Jerry Blossom's Finest

Stanley Kubrick Animated Gifs

2012-01-08T00:00:00.004+01:00

A sequence of subtle and creepy animated gifs from Stanley Kubrick movies, very unusual in times of quick and flashy digital everyday life (via brainpickings).

#400: Tempo, tempo, tempo, tempo (via Ley)

2012-01-02T12:09:00.003+01:00

Fittingly to the beginning of a new year and as blog post number 400:
Caetano Veloso's Oração ao tempo (lyrics here)

and the version by Rita Ribeiro

Berlins Gentrifizierung als Pappmaschee-Puppentrick

2011-12-23T11:01:00.003+01:00

"Was ist eigentlich Gentrifizierung?" - eine Pappsatt "für den Kiez" Produktion
in einer schönen Pappmaché-Puppentrick-Animation, die an die Augsburger Puppenkiste erinnert.

und der Soundtrack aus dem Abspann, "Ich brauch mehr Geld für Berlin" von John Doe

Unlike U - Trainwriting in Berlin

2011-12-16T23:44:00.004+01:00

Highly recommended! The fascinating and comprehensive documentary "Unlike U - Trainwriting in Berlin" about the Graffiti train writing scene in Berlin has been put online in full-length and with english subtitles:

UNLIKE U-Trainwriting in Berlin from HISKICK productions on Vimeo.

---

"...the moviemakers and producers are recently fighting legally for the ongoing distribution of UNLIKE U.
The Berlin transport company (BVG) has sued us in order to refrain us from distributing the movie regarding the places the action documented in UNLIKE U took place in.
To understand all of this you’ve got to see the movie yourself..."

There are ways of supporting them!

Revisited: Glu-Tang Clan - Synaptic Cleft

2011-11-26T10:46:00.006+01:00

Because it's just too well done and it didn't get the attention it deserves (it isn't on youtube but it does have its own DOI): The Glu-Tang Clan with Synaptic Cleft.

...you can also download the audio as mp3.

...Addendum: It can be found on youtube

Radiolab & Everynone - Symmetry

2011-11-13T12:51:00.001+01:00

Everynone's video on Symmetry, inspired by the Radiolab episode on the same topic.

Brandt Brauer Frick & Europe - Morbid Cockaigne?

2011-11-13T12:35:00.005+01:00

I don't like their new album title's pretentious reference to Kraftwerk ("Mr. Machine") but this video might be a brute metaphor for Europe's current state of mind ("Schlaraffenland Vanitas"):

The Best of Both Worlds

2011-11-10T09:35:00.004+01:00

Peter Baumann, former core member of progressive rock band Tangerine Dream, talks about the interplay of conceptual thinking and embodied experience.

Similarly, the Mind & Life Institute seems to combine the best of both (or rather "all") worlds, bringing spirituality, art and science together - for example in an interesting one-day conference called Being Human 2012 on March 24 in San Francisco.

Mensch-Maschine (in this direction) Worldwide

2011-11-08T00:59:00.003+01:00

Kraftwerk's programmatic album title Die Mensch-Maschine (The Man-Machine) more topical than ever:

Oi! A Nova Musica Brasileira! and Lucas Santtana on GP's Worldwide Show

2011-11-05T23:52:00.003+01:00

In this week's Worldwide Show, Gilles Peterson focused on contemporary Brazilian music. He played some tracks from a new compilation of recent Brazilian music called Oi! A Nova Musica Brasileira! (click to download a free 4-track teaser), released on the label Mais Um Discos, and he featured a short live session of Lucas Santtana.

Episode 1 of Brasil, Brasil (BBC4)

2011-10-27T00:45:00.004+02:00

Episode 1 of "Brasil, Brasil", a great three-part BBC Four documentary series (2007) on Brazilian music (via Ley).

Halloween 2007 Reloaded

2011-10-22T18:35:00.004+02:00

One Day It'll All Make Sense

2011-10-19T10:40:00.005+02:00

Rubric: "Teenage Heroes Growing Up"

"You can see an artist's status changing when the category of "Tour Dates" on his website disappears being replaced by 'Appearances'." (Quoting an old blog post from Nov 18, 2007)

Now Common has written his memoirs, he's wearing suit 'n' tie on the Daily Show (thanks tsw) and performs poetry at the White House.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Eat More Yogurt!

2011-09-18T22:58:00.004+02:00

Suggested reading: Jonah Lehrer's new piece on Frontal Cortex and in the Wall Street Journal on the connection between body, gut, mind, and brain. He's alluding to a behavioural effect of probiotics and succinctly emphasizing gastrointestinal-cerebral interactions as influencing human action and perception.

BBC Knowledge Animation

2011-08-22T23:43:00.001+02:00

BBC KNOWLEDGE 60 from iamrader on Vimeo.

BBC Knowledge from Sean Pecknold on Vimeo.

via brainpickings and John Nack.

John Lennon - I Met the Walrus

2011-08-19T21:22:00.002+02:00

via Open Culture

Surreally real - 360° Hiroshima after the atomic bomb

2011-08-18T23:13:00.001+02:00

Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb (3 of 5) by Harbert F Austin Jr in Japan

Being in the World - Movie Trailer

2011-07-30T19:01:00.002+02:00

Phenomenologists, Heideggerians, enactivists leaving their ivory towers and - very fittingly - engaging with the real world in this documentary movie: Being in the World (found via Hubert L. Dreyfus' website)

Dreyfus on Husserl and Heidegger

2011-07-29T01:19:00.003+02:00

Hubert L. Dreyfus on Husserl and Heidegger, Phenomenology and Existentialism

Renata Salecl on Choice - RSA Animate

2011-07-22T13:31:00.003+02:00

A very concise and poignant observation of the burden of choice and its connection to social change by Slovenian philosopher, sociologist and legal theorist Renata Salecl - again beautifully animated by Cognitive Media for RSA.

"...more and more this overworked subject starts not only consuming constantly around him but also consuming him- or herself..."

Gmail Custom Time (TM)

2011-07-20T00:27:00.005+02:00

Introducing Gmail Custom Time (TM) - Be on time. Every time.*

*The term "Every time" is used loosely here to represent the number 10.

Air Force One - Love is Love (via Wrrn)

2011-07-16T00:29:00.004+02:00

"Du sollst immer auf die Schuhe achten, die du trägst, weil das fast alles von dir verrät."

Three times Caetano Veloso's Leãozinho

2011-07-10T11:52:00.003+02:00

Os Paralamas do Sucesso | Seu Jorge - Você

2011-07-07T08:02:00.002+02:00

BBC Documentary: Kenneth Clark - Civilisation (1969/2011)

2011-07-02T14:33:00.006+02:00

Civilisation: A Personal View by Kenneth Clark (1969) -this landmark BBC documentary on history itself became historic earlier this year by being aired again in a remastered version on BBC.

This great documentary in 13 parts deals with the question how Western civilisation is defined and how it emerged or was created since the decline of the Roman Empire.

Monty Python Classic: Johann Gambolputty ... of Ulm

2011-06-19T14:45:00.001+02:00

Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern -schplenden -schlitter -crasscrenbon -fried -digger -dangle -dungle -burstein -von -knacker -thrasher -apple -banger -horowitz -ticolensic -grander -knotty -spelltinkle -grandlich -grumblemeyer -spelterwasser -kürstlich -himble -eisen -bahnwagen -gutenabend -bitte -eine -nürnberger -bratwurstle -gerspurten -mit -zweimache -luber -hundsfut -gumberaber -shönendanker -kalbsfleisch -mittler -raucher von Hautkopft of Ulm.

Acoustic Memory Lane - HipHop of the 90's

2011-04-13T12:17:00.003+02:00

Some of my old (German) HipHop heroes continue playing the good ol' sound on radio shows - weekly over the airwaves or 24/7 online.

Check out Soundfiles HipHop with DJ Mad (Absolute Beginner) or egoTrippin hosted by Sepalot (Blumentopf), Explizit (Main Concept) and Ben Mono (Compost Rec).

Hariri Task Meets Music Video

2011-03-04T23:29:00.002+01:00

via Barbotrossa.

Still Shining - Dilla Documentary

2011-02-08T01:00:00.007+01:00

There is a lot to discuss about Jay Dee's postmortem fame - but there is also a lot to say about his premortem skill. Check out the "Still Shining" J Dilla documentary (via digitalinberlin).

If you disregard the amateurish editing and subtract the artificial glorification, this documentary contains some brilliant footage, transfers a nice message, and serves a great purpose: The purpose of commemorating James Yancey five years after his death on February 10, 2006.
That's what a lot of old hiphop heroes are doing, like Common (check out 29'30'' where he reports his 'on-the-fly gratitude' with a great shot at 29'54''), Q-Tip, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Pete Rock or Questlove (I especially recommend him explaining the different stages Jay Dee went through - at around 9'30')'.

Questlove (16'44''): Jay Dee taught me how to use the force... and when you use the force you keep it simple - you can keep it sloppy... but just keep it funky!

OZ Portrait by Court Illustrator

2011-02-04T09:34:00.003+01:00

I have a lot of respect for court illustrators - they have to be quick, thorough and serious. I just discovered the great drawings by Christine Böer who attended some of the most important trials in the German history of the past few years. My favourite: The court portrait of OZ, the legendary graffiti tag "artist" from Hamburg who just recently has been put on trial yet another time - after having spent already 8 years in prison for tagging.

Beats & Berlin - 10 Years Dickes B

2011-02-03T09:29:00.006+01:00

You can say what you want about Peter Fox and Seeed but watching the "Dickes B" video even 10 years later still is fun.

Skateboarding still evolving: Kilian Martin

2011-01-23T15:28:00.007+01:00

The upside of getting older is experiencing the evolution of culture and arts.

For example the progress that skateboarding made in the last decade is beautiful to see. Check out this video by last generation freestyle skateboarder Kilian Martin.

Gnarls Barkley - Who's gonna save my soul?

2011-01-19T09:03:00.002+01:00

Just for the aesthetics (thanks, Ley)

Housewife Trippin' on LSD

2011-01-18T01:00:00.002+01:00

"I wish I could talk in technicolor"

(Source: Huffington Post via @vaughanbell)

John Cleese - All about the brain

2011-01-06T23:44:00.003+01:00

I especially like the partial transcript by TheRitual24 in the comment section: the liviating duds immediatly lubberdutch making contaste and togethatee slip temperance and expandasutatity. A reflection into ocean corrisponse who is perverts supercredity multiveratury equation E=2r... I'll say that again, E=2r. Where R is the radiency of a homemade measure of the vultry affect and i find that in the pervinity stems of the parishilton reserdity overleshes the rihanheteramervan to and effect so as to neglectance of nomad of prosperaty super contraction causes structurmention

LXD @ TED: B-boying has come a long way

2011-01-03T23:07:00.009+01:00

Tech-inspired martial arts fusing with B-boy moves backed by spherical music à la "Cirque du Soleil": LXD on the TED stage (check out particularly the solo dancers in the first half of the video, when the violin isn't annoying yet). Stumbled upon through Chris Anderson's article on Crowd Accelerated Innovation in the new Wired (thanks, Chris), in which he applies Steven Johnson's approach of collective ideas to the boost that the evolution of dance received through online video platforms.

The Roaring 1920's on google ngrams

2010-12-19T11:28:00.005+01:00

The huge corpus of google ngrams covering 4% of all books ever printed (cf. some scientific background) neatly illustrates the impact of the 1920's.
See "rational vs. emotional" and "Work vs. Party"

Jerry Blossom now twitter- 'n' tumblr-ing

2010-12-16T22:01:00.007+01:00

I just understood how twitter works - I guess that makes me a "late adopter".

From now on, little Jerry Blossom tweets can be found there.

---

Addendum 17/12/10: For reasons of completeness, I'm also (redundantly) tumblr-ing.

Personal Stats for Annual Reports

2010-12-14T22:36:00.004+01:00

New York-based graphic designer Nicholas Felton statistically evaluates and visualizes data from his everyday life. Ever since 2005, he publishes annual reports of the activities he records in painstaking 15 minute segments. He even developed Daytum, a tool which allows you to do the same. A video describing his approach can be found over at Slate (via Mo's twitter).

---

Addendum 15/12/2010: Cf. also the third section of Radiolab's "Fate and Fortune" episode covering computational linguistics on for example personal email archives.

(picture from Le Monde, Nov 17, 2010, via the Feltron tumblr)

3D Multiverse Multitouch

2010-11-16T19:44:00.005+01:00

Tellinya - Cyperspace-Metaverse is just around the corner: The ubiquity of fast internet, remote interaction in real time, (quasi) 3D perception - and now this: Multitouch handling in real space (cf. Minority Report) and 3D reality reconstruction has become feasible by hacking the Kinect depth camera system. Now we just need to hook up more than one and we're ready to evade real reality.

Portraits of the Mind

2010-11-16T10:29:00.002+01:00

Carl Schoonover:
Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century

"The brain is an endlessly fascinating topic for those who have one..."
(Betsy Mason's review on Wired, 11/15/2010)

Don't Believe the Hype

2010-11-05T11:42:00.004+01:00

Round 1: Mexican Coke 3 - 0 American Coke (Justin Wright)
Round 2: The taste of coke is all in your head (Jonah Lehrer, Frontal Cortex)
Round 3a: Hipster, hör die Signale (Johannes Thumfart, Die Zeit, German only)
Round 3b: What was the Hipster? (Mark Greif, NY Mag)
Round 4: What is it about 20-somethings? (Robin Marantz Henig, The NY Times)

jerryblossom Geocities-ized

2010-11-02T23:14:00.006+01:00

Digital travel to the times of Web 0.5: How this site would've looked in the Geocities era (by Geocities-izer which makes "any webpage look like it was made by a 13-year old in 1996")

Still Bill Trailer

2010-10-20T23:04:00.000+02:00

Gilles Peterson w/ Kon & Amir

2010-10-16T01:13:00.005+02:00

Brilliant Worldwide Show this week: GP hosting Kon & Amir.
Listen to it online...

Family Guy Explaining Monism

2010-10-14T17:07:00.004+02:00

First it was "The Humanities" and "The Sciences", then it became "Brain and Mind Sciences" and "Brain & Mind Sciences" and now it's "Brain/Mind Sciences". I'm waiting for "Brind Sciences" or "Main Sciences".

Family Guy beautifully illustrates this:

Tapping the Digital Collective Pool of Ideas

2010-10-05T19:08:00.012+02:00

As a viral promo-slash-summary-slash-introduction to his book Where Good Ideas Come From (published today), Steven Berlin Johnson produced this neat video (via Neuron Culture).

The take home message is that half ideas or hunches of different people connect ("have sex") to create great ideas in certain environments but also at unexpected moments (see also his TED talk).

According to this new Science Express paper collective intelligence is influenced by the social sensitivity rather than the general intelligence of individual group members.

Remembering Durkheim's, Jung's, and Halbwachs'/Assmann's conceptualizations of Collective Consciousness, Unconscious, and Memory, respectively, one may integrate these claims into the following conclusion:

In order to fruitfully complement one's individual thoughts utilizing increased (weak or strong) connectivity in the age of social media, one should develop a sort of virtual social sensitivity to maneuver and tap into the digital collective pool of ideas.

Fallon, Timberlake, & The Roots - 30 Years Rap History

2010-10-04T04:13:00.001+02:00

Blu's Berlin Wall and 20 Years of German Reunification

2010-10-03T00:02:00.004+02:00

Magnificent Italian street artist Blu (already mentioned twice) struck again (via my sis and unurth). Just in time for the German national holiday celebrating 20 years of reunification and fall of the Berlin Wall. Happy Anniversary!

Emerging Adulthood and Gradschool

2010-10-01T08:21:00.001+02:00

But also:

The 20s are like the stem cell of human development, the pluripotent moment when any of several outcomes is possible. Decisions and actions during this time have lasting ramifications.
[...]
"In emerging adulthood, if you spend this time exploring and you get yourself on a pathway that really fits you, then there’s going to be this snowball effect of finding the right fit, the right partner, the right job, the right place to live. The less you have at first, the less you’re going to get this positive effect compounded over time. You’re not going to have the same acceleration". (from: What Is It About 20-Somethings?, NY Times, August 18, 2010)

The Strength of Weak Ties (Gladwell & Lehrer)

2010-09-30T13:54:00.009+02:00

Malcolm Gladwell, in his piece on online social networks entitled Small Change - Why the revolution will not be tweeted, states that while "high-risk activism ... is a "strong-tie" phenomenon, [...] the platforms of social media are built around weak ties". Hence, "[the organization of social media] makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact".

Heavily citing a classical paper by Granovetter from 1973, Jonah Lehrer objects this "denigration of weak ties in social activism" on his Frontal Cortex Blog.

Great food for thought!

--
Addendum 05/10/10: Adding to the discussion on the power of social media is this talk by Clay Shirky from 2007

Definitely Made Peace (via Hodaze)

2010-09-27T18:09:00.005+02:00

So wie's war, wird's nie wieder sein - und so wie es ist, darf's nicht bleiben...

Walt Disney & Salvador Dalí - Destino (via Ley)

2010-09-13T00:33:00.005+02:00

"Destino is a short animated cartoon released in 2003 by The Walt Disney Company. Destino is unique in that its production originally began in 1945, 58 years before its eventual completion. The project was a collaboration between American animator Walt Disney and Spanish painter Salvador Dalí..."

Info taken from wikipedia (cf. also imdb).

You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzzZa5o1q5k

Andy Goldsworthy - Rivers and Tides (2003)

2010-09-04T11:55:00.003+02:00

The whole documentary on Andy Goldsworthy and his work can be found here.

The Clash - Rock the Casbah (1982)

2010-08-21T11:38:00.001+02:00

Psychedelic Enlightening Audiovisuals

2010-08-20T09:17:00.004+02:00

J. BIEBZ - U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis
Source: How to Make Justin Bieber Sound Incredible: Slow Him Down 800 Percent

Everynone's WORDS (via Warren)

2010-08-12T22:51:00.002+02:00

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo, supported by and featured on WNYC's Radiolab.

Reason Has Nothing To Do With Reality

2010-08-09T14:21:00.005+02:00

"We like to believe that the gift of human reason lets us think like scientists, so that our conscious thoughts lead us closer to the truth. But here’s the paradox: all that reasoning and confabulation can often lead us astray, so that we end up knowing less about what jams/cars/jelly beans we actually prefer. So here’s my new metaphor for human reason: our rational faculty isn’t a scientist – it’s a talk radio host."

(via Jonah Lehrer's We Are All Talk Radio Hosts, now at Wired Science)

"Renn, wenn du kannst" im Kino

2010-08-01T12:35:00.003+02:00

Go and check out "Renn, wenn du kannst" (Run, if you can) in the movies - a great new young intelligent funny political entertaining German movie by Dietrich Brüggemann.

His plea, the facebook group, the website, the screening dates, the trailer.

Pulpo Paul, the Uri Geller of Cephalopod Molluscs, and Publication Bias

2010-07-22T14:58:00.005+02:00

Neil O'Connell has a neat little piece over at Body in Mind on what Paul the Psychic Octopus tells us about the nature of scientific truth (via Seed Magazine's "Are Octopuses Smart?")

HipHop Rocks Historical Lexicography

2010-07-19T11:18:00.002+02:00

...and Melle Mel rocks the Oxford English Dictionary (cf. Ben Zimmer's feature in the New York Times).

Jonah Lehrer on Brain-Body Holism

2010-07-12T14:32:00.003+02:00

"It strikes me that we need a new metaphor for the interactions of the brain and body. They aren't simply connected via some pipes and tubes. They are emulsified together, so hopelessly intertwined that everything that happens in one affects the other. Holism is the rule."
From: Cages and Cancer

Why Germany Wins the World Cup 2010

2010-07-07T15:56:00.005+02:00

(source)

---
Addendum: Pulpo Paul was stronger

#333: Jerry Blossom at National Portrait Gallery

2010-06-22T23:27:00.005+02:00

Edward Knight as Jerry Blossom in Pocock's 'Hit or Miss'

Istolethesoul Mixes by Koray Özel

2010-06-19T14:09:00.006+02:00

Check out the neat selection of Nujazz'n'Soul-slash-Hiphop-tracks and mixes available at istolethesoul.com, the 'mix archive and music blog by Koray Özel', a Toronto-based graphics guy.

Philosophers' Worldcup: Germany vs. Greece

2010-06-18T07:46:00.003+02:00

Miracles in Nature and Science

2010-06-15T10:30:00.006+02:00

Occurrence of the word "miracle/s" in Nature and Science over the decades (by Toril Johannessen via well-formed-data and VVork).

Pipe - NOT!

2010-06-14T20:57:00.005+02:00

Saw a playful 'geek chique' shirt today (b/u/y threadless).

News: Noam Chomsky Craze in Paris

2010-05-27T12:35:00.005+02:00

Avram Noam Chomsky, revolutionary in several fields, left his Bostonian arm chair and (after having been denied entry to Israel's West Bank last week) is visiting Paris this week. Already four (!) years ago there were rumours that this would happen and now the days have come.
If you won't make it to Paris in time or you don't manage to get one of the 50% of freely available tickets, check out the website chomsky.fr that was set up specifically for "his coming". They'll also put up video recordings after...

Addendum 28/5: Some of his appearances will be broadcasted live - for example the one at Collège de France later today.

May 25th: Happy Sad Towel Day

2010-05-24T19:38:00.005+02:00

In commemoration of Douglas Adams, who sadly passed away nine years ago (on May 11, 2001), tomorrow people celebrate Towel Day a/k/a Geek Pride Day. Proudly carry your towel around or participate in an 'official' Towel Day event in your city (from Backnang, Germany, to Medellin, Colombia).

Krautrock (via tsw)

2010-05-24T10:54:00.002+02:00

Non-conceptual Skill - Léon (Playing) Theremin

2010-05-21T21:41:00.005+02:00

I went to this talk today in which a philosopher came to the revolutionary conclusion that there might be non-conceptual/ non-verbal thought.
She offered the pivotal examples of pre-linguistic children and non-linguistic animals as evidence, claiming that skills are a form of intelligent yet concept-independent behaviour.
As a theoretical (i.e., armchair) philosopher - how far can you dissociate your scholarly thoughts from your everyday experience? How best to minimize or eliminate your common sense?
Playing a musical instrument as prime example of skillful motor intelligence, I consider the Theremin (a/k/a aetherophone) as particularly interesting, as there isn't even proper tactile contact with the instrument involved. Check out the inventor's demonstration video (you may wanna skip to second 15):

Death: Dwele w/ the Suite for Ma Dukes Orchestra - Angel

2010-05-06T22:25:00.010+02:00

Leaving aside the whole discussion about the interaction effects of his fame and his death, Jay Dee a/k/a J Dilla has been dead for four years now and I don't know of anybody who filled his spot.

Last year, Mochilla organized a series of three "timeless" concerts "in homage to the composer/arrangers who have influenced hip-hop in the most literal and profound ways".
The DVD can now be purchased and one of the pieces is Dwele performing Dilla-produced Angel together with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson conducting the Suite for Ma Dukes Orchestra:

The Sounds of VTech / Dwele: Angel (Suite for Ma Dukes)

In addition, a review is up on okayplayer and more videos can be found on the timeless youtube channel and at digitalinberlin.de.

Life's plain beautiful !

2010-04-30T18:49:00.000+02:00

(mimicking the development of twitter)

Guru - Lifesaver

2010-04-27T00:34:00.004+02:00

Guru Obituary (via tsw)

2010-04-20T14:53:00.004+02:00

April 19, 2010: Guru dies after long battle with cancer

You notice that your life passes when your teenage idols die.

Richard Dawkins' Quote of the Day (thanks, JaPe)

2010-04-07T11:12:00.000+02:00

Graffiti Stop Motion - Broken Fingaz

2010-04-02T22:08:00.004+02:00

In the tradition of Blu's work, there is this graffiti stop motion by Israeli Broken Fingaz Crew (via themusicsarecoming)

New HomeCookin': Hardcore Boogie Bass

2010-03-23T08:06:00.004+01:00

ichi.one's got a new one: HC52, Hardcore Boogie Bass

...and the Principles of Neural Science publication date was shifted again - September 2010.

Hermeto Pascoal - More Música da Lagoa

2010-03-12T11:52:00.005+01:00

As a 3-year follow-up to two previous posts:

Pferd aufm Flur - Fuzzy Filme

2010-03-09T17:18:00.005+01:00

"There's a horse in the hall" in a famous (very tacky) German carneval song by Klaus & Klaus (sic!).

Another line goes:

...wohl zu viele Fuzzyfilme gesehn, wa?...

(freely: ...you must've watched too many fuzzy flics, haven'tya?...)

"fuzzy flics"?!?

I just found out that "fuzzyfilme" refers to cowboy movies from the 1940s featuring a certain Al St. John as Fuzzy Q. Jones. Maybe (just like Bob Ross) he may exhibit what I called "the David Hasselhoff effect" as only on German amazon you can get the Fuzzy Western Collectors DVD Box.

themusicsarecoming

2010-02-28T22:51:00.004+01:00

probably as funky as digital can get: themusicsarecoming

"discovering the musics and their crazy memes"

Plakataufwand: digital-to-analogue

2010-02-28T10:46:00.008+01:00

Apparently, the digital natives are the generation who grew up with all the virtuality around us and who, in an act of emancipation, retract it.
As a first step, a slow approximation, you can try this service of digital to analogue, virtual to real message conversion: Plakataufwand lets you send lines and location to their email address and they install your thoughts and feelings in public space (at the moment in Berlin, Hamburg and Kiel).

HipHop Edutainment - Rap History

2010-02-06T09:21:00.008+01:00

In Zürich, Munich and Berlin there is an ongoing project called Rap History that wants to extend usual clubbing by adopting a more educative stance: Location as university, DJs as professors & scientists, visitors as nerdy students - veeery HipHop, i'n't it!
Always focusing on a particular year, they accumulated a neat database with rap records and pages with auditory and audiovisual study material.
The next lesson in Munich is "1980" on April 17, 2010, at the University of Glockenbachwerkstatt and at Berlin's Bohannon you may attend a voluntary repetition session of the decade between 1979 and 1989 on April 14, 2010, at 22h30 ct.

Inputinputinput: AtGoogleTalks & pulse-berlin & Pinker's Myth

2010-02-05T15:00:00.004+01:00

So much to read and watch and so little time:
AtGoogleTalks
invites interesting speakers (e.g., Chomsky, Pinker, Rushdie, Rifkin, Obama - but also less known ones like Jonah Lehrer or Neal Stephenson)
&
Pulse Berlin
a written and online magazine on "culture, creativity, discussion" with two issues per year
&
Steven Pinker's TED Talk "The Myth of Violence" with a (positive) bird's eye view on human history and development (thanks, Mo)

Religion vs. Secular Science

2010-01-20T23:08:00.003+01:00

all sloppy scientists who forget a dot when wanting to access pubmed dot com (the central search engine for medical publications), thus typing http://wwwpubmed.com/ into their browser windows, are referred to bible studies dot org ("the mega site of bible, church, christian & religious info & studies").
bible studies dot org is "easy to navigate" and can prove that the bible is true on only "app. 6000 pages"
great website

Kreuzberg 36

2010-01-18T11:36:00.006+01:00

Great things going on in Kreuzberg 36:
Prinzessinnengarten and Stadtsafari

Space & Time Travels: Mazaworld and Krautrock

2010-01-17T12:30:00.008+01:00

Virtually feels like travelling: A 40-year old Kiwi travel buff documents his own travels and compiles interesting information about the earth on Mazalien.com. In particular his collection of travel videos (in particular Michael Palin's Full Circle with full-length episodes) is useful!

New Urban Music Blog features a cool BBC4 documentary on Krautrock (Krautrockumentary) and the awakening of German electronic music.
German Electronic Music History from Jose Rodriguez on Vimeo.

Addendum: I don't like the krautrock as david bowie's li'l brother part at the end, but it neatly shows german music in the 60s to 80s. kraftwerk electro stockhausen synthis everything

HOME

2010-01-08T10:54:00.004+01:00

I'm home, there's a wonderful viral movie about our planet called Home and a great Berlin party series called home.

Erich Kästner about the Year's End

2009-12-29T16:08:00.000+01:00

from: Erich Kästner - Herbst auf der ganzen Linie

...
Das Jahr vergeht in Monatsraten.
Es ist schon wieder fast vorbei.
Und was man tut, sind selten Taten.
Das, was man tut, ist Tuerei.
...

(sorry, his wording is untranslatable)

Jonah Lehrer: The Dirty Secret of Science

2009-12-27T12:14:00.004+01:00

In the first issue 2010 of Wired (magazine), Jonah Lehrer (person), author of Frontal Cortex (blog) and The Decisive Moment/How We Decide (book) contributed Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up (article).

"Experiments rarely tell us what we expect. That's the dirty secret of science."
"The problem with science ... isn’t that most experiments fail — it’s that most failures are ignored."
"Belief, in other words, is a kind of blindness." (excerpts)

Chromeo - Night bv Night

2009-12-25T20:07:00.004+01:00

almost true fresh oldschool fellas

...its like Dirty Dancing and Shakira...

Steven Pinker: My Genome, My Self

2009-12-22T10:20:00.003+01:00

I stumbled over a neat article by Steven Pinker about Personal Genomics, published in the NY Times almost a year ago. Definitely worth a read!

...Though the 20th century saw horrific genocides inspired by Nazi pseudoscience about genetics and race, it also saw horrific genocides inspired by Marxist pseudoscience about the malleability of human nature. The real threat to humanity comes from totalizing ideologies and the denial of human rights, rather than a curiosity about nature and nurture...

Petition for Open Access of Scientific Publications

2009-12-19T15:53:00.006+01:00

There is an ongoing petition at the German Bundestag that proposes that publicly funded scientific publications should be freely accessible. In principle it copies the open access policy of the NIH or the Public Library of Science. Please sign!

In addition to articles about the petition (e.g., in Die Zeit) and a description of the original motivation you can find the official text (in German).

Petition: Wissenschaft und Forschung - Kostenloser Erwerb wissenschaftlicher Publikationen

Der Deutsche Bundestag möge beschließen, dass wissenschaftliche Publikationen, die aus öffentlich geförderter Forschung hervorgehen, allen Bürgern kostenfrei zugänglich sein müssen. Institutionen, die staatliche Forschungsgelder autonom verwalten, soll der Bundestag auffordern, entsprechende Vorschriften zu erlassen und die technischen Voraussetzungen zu schaffen.

Begründung

Die öffentliche Hand fördert Forschung und Entwicklung nach Angaben des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung jährlich mit etwa 12 Milliarden Euro. Die Ergebnisse dieser Forschung jedoch werden überwiegend in kostenpflichtigen Zeitschriften publiziert. Es ist nicht angemessen, dass der Steuerzahler für die von ihm finanzierten Forschungsergebnisse erneut bezahlen muss.

Wegen der hohen Kosten und der Vielzahl wissenschaftlicher Zeitschriften sind Forschungsergebnisse nur in wenigen Bibliotheken einsehbar. Den meisten Bürgern ist der Zugang zu der von ihnen finanzierten Wissenschaft dadurch nicht nur erschwert, sondern de facto ganz verschlossen.

Den Bürger von der Wissenschaft auszusperren ist nicht nur schädlich, sondern auch unnötig. Andere Länder haben vergleichbare Vorhaben bereits umgesetzt. Die US-Amerikanische Behörde National Institutes of Health (NIH) verlangt, dass alle von ihr finanzierten Publikationen binnen 12 Monaten an einem zentralen Ort öffentlich zugänglich sind. Die grundsätzliche Struktur des wissenschaftlichen Publikationswesen verändert sich hierdurch nicht.

Symphonies of Science (thanks, tsw)

2009-12-14T11:23:00.003+01:00

Oooh - that's a must. Plus, it features The Power(s) of Ten.

Looks Like the Nineties

2009-12-14T10:54:00.001+01:00

Post #300: Eternity

2009-12-05T03:20:00.004+01:00

Notorious B.I.G. - Kick in the Door (Rev'd)

2009-12-05T03:10:00.009+01:00

Sounds like the Nineties

Warren just discovered this neat piece of music:
DJ Jazzy Jeff's remix of Biggie's Kick in the Door

and for completeness this J Dilla remix

So together with DJ Premier, who produced the original, the Top 3 of HipHop producers laid their hands on this great Biggie piece.

Neuroscientific Technology - Patient H.M.'s Brain Sliced (thanks, Boris)

2009-12-05T02:51:00.009+01:00

Patient H.M., among the Top 3 of the most famous Neuroscience/ Neuropsychology patients, died one year ago. After bilateral medial temporal lobe resection due to intractable epilepsy he lost his ability to form new declarative long-term memories and thus neatly linked brain structure to brain function.
Now (that is, today it'll be finished) The Brain Observatory at UCSD is slicing up his brain (livestream!) to examine different parameters of his pathology. In addition to that the data acquired will be publicly available for the neuroscience community.
Hurry to have a look as they're already as far as the occipital lobe.

2012 on Information is Beautiful (thanks, Francois)

2009-11-13T14:23:00.003+01:00

There is a nice wrap-up of the whole 2012 New Age hype on Information is Beautiful