An interview with renowned atheist Richard Dawkins on whether religion is a force for good or evil.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Richard Dawkins on Religion and Science
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Witness: Ukraine: State of Chaos
Has the eastern European country been returned to the grips of the powerful oligarchs and neighbouring Russia?
Sunday, November 25, 2012
What Killed Arafat?
An investigation into the mysterious death of the late Palestinian leader reveals that he may have been poisoned.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
視点・論点: "一票の格差"と民主主義の質 (法政大学教授 白鳥 浩)
民主・自民・公明の６月に取りまとめられた３党合意により、社会保障と税の一体改革法が成立するのに加えて、衆議院の解散総選挙が｢近いうち｣に行われるということが野田首相から当時の自民党谷垣総裁に伝えられたのは８月８日でした。すでにその合意から３か月が経過しようとしています。来る選挙を念頭として、既成政党のみではなく、次の国政選挙で国政に打って出る新政党も準備を始めているところです。１０月２０日に日本維新の会は九州から遊説を開始し、また、１０月２５日には都知事であった石原慎太郎氏も新党を立ち上げ、国政に打って出ることを表明しました。このように、来るべき総選挙を巡って各党は準備を急いでいます。また来年７月には参議院議員選挙も予定されています。Continue Reading on nhk.or.jp
Affirmative action, アファーマティブ・アクション, John Rawls, ジョン・ロールズ, 一票の格差,
Monday, November 12, 2012
101 East: Ageing Japan
How can the world's most elderly society overcome its demographic crisis?
Sakae Matsuzawa, Kesayo Shimizu, Hikariko Ono, benefit, burden, longevity, taxpayer, Mr. Kudo, shelter resident, Hidenori Hashi, Outreach worker, Miyoko Miyazawa, Eisei Hospital, touch, Keiko Muramatsu, Itsuo Kandatsu, elderly people, elderly people living alone (独居老人), 3.8 million living alone, partner robot, Koichi Kaneda, Hiramachi Shirakawa, Credit Suisse, social security, retire at 70, raising retire age, Nobuhiko Hasegawa
Friday, November 9, 2012
People & Power: How to Rob Africa
Why does the Western world feed Africa with one hand while taking from it with the other?
Stanley Kwenda, Anas Aremeyan Anas, Zimbabwe, Corporate service provider, Money laundering, Seychelles, offshore financial system, undercover journalist, offshore account, offshore company, distorted system, Anonymous entity, impoverishing, stolen money, consulting company
Witness: Kay Kay: The Girl from Guangzhou
Kay Kay is the face of modern-day China - a bright, educated and ambitious 20-year-old living in the booming southern city of Guangzhou.
She represents a new generation of middle class Chinese 'only' children, benefiting from China's economic growth as well as the single-minded dedication of her factory-worker parents.
This unique film has followed her for her whole life, filming her and her family every year since her birth in 1992.
It gives a rare, personal narrative to the decades of transformation that China has undergone. From her childhood and school days through to her university life where she struggles to get to grips with China's economic imperatives in the face of environmental issues.
Kay Kay is a charming, engaging guide to modern China, its people and the country's recent economic boom.
Bruno Sorrentino, Kay Kay, Guangzhou
Thursday, November 8, 2012
The Stream : Swazis speak out against Africa's last absolute monarchy
Swaziland protesters call for reform amidst a financial crisis and cabinet reshuffle.
Absolute monarchy, Mark Leon Goldberg, undispatch.com, Without the King, swazidemocracy.org, Mary Pais Da Silva, Michael Skolnik, South Africa, Swaziland
Switzerland's direct democracy
Together with neutrality and federalism, direct democracy is a part of the Swiss national identity and helps unite the various languages, religions and cultures in the country. This video gives you a short introduction to this unique political system. (Produced by swissinfo.ch on behalf of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad)
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Billy Corgan on Q CBC Music
Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan stopped by for a feature interview in Studio Q. He took a break from the band's tour in support of their new album Oceania to chat about the record, his band, the legacy of generation X and how he's perceived by the public.
Listen to full uncut version on Q CBC Music.
Jian Ghomeshi, Rush, Guns N' Roses, Neil Young, PETA, Keith Richard, Burton Cummings, Lionel Richie, David Grohl, Grateful Dead
Simulation of a binary boson star merger
Author: Frans Pretorius, Department of Physics, Princeton University, specialist in numerical solution of the field equations of Einstein for gravity. The non-linearity and complexity of Einstein's equations make it challenging to solve even numerically, and some portion of his time is spent designing algorithms to efficiently solve the equations in parallel on large computer clusters, and software to manipulate and visualize the simulation results.
The video shows a binary boson star merger. Technically a boson star is a spherically symmetric static solutions of Einsteins field equation coupled to a scalar field (when they are free of singularities, otherwise they are black holes). Until today there is no observational evidence for the existence of a boson star. In fact, they are made of scalar elementary particles, and none has been discovered yet. Boson stars are hypothetical candidates for supermassive objects at the center of galaxies. In fact, for the supermassive object at the center of our own galaxy, evidence points towards a black hole, but the possibility that it is a boson or fermion star cannot be completely excluded so far.
Quantum Mechanics (Chapter 5 of 6)
Once you get past existence coming and going... and virtual particles... and uncertainty... and exclusion, then you are ready to enjoy the REALLY weird stuff in the quantum world.
9-Yr-Old College Prodigy: Tanishq Abraham
In the premiere episode of PRODIGIES, THNKR introduces you to the incomparable Tanishq Abraham. At 8 years old, Tanishq contemplates the fate of the universe, attends college classes, and discovers super novae. Enter Tanishq's special world and join him on his quest for knowledge, while meeting the family and teachers who cultivate his genius.
PRODIGIES is a bi-weekly series showcasing the youngest and brightest as they challenge themselves to reach new heights and the stories behind them.
9-year-old goes to college!
CNN's Fredricka Whitfield talks to a 9-year-old prodigy about his college experience and future plans.
9-Yr-Old Prodigy Explains "God Particle"
Child PRODIGY Tanishq Abraham joins us in this Google+ Hangout to explain the exciting July 4th discovery of the Higgs Boson particle
Time evolution for two fermions in 1-D harmonic quantum system
Two antisymmetrized fermionic wave packets in 1-D harmonic potential quantum system. Packets have different momentum.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Third Party Dabate
Larry King, the host of Larry King Now on Ora TV, will serve as moderator for a special 2012 Presidential debate. This debate will take place on October 23 at 9:00pm EDT at the Hilton Chicago and streamed LIVE here on Ora TV.
Larry King, “I have interviewed every US President since Nixon, and lest people forget, I helped usher Ross Perot into the national conversation during the 1992 presidential contest. I appreciate the importance of providing a platform to those with real alternative visions for our country’s future."
Watch it on ora.tv
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
California Theatre Decorated for Apple's Media Event
Last week, Apple sent out invites for a media event scheduled for next Tuesday, October 23. This time, the event will held at the California Theatre in San Jose, CA. Apple has already decorated the theatre for the upcoming event.
Continue Reading on techie buzz
Monday, October 22, 2012
The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan on the past, the present, the future and 'Mayonaise'
And in today’s world of pull quotes and de-contextualization, some of his statements — when excerpted from their longer surrounding statements — can make him seem like one of rock’s biggest crybabies.
It’s like how you can look at Picasso’s art and see who he was (sleeping with) at the time, you know.
But instead of painting her, he paints Madonna.
I guess it’s maybe a different kind of soapbox.
A different power to influence, a different power to connect to people.
And I’ve been in that trench for 25 f—ing years, literally saying the same stuff over and over again, and being poked at, made fun of, treated like I’m some sort of weird anachronistic creature, some sort of amoeba to be studied.
It’s about individuality, integrity, but not the guy with the beard’s version of it.
It’s part of the carnivorous process of music and its culture.
For example, I would argue the EDM music scene has reinvented it, so they deserve their props, because they’re doing it.
They haven’t evolved that archetype, they’ve just become more precocious, but without the hits.
And making your money has everything to be with being correct, being a leading edge musical candidate.
‘Oceania’ is a little bit more up and has kind of a little upper modality, and then in the second half we dive into some better known songs, but we tend to take the harder edge of some of that stuff.
We’re playing ‘Disarm,’ ‘Tonight, Tonight,’ ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings,’ ‘Cherub Rock,’ ‘Zero,’ stuff that’s really still invigorating to play. And it seems to flow in a longer narrative.
The best stuff I’ve seen that people have picked up on is it sort of embraces the whole run. It puts its arms around a long story.
So when we put it all together, we were like, ‘is this gonna work?’ Because I had already been running my mouth that we were going to do it, so there was no backing off it.
I know a lot of people are sentimental, say, for ‘Siamese Dream.’ I don’t think that would work as well a musical body of work in that order. And it would only work because of people’s sentimentality for it, which I guess is how other people are doing it.
Which is what’s funny to me when people get sentimental, because if they really wanted to let me do my thing, I could recreate for them a 1993 Smashing Pumpkins show that would be far better and far more interesting than play ‘Siamese Dream,’ but that doesn’t sell tickets.
Maybe that’s what we should do: Maybe that’s my way to trump this bulls— and maybe satisfy a curiosity would be to say, ‘OK, I’m gonna play a 1993 setlist.’ That I could get into, because I’d like to see what we were thinking.
We definitely sequenced ‘Oceania’ to be a concept album kind of flow, so we knew if it had a visual narrative with it it should work, and it did.
I think the Pumpkins, as a business now, is about a tradition.
I have people with me, as are heard on ‘Oceania,’ that are part of that tradition. And they’re upholding a legacy, which is important.
And if you need to connect to a certain part of the legacy a certain way, that’s your choice.
If it doesn’t work for you symbolically, archetypally, or musically, that’s totally fine.
My recent quote that I’ve been saying is we’re like Ringling Bros. Circus. You expect a certain type of show a certain type of sway, and you don’t get too caught up on who the high wire act is this year.
It’s just you expect them to deliver that thing. And if I’m the ringmaster, great, you know what I mean? It’s my deal.
I loved the last Guns N’ Roses album, you know what I mean?
They forget about my dream. Which is to be a musician in a band with people who actually want to be there with me. Let’s not forget about that end of the dream.
there’s a 53-minute concert that was edited from 3-hour-plus concert from London. The record company lost the tapes. We were going to go back and put out the entire 3-hour concert and the record company lost the tapes.
So we only have this edited-for-TV 53-minute version that was produced at the time.
We’re four or five regime changes at EMI/Virgin from who used to be there, so you can’t find anybody who remembers anything.
It’s been very arduous to go through everything. So it’s very satisfying to put together a cool little window into what it would have been like to be part of the working team for ‘Mellon Collie’ at the time.
With these reissues I’ve just tried to create windows into how the albums were made, and what was laying around around the albums, so you get the sense of the culture of that particular period.
On the reissue plan going forward: “Once we clear the Pumpkins’ first era, then I have about 65 unreleased Zwan songs, I have a ton of unreleased stuff relating to my solo album ‘The Future Embrace,’ and then there’s a ton of ‘Zeitgeist’ demos, probably songs I should have put on the album, that are pretty interesting and well-done.
Also I have two unreleased acoustic records, plus an unreleased acoustic soundtrack — three albums worth of acoustic albums from the mid-2000s that are totally unreleased.
On the reissue of Machina/ The Machines of God:“We’re going to remix the whole album, ‘Machina I’ and ‘Machina II,’ and put it back in its proper sequence, so it will finally be heard like the concept record it was meant to be.
There was supposed to be a whole rock suite where you symbolically go to see the Machines of God in concert, so songs like ‘Everlasting Gaze’ were supposed flow into ‘Dross.’
There’s supposed to be this fictional rock and roll concert that happens within the album, whether or not I’ll do the crowd noise and all the stuff I’d planned on doing, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll make it sound like Kiss’ Alive I or something.
It’s hard to (pick one song), but I think there’s a message you would hope to send that says, ‘this is more me than the others,’ and I think a song like ‘With Every Light’ (from ‘Machina/ the Machines of God’) is a song that would be alright to play at my funeral, because there’s an honesty there that most people just glossed over.
I sing that song every night to warm up, and I still really connect with what those lyrics meant.
It’s about a spiritual epiphany.
It’s about realizing you’re in a tradition that’s far deeper than fame, and that’s kind of what holds you to it.
I’m sure every night in John Lee Hooker’s life wasn’t so great. But he was steeped in the tradition of the blues, and am I whore, am I a poet or am I a folk musician, you know what I mean?
All this other bulls— just kind of goes with the times. But that’s a song I think I would be alright with being part of what will be played at my funeral. It really expresses how I feel.
Continue Reading on The Detroit News.
Bobby Fischer travelling from Japan to Iceland
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| Bobby Fischer |
Former worldchampion Bobby Fischer on his way from Japan to Iceland being interviewed during the ride and flight on chess, fischerrandom, pre-arranged matches, Karpov and Kasparov and more....
(I apologize for not getting the sound absolutely synchronized)
excerpts from the DVD Bobby Fischer and me by Gudmundsson
entire dvd at
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2rA9STEwx7McjhDTjI3ZUZCV0k
Authors@Google: Josh Waitzkin
Chess champion Josh Waitzkin visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book "The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence." This event took place on April 10, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.
Josh Waitzkin is an 8-time National Chess Champion, 13-time Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands National Champion, and Two-time Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands World Champion. In 1993 Paramount Pictures released the film Searching for Bobby Fischer, based on the highly acclaimed book of the same title written by Fred Waitzkin, documenting Josh's journey to winning his first National Championship.
In addition to Josh's intense competitive life, he is a renowned writer and teacher in the fields of learning and performance psychology. Since 1997, Josh has been the spokesperson for Chessmaster, the largest computer chess program in the world, and a spokesperson for the fight against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
Over the past several years, Josh has appeared in all media venues from MTV, ESPN, and Today to People, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, The New York Times, Inside Kung Fu, and Kung Fu & Tai Chi Magazine.
The Art of Learning is an autobiographical discussion of the learning process and performance psychology, drawing from Josh's experiences in both chess and the martial arts. Interview by Peter Allen, director of Google University.
Josh Waitzkin: The Art of Learning on ABC News
Josh Waitzkin discusses The Art of Learning on ABC News Now with Juju Chang
Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning
Josh Waitzkin discusses chess, martial arts, and ideas from his new book, The Art of Learning.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
The Zionist Story
The Zionist Story, an independent film by Ronen Berelovich, is the story of ethnic cleansing, colonialism and apartheid to produce a demographically Jewish State.
Ronen successfully combines archival footage with commentary from himself and others such as Ilan Pappe, Terry Boullata, Alan Hart and Jeff Halper.
"I have recently finished an independent documentary, The Zionist Story, in which I aim to present not just the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but also the core reason for it: the Zionist ideology, its goals (past and present) and its firm grip not only on Israeli society, but also, increasingly, on the perception of Middle East issues in Western democracies.
Risk it all - Pakistan
The Lowari Pass begins in the town of Dir in the tribal regions of northwest Pakistan. The road is 240km long and is the only supply route through the mountains to the small villages of the Chitral valley which is shared with Afghanistan. It is a road where even the slightest error can be fatal.
The holy city of Dir and its 20,000 inhabitants make their living off the road. Each day tons of goods are loaded and unloaded from trucks, the only means of transport in the region. The trucker's quarter provides most of the jobs here. Drivers, mechanics, assistants of all ages work here every day amid the dust and pollution.
We follow Pakistani truck drivers facing death at every turn transporting goods across mountain passes on arguably the world's most dangerous road.
Risk it all - Brazil
Brazilian children at the Tajaparu river risk getting cut to pieces as they fasten their canoes onto fast-moving tourist boats in order to sell their goods. They are risking death in order to make a few pennies selling sweets and jams.Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZLT_qs3JiQ&list=ELDDVA8XvIxiU&index=1&feature=plpp_video
Friday, July 27, 2012
Deb Roy (デブ・ロイ): The Birth of a Word
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| Deb Roy |
MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water." Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Susan Cain: The power of introverts
In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.
Friday, June 1, 2012
iPod Godfather Tony Fadell Finally Reveals His New Product: A Thermostat. No, Really.
For the last eighteen months, the tech world has been anxiously awaiting news of what iPod godfather Tony Fadell is up to. His staff has been sworn to secrecy since word got out he was leaving retirement to do something new. Despite reporters camping out in front of his office with cameras, the news somehow stayed a secret– no small feat in the ever-leaky land of Silicon Valley.Continue Reading on TechCrunch.com
Thursday, May 31, 2012
The Cold and Lovely - Tom Tom Magazine Feature - 2012 Rehearsals
From www.tomtommag.com
Tom Tom Magazine visited The Cold & Lovely in their LA practice space just months after they formed as a band. In this interview, the band talks about how they got together and their future plans. They also play a few songs.
Tim Cook at D10: Loves That Customers, Rumor and News Sites Care About Apple
At this year's All Things D conference, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher interviewed Apple CEO Tim Cook about a range of topics. We offer a transcript of the interview, but didn't include the Q&A session because we were standing in line to ask Cook a question.Continue Reading on MacRumors.com
A number of questions were asked, including about Apple's product naming strategy and how Cook originally joined Apple -- I asked about his feelings regarding the attention paid to Apple and himself by rumor sites, the media and Apple's extremely passionate customers:
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
The Most Beautiful Corn in the World
This photograph of an ear of glass gem corn has been making the rounds on the internet over the past week (often accompanied with a note declaring it is NOT PHOTOSHOPPED!).Continue Reading on EdibleGeography.com
Connecting the Dots
When Mark Lombardi died, at the age of 48, he left behind a controversial body of work—large-scale, maplike drawings that chart connections between the worlds of international banking, organized crime, arms dealing, terrorism, oil, and government—the result of countless hours of research distilled into spartan webs of pencil lines and text. He also left a legacy shrouded in conjecture and mystery. Did he take his own life in his Brooklyn apartment on the night of March 22, 2000, or were there more insidious forces at work? What did a woman claiming to be an FBI agent hope to find when she called the Whitney Museum of American Art, owner of one of Lombardi’s most epic drawings, soon after 9/11, asking to study the piece? A new feature-length documentary, called Mark Lombardi: Death-defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy, takes on these and other questions, and spotlights the sinister links found in Lombardi’s art.Continue Reading on ArtNews.com
Mark Lombardi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lombardi
Mark Lombardi: Death-defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy
Steve Jobs Was an Awesome Flip-Flopper, Says Tim Cook (Video)
What did Steve Jobs teach Tim Cook? The Apple CEO has a list of lessons, and he shared some of them onstage at D10 tonight. But Cook seemed most impressed with the Apple co-founder’s ability to change his mind, very quickly.Continue Reading on AllThingsD.com
Unusual Quantum Effect Discovered in Earliest Stages of Photosynthesis
Quantum physics and plant biology seem like two branches of science that could not be more different, but surprisingly they may in fact be intimately tied.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Quantum Mechanics at Work in Photosynthesis: Algae Familiar With These Processes for Nearly Two Billion Years
A team of University of Toronto chemists have made a major contribution to the emerging field of quantum biology, observing quantum mechanics at work in photosynthesis in marine algae.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Monday, May 28, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
ジェームス・イハ - To Who Knows Where [HD]
ジェームス・イハ、日本先行発売のセカンド・アルバム『ルック・トゥ・ザ・スカイ』からのリード曲「トゥ・フー・ノウズ・ホエア」のミュージック・ビデオ。
監督は、Adam Neustadter。1976年のデヴィッド・ボウイ主演映画『地球に落ちてきた男』（The Man Who Fell To Earth）へのオマージュがこめられている作品。
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position." Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys having been presented since 1959. Although it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the main artist, the featured artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer. In 1962, the award name was extended to Album of the Year (other than classical) but, in 1965, the shorter name returned. It was not until 1968, 1969, 1999, and 2011 that the award was won by a rock, country, hip hop, or indie album respectively. As of 2012, classical albums are eligible for this award, with the award for Best Classical Album being discontinued.Continue Reading on Wikipedia.org
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Chatting with Evgeni Malkin about signing woman’s chest, Lionel Messi and beer called Giroux’s Tears
Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins saw what happened with countryman Alex Radulov and the Nashville Predators this postseason, when he was kept out for two games following a curfew violation.Continue Reading on sports.yahoo.com
Would this have happened on another team?
"It all depends on the team. But it is very difficult for me to discuss it because I have not spoken with Radulov and I don't know what is true and what is not. Maybe he was late, maybe he was a bit tipsy. Who knows? It's difficult for me to say anything on the subject," said Malkin to Pavel Lysenkov of SovSport in a recent interview.
"And if this was the case then he was wrong because this was during playoffs and he shouldn't have done that. But at the same time [the media] blows everything out of proportions especially if you cannot find your game and then you're late everything is then intensified in America. If a player is playing well and scoring goals no one cares where he goes and when, people will carry him around with their hands regardless. But if you're not playing late and break team rules then it becomes like a snowball."
Malkin is currently playing with Russia in the IIHF world championships. Here is the rest of Malkin's interview with Pavel Lysenkov, which spans from playoff MVP to Lionel Messi to a beer called "Giroux's Tears." Enjoy.
Scientists Identify Neurotransmitters That Lead to Forgetting
While we often think of memory as a way of preserving the essential idea of who we are, little thought is given to the importance of forgetting to our wellbeing, whether what we forget belongs in the "horrible memories department" or just reflects the minutia of day-to-day living.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
WHY IS ZOOEY DESCHANEL NO. 12?
Zooey Deschanel may be TV's New Girl, but she’s not new to hipsters, who have had the She & Him frontwoman’s poster over their beds for years (ironically, of course).Continue Reading on Askmen.com
Quote: Zooey Deschanel
Women are won over by people who are sweet and respectful and pretty and kind and funny -- those are the things that win women over. And the mistake that anyone can make is not being themselves. You can only trick people for so long.- Zooey Deschanel
List of people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards
Eleven people have won all four major annual American entertainment awards, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. Doing so may be abbreviated EGOT, or sometimes GATE ("A" for "Academy"). These awards honor outstanding achievements in, respectively, television, music or other audio recording, film, and theater. Winning all four awards has been referred to as winning the Grand Slam of show business. The acronym EGOT was invented by actor Philip Michael Thomas and was used as a plot device in several episodes of the TV series 30 Rock.Continue Reading on Wikipedia.org
Friday, May 11, 2012
First Listen: Best Coast, 'The Only Place'
For all its frothily primitive charm, Best Coast's 2010 debut Crazy for You isn't exactly ambitious: It's going for, well, frothily primitive charm, captured in deceptively simple sentiments like "When I'm with you, I have fun." Darkness stays mostly confined to the instrumental shading, and in the want-bordering-on-need that seeps into Bethany Cosentino's flat but approachable delivery.Continue Reading on npr.org
First Listen: Beach House, 'Bloom'
Few bands arrive as fully formed as Beach House, which hasn't strayed far from its musical calling card since its 2006 debut: frosty, dime-store analog keyboards, Alex Scally's swoony slide guitar and the alluring vocals of Victoria Legrand. Where many bands take their fans through wild stylistic shifts or incorporate flashy arrangements, deconstructed beats or bursts of cacophony, Beach House has remained constant in tone, evolving incrementally through precise refinements.Continue Reading on npr.org
Thursday, May 10, 2012
視点・論点 「シリーズ 私の子ども時代（１）」東京大学名誉教授 養老孟司
私の子ども時代から現在までには、ずいぶん大きな変化がありました。世間の考え方も変わったと思いますし、日常の生活がとくに違ってきました。大げさにいうと、人類史上つまり人間の歴史で、日常生活がいちばん変化した時代を、自分が経験してきたのではないか。そんなふうに思うことすらあります。Continue Reading on NHK.or.jp
Miri Yu (柳美里): 視点・論点「シリーズ 私の子ども時代（４）」作家
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| Miri Yu |
子ども時代を振り返ると、嫌なことばかりだった気がします。Continue Reading on NHK.or.jp
「バイキン」というあだ名をつけられ、「バイキンが伝染る」とクラスメイトたちは指で「エンガチョ」のバリアを張り、運動会の「ジェンカ」や「マイムマイム」や「オクラホマミキサー」などのフォークダンスでは、だれひとりわたしの手に触れる子はいませんでした。
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Greater Purpose in Life May Protect Against Harmful Changes in the Brain Associated With Alzheimer’s Disease
Greater purpose in life may help stave off the harmful effects of plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
The study is published in the May issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Our study showed that people who reported greater purpose in life exhibited better cognition than those with less purpose in life even as plaques and tangles accumulated in their brains," said Patricia A. Boyle, PhD.
"These findings suggest that purpose in life protects against the harmful effects of plaques and tangles on memory and other thinking abilities. This is encouraging and suggests that engaging in meaningful and purposeful activities promotes cognitive health in old age."
Michael Schumacher claims Pirelli tyres are like 'driving on raw eggs'
Michael Schumacher is refusing to let Pirelli off the hook after launching another attack on the tyre manufacturer by claiming their rubber is like driving "on raw eggs".Continue Reading on Guardian.co.uk
Hamilton's historic night ranks among best four-home run games
When Josh Hamilton hit four home runs against the Orioles on Tuesday, he became just the 16th man in baseball history to accomplish the feat. More men (21) have thrown perfect games. Hamilton's performance was even more impressive than that, however. When you factor in the fact that Hamilton went 5-for-5 on the night, mixing a double in among his four homers, it could be argued that his was one of the handful of best single-game hitting performances in major league history.Continue Reading on SI.com
Psychopathy linked to specific structural abnormalities in the brain
New research provides the strongest evidence to date that psychopathy is linked to specific structural abnormalities in the brain. The study, published in Archives of General Psychiatryand led by researchers at King's College London is the first to confirm that psychopathy is a distinct neuro-developmental sub-group of anti-social personality disorder (ASPD).Continue Reading on MedicalXpress.com
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
A Quote from Galileo Galilei
Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes -- I mean the universe -- but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.- Galileo Galilei
Daniel Alfredsson "Face Of The Franchise" - TSN Feature 2012 (HD)
The Ottawa Senators franchise has had it's fair share of villains, and it's had one true hero, Daniel Alfredsson.
Off The Record with Claude Giroux (HD)
Claude Giroux gets up front on Off The Record with Michael Landsberg.
Gabriel Landeskog on After Hours (3/24/12)
Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog interviewed on After Hours.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Stephen Wolfram: Computing a theory of everything
Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica, talks about his quest to make all knowledge computational -- able to be searched, processed and manipulated. His new search engine, Wolfram Alpha, has no lesser goal than to model and explain the physics underlying the universe.
Leonard Susskind: My friend Richard Feynman
What's it like to be pals with a genius? Onstage at TEDxCaltech, physicist Leonard Susskind spins a few stories about his friendship with the legendary Richard Feynman, discussing his unconventional approach to problems both serious and ... less so.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0
What aspects of religion should atheists (respectfully) adopt? Alain de Botton suggests a "religion for atheists" -- call it Atheism 2.0 -- that incorporates religious forms and traditions to satisfy our human need for connection, ritual and transcendence.
Alain de Botton
http://www.alaindebotton.com/
Jonathan Haidt: Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks a simple, but difficult question: why do we search for self-transcendence? Why do we attempt to lose ourselves? In a tour through the science of evolution by group selection, he proposes a provocative answer.
Jonathan Haidt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Haidt
Frank Warren: Half a million secrets
"Secrets can take many forms -- they can be shocking, or silly, or soulful." Frank Warren, the founder of PostSecret.com, shares some of the half-million secrets that strangers have mailed him on postcards.
PostSecret
http://www.postsecret.com/
Venus to Appear in Once-In-A-Lifetime Event
On 5 and 6 June this year, millions of people around the world will be able to see Venus pass across the face of the Sun in what will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
It will take Venus about six hours to complete its transit, appearing as a small black dot on the Sun's surface, in an event that will not happen again until 2117.
Transit of Venus
http://www.transitofvenus.org/
Why Musicians Need More Than Viral Videos to Succeed
As guitarist and co-founder of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan was at the forefront of one of the most important music movements in recent history. And he’s not finished. The Pumpkins have a new album coming out in June, and Corgan is splitting time between music and helping artists take back control from labels. He wants talented musicians to have more lucrative careers and engage their fans. At the same time, he’s calling on fans — who play a more critical role in artist success than ever before — to invest in the artists they love.Continue Reading on Mashable.com
Sunday, April 29, 2012
New Particle Discovered at CERN
Physicists from the University of Zurich have discovered a previously unknown particle composed of three quarks in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator. A new baryon could thus be detected for the first time at the LHC. The baryon known as Xi_b^* confirms fundamental assumptions of physics regarding the binding of quarks.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Xi baryon
The Xi baryons or cascade particles are a family of subatomic hadron particles which have the symbol Ξ and have a +2, +1 or -1 elementary charge or are neutral. They are baryons containing three quarks: one up or down quark, and two heavier quarks. They are sometimes called the cascade particles because of their unstable state; they decay rapidly into lighter particles through a chain of decays . The first discovery of a charged Xi baryon was in cosmic ray experiments by the Manchester group in 1952. The first discovery of the neutral Xi particle was at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in 1959. It was also observed as a daughter product from the decay of the omega baryon (Ω−) observed at Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1964.Continue Reading on Wikipedia.org
Smashing Pumpkins Reveal 'Oceania' Cover and Track Listing: Preview live versions of songs from the band's seventh studio album
The Smashing Pumpkins will release Oceania, their seventh studio album, on June 19th. Though the record stands on its own, it was created as part of the band's ongoing 44-song work-in-progress Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which has been released song-by-song since the end of 2009.Continue Reading on RollingStone.com
Friday, April 27, 2012
Smashing Pumpkins: "I'll have the last laugh"
When he isn’t writing demonic riffs for the Veronicas, launching pro-wrestling companies or slagging off Pavement, Billy Corgan continues to make music with The Smashing Pumpkins. This July the twitter-loving frontman will lead his Pumpkins back to our shores to headline day three of Splendour In The Grass and play alongside the likes of Jack White, At The Drive-In and Bloc Party.
During the week FasterLouder gave Billy a call to ask one ‘dumb question’ and talk about new albums, spiritual biographies, girlfriends, Courtney Love, twitter and much more.Continue Reading on FasterLouder.com.au
Thursday, April 26, 2012
'Sounds of Silence' Proving a Hit: World's Fastest Random Number Generator
Researchers at The Australian National University have developed the fastest random number generator in the world by listening to the 'sounds of silence'.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
The researchers -- Professor Ping Koy Lam, Dr Thomas Symul and Dr Syed Assad from the ANU ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology -- have tuned their very sensitive light detectors to listen to vacuum -- a region of space that is empty.
Centre for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology
http://cqc2t.org/
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future
Onstage at TED2012, Peter Diamandis makes a case for optimism -- that we'll invent, innovate and create ways to solve the challenges that loom over us. "I’m not saying we don’t have our set of problems; we surely do. But ultimately, we knock them down.”
Scientists See Solution to Critical Barrier to Fusion
Physicists have discovered a possible solution to a mystery that has long baffled researchers working to harness fusion. If confirmed by experiment, the finding could help scientists eliminate a major impediment to the development of fusion as a clean and abundant source of energy for producing electric power.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
http://www.pppl.gov/
Tokamak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokamak
David A. Gates
http://www.pppl.gov/~dgates/Site/Dr._David_A._Gates.html
Plasma Science and Fusion Center @ MIT
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/
Ohmic heating (Joule heating)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joule_heating
Alcator C-Mod
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcator_C-Mod
DIII-D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIII-D_(fusion_reactor)
General Atomics
http://www.ga.com/index.php
Greenwald limit
http://fusionwiki.ciemat.es/fusionwiki/index.php/Greenwald_limit
Martin Greenwald
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/~g/
Culham Centre for Fusion Energy
http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/
Magnetic Islands in Plasmas
http://scitation.aip.org/pop/announcements/Fitzpatrickaps2008.pdf
Density Limits in Toroidal Plasmas
http://www.psfc.mit.edu/~g/papers/aps01.pdf
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Planetary Resources
Planetary Resources, Inc. is a company that was founded in 2012 to expand Earth's resource base. As of April 20, 2012, only a list of major investors and advisors is known; a number of the project's backers are notable for their entrepreneurship and interest in space, exploration, and research. Some also have previous involvement in space research. It is speculated that Planetary Resources is "looking for ways to extract raw materials from non-Earth sources," as the means by which it would (as stated in its press release) "add trillions of dollars to the global GDP." There is speculation they are looking into mining asteroids, with one source reporting anonymous verification of that claim.
The company has scheduled an "announcement" for Tuesday, April 24th 2012 at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington. Tickets for this event were offered for sale to the general public, at a basic price of (U.S.) $25.00.
There is an eponymous website, registered on February 22nd, 2012, by an entity calling itself Anderson Astronautics. At present, the publicly-accessible area of the site includes only a title-page. This has the company logo, a notice for the April 24 announcement, some basic contact information, and a "sign-up" form, for those who wish to be notified of new developments via email. Joining involves an email confirmation process, which gives access to a basic "user settings" page at the site. Changes to the website have been promised for the day of the announcement.Continue Reading on Wikipedia.org
Planetary Resources, Inc.
http://www.planetaryresources.com/
New material shares many of graphene’s unusual properties
Graphene, a single-atom-thick layer of carbon, has spawned much research into its unique electronic, optical and mechanical properties. Now, researchers at MIT have found another compound that shares many of graphene’s unusual characteristics — and in some cases has interesting complementary properties to this much-heralded material.Continue Reading on web.mit.edu
Mildred Dresselhaus
http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/dresselhaus_mildred.html
Shuang Tang
http://web.mit.edu/nanoengineering/people/students.shtml
Graphene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
Bismuth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismuth
Antimony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimony
Hinode and SOHO Paint an Asymmetrical Picture of the Sun
Approximately every 11 years the magnetic field on the sun reverses completely -- the north magnetic pole switches to south, and vice versa. It's as if a bar magnet slowly lost its magnetic field and regained it in the opposite direction, so the positive side becomes the negative side. But, of course, the sun is not a simple bar magnet and the causes of the switch, not to mention the complex tracery of moving magnetic fields throughout the eleven-year cycle, are not easy to map out.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Hinode: Mission to the Sun
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hinode/index.html
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
http://soho.esac.esa.int/home.html
James Cameron on Earth's Deepest Spot: Desolate, Lunar-Like
The Mariana Trench's Challenger Deep—the deepest point on Earth—looks as bleak and barren as the moon, according to James Cameron, who successfully returned just hours ago from the first solo dive to the ocean abyss.
At noon, local time Monday (10 p.m. ET Sunday), the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker's "vertical torpedo" sub broke the surface of the western Pacific, some 200 miles (322 kilometers) southwest of Guam.Continue Reading on NationalGeographic.com
Deepsea Challenge
http://deepseachallenge.com/
Saturday, April 21, 2012
In the Family
"In the Family" centers on one of the notable performances I've seen — if, indeed, it is a performance. Perhaps Patrick Wang is exactly like that. Then he must be a very good man. He wrote, directed and stars in the film, but it's not a one-man show. It is about the meaning of "family." This is his first feature, and may signal the opening of an important career.Continue Reading on RogerEbert.com
Friday, April 20, 2012
TV as Thin as a Sheet of Paper? Printable Flexible Electronics Just Became Easier With Stable Electrodes
Imagine owning a television with the thickness and weight of a sheet of paper. It will be possible, someday, thanks to the growing industry of printed electronics. The process, which allows manufacturers to literally print or roll materials onto surfaces to produce an electronically functional device, is already used in organic solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) that form the displays of cellphones.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Bernard Kippelen
http://www.ece.gatech.edu/about/personnel/bio.php?id=127
Georgia Institute of Technology
http://www.gatech.edu/
Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics (COPE)
http://www.cope.gatech.edu/
Animal: Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals
 |
| Animal |
Empathy, cooperation, fairness and reciprocity -- caring about the well-being of others seems like a very human trait. But Frans de Waal shares some surprising videos of behavioral tests, on primates and other mammals, that show how many of these moral traits all of us share.
Distinct 'God Spot' in the Brain Does Not Exist, Study Shows
Scientists have speculated that the human brain features a "God spot," one distinct area of the brain responsible for spirituality. Now, University of Missouri researchers have completed research that indicates spirituality is a complex phenomenon, and multiple areas of the brain are responsible for the many aspects of spiritual experiences. Based on a previously published study that indicated spiritual transcendence is associated with decreased right parietal lobe functioning, MU researchers replicated their findings. In addition, the researchers determined that other aspects of spiritual functioning are related to increased activity in the frontal lobe.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Brick Johnstone
http://shp.missouri.edu/profiles/johnstone-brick/index.php
University of Missouri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Missouri
Parietal lobe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parietal_lobe
Self-oriented
http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-oriented
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Billy Corgan Q&A
Billy Corgan is a modern rock icon, having led The Smashing Pumpkins to phenomenal success in the '90s with classic albums including Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, until their dramatic split in 2000. After a stint leading new group Zwan, the prolific songwriter revived the Pumpkins in 2005 and continues to create new music with the band despite being the only founding member still in the line-up. Never one to follow convention - which has sometimes put him at odds with fans and the media - Corgan discusses his motivation for keeping The Smashing Pumpkins alive, how he feels about playing the band's old material, and their forthcoming album Oceania.Continue Reading on VMusic.com.au
Crestfallen.com Friday the 13th Interview with Billy Corgan
On Friday the 13th (April 2012), Crestfallen.com interviewed Billy Corgan over the phone. The interview lasted for well over an hour and covered the reissue process, an in-depth look at the Lucky 13 project, the upcoming release of Oceania, and much more.Continue Reading on Crestfallen.com
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Artificial Photosynthesis Breakthrough: Fast Molecular Catalyzer
Researchers from the Department of Chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, have managed to construct a molecular catalyzer that can oxidize water to oxygen very rapidly. In fact, these KTH scientists are the first to reach speeds approximating those is nature's own photosynthesis. The research findings play a critical role for the future use of solar energy and other renewable energy sources.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
On the Border Between Matter and Anti-Matter: Nanoscientists Find Long-Sought Majorana Particle
Scientists at TU Delft's Kavli Institute and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM Foundation) have succeeded for the first time in detecting a Majorana particle. In the 1930s, the brilliant Italian physicist Ettore Majorana deduced from quantum theory the possibility of the existence of a very special particle, a particle that is its own anti-particle: the Majorana fermion. That 'Majorana' would be right on the border between matter and anti-matter.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Nanoscientist Leo Kouwenhoven already caused great excitement among scientists in February by presenting the preliminary results at a scientific congress. Today, the scientists have published their research in Science. The research was financed by the FOM Foundation and Microsoft.
Majorrna fermion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majorana_fermion
Ettore Majorana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ettore_Majorana
Dirac fermion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac_fermion
Geist and Zeitgeist - Hermann Broch
As John Hargraves notes in his introduction, Hermann Broch remains best known, especially in the English-speaking world, for his fiction (in particular the novels The Sleepwalkers (see our review) The Death of Virgil (see our review), two of the towering works of the 20th century), but of the twelve volumes of the German edition of his collected works four are devoted to his essays (and one to his poetry) -- and almost none of that, except the long piece Hugo Hofmannsthal and His Age, has been translated.Continue Reading on Complete-Review.com
Geist and Zeitgeist offers a Broch-essay sampler: six pieces (including a chunk of the Hofmannsthal essay) first written between 1933 and 1948 that display many of Broch's preoccupations, interests, and approaches.
Kitsch
Kitsch (English pronunciation: /ˈkɪtʃ/, loanword from German) is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that are unoriginal. Kitsch also refers to the types of art that are aesthetically deficient (whether or not being sentimental, glamorous, theatrical, or creative) and that make creative gestures which merely imitate the superficial appearances of art through repeated conventions and formulae. Excessive sentimentality often is associated with the term.Continue Reading on Wikipedia.org
Friday, April 13, 2012
John Carter
I don't see any way to begin a review of "John Carter" without referring to "Through Time and Space With Ferdinand Feghoot." That was a series of little stories that appeared in the magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1956 to 1973 and had a great influence on my development as a critic. In one of the Feghoot adventures, the hero finds himself on Mars and engaged in bloody swordplay. He is sliced in the leg. Then in the other leg. Then an arm is hacked off. "To hell with this," Feghoot exclaims, unholstering his ray gun and vaporizing his enemies.Continue Reading on RogerEbert.com
Astronomer Finds Evidence for Record-Breaking Nine Planet System
A study by Mikko Tuomi, an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire, has revealed that the planetary system around the star named HD 10180 may have more planets in its orbits than our own Solar system. Dr Tuomi carried out his analysis as part of the EU research network RoPACS, being led in Hertfordshire.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
First-Ever Model Simulation of the Structuring of the Observable Universe
A team of researchers from the Laboratoire Univers et Théorie (LUTH, Observatoire de Paris/CNRS/Université Paris Diderot)(1) coordinated by Jean-Michel Alimi has performed the first-ever computer model simulation of the structuring of the entire observable universe, from the Big Bang to the present day. The simulation has made it possible to follow the evolution of 550 billion particles. This is the first of three runs which are part of an exceptional project called Deus : full universe run (2), carried out using GENCI's new supercomputer CURIE at the CEA's Très Grand Centre de Calcul (TGCC).Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
Google stock split helps Page, Brin maintain grip
Google Inc announced a stock split designed to preserve the control of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin over the world's No. 1 Web search engine, asking investors to trust their long-term vision.Continue Reading on Reuters.com
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Quantum Computer Built Inside a Diamond
Diamonds are forever -- or, at least, the effects of this diamond on quantum computing may be. A team that includes scientists from USC has built a quantum computer in a diamond, the first of its kind to include protection against "decoherence" -- noise that prevents the computer from functioning properly.Continue Reading on ScienceDaily.com
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