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16 March 2007

Fold Proteins on your Sony PlayStation 3! What a partnership! What a coup! Win-Win!

The enzyme hexokinase, in an illustration of protein catalysis. After a protein folds into its final 3D shape, the precise shape of its surface, in precise contact with complementary surfaces of other molecules, stimulates or allows the manufacture of other vital biomolecules. (University of Hamburg DE / W. S. Bennett, T. A. Steitz, 1980)


The Register (online computer newsletter)
Thursday 15 March 2007

Help frag cancer

Folding@home
comes to the PS3


by Drew Cullen in San Francisco

Sony is to let Playstation 3 users run Folding@home on their consoles, helping the study of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis and many cancers.

Folding@home is a popular distributed computing app from Stanford University [in Palo Alto, California USA]. It uses the downtime of many thousands of internet-connected PCs volunteered for the project by their owners to process computationally-intensive simulations concerning protein-folding, misfolding and related diseases.

Some simulations could take 30 years to run on a single PC, so running them across the Folding@home network saves a lot of time, Stanford says. The PS3 could help save even more: according to Sony, The PS3's Cell/B.E. processor is about 10 times faster than a conventional PC chip, and so can perform simulations that much faster.

The Folding@home icon will be added to the next updat of Sony's XMB (Cross MediaBar) user interface at the ned of March. PS3 users just have to click the icon to start running. Or they can set their console to run the app whenever it is idle -- i.e. switched-on, connected to the internet and otherwise minding its own business.

- 30 -

15 March 2007

a Cry for Help from the Easter Bunny to the Dutch Power Cows

click for larger & clearer

Dear Dutch Power Cows,

I am the Easter Bunny, and I need your help!

Easter Sunday 2007 is 8 April, so I don't have much time.

In 1918, after assassinating the Tsar of Russia and his family, the Easter Bunny stole all their fabulous
Fabergé Easter eggs made of diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, pearls and gold.

I feel very bad about this, and now I want to give back 13 of the beautiful Fabergé eggs.

I have chosen 13 little girls and boys, who live in 13 different places, and I want to deliver the beautiful
Fabergé eggs to them on Easter.

I need to know The Shortest Possible Path from Easter Bunny Centre, to each house, and then back home again to Easter Bunny Centre.

Finding the Shortest Possible Path connecting 13 different places is a Very Hard Problem, and I'm just a Dumb Bunny who is not smart enough to find the Shortest Possible Path in time for Easter!

As you all know,

* the Earth is Flat

* the distance between any 2 points is a straight line

* all distances are measured in kilometers

* Easter Bunny Centre is at the origin (0, 0)

Here are the (x, y) coordinates of the houses of the 13 children:

child ............ x .......... y
==================================
Anna ....... -267.79 .... -083.96
Benjamin ... -826.03 .... +846.76
Carmen ..... +863.47 .... -416.76
David ...... -510.72 .... +450.21
Eloise ..... +905.16 .... -597.97
Freddy ..... +701.36 .... -691.47
Gemma ...... -653.85 .... -469.27
Hrothgar ... +460.26 .... +096.81
Imogen ..... -713.34 .... -706.31
Jacques .... +917.97 .... -016.04
Kiki ....... +344.47 .... +462.57
Leonhard ... +884.65 .... +164.46
Mimi ....... +061.24 .... -962.69
==================================

Here are examples of a Path Answer. small "e" stands for Easter Bunny Centre. The Easter Bunny only needs 2 decimal digits of precision.

Path .......... Length of Path
==============================
eABCDEFGHIJKLMe 87654321.09 km
eCMBJGFLAHEKDIe 45678901.23 km
==============================

Please help me! What is the Shortest Possible Path??? Don't make me hop all over the place and waste weeks of time. I need to deliver all 13
Fabergé eggs on Easter Sunday!

I have posted my problem on my blog for weeks, but NOBODY ON THE INTERNET has tried to solve it!!!

So now I am convinced that ONLY THE DUTCH POWER COWS have the skills, brains and computing power to help me. But time is running short! Help!

The Easter Bunny
Easter Bunny Centre

P.S. I hop to NL often, and I promise to buy 1 Giant Pizza, with your favorite toppings, at your favorite Pizzeria, for the DPCs who can solve my problem in time for Easter!

13 March 2007

Retirement Golf -- a fun future for General Peter Pace USMC

U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant (Retired) Eric Fidelis Alva.

When I think something's illegal or unconstitutional, I can consult books of state and federal laws, and the U.S. Constitution. I may not get a perfectly clear and unambiguous answer, but at least I can cite a document defined and accepted as "the law." In a legal fight, such citations are powerfully persuasive, and if the opposite side can't come up with its own citations, courts are bound to rule on the side with the most relevant citations.

When I think something's immoral (and I frequently think This or That is immoral), what documents in which libraries can I point to and cite to bolster my case? Which Code of Morals can I click on for clear guidance?

Here's an old rant a Canadian newspaper was thoughtful enough to publish:

==============

The Oakville Beaver (Ontario Canada)
Wednesday 21 November 2001


Police & Morality
Strange Bedfellows


In "Neighbourhood Pot Labs Busted" (16 November 2001), you mention the Halton Police's "Drug and Morality Unit."

Why are the Halton Police enforcing morality? And whose morality are they enforcing? Is there an official national Canadian morality? Where can I obtain a copy of this document? Are the police enforcing Protestant morality or Catholic morality? They differ on several significant issues; some things condemned in one are permitted in the other.

When I have questions about moral behavior, I consult a trained and ordained member of the clergy. The notion that police officers, with their somewhat different training, have taken it upon themselves to scrutinize and enforce the community's morals is, quite frankly, very chilling. The notion that the government takes its preferred system of morality and translates it into criminal law smacks of 14th-Century Europe and the Inquisition, and is downright terrifying.

Robert Merkin

===============

Halton's Morals Cops were just busting pot growers, universally acknowledged as Immoral Villains throughout planet Earth (except in the Netherlands, India, British Columbia, Jamaica, Morocco, Lebanon, Northern California, Lambeth UK sometimes, Mexico and Nepal -- have I left anyone out?).

But here we have the USA's top military officer, 4-star General Peter Pace, USMC, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publically declaring that homosexual acts are immoral and should not be tolerated in the U.S. military.

Says who? Which Code of Morality is he citing?

And if he can cite some particular Code of Morality -- who gives a flying fuck? In the United States, Law alone matters. And Morals that reflect ANY religion's belief system Don't Matter, they have no force in any court of law, and they have no force even in the military's Uniform Code of Military Justice. I cite

United States Constitution
Bill of Rights

Amendment I


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I suspect General Pace is citing two Codes of Morality: His grandmother's, and the one his Sunday School teacher taught him.

I mean no disrespect for grandma or the Sunday School teacher or the Pope (Roman Catholic or Coptic), the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, or any assortment of bishops or patriarchs in Christendom.

But the U.S. Constitution clearly forbids any of these Morality Teachers from having any influence whatsoever on government or military policy. How the U.S. military command structure deals with homosexuals is and legally must be entirely a matter of the Laws enacted by Congress.

When the world's loudest faggot-basher (Ann Coulter this week) goes after gays and lesbians in the U.S. military, the moment the Morality Crusade reaches a federal court, the judges are obligated, by the clear words of the first clause of the First Amendment, to bang the gavel, say "case dismissed," direct the queer-basher to the EXIT, and move on to Real Legal Business that can be decided by Real Laws.

It would deeply please me as an American, and a veteran of the U.S. Army, if this dustup grew legs, pissed off increasingly vast numbers of decent Americans (who are scared to death during the Bush/Gingrich Era that America is adopting and enforcing a State Religion), and ended up facilitating General Pace's early retirement from the U.S. Marine Corps.

There is much golf for him to play on the hundreds of excellent golf courses on military bases throughout America and its overseas bases in his honored Golden Years.


It's been easily 20 years since a front-page article in The New York Times took its readers inside the blacked-out door of a gay bar outside the main gate of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina -- and found the place jammed wall-to-wall with active-duty male United States Marines.

WWGD? (What Would Grandma Do?)


They're here, they're queer, they're drinking beer -- and when Bush starts a new whack war, queer Jarheads will be in the first assault wave. At the top of this post is a photograph of Eric Fidelis Alva, one of the first Marines wounded in the Iraq War.

As gay soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen have been risking their lives and dying in uniform in every American war and military action since the Revolutionary War. Lesbians in uniform ditto. Whether Peter Pace's Grandma thinks it's Immoral or not.

Time for a new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Somebody who obeys the Law, somebody who doesn't just swear to uphold the United States Constitution -- but who actually read it once or twice, knows what's in it, and knows why Grandma's Code of Morals isn't in it.

===============

Time (USA weekly magazine)
Tuesday 13 March 2007


Pace Comments Renew
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Debate


by Mark Thompson

WASHINGTON -- Amid the turmoil of the Iraq war and the scandal at Walter Reed, the last thing the nation's top military officer should want to do is generate more controversy by renewing the debate over gays in the military. Yet that's just what Marine General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has done in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, telling the paper that "I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts."

His comments have not surprisingly sparked a flurry of criticism from gay advocacy groups and lawmakers, but they are unlikely to change the status quo. Ultimately, many military officers believe, openly gay men and women will be allowed to serve in uniform, but it's just not going to happen very quickly. And for that, ironically, you can blame the most gay-friendly president ever: Bill Clinton.

Prior to Clinton taking office, the rule barring gays from serving was set solely by the president — and could be lifted by him, or her, as well. But once Clinton came in pledging to lift the ban, the opposition of his chairman of the Joint Chiefs — Colin Powell — and the hapless efforts by his first defense secretary, the late Les Aspin — ignited a firestorm on Capitol Hill. As the "don't ask, don't tell" compromise was hammered out, Congress took the extraordinary step of removing the policy from the president's hands and writing it into law.

Ever since that heated 1993 debate over the issue, senior military officers have tended to mute their opposition to gays in uniform simply because it shows them as being out of step with much of the nation. Not only that, cashiering gays from the military when the Pentagon is desperately trying to hold on to every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine doesn't seem to many people to make a lot of sense.

One of the reasons the military hasn't typically spoken out loudly on the topic is because they basically won the debate. Under the policy, gays may only serve if they keep their sexual orientation private and do not engage in homosexual activity. Commanders also are barred from asking about their orientation.

Pace probably would have been better served choosing different words to explain his opposition to gays and lesbians serving openly in uniform; the word "immoral" hasn't generally been used by senior officers to justify the ban. But Pace, the son of an Italian immigrant, carries a lot of his father's old world values into his position. He made emotional remarks at an immigration hearing in Florida last July, citing the progress his family had made since his father emigrated to the New York area in 1914. "There is no other country on the planet that affords that kind of opportunity to those who come here," Pace, whose name means "peace" in Italian, told a Senate panel meeting in Miami.

"General Pace1s comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces," says C. Dixon Osburn, who heads the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay advocacy group in Washington (the 65,000 estimate is a UCLA study's estimate, the group said). "Our men and women in uniform make tremendous sacrifices for our country, and deserve General Pace's praise, not his condemnation. As a Marine and a military leader, General Pace knows that prejudice should not dictate policy. It is inappropriate for the Chairman to condemn those who serve our country because of his own personal bias. He should immediately apologize for his remarks. " Tuesday afternoon, Pace stuck to his guns but backed away a bit from the moraality anlgle. "I should have focused more on my support of the policy," he said in a statement, "and less on my personal moral views."

Three weeks ago, the first Marine seriously injured in Iraq declared he was gay and called for "don't ask, don't tell" to be tossed out. Retired Staff Sgt. Eric Fidelis Alva, 36, of San Antonio, lost his right leg to a land mine in the war's opening days. His wound got him a Purple Heart from President Bush, as well as a profile in People Magazine and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. "It was like carrying this enormous secret that you want to share with someone," he said last month. "I eventually formed close bonds with other Marines and did confide in them. They treated me with the same respect and dignity afterward. We were still buddies." A 2005 study by the Government Accountability Office showed that about 10,000 service personnel have been discharged since the policy took effect, including 54 Arabic specialists.

Alva is not alone. Senator Hillary Clinton, who was first lady when Congress wrote "don't ask, don't tell" into law, wants it repealed. Retired Army general John Shalikashvili, who served as chairman after Powell, also wants it removed from the books. But far more important is the view from the ranks. A recent poll by the Military Times newspapers showed that only 30 percent of respondents think openly gay people should be allowed to serve, compared to 59 percent who are opposed. Until those numbers are reversed, "don't ask, don't tell" won't change.

- 30 -

Copyright © 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

12 March 2007

kill the polar bears, melt the ice, drown the planet, gag the scientists

A mother polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and cub
on sea ice, on which they hunt seals.
(photo: Manitoba Conservation.)

They may not be around much longer, so Vleeptron will keep posting stories about and images of them.

I've seen them in the wild in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, on Hudson Bay. You can, too, if you act quickly, because a huge flock of eco-tourists from all over the planet heads for Churchill when the polar bears migrate through town on the cusp of October/November. Now's the time to book a hotel room in Churchill and a seat on the wonderful train that takes 2.5 days through the wilderness to reach Churchill from Winnipeg.

The Bush Administration says everything's fine, there is no Global Warming, the polar ice isn't melting, the U.S.A. doesn't need to sign the Kyoto Protocols, the polar bears are just fine.

Here's what happens to U.S. government scientists who think differently and want to say so out loud.

A team of U.S. government scientists was the first to report that polar bears have begun drowning in the Arctic Ocean as the sea distances from ice mass to ice mass get longer.

The Washington Post (DC USA)
Saturday 10 March 2007 Page A06


Inquiry Sought on Agency Memo
About Polar Bears, Climate Change


by Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer


Two senior House Democrats demanded yesterday that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne turn over documents to Congress in order to determine whether the administration was preventing federal scientists traveling abroad from discussing how global warming affects polar bears.

In a letter to Kempthorne, Bart Gordon (Tenn.), chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, and Brad Miller (N.C.), chairman of the investigations and oversight subcommittee, questioned why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a directive that has stirred protests from environmentalists.

This "appears to be the latest effort by the Bush Administration to block a full and free discussion of issues relating to climate change by the scientific community," they wrote.

The internal memo was sent to the wildlife agency's Alaska division under the heading "Foreign Travel -- New Requirement -- Please Review and Comply, Importance: High."

The memo, which was reported in other media on Thursday, cautioned employees against speaking about the relationship between climate change and the possible extinction of polar bears without getting official approval in advance. Those discussions became official business in late December when Kempthorne, faced with lawsuits by environmentalists, proposed listing polar bears as a species threatened with extinction.

The memo stated:

"Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175 requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice, and/or polar bears will also require a memorandum from the Regional Director to the Director indicating who'll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to questions on these issues, particularly polar bears, including a statement of assurance that these individuals understand the Administration's position on these issues."

In an interview, the Fish and Wildlife Service's director, H. Dale Hall, said the agency is not trying to censor scientists but cannot allow them to discuss subjects not on the agenda of official foreign meetings.

"The agenda is actually negotiated between these countries that are going to attend," Hall said. "... you have to be extremely careful."

But Deborah Williams, an Interior official in the Clinton administration who heads the advocacy group Alaska Conservation Solutions, said the directive amounts to stifling government scientists' freedom of expression.

"These memos are an outrage, and do a great disservice to federal employees and to advancing discussion and knowledge on these critical issues," said Williams, who provided the memos to news organizations this week.

- 30 -

© 2007 The Washington Post Company

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another example of the hypocritcal stupid bush administration. Id like to see this administration locked away in a room with nothing to breathe but greenhouse gas

By shirleythomasrn | Mar 9, 2007 11:10:56 PM | Request Removal

According to the Bush Administration, there is an inverse relationship between the rise in Corporate Profits and the decrease in Polar Bears.

By farmasea | Mar 9, 2007 11:20:37 PM | Request Removal

To get rid of those greenhouse gases how about nuclear power? It burns no fossil fuels and creates no pollution. If the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository is used we have a safe disposal option. And as time passes we always find more efficient ways of doing things. And that includes even safer disposal or total destruction of nuclear waste. It is the only clean alternative that can power millions of homes. Solar and wind power are intellectually attractive but cant provide practical amounts of power. To provide the current power being used in Pennyslvania, for instance, it would take solar panels covering the entire state side by side. No trees, no plants, just solar panels from border to border. Basically the entire country of France I know, we hate France gets its energy from nuclear power. They have no problems. Grade schools regularly take field trips to their plants. It just part of their lives with no gnashing of teeth like in America. The technology available now makes it safe, efficient, and pollution free. I know what happened in Russia. A dilapidated government plant, understaffed and lacking critical upgrades and repairs had problems. We dont manage plants like that in America and they dont in France either. And yes, I would have one in my back yard. In fact, a nuclear power plant is nearby. No, I don work for them. But they do create very good paying jobs and stimulate the local economy. Plus they help keep utility rates fairly reasonable. Well, got to put on my helmet and take cover. The anti-nuclear crew will be out in force shortly.

By Winnsurf | Mar 9, 2007 11:40:20 PM | Request Removal

there are some things on the drawing board that will make these coal burning plants obsolete within 12 years... _that_ , needs to be taken into account . There is also clean burn and using solar energy for multiple levels of electricity and heating and cooling... there is no need for the number of plants planned , the can be cut by a bout 2/3 and funding used in other places... coal needs to be conserved and used in industrial process... it is essential in some metalurgical and glass making situations... there will be industrial uses for coal well into the next century... to deplete it now is to make use as a way of damaging the environment by not actually looking at an efficient use of a non renewable resource... when rich people are allowed to pass laws that affect everyone and do it from the position of ...I am a rich person that knows jack sh*t about the world around me and I want to maintain my fortune regardless of what it does to you... we need to take the same attitude and shoot them in the knees ...figuratively of course... and eliminate that option... take back America from the selfish and make them obey the laws...you have to... Arrest the Bushes , Cheney , Rumsfeld , Douglas Feith , Perle , Wolfowitz , Libby some more , John Negroponte and others ....make an example of them... take their properties and leave them penniless , let them know what is like to be forced to live without options because of the actions of others.... help them move into the real world by giving them some....

By amonster | Mar 10, 2007 12:44:49 AM | Request Removal

there are a slew of things that would make managing our energy more fun , interesting and increase quality of life... one thing would be to enact laws regarding government workers and telecommuting... a federal mandate to reduce the amount of driving time for federal workers in DC would be a major relief for anyone living in the Virginia/Maryland/DC area as commutes right now are horrendous... enforcing regulations on automanufacturers to get the 32 MPGs that we _all_ know that they _can_ get... having a gas rationing that is patterned on making excessive users pay more to do that... leaving commercial gasoline rates the same... improving rail usage for commuting and shipping... making use of bus lanes in all major cities ...examing city infrastructures and modifying suburban land usage to better keep our cities as urban life centers rather than as places that we visit... blah blah blah... there are many ways to cut down , and have a better life all the way around , because we are paying less for it and spending less time on the road... efficient use of what we have gives us a better life... what corporations are selling _you_ is what makes your life worse and your quality of life diminishes.... notice that the middle class is missing and all of our jobs and manufacturing are overseas... ? called customer service lately ? do you speak urdu?

By amonster | Mar 10, 2007 12:53:24 AM | Request Removal

when rich people are allowed to pass laws that affect everyone and do it from the position of ...I am a rich person that knows jack sh*t about the world around me and I want to maintain my fortune regardless of what it does to you... we need to take the same attitude and shoot them in the knees ...figuratively of course... and eliminate that option... take back America from the selfish and make them obey the laws...you have to... Arrest the Bushes , Cheney , Rumsfeld , Douglas Feith , Perle , Wolfowitz , Libby some more , John Negroponte and others ....make an example of them... take their properties and leave them penniless , let them know what is like to be forced to live without options because of the actions of others.... help them move into the real world by giving them some....

By amonster | Mar 10, 2007 12:54:36 AM | Request Removal

Theres nothing good that can be said about this situation.

By timscanlon | Mar 10, 2007 3:09:27 AM | Request Removal

[more]

FWOOOOSH!!! Arianespace launches 2 satellites after 1-day delay

2 clicks is GREAT!

2006 launch of an Ariane 5 rocket.


Space.com
Sunday 11 March 2007 19:10 USA Eastern

Ariane 5 Rocket Launches
2 Satellites into Orbit

by Tariq Malik,Staff Writer

Two new communications satellites for India and the British military blasted off Sunday, riding an Ariane 5 into orbit one day after a launch pad glitch prevented a Saturday launch attempt.

The heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket hauled India’s INSAT-4B broadcast satellite and the British Ministry of Defense’s Skynet-5A satellite into space at 6:03 p.m. EDT (2203 GMT) from a launch pad at Europe’s Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.

A glitch with the water deluge system at the Ariane 5’s launch pad, which is designed to suppress fire and sound during liftoff, prevented a Saturday launch attempt.

“This will be the first in what we believe will be an extremely busy year,” Arianespace CEO Jean Yves Le Gall said before launch, adding that the mission is the first of at least six planned space shots for the launch provider.

Built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), INSAT 4B is a 6,675-pound (3,028-kilogram) satellite designed to provide telecommunications and television broadcast services for customers in India from a geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth.

Skynet-5A [image] is a 10,361-pound (4,700-kilogram) communications satellite built for the British Ministry of Defense to aid British and NATO military forces, as well as those of the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium and other countries, Arianespace officials said.

Paradigm Secure Communications, a subdivision of Skynet-5A manufacturer EADS Astrium, will operate the satellite for the British Defense Ministry. According to EADS Astrium, Paradigm holds a nearly $7 billion (5.3 billion Euro, £3.6 billion) contract to provide secure military satellite communications through 2020.

Sunday’s successful launch marked Arianespace’s 175th flight of an Ariane booster and the 31st liftoff of the rocket family’s Ariane 5 variant. It also marked Arianespace’s 13th launch for the ISRO, Indian space agency officials said, adding that INSAT-4B is already returning a healthy signal as it heads towards its final geosynchronous orbit.

“Of course, some believe that 13 is an unlucky number, but with Arianespace it doesn’t not seem to be so,” ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair said after the launch.

- 30 -

© 1999-2007 Imaginova Corp. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

11 March 2007

french rokkit launch postponed till oh about 22.00 GMT, then u can see it in a very slick streaming video show

Arianespace Flight
SKYNET 5A – INSAT 4B:

Launch postponed

Kourou, French Guyana, 10 March 2007 -– During the final chronology for the launch, an anomaly appeared on a ground equipment.

Arianespace has decided to postpone the launch for 24 hours.

New launch window:

GMT: Between 10:03pm and 10:58pm on March 11, 2007.
PARIS: Between 11:03pm and 11:58pm on March 11, 2007.
BANGALORE: Between 03:33am and 04:28am on March 12, 2007.
WASHINGTON: Between 05:03pm and 05:58pm on March 11, 2007.
KOUROU: Between 07:03pm and 07:58pm on March 11, 2007.

Follow the launch live on the internet: http://www.videocorner.tv/index.php?langue=en
(Starting 20 minutes before lift-off).

Video streaming will be available in RealMedia and WindowsMedia formats.

=================

A la suite d’une anomalie constat?e lors de la chronologie finale de lancement, Arianespace a d?cid? de reporter le lancement Skynet 5A – Insat 4B de 24 heures.

Nouvelle fen?tre de lancement :

GMT : Entre 22h03 et 22h58, le 11 mars 2007.
PARIS : Entre 23h03 et 23h58, le 11 mars 2007.
BANGALORE : Entre 03h33 et 04h28, le 12 mars 2007.
WASHINGTON : Entre 17h03 et 17h58, le 11 mars 2007.
KOUROU : Entre 19h03 et 19h58, le 11 mars 2007.

Suivez le lancement en direct sur Internet : http://www.videocorner.tv/index.php?langue=fr
(Diffusion ? partir de H-20 mn).

Des flux aux formats RealMedia et WindowsMedia seront disponibles.

smut from Elmer Elevator's Discount Prep

I used to have a website called Elmer Elevator's Discount Prep. So many guys were e-mailing me about the dead Dominican gigolo Porfirio Rubirosa and it was bugging the crap out of me so bad that a few years ago I took EEDP out in the backyard and shot it.

I did everything in my power to make EEDP vanish entirely from the Web.

I almost succeeded.

But in a Deep, Dark, Secret Corner of CyberSpace, EEDP lives! Find it if you can!

Here's some old smut from it. On this trip to London's West End, I saw "Breaking the Code" starring Derek Jacobi as the mathematician, computer visionary and World War II code boffin Alan Turing.

Now and then as I haunted the West End theatre district, I had to use a public telephone booth.

~ ~ ~

Pardon the technical quality, but these

Advertisements taped
(actually that chewing-gum-like adhesive)
in West End London
Phone Booths Summer 1996
weren't all that high-class to start with. London at that time (and maybe still) was experiencing a glut of teenage runaway/throwaway prostitutes. These promised to come to hotel rooms and accept credit cards. Notice the common promise of schoolgirl fantasies; Tokyo's image clubs have just recently exploded into an industry catering to this particular appetite. "A(dvanced) Levels" and "O(rdinary) Levels" refer to UK school tests somewhat like the USA's SATs and College Boards.

BULLETIN!!! Well, like, I thought I was the only perv on the Web who had posted these. But guess what I just found??? The Virtual Pay Phone, by Kashka, the fabled creator of All Men Must Die!!!

If you want MORE! MORE! MORE! check it out!

10 March 2007

test -- hope it wiggles for you and me

Click REFRESH if it doesn't wiggle.

Professor Robert L. Foote's wigglegif of Pythagoras' proof of the right-triangle theorem (circa 550 BC). The Egyptians knew that in any right triangle

a^2 + b^2 = c^2

and used knotted ropes, particularly in the proportion 3:4:5 to survey and build with right angles, but they neither had a proof of it nor were they at all interested in mathematical proof. Beginning with Thales and Pythagoras, the ancient Greeks (who enthusiastically plagiarized Egyptian and Babylonian mathematics) placed Proof at the center of their mathematics, a tradition which has radiated at the core of mathematics to this day.

A bit later, U.S. President James A. Garfield discovered an original proof. It's every bit as good a proof as The Master's.

But I don't think Garfield sacrificed a herd of oxen when he discovered it. Garfield was born in 1831 and was assassinated by a disgruntled office-seeker in 1881.

As a matter of editorial policy, Vleeptron does not print the names of people who assassinate people who make positive contributions to Earth.

drowning the polar bears, gagging government scientists who know why the polar bears are drowning

The Independent &
The Independent on Sunday (UK)
Saturday 10 March 2007

Don't mention
the polar bears,
Bush tells US scientists


by Steve Connor, Science Editor

The Bush Administration has been accused once again of gagging US government scientists by getting them to agree not to talk about polar bears, sea ice and climate change during official overseas trips.

A leaked memorandum issued by a regional director of the US Department of the Interior states that officials within the US Fish and Wildlife Service will limit their discussions when travelling in countries bordering the Arctic region because of sensitivities about climate change.

"This traveller understands the administration's position on climate change, polar bears and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues," says the memo from the regional director Richard Hannon to his boss, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

It is not the first time that US government officials have been accused to trying to gag scientists on climate change. James Hansen, the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a world authority on the climate, complained last year that public relations officials appointed by the Bush Administration had tried to limit his access to the media.

The memorandum from Mr Hannon was criticised by the Natural Resources Defence Council in Washington, which wants the US Department of Interior to list the polar bear as an endangered species because of the projected loss of sea ice in the Arctic over the coming century.

"This memo has got to be put into the wider context of what President Bush has done to stifle debate on global warming over the last six years," said a council spokesman, Eben Burnham-Snyder. "The Bush Administration has a long history of restricting scientific discourse on global warming's impacts and solutions. This continued restriction hampers our experts' ability to do their job effectively and aggressively deal with our global warming challenge."

A leaked e-mail from Mr Hannon to his staff warned that any future overseas trips involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice or polar bears will require an official statement on who in the delegation will be the official spokesman.

Any requests concerning foreign trips to Arctic countries such as Canada, Norway or Russia should also include "a statement of assurance that these individuals understand the Administration's position on these issues", particularly the topic of polar bears.

Hugh Vickery, a spokesman for the US Department of the Interior, said that the memorandum was "badly worded" and there was no intention of limiting informal discussions. The memo was intended to cover official bilateral talks where there is an agreed agenda and was an attempt to ensure that scientists stick to the areas within their remit, Mr Vickery said.

"It's very important to know what the position of the United States government is on these issues. If two scientists want to talk over a coffee, that's fine. We want them to do that," he said. "But in an official capacity you need to know what your role is. This is not about gagging scientists. We don't want to do that."

Mr Vickery added that polar bears and sea ice were mentioned in the memo because it was addressed to scientists within the Alaska region of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Arctic sea ice and the polar bear are especially sensitive issues at present because American scientists have pointed out that the world's biggest land carnivore is unlikely to survive if the Arctic sea ice disappears in summer, which it is predicted to do by the end of the century.

The Department of Interior is currently engaged in a consultation over whether to list the species as endangered and a decision is expected by January 2008.

[Bush's term as president ends 20 January 2009.]

- 30 -

© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited


09 March 2007

I love ewe


Yucks Digest, which has a physical Locus at Purdue University in Indiana USA, is the kind and flattering Web Archive which has been preserving my goofy Scientific American letter for more than a decade.

Here's another of its Archival Treasures.

============

Date: Tue, 25 Jan 1994 13:31:04 -0500
From: Patrick Tufts
Subject: coming to a spool near you: soc.sexuality.zoophilia

From: kayotae@mindvox.phantom.com (Erik M Blackwolf)
Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.sex.bestiality
Subject: RFD: soc.sexuality.zoophilia moderated
Date: 24 Jan 1994 22:46:08 -0500

===================

REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION; soc.sexuality.zoophilia (Moderated)
Proposed Moderator; Kayotae@Mindvox.Phantom.Com (Erik M. Blackwolf)

===================

This proposal is for the discussion of the creation of the
moderated newsgroup soc.sexuality.zoophilia. soc.sexuality.zoophilia
will compliment the existing newsgroup Alt.sex.bestiality.

Discussion on the creation of soc.sexuality.zoophilia shall be held on news.groups. This message has been cross-posted to
news.groups, news.announce.newgroups, and alt.sex.bestiality. The discussion shall be open for about 30 days. The CFV duration shall be for 21 days.

=============
Rationale
=============

Why a Soc.* group? Because to those who are zoophiles and serious about their identity as such tolerance of our social group is an important issue and a serious issue which is deserving of a respectable place where the topic can be addressed. Alt.sex.bestiality not only is a newsgroup
already inappropriate to those interests because of its' status as an unmoderated Alt.sex.* group but it's being part of the Alt.sex.* heirarchy makes it a difficult place in which to have intelligent discussion on this topic. The group is littered with crossposts, flames and irrelevant posts and lacks integrity as part of the Alt.sex.* heirarchy. In recent discussion on Alt.sex.bestiality a call for a moderated newsgroup has been voiced therefor this proposal has been set forth.

===========
Charter
===========

Soc.Sexuality.Zoophilia topics may include but would not be limited to;

I. Publicity and 'being out' as a zoophile,

II. Legal Issues/History in Zoophilia,

III. Discussion on the public opinion of zoophilia,

IV. Religion and Zoophilia, and

V. Psychological issues and mental health.

HOWL

"Every morning she would rise before me and wake me with a
passionate kiss. Upon opening my eyes I would see her deep blues looking down at me, into me, but since her death I've never felt anything like the burning desire within my heart I used to feel then. As we kissed, her love for me, my love for her would pass between us and there's nothing like that in the world."

-- Epitaph of a Dog
Kayotae@Mindvox.Phantom.com


Mom, Dad, this is my fiance. The nice thing is that she's also my best friend. Isn't that right, Lassie?

Meet Baaahbara.

I can now see why the group is moderated. :-) --spaf]

Bob the Gentleman Scientist's first Letter to the Editor in Scientific American!

"The Death of Proof" was a Scientific American article not by a mathematician, but by one of SciAm's staff writers. The article discussed how popular and significant demonstrations of mathematical phenomena that used fancy computer-generated animations were becoming. (The Grateful Dead was using them as their live performance light show.) He predicted that these spiffy math cartoons would soon completely extinct old-fashioned and tedious mathematical proofs.

I'd been trying for years to get Scientific American to print one of my highly scientific scholarly perfectly spelled hi-class uptown serious Letters to the Editor.

So here's the one they finally printed.

===================

Scientific American
(magazine USA, founded 1845)
January 1994

Hey, man, thanks a lot for "The Death of Proof." What my buddies down the hall liked best was what you said about how us students don't relate to proofs. We don't. They're real hard, and I don't think we should have to do them, not when you can get the same stuff from those neat color videos. The Grateful Dead likes them too!

If you guys keep writing neat stories like this about how math is getting easier and so much cooler, maybe us guys will take some more math courses and maybe even become real mathematicians, 'cause it looks like a real neat job now and not boring like I always thought because of all those numbers and equations and stuff.

Beavis and Butt-head say hi.

Bob Merkin
Northampton, Mass.

vleeptron hopes it wiggles for you



If the top image doesn't wiggle,
click the
REFRESH button.

Top: Animation of Pythagoras' proof that

for any right triangle, the sum of the squares
of the 2 short sides equals
the square of the long side.

When Pythagoras proved this
around 550 BC, he sacrificed a herd
of perfect white oxen to Apollo.

From the website of Robert L. Foote, Professor of Mathematics & Computer Science, Wabash College, a liberal arts college for men in Crawfordsville, Indiana USA. I don't know why it's men only, but I live 4 blocks from the fancy-schmancy all-women Smith College.

Professor Foote makes a specialty/hobby of one of the world's niftiest gizmos, the polar planimeter, and tells you all you could ever hope to know about how the polar planimeter works. (I am convinced it works on Magickal Principles.)

But here's Larry Leinweber's Java Applet polar planimeter that you can play with for hours. Try everything in all the drop-down menus. I mean you can't break it or break your computer no matter what forbidden or impossible thing you try to make it do. (You can break a real polar planimeter, though. But please don't.)

Any schmuck can figure out the Area of a square or a rectangle or a perfect circle or a triangle or a rhombus or a quadrilateral or a regular dodecagon. (See Fig. 1.)

But if you have a map or a satellite image of the USA state of Maine, how do you figure out the surface area of the really squiggly and irregular-shaped Sebago Lake?

Well, you just reach for your Polar Planimeter, that's how. You put the tracer arm anywhere on the shoreline, and then trace the entire shoreline until you come back to where you started, and Holy Shit!!! There's the fucking Area of Sebago Lake on little number wheels (like your car's odometer)!!! No batteries! No software! No math even! You just trace the outline of any irregularly (or regularly) shaped Area, and wham! There's your Area in hectares or square kilometers or acres or whatever the hell you use for surface area.

Goddam it, I just want one. How much do they cost?

Larry Leinweber has this site, Larry's Cerebral Snack Bar / Games and Puzzles to Feed your Head, and it has lots of screwy things.

Larry's giving away his Java Polar Planimeter for free, I think. Anybody who makes a virtual Polar Planimeter and gives it away for free is a Spiritually Advanced Sort of Person. He makes Earth a Better Planet.

08 March 2007

Arianespace Launch Update! The UK MoD says: We don't need no steeenkin NASA!

Arianespace's upcoming rocket launch
into orbital space takes place
in
Kourou, French Guiana.
(Artistic rendering by Agence Vleeptron-Presse.)


THE LAUNCH READINESS REVIEW (RAL) took place in Kourou on Thursday, March 8, 2007 and authorized count-down operations for the SKYNET 5A & INSAT 4B launch. For its first launch of the year Arianespace will boost two payloads into orbit: the Skynet 5A military communications satellite for the British Ministry of Defence, and the Insat 4B civil communications satellite for ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization. This launch reflects the strategic role played by Ariane, which guarantees independent access to space for European governments. It also shows that Arianespace continues to set the launch service standard for all telecom operators worldwide, whether military or civil. It will be launched from the Ariane launch complex N° 3 (ELA3), in Kourou, French Guiana.


THE ARIANE 5 "ECA" LAUNCHER LIFT-OFF for this Flight is scheduled during the night of March 10 to 11, 2007 as soon as possible within the following launch window:

GMT: Between 10:25pm and 10:58pm on March 10, 2007.
PARIS: Between 11:25pm and 11:58pm on March 10, 2007.
BANGALORE: Between 03:55am and 04:28am on March 11, 2007.
WASHINGTON: Between 05:25pm and 05:58pm on March 10, 2007.
KOUROU: Between 07:25pm and 07:58pm on March 10, 2007.

Follow the launch live on the internet: http://www.videocorner.tv/index.php?langue=en
(Starting 20 minutes before lift-off).

Video streaming will be available in RealMedia and WindowsMedia formats.

==========================

La Revue d’Aptitude au Lancement (RAL) s’est deroulee le jeudi 8 mars ? Kourou et a autoris? les operations de chronologie pour le Vol Ariane 5 ECA – SKYNET 5A et INSAT 4B. Pour son 1er lancement de l’ann?e, Arianespace mettra en orbite deux charges utiles: le satellite de telecommunications militaires SKYNET 5A pour le Ministere britannique de la Defense et le satellite de telecommunications civiles INSAT 4B pour l’agence spatiale indienne, l’ISRO. Le lancement sera effectu? depuis l'Ensemble de Lancement Ariane n° 3 (ELA 3) a Kourou en Guyane franaaise.

Le decollage du lanceur Ariane 5 ECA est pr?vu le plus t?t possible dans la fen?tre de lancement suivante:

GMT : Entre 22h25 et 22h58, le 10 mars 2007.
PARIS : Entre 23h25 et 23h58, le 10 mars 2007.
BANGALORE : Entre 03h55 et 04h28, le 11 mars 2007.
WASHINGTON : Entre 17h25 et 17h58, le 10 mars 2007.
KOUROU : Entre 19h25 et 19h58, le 10 mars 2007.

Suivez le lancement en direct sur Internet : http://www.videocorner.tv/index.php?langue=fr
(Diffusion ? partir de H-20 mn).

Des flux aux formats RealMedia et WindowsMedia seront disponibles.

Rage Against the Machine rises from the dead, will rock again in spring & summer




As everybody knows, the Vietnam War was finally ended by Folk and Rock Music.

If loud naughty music can indeed stop wars, these are the boys who are gonna try to stop this sucky Iraq War.

{ [ ( o ) ] }

The Los Angeles Times (California USA)
Saturday 24 February 2007


Rage Against the Machine
adds more dates


The reformed band will Rock the Bells with Wu-Tang Clan on a summer tour.

by Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer

It turns out Rage Against the Machine will play more than one show after all -- the seminal L.A. band will join the Wu-Tang Clan for three shows under the banner of Rock the Bells, the acclaimed hip-hop festival that kicks off in New York on July 28 and hits Southern California on Aug. 11.

That local show will be at the National Orange Show Events Center in San Bernardino while the third show, on Aug. 18, will be in San Francisco. The sites of the New York and San Francisco shows as well as ticket sales information will be announced by organizers on Monday.

Rage is already the closing-night headliner of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 29 in Indio, a festival that sold out 80 days in advance due to the pent-up fan demand for the Los Angeles band. Rage played their last show in 2000.

That Coachella show was announced as a "one-and-done" affair but the quick sellout and the harsh-priced ticket scalping already underway are among the factors in the added shows, according to sources close to the band. There's also the historical punch of performing with Wu-Tang Clan, one of the most ambitious and influential hip-hop outfits ever.

"Rage will do four shows and just four in 2007," said Chang Weisberg, the founder of Guerilla Union and organizer of Rock the Bells. "Coachella is first, that's the granddaddy. And now these three with the Wu-Tang Clan represent a very, very special thing."

The New York hip-hop collective has already announced the planned summer release of "8 Diagrams," the Clan's first album since "Iron Flag" in 2001. The album will feature new contributions from eight of the nine members from its classic line-up: RZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Raekwon, GZA, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa. The ninth member, the late ODB, who died in 2005, will appear in the form of previously recorded material.

RZA said in a released statement in November that the contemporary doldrums of hip-hop demand a return by the flamboyant and potent Clan: "People want something that gives them an adrenaline rush. We're here to supply that fix. How could hip-hop be dead if Wu-Tang is forever? We're here to revive the spirit and the economics and bring in a wave of energy that has lately dissipated."

More details on the shows, including an on-sale date, will come Monday via the "Kevin & Bean" morning show on KROQ-FM (106.7), the powerhouse rock station in Los Angeles.

Fans have been hopeful that Rage will tour but, according to Weisberg, these three new dates and the Coachella appearance are the extent of the current comeback. Rage helped launch Coachella in 1999 when the band co-headlined the inaugural edition of the huge festival.

Rage guitarist Tom Morello has said that the reunion is driven in part by politics and a desire by him and his compatriots to rally young people against President Bush, the war in Iraq and the Republican Party.

When Rage split, frontman Zack de la Rocha went solo while Morello, drummer Brad Wilk and bassist Tim Commerford went on as Audioslave, adding singer Chris Cornell and releasing three albums. That band's future came into question with the recent Rage reunion stirrings and likely ended altogether with the Feb. 15 announcement by Cornell that he is moving on due to "irresolvable personality conflicts and musical differences."

Morello, meanwhile, is also launching a new solo career as the Nightwatchman, the stage name he uses for his aggressive and largely acoustic protest music. His album, "One Man Revolution," is due in stores April 24 and he will tour in the spring.

If Rage as a whole also tours soon it would add to a summer of major reunions hitting the road; the members of the Police and Genesis have set aside their famous quarrels and are gearing up for road runs, while the notoriously fractious Eagles are finishing their first studio album since 1979 and are expected to tour as well.

- 30 -

Copyright Los Angeles Times

07 March 2007

Vive la France! A launch for the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) and for India!


- A launch for the British MoD and for India -

For its first launch of the year Arianespace will boost two payloads into orbit: the Skynet 5A military communications satellite for the British Ministry of Defence through Astrium subsidiary Paradigm, and the Insat 4B civil communications satellite for ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization.

Launch window:

GMT: Between 10:25pm and 10:58pm on March 10, 2007.
PARIS: Between 11:25pm and 11:58pm on March 10, 2007.
BANGALORE: Between 03:55am and 04:28am on March 11, 2007.
WASHINGTON: Between 05:25pm and 05:58pm on March 10, 2007.
KOUROU: Between 07:25pm and 07:58pm on March 10, 2007.

Follow the launch live on the internet: http://www.videocorner.tv/index.php?langue=en
(Starting 20 minutes before lift-off).

Live video streaming will be available in RealMedia and WindowsMedia formats.

- Un lancement pour la defense britannique et pour l’Inde -

Pour son 1er lancement de l’annee, Arianespace mettra en orbite deux charges utiles: le satellite de telecommunications militaires SKYNET 5A pour Astrium et sa filiale Paradigm pour le compte du Ministere britannique de la D?fense et le satellite de t?l?communications civiles INSAT 4B pour l’agence spatiale indienne, l’ISRO.

Fenetre de lancement :

GMT : Entre 22h25 et 22h58, le 10 mars 2007.
PARIS : Entre 23h25 et 23h58, le 10 mars 2007.
BANGALORE : Entre 03h55 et 04h28, le 11 mars 2007.
WASHINGTON : Entre 17h25 et 17h58, le 10 mars 2007.
KOUROU : Entre 19h25 et 19h58, le 10 mars 2007.

Suivez le lancement en direct sur Internet : http://www.videocorner.tv/index.php?langue=fr
(Diffusion ? partir de H-20 mn).

Des flux video en directs aux formats RealMedia et WindowsMedia seront disponibles.

can it be true? Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations sound better than ever??? / Old Bob is confused and disoriented

I'm an old man and I don't trust any music I can't touch or see.

midi? Surely you mean them rad phat bitchin awesome iPod .mp3s, right? Or have midis crawled out of their limited but clever music-box crudeness and become something technically sophisticated -- technically worthy of GG's '55 Goldbergs? If so, please help an old man stay In The Cool Loop, andsupply details, urls on youtube and Napster.

My life superglued to my spot on the Calendar straddles the revolution from analog to digital format music. (My turntable is still hooked up to my living room stereo, but is thick with dust, and none of my beloved vinyl has made the trip up from the basement in more than a decade.) Without subscribing to Audiophile, I've nonetheless tried to keep up with Tek Gossip, and the persistent buzz is that mp3s are inherently of lowerfidelity than CD format music.

This isn't a problem for most Youth Music -- my audio engineer pals back in the 70s were fond of saying: "Close enough for Rock n Roll!" Children's musical tastes are often indistinguishable from the desire to suffer permanent hearing loss, and in fact spokesmen for Tinnitus Prevention include Pete Townshend of The Who and Lars Ulrich of Metallica. (cf. http://www.hearnet.com/index.shtml )

But mp3s for classical music? Is this whippersnapper format truly up to the bandwidth and dynamic range challenges?

iPods win the prize for portability, transportability, convenience and storage density, but the buzz I hear is that mp3s will always be doomed to provide a crappier sound than CDs -- and thus can never rise to the GouldStandard of audio excellence.

Yes? No? Can a midi or an mp3 possibly do justice to Gould's piano recordings?

Please make me hip, so I can start to d/l Gould from my wi-fi laptop in the Nursing Home. (Over the Muzak, me and my peers are listening to Jimi Hendrix' "Crosstown Traffic" right now, and this weekend Grace Slick is bringing her Jefferson Airplane retro show to the Rec Hall!)

Toothless Bob, fresh from his ghastly 60th birthday party

News, Weather, Mozart, Sports, Extragalactic Travel, sausages, opera,
PIRATES!!! & Really Big Integers friom Planet Vleeptron:

http://VleeptronZ.blogspot.com

Remarkable Older Stuph: http://vleeptron.blogspot.com

=====================

} [Original Message]
} To:
f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
} Date: 3/7/2007 5:40:08 AM
} Subject: Re: [F_minor] Zenph 55 G'bergs released!
}
} Great news thanks!


} I've read the Zenph webpages but wasn't able to find any info if the hi-res midifiles will be marketized as well ... anyone knows anything about it?

} Thanks,
} Stefy
}
} ----- Original Message -----
} To:
f_minor@email.rutgers.edu
} Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 5:43 AM
} Subject: [F_minor] Zenph 55 G'bergs released!
}
} I can't wait to hear what everyone has to say about this recording.

} What an interesting project!
}
} -Mary Jo,
} listowner, f_minor

SONY BMG MASTERWORKS
AND ZENPH(r) STUDIOS
RELEASE GLENN GOULD'S
BACH GOLDBERG VARIATIONS (1955)

SONY BMG Masterworks and Zenph Studios announce the release of a
breakthrough in the history of recorded music. Zenph's re-performance of pianist Glenn Gould's renowned 1955 rendition of the Bach Goldberg Variations lets listeners hear this celebrated work like never before and provides for a sonic rediscovery of an iconic recording.

The Goldberg Variations by Gould is one of the jewels of the Masterworks catalogue, continuously in print for over half a century.

Zenph's new technique lets the performance be heard for the first time in state-of-the-art sound on a new SONY BMG Masterworks hybrid multichannel SACD/CD disc, which includes versions tailored forsurround sound and headphone listening.

Zenph's innovative re-performance process takes audio recordings and turns them into nuanced live performances that precisely replicate the original recording but offer vastly improved sound quality. Listeners are now able to go back to the moment of creation and experience Gould's playing as if they were in the room when the originalrecording was made.

Re-performances replicate the original musician's touch, timing and sound – including glitches in the original performance. "We've preserved every single note, including the mistakes," said John Q.

Walker, president of Zenph Studios. "The improvements are all related to the sound quality. This is something that needs to be heard to befully appreciated."

Zenph captures the musical nuances of the original piano recording's every note, with details about the pedal actions, volume and articulations – all with millisecond timings. The digital data is transcribed into high-resolution MIDI files and played back on a state-of-the-art Yamaha Disklavier Pro™ concert grand piano. The process allows for the production of new recordings that transcend thelimitations of the original recording process.

SONY BMG assembled its top producers and engineers for the Gould project, including Steven Epstein, five-time Grammy(r) Award winner for "Producer of the Year," and Richard King, senior recording engineer for Sony Music Studios in New York and a three-time Grammy(r)winner.

Hailed worldwide, Zenph's work was named one of the Best Ideas of 2006 by The New York Times Magazine. "The re-creations are uncanny," wrote Paul D. Lehrman in Insider Audio magazine. "The timings and variations in the keystrokes are so subtle, it's easy to imagine the pianist is in the room, his fingers pushing the keys down."

Last year, at a live re-performance of the Goldberg Variations held at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, members of the Glenn Gould Foundation stood and applauded after the last note faded

04 March 2007

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare

Vleeptron hopes it wiggles for you.

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare.
Let all who prate of Beauty hold their peace,
And lay them prone upon the earth and cease
To ponder on themselves, the while they stare
At nothing, intricately drawn nowhere
In shapes of shifting lineage; let geese
Gabble and hiss, but heroes seek release
From dusty bondage into luminous air.
O blinding hour, O holy, terrible day,
When first the shaft into his vision shone
Of light anatomized! Euclid alone
Has looked on Beauty bare. Fortunate they
Who, though once only and then but far away,
Have heard her massive sandal set on stone.

03 March 2007

Blutgeld V.2, for the Anti-Kriegs-Museum / Anti-War Museum / the fireworks each midnight over Tivoli


Click, of course. Then make posters and t-shirts.

When in Berlin, visit The Anti-Kriegs-Museum, The Anti-War Museum. I think of it, just knowing it's there, that someone thought it absolutely necessary to have such a Museum, for the education of the people of Planet Earth, it is a Very Fine and Needed Thing.

Perhaps if I beg and whine and debase myself, some kind Soul associated with the Museum will print out a copy of this pathetic refrigerator art and stick it on a wall somewhere with a pushpin. Vleeptron Dude's Greeting Card to the Anti-Kriegs-Museum.

Stop the War.

Stop Both Wars.

Stop All Three Wars.

Stop All Wars.

Vleeptron has been promising you Really Big Integers for a long time.

Vleeptron delivers, as always.

In both Euros and US Dollars, the order of magnitude of these Really Big Integers is Hundreds of Billions.

I love Really Big Integers, so you cannot imagine how very sorry I am that someone has used these Really Big Integers for This.

~ ~ ~

This one is better, I think. I understand the electronics and the logic of the 7-Segment Light Emitting Diode (LED), but I never paid much attention to the intimate details of its æsthetic design.

You seen seven red hexagons, you seen 'em all.

Well, anyway, Bob is still no Artist, but this task has surely elevated me from Refrigerator Artist to Draughtsman Apprentice.

Thank you, Mr. Showaker, my Metal Shop teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School. You introduced me to the Pleasures of Draughting. I had no idea what you were trying to teach me or why it might ever be important to me, but as I grow older, the dim lightbulb sputters in my head, a neuron fires.

The World That Human Beings Build:

No drafting, no bridge.

No railroad.

No skyscraper. No elevators.

No electricity and no phones on the skyscraper.

No boats. No ships to carry boats. No submarines.

No toilets or faucet water in the skyscraper or the submarine.

No Apollo to the Moon. No FM radio ("No static at all").

No new wooden stairway to my basement.

Mr. Showaker was right. I was a Swine, and he spent decades casting his Pearls to me and my like.

First, before it becomes Real and Solid, the World must be drafted. Blueprints. CAD.

No drafting, no fission or fusion weapons.

Sloppy slipshod drafting, no Cluster Bombs to fall from the Sky and keep killing children (attracted to their bright happy metallic colors) for decades after the Peace Treaty is signed and everyone sips a glass of Champagne in the Grand Hall.

No drafting, no Roller Coaster at Tivoli, which I rode because I can't read Danish and I thought it was the Fun House. Snookdi Pupsi does not mean Fun House. I hate Roller Coasters.

Stop whatever you're doing and plan a trip in the Spring, for Opening Day of Tivoli. Or first telephone to make sure that Harlequin and Pierot and Pierette and Columbine, the Commedia del Arte, will be performing for Free, and Every Hour. These beautiful, talented, funny, happy young people must be university drama students, as I once was. They probably come from nine countries and each one begs Tivoli for the chance to spend the season being paid little to perform this sublime cycle of ancient theater, as remarkable as Noh theater or Balinese puppet theater. The costumes alone made me weep, for the first time in my life to be just meters away from them in their explosive patterns and colors, wrapping living, breathing, actresses and actors.

Tivoli is the world's oldest Amusement Park. It's across the street from the railroad station in Kobenhavn/Copenhagen. You can't miss it. If you're as stupid and clueless as I was, and never even heard of Tivoli, every night as the park closes, Tivoli fills the sky above Copenhagen/Kobenhavn with a startling and magnificent fireworks display.

I noticed it reflected in the windows of the Baroque government office building across from my hotel room. Darkness had hidden the office building and the narrow street, put it into a deep and boring sleep.

Then suddenly Tivoli announced that it would soon close for the night. And me in my underwear and socks unpacking my backpack startled, electrified into sudden Happiness and Thrill at midnight. I didn't even have to be facing in the right direction.

It must be nice to work at Tivoli, it must be nice to hit old Punch with a bladder every hour and listen to the squeals of delight from all the children and from Bob.

It's common to be hit by a taxi or spattered with mud or have a tree fall on you or buy a bad sandwich and be sick for two days.

But how often does the universe explode in your face just to say

Hi!
Welcome, Weary Traveller,
to Kobenhavn!

If you really go, try to get a room in the hotel attached to the Train Station. Go out the station's main exit, go down the sidewalk on your left, and just walk into the lobby. Disco may be dead -- God let it be so! -- but Art Deco and 1928 are Alive and Well and Having a Wild Fucking Party at this strange and delightful little hotel that 9999 out of 10000 newcomers just walk past, as if it weren't there, as if an entire hotel were invisible, on their way to the Hilton or the Radisson or the Ramada.