Finally managed to make my cellphone and my computer like each other. I thereby discovered lots of photos I shot during the last two years. Most of them have this nice "cool cowboy style" that you can only get by off the cuff shots with crappy cellphone cams. I'll post some of my favorite ones--such as this somewhat mystic Berlin shot from 2005/6.
Wow--160-something posts and not even a single linguistics tag. After I have been fed up a little bit with theoretical linguistics after having written my BSc thesis on what I would like to call Linguistic Neuroscience, I am currently regaining confidence and I think that at least basic linguistic concepts are useful in research on the Neuroscience of Language. Material:
Past: Noam Chomsky's original thesis draft has been digitalized and can be downloaded at http://alpha-leonis.lids.mit.edu/chomsky/ (be aware: 919 pages, 439 mb, Chomskian writing)
"An original in a season of repeats" was the NYTimes title about the new Pixar movie Ratatouille [rat-a-too-ee] that seems to be based on the simply elegant and elegantly simple idea of being a gourmet rat in Paris ("shut up and eat your trash"). Loooooovin' it already (sortie le 29 juin). Check out the trailer and the teaser on their website.
What I have been occupied with lately: Paradoxically, I have been theorizing about the art of dance and its potential of expression which has to be split up in an external and an internal aspect. But 'nuff of that... Furthermore, I have been digitizing musical art from the 1970's and 80's in order to make a new Funktape this summer (the last one has been in 2004). The two threads converge in the following video on the dancing of James Brown--check out especially the guy explaining the styles (Camel Walk, Funky Chicken, etc.) from minute 2:00 onwards. Great stuff!
Bizarre-- I'm getting nostalgia feelings using the Wayback Machine to timetravel the internet. Apparently since the late 1990's archive.org backupped the whole internet every 2 months. Now you can use the Wayback Machine to surf the homepages from back in the days when 28.8K was the standard and the funny squirking sound of the fax modem indicated the opening of the digital door to the world.
It feels good, so I have to blog about it immediately: I could comment several pages on this track but I'll keep to the modern info-in-digestible-chunks paradigm. Kanye West, Rakim, KRS One, and Nas are rapping on a dope DJ Premier beat on the brandnew oldschool track "Classic". I'm not sure what Kanye is doing on there but it were probably his manager qualities who brought these allstars together. Primo at his best, Rakim, KRS, and Nas shining like back in the days. Still, they've (we've) all visibly gotten older... Check out especially the nice intro and the great a-cappella sections in the video.
This time a rather unusual view on Paris. Rather feels like some other country or city but you may recognize the silhouette of Sacre Coeur (cf. Photolog pt. I) on the horizon. Shot a week ago. Now you can decide-- does it look nicer from afar or from close by?
David Hasselhoff already appeared twice on this blog: 12 months and 5 months ago. "Looking for freedom" (check out the "Top Kitsch" video below) evokes lots of cosy memories of my childhood, just as does accidentally watching an episode of Knight Rider. In fact, 2007 will be the 25th anniversary of Knight Rider, which may be why one of the four K.I.T.T. Pontiac Trans Ams used to shoot the series is currently for sale (for 149,995$).
"What is mind? No matter! What is matter? Never mind!"
Classic (apparently) 1st Simpsons episode and therefore Bart Simpson's first words ever prove he's a cognitive neuroscientist. Homer's first words however, prove he's a (cognitive) nihilist. But that's why we love him.
The Canadian start-up Powercast supposedly developed the technology for wireless power supply via radio frequency waves. It's supposed to be accomplished with relatively little energy loss and it would totally revolutionize the handling of portable devices. Furthermore, they already have a deal with Philips.
In Neuroscience (according to a recent article in Nature, indicated to me by Carl), a German-American team managed to switch on and (now) off neurons with light. This truly has the potential to change the whole neuroscientific methodological apparatus (even in the realm of the philosophy of neuroscience, finally introducing a more direct causality) and it could have major impact on clinical applications. "Our new mastery of neural circuits using light might thus eventually allow us to master our own brains — and behaviour (last sentence of the review by Häusser & Smith, 2007, Nature 446, 617-619)". Let's hope for the best.
One of my--maybe even *the*--favorite short film of all times is called 'Zehn Hoch' in German and 'Powers of Ten' in English. It circulated before the era of video hosting platforms and I just came to think of it recently. So I looked it up and found several versions. The two greatest ones are the original German dubbed version, apparently produced in 1977 by the Eames Office for IBM, and the ingenious Simpsons Intro mocking it (see below). Furthermore, but only in one direction, there is an IMAX remake called 'Cosmic Voyage' with the voice of Morgan Freeman and--of course--the Terry Pratchett-like outro of 'Men in Black'.
Another one I recently thought about is the self-disqualifying rapper a/k/a "MC Square'"derived from Einstein's monster formula "E=mc^2", which, by the way, is also the song title of a great Common feature on last year's post-mortem J Dilla album The Shining, which, by the way, got number 2 of the Worldwide Show All Winner albums of the year 2006, which, by the way, just introduced a quarterly All Winners feature, that was broadcasted last week, and which you can still listen to online.
Finally managed to make my cellphone and my computer like each other.
"An original in a season of repeats" was the NYTimes title about the new Pixar movie Ratatouille [rat-a-too-ee] that seems to be based on the simply elegant and elegantly simple idea of being a gourmet rat in Paris ("shut up and eat your trash").
That's how the southern German something blossom looks like. Taken a week ago.
Bizarre--
This time a rather unusual view on Paris. Rather feels like some other country or city but you may recognize the silhouette of Sacre Coeur (cf. Photolog pt. I) on the horizon. Shot a week ago. Now you can decide-- does it look nicer from afar or from close by?
David Hasselhoff already appeared twice on this blog: 12 months and 5 months ago.
This blog's second Cherry Blossom is blessed with original photos by Tokyo correspondent Steven. Check out also the photos in this article (forget about the text).
