Joshua Rhys Taliesin O'Madadhain

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-music-moves-us

Haven't read the whole thing yet, but it looks interesting and includes some findings that I wouldn't have expected.

This is not at all new--it's from 2004--but I figured, what the hell, I'd never seen it. So here, /., have some more PageRank. And maybe one of you all will enjoy this:

http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/04/10/20/1518217.shtml?tid=192&tid=214&tid=126&tid=11

I sure did. :)

in a cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lNFRLrP014

There are other, longer versions of this on YouTube (including
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UuFJoexdlU, which involves someone rocking a
Wagner tuba) but in this one you can actually hear the choir and get
closeups of them.

This would be pretty surreal even without the band's hairdos (if that
is the word) and glasses.

*quietly boggles*

http://www.netrootsmass.net/hughs-bush-scandals-list/

I grant you that some of them are a bit sparse in description, but hell, there are 400 of them.

Sadly, we've got enough other crap going on right now--much of which due to the above--that I'm not sure he'll ever get the indictments, much less the jail time, he deserves.

http://pfarley.livejournal.com/105081.html

Seriously, someone clone that man so that he can do all the awesome things that he doesn't have time to finish himself.

and has some amusing and cogent things to say about jocks and nerds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW7OPByRGDY

with choir-generated rain sound effects:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05ip-N0H1Ig

The 'special effects' at the beginning were very well done, and I salute them for making the fact that choral risers are often noisy into a feature. :) I found the actual singing part somewhat lackluster, though; they could have done a lot more with it (e.g., increased the dynamic range, maybe kicked up the tempo just slightly and/or added some rubato in spots).

http://www.juliansanchez.com/2009/04/06/climate-change-and-argumentative-fallacies/
http://www.juliansanchez.com/2009/06/01/perils-of-pop-philosophy/

The thought-provoking quote:

We’re accustomed to calling the “argument from authority” a fallacy, but in fact, that’s what the vast majority of us have to go on most of the time. Provided you ensure that authority’s authority actually applies to the field in question, it’s as good a strategy as any.

Obviously, when it comes to an argument between trained scientific specialists, they ought to ignore the consensus and deal directly with the argument on its merits. But most of us are not actually in any position to deal with the arguments on the merits.

*ponder*

http://xkcd.com/592/

In the "funny because it's true" category.

This one's for you, fdmts:

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/02/damien-walters-2009.html

I have to say that's one of the most physically impressive gymnastic exhibitions that I've ever seen.

I mean, _daaaaaaaamn_.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/30/richard-feynman-play.html

I hope he got his orange juice.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/19/gesturing-helps-you.html

One wonders whether they also looked at whether gesturing makes one more persuasive (i.e., 'hand-waving'). :)

via maradydd: http://www.math.pacificu.edu/~emmons/dox/S_estina.pdf

and for a bonus: http://www.math.pacificu.edu/~emmons/AllPoems/

Douglas Hofstadter, please call your office...

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/why_were_not_obsolete/

References an article in Science to which I don't have access, sadly, but here's the abstract:

For centuries, scientists have attempted to identify and document analytical laws that underlie physical phenomena in nature. Despite the prevalence of computing power, the process of finding natural laws and their corresponding equations has resisted automation. A key challenge to finding analytic relations automatically is defining algorithmically what makes a correlation in observed data important and insightful. We propose a principle for the identification of nontriviality. We demonstrated this approach by automatically searching motion-tracking data captured from various physical systems, ranging from simple harmonic oscillators to chaotic double-pendula. Without any prior knowledge about physics, kinematics, or geometry, the algorithm discovered Hamiltonians, Lagrangians, and other laws of geometric and momentum conservation. The discovery rate accelerated as laws found for simpler systems were used to bootstrap explanations for more complex systems, gradually uncovering the "alphabet" used to describe those systems.

It will be interesting to see how well this sort of thing does outside of the original domain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7996852.stm

One has to give props to the BBC science editor for letting that title through.

Don't remember where I found this, but I do remember the person linking to it invoking Time Bandits, so I'll pass that along for the Gilliam fans.

Personally, however, especially since this involves the theft of mass from a helium star, I get a mental image of a dwarf sucking in massive amounts of helium, eventually saying in a squeaky voice (realizing his impending {d,b}oom) "OH, SHIT!" and then exploding.

You're welcome.

Screw Wolverine*, here's a better origin story that has the virtue of being in large part actually true (if perhaps visually exaggerated for comic effect): http://sydneypadua.com/2dgoggles/lovelace-the-origin-2/

On reflection, she may be the closest match to Agatha Heterodyne that's actually existed in our history. Kind of scary, that.

*I figured that that suggestion ought to be popular, anyway--at least if we're talking about Hugh Jackman's Wolverine. :)

(After all, they don't get the funding. Perhaps it's just as well.)

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090506

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/07/earlyshow/main4997891.shtml

That must be one pretty hard-core three-year-old.

The area is home to bears, mountain lions, snakes. Three ponds sit within a couple of miles of the boy's home, as do many creeks swollen by recent rains.

"I'm going to nominate him for the Grizzly Adams award and take him bear hunting with a stick,” said Adam. "I don't know too many grown men that could do what he did."

*points up*

So, as my previous post indicated, I came back yesterday from a trip to New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut.

( The details: )