Saturday, June 04, 2005Burn CD Rates? It all began with a game of online solitaire. Eventually I will rack up enough tokens on Pogo to win one of those drawings against the millions of other people, but until that day, I play on to numb the brain. On a "commercial break," I noticed this peculiar ad. Is software creating the ads now? Is this possibly a media buy well made? Moxie CrimeFighter, Meet Mojo AssKicker
Extraordinary Just your periodic reminder to obtain Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine, whether you have to beg, borrow, or steal. Apparently because the Sony execs couldn't hear a single on it. Other possibilities include the work being too different to her previous output, or maybe it just doesn't fit into the corporate vision of what music should be (like kids' yogurts - bland with 'no bits'). Our Changing Planet A new book from the UN documents satellite photos from the present and from decades previous to demonstrate how the world has changed in a very short time, due to natural and human causes.
Frightening Evolution Statistics As a coworker suggested to me, one doesn't believe in evolution. One acknowledges evolution, because it's a fact. You don't believe the world is spherical -- you acknowledge it and factor it in to your plans. Matt Taibbi brings us the following startling information. Where'd my passport go? A New York Times survey last year showed that 55 percent of Americans believed that "God created us in our present form," while only 13 percent believed that "we evolved from less-advanced life-forms over millions of years, and God did not directly guide this process." A similar Gallup poll in 1997 placed those numbers at 44-10; in 1991, the numbers were 47-9.Do with that what you will. I'm typing from under my desk. Does anyone have any stats on stuff like this from other countries? I'd be curious to see what the UK's ratio is like. In Our Time: Chance And Design Speaking of evolution, here's an edition of In Our Time that was aired Feb 13, 2003. The late evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould argued that if you re-ran the tape of evolutionary history, an entirely different set of creatures would emerge. Man would not exist because the multitude of random changes that resulted in us would never be repeated exactly the same way. Others disagree, arguing that there is a pattern that points to some kind of direction – even, perhaps, a design, a sense that some things are pre-ordained. Friday, June 03, 2005Evolution Just A Theory? ?? I must say, the most amazing thing about this article is not the article itself, because it is wholly ignorant. The writer assumes one must be able to observe evolution over one generation, among many other things. But what I find really interesting is that Jason Kottke linked to it. Maybe too much NyQuil? It's actually sort of funny. One commenter proposes it may be a farce. I think (s)he may be on to something. Here's a chunk: Even more importantly, to the best of my knowledge no one has ever seen an example of genuine evolution, that is, of one species producing an offspring which was clearly of another, different species. Of course, there are hundreds of billions of living beings in the world, and it would be remarkable if anyone spotted a clear-cut evolutionary change. On the other hand, people have been looking for evidence of evolution for nearly 150 years, and scientists would certainly be sensitive to the emergence of any new species, with the evidential value this would have for proving Darwin right.UPDATE Pharyngula: A Historian Discraces Himself [Bonus: check out Pharyngula in pirate mode!] America Online Merger A Complete Mistake I thought it at the time, but second guessed myself because I was young and figured corporations knew what they were doing. But I always thought AOL was a temporary thing. It was getting so uncool, so unuseful, and so generic so quickly that there was no way it would last. If there's shame in have an @yourdomain email address, I think you're finished. Internet time moves pretty quickly. ...Mr. Parsons was quoted as saying that he was, in fact, open to spinning off some AOL shares to the public. Then Barry Diller, an established Internet bargain hunter, said publicly that he had been interested in adding AOL to his holdings last year, but had turned up his nose at hints that the price would be $20 billion.
55 Optical Illusions
I suggest checking these out.
Goodbye Pretzels, My Old FriendFirst of all, let me say how amused I am that Northwest Airlines' website, rather than northwestairlines.com, is nwa.com. They got attitude, evidently. Also, I agree with Jason Kottke's view that there's no way this will save $2 million annually. If it does, they spend way too much on pretzels and should just go to Costco like everyone else. Northwest Airlines passengers who said goodbye to free meals in February at least got free pretzels to console them. Now the airline is taking the pretzels away, too. Morning Sedition at The City Bakery  I was pleased to see the crowd contained within the bakery. If the line was out the door I don't know what I would have done.  The crowd was, however, sizeable.  So sizeable, in fact, that it was hard to move. Everyone was really into the show and the decibel level of the applause was in the triple digits. The staff was very friendly and AAR gave out a ton of fun stuff, almost all with their old logo on it. I wonder how long those keychains have been laying around.  The link to the Bush way of thinking, Lawton Smalls, makes a visit to New York to chat with Marc. In the wings is James Wolcott, waiting to discuss Deep Throat. Lawton had total control of the room. Brilliant.  Seeing Mike Doughty perform live a few feet from me was far and away the highlight of my morning. He played two songs perfectly at 8am. To hear them check the Morning Sedition archive at Air America Place. In the foreground is Dan Pashman, son of Lewis and Linda Pashman of New Jersey, and an Air America guy who told me to get out of the way.  Mr. Doughty warming up for his mini-set. In the background is Mark Riley sifting through news and the blur that was Marc Maron this morning. I have no idea how those guys are so awake that early. Mr. Maron was in fine form and, with the new experience of hosting a podcast under my belt, I was dumbfounded at how good he was with the show, the crowd, and the whole radio deal after only being on air for 13 months. All in all it was a lot of fun, and Air America even bought everyone free coffee! Can't beat that. And it was good coffee, too. The damn fine Morning Sedition will be touring across New York City every Friday this summer, visiting local restaurants and target-market locales. I hope they're all on my way to work. As a side note, I overheard one of the regular customers ask a server what was going on. She looked a little confused, then said "Oh, it's a radio broadcast. They're, um," then she looked at one of the magnets sitting by the cash register. "WLIB, yeah." He replied, "Oh, hmm." It was hardly worth a laugh, but I smiled to myself knowing that what they believed was a local AM radio broadcast was actually going out to over 2 million people. Leaking Plastination In a word, gross. In two words, completely illegal. In San Francisco, there was an exhibit of corpses, which started to leak. ABC7, KGO-TV
Anonymous Library Cards An anonymous library card system based on cash as collateral would be perfect to thwart the evildoers in Washington. It could be a pain if you go to the library a lot and also have a personal card, but if the FBI won't back down then we, as citizens, need to protect ourselves. Tell your librarian you want to be anonymous! Single Molecule TransistorImagine how small light switches could be. Petersko writes "A team from the University of Alberta has proven for the first time that a single molecule can switch electrical currents off and on, a puzzle that scientists worldwide have been trying to crack for decades. The finding could revolutionize the field of electronics, providing a leap ahead for everything from computers to batteries to medical equipment." Wider Angle Podcast 008 Wider Angle Podcast #008 [June 3, 2005] The best of the web shot into your earholes. The History of Ideas In Book Form [New Statesmen Book Review] [via AL Daily]Imogen Heap "Just For Now" [Imogen Heap] Subscribe to the podcast! [XML] Listen to Podcast 008 [MP3] (available for five days after posting) To subscribe: paste the .xml link into the text field in ipodder, and subscribe! You don't even need an iPod, it just loads a playlist in your media player of choice. If you have comments, leave them in, you guessed it, the comments! Email the podcast with stories, songs, requests, advice, criticism, artists, suggestions, questions, concepts, pictures, themes, accolades, links, sites, projects, events, et cetera: wideranglepodcast@gmail.com A note to record labels from Wider Angle. Thanks for listening. Thursday, June 02, 2005Morning Sedition at City Bakery Friday, June 3, 6-9am Morning Sedition on Air America Radio will be broadcasting live from City Bakery (3 W. 18th St.) off Union Square tomorrow, June 3rd, from 6-9am. I'll be there. If you want to meet and chat, email me. For best results in travel, take the 4, 5, 6, N, Q, R, W to 14th st/Union Square and walk a couple blocks. Celine Dion Might Be The Antichrist  Not ok. Not ok at all. Nazi Nuke?Historians working in Germany and the US claim to have found a 60-year-old diagram showing a Nazi nuclear bomb. Wider Angle 007Wider Angle Podcast #007 [June 2, 2005] The best of the web shot into your earholes. Target audience alert:Subscribe to the podcast! [XML] Listen to Podcast 007 [MP3] (available for five days after posting) To subscribe: paste the .xml link into the text field in ipodder, and subscribe! You don't even need an iPod, it just loads a playlist in your media player of choice. If you have comments, leave them in, you guessed it, the comments! Email the podcast with stories, songs, requests, advice, criticism, artists, suggestions, questions, concepts, pictures, themes, accolades, links, sites, projects, events, et cetera: wideranglepodcast@gmail.com A note to record labels from Wider Angle. Thanks for listening. Wednesday, June 01, 2005Ted Turner on CNNSomebody's got to be a serious news person. Somebody's got to be the most respected name in television news, and I wanted that position for CNN. Peerflix Trading DVDs is cool, but what incentive is there to pay $5 to wait for someone else to have their disc available when Netflix will have it when you want it? The idea is simple: You sign up at the website, list the DVDs you own and DVDs you want. When another Peerflix member requests your movie, an automated e-mail alerts you and you send the person the film through the mail. Likewise, when you request a movie, another member is alerted, and you should have it in your hands days later. You pay $1 (plus postage) for every exchange. Imogen Heap Speak For Yourself Speak for Yourself is the best album I've heard this year. Don't ask me how I heard it. This and Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine are my two favorite albums of 2005 around the midpoint. But I'd bet Speak for Yourself was finished in 2004, and Extraordinary Machine was complete in 2003. Plus, Fiona Apple's album has been shelved indefinitely at Sony, and Imogen Heap couldn't find a fucking record label for her immaculate creation, so she's releasing it herself on her own damn label. Can we reserve five copies? The people who say dance music is dead are wrong. The people who say pop music is dead are wrong. But the people who say the music industry as we know it is finished are dead on. The bad music mirrored everywhere is killing us all slowly, and sooner than later things will need to change. Music is art and it hasn't been treated as such by the global record conglomerates. Big Record Label presidents and ceos make hundreds of millions of dollars. Creative and art directors at design firms and agencies make hundreds of thousands. The same passion and the same aesthetics go into each form, but the difference in pay is so drastic. Not to mention the musicians and the designers. Musicians at major labels are poorly compensated due to high fees and bad contracts, and musicians at smaller labels are poorly compensated due to lack of sales despite fair contracts. Designers are poorly compensated unless they run their own business due to high overhead, corporate bullshit, and lack of respect. I feel I should stop the rant, as this isn't really the place for it (email me to book me for a panel or conference) but to conclude, when Imogen Heap's Speak for Yourself is released, buy it and listen over and over and over. It will make you feel like you had sex and a massage. Wider Angle Podcast 006Wider Angle Podcast #006 [June 1, 2005] The best of the web shot into your earholes. Went to the dentist today. No fun speaking to the world when you talk funny. Music today. News returns tomorrow.Subscribe to the podcast! [XML] Listen to Podcast 006 [MP3] (available for five days after posting) To subscribe: paste the .xml link into the text field in ipodder, and subscribe! You don't even need an iPod, it just loads a playlist in your media player of choice. If you have comments, leave them in, you guessed it, the comments! Email the podcast with stories, songs, requests, advice, criticism, artists, suggestions, questions, concepts, pictures, themes, accolades, links, sites, projects, events, et cetera: wideranglepodcast@gmail.com A note to record labels from Wider Angle. Thanks for listening. Tuesday, May 31, 2005Podcast Back Tomorrow
The podcast is taking a day off today. It will be back tomorrow.
Monday, May 30, 2005Oh those Brits... I recently came across this article from The Guardian Unlimited. I think I should have been born British considering that chasing cheese down a hill is considered traditional competition. My favorite part of this short article is what the organizer, Richard Jefferies, said: "It was a very good day and went very smoothly. There were a lot less casualties than normal. It is a good part of the local heritage and a tradition we would like to keep going."Ah yes... A lot less casualties chasing cheese... Mmm... cheese... Sunday, May 29, 2005What Ground Zero?Ground Zero has been exploited, neglected, and ultimately forgotten.
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