This is a cover of the Plain White T’s song, “Rhythm of Love,” from last season of “The Voice” on NBC. Awesome song choice, and this is the best cover I’ve heard in a long time.
Jan 102013
Nov 172012
Al Gore races through a quick presentation in the style of “An Inconvenient Truth” with updated stats for 2012:
Nov 082012
I’m extremely pleased and grateful that Obama was re-elected. And relieved. The progress will continue and we’ll not return to the very policies that caused the Great Recession in the first place.
I’m always irritated when I hear people claim Obama has been a mediocre president. Our country has faced tough economic problems. Progress has been delayed by the ideological and obstructionist approach taken by the Republicans in the house. But Obama’s decisions as president have been good ones, our economy is on the mend, and I believe Obama will go down in history as one of the great presidents.
Obama’s victory speech before the nation was well written. And he mentioned global warming in it, thankfully. So that’s good.
But as good as that speech was, I was more impressed by the sincerity and humility he expressed in this short address he made to his campaign staff in Chicago:
Nov 042012
Wow, what a great speech. He’s still got it.
Oct 272012
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According to a paper published in Current Biology, a beluga whale named NOC (pronounced “no-see”) learned to mimic the pitch and rhythms of human conversation.[1] This is not easy for a beluga whale to do, so it could not have been an accident.
The embedded video doesn’t provide much audio of the whale. Better audio here:
[audio:https://www.merrilydancingape.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/NOC.mp3]To me, it sounds like how human conversation taking place above water must sound to a curious eavesdropper below the surface. A whale would not parse human conversation into distinct words or even into individual speakers. Whales are singers, not speakers. They would interpret the conversation as a single, flowing song.
So in this audio clip what is NOC trying to communicate to us?
My guess is he’s simply saying a friendly “Hello!”
Oct 232012
I was pleased with Obama’s victory in the second debate, and pleased that he won on substance in the third debate as well. I’d like to focus on one small but telling aspect of the debate that will go overlooked by pundits.
During the third debate, Romney said this of the conflict in Afghanistan:
We’re going to be finished by 2014. And when I’m president, we’ll make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014.
Factcheck.org has an interesting commentary on that remark:
That’s a change. In the past, Romney had said that announcing a specific date for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops was among Obama’s “biggest mistakes.” He later told ABC News that he also would adhere to “the same time frame the president is speaking of” for turning over responsibility to Afghan forces by the end of 2014, but qualified that by saying withdrawal depended on what military commanders tell him and on circumstances “on the ground.”
This time there were no such qualifiers. Romney said flatly: “[W]e’re going to be able to make that transition by the end of — of 2014. So our troops’ll come home at that point.”
Let’s be clear here. Over the course of this campaign, Romney has staked out three different positions on Afghanistan. First he criticized the president for setting a withdrawal date at all. Then he flipped and said he supported Obama’s timeline generally but with qualifiers. Now he shifts again and adopts Obama’s exact position without qualifiers.
What does this tell us about Mitt Romney?
It tells us that he stands for principles. Yes, principles! That’s what presidents do, and Mitt Romney is supremely presidential. Whatever principles he needs to stand for to get elected, he’ll stand for ’em. I’m not saying he isn’t earnest. He is earnest in that he earnestly wants to stand for whatever principles you care about most at the current moment.
He’s Mr. Etch-a-sketch. Every month or so he shakes off his past positions and re-draws himself anew.
This is what scares me most about Mitt Romney. It scares me even more than his ridiculous tax plan. He has been on every side of every issue. We can’t hold him to his promises because the promises he has made are either vague or contradictory. If Romney is elected, we really don’t know what the heck he’ll do.
Oct 202012
Whenever I hear the song “Madness” by Muse on the radio, a sci-fi fantasy of my own creation plays like a movie in my mind’s eye. If I were a mogul in the entertainment industry I’d expand the concept into a pilot for a television series, and produce it on a network channel, and audiences would love it, and my creation would become the next big thing, and and and… [sigh].
Muse music does that to you. It makes you dream big crazy awesome sci-fi dreams.
So I was pleased to discover that Muse created a big crazy awesome and awesomely funny sci-fi music video for one of their songs, “Knights of Cydonia.”
Oct 042012
Meet Nikola Tesla, lovable mad scientist and wizard of electromagnetism. That’s him in the photo above, nonchalantly jotting notes while trillions of jolts of electricity explode into hellfire over his head.
If something in this photo looks a little off to you, that’s because it was doctored. This was a publicity shot. That goes with Tesla’s schtick – he was a showman, and a great one.
On October 5 to 8, another great showman, the illusionist David Blaine, will put on a demonstration to make Nikola Tesla proud. He’s going to publicly electrocute himself!
Don’t worry, it’s not the violent, bloodthirsty, State of Texas kind of electrocution. The New York Times reports:
With the help of the Liberty Science Center, a chain-mail suit and an enormous array of Tesla electrical coils, he plans to stand atop a 20-foot-high pillar for 72 straight hours, without sleep or food, while being subjected to a million volts of electricity.
When Mr. Blaine performs “Electrified” on a pier in Hudson River Park, the audience there as well as viewers in London, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney, Australia, will take turns controlling which of the seven coils are turned on, and at what intensity. They will also be able to play music by producing different notes from the coils. The whole performance, on Pier 54 near West 13th Street, will be shown live at www.youtube.com/electrified.
This should be a delightful spectacle.
Oct 042012
The first debate proved that Romney is no idiot. He’s a force to be reckoned with. But what does Romney actually have to offer?
Assessment below the fold.
Oct 012012
Are you a humanist? I think I am.
For a long time I supposed humanism was something sinister. I allowed the opponents of humanism to attach a boogeyman-ish stigma to it. Now, though, I see that if my own philosophy aligns with any other mainstream one, humanism is it.
But I still have reservations.
For example: though I can’t think of a superior alternative, there is a real problem with the name. It’s obviously speciesist. If you came across a talking cat and asked her if she wanted to be a humanist, she’d have to reply, “PPFFFFFFT! I value all life, not just you humans. The only sensible name for such a philosophy is catism. I’m a catist.”
So what is humanism and do I agree with it?
The third incarnation of the Humanist Manifesto is posted prominently on the American Humanist Association website. The AHA claims it’s been signed by Richard Dawkins, Albert Ellis, the Amazing Randi, Michael Shermer, and Kurt Vonnegut. Impressive.
Below the fold, I shall present the manifesto with my commentary interspersed.