Sunday, June 28, 2020
Phobos: The Doomed Moon of Mars
Love weird shit out in space? Never heard of Phobos? You're welcome!
Alternate visualizations of the periodic table
Yeah, this is really just an extended commercial, but it never dawned on me before how malleable the periodic table itself is (or could be) and the reexamination was rewarding.
The Official Narrative of Tate Murders Doesn't Add Up
When he gets to Terry Melcher's testimony, this really becomes creepy. Makes you reevaluate the popular version of the story. CIA conspiracy? Uh...well...not ready to go that far, but there is definitely something weird about the whole trial if his discoveries are accurate.
Christopher Hitchens on Bill Clinton (1999)
As Hitchens talks, replace the words 'Bill Clinton' with 'Donald Trump'...dude, spooky how he uses Clinton to predict what came after.
David Baltimore -- Introduction to Viruses
Wait...if viruses can only replicate by hijacking cells, a precarious form of reproduction, wouldn't that suggest that for every virus we know about there must be....I dunno....millions...that are never successful (or yet to be successful)? Where do they come from? Are they simply mutations that can transfer between species? Why would nature produce something that is so unsuccessful and yet periodically so devastating? Also, wouldn't a vaccine work the same way (meaning rarely) and at similar rates to a virus? Feels like Humanity should be studying these a lot more than we apparently do.
Saturday, June 27, 2020
Bill Murray as Rodney Dangerfield’s Psychiatrist
I have no idea where this came from--but this is why God invented the internet!
The 2010 San Diego Chargers
Amazing how a handful of plays kept this team from being remembered as one of the greatest of all time. Good analysis.
Mahavishnu Orchestra Live in France (8.23.72)
Not for everyone but at its best it is some glorious furious noise.
Mark Osborne -- 'More'
I thought I put this up on this blog before but if so, I can't find it. Well, here it is again. Still rocks.
Les Paul & Mary Ford -- 'No Place Like Home'
Dude, is Mary Ford not the most underappreciated guitarist of all time?
SNL -- Coronavirus Cold Open
This is from March 1...remember when Covid-19 was just a joke? And three months later I've already forgotten all these people even existed.
Paganini in gypsy jazz style
Violin from Romania, guitars from Nashville and Brazil, going gypsy style on Paganini. Effortless badassery is a musical trait from all over the world throughout time.
A black man undercover in the alt-right | Theo E.J. Wilson
Interesting. Devolves into self-promotion by the end but he has some good observations and his journey is intriguing.
5 Alternative Explanations for the Redshift we Observe
I always thought spectroscopy was at best misunderstood and at worst a total fraud. When 'science' is nothing more than observation from a massive distance, then how could anyone truly know what is the correct answer? No one does, meaning the cause of red shifts is not known nor will it ever be and pretending otherwise is just fooling yourself. If you want to fool yourself, go right ahead, but when the powers that be are expending all the resources on their own pet projects rather than engaging in real examination, then collectively we're getting hoodwinked by soothsayers rather than receiving worthwhile scientific input.
If this sounds anti-science or unenlightened, hey, I'm just echoing Edwin Hubble himself: "Yet the reason for the redshift remained unclear. Georges Lemaître, a Belgian Catholic priest and physicist, predicted on theoretical grounds based on Einstein's equations for general relativity the redshift-distance relation, and published observational support for it, two years before the discovery of Hubble's law.[42] However, many cosmologists and astronomers (including Hubble himself) failed to recognize the work of Lemaître; Hubble remained doubtful about Lemaître's interpretation for his entire life." (thus spake Wikipedia)
Mainstream science refuses to give up its grip on Einstein's general relativity to the point where it has concocted dark energy/dark matter--a theoretical proposition based on nothing more than math--to account for 85% of the entire universe. I can't help thinking if Einstein were alive today, he would've ditched these theories long ago if they needed an 85% correction to make them relevant! But, I'm just a guy that watches too much You Tube.
Richard Carrier -- The Sciences in Ancient Greece & Rome
Science is an ongoing process. (That said, the sound here does kinda suck, can't help feeling that ancient Rome had better acoustics)
THE SPHINX (1933)- Full movie
Lionel Atwill has recently become one of my favorite actors. Love this guy!
The Love Theme from 'Mighty Peking Man'
This movie becomes rather boring the third act but the first hour or so is magnificent!
Bret Weinstein w/ Joe Rogan on The Problem with America’s Lab Mice and Why it Should Matter to You
An observation about both Bret Weinstein and his brother Eric: they're smart guys but their collective persecution complex makes them kinda hard to take, as if the world is supposed to simply acknowledge their brilliance at all times and get to genuflectin'. I understand their basic complaints about the crushing conformity of the intelligentsia and the elites in general--and I suspect they're right--but the way they run screaming from any critique at all is more than a little off-putting.
That said, Bret's observation here that the lack of variation in the mice used in lab experiments might basically nullify all the experimentation of the last several decades (at least in the USA) is, uh, kinda eye-opening and probably worth of deeper investigation. Thank god Joe Rogan is there to save us. (ha!)
Killer Mike (w/ El-P) -- Butane (Champion's Anthem)
I think I put this up back in the day but, oh well, deserves another listen.
The 1,000,000th take on The Shining
Did you realize that roughly half of the videos on You Tube are about The Shining? (I made that up but I wouldn't be surprised if that's true) This one is perhaps the most interesting of them all: Stephen King hated this movie because it's all about him and removes the buffers to his own self-critique he put into the novel thus making him looking like a pure wifebeating child-hater. Uh, this theory kind works, I think.
The Unusual Earth Orbit Circling Above Our Ancient Past | Roger G. Gilbe...
Weird and almost certainly pointless but interesting nonetheless (which pretty much sums up Ted Talks, in general, I'd say).
Charles Lindberg Takes Off
Fun fact: that is a Fox Studio movie camera shooting this footage, making this basically the very beginning of Fox News. Kinda perfect, right? Charles Lindbergh in his rickety-ass plane on a scary looking takeoff that then became pseudo-patriotic agitprop is kinda what Fox News still embodies to this day, no?
Sunday, February 9, 2020
My Top Ten of 2019
Apollo 11, The Irishman, Parasite, Little Women, Uncut Gems, Ford v Ferarri, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Hail Satan?, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Friday, January 31, 2020
Questions for Tyler Cowen
I listened to an interview of the esteemed economist and blogger Tyler Cowen the other day and I came away with a number of questions I would be curious to hear him answer. At some point in my life I may actively seek him out to directly ask him these questions but for now I'm cool with simply cataloging them and seeing if they rise to his attention on their own.
1) Do you find Darwin's theory of evolution in any way controversial or lacking? Likewise with the germ theory of disease?
2) Is social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) closer to being the greatest accomplishment of civilization or the worst?
3) Why are perfect scores in bowling so rare? (I understand that doing anything right twelve times in a row is a challenge but bowling--more than any other game or sport I can think of--is literally exactly the same every time and in an age when we casually produce athletic geniuses like Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, Justin Verlander, Patrick Mahomes, Lionel Messi, etc., shouldn't a 300 in bowling be rather ordinary?)
4) How do you think Alexis de Tocqueville would have fared if he lived in the social media era?
5) Is the fact that Pink Floyd's The Wall has been adapted to other genres of music (orchestral, dub, rockabilly just off the top of my head and, of course, Roger Waters has done numerous solo interpretations, as well) an example of the work's greatness or simply it's popularity? How does it's adaptability suggest or relate to its greatness?
6) Was the discovery and acceptance of 'zero' as a numeral inevitable in human intellectual development? Why do you suppose it took so long for thinkers to accept that?
7) Can you name five ways in which Thomas Jefferson is still relevant to contemporary America (or Americans)?
8) Is the proliferation of homosexuality, asexuality, and/or sexual identity in general simply a function of overall human population growth or is it an anomaly of our time?
9) Do you think there is greater societal benefit in a solar calendar or a lunar calendar or a conjunction of the two? Or is societal benefit even an outcome of systems of calendars?
10) Would you describe the cinema of Kiyoshi Kurosawa as merely genre-driven?
11) In a bizarre book I once read (which is so rife with conspiracy theory nonsense it is not even worth identifying), it was alleged that in the city of Ur, arguably the first notable population center in history, there was a thriving garment industry where the two main competitors were the Aryans and the Jews. Is it shocking to consider the possibility that all of Western Civilization is just an outgrowth of that competition?
12) Is it necessary or fundamental to acknowledge that virtually all states/gov'ts/nations derive first from hydro-logic projects? Is this in fact true (or true enough)?
13) In a basic economic sense, would you say the amount of slavery throughout the world today is greater, lesser or on par with average within the period of recorded history?
14) Is Shakespeare's King Lear an adequate representation of familial love?
15) Do you believe music appreciation declines as church attendance declines? Or: How is music appreciation in our society correlated to church attendance?
16) How will sports gambling change the American economy in the coming decades?
17) In this golden era of TV (let's say, from The Sopranos to Game of Thrones), how do we account for the fact that South Park preceded and survived all of these beloved shows? And what is the role Family Guy plays in this era?
18) Is the Ming Dynasty's dismissal of Zheng He the greatest missed opportunity in history?
19) Does the NCAA serve a worthwhile purpose in the lives and careers of student-athletes? How would you differentiate between the big money sports (football, basketball) and all the other sports in terms of the impact on the student-athlete?
20) I think Andrew Johnson is the worst president in USA's history. It is hard to imagine a president having a more deleterious effect on the society, polity, institutions and citizens than Johnson. And yet looking back over the articles of impeachment brought against him, I find the charges to be rather flimsy, insignificant and petty considering his dereliction of duty (indeed, his hostility to duty!) and they didn't even all pass. Can we Americans comfortably sit here 150-ish years later and say the nation survived 'just fine' without removing Johnson from office? Was our heritage robbed by allowing Andrew Johnson to finish his term?
21) If you could travel through time without consequences and go wherever you wanted to go, which live entertainment would you attend first? (This is not to suggest that going to, say, a concert would be the first thing you would do but that surely you would eventually)
22) Did you realize that John Elway tore his ACL in his rookie camp and played his entire career on a torn ACL? Why isn't this a better known factoid? (It just seems like every time we hear of an injury like this someone would remind us of Elway's greatness in spite of his lack of a properly functioning ACL)
23) We chide children for still believing in Santa Claus and yet representations of Santa Claus are ubiquitous around Xmas-time, doesn't this clearly show that society as a whole still believes in Santa Claus? Is this because our society is youthful or foolish? Or because personification of an idea is handy as a tool for dispersing a meme throughout a population?
24) As I've gotten older I find cosmology (and astronomy to a lesser extent) to be clear and obvious fraud, unverifiable at best and the most shameless kind of un-scientific nonsense at worst. What am I missing? And why do we continue to hold stargazers to such high esteem in our culture when clearly they are not practicing science but at best some kind of pseudo-philosophy?
25) I believe education is problem of demand rather than supply. Do you agree? Is this at the basis of our society's inability to improve educational outcomes?
26) We now routinely see "tanking" in sports (that is, losing in an effort to eventually get better). Does tanking in other areas of our society or economy that we have yet to notice?
27) Do you think the proliferation of podcasts will return us to our oral history traditions? If so, will the period from Gutenberg's printing press to the demise of the daily newspaper be seen as just a blip in history?
28) Why do film nerds (I use the term lovingly and with self-identification) feel the need to separate and differentiate Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton? Why is it so necessary to choose one or the other? (Are there other dualities like this in other parts of human endeavor?)
29) How did the cooking of food become so widespread in humanity? Does it suggest using fire as a tool of hunting? Does it suggest that the adaptability of food cookers was higher or more flexible than those of raw meat eaters? Does it suggest a greater deal of dissemination and interactivity than the fossil record would suggest? Or is cooked food just so damn tasty to us that it was inevitable that we would all eventually adopt this process?
30) Personally I do not consider the Beatles alone as the producers of the greatest music of the 20th century but rather the conjunction of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones simultaneously as the greatest producers of that time. Am I mistaken? Why is this line of thinking faulty? (Hmmm....there's a better question here and I don't simply want to compare/contrast the Beatles and Stones)
1) Do you find Darwin's theory of evolution in any way controversial or lacking? Likewise with the germ theory of disease?
2) Is social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) closer to being the greatest accomplishment of civilization or the worst?
3) Why are perfect scores in bowling so rare? (I understand that doing anything right twelve times in a row is a challenge but bowling--more than any other game or sport I can think of--is literally exactly the same every time and in an age when we casually produce athletic geniuses like Peyton Manning, Tiger Woods, Justin Verlander, Patrick Mahomes, Lionel Messi, etc., shouldn't a 300 in bowling be rather ordinary?)
4) How do you think Alexis de Tocqueville would have fared if he lived in the social media era?
5) Is the fact that Pink Floyd's The Wall has been adapted to other genres of music (orchestral, dub, rockabilly just off the top of my head and, of course, Roger Waters has done numerous solo interpretations, as well) an example of the work's greatness or simply it's popularity? How does it's adaptability suggest or relate to its greatness?
6) Was the discovery and acceptance of 'zero' as a numeral inevitable in human intellectual development? Why do you suppose it took so long for thinkers to accept that?
7) Can you name five ways in which Thomas Jefferson is still relevant to contemporary America (or Americans)?
8) Is the proliferation of homosexuality, asexuality, and/or sexual identity in general simply a function of overall human population growth or is it an anomaly of our time?
9) Do you think there is greater societal benefit in a solar calendar or a lunar calendar or a conjunction of the two? Or is societal benefit even an outcome of systems of calendars?
10) Would you describe the cinema of Kiyoshi Kurosawa as merely genre-driven?
11) In a bizarre book I once read (which is so rife with conspiracy theory nonsense it is not even worth identifying), it was alleged that in the city of Ur, arguably the first notable population center in history, there was a thriving garment industry where the two main competitors were the Aryans and the Jews. Is it shocking to consider the possibility that all of Western Civilization is just an outgrowth of that competition?
12) Is it necessary or fundamental to acknowledge that virtually all states/gov'ts/nations derive first from hydro-logic projects? Is this in fact true (or true enough)?
13) In a basic economic sense, would you say the amount of slavery throughout the world today is greater, lesser or on par with average within the period of recorded history?
14) Is Shakespeare's King Lear an adequate representation of familial love?
15) Do you believe music appreciation declines as church attendance declines? Or: How is music appreciation in our society correlated to church attendance?
16) How will sports gambling change the American economy in the coming decades?
17) In this golden era of TV (let's say, from The Sopranos to Game of Thrones), how do we account for the fact that South Park preceded and survived all of these beloved shows? And what is the role Family Guy plays in this era?
18) Is the Ming Dynasty's dismissal of Zheng He the greatest missed opportunity in history?
19) Does the NCAA serve a worthwhile purpose in the lives and careers of student-athletes? How would you differentiate between the big money sports (football, basketball) and all the other sports in terms of the impact on the student-athlete?
20) I think Andrew Johnson is the worst president in USA's history. It is hard to imagine a president having a more deleterious effect on the society, polity, institutions and citizens than Johnson. And yet looking back over the articles of impeachment brought against him, I find the charges to be rather flimsy, insignificant and petty considering his dereliction of duty (indeed, his hostility to duty!) and they didn't even all pass. Can we Americans comfortably sit here 150-ish years later and say the nation survived 'just fine' without removing Johnson from office? Was our heritage robbed by allowing Andrew Johnson to finish his term?
21) If you could travel through time without consequences and go wherever you wanted to go, which live entertainment would you attend first? (This is not to suggest that going to, say, a concert would be the first thing you would do but that surely you would eventually)
22) Did you realize that John Elway tore his ACL in his rookie camp and played his entire career on a torn ACL? Why isn't this a better known factoid? (It just seems like every time we hear of an injury like this someone would remind us of Elway's greatness in spite of his lack of a properly functioning ACL)
23) We chide children for still believing in Santa Claus and yet representations of Santa Claus are ubiquitous around Xmas-time, doesn't this clearly show that society as a whole still believes in Santa Claus? Is this because our society is youthful or foolish? Or because personification of an idea is handy as a tool for dispersing a meme throughout a population?
24) As I've gotten older I find cosmology (and astronomy to a lesser extent) to be clear and obvious fraud, unverifiable at best and the most shameless kind of un-scientific nonsense at worst. What am I missing? And why do we continue to hold stargazers to such high esteem in our culture when clearly they are not practicing science but at best some kind of pseudo-philosophy?
25) I believe education is problem of demand rather than supply. Do you agree? Is this at the basis of our society's inability to improve educational outcomes?
26) We now routinely see "tanking" in sports (that is, losing in an effort to eventually get better). Does tanking in other areas of our society or economy that we have yet to notice?
27) Do you think the proliferation of podcasts will return us to our oral history traditions? If so, will the period from Gutenberg's printing press to the demise of the daily newspaper be seen as just a blip in history?
28) Why do film nerds (I use the term lovingly and with self-identification) feel the need to separate and differentiate Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton? Why is it so necessary to choose one or the other? (Are there other dualities like this in other parts of human endeavor?)
29) How did the cooking of food become so widespread in humanity? Does it suggest using fire as a tool of hunting? Does it suggest that the adaptability of food cookers was higher or more flexible than those of raw meat eaters? Does it suggest a greater deal of dissemination and interactivity than the fossil record would suggest? Or is cooked food just so damn tasty to us that it was inevitable that we would all eventually adopt this process?
30) Personally I do not consider the Beatles alone as the producers of the greatest music of the 20th century but rather the conjunction of the Beatles and The Rolling Stones simultaneously as the greatest producers of that time. Am I mistaken? Why is this line of thinking faulty? (Hmmm....there's a better question here and I don't simply want to compare/contrast the Beatles and Stones)
Monday, January 13, 2020
Hannah Arendt
"If one brings love to the negotiating table...I find that absolutely fatal." In my own words: Friendship is real, allegiance to a group is just manipulation. (Cigarettes, too, are fatal, wonder what her response to that observation would have been)
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