told reporters and onlookers when he finished the overnight 13-hour feat at a public hall in Kisarazu in Tokyo's southern suburbs at 1:26 a.m.

The ratio is about 3.14159.

According to the authoritative Guinness Book of World Records, the previous record for reciting pi from memory -- 42,195 digits -- was set by a then Japanese university student in 1995.

Haraguchi had already recited the ratio up to about 54,000 digits last September but was forced to end the attempt when his time ran out at the facility hosting the event.

There was no time limit set for the hall where he achieved the new record which he said would be submitted for recognition by the Guinness Book of World Records.

from here.

Abstract Painting

2005-07-01T08:16:00.000-05:00

The Residents - Mark of the Mole

2005-06-30T09:10:00.000-05:00

If you have not heard of the Residents, I wouldn't be surprised. They are probably the world's most enigmatic band of all time. They have produced records for over 30 years, and still, no one knows what they look like, or their names. They appear in costume in all their concerts so no one can know.

I think they are cool.

This album, called Mark of the Mole, was released in 1981. It is the first album of what was supposed to be the Mole Trilogy.

They album tells a story of the Moles, who have to leave their underground homes because of storms and so they travel to another place in search of a home, to fall into the hands of the Chubs, who make them their slaves... etc.

It is neat.

Newly Formed Solar System

2005-06-28T07:40:00.000-05:00

From an article from New Scientist Space.com

Hubble spies lord of the stellar rings

A spectacular, luminous ring offers the best evidence yet that a nearby star is circled by a newly formed solar system.

The ring is composed of dust particles in orbit around Fomalhaut, a bright star located just 25 light years away in the constellation Pisces Austalis – or the Southern Fish. A recent image captured with the Hubble Space Telescope - which makes the system look uncannily like the Great Eye of Sauron from the blockbusting Lord of the Rings trilogy - confirms that Fomalhaut’s ring is curiously offset with respect to the star.

The most likely explanation is that the gravity of one or more unseen planets is dragging the ring askew. The fact that the inner edge of the ring is relatively well-defined adds further weight to the argument because it suggests the unseen planets are sweeping up stray dust within the radius of the ring.

The image was captured by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, US, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center using Hubble’s coronagraph. This device blocks the glare of a star while gathering the faint reflected light from any surrounding ring.

The new image is the first time Fomalhaut’s ring has been seen in visible light. This offers a much sharper view than the infrared wavelengths previously used by astronomers. “We are directly imaging the system,” says team member Paul Kalas. “The offset is unambiguous and it’s been measured with very high accuracy.”

Shining example

Astronomers suspect the ring around Fomalhaut is the dusty trace of a belt of small comet-like bodies that surround the star, much like the Kuiper Belt that surrounds our solar system.

Frequent collisions between these bodies generate enough dust to replenish the ring, which would otherwise be eroded by the star’s radiation in a relatively short time. Since the Kuiper Belt is a by-product of the creation of our solar system, the ring around Fomalhaut may be similarly linked to planet formation. And because Fomalhaut is only 200 million years old - less than 5% of the Sun’s present age - it offers a unique analogue of our solar system’s early years.

While strengthening the case for planets around Fomalhaut, the Hubble image also appears to limit their size. “Fomalhaut is young and any planets that formed around it have yet to cool. Anything larger than about five times the mass of Jupiter would still be glowing warm enough to show up in our image,” says Kalas.

He and his colleagues have already booked time on the Hubble to do follow-up observations later in 2005. They hope to search for small details such as gaps or clumps in the rings that could reveal more precisely the masses and locations of any planets.

Journal reference: Nature (vol 435, p 1067)

Wikipedia

2005-06-27T08:45:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder, you should go to wikipedia when you want to find out something. And, you should go to wikipedia to update or create articles about something.

It is an online encyclopedia where ANYONE can change the information. It really is fascinating.

Wikipedia

Try it in other languages too!

Sputnik!

2005-06-24T09:01:00.000-05:00

October 4th, 1957.

Jethro Tull : Thick as a Brick

2005-06-23T08:03:00.000-05:00

From 1972, comes the sweetest concept album from the band Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick. Thick as a Brick is a 43 minute song, split in two (because you have to flip the record over in the middle of the song). On the CD, there are two tracks, just to preserve the original LP split point.

The lyrics are built around a poem written by a fictitious boy, "Gerald Bostock" or "Little Milton". It seems like it was real, because the cover is a facsimile of a newspaper. The original LP cover was a spoof of a 12 by 16 inch (305 by 406 mm) multipage local newspaper with stories, competitions, adverts etc., lampooning the kind of horribly parochial and amateurish local journalism that still exists in many places today.

The reason I like this song is because it has so many pieces, and parts. There are some common themes that keep coming back, but overall it is a journey, consisting of acoustic and electric guitars, drums, synthesizers. It is easy to just listen and get lost in the sounds.

Rad.

Filezilla

2005-06-22T09:24:00.000-05:00

The computer application for today is an FTP client called "Filezilla".

A great open source application with a webpage at filezilla.sourceforge.net. You can download it by going to the downloads page.

If you don't know what an FTP client is, then you probably don't need one.

Alright, and FTP client gives you the ability to log on to an FTP server and transfer files between that computer and yours. Used a lot for people to be able to update their webpages, by logging in and uploading files to the FTP server. There.

You need to have access to an FTP server in order to do that. You'll need a username and password.

Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics

2005-06-21T09:51:00.000-05:00

Knowing too much can ruin a movie for you. For example, I work with computers a lot, and it makes me cringe almost every day when I see computers in movies, because of the way they handle them, and the screen shots they show, etc.

Well, if you were a physicist or even a pseudo-physicist, you might also be irked because of the lousy physics that are commonplace in movies.

There happens to be a webpage dedicated to uncovering and documenting the physics flaws in movies called Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics.

Go and learn.

Google Maps Expanded

2005-06-20T09:23:00.000-05:00

Google Maps (maps.google.com) is the best map place ever. With drag and move capabilities, smart interface, and satellite view!

Before, the earth was just the U.S. and the U.K., now you can see all countries on the map. Only, The streets and cities aren't there yet for most of the world, you can see country borders and bodies of water. Very cool.

You can see little countries like Andorra,
Liechtenstein,
and here is Lake Baikal.

For those of you who didn't already know, Google Maps is great, you can just type in the search bar something like '99 Russian Hill, San Francisco, CA' and you will get this.

Dr. Mario

2005-06-17T09:21:00.000-05:00

I got this game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas either in 1987 or 1988.

It was a great game, sort of like tetris, but instead of blocks it was pills, and instead of trying to eliminate rows you were trying to eliminate virii by making three adjacent pills of the same color (as the virus) next to any virus.

I must admit I wasn't as good at it as my sisters or my mom, but I enjoyed having this game all the same.

I still really like the music for this game, I think it made quite good use of the NES' 8-bit, 4 oscillator sound capabilities.

Gentle Giant : Octopus

2005-06-16T09:16:00.000-05:00

Gentle Giant is an awesome band from the 70's and 80's. This is one of my favorite albums: Octopus. From 1973, it has great songs like "The Advent of Panurge", "A Cry for Everyone", "The Boys in the Band", "Think of Me with Kindness" and "River".

I just realized today that it has 8 tracks, so there is one song per tentacle of jarred octopus.

What do I like about the songs? Well, they are not all in 4/4. They have really cool melodies. They have nifty parts with the instruments. It really is a fun journey listening to their albums.

Well, I hope that you are able to find a copy of this album, so you can listen to it too.

Ots Turntables

2005-06-15T09:29:00.000-05:00

I like trying out different media players. One rather awesome audio player is called Ots Turntables. Ots Turntables, as the name suggests has two turntables, kinda like a DJ and you can load songs into a playlist, play them in the turntables, etc. It has pretty good record scratching abilities and other DJ features if that interests you.

What I like is it has a great sounding dynamics processor which includes Ots Labs' own Automatic Gain Control and a great compressor. What this means is that when you play a bunch of songs in a row all from different sources they will play at the same volume level. It also makes songs louder and more in your face (like on the radio), if that is what you want.

Ots Turntables also has a really good mechanism to blend songs together, it is smart enough to take in account songs that start or stop abruptly or smoothly and coordinates the fading efforts accordingly.

The application is usually to be paid for, but Ots Labs also released a free version, which works the same, except you do not have total control over the dynamics processor, you can only choose the presets. It also intermittently inserts a "station identification" as I like to think of it: it says "bleep blip bloop-bloop Ots Audio." every once in a while.

Ots Turntables plays mp3s and wavs. It also plays its own format, .ots which is mp3, but it can include more than one song, like you could have a whole album in one .ots file, which is handy for people who like to organize it that way, and you can still just play one song from the album using Ots products.

You can also download for free (I think they might come with the Turntables download, but I am not sure) the applications Ots Studio Professional, which allows you to edit the .ots files meta data. You can include mp3 tag info, manual fade in/out data for each song as well as album cover art within the ots file.

Ots Labs also has a completely free CD player called Ots CD Scratch that is basically the same (has two turntables and the great dynamics processor) only it plays CDs only, and you can actually fine tune the dynamics processor.

Overall I am really impressed with Ots Labs products, and I hope you are too!

Lactose Intolerance

2005-06-14T09:06:00.000-05:00

Lactose is milk sugar. It is composed of two molecules of "simple" sugars chemically bonded together - glucose and galactose. The enzyme lactase breaks down lactose into glucose and galactose which are easily digested by humans.

Most human infants produce ample quantities of lactase for milk digestion. However, in the vast majority of adult humans, the gene which specifies production of lactase is turned "off" and these individuals cannot digest lactose - they are lactose intolerant. Symptoms of lactose intolerance include cramps and diarrhea. The lactose molecule, which is large, accumulates in the large intestine and affects the osmotic balance there. Since water moves across semipermeable membranes, such as the intestine, from areas of high concentration to low concentration, the addition of large lactose molecules causes water to enter the intestine. This can result in the very unpleasant experience of watery stool or diarrhea. Since lactose is a sugar, it is an ideal food for the bacteria which normally inhabit our intestine (and are essential to digestion). However, the lactose will be fermented by these same friendly bacteria, and organic acids are gas are produced by them and we all know what discomfort intestinal gas can cause! So most folks who are lactose intolerant choose to avoid lactose-containing milk products, or modify the lactose, to avoid the cramps and diarrhea associated with the intolerance syndrome.

There is a science experiment that goes along with this found at exploratorium.edu.

aA/ FDDDDN BB

2005-06-13T12:40:00.000-05:00

Eva typed me that message.

Narnia Movie

2005-06-11T12:18:00.000-05:00

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie is coming soon: Official Website, hopefully it will be really good.

2005-06-10T11:40:00.000-05:00

Doctor Who Rocks!

Paul Trandem - Just for You

2005-06-09T16:18:00.000-05:00

When you want to hear the acoustic guitar and vocal works of Paul Trandem, you can. Just visit his website. I would suggest listening to the song "Just For You". That one is my favorite. The words for the song are thus:

Some people wear their heart like a banner on their sleeve,
Mine's in my pocket, but it's liquid and it leaks.
You're the only one in the crowded room I guess,
I didn't realize I was playing just for you.

It makes me think of colors, blurry, and something reddish and squishy, but pouring, and it engulfs you and stuff.

http://www.paultrandem.com/

Blender 3d

2005-06-08T15:48:00.000-05:00

Once, a long time ago, I got this computer program that allows you to create 3D objects, render them, do animations, etc. It was waaaay hard. I tried it for a bit, but I couldn't get it to do anything cool, really. Nothing. So I uninstalled it and forgot about it.

Until it cropped up again, about a week ago. Blender 3D. Awesome application and it is open source, and free. The User Interface is a little (okay, a lot) different then what you are probably used to, but it really rocks. Like it is way easy to manipulate, rotate, scroll, zoom, etc. once you learn the tricks and the keyboard shortcuts. And you should see some of the amazing things that people are making with this program. Sample Images created by blender users.

Now, this is an advanced application. I haven't even begun to tap into it's full powers and abilities, and it has a long learning curve. It won't be easy. But it is fun to tinker around and stuff.

Make a mesh.

Traffic Science: Eat a wave

2005-04-19T12:11:00.000-05:00

Having procured a new job on the other side of the cities, I often find myself in traffic jams during the rush hours. Consequently, I have noticed a few patterns in the traffic congestion routines. The traffic jammage happens in waves, that is why they call it stop and go. Annoying! I always wondered, "Why can't we all just go at the same steady pace, rather than all this stop start nonsense!"

Finally, I realized that the best thing to do was to just go at a slow and steady pace, and average out the speed of the cars in front of me. I called it the "No brakes" method, where it was kind of like a game where you had to adjust your speed such that you never had to hit the brakes in a stop and go traffic jam.

It makes huge gaps in front of you, which for some odd reason irritates the other drivers, but the fact is, you are not going any slower than anyone else.

Some inside information which was recently delivered to me also talks about this same phenomenon, with the same "cure". A brilliant fellow in Seattle has a webpage where he talks about traffic wave experiements:Traffic Waves. He has illustrations, explanations, experiments in great detail regarding the wves that are created in traffic jams. I encourage you to read it and implement also in your own driving the cure: average speed, eat a wave.

A snippet from his page:

Sometimes the traffic waves have have no real cause at all. They appear because tiny random motions can trigger large results. They are like sand ripples and sand dunes, and they just build up for no clear reason. They are like ocean waves caused by the steady breeze, or like the waves which move along a flapping flag. They just "emerge" spontaneously from the writheing lines of traffic. In the science of Nonlinear Dynamics this is called an EMERGENT PHENOMENON."

ANTITRAFFIC DESTROYS TRAFFIC. Empty spaces can eat a traffic jam.

Science:How To Build a Giant Air Cannon

2005-04-05T21:20:00.000-05:00

You might want to make one.

Instructions here.

Craving New Beginnings

2005-04-02T09:13:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I crave new beginnings: A new day, a new week, a new month, a new season, a new year, a new job, a new place of residence, etc. It's good to start over. I think everyone quite possibly has that inside of them; a craving to start over, reboot, refresh.

Recently I got a new job and I will be starting in a week, so I am in new-beginning-crave mode. The anticipation of starting over with a new job, new environment, new people, new place is exciting me. I am excited and somewhat nervous.

I think our earth is nicely set up to incorporate new beginnings all the time. There is something so fresh about waking up on a new day and having the morning greet you. It's like you're given another chance to start over and become a new person.

(Insert mushy paragraph about how every new beginning gives us a new opportunity to redefine ourselves, and who we eventually become is based upon the little choices we made throughout our lives)

I fail to reject the above sentiment.

P.S. I feel like making stalactites and stalagmites out of concrete.

F--Picture: Edga, Jr.

2005-04-01T09:33:00.000-06:00

Edga Jr. The Long Email Killa Filta. Do you know this guy?

Th--Music: Something That Happened

2005-03-31T09:50:00.000-06:00

A song by Brooke Murphy entitled Something That Happened is the subject of my blog today. Created as an entry for the ever popular Minneapolis-based Immersion Composition Society Lodge "Bullet Lodge", this song screams coolness and color. Well thought out, put together well, it for sure has my ears stuck to it.

It is a song about something that happened. Exactly what happened, I dunno. Perhaps you can decifer the words and come up with an explanation. But, as for now, and for me, it is a song about color. I see colors, shapes, textures when I listen to the song. I love the vocals, the drums, how they smack once in a while, and the almost grainy flavor of the piece.

It also has a mucusy, anatomical feeling to it.

Enjoy.

Something That Happened

Lyrics:
Once there were green enzymes in the distance
They were tackling brown proteins and off-white carbohydrates
My pink eyes could see them through the black binoculars
That I held with my yellow hand
And red stomach acid melted down on them
This was the beginning of the end

A page with other Brooke entries to Bullet Lodge can be found at the Bullet Lodge site.

W--Computer App: StudioFactory

2005-03-30T10:47:00.000-06:00

http://www.syntiac.com/studiofactory.html

For all those people who like to tinker with modular analog synths, here is a software modular synth. Right click to add components like Oscillators, Voltage Controlled Filters, Envelopes, Flangers, Sequencers, etc. Connect them with virtual patch cables, listen to it, tweak it. You can have great fun.

The program is undergoing development, but most of it works great right now. Brought to you by Syntiac Pages. Program works in Windows.

Computer App: Hoekey

2005-03-09T09:01:00.000-06:00

Hoekey is a Windows application that allows you to create custom global hotkeys for your computer. The neat thing is it allows you to use the windows button in said hotkeys. For example pressing + opens up winamp.

Comes in handy.

Music: Dr. Mario remix

2005-02-25T12:49:00.000-06:00

I had one of the Dr. Mario songs in my head this morning, which made me think about this awesome song I heard once. It is by virt, and is found here:

Dr. Mario - Funky Pills

If you like Dr. Mario, you probably have the songs in your head too. Listen to this for fun, man.

P.S. I know it's Friday, not Thursday.

No Science today

2005-02-15T09:51:00.000-06:00

Sorry, folk, I can't think of any science experiments for today. But I do have a story...

I was at a bookstore in a mall yesterday, and while perusing a book, I heard a Russian family talking amongst themselves. The wife was talking to her husband, when she said (in Russian) "What time is it?" I immeadiately looked at my watch and said (in English) "8 o'clock," to which she replied, "Thank you."

After a brief period of silence, she asked "You speak Russian?" I said, "yes." Then she walked away, and I continued looking at my book. That is all. I think she was quite surprised that I could understand her. Normally, I would say that Russians speaking Russian in public places in the United States would not think that anyone could understand them.

Ya vsyo znaiyu.

Napolean

2005-02-11T10:29:00.000-06:00

I really am sorry to ALL my faithful readers for missing Monday throgh Wednesday this week. I guess I got busy. So you are probably wondering what I would've said.

On Monday, I would've said: "Go and find some of your own garbage, or make a code and have someone decipher it! Do it yourself!"

On Tuesday, I would've said: "Go and conduct your own scientific experiments! GOSH!"

On Wednesday, I would've said: "There are tons of computer applications! Go download one yourself!"

And today, I talk about a picture. Well, maybe I will post a picture. Oh. I got it. I won't post it, but I will redirect you to it. It's like a picture redirection service. This is a pixelfreak poster picture. It is really awesome:

Look! At! This!

Commenters will report on how they did with codes, science, and computer applications.

Music: Pete Townshend, Face Dances Pt. II

2005-02-10T13:20:00.000-06:00

Pete Townshend (of the band The Who), sang this song called "Face Dances Part Two" off of the 1982 album "All the Best Cowboys have Chinese Eyes". It is a good song. The meter is 5/4, and it is a quite catchy song. Go find it and give it a listen.

Here is a link to the album information.

2005-02-04T11:09:00.000-06:00

Pumpkins. Not this time of year. In the autumn. Picture credit to KE.

Metroid Metal

2005-02-03T09:47:00.000-06:00

Metroid is a video game. The original came out in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. There have been many more games made in the Metroid series since then, including one for the Gameboy, one for Super Nintendo, two for Gameboy Advanced, and two for the GameCube.

A guy named Stemage loved the music from the game so much, he made metal versions of the songs. They are really great. When I first heard them about 1.5 years ago, I was enamoured by the quality and the coolity, not to mention the nostalgia of the songs. I also was a long-time fan of the Metroid soundtrack.

So, if you like Metroid and you like metal, you'll love Metroid Metal: www.metroidmetal.com.

My favorite song is the Brinstar theme.

2005-02-02T13:05:00.000-06:00

Screenshot of the GIMP

Computer Application: The Gimp

2005-02-02T11:23:00.001-06:00

If you are interested in an application to manipulate images and photos, then I recommend the Gimp. The Gimp is an acronym for the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is similar to Paint Shop Pro and other graphics applications.

The Gimp is currently at version 2.2.3 and is available for download at gimp.org. It is a cross-platform application, which means it is available for multiple operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).

For new users the interface might be confusing, because the Gimp uses multiple windows: one for the tools, one for tool options, one for image layers, etc., one for any other dialogs, and one for each image you are editing. But, the Gimp is completely customizable to make it any way you want. The way I like it is with all the tools and dialogs in one window, but in tabs on the right of the screen, and then a window for each image I am editing.

When you get more advanced using the Gimp, you can also create scripts to perform automated tasks for you. For example, I made a script that resizes the image, puts a border on it, drops a shadow, and makes a background color. Using this program is a joy, and I am very productive with it. Since it is open source, it is constantly being modified and upgraded to be more robust/user friendly/capable of doing more things.

So, give the Gimp a try, my friend! GIMP

Does a retinal sieve filter myopic slop?

2005-02-01T10:16:00.000-06:00

This questioned has intrigued me for quite some time. I decided to take a look at it today.

First lets look at the definitions of the words:
Retinal: Of or relating to the retina of the eye.
Sieve: A utensil for separating the finer and coarser parts of a pulverized or granulated substance from each other. It consist of a vessel, usually shallow, with the bottom perforated, or made of hair, wire, or the like, woven in meshes. See also cribiform cells.
Myopic: 1. unable to see distant objects clearly [syn: nearsighted] [ant: farsighted] 2. lacking foresight or scope;
Slop: 1. Spilled or splashed liquid. 2 Soft mud or slush. 3 Unappetizing watery food or soup.

Okay, so another way of saying Retinal Sieve is perhaps, "an eye that filters finer and coarser parts," and another way of saying Myopic Slop is, "near objects that look like mud," or "muddy objects that are nearsighted."

I am assuming that when sieving something, one would want to separate unwanted substances from wanted substances, so one would prefer to not retain the slop (or myopic slop: nearsighted junk), and keep the farsighted stuff that is clear.

Or maybe the retinal sieve is filtering out the slop of the world characterized by lacking foresight, and prefering the more clear substances, that can plan ahead, think before they talk, etc.

So, I don't think this really answered the initial question, but why should I solve this in ten minutes. No. I should continue to think this over for years. YEARS!

(A prize to the individual(s) who can name where Retinal Sieve and Myopic Slop came from.)

Help to solve the garbage from yesterday.

2005-02-01T09:00:00.000-06:00

http://nickciske.com/tools/hex.php

Decode this garbage.

2005-01-31T11:58:00.000-06:00

596F 7520 6361 6E20 7265 6A65 6374 2074 6865 206E 756C 6C20 6879 706F 7468 6573 6973 206F 7220 796F 7520 6361 6E20 6661 696C 2074 6F20 7265 6A65 6374 2074 6865 206E 756C 6C20 6879 706F 7468 6573 6973 2E0D 0A0D 0A48 6F6C 7920 436F 7721 2020 5768 656E 2079 6F75 2073 6169 6420 7468 6973 2077 6173 2067 6F69 6E67 2074 6F20 6265 2067 6172 6261 6765 2C20 796F 7520 7265 616C 6C79 206D 6561 6E74 2069 7421 0D0A 0D0A 474F 5348 210D 0A00

The Shoes

2005-01-28T09:24:00.000-06:00

It's the shoes.

Picture taken by CP.

Music: Shopping Planet

2005-01-27T09:55:00.000-06:00

To kick off the music section of this weblog, I will point you to a song I wrote in January 2003 as part of Bullet Lodge, a songwriting lodge which is a chapter of the Immersion Composition Society. (ICS)

Bullet Lodge is a game, you have to write at least six songs in a 24-hour period. These songs become a day-album, which is then shared with other members of the lodge at monthly meetings. In addition to helping one to become a better songwriter and increasing one's ability to record, the pressure aspect of doing it in a day makes it extremely fun. See the above links for more information about Bullet Lodge and ICS.

This particular song that I am showcasing comes from the second day album I made called "A League Itself Entirely Negated". The song is called Shopping Planet. Part of the reason how this came about is that we were to somehow put the phrase "Wal-martian" into one of our songs. Enjoy.

Link to Shopping Planet (mp3)

Computer Application: Firefox 1.0

2005-01-26T09:38:00.000-06:00

You might have heard of Mozilla Foundation's internet browser, and that it is a good web browser. Well, it is. I use Firefox because I love the control, the tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, customization features, and the fact that it is standards compliant.

Some people say, "Who cares if it is standards compliant? What does that mean?" It means that developers can design web sites and know how it will appear in the web browsers and not have to make tweaks to the code to cater to all the different web browsers. Think of the plumbing in your house. You rely on the manufacturers to create plumbing parts according to standards, otherwise, you'll never know if the pipes that you are buying will fit into your house.

So, I recommend that you download a copy of Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and give it a try. It is free, of course. www.mozilla.org

Satisfying Restaurant-table Science

2005-01-25T09:15:00.000-06:00

This is a part of a conversation I had with a friend a few days ago:

Okay. So, last night with Eric at Perkins, I ordered tea with lemon as my meal. I dipped the teabag into the hot water, and the water turned a smooth and silky green, ever deepening into a nice toasty forest hue. Normal, right?

Well, then I added a squeeze of lemon. Suddenly the tea turned fiery purple! Rich grilled fuchsia! Dark hot pink!

We stared at this mysterious mug of chameleon chamomile and hibiscus broth. Maybe the acid in the lemon did something to the chlorophyll to break it down, such that the underlying anthocyanin pigments were able to flood forthwith?

Then I remembered that cabbage is a natural litmus solution... cabbage water changes colors in response to pH level. So maybe this tea was doing that, too.

How do we test this hypothesis, though? We need a source of alkaline to counteract the acid in the tea and see if it turns back to green. Where do we find alkaline solutions in Perkins? At this hour? We asked the waitress if she could get us any baking soda. She claimed no, that lying fop.

I suddenly remembered that in the old days the pioneers used to make soap by filtering water through wood ash to make caustic lye, and then mixing that with animal fat. Caustic lye... that's about as alkaline as you can get. Water and ash!

So I lurked over to the smoking section and asked a fine young couple if I could have their cigarette ash. They gave me the look you can imagine they gave me, but agreed.

Back at the table, I mixed water with the ash and then mixed in some pink tea. It turned green! Cloudy and ashy, but green!

Just to make sure that it wasn't simply a factor of the ash itself causing some careless and hideous illusion of green, I added a squeeze of lemon juice to the gagging green slurry... and it turned pink again! More ash... green again! Litmus!

I have to tell you, that was some of the most satisfying restaurant-table science I've ever experienced.

It had everything I love about science. Weird observation. Hypothesis. Problem solving. Resourcefulness. Testing the hypothesis. repeating the experiment. Eliminating doubt.

We also experimented developing a napkin filtration system so that next time we can extract a less cloudy solution. But then we decided that we'll just ask for a coffee filter instead.

I say that the waitress was a lying fop because 1. that's funny to say that about her, and 2., we found out later that Perkins has a box of baking soda in their freezer, for odor control.

But, actually, I'm GLAD they didn't have any baking soda. As that forced having to come up with the ash solution. Solution!

Introducing the schedule

2005-01-25T05:39:00.000-06:00

Pay attention to the left sidebar. There is a schedule. It will be followed more or less. That is what the general content will be on a given day of the week. Enjoy being bored by boring weblog.

gartrag.

2005-01-22T18:37:00.000-06:00

I could try to crush my head.