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Peter Nixon
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Friday, 31 March 2006
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My Life in the Bush of Ghosts released with CC license. Brian Eno and David Byrne released My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1981. It's a great album--and now it's available with a Creative Commons License. "This
is the first time complete and total access to original tracks with
remix and sampling possibilities have been officially offered on line."
Quite right; this is a wonderful album. I bought it in vinyl, and later on CD. It's great grooves (not modern grooves, but great in the early 80s sense) with sublime samples from short wave radio, church broadcasts and found stuff. The idea of working with this material gives me an embarassing trouser moment.
[MetaFilter] [The Mediaburn Radio Weblog]
11:05:18 PM 
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Thursday, 30 March 2006
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Mark Frauenfelder:
 One of my friends used to like to take LSD and watch Hee Haw, a hillbilly variety show hosted by Roy Clark and Buck Owens. I never paid much attention to the show, but he convinced me to listen to the music of Roy, Buck, and Granda Jones, insisting they were geniuses. And he is right. I became a big fan of all three, and learned to love Hee Haw, even without drugs.
Yesterday, Buck Owens, a supremely gifted songwriter and guitar player passed away at the age of 76. He'll be missed. His music lives. If you're curious, I recommend The Very Best of Buck Owens .
OK, not my age, but dead. I really only knew his work from Hee Haw, bit even from that he was certainly a great player.
Link
[Boing Boing]
6:41:54 AM
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Rose Tattoo guitarist and songwriter Pete Wells has died after a battle with prostate cancer.
Musicians my age are dropping like flies.
[ABC News: Entertainment]
6:33:01 AM
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Friday, 24 March 2006
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Over the past 30 years, temperatures in the Arctic have been creeping
up, rising half a degree Celsius with attendant increases in glacial
melting and decreases in sea ice. Experts predict that at current
levels of greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide alone is at 375 parts per
million--the earth may warm by as much as five degrees Celsius,
matching conditions roughly 130,000 years ago. Now a refined climate
model is predicting, among other things, sea level rises of as much as
20 feet, according to research results published today in the journal Science.
All of this stuff is just getting scarier and scarier.
[Scientific American]
8:41:58 PM
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Wednesday, 8 March 2006
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David Pescovitz:
BigDog is a strange robotic pack mule that Boston Dynamics developed for the military. The .7 meters tall mechanical beast-of-burden is powered by a gasoline engine and, so far, has trotted at 3.3 mph and lugged around 120 lbs. The video is a hoot. From the Boston Dynamics site:
BigDog has an on-board computer that controls locomotion, servos the legs and handles a wide variety of sensors. BigDogâo[dot accent]s control system manages the dynamics of its behavior to keep it balanced, steer, navigate, and regulate energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system. Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.
Link to Boston Dynamics, Link to New Scientist article (Thanks, Sean Ness!)
[Boing Boing]
7:10:18 AM
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Tuesday, 7 March 2006
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David Pescovitz:
Convicted murdered Shaun Tuley, incarcerated in HMP Frankland prison in Durham, England, has been denied access to books about magic. From the BBC News:
Tuley, who murdered a 20-year-old prostitute in September 2000, said he had been "refused permission on grounds of 'operational security problems' to purchase a selection of books on the subject of magic, sought in order to be able to pursue my hobby whilst serving a life sentence"...
Magic Circle spokesman David Beckley said: "I can't understand the Prison Service's attitude - unless this man has asked for books on escapology.
"Magicians do have skills which enable them to deceive but this is only in an environment which is controlled by the magician himself."
Link
[Boing Boing]
10:57:28 PM
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Adult stem cells injected into the heart of an Australian cardiac patient have grown into new blood vessels.
How cool is this?
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
10:48:22 PM
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Plants traditionally eaten by Maori people are the world's richest source of antioxidants, New Zealand scientists say.
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
6:57:25 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Peter Nixon.
Last update: 31/3/06; 11:05:33 PM.
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