There are some songs which are incredibly close to me. I resonate so closely with them that they are not so much something I enjoy–but a defining element of my emotional core. Like the books you read growing up which you not only remember fondly but strive to fulfill. I’d like to write a little bit about these songs, and try to understand why.
Nik Olendzki, a good friend and fellow Aikidoist at Carleton, introduced me to Carbon Leaf. It was a regular part of the soundtrack at The Quad of Flying Daggers–I remember it echoing from beer-encrusted laminate flooring as you rounded the top flight of stairs, still bundled up in winter coats. The first time I heard it everyone in the room stopped and listened, for a minute, just to reflect.
We’ve been talking at the office about wireless devices receiving video. I’ve been wondering: will cell phone data services keep getting faster? Or is 4G actually running up against the physical limits of the spectrum?
As it turns out, the Shannon entropy limit for these kinds of channels is roughly 6 bits/second per Hz. 4g radios are approaching 5 bps/Hz. Technologically, at least, we’re almost out of room. We can push about 50Mbps over a 4g link, given the allotted frequency space for wireless data. The only real improvement we can make is to repartition the spectrum.
My new life plan is to install one of these underground shelters in a suburban lot, then turn around and sell the land above it to a developer for a regular house. An unsuspecting family will dwell above me. When God finally smites our country for allowing gays in the military, and the currency collapses due to an overwhelming influx of foreigners, I’ll rest safely knowing the Tea Party Marauders will go for the decoy house. Stealth living at its finest!
Seriously, how sweet is this subgenus?
Before finding and invading a host colony, a Psithyrus female (there is no caste system in these species) will feed directly from flowers. Once she has infiltrated a host colony, the Psithyrus female will kill or subdue the queen of that colony and forcibly (using pheromones and/or physical attacks) “enslave” the workers of that colony to feed her and her developing young. When the young emerge, they leave the colony to mate, and the females seek out other nests to attack.
You’d think they would give up at some point, but no, this keeps happening.
Sometimes people who are autistic-spectrum have difficulty parsing the implicit meaning of speech, including intonation and body language. Songs are chock-full of conflicting expressions like “Yeah oh no no yeah” and “Oh whoah oh”. This actually drives me nuts when I hear it—I think “make up your mind! Is it yes or no?”
Do autistic-spectrum individuals have trouble interpreting lyrics like these? How does it change their experience of music?
One of my professors, Arjendu Pattanayak, used to defer hairy questions in class with “That’s a beer question—meaning, buy me a beer at the pub, and we’ll talk about it.”
In that spirit, I will buy anyone who can explain this as many beers as it takes:
I’ve read a few critiques of consequentialism recently, and am starting to get pissed off. Not because I harbor an affinity for any particular brand of consequential morality, but because I believe we don’t have any other options.
What are morals, anyway?
Seriously, North Carolina? Shooting a man in the head in front of his three year old child is felony assault? Only four months in prison? This can’t be right–the article implies that military service and friendly colleagues is grounds for vastly shorter sentencing. I’d love to read the transcripts from those proceedings.
Contextual advertising just gets better and better. During the scene where the T-2000 is frozen by liquid nitrogen, breaks into pieces, and then melts back together under blast furnace heat, up pops this gem.
