Category Archives: Science!
Random Static 4-24-2024
Just some random things I’ve wondered about.
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Pretty much everyone knows what “sampling” is in music, defined as “the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece.”
Sampling has gotten ridiculous, to the point where people have sampled a sample, not knowing the piece of music they are sampling was first sampled from an even older song, and so on and so on.
Some songs will have multiple samples in a single track, sometimes a ludicrous number of them.
Some time ago, it occurred to me that perhaps one reason for all the excessive sampling in the music business is that it provides a perfectly byzantine means to launder money.
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From “Everything Is Political Now” Dept. –
Sky & Telescope tells us the correct way to remember space acronyms.
Today’s classification scheme was born at Harvard College Observatory. Starting in 1886 under Edward C. Pickering, the observatory staff photographed and classified thousands of spectral types. They assigned them letters from A through Q, generally in alphabetical order from the simplest-looking to the most complex. But soon a more natural system became clear. By rearranging and merging classifications, Antonia C. Maury and Annie J. Cannon found that they could fit nearly all stars’ spectra into one smooth, continuous sequence. The sequence matched the stars’ color temperatures, from the hottest, blue-white stars at one end to relatively cool, orange-red ones at the other.
But it was too late to reassign the letters. When the dust cleared, the rearranged sequence ran O B A F G K M from hot to cool. Spectral types on the blue end were called “early” and those on the red end “late.” These terms are still used today, though the incorrect idea they embody — that stars simply cool with age — has been obsolete for generations.
…The time-honored mnemonic for remembering the spectral sequence, invented by Henry Norris Russell when astronomy’s leadership was all male, is “Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me.” In 1995 Mercury magazine published a student’s rejoinder: “Only Boys Accepting Feminism Get Kissed Meaningfully.”
Even astronomy is feminist now.
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I refuse to refer to “the pandemic” because it was no such thing.
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Some languages place the descriptor before the object, such as “black cat” or “speeding car.” Other languages place the object before the descriptor. I wonder how this affects thought processes. Does one way lean more toward abstract thought and the other toward more concrete thought? Does language influence one’s thought processes, or do the processes determine the type of language? Some of both in a reinforcement loop?
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This is an interesting month for numbers. April 2 2024 is 2/4/24 or 2424. April 14 is 04/14/24, a nice numerical progression. April 22 is 4/22/24, or 42224. Today is April 24 2024 which s 4/24/24, or 42424.
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I got nothin’ else right now.
A.I.rtist
So I was watching a few music videos on youtube when I saw a video in the sidebar – “The Electric Prunes: I Had Too Much to Dream (an AI interpretation).” Given the song, I thought it would be perfect subject for AI to try making a video.
Pretty wild, as expected. The camera motion panning across scenes was unexpected, but worked fairly well, and the slight dissonance in perspective actually worked with this song, with its psychedelic feel. It was uploaded a month ago, so I figured it’s fairly cutting edge, as these things go.
I went to the channel to see what other videos were there. The next one I checked out was “Dreamboat Annie” by Heart.
The video was pretty good, although now some limitations were becoming apparent. Certain repetitions tend to appear. But it worked pretty well, and had a a feel to it that went from warm and sunny and ethereal to a hard-edged city setting and back again.
Then I saw “Baker Street” by Gerry Rafferty. This should be fun, I thought. I love the song but the subject matter is very down-to-earth and mundane, how would an AI that has been producing trippy visuals process this?
Awesomely, is how.
The video moves from ultra-detailed city scenes to snapshots of people living their lives to cosmic vistas of time passing and back again. And it’s animated. Or some of it is, anyway. There are people walking and musicians playing in real time… or as real as time gets in an AI-generated video. Somewhat stiff and rigid, but considering it’s all machine-created, quite stunning.
The editing is somewhat choppy, but it’s still a compelling vision, and it smooths out as the video goes along. The sax players are vivid and colorful but still recognizably human. The guitar solo could have been handled better, but that’s a small complaint.
How much of this is the machine doing its thing and how much is due to human editing, or even from human-generated prompts, I have no idea. But it’s still extremely impressive. It was uploaded 7 days ago (August 7), and is a leap over the “Dreamboat Annie” video, which was posted 12 days ago.
The sad part is, these are better than most videos I’ve seen in years.
Music Kills The Planet
Storing and processing music in the cloud depends on vast data centers that use a tremendous amount of resources and energy.
Devine translated plastic productions and the electricity use to store and transmit digital audio files into greenhouse gas equivalents (GHGs). He then compared the GHGs from recorded music in the US in 1977, 1988, 2000 and 2016.
The findings are clear. The GHGs caused by recorded music are much higher today than in the past. In 1977 the GHGs from, recorded music were 140 million kg. By 2016, they were estimated to somewhere between 200 million kg and over 350 million kg.
“I am a bit surprised. The hidden environmental cost of music consumption is enormous,” Devine says.
Even worse than the “bovine methane emissions” aka cow farts. You can’t really blame the cows for cow-ing. But I guess if you’re gonna have a planet-scale brown note, it might as well be a D-major.
Let’s add to the worldwide suicide note (heh) with a song that gleans a bit of insight as to how progressives arrive at their conclusions (hint: it involves some atmospheric emissions of their own, and I’m not talkin’ the C02 kind), as performed by some young fellows who tragically died in a different kind bovine emission-related incident.
$2400 + 420 = LAZERS!
If there is a God and he is indeed omniscient, it is also true that he foresaw the human race’s ability to create a great many things that would change the world, improve the overall quality of life here on Earth, and maybe even one day move beyond it. I can’t help but wonder what the hell he would make of this $2,400 laser bong.
More Power, More High!
The B-LAZE Laserbong, made by Silicon Cali, uses a 2W, 445Nm frequency laser. And you have to wear protective eyewear.
Protective eyewear. To smoke weed. Seriously.
The company founder, Justin Zelaya, described potential customers as ranging from “Bitcoin core developer” to “mad scientist, like myself.” Yeah, I can see that.
Video –
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd0VWTaHuRI/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again
I really, truly, honestly do not know whether this is better or worse than this other use of lasers.
Perhaps an enterprising snack company can appeal to the secondary market among cyberpunk laserstoners with products displaying the integration of corn chips and high technology. Frito-Layzer, if you will.
Who Needs Drugs When You Have 4D?
Watch this to make your brain hurt…
I’ve been looking at stuff like that for the past hour or two. I think I need to lie down for a while.
Daylight Savings Time Skips 480 Hours Straight To April 1st
And I thought April Fool’s Day was early (and insane) last year…
So I was scrolling through Ace of Spades HQ and discovered the following –
Only feminist sources should be trusted for researching businesses. Because business sources are lying patriarchy.
Teenage British boys transgender “girls” unable to get dates with straight boys.
What makes it such a strong contender for the title is that it’s such a multi-layer cake of crazy:
1. British parents, schools, the medical profession are encouraging boys in their delusions rather than providing therapy.
2. The confused/mentally ill boys seem to be shocked at their lack of success with normal boys.
3. The BBC is actually making a series about all of this
4. …and portraying this festival of perversity as just another specie of teen angst. You know, like pimples, school pressures, or finding a prom date.
BONUS: You should use gender-neutral pronouns when talking to your pets. Because they could be transgender. I guess trans-species-ism hasn’t gotten glitzy enough for progressives to champion yet. Give it a week and they’ll be telling you that your cat identifies as a kangaroo.
Farting is a rape weapon –
…unless a woman farts. Then it’s a tool against oppression.
Not yet sure how teenage transgender Brits farting is to be correctly viewed.
A little too ironic? Yeah, I really do think…Nancy Pelosi states “American People Have Right to Know What’s in Healthcare Bill Before It Passes”
Atomic mass 311? Well, today’s her day. Or maybe she just likes hip-hop reggae rock funk music
And taking the crazy cake, as it were…
Resurrecting dead people by using stem cells approved by US.
No, really.
Scientists are getting ethical permission from health watchdogs to resurrect dead people by using a combination of regeneration therapies. Starting this year, the groundbreaking Project Reanima will primarily use stem cells to stimulate the regrowth of neurons in clinically dead patients. Bioquark Inc., an American biotech company, is one of medical companies given the green light to conduct the trials on 20 brain dead patients from traumatic injuries.
Leading the team is Dr Himanshu Bansal, Indian specialist who works with Biotech companies Revita Life Sciences and Bioquark Inc,. The team will use a combination of therapies, which include injecting the brain with stem cells and a cocktail of peptides, as well as deploying lasers and nerve stimulation techniques.
Multi-layer cake of crazy, indeed.
I can’t tell if these are real or gags. Probably real, sadly.
Soundtrack for this post suggested by Nancy Pelosi, whom is was apparently written about –
4
4 years since I started this thing in 2012. It’s changed a lot since then, and so have I. Not sure where to go from here – writing about leftism is kind of pointless now since it’s almost all beyond parody. Same with politics. Guess it’s mostly down to music and comics and such, with a few insights about life thrown in here and there.
And, of course, posts about strange future-tech stuff.
Because I always like to end on a classy note.
2015
You’ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it’s clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we’ll be A.O.K.
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Donald Fagen, “I.G.Y. (What A Beautiful World)”*
2015 has been a crazy year, in the most literal sense of the word. Grab your spandex jacket and go have a great night.
* International Geophysical Year, July 1 1957 – December 31 1958
Colonel Future
As the year nears its end, let’s look back on the past of the future. Tomorrow was different back then.
Edmond Hamilton was a science fiction writer and primary driver behind Captain Future, a juvenile-oriented space opera series. Known as the “Man of Tomorrow” and “Wizard of Science,” The Captain sailed through many adventures…
Hey, wait, what’s he doing fighting that other Man Of Tomorrow? And did he get a promotion?
Colonel Future appeared in Superman #378 in 1982, and threw down with Supes. But who is this mystery man?
Upon recovering from his ordeal, Hamilton did what any scientist would do in his situation…. don a retro-futuristic costume and embark on a career of crime.
A man gifted and cursed with the power to see the future…. but only when in mortal danger. This was a pretty wild idea in comics at the time, and kinda blew my 12-year old mind.
Superman flies off to find Colonel Future stealing more scientific equipment, and once again fails to stop him. Our Hero begins to wonder if the Colonel really is a man from the future, as he seems to know exactly how to best Superman at every turn.
Following another defeat, Supes flies off to deal with the threatening asteroid…
The good Colonel learned his lesson… or so it seemed.
Colonel Hamilton returned in 1984…
…after having a vision that convinced him Superman was soon going to die.
Unlike the first story, which was pretty clever and engaging, this one turned out to be rather lame. The guy at the end of the page is dressed as Superman to collect for a charity drive. Several others are doing the same, and some criminals get the idea of infiltrating by wearing Superman costumes and stealing the money. Through a complicated event chain, Hamilton ends up in a costume and gets shot at and techinically dies until resuscitated by Superman, fulfilling his vision.
The story did give us this neat sequence, though –
There’s also a brief scene of Hamilton congratulating a Dr. Isaacs on a proposal for a navigation system for the space shuttle. Perhaps a shout-out to another science fiction writer turned supervillain?
BONUS ROUND: In 1978, four years before this Colonel Future appeared, there was another version in a retro-style Superman story set in the 1940s…
The Colonel was of course stopped, and four years later he appeared again, lamenting how his failure to kill Superman had hurt his standing among the supervillain community –
And that was it for this version of the Colonel. He was last seen in July 1982, a mere 5 months before the jetpack version first showed up and replaced him.
Indeed, the first Colonel didn’t even get a write-up in 1985’s Who’s Who series, listing nearly every DC Comics character that ever appeared, while the not-so-villainous villain version got a full page…
So just how did Edmond Hamilton come to be connected to Superman, anyhow? A couple of readers wrote in asking that it be explained for younger readers, and one even suggested a possible inspiration for the story of Colonel Future –
Strangely, the editor’s response didn’t mention that longtime Superman editor Mort Weisinger created Captain Future in the first place!
Extra Trivia Bonus: Captain Future’s real name was Curt Newton. The first appearance of each version of Colonel Future was drawn by legendary Superman artist Curt Swan, who drew some of Hamilton’s Superman stories. A second appearance of the first Colonel was drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. All of which, I’m sure, probably amused the writers and editor of the stories.
nightskyradio 