Heart of Glass

So, you know, if you play the wrong chord at some point...
That just means more notes.

Which is kind of... a better value?

--Spike Slawson

(Simon Singh) Speaking of Simpsons and their mathematics...

“Homer^3 ”  was  written  by  David  S.  Cohen,  who  has  an  undergraduate  degree  in  physics  and  a master’s  degree  in  computer  science.  These  are  very  impressive qualifications,  particularly  for someone working in the television industry, but many of Cohen’s colleagues on the writing team of The  Simpsons  have  equally  remarkable  backgrounds  in mathematical  subjects.  In  fact,  some  have PhDs and have even held senior research positions in academia and industry. We will meet Cohen and his colleagues during the course of the book. In the meantime, here is a list of degrees for five of the nerdiest writers:
 

J. STEWART BURNS  
  BS Mathematics, Harvard University
  MS Mathematics, UC Berkeley
 

DAVID S. COHEN
  BS Physics, Harvard University
  MS Computer Science, UC Berkeley
 

AL JEAN
  BS Mathematics, Harvard University
 

KEN KEELER
  BS Applied Mathematics, Harvard University
  PhD Applied Mathematics, Harvard University
 

JEFF WESTBROOK
  BS Physics, Harvard University
  PhD Computer Science, Princeton University
 

In  1999,  some  of  these  writers  helped  create  a  sister  series  titled Futurama,  which  is  set  one thousand years in the future. Not surprisingly, this science fiction scenario allowed them to explore mathematical themes in even greater depth.

... Let us get into further discussions.

The Hobbit is quite different, as you all will have noticed, from The Silmarillion. There are very few more jarring transitions available to you in the body of Tolkien's fiction than moving from one to the other.

The tone could hardly be more different between the two, as well as the register and the vocabulary. Notice what he does with names? We've been talking about names, and of course many of you have been very understandably labouring with the number and complexity of the names in The Silmarillion. It's one of the things that makes that text so challenging. How do the names work in The Hobbit? 

Other than the personal names of the major characters almost every name in The Hobbit is a simple description of the thing. The Hill, The Water... what's the town called? by Water, 'cause it's by the water. Hobbiton, the town of the hobbits. Eventually they're going to go to The Lonely Mountain, which is by The Long Lake and they're connected by the River Running, cause it runs down from the mountain to the lake. On the lake you'll be able to find a city called?... 

- Dale.

- No, Laketown. Dale is the city that's under the mountain, cause it's in a little valley, the dale that's in front of The Lonely Mountain... Even Beorn has a name like this. Beorn means "bear" in anglo-saxon. Who's the king of the goblins? The Great Goblin, of course.

In this way it couldn't even be more different than The Silmarillion although... in some ways there are still similarities. He's still being very careful with names.  One of the primary differences is that these names are English names instead of Elvish names. In fact he sometimes still gives us the Elvish names. Laketown, we're told, used to be called Esgaroth too. But he doesn't lean on that.

...

--Corey Olsen

Story in images

Definitions

Let's say I got a gun in my hand
Six slugs, six points of view

"Materialism"

Let's say I got a book in my hand
Fifty thousand words
Fifty thousand translations

"Idealism"

(by Michael David Watt, aged 23; 1980)

tongue-twister

What a to-do to die today
At a minute or two to two,
A thing distinctly hard to say
But harder still to do.
We’ll beat a tattoo at twenty to two
A-ratatat tatatat ta-ta-tattoo,
And the dragon will come when he hears the drum
At a minute or two to two today,
At a minute or two to two.

“I can do business with stupid people, and I can do business with crooks. But I can’t do business with stupid people who want to be crooks.”

Everyone's on it.

Don't you just hate all the times you've tried to find out why and when did Scotland join England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, or what's the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain and all around you there's screaming and girls having a... party?!?

Seems to happen so often sometimes...

----

Oh great, weird guy who wants to hook up with someone just came in. Awkward++.  Stupid questions + boring mundane discussions to fill the spaces between awkward. Can't wait.

Îmi moare tot căcatul de avînt şi-o să umplu golurile cu cinism.

/ˈju: nəʊ ˈwʌt aɪ miːn? No?

"punky electronica.. kind of grime....kind of like...new-wave grime...but kind of maybe like more broken beats, but kinda dubby broken beats...but a lil bit kind of soulful....but kind of drum'n'bassy, but kinda more broken drum'n'bass like more broken beats. but break beat kind of broken drum'n'bass. Kind of.... "

Tarzan

“Tomorrow they will announce that Puyol will be out for 10 months. On Thursday it will be three months; Friday down to one. On Saturday he will be ‘doubtful’. On Sunday he will play.”

"When Puyol will eventually die, he will be out for 6 weeks"

Anne Braden

Years later,
She found herself
Mississippi bound to help
Stop the legalized lynching of
Mr. Willy McGee.

But they couldn't stop it,
So they thought that they'd talk to the governor about what'd happened
And say, "We're tired of being used 

As an excuse to kill black men."
But the cops wouldn't let 'em past
And these women, they struck 'em as uppity
So they hauled 'em all off to jail
And they called it protective custody.
Then from her cell
She heard her jailers
Grumblin' about "outsiders".
When she called 'em out
And said she was from the south, they shouted,
"Why is a nice, Southern lady 

Makin' trouble for the governor?"
She said, "I guess I'm not your type of lady,
And I guess I'm not your type of Southerner,
But before you call me traitor,
Well it's plainest just to say:
I was a child in Mississippi
but I'm ashamed of it today."

([Anne Braden:] And, all of a sudden, I realized I was on the other side)

Flobots - Anne Braden

http://comm.louisville.edu/abi/who-was-anne-braden/

Portal

Maybe there's a miracle waitin' to happen
in the places and spaces with the mystical patterns
where dark is light and the light is bright
it's a struggle to maintain my appetite
in a time that's filled with gluttonous failure
I'm at pains to express this devious behaviour
Spend money, time or a very last dime
on the tings you would only ever leave behind

It's a worrying time to lift you head up from the compass,
with no obvious answers to the questions offered.
Blinded by the fictions of an audio addiction,
takes the senses to a place of imperceptible conditions
Like who dare ask the sum of their parts?
Who should tell of this becoming hell?
To think is the link between life and death,
enter this body of sound and escape the mesh.

He was spreading her legs
And didn't understand dying
 She was still awake

Dinosaurs will die

Sit back watch it crumble,

See the drowning

Watch the fall

I feel just terrible about it - that’s sarcasm, let it burn

I’m gonna make at toast when it falls apart

I’m gonna raise my glass above my heart

Then someone shouts that’s what they get!

For all the years of hit and run for all the piss broke bands on VH1

Where did all their money go?

Don’t we all know

Parasitic music industry

As it destroys itself

We’ll show them how it’s supposed to be

Music written from devotion

Not ambition,

Not for fame.

Zero people are exploited - there are no tricks up our sleeve.

Were gonna fight against the mass appeal

Were gonna kill the seven record deal

Make records that have more then one good song!

The dinosaurs will slowly die and I do believe no one will cry

I’m just fucking glad I’m gonna be 

There to watch the fall

Prehistoric music industry 

Three feet in La Brea tar

Extinction never felt so good

If you think anyone will feel badly

You are sadly

Mistaken.

The time has come for evolution fuck collusion kill the "five" [*]

What ever happened to the handshake whatever happened to deals no one would break

whatever happened to integrity

It’s still there it always was for playing music just because

A million reasons why all dinosaurs must (will) die

From Major to Minor (The Economist)

Matt Mason: The Pirate's Dilemma

[*] Huh... ştiam că pînă în 1998 grupul se numea "Big Six", 1998-2004 "Big Five" (Polygram absorbit de Universal) şi post- apariţia melodiei ăsteia "Big Four" (Sony unit cu BMG). Dar pînă acum 5 minute nu ştiam că post-2011 probabil vom vorbi de "Big Three", cu EMI absorbit de Universal. Vremuri grele.

I actually really like to meet people on tour, but there are tons of people that I don't wanna meet as well. Like people who look at me like I'm some kinda rock star. they just kinda stare in amazement and giggle. WHAT A DRAG. Either say something interesting or relevant or just funny. Or a pleasant," nice to meet you" is cool. Just don't act all weird. If you act weird I'll probably get the hell outta there. 

-- Fat Mike

 

Why Today is Better than Yesterday

(written by stuff you will hate)

(note: HXC = hardcore)

Reading my posts, especially the HXC History/Do U Remember ones, you could def. get the impression that I’m some kind of oldfag that sits around nostalgic about the past – but nothing could be further from the truth! (well, the old part is pretty right on…)

I actually really hate those kinds of people that clamor for the ‘old days’ – and I’m gonna tell you why *right now* is so much better than the old days ever were. This list below is completely irony free BTW.

Getting Into Music – it was actually fuckin’ hard back then! You usually needed a scumbag friend (someone’s older brother) that was a total pain in the ass to deal with (mine used to non-ironically steal my mom’s car), but usually had plenty of entry level punk and hardcore. If you didn’t have a scumbag, chances are you would have just listened to mainstream music. We also used to track down tunes we heard on skate vids/tape comps etc. Hard work!

Finding Music – we really used to have to travel to find punk/hxc music. For us it was to Boston (Newbury Comics specifically), which was a good hour away. There used to be complex tape trading/selling going on in fanzines – this sucked!

Finding Shows – sure, newspapers usually had ads for the bigger clubs, but the smaller shows were usually flyer only – so you had to go to shows all the time to get news of the next ones – fuckin’ exhausting!

Finding Info On Bands – I still remember ’87, standing in front of a wall of Black Flag tapes at Newbury Comics and having no idea what kind of order these things go in – sure I loved ‘Who’s Got The 10 1/2′ but what should I pick up next – nightmare! I just picked the one that had some songs I knew on it (Slip It In). Ugh – awful way to get music! You would honestly know nothing about bands unless you searched out hard-to-find fanzines and the like.

 

Transporting Music – we used to have to lug around these things called tapes back then, and man did they blow! Leave ‘em in a hot car and they warped. Step on ‘em and they cracked. The players would eat them. Fuckin’ awful format! Plus, you could honestly only have so many tapes on hand… I still have a few boxes of ‘em in the basement.

Chicks Not Into It – chicks at shows back then?!? No thanks! Not even ‘edgy’ chicks were into HXC back then – those that were were either scumbag’s girlfriends or just plain sour. I took an ‘alternative’ girl to a show once – she didn’t speak to me for a month after.

Overly optimistic artist rendition of typical '80s hxc chick

Scene Not So Great – There was no more ‘unity’ or ‘brotherhood’ back then than there is now – scene politics/who-knows-who ruled the day back then too – don’t let anyone tell you different.

Production Quality – most hardcore from ‘back then’ was recorded so shitty… I mean, that ‘Destroy the Ghost’ jam everyone was making fun of the other day sounded better than 90% of the revered NYHC stuff! I personally think it’s very cool that kids today can put out well recorded tunes on a small budget. Great stuff!

So srs – shit is so much better now! You can download a band’s complete discography in minutes and find out their complete history. You can quickly look up complete tour dates and get in touch with band members if you want to! You can carry thousands of songs around in a little device! Chicks are into bands like Winds of Plague/Asking Alexandria/We Came As Romans/etc! Who gives a shit if it’s not ‘tr00 hxc’ – close enough in my book! Honestly – I love all the stuff I just listed!! This makes *now* so awesome!

So please just keep these things in mind the next time some oldfag goes on about the ‘old days’ – and don’t end up like one of those people! Remember – the kids tomorrow will have it even better than you & you should be happy about it! Don’t start bitching in 15 years to kids that are streaming retro-dubcore from the cloud through their winter hats how “we had it tough back in the day… only 10,000 songs on a device!” I warn you ’cause I love you guys!

 

When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
If Los Angeles is burning

Milky Way as seen by abucuren & mmartin

Wishlist: do want