Virtual, but permanent.
On some level, it’s infuriating to know that houseboats in Amsterdam get better internet bandwidth than the most luxurious penthouse in Manhattan or San Francisco.
L.A. Traffic Causing Premature Births: Study: Discovery News.
The number of studies linking the poor air quality to pulmonary problems and generally poor health are numerous. Now, a new study shows that smog adversely affects pregnancies. Yet, somehow, one cannot believe that this will effect any more action in a populace long since drowned in utter apathy.
[ad]
Belfast Catholics riot over Protestant parade – Yahoo! News
The constant fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Belfast is far too reminiscent of the Shi’a-Suni battles of Baghdad than of any rivalry in northern Europe. Maybe Belfast should be called Baghdad North.
[ad]
Ahead of the protests, Tehran’s governor Morteza Tamaddon accused “foreign counterrevolutionary networks” of plotting new marches. “If some individuals plan to carry out any anti-security actions by listening to (protest) calls … they will be smashed under the feet of our aware people,” he said late Wednesday, according to the state news agency IRNA.
Irony is forever. The fact that a man whose last name, Tamaddon, translates as “civility” or “civilization” would utter such hateful words comes as no surprise, therefore. The continued piling of such evidence on the smoldering ash heap of human history confirms this axiom of humanity.
Irony is forever.
Saddam Hussein Said WMD Talk Helped Him Look Strong to Iran – washingtonpost.com.
It was what many among us had suspected all along, principally among them Harry Shearer, who said just as much in one of his Le Show broadcasts back in 2003 or 2004.
Perhaps we need more real comedians in politics, instead of boneheads who are accidentally funny. Let’s hope–nay, pray–that this reasoning is born out in Al Franken‘s election.
[ad]
This is a video whose release to the general public has been delayed far too long. The object of my affections is Bianca, my friend’s exceptionally friendly and cuddly miniature pomeranian dog. She is a female dog and, hence, a bitch.
The object of her affections is me, and as this video plainly demonstrates, the abundance of love between us is truly immeasurable.
This video evidence seems to contradict Wikipedia’s claims about the pomeranian’s behavior:
Pomeranians are typically very friendly, playful and active. The breed is very protective of their owners and love to be around them. They are very intelligent and are easily trained. They rank 23rd in Stanley Coren‘s The Intelligence of Dogs, being of excellent working/obedience intelligence. Pomeranians socialize well with other dogs, animals, and people. Pomeranians are extroverted and can develop the habit of barking excessively only if the behavior is rewarded (i.e. allowed to beg for food).
[ad]
Ruth Madoff forfeits asset claims, left with $2.5 million | Reuters
$2.5 million is not a bad take at all for suffering through decades of lavish living at the clients’ expense. One wonders why someone how has absolutely no bargaining power vis a vis the prosecution of a confessed criminal is granted such a healthy settlement when a huge number of the defrauded clients are left with absolutely nothing.
The soup thickens, indeed.
[ad]
DJ Hero confirmed for Wii, 360, ‘PlayStation’ – News at GameSpot.
Hyperreality has had many proponents in its short, illustrious and extremely controversial tenure as a philosophical concept, but Activision‘s DJ Hero may be the advent that may finally prove the validity, the truth contained in and the reality of hyperreality.
Hyperreality refers to the primacy of the simulation over the reality that it simulates. It is the acceptance and the perception of the simulation as the reality. The reality gave rise to the simulation is forgotten or is otherwise overwhelmed by the simulation that is based upon it. It is not just the original object that is forgotten, but the concept of originality.
What could possibly encapsulate this idea better than DJ Hero? Without a doubt, the modern disk jockey is a creative creature, but it is not a musician. She or he pretends to be a musician by assembling frequently digitized pieces produced by bona fide musicians into a pastiche that sounds somehow different, new and original. Yet the piece is neither different nor original. It differs only slightly in quantitative terms in sound (slightly faster rhythm, slightly different instrumentation), and it is in no way an original composition. DJ output is in every way an expression of the artist’s intent, but it only rarely constitutes an original composition that expands the musical lexicon. After all, the DJ doesn’t even play any real instruments or truly compose music by sitting down and writing notes (digitally or literally with ink and paper.
In fact, most modern DJs simply “play” a laptop computer. DJ software simulates turn tables on the computer, and the DJ uses the virtual controls of the DJ software to manipulate the digital sounds. In as much, DJs may arrange music, but one is hard pressed to call the process composition.
So, what is DJ Hero, in this light? It is a piece of software that allows one to be pretending to be manipulating a piece of software that allows one to be pretending to be making an original piece of music by mixing the original sound bites (and bytes) culled from highly digitized and stylized pieces of music recorded by a real musician under circumstances that were completely unrelated in context to the piece being assembled by the disk jockey.
The concept of musicianship is obliterated. It is so far removed from the concept of “music” in the context of the DJs labor that it is utterly invisible, imperceptible. Is this a case of hyperreality, or infinite regress? Certainly, it is a case that has nothing to do with music or musicianship as the concepts have been understood heretofore.
[ad]
BBC NEWS | Americas | California ‘to scrap textbooks’
This doesn’t mean that California school children won’t be educated. The ones with computers and an internet connection will manage. The ones who cannot afford the technology required for electronic textbooks will make Arnold Schwarzenegger sound educated.
This economic slump has an infinite upside for Schwarzenegger.
[ad]
Funny, nobody ever bothered doing this when Enron was destroying the California economy. It should come as no surprise why the European economy is on much more stable and fundamentally stronger foundation than the American economy, where the big corporations’ right to plunder is the only right that ever seems to get the protection of the law.
[ad]