In “The Empire Strikes Back,” Yoda utters a line which is memorable, quotable, cool and weird: “Luminous beings are we not this crude matter.”
He, and Lucas as the writer of that line, might have been onto something as it is being reported that the human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day.
Cool beans. Happy Friday.
Via Neu
A few months back I read in a NYT Circuits (now called “Personal Tech”) article the eyeball’s equivalent to music to my ears: that the GSM Association (a cellphone-company trade group) said that its members have agreed to settle on a single, standard charger design for all cellphones – MicroUSB (what is currently used by Blackberries and Canon cameras) and that they will aim for New Year’s Day, 2012 as the deadline. Sweet.
So far, AT&T, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mobile and Vodaphone are all aboard. No word on whether Verizon or Sprint, both non-GSM carriers, are on board.
This means no more “do you have a charger that fits a ____ phone?” “Sorry, I only have one that fits a ____.” conversations. Gone will be the company emails that say, “Do you have a ____ charger for our ____ Client who is visiting?” The new question will be much simpler – it will just be, “Do you have a charger?” Period.
I cannot wait!
A friend sent me a link to a song by Perpetuum Jazzile that is up on YouTube. Who are they? Well, they are the only Slovenian jazz choir, are conducted by its artistic director Tomaž Kozlevčar and are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year.
Their repertoire consists of an ear-catching selection of vocal jazz and pop, like “Africa” by Toto, which is what I was sent. The song is almost secondary to the amazing way that they create “rain” at the beginning – you have to hear it to believe it. Even the writer of the song loves it. The band posted this email below from David Paich, the aforementioned writer:
Greetings!
My name is David Paich. When I wrote Africa I never dreamed of hearing such an innovative rendition. All I can say is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am truly honored that you not only would arrange a choir version of the song but the time and effort into creating REAL MAGIC! I have NEVER received so many emails from artists friends and colleagues on a singular performance of a song.
My hats off to all of you.
I know my co-writer Jeff Porcaro would have shared the same feelings. I know my band TOTO does.
Again, thanks you for such a wonderful gift.I would love to meet everyone sometime soon and maybe work together.
Regards………David
You don’t believe me, or him, then listen to the clip below. Enjoy!
Via Pipi
40 years and about 5 minutes ago man first touched down on the moon and I got to listen to the way it happened. I actually got chills as they were landing. Seriously.
“Houston (uh) Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed.”
“Roger Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. We got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, they’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.”
For more info, see my previous moon related post which is about the site that is allowing me to experience this event “first” hand.
To honor the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar mission, during which mankind first stepped foot on a galactic body that was not our own (and where the United States claimed ownership over the Moon – ours is the only flag up there even today), the JFK Presidential Library has launched a simply gorgeous site called We Choose The Moon.
On this site, you can view photos, videos and information related to the Apollo 11 mission. You can track the mission through 11 different stages (11 to honor the mission number) from take off to landing on the moon and then the return back to our planet. You can follow the mission on Twitter three different ways: with tweets from CapCom, from the Spacecraft and/or from the Eagle lander. You can even download a mission tracker widget for your desktop. Fun stuff.
I just love the name of the site. You choose to _____? We choose the moon. Boosh!
Not only did we choose the Moon as a challenge, most importantly we succeeded and year later, little kids like me grew up and knew that when I stared off into the night sky, not only was it possible to get to the moon and back but that really anything was / is possible. If we could do that – what couldn’t we do?
While the early 60’s were a time of great challenges (then again, really, when hasn’t our nation faced dire challenges?), on May 21, 1961, JFK took a strong stand in support of space exploration. Standing before Congress to deliver a special message on “urgent national needs,” he asked for an additional $7 billion to $9 billion over the next five years for the space program, proclaiming that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” And we did. ‘Nuff said.
The rocket “blasts off” in just under 12 hours and I plan on tracking the mission every step of the way.
If you think that your relationship can withstand the divisive power of the almighty Scrabble, good luck with that.
“Sources said that since the vengeful, lovelorn [Hasbro CEO Mortimer Z.] Hassenfeld first began marketing Scrabble under the Hasbro brand, roughly 1,447,055 romantic couplings have been destroyed by the game’s devastating ability to turn otherwise felicitous partners into fierce, seething rivals.”
Remembering how the last two times my wife and I played Scrabble went (there multiple word challenges where the dictionary was called in as an arbitrator), I would say no truer words were ever spoken.
Last night I post about how I’m so grateful that I don’t live in a war zone without ever thinking about how rooted I was by the bangs and the booms in a Twentieth Century mindset. Because of the US’s global geographic location, the kinds of artillery battles that I felt like I was in while in my backyard jungle on July 4th are very unlikely to happen here, though I could see some of the drug battles in Mexico spilling over the border.
I somehow forgot all about the Terminator movies and the existing botnets that might control the very computer I’m writing this post on. Today I have learned that since July 4th, the South Korean and US governments have been under a sustained and sophisticated cyberattack.
From the NYT, “The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, The A.P. reported, citing officials inside and outside the American government. The fact that the government Web sites were still being affected after three days signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack, the news agency reported, citing anonymous American officials.”
Read the article for more geek nightmare details. We are living in the future.
A few years ago, I remarked when listening to the cacophony of fireworks exploding in the same suburban neighborhood that I was in this past weekend that “this is what it must be like living in Iraq.” Well, this past July 4th made me feel like I was in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, the unruly Chinese province that is in the news now and every other war zone in the world combined for a few hours.
There was the pop-pop-pop of firecrackers, the whistling and bang of bottle rockets and the boom and eventual crack of larger fireworks. As the tree cover was dense, you could rarely actually see what was exploding and the noise lasted for hours and hours and hours.
What I experienced was not the “oohs and ahhs” I experience normally while watching a nice, big professional display and instead of enjoying the explosions, I actually found them frightening. I never knew how far away the explosions were or if one shell or rocket was going to go off in an errant direction and possibly land in my backyard, hit the house or even somehow hit me. I never knew if my dog was going to start to howl and therefore wake up my sleeping and oh-so-tired daughter or if some of the explosions were going to wake her up outright.
This non-stop noise once again made me think about war, about how there are many places in the world where war is either raging or where it could break out at a moments notice and how supremely lucky I am to be an American because all else being equal, I’m pretty sure that a sustained war will not be fought on these shores and in my backyard anytime soon.
July 4th has therefore turned into another form of Thanksgiving. I get to experience a pseudo-war zone, where there are explosions for sport, clay pigeons – no harm, no fowl – with a bit of danger thrown in because you don’t know if the person aiming at the bird is blind, for 1 day a year in order to appreciate the fact that I don’t live in a real war zone for the other 364 days of the year.
For that, I am very thankful.
Sometimes the title of a post says it all. In a true “Worlds Collide” type moment, two of my most beloved Sci-Fi universes meet as the Death Star destroys the USS Enterprise.
“Military force was authorized yesterday after the alleged time travelers and their craft ignored an ultimatum to stop whale poaching.” Gotta love the nod to ST4. Tres cool.
Little known fact – this is my 750th post – yay – which means my average is about 115 posts a year or one every third day overall since I started WGTCTIP2 back in Jan, 2003. This is not a bad habit that I’ve gotten into and while not all of the posts are Shakespearean, they have been entered into the record. I am significant screams the dust speck.
Film via Neu
To help advertise the new book The Jewish Body by Melvin Konner, the publisher made a funny little video about a modern day Golem in Brooklyn. Of course, hilarity ensues and mission accomplished – I’m showing you the video thus advertising the book.
Rabbi: Golem we have summoned you to protect us from invaders.
Golem: Um, you created me to destroy your enemies? I mean, have you seen this body? What do you want me to do – file their taxes to death?
Enjoy the full video below.
The Golem from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.
Via Neu, my favorite J.B.A.