A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Nov 17 2012
Mark Twain, probably

60 percent of America’s biggest cities are now smoke-free

60 percent of America’s biggest cities are now smoke-free

CDC press release:

Thirty of America’s 50 largest cities are now covered by laws that prohibit smoking in all indoor areas of private workplaces, restaurants, and bars, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By late 2000, only one of the 50 largest U.S. cities—San Jose, Calif.—was covered by such a law. As of Oct. 5, 2012, 16 of the 50 largest cities were covered by local comprehensive smoke-free laws, and 14 more were covered by state comprehensive smoke-free laws.

The CDC’s report, “Comprehensive Smoke-Free Laws — 50 Largest U.S. Cities, 2000 and 2012,” contains a table with a summary of the laws in the fifty cities. In addition to the thirty cities with “comprehensive” bans (workplaces, restaurants, and bars) on the city or state level, an additional fourteen have a smoking ban in one or two of those subcategories. The six largest cities not covered by any sort of law are Los Angeles, CA (#2), Oklahoma City, OK (#31), Fresno, CA (#34), Virginia Beach, VA (#39), Atlanta, GA (#40), and Tulsa, OK (#46).

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Nov 17 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Captain Murphy’s Duality

Captain Murphy’s Duality

The (as of this writing still) anonymous rapper Captain Murphy has put out his first mixtape. Murphy’s debut was earlier this year on Flying Lotus’s “Between Friends” alongside with Earl Sweatshirt and Murphy seems to be sticking more with the latter than the former — “Immaculation” features Azizi Gibson and Jeremiah Jae both of whom are signed to FlyLo’s Brainfeeder label.

Regardless of identity or affiliation, Murphys new mixtape, “Duality” is really quite good. Additionally it has been released in an innovative way: the entire mixtape, all 35 minutes of it, has been made into a single video by French director Xavier Magot. In fact, so far at least it’s the only way to even hear the mixtape.

You may click through above to watch it but let the clicker be warned: the video contains NSFW images.

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Nov 16 2012
Mark Twain, probably

“Hand Fixing Hand” is a photographic homage to M. C. Escher’s Drawing Hands, created by Shane Willis in 2007.

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Nov 16 2012
Mark Twain, probably

The music industry is changing

The music industry is changing

Damon Krukowski:

Which gets to the heart of the problem. When I started making records, the model of economic exchange was exceedingly simple: make something, price it for more than it costs to manufacture, and sell it if you can. It was industrial capitalism, on a 7” scale. The model now seems closer to financial speculation. Pandora and Spotify are not selling goods; they are selling access, a piece of the action. Sign on, and we’ll all benefit. (I’m struck by the way that even crowd-sourcing mimics this “investment” model of contemporary capitalism: You buy in to what doesn’t yet exist.)

But here’s the rub: Pandora and Spotify are not earning any income from their services, either. In the first quarter of 2012, Pandora— the same company that paid Galaxie 500 a total of $1.21 for their use of “Tugboat”— reported a net loss of more than $20 million dollars. As for Spotify, their latest annual report revealed a loss in 2011 of $56 million.

I’ve quoted here what is to me most interesting of Krukowski’s observations but the whole piece is a great read especially if you’re not familiar with how and how much Pandora and Spotify pay out to artists.

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Nov 15 2012
Mark Twain, probably

So the game Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is released tomorrow in Europe and next week in the U.S. Similar to Mario Kart 7, your vehicle transforms between three forms: land, air, and sea.

There’s one “character,” “Ages,” whose vehicles are the Hornet from Daytona USA, the Hornet from After Burner… and the Dreamcast controller.

I think I might want this game, you guys.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Nov 15 2012
Mark Twain, probably

fMRI used to communicate with brain damaged patient

fMRI used to communicate with brain damaged patient

Fergus Walsh, BBC News:

A Canadian man who was believed to have been in a vegetative state for more than a decade, has been able to tell scientists that he is not in any pain.

It’s the first time an uncommunicative, severely brain-injured patient has been able to give answers clinically relevant to their care.

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Nov 14 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Super Mario 64 Multiplayer Hack

Super Mario 64 Multiplayer Hack

After years of roaming the worlds in Super Mario 64 alone, you can now do so with a friend! Just as Nintendo had originally planned, this modification turns all of SM64 multiplayer.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

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Nov 13 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Andrew McPherson of Drexel University’s Music and Entertainment Lab:

The acoustic piano is a percussion instrument: felt hammers strike steel strings, causing them to vibrate. As a result of centuries of development, the piano has a rich, vibrant sound and tremendous versatility; on the other hand, it lacks the degrees of performer control commonly found in electronic synthesizers. In particular, once a note is struck, the performer has no further control over it until it is released. My research installs electromagnetic actuators inside the piano to directly vibrate the strings, allowing continuous control of the resonant sound of the instrument. This hybrid acoustic-electronic instrument maintains the richness of the acoustic piano while expanding its vocabulary to include infinite sustain, notes that crescendo from silence, harmonics, and new timbres.

I want one of these so bad.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Nov 12 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Zoologger: The bird with a password-protected nest

Zoologger: The bird with a password-protected nest

Michael Slezak for New Scientist:

Most parents are security conscious but Australian superb fairy-wrens take it to another level. They have no choice: fairy-wren mothers often have their nests hijacked by Horsfield’s bronze cuckoos (Chalcites basalis).

The cuckoo egg looks like the wren eggs but hatches earlier, at which point the cuckoo chick ejects the wren eggs. Unless the mother wren realises an intruder is in the nest, she raises the cuckoo as her own, wasting time and food.

But the cuckoo only gets away with it 60 per cent of the time. In the other 40 per cent of cases, the wren detects the cuckoo within days, abandons it, and starts another nest. That’s because the mother teaches her chicks a password while they are still inside their eggs. Once hatched, the mother abandons the nest if they can’t give the password.

Nature is both weird and awesome at the same time.

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Nov 11 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Ohio attorney creates fake child porn for case, now must pay $300,000

Ohio attorney creates fake child porn for case, now must pay $300,000

Cyrus Farivar on Ars Technica:

In case it wasn’t clear, you can definitely be busted for digitally manipulating photographs to make them look like child pornography—or as it’s sometimes called, child abuse imagery. And even if it wasn’t against the law, it’s certainly a terrible idea. Still, that didn’t stop an Ohio lawyer and former state prosecutor—who has often been called upon as an expert witness to testify that child porn laws are so overbroad that they cover fictional, digitally altered photos—from doctoring up his own.

On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of a district court in Ohio that had previously found Dean Boland, a self-described “qualified computer expert,” liable to pay $300,000 to the families of the two girls that brought suit against him.

WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY

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