monkey music
Monkeys don’t respond to human music, but when you “compose music based on the pitch, tone and tempo of tamarin calls“, a musician and psychologist “discovered that the species-specific music significantly affected monkey behavior and emotional response.”
“Different species may have different things that they react to and enjoy differently in music,” said psychologist Charles Snowdon of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who published the paper Tuesday in Biology Letters with composer David Teie of the University of Maryland. “If we play human music, we shouldn’t expect the monkeys to enjoy that, just like when we play the music that David composed, we don’t enjoy it too much.”
(via marginal revolution)
bits and pieces
1.
2.
Julius Andreas Gimli Arn MacGyver Chewbacka Highlander Elessar-Jankov
3.
I wanted to show that it is possible to be serious and at the same time take the name you like.
Choke Your Chicken Wing Sauce
Howard Schatz, boxers before and after fights
(via kottke)
Also, have fun copying an image from the site.
Number 10 apologizes for the treatment of Turing
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was not aware of Alan Turing’s fate. Turns out a petition actually did something for once, Gordon Brown apologized (via):
Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ – in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence – and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison – was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.
Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions more lived in fear of conviction.
Boxers before and after
The copyright for the photos is ridiculous, so I am not posting some examples of the pictures.
every sperm is sacred
Personhood USA is collecting signatures to legalize the rights of fertilized embryos.
“It reorients the debate and gets us to the core of the issue,” said Les Riley of Pontotoc, Miss., a tractor salesman and father of 10 who is gathering signatures to put the amendment on Mississippi ballots next year.
The Beatles Rock Band Cinematic Outro Trailer
I am not a huge fan of the Rock Band series or the Beatles, but even I want to buy this.
King Harvest
Guilford Township. Jo Daviess County. Northwest Illinois. USA.
An empty maw demands to be filled. Time for the autumnal sacrifice.
Travel Report
The girlfriend and I stopped in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for breakfast today, on our way from North Platte, Nebraska, to Fort Collins, Colorado, the site of our vacation proper.
At the table next to ours sat a gaggle of biker dudes in their finest Sunday leathers. Their patches mostly advertised military tenures. From their age (about mine), I would guess they’d participated in Gulf War 1.
The loudest of this otherwise polite bunch originally got my attention because he seemed incapable of volume control.
Then I noticed the red, white and blue patch taking up the entire left lapel of his vest. It was the most patriotic, God-Bless-America swastika I’d ever seen — the perfect hate corsage for every occasion.
If he noticed me noticing it, he didn’t stab me with his butter knife or any knife he might have had on him.
I recommend the breakfast burrito at the Capital Grille, even though they use cheddar cheese.
Last days of summer
An amazing day in Edinburgh checking a few exhibitions. People were making the most of the good weather hanging about in the park. The light has been stunning with long shadows.
commercials that make me snort
“Americans are always finding ways to be more responsible.”
Dear Clusterflock
What advice do you have for someone soon to live alone for the first time?
quote out of context
However, it was an angry group with a real sense of absolute entitlement.
Cheese or Font?
Test your cheese and typography skills playing Cheese or Font?
Tomorrow
The Cowboys play.
CAUTION — BUCOLIC RESORT COMMUNITY
Danger lurks. I dare say no more.
Y’all
I am back and I am hella* tired.
*For the NorCal peeps I didn’t have time to visit.
Dear Clusterflock: Have you embarrassed yourself in public?
I have done it many times, but the occasion that makes my skin crawl, I was totally unaware of at the time.
It was 1978, I was 20 and needed all four wisdom teeth extracted. This was to take place in hospital under a general anesthetic. It was normally a go in early leave afternoon procedure. The operation went well, I was returned to the ward and the nurses wanted to remove the operating gown and get me into pajamas.
Well, they got me into a top and apparently I then started to fight with them. So they gave me a jab to make me sleep and bundled me into bed bottomless! I woke some hours later. I thought it was the middle of the night, I had a mouth full of blood from the operation, all I wanted to do was get to the bathroom to deal with it. What I didn’t realise in my condition was, that it was evening visiting time and I was wandering the ward with only a top on. The nurses tried to return me to bed, but I was having none of it. I was wrestled unceremoniously to the ground, sedated and dragged back to bed – I woke the next day totally unaware of what had happened.
Until they told me!
success!
Newt Gingrich’s 527 organization nominated Allison Vivas, an executive who runs adult entertainment studio Pink Visual, for its Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
“I’m honored, and more than a little surprised, to receive this prestigious award,” Vivas said today in a press release. “Rest assured, I’ll take the opportunity to inform Mr. Gingrich of some of the major challenges facing the adult entertainment industry in the current market .., from obscenity prosecutions to content piracy, I’ll make sure he walks away from that dinner educated about the realities of the online porn market.”
It’s called vetting, Newt.
“You’ll dine privately with Newt,” it reads. A handwritten addendum reads, “Newt is looking forward to finally meeting you face to face — and get your thoughts on cap and trade and Obama’s tax policy.”
quote out of context
The parts of Atlas Shrugged that expressed contempt for the academic characters that studied science for it’s own sake didn’t make sense to me at the time.
things I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about
chakras
right and left brain
sex
women
the nature of the universe
politics
stupid people
aesthetics
language
books
how to interact with people
return on investment
The world’s oldest person never dies.
Peaceful
I arrive in Kansas City to visit the incredibly hospitable Rick and Danny, and it is merciful peaceful here. We went to the museum this morning which was inspiring as I begin taking classes to become a librarian. I got accepted to a masters program and begin in January. I think I might want to specialize and work in a mvsevm.
Phil Bebbington’s handywork is here too, see?
dear clusterflock
What do you tip?
