Darlins get loved/Mars farts
January 19, 2009
Credit: Nathan Miller
Murfreesboro’s own Those Darlins are really starting to get some recognition, and are getting on some awesome gigs, many of which are in NYC. The photo links to a recent Brooklynvegan post about their show at Bowery Ballroom in NY with Langhorne Slim. I recommend scrolling down and reading the comments. Seems a few people are in love with lil’ Jessi darlin. Way to go darlins! TN is proud of you!
We Own This Town has been picking up again lately. Started by Doug Lehmann (of the Clutters), it started out in the wake of the demise of Nashville Zine, though Dough says he never intended it to replace the ‘Zine. Now Michael Eades (aka Yewknee) has all but taken it over, and added the help of Joe Baine Colvert, known for his work at Lake Fever Productions and for the Indie Ghetto, and Andrew J. Smithson, who I posted about recently regarding his new blog, indieocrity. Joe and Andrew are joining forces on WRVU 91.1 to start a new radio show which will complement the content of the website, much like Janet Timmons’ Out the Other. I look forward to seeing these guys bring this website back to life, as well as what they do with the radio show.
I found this really good footage of the US Airways plane crash in the Hudson river on Youtube. That pilot really does deserve the recognition he’s been given, because an engine-less jet airliner is basically like a tank with wings. Having always been interested in aviation (I WILL get my private pilot’s license one of these days), and also being the owner of a very realistic flight simulator on my computer (which allows you simulate a few different airliners and engine failures), I know how hard it is to glide one of these things into a safe landing without power.
Now for a little science. Lately there have been some news headlines claiming that we’ve found evidence of life on mars- methane in the atmosphere. In other words, mars farted and dumb newspapers got really excited about it. Those headlines are DEAD WRONG. At least about the life part… Yes we’ve been detecting methane in mars’ atmosphere since 2004. We also know that methane is quickly destroyed by UV radiation, and since there’s no comfy ozone layer in mars’ atmosphere to block it out, any methane on mars would be destroyed very soon after it was released from the surface. So, if we detect it, there must be constant source re-supplying it into the atmosphere. The source of the headlines is a press release saying that the source could be chemical, geological, or biological (life). Of course many news agencies jumped on that last one and made a really big to-do about it. It’s theoretically possible that current life could be the cause of the methane, but it’s only one of many. We still don’t have any conclusive evidence of life on mars. My personal opinion is that there is no life currently on mars, thus I don’t think that the methane is a result of such. I think it’s more likely that it’s coming from the polar regions- we’ve noticed that mars has little global warming of it’s own going on, and that warming is allowing methane trapped in the polar regions under layers of frozen CO2 to be released, much as the global warming occurring on earth has allowed methane under the shrinking permafrost to be released. My opinion is based on this blog post, btw. If it’s not that, I’d say the second best explanation would be some sort unseen geothermal activity. The Bad Astronomer does a really good job of explaining the facts related to this story, as always. Go check out his post if you want more details.
And finally… a serious dose of WTF?!?!?!?….. Joaquin Phoenix is becoming a rapper. Um… ok…
Photo cliches/new Neko Case song
January 15, 2009
Photo cliches: a collection of the most common cliches in tourist photos. Included- the fake phallus, statue groping, the Lynndie England thumbs-up, snorting Coca Cola.
While we’re on the subject the phallus… might as well post a link to the Head O State Obama sex toy. You really have to read the “testimonials,” especially the one from Sarah Palin.
Ok, enough giggly sexual innuendo.
A new environmentally-minded general store is opening in the Sylvan Park neighborhood of west Nashville. That’s just around the corner from me, so I’ll probably be hitting it up pretty soon. Read all about it in that Nashvillest post. I’ll bet if it’s successful she’ll open another one in east Nashville. Those two communities seem to be the most likely locations for such a store.
Neko Case has released her newest single via free download at Brooklynvegan. For every blog that reposts this song, Neko and ANTIlabel will make a cash donation to the Best Friends Animal Society. So download it, and if you have a blog, REPOST!
Neko Case-People Got A Lotta Nerve.mp3
Here’s a really cool collection of How-To graphics and illustrations. Fun to just peruse through… if that sort of thing interests you.
And for a little science: Wired talks about the top 5 best bets for extraterrestrial life in our own solar system. The top choice might surprise you, depending on how closely you follow the latest astronomy news.
I have a theory about Microsoft’s Songsmith software. If you haven’t read this blog in a while, read the last couple of posts, which mention this new software and how awful it is. Click the links, watch the ad, hear the David Lee Roth’s Runnin’ with the Devil run through it, then come back. Ok… I think that Microsoft intentionally made the software sound so cheesy, and the ad so ridiculous and un-ironic, that people like me (and most real musicians) would want to take their dry vocal tracks and run them through it as a joke, just to see how ridiculous it would sound. Just go read the comments in the Nashville Cream post about it. See how everyone is saying, “hey run this song through it!!!” ??? You know I’m right….. Just wait. In a few months some band will re-release a whole album “Songsmith’d.” I can see it now… Metallica’s Master of Puppets… SONGSMITH’D!
Credit: USAF
Obama has asked retired USAF Maj. Gen. Scott Gration to be the new NASA administrator. As mentioned a few posts back, current administrator Michael Griffin will be stepping down on Jan. 20th, as will the rest of the Bush-appointed NASA positions. I learned this from a Space.com post today, and the info contained in that article is all I know about the guy. He’s a decorated fighter pilot, and does have some experience working with NASA, but he’s mostly an outsider. Apparently many former NASA administrators have been outsiders, though, so this is really nothing new. What NASA needs is someone with good leadership skills and who can manage an organization that large and important. He also needs to be very good at managing budgets, as NASA will likely see further budget cuts due to the economic crisis and monstrous national debt.
Merge Records- 20 years old!
January 9, 2009
From the department of AWESOME, Merge Records will be having a 20th anniversary festival in their hometown of Chapel Hill, NC this summer. I can’t wait to see the lineup! I’m really hoping that Spoon, M. Ward, Arcade Fire, and Camera Obscura are all involved. That would be well worth making the trip. Save the date- July 22nd through 26th. Also, for $199, you can subscribe to SCORE!, an exclusive series of releases, featuring content hand-picked by the curators of Merge’s back-catalog. Just go read about it, too much to explain here…
SXSW has announced the initial lineup for it’s 2009 festival, being held March 18-22nd in Austin, TX. I’m going to try to weasel my way into going this year.
Some Nashville songwriters/musicians decided that the Titans needed a fight song going into their big playoff game this saturday against the Baltimore Ravens. Apparently they finished it at about 4am this morning. Check out the story and hear a clip of it on the Tennessean’s website. Link via Nashvillest.
For you daily dose of WTF from the science world, check out this Universe Today article about entrepreneur Eric Knight’s ideas about what NASA should do with the Space Shuttles after they’re retired next year. He wants to use them to go to Mars. Not one, but two of them at once. Keep in mind while reading this article that his ideas were meant to be simply a thought exercise, not a technically sound and feasible plan.
3 2 1 Contact!
January 8, 2009
I don’t think I really need to say anything about this video…. other than the fact that you have to be at least 23 or so years old to appreciate it.
Hippies, get ready to do your happy little hippie dance- Phish has officially revealed their full reunion tour. And yes, you read that right, they’re strongly rumored to be headlining Bonnaroo… *groan*
In case you didn’t know, I’ve started doing some DJ gigs as DJ Burgers. I started a myspace profile for it. Get on it and add me if you haven’t already. Pardon the ridiculous flashing logos, but it’s all part of the gimmick, ya know? My next gig for it will be a party on Jan. 24th at 3609 Pilcher Ave. in west Nashville, featuring Jensen Sportag, Makeup & Vanity Set, and my bandmate Seth’s new solo project, Home Keys[asdfjkl;]. I’ll be DJing between bands and after. Come and dance. Or maybe vice-versa?
Now for some nerdy space stuff-
Since the first discovery of a planet orbiting a star outside our own solar system, the holy grail of astronomy has been discovering an earth-like planet outside our solar system. As in, roughly the same size, mass, and density of earth, and also with a stable atmosphere, and orbiting within that star’s “habitable zone.” A star’s habitable zone is a region of distance from the star in which water can easily exist in a liquid state on the surface of a planet- not too hot and not too cold. Now that astronomers have found literally 100’s of huge, Jupiter-like, gaseous exoplanets, they’ve started finding what are called “super-earths,” or solid, rocky planets roughly 5-10 times the size of earth. The few of these we’ve seen were discovered through the transit method- they passed across in front of their parent star, and we detected the slight dimming of the star due to that transit. This Universe Today article talks about how astronomers are taking it one step further, by attempting to determine the composition of those super-earth’s atmospheres. They do this by subtracting the chemical signature when the planet passes behind the partent star. We’re so close, EVER so close to detecting an earth-like planet. It will only be a few more years, once the Kepler mission and the James Webb Space Telescope get into orbit and operation, until we find one. This is one of my greatest hopes in life. I look forward to the discovery of an earth twin orbiting a distant star like an Emperor penguin looks forward to spring in Antarctica. Crazy analogy, I know… just go with it.
In other NASA news, it looks like NASA chief Michael Griffin will step down, along with the rest of the presidentially-appointed staff under him. This Space.com article also lists some likely candidates on Obama’s shortlist to replace him. I don’t know how I feel about this. I kind of feel like that right now what NASA needs is continuity rather than change. But who knows?
“I hardly know her” flickr viewer
January 5, 2009
So the guy who brought us Muxtape is at it again. This time he’s created a online tool to view anyone’s flickr photostream in a much simpler format. Just enter http://ihardlyknowher.com/ into your browser and type the person’s flickr username at the end. For instance, mine would be http://ihardlyknowher.com/simplysteve and Megan’s would be http://ihardlyknowher.com/mwoolfolk. A good way to just be able to focus on the images without all the clutter. BTW, I suggest reading the story on his Muxtape page via the link above. It tells his story about the legal issues and all that he went through. It’s long… I didn’t get to read it all, but what I did read was pretty interesting. I’m anxious to see how he relaunches it. I never was a part of it in the first place. Maybe I didn’t fully understand the process, but I’m an extreme audiophile… and from what I can understand, people who were members uploaded some mp3s to create a playlist that others could stream (not download, just stream). That was what turned me off- almost all streaming audio is at something like 96 kb/s or 128 kb/s, which is just low enough quality to be irritating to my ears. But maybe he found a way around that… maybe it did in fact stream at a better sound quality, I don’t know. But to me, any mp3 with a bitrate less than 192 kb/s is low quality… and anything less than 128 is utterly unlistenable. At least with music.
How I Became the Bomb have released the 2nd free installment of their digital release series, called “Foremost Sentinel.” I suggest you go get it now.
Some science links of interest:
Space.com’s highlights on what to look for in the night skies in 2009.
Yet another good story on how Obama’s picks for science advisors and the Dept. of Energy are making scientists…. and smart people in general… VERY happy.
Rivers Cuomo… YES, MAN!
December 29, 2008
One of the gifts I received for Christmas this year (in addition to my new Sony HDTV, Lost season premier party anyone?) was the new Rivers Cuomo solo compilation, Alone II: Home Recordings. I almost enjoy this album a little more than his first home recording compilation. I especially enjoyed reading the narrative liner notes he wrote for it, which go into the stories behind the songs and give a little more insight into his odd life. Weezer’s first two albums were a major part of my formative years and those songs will always resonate with me in a very awesome way. Even though their new material is… well… awful in comparison, I will always be interested in what Rivers is up to, and always keep an open mind to his new material. He is now happily married, though, thus I doubt that he’ll ever write anything good again. Too much contentment and happiness does not lend itself to good songs. With that, I give you this video I came across on You Ain’t No Picasso of Rivers doing an acapella version of the Beach Boys’ Don’t Worry Baby, with a group of backup vocalists. He included an early demo cover of this song on the new home recordings album as well.
While on Stereogum, I also found this video of Rivers in the studio doing a new song he co-wrote with Jermaine Dupri, (a different version of this also appears on Alone II).
Megan and I saw Yes Man yesterday, and it did not dissappoint. I was definitely in the mood for a more entertaining movie, and it really hit the spot. Don’t go into this movie expecting anything more than just pure entertainment… there are no deep meanings nor is there anything remotely intellectual about it. I must say that this is one of the best performances I’ve seen from Zooey Deschanel. Her looks and personally fit her character perfectly…. and I can’t think of anyone more perfect to fill that role. Jim Carrey is… well, Jim Carrey. I’ve enjoyed him in every movie of his that I’ve seen.
Just a tidbit of space news for you: NASA awarded contracts to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. through 2016 to fill the need to carry cargo to the Internation Space Station. This is the kind of thing NASA needs to keep doing- the future of space exploration lies in the combined efforts of goverment and the private sector. Link via Bad Astronomy.
I leave you with this:
Awesoments and psychics
December 22, 2008
So New York was a blast. I’ll post a link on here to the pics once I go through them and get them uploaded. It snowed about 4 inches in the city on friday, which was beautiful. CSS rocked Webster Hall thur. night, and Prabir & the Substitutes rocked Sullivan Hall Sat. night. The Met was awesome sunday, and the American Museum of Natural History was naturally awesome on Friday.
Today I bring you pure awesomeness in the form of the Periodic Table of Awesoments. It’s a list of all things that can be described as “awesome.” The awesomeness of this awesome table cannot be overstated. I just tried to say “awesome” as many times as I could in that paragraph. Awesome.
Stereogum did some digging around and found the earliest known appearance of Zooey Deschanel in film. It’s an old Offspring music video. Classic.
In this video (1 of many… I haven’t yet watched all of them), Richard Dawkins and Derren Brown talk about the techniques used by psychics and astrologers to fool people into thinking they actually know something about their life or the problems they’re going through. Just watch. If you’re someone who even slightly believes in the so-called “powers” of psychics or palm-readers, etc… hopefully this video will help you see the light. Via Boing Boing.
Spaceport America now has clearance from the FAA to conduct spaceflight from its soon-to-be built facility in New Mexico. In a time when severe budget cuts loom for NASA, the era of commercial spaceflight can’t come soon enough. I seriously doubt we’ll ever see our government have as much interest in space exploration as it did in the 60’s, so we’re going to have to turn to the private sector to see any serious, well-funded endeavours into manned spaceflight. Hopefully NASA can eventually work out a deal with one or some of the many private spaceflight companies that are currently testing/building rockets and spacecraft. Hell, they already contract out many aspects of space shuttle maintenance and launches.
Obama has assembled a kickass team of real scientists to tackle the energy crisis, global warming, and hopefully create a lot of new, secure jobs in the process, thus helping to revitalize the economy. Jan. 20th can’t come soon enough!
Universe Today takes on the 2012 comet/distaster/end-of-the-world bullshit head-on in this article. Nothing is going to happen, people! As the article says, there is nothing more profitable than fear. This is no more evident than in the upcoming movie, 2012. These people will be making millions, even billions, off your fear. Don’t do it!
Exomoons, ice, and an avian dance party
December 16, 2008
Score one for the weather forecasters. This morning on my way out the door I inspected my surroundings to find a thin glaze of ice on almost everything except the road (THANKFULLY!). We were under a freezing rain advisory and freezing rain is indeed what we had. It’s rare, but it’s kinda cool to see when it happens. When it hits you on the hand, it’s wet, yet when it hits anything else, it freezes! But I really don’t think any roads had problems as they were just a little too warm for anything to freeze on them. I also found this cool slideshow on the Tennessean’s website showing snow photos over the past several years.
Ok, enough nerdy weather science. Back to the usual links of interest:
Since I’ll be flying to NYC this Wed. with Megan, I thought it appropriate to post this video showing the astounding number of flights world wide over a 24 hour period.
Apparently astronomers are already tired of discovering exoplanets. Now they’re onto discovering exomoons around exoplanets! David Kipping at the University College London is working on a method of measuring the wobble of planets around other stars. So, we look at a distant star and observe its wobble caused by the tug of a large planet orbiting it. Then we directly image that planet with Hubble or even some ground-based telescope, and observe its own wobble, caused by it’s moon(s). Obviously this can only be done (at least for now) with very large planets (think Jupiter-sized or even bigger) that are close enough to be directly imaged, but still… AMAZING. Read the rest of the the story at Universe Today.
Finally, I give you Snowball, the Dancing Cockatoo:
Zooey Deschanel’s Privates on a paper airplane in space
December 10, 2008
If you know me, you know that I’m a huge Zooey Deschanel fan. In fact, she’s #1 on my celebrity crush list. Even though her upcoming movie with Jim Carrey Yes Man looks like nothing more than a re-working of his older film Liar Liar, I am still eager to see it. She offers her voice to some synthpop tracks for the film, and it’s… well… just listen. Let’s just say she needs to stick to quirky indie-folk. Her voice is beautiful no matter what, but it’s just not well-suited for synthesizers.
The Japanese space agency JAXA is planning to fly a paper airplane out of the International Space Station, to the earth. The planes will be made of a specially treated paper that can withstand extreme heat and water. Yes, even a little paper airplane will create significant heat upon re-entering the atmosphere. Remember that it’s being launched from the ISS, which is in orbit, meaning that it will be traveling at around 17,000 mph. If my knowledge of physics is correct, since it’s so light it will have less inertia, and thus slow down much faster than say, a spaceship or a meteor… so it shouldn’t have to withstand the heat for very long. My question is this- do they really expect it to be found? The vast majority of the planet is covered by water, so the chances are that it will land in the middle of the ocean and never seen again. Link via Kottke.org.
UPDATE: Apparently the launch has been scrubbed due to concerns that the planes might collide with a satellite or end up as space junk. Link. It was a cool idea!
In 1960 Joe Kittinger set records for highest jump (102,800 feet), fastest unpowered flight (he fell at 614 mph!), and several others. This guy is the definition of badass. I’m not sure about the speed, though, because if you listen during the video clip, the narrator says 400+ mph… but the caption says 614. Oh well. Badass nonetheless! Check out the video clip on LiveScience.
In Nashville music news- The Privates are apparently recording a new EP at Battletapes. This brings me great joy. The Privates don’t get to play much, or even record much, due to the fact that they’re essentially a “supergroup” and all of them (except Dave) are in other bands that tour, record, etc… way more than they do. I’m really interested to see how Jeremy’s production style will influence their sound. They’ve done everything in the past with Jason Bulluck over at Lake Fever Productions (not that that’s a bad thing at all!) so it’ll be nice to have a little change in their sound, production-wise. I leave you with this hilarious video from one of their recording sessions, via Nashville Cream.
steve cross loves music and science 