New Weird

Fursaxa - Purple Fantasy

2006-12-04T14:32:00.000-06:00

this song is freaking crazy. its like absinthe in audio form. Its called "purple fantasy" by fursaxa.

Weird Weeds - Weird Feelings

2006-10-28T19:17:00.000-05:00

This experimental rock band from austin, TX really puts on quite a show believe me. The cute little short-haired guitarist played her guitar sitting down and with a piece of chalk, causing to to make all the scratchy noises. The drummer/singer had a triangle suspended inside his base drum too. Anyway here they are!

Download Song

We're Back!1!11 + Swan Lake coming soon!

2006-10-23T23:42:00.000-05:00

Alright people heres the deal:

You haven't seen any posts here for a while because the service I used to host songs (googlepages) stopped allowing me to upload large mp3s all the time. Now I hate rapidshare and other serivces like that just as much as you do so I wasnt about to settle for something that wouldnt allow me to put that little flash embedded player in each post (which i love). I have found an alternative and I wanted to announce that all the advance release goodness you've come to expect from me will return this wednesday in the form of a nice fat ALBUMMMM. Yeah thats right I'm gonna put up a copy of Swan Lake's forthcoming album "Beast Moan" which is set to be released later next month. Thats right you heard it here. In case you havent heard of Swan Lake, they are Daniel Bejar, Spencer Krug, and Carey Mercer (from Sunset Rubdown, Wolf Parade, Frog Eyes, Destroyer, and The New Pornographers (wow! what a supergroup). Unfortunately I can't post it today b/c I have a film midterm tommorow and I gotta study but keep on the look out.

love,
eric

so yeah

2006-10-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

sorry guyz i dont know if ill be able to post music here for a while but heres something to hold you over:

Sick Bike Messengers in NYC

2006-09-10T15:36:00.000-05:00

I just had to post this. Excellent sountrack too, in case you didn't know its "Bandwitch" by Broken Social Scene.

Video for Lilly Allen's "Smile"

2006-08-22T22:49:00.000-05:00

I think I'm pretty much obligated to post this for fear of my music blogger's liscence being revoked so here goes.

site problems

2006-08-22T20:26:00.000-05:00

hey kiddies there seems to be a problem with the site that hosts the mp3s i post here. so just chill out and listen to all that os mutantes that just got re-issued!

Terje Isungset - Song

2006-08-15T13:59:00.000-05:00

Terje Isungset - Igloo - 2 - Song

Download Song

Every year in the icy wilderness of Sweden, a group of artists and architects gather to build what is know as the Ice Hotel. A surreal building lit with blue and yellow nestled far from the cities. You can sit at the ice bar and drink vodka from ice glasses while listening to this man, Terje Isungset, work his magic with ice. All of his instruments (except for the actual strings) are made entirely of ice. The results are unbelieveable as you can probably tell by now.

Elissa P. and Brenmar Someday - Counting Down

2006-08-14T20:13:00.000-05:00

Elissa P. and Brenmar Someday - Disaster for Breakfast - 02 - Counting Down

Download Song

I saw these guys at the abbey pub a few weeks ago when they opened for Sage Francis and was really amazed by them. Elissa P. is a beautiful keyboardist with an even more beautiful voice and Brenmar Someday calls himself that ever since his 2 year old brother called him that once. What more could you ask for :)

Beirut - Brandenburg

2006-08-10T01:20:00.000-05:00

Beirut - Gulag Orkestar - 3 - Brandenburg

Download Song

Heres another one I'm probably wayy late to the party with but here ya go. Beirut supposedly consists of one 20 year old dude playing all the instruments himself (not at the same time of course). But still though that is amazing, he is self taught though. Anyways check this song and hope you all like the new players. Leave me a comment or something, i have analytics that tell me i get like 100 readers a days so far but no one knows to just click the 0 next to the topic to post a comment. come on people.

Sunset Rubdown - Us Ones In Between

2006-08-03T16:49:00.000-05:00

Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming - 03 - Us Ones In Between

Download Song

This may be WAY late but hey I just heard these guys for the first time last friday when they played at the metro with Voxtrot and The Joggers. Theyre really awesome though. Think a more atmospheric Wolf Parade (hint: this IS Wolf Parade).

Headlights - TV

2006-08-02T17:40:00.000-05:00

YAY songs come at the tops of the posts now, with an upgraded flash player!!
Headlights - Killing Them With Kindness - 02 - TV

Download Song

Longtime Champaign, IL local favorites Headlights are all set to release their first full length "Killing Them With Kindness" on Polyvinyl Records August 22nd. This song "TV" is one of my favorites on their and I highly encourage everyone to go buy this immediately. It fucking rules, I seriously don't know anyone at U of I who dosent like this band.

CSS (Cansei de Ser Sexy)

2006-07-01T16:20:00.000-05:00

Sorry for not updating for a long long time but I've been without an interweb connection. Fortunately panera bread has free wifi so thats where I am right now.
Anyways heres a new song from this band called Cansei de Ser Sexy. Their album dosen't even come out for a while now and these crazy brazilian hipsters have already made a big splash in the music-blogosphere. So listen to this song called "Lets Make Love and Listen to Death from Above" and once again I apologize for the lack of updates. :-)

Download Song

Pere Ubu

2006-05-22T18:17:00.000-05:00

If you havent heard of Pere Ubu (the name means king shit) yet then i suggest you check out this song. Sorry this isnt new music but ive been home for summer break for a while and wont be updating as often since I'm on dialup. Anyway if you wanna learn more about this extremely important band check out Pere Ubu's Avant Garage
heres what some other people had to say about them:

Robert Palmer, in the New York Times, wrote:
Pere Ubu was either ahead of its time or out of step altogether; the band's earliest music sounds as if it could have been recorded yesterday, and is likely to keep sounding that way for some time.

Joe Cushley, Mojo, wrote:
Ubu are generally regarded as the missing link between the Velvets and punk. From the beginning they obviously understood the nuts and bolts of popular music, and then loosened them.

Anyway heres a song from the album Modern Dance titled "Nonalignment Pact"

Download Song

NEW Boards of Canada!

2006-05-10T19:38:00.000-05:00

Hey its a new Boards of Canada EP titled "Trans Canada Highway". I think its out sure but im really not sure on that. Heres a song off it called "Heard From Telegraph Lines"

Download Song

Camera Obscura

2006-05-07T12:47:00.000-05:00

Hey anyone who loves Camera Obscura, or just scottish pop in general is gonna love this. I managed to pick up their new album which is supposed to come out next month. Heres a track called "Let's Get Out of This Country" from the album of the same title:

Download Song

Frightened Rabbit

2006-05-07T12:41:00.000-05:00

Heres a track by this new band Frightened Rabbit called "Go Go Girls." These guys have been pretty big in Glasgow for quite a while now and theyre just starting to get some press here. Check it:

Download Song

Bird Show

2006-05-02T16:05:00.000-05:00

From Kranky's website:

Lightning Ghost is the second Bird Show album, following the debut release Green Inferno. It centers around Ben Vida's home-fi sound experiments. Tracks are carved out of opiate'd chanting, disjunctive drum circles, synth meditation and prepared piano trance song. Vida's sonic explorations are embedded into tighter song structures, with a greater role given to vocals in the mix. The ceremonial air has been retained and expanded with a strong percussive presence and repeated, mesmerizing musical figures. Vida recorded the album at home, but much of the material resulted from the hours spent on stage this past year.

I'm really starting to like these guys. Some think theyre ripping off Animal Collective but I sure dont. Heres a song off their album called "Pilz":

Download Song

NEW Tilly and the Wall album "Bottom of Barrels" LEAKED!!

2006-05-01T19:31:00.000-05:00

Wow man leak of the week. here ya go kids its a song "Rainbows in the Dark" off the new tilly and the wall album which i was so lucked to have procured in its entirety:

Download Song

A Few Changes

2006-05-01T18:56:00.000-05:00

I'd just like to let everyone know that I've changed the RSS feed for this blog to http://feeds.feedburner.com/NewWeird
So if you use firefox's built in feed reader just click the feed button in the address bar. If you want to subscribe with a web based feedreader just go to the link above and click "show all subscription options." thanks for reading everyone and thanks for resubscribing!

Vetiver - Idle Ties

2006-04-30T21:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a song by Vetiver, a good friend to Devendra Banhart and all the new neo-folkies. Its off his new album "To Find Me Gone" wich is set to be released May 22nd I believe. Anyways here ya go:

Download Song

Tunng - Woodcat

2006-04-29T19:14:00.000-05:00

'
Heres a song called "woodcat" off Tunng's new album "Comments on the Inner Chorus" which will be released May 22nd. Think The Books combined with Animal Collective with more developed lyrics. U kids heard it here first.

Download Song

Japanese Tele-bondage

2006-04-27T00:49:00.000-05:00

sorry for not posting music this time but I really had to put this up. A Japanese show teaches you how to tie up your significant other with.... what is that?.... yarn?!

By the way i dont know if everyone is seeing the entire website properly because when i checked in today it had lost like every entry practically. i recovered everthing though. leave a comment by clicking the zero by the post title if the page looks strange.

Rose Melberg - Take Some Time

2006-04-25T21:26:00.000-05:00

Heres a song from Rose Melberg's new album "Cast Away The Clouds" which just came out today. Rose is a former member of Tiger Trap and the Softies and I just thought her music really goes perfectly with the spring. Shes a bit like a female version of Nick Drake combined with the pop style of belle and sebastian.

Download Song

Aloha - Weekend

2006-04-23T16:39:00.000-05:00

Heres a song by Aloha. Its pretty good, i dunno CNN called them "a laser show soundtrack for the art school set" so...

Download Song

Psapp - New Rubbers

2006-04-20T19:33:00.000-05:00

I just had this one in for you guys today. Its a new song by Psapp called "New Rubbers" if you like this you must buy the album because it is the shit. Also I dunno if any of you care about this but my friends tell me Psapp is getting played on. OMG the OC!

Download Song

First Nation - Creation (Exquisite)

2006-04-20T18:40:00.000-05:00

Well this group of ladies First Nation are labelmates to everyones favorite weirdos Animal Collective, so of course when they release their first album it gets plenty of press (they are also supposedly friends with Gang Gang Dance). I know a few people who were lucky enough to see them open for Animal Collective and they complained that either you couldnt hear the music because the scenesters were talking to loudly or it was pure crap (with potential) because of their total inability to play their instruments. Without further ado I present them to you today:

First Nation - Creation (Exquisite)

Download Link

Haino Keiji & Yoshida Tatsuya - Lower East Side

2006-04-20T18:21:00.000-05:00

Wow heres a perfect example of some new Japanese experimental stuff. Sounds a lot like Melt Banana to me but heres what Forced Exposure has to say about his new album "New Rap":

Keiji Haino is a mysterious psychedelic minstrel who has been performing his peculiar blend of rock, medieval music and improvisation since the early 1970s. Incredibly prolific, he has headed dozens of bands and released hundreds of CDs on a variety of labels around the globe. His latest project is a wild duo with Ruins mastermind Yoshida Tatsuya, the undisputed master drummer of the Japanese Underground. Featuring Haino's unique singing and screaming style as well as his best guitar playing to date, this is a remarkably varied and creative program of radical music by two of Japan's greatest originals.

Heres a song off it called "Lower East Side"

Heres a download link for you too:
Link

sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ!

2006-04-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

This is one of the coolest copyright/intellectual property related art pieces ever and its really creating quite a buzz. For those who dont know sCrAmBlEd?HaCkZ! is basically a piece of software which takes voice or music input from a microphone and outputs it as a recreated piece of video. A little hard to explain but very cool:

Heres a link to the Wired article which talks about the software and its implications for copyright infringement/creativity a little more.

The Slits - Typical Girls

2006-04-06T23:54:00.000-05:00

Islands - Rough Gem

2006-04-06T23:33:00.000-05:00

Fun happy indie pop from ex-unicorns guys ISLANDS! check it out. No more happy stuff tommorow though, theres a band called ex-cocaine I want to play for you...

Life Without Buildings - The Leanover

2006-04-06T23:22:00.000-05:00

I know this came out back in like 2002 on their album "Any Other City" but i just had to put this up for anyone who hasnt heard. Very unique vocal style there... leave a comment about it if you want.

Trailer for Matthew Barney's "Drawing Restraint 9"

2006-04-05T15:59:00.000-05:00

If you havent heard of this guy should should check his shit out. He is one of the greatest visual artists/filmakers/sculptors of all time.

Pretty Girls Make Graves - The Number

2006-04-05T15:51:00.000-05:00

Heres a new track from indie faves Pretty Girls Make Graves off their new album "Elan Vital" which comes out April 11th. check it.

Wizardzz - Sailship

2006-03-30T18:03:00.000-06:00

Here lightning bolt's new band called Wizzardz. Very video game like. sort of reminds me of sitting in my parent's basement playing legend of zelda.

Wizardzz - Sailship

Stereolab - Kyberkinetica Babicka Pt.1

2006-03-28T14:59:00.000-06:00

Check out this new track from stereolab. man have these guys been around for a long time, how many albums do they have now anyway? The last time I really listened to any of their stuff was back in the days of "sound dust". Their new album "Fab Four Suture" is a huge improvement. Sit back and enjoy:
Stereolab - Kyberkinetica Babicka Pt.1

Man Man - Black Mission Goggles

2006-03-26T17:47:00.000-06:00

I dunno about these guys.. they combine the charm of The Residents with the crappiness of Gogol Bordello..

give it a listen and comment on what you think:

Man Man - Black Mission Goggles

rilo kiley stuff

2006-03-17T01:43:00.000-06:00

check out this hot chick. now listen to one of her old songs:

Rilo Kiley - Wire and Waves

good eh

Bibio - Maram

2006-03-17T01:32:00.000-06:00

heres a song from bibio's new album which comes out tommorow.

from pitchforkmedia.com's review of bibio last album "fi":

Stephen Wilkinson, the English composer/producer known as Bibio, was recommended to the experimental electronic music stalwarts at Mush Records by one of the genre's pacesetters, Boards of Canada's Marcus Eoin. Boards' take on electronic music is so eminent and frequently imitated that it's become almost a sub-genre in itself. Their seal of approval is a valuable currency, and their scintillating ambience is a clear influence on Bibio's music. So is the fractured mien of esoteric electronic acts like Aphex Twin and Autechre, who Bibio discovered while studying music at the University of London. Of these three influences, Autechre is the most cold and sterile; Boards the most emotive, although in this sort of music, emotion generally manifests as a tension between human desire and artificial systems-- the raw stuff of feeling abstracted and viewed through a microscope. It seems to say: this is what it would feel like to feel, were genuine emotion possible in an age of ramifying obsolescence.

To that end, Bibio inflates his music with more verdure and humanity than any of the aforementioned acts, as a large part of his style involves yoking heavily processed electronics to pastoral guitar lines and natural found sound, liked a glitched-out Windsor for the Derby. "Bibio", apparently, is the name of a fishing lure Wilkinson's father used on trips to Wales where a young Stephen developed his love of natural sounds. Surprisingly, his naturalist aesthetic rubs placidly against the ambient disarray of his debut, fi, a shoegazing drone that pays homage to the natural world simply by documenting it-- by listening, a simple thing that many of us often forget to do. Bibio sometimes veers toward the vanishing minimalism of Keith Fullerton Whitman, as on opening track "Cherry Blossom Road", where a quiet, beatific synth tone wraps around itself again and again. But just as often, he indulges a sort of breathy melodicism, as on the gleaming arpeggios of "Bewley in White" and "Looking Through the Facets of a Plastic Jewel".

The album is not abrasive; in fact, it's soothing, but it is also saturated with distortion and synthetic effects that seem to represent technology's degradation of the equilibrium of ecological cycles. Or perhaps the modulating crackle winding through the idyllic guitar lines, birdsongs, and ambient wind effects represents nothing less than the human virus that creates the technology, which will eventually annihilate those tenuous, fragile sounds-- a paranoid but viable vision with which Boards of Canada, too, seem familiar. But Bibio forgoes Boards' precise rhythmic thrust in favor of more meandering, ramshackle compositions that paint ephemeral imagery in broad strokes of primary colors, wafting through your peripheral vision. His analog bent and penchant for lo-fi, malfunctioning equipment bestow upon fi an aura of intimacy and transparency, where each sound that comprises the spacious armatures is discernible. It's a familiar formula-- begin in serenity, introduce conflict, watch the theoretical dimensions unfurl-- which Bibio, with his naturalist's disposition, eases through with a delicate and appreciative eye. One imagines strolling through a dewy glade and finding HTML tags, instead of lovers' initials, carved into the trees.

-Brian Howe, November 16th, 2004

Bibio - Maram (from upcoming album "handcranked"

Penn and Teller explain the "War on Drugs"

2006-03-13T13:25:00.000-06:00

This video is amazing. Its like something you could show to your mom to show her how pointless the "war" on drugs really is. The fact of the matter is that the American people have really been brainwashed on the whole matter. That has to change, so watch this:

Wesley Willis

2006-03-12T14:30:00.000-06:00

from alternativetentacles.com

Wesley was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) at the end of 2002, and had to undergo emergency surgery on June 2nd to identify the source of, and to suppress internal bleeding. It is not clear if this bleeding was related to his leukemia or not, and the exact cause of death is still unknown. Wesley had been recovering at a Hospice in Illinois, and since the surgery his health had deteriorated rapidly.

His songs were simultaneously disturbing, hilarious, blunt, and intoxicating. Wesley's sheer excitement and unaffected honesty about every cultural phenomenon, defined his music as truly individual, and truly punk rock.

Heres my favorite song of his. It is called "Rock and Roll McDonald's":

video for Hot Chip's "Over and Over"

2006-03-11T03:40:00.000-06:00

these guys are AMAZING:

Favorite hot chip line (not from this song): "...blasting yo la tengo"

here it is folks:

Akron/Family - Running, Returning

2006-03-11T03:19:00.000-06:00

I know its old but its new to me ok.
coolest album cover ever too:

Akron/Family - Running, Returning

video for Loose Fur's new song "Hey Chicken"

2006-03-09T19:04:00.000-06:00

goofy, poppy, alt-country-y

JIM O'ROURKE, JEFF TWEEDY, and GLENN KOTCHE:

The First Music Post, with neat embedded player

2006-03-08T16:04:00.000-06:00

So this blog seems to be moving more in the direction of video I thought maybe a little audio would balanace it out. Im a big music nerd (read pretentious indie snob) so I figured i might as post a good song every now and then.

REASONS WHY I THINK I SHOULD POST MP3s HERE EVERY NOW AND THEN:

-I work for a college radio station
-My last.fm is totally leet
-My music library is too big for itunes to even handle (125GB)
-I'm way cooler than you, so there.

Band of Horses - Weed Party

ah japan....

2006-03-07T19:56:00.000-06:00

choco party! good good!

simpsons intro re-done with real life characters

2006-03-04T22:55:00.000-06:00

Someone went through all the trouble to recreate the simpsons intro in real life:

flamethrower made from a squirtgun

2006-03-01T22:10:00.000-06:00

check it out:

Nude Auto Mall

2006-02-28T19:27:00.000-06:00

fat redneck chicks sitting on rusty car hoods (which are for sale!). just wonderful :-0

Link

uber rave party!

2006-02-14T02:48:00.000-06:00

wicked!

crazy touch screen interactive computer prototype

2006-02-13T16:55:00.000-06:00

check it out:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iVI6xw9Zph8"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iVI6xw9Zph8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Songbird released today

2006-02-08T18:06:00.000-06:00

This cool new piece of software built off of firefox's platform called songbird is pretty amazing. It's launch was featured on digg, boingboing, and slashdot all at the same time today and it totally swamped their site. I got a copy of the program and I was really impressed. At first it looks and feels similar to itunes but once you realize that it is also a web browser that can integrate with ANY music service such as a music blog, online store, podcast site, internet radio, last.fm WHATEVER YOU WANT. Plus it supports extensions (do i smell bittorrent/filesharing on the way?). Once again let me reiterate this thing rocks and its only version 0.1. get that shit!

songbird

Newsvine invites

2006-01-30T17:44:00.000-06:00

ive got tons of invites to the newsvine.com beta so if anyone wants them give me an email and i'd be happy to help.

Islam in texas

2006-01-30T01:12:00.000-06:00

according to this video obtained from google video:

Islam is the fastest growing religion with all sorts of converts out in texas who believe the church is too liberal (ha!). anyway check it out.

Random TV

2006-01-27T02:32:00.000-06:00

Champaign-Urbana video-artist, musician Matt Harsh has just launched at wonderful new series of sketch-comedy. animation, music video, short film, whatever people submit.

check it out now at http://www.randomtvonline.com

Autistic Savant Daniel Temmet provides insight into autism

2005-11-17T22:50:00.000-06:00

Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. His extraordinary abilities stem from a combination of autism and a condition known as synesthesia. His form of autism, however, leaves him with less limited verbal skills than many other autistics.

Tammet experiences things through a mixing of the senses that the rest of us can't imagine. For instance, when he does math, he said, "I see landscapes in my mind. The numbers turn to shapes.

"They knit together in a way that forms almost like hills and mountains in my mind," he added, "full of color and full of shape and full of movement."

After years of effort, Tammet has overcome many of his autistic disabilities. Now living outside of London, not only can he relate to people, he can describe what the experience of autism is like from the inside.

He loves silence, for instance.

"I experience it as like a silvery texture around my head, like condensation running down a window," he said. "If there's a sudden noise, it's like a shattering of that feeling."

technorati tags: autistic, savant, synesthesia

The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles

2005-11-17T15:42:00.000-06:00

Tim Kehoe has stained the whites of his eyes deep blue. He's also stained his face, his car, several bathtubs and a few dozen children. He's had to evacuate his family because he filled the house with noxious fumes. He's ruined every kitchen he's ever had. Kehoe, a 35-year-old toy inventor from St. Paul, Minnesota, has done all this in an effort to make real an idea he had more than 10 years ago, one he's been told repeatedly cannot be realized: a colored bubble.

The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles - Popular Science

hating/loving pitchfork

2005-11-14T20:04:00.000-06:00

You Know the thing about that lovable little pitchfork is that its a double standard
saying you hate pitchfork puts you clearly among the super snobs while if you do like pitchfork you are just some pretentious little indie kid with no opinions of his own.

oh yeah one more thing: the new fiery furnaces rocks!

Soldiers to get teeth-cleaning chewing gum

2005-11-14T00:17:00.000-06:00

US soldiers are set to add a new killing machine to their arsenal: one that wipes out bacteria. Chewing gum could help troops to avoid the frequent dental problems that arise when in the field for days on end without cleaning their teeth.Oral hygiene may not sound like a serious problem for soldiers on manoeuvres. But US military experts point out that tooth and gum problems can be debilitating. Around 15% of deployed soldiers have experienced 'dental emergencies' such as gum infections, says Kai Leung of the US Army Dental Research Detachment in Great Lakes, Illinois.The gum, developed by US Army researchers, contains a protein that attacks the bugs that cause plaque, which in turn can lead to gum infections and tooth decay. Soldiers can keep their mouths clean without toothpaste, brush and bathroom sink, its creators say.Trials of the gum's active ingredient, a protein fragment called KSL, show that it kills harmful mouth bacteria, such as Streptococcus mutans, growing on discs of tooth-like material in the lab. The next step will be to test the gum in the field.

news @ nature.com to get teeth-cleaning chewing gum gum may replace toothbrush for those on the move.

technorati tags: gum, teeth

exploding head syndrome

2005-11-07T00:08:00.000-06:00

Exploding head syndrome is a rare condition first reported by a British physician in 1988 that causes the sufferer to occasionally experience a tremendously loud noise as if from within their own head, usually described as an explosion or a roar. This usually occurs within an hour or two of falling asleep, but is not the result of a dream. Although perceived as tremendously loud, the noise is not accompanied by pain. Attacks appear to increase and decrease in frequency over time, with several attacks occurring in a space of days or weeks followed by months of remission. Sufferers often feel a sense of terror and anxiety after an attack, accompanied by elevated heart rate. Attacks are also often accompanied by perceived flashes of light or difficulty in breathing.The cause of exploding head syndrome is not known, though some physicians have reported a correlation with stress or extreme fatigue. The condition may develop at any time during life and women are slightly more likely to suffer from it than men. Attacks can be one-time events, or can recur.

Exploding head syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

IBM Invents new type of light

2005-11-06T02:12:00.000-06:00

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY, United States (UPI) -- The IBM Corp. announced Thursday the creation of a type of light that might eventually replace the use of electricity in electronic components.IBM said the tiny device its researchers created might potentially lead to 'vast improvements in the performance of computers and other electronic systems.'The device reportedly slows light to less than 1/300th of its usual speed by directing it down a carefully designed channel of perforated silicon called a 'photonic crystal waveguide.'The device also allows the light`s speed to be varied over a wide range by applying an electrical voltage to the waveguide.Although it has been long known how to slow the speed of light under laboratory conditions, IBM said actively controlling light speed on a silicon chip using standard microelectronic and nanoelectronic fabrication technology, is a first.The device, created at the corporation`s T.J.Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., is described in the current issue of the journal Nature. The work was partially supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Agency.

IBM invents new type of light

technorati tags: IBM

wired article on absinthe expert ted breux

2005-11-01T22:08:00.000-06:00

"Breaux has made understanding the drink his life's work. He has pored over hundred-year-old texts, few of them in English. He has corresponded with other amateur liquor historians. The more he's learned, the more he's felt compelled to use his knowledge of chemistry to crack the absinthe code, figure out exactly what's in it, puncture the myths surrounding it - and maybe even drink a glass or two."

Link

Fujitsu creates prototype flexible e-ink display

2005-11-01T13:26:00.000-06:00

This prototype/proof of concept from Fujitsu is the first flexible Cholesteric LCD allows an image to be "stored" onto the panel so the image is displayed without power. This would be the first digital newspaper design that wouldn't require you to drain batteries while you're reading it!

digg

Technorati Tags: fujitsu, e-ink, lcd

cool fact about the theory of relativity

2005-10-27T22:52:00.000-05:00

We've been going over relativity a lot lately in my class "stars and galaxies" and it just gets more mind boggling the more we talk about it. I've never been one to describe a math equation as beautiful before but when i look at the equation for time dilation i get this weird feeling

what this thing means is that the closer you get to the speed of light the closer time comes to stopping.

A experiment was done using an atomic clock and a jet and this theory was proven true. The time measured on the jet was just slightly less that the time measured by an atomic clock on the ground.

this also means that for a photon, time is completely stopped even though we can observe that it takes gillions of years for a photon to cross a galaxy.

add this idea to this equation right here:

this is length contraction. as an object moves faster it's length actually shortens a little. this is not an optical illusion either. time and length ACTUALLY change. and its not just the

object thats moving either, to a space ship moving near the speed of light earth is the size of an orange, to us the space ship is the size of a protein molecule! At exactly the speed of light space condenses into ONE POINT.

if you were a photon the whole universe would be one immeasurably small point and time for you would be infinite. the universe fucking implodes at that speed.

Technorati Tags: relativity, spacetime, time dilation

All your database are belong to Google

2005-10-25T16:13:00.000-05:00

Several people report Google Base (as predicted yesterday) went live, or at least, its login-screen. I can’t reach it at the moment as it seems Google took it down again, but Dirson posted a screenshot to Flickr. So what is it? Quoting from Dirson’s screenshot of the login screen:
Post your items on Google.

Google Base is Google’s database into which you can add all types of content. We’ll host your content and make it searchable online for free.

Examples of items you can find in Google Base:

• Description of your party planning service

• Articles on current events from your website

• Listing of your used car for sale

• Database of protein structures

You can describe any item you post with attributes, which will help people find it when they search Google Base. In fact, based on the relevance of your items, they may also be included in the main Google search index and other Google products like Froogle and Google Local.”

Google Base Was Sort of Live

More screenshots are available at Wouter Schut’s dutch blog.

iBelieve: tapping into the apple obsession

2005-10-24T23:16:00.000-05:00

Inspired by the world's obsession and devotion to the iPod, iBelieve... is a social commentary on the fastest growing religion in the world.The iBelieve is constructed using the same materials and precision ball bearing snap fit as your existing Shuffle cap so you can relax knowing your precious soundtrack is safe.Just toss your old cap habit, pop on the divine iBelieve and rejoice!

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

test post with flock

2005-10-20T21:16:00.000-05:00

k here goes

this is a test post using the new web 2.0 browser thingy flock. hope it works.

Publishers Sue Google Over Plans To Digitize Books

2005-10-20T01:46:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON D.C., October 19, 2005 –The Association of American Publishers (AAP) today announced the filing of a lawsuit against Google over its plans to digitally copy and distribute copyrighted works without permission of the copyright owners. The lawsuit was filed only after lengthy discussions broke down between AAP and Google’s top management regarding the copyright infringement implications of the Google Print Library Project.

Association of American Publishers

Well it looks like Google is finally going to have to put their money where their mouth is and defend their whole philosophy of making books fully searchable to bring obscure books out of obscurity. If you ask me I think the AAP is making the worst mistake of their lives

Google's blog search is a little too powerful

2005-10-08T13:45:00.000-05:00

So at my new job over at (W) (P) (G) (U) ignore the spaces and parentheses, I was told to just browse the web for awhile and look for any mention of our station whether its a review or just some random opinion. I didnt find anything new so i decided to give google's blog search a try. i entered the name of the station in the box and found the private blogs of all my fellow employees. They didn't mention their names or anything all they had to do was mention the name of the station.

Google announces partnership with Sun Microsystems

2005-10-04T01:16:00.000-05:00

Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems Chairman and CEO and Dr.
Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman of the Executive Committee and CEO are scheduled to give a press conference today.

is this google office/desktop/OS/browser??

heres a link to the live webcast beginning at 10:30am PT

w00t for google!

ThinkFree Office Online

2005-10-02T15:33:00.000-05:00

Came across this neat little site that allows you to run a full office suite with all your documents from any place that has access to the web. this is damn cool

heres the link

judge rules that parents are not liable for their child's filesharing.. the RIAA shits themselves

2005-09-21T22:41:00.000-05:00

From techdirt:

The RIAA sued the defendant Candy Chan, who had no experience or knowledge of computers. It was possible that her 13 year old daughter may have had a file sharing account.

The RIAA continued to argue that Ms. Chan was indirectly liable for providing a computer to her teenage daughter. After taking Ms. Chan's deposition, the RIAA moved to add the 13 year old child as a defendant.

Ms. Chan's attorney, John Hermann of Berkley, Michigan, objected, arguing that the daughter was a minor and that the Court would have to appoint a guardian ad litem to protect the interests of the child, before for the child before they could proceed....

The RIAA then immediately moved to withdraw its own case against the mother.

thats some sweet pwnage.

Man claims to have built a device which will cut CO2 emissions by up to 100%

2005-09-18T22:22:00.000-05:00

from canada.com news:

Joe Williams Sr. believes he has the machine that will help save the world. It will make the sky blue, allow everyone to breathe easier, and, in a time of skyrocketing fuel prices, save us all money....

"It" is his Hydrogen Generating Module, or H2N-Gen for short.

Smaller than a DVD player - small enough to sit comfortably under the hood of any truck or car - it could be big enough to solve the world's greenhouse gas emission problems, at least for the near future. In fact, it could make the Kyoto protocol obsolete. Basically, the H2N-Gen contains a small reservoir of distilled water and other chemicals such as potassium hydroxide. A current is run from the car battery through the liquid. This process of electrolysis creates hydrogen and oxygen gases which are then fed into the engine's intake manifold where they mix with the gasoline vapours.

I'm not sure if i believe this yet. We'll have to wait and see if BP and Exxon make him dissapear.

Link

flash based laptops the next big thing?

2005-09-17T19:19:00.000-05:00

from Apple Matters:

It really is remarkable when you think that a stick of flash memory replaced the harddrive that was in the iPod mini. And then you have Samsung’s recent announcement of 16GB flash drives that can be combined to form one larger 32GB drive and that should raise some eyebrows.

I predict that in another four years no one will care about destops and laptops anymore because we'll all be buying thin tablets with OLED screens and little flash drives that hold just as much, or more than, our current hard drives, plus data stored on flash memory lasts a lot longer than harddisks because theyre not as fragile.

Flash is considerably smaller than disk based storage so that means the 12” iBook now becomes an untra-portable laptop. It becomes both thinner and lighter, perfect for those on the go. And we can’t forget about battery life. Since there is no disk that has to constantly be spinning considerable power savings can be reached. And the access time for data increases meaning a faster computing experience all around. So, as far as the iBook line goes, it seems to make sense all around to go with flash.

meebo.com

2005-09-17T19:11:00.000-05:00

i stumbled across this little app the other day at work while i was looking for a way to use AIM/MSN/ICQ without having to download anything. just go to www.meebo.com and enter your login info and bam! instant chat network. thanks to some clever AJAX type programming stuff, you can treat all your chat windows like regular chat windows on the html destop meebo provides.

great for people trying to use chat applications at a public computer or just dont want a program like Trillian hogging all their memory.

new ipod nano

2005-09-07T16:00:00.000-05:00

check it out apple has just out done themselves with a smaller, thinner ipod nano.

[in comic book guy voice from simpsons] "could it BE any more thin"

this world is going to shit

2005-09-04T17:50:00.000-05:00

wtf is wrong with this fucking country. seriously. new orleans is in total anarchy and george w. bush is walking around shaking people's hands and saying help is on the way. hundreds of people are dying as cnn shows clips of gun toting national guardsmen tossing cases of bottled water from helicopters. we are one step closer to the apocalypse i swear to god.

and whats with are the environmental disasters going on lately?? are they happening because we have totally fucked up this planet with carbon dioxide?!

bush's new attorney general guy has named fighting pornography (not child porn. the regular kind w/ consenting adults).

microsoft is coming out with a new version of windows called "vista" which looks nice except its chock full of DRM! which is a huge fucking bummer for them because no one is going to buy it and linux and google are going to take shit over.

speaking of google there has been a lot of talk going around lately about google creating some sort of universal operating system that is totally internet based. anyway its totally seekr1t and microsoft is shitting themselves right now. just read this article "

Ballmer Throws A Chair At "F*ing Google"

oh my na. im just going to hang out and weigh my options. wait to see what google is up to or switch to linux cuz im sick of microsofts shit. ive experienced some open source software such as firefox and thunderbird and i love em. so why not just go the extra mile.

so far SuSe, Mandriva, and Knoppix look the best but idk.

oh and kanye west said "bush just dosent care about black people" which is sad.

peace

quiz

2005-05-15T01:09:00.000-05:00

*TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey*
Name:	Eric
Birthday:	12/17/86
Birthplace:	Wheaton, IL
Current Location:	Wauconda, IL
Eye Color:	brown
Hair Color:	brown
Height:	6'00"
Right Handed or Left Handed:	righty
Your Heritage:	danish, swedish
The Shoes You Wore Today:	addidas samba
Your Weakness:	cute smart indie rock chicks
Your Fears:	never figuring out what i wanna do as a career
Your Perfect Pizza:	5 cheese
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year:	graduate highschool and move on to Uof I urbana-champaign
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger:	i dont really ever use it
Thoughts First Waking Up:	lets see what did i dream about.... cant remember
Your Best Physical Feature:	uhhh i dont wanna say
Your Bedtime:	12 or so on week nights. 5 am or so on weekends
Your Most Missed Memory:	staying at the university of chicago, taking classes and being in love there
Pepsi or Coke:	neither
MacDonalds or Burger King:	neither
Single or Group Dates:	single
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea:	lipton.. actually mightyleaf is my fav tea
Chocolate or Vanilla:	chocolate
Cappuccino or Coffee:	capuccino. double expresso con panna to be exact
Do you Smoke:	weed sometimes but not cigs
Do you Swear:	yeah fuck you. got a problem with it
Do you Sing:	what??
Do you Shower Daily:	usually
Have you Been in Love:	yeah twice. actually i dont even know what love is so i cant answer truthfully
Do you want to go to College:	yeah really badly
Do you want to get Married:	uhh sure i guess.
Do you belive in yourself:	i try to. its hard sometimes
Do you get Motion Sickness:	nope
Do you think you are Attractive:	some days i do somedays not.
Are you a Health Freak:	actually im just starting to become one
Do you get along with your Parents:	yeah pretty well. my dads a really cool guy
Do you like Thunderstorms:	love them
Do you play an Instrument:	i wish i did
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol:	yeah. actually im drinking scotch right now
In the past month have you Smoked:	yeah like 2 weeks ago. my first time with a bong.
In the past month have you been on Drugs:	...
In the past month have you gone on a Date:	yeah it was kind of a date.
In the past month have you gone to a Mall:	yeah i try not to but i wanted to try out their wi-fi
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos:	i dont like em
In the past month have you eaten Sushi:	yes i fucking love sushi. spider rolls and salmon skin hand rolls are the best. and the usually spicy tuna/cali rolls too
In the past month have you been on Stage:	no
In the past month have you been Dumped:	no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping:	no but now that you mention it that does sound like a good idea.
In the past month have you Stolen Anything:	well i was an accomplice to my sis who was stealing a bottle of wine for me for prom. other than that all i stole was a birthday card for my friend laura cuz i had no money.
Ever been Drunk:	hell yeah. get crunked
Ever been called a Tease:	yeah only once though
Ever been Beaten up:	nope ive beat up people though
Ever Shoplifted:	yeah. once i stole a bottle of jack daniels from a supermarket and another time i tried to steal a bunch of dvds but it didnt work so i had to run. i learned my lesson tho.
How do you want to Die:	in a hail of gunfire bitches
What do you want to be when you Grow Up:	a smart guy who doesent care about money and possesions
What country would you most like to Visit:	italy. i was going to go but it didnt work out
*In a Boy/Girl..*
Favourite Eye Color:	green eyed gals are totally irresistable but i dont really have a preference
Favourite Hair Color:	black, blonde, brown, green, whatever
Short or Long Hair:	short haired girls are hot but i dont really care
Height:	tall
Weight:	skinny
Best Clothing Style:	vintage type stuff
Number of Drugs I have taken:	4
Number of CDs I own:	probably about 3000. im a huge music geek
Number of Piercings:	0
Number of Tattoos:	0
Number of things in my Past I Regret:	wow that question was out of nowhere. none i can think of.

speaking without opening your mouth

2005-05-14T23:34:00.000-05:00

this is what they want to do now. scary shit. nasa built a prototype device that intercepts the signals that your brain sends to your vocal cords anytime you think a verbal thought. regardless of whether you speak. Link.

on another note i just got a new dell laptop. an inspiron 700m with intel centrino.

ive been using a 56k for my entire life and today i had the experience of connecting my laptops wireless card to my local library's free wifi line. totally orgazmatronic.

MUSIC Im listening to:

UNKLE - psyence fiction
score: 9.4
this one came out a while ago. cool cover art by graff artist futura. noticed ive started scoring these things and this gets a ten because it is amazing. some songs are grimy urban hiphop, sample driven. thom yorke or radiohead sings on a few song which is awesome. you know those albums that renew your love of music and keep you going by propelling you into a genre or style you never thought about before... well for me this is one of those.

ahh its hard to just pick up a record and start naming off specific things that are bad about it.

US government makes an ass of itself in front of Italy

2005-05-04T19:00:00.000-05:00

remember that Italian soldier who was recently killed in Iraq by an American soldier at a road checkpoint? Well the US just released a report detailing EVERYTHING about the accident and how checkpoints operate and why they exist (and how they are bombed and attacked). Unfortunately, most of the text is censored

THIS ITALIAN GUY REMOVED THE CENSOR BARS

read all the top secret shit in this word file
http://photos.vowe.org/reviews/unclassified.doc

fuck the po-lice

cub, syd and the streets

2005-05-04T18:44:00.000-05:00

I only gots 10 days of school left! right now im just focusing on latin and waiting for the day.

A few good records ive heard lately:

CUB - BETTI COLA. childish and summery little pop record from 1993.

SYD BARRET. I didnt know until after I heard this but this guy is the guy from pink floyd! really psychedelic type hooks that'll make your head spin. a friend of mine said it sounded like 50s ballroom music.

THE STREETS - ORIGINAL PIRATE MATERIAL. Heres another i just discovered. these guys are british rappers. well i guess not in the same way. The beats are simplistic and the lyrics are honest and addictive. the guy, mike skinner, definetly brought some of his uk 2 step/garage influence with him on this one.

fac latinam

2005-03-15T16:09:00.000-06:00

today is officially the first day of my last quarter of highschool and I feel so LAZY. Its as though I were paralyzed from the neck down or stuck in a block of concrete.

Havent posted here in a while, maybe muse in the form of that triple expresso i just had.

In other news the reason my post is titled fac latinam (do latin) is because i literally need to FINISH it. Its a correspondence course that ive pretty much blown off all last term and its now biting me in the ass.

NOW PLAYING: BIBIO - FI
amazing album. similar to fennesz or greg davis with that degraded tape loop style used by boards of canada. damn son.

M.A.R.S. .....redrocks YEAYEA

Anti RIAA/MPAA stuff

2005-02-14T18:15:00.000-06:00

The RIAA/MPAA seems to have entered another offensive against their own customers. A few days earlier they hijacked Lokitorrent.com a major bittorrent site posting their own immature attempt at intimidating the public: "You can click but you cant hide."

Now it seems a number of media pirates have risen up to provide counter-propaganda against the MPAA's claim that no one who downloads media is anonymous. "You can sue, but you cant catch everyone" @ http://www.shutdownthis.com/

It also seems some clever guy published an article "Three computers, one fast networked drive, and a few dedicated people: Turning Napster's 14 day free trial into 252 full 80 minute CDs of free music." @ http://blog.kordix.com/marv/archives/000400.html

2005-02-13T18:03:00.000-06:00

GM will be providing 13 fuel cell-powered vehicles and Shell Hydrogen LLC will establish New York States first hydrogen service station in the New York City metropolitan area in 2006, which is anticipated to involve installing a portable hydrogen-refueling module at an existing Shell station. GM and Shell will be the only team bringing fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen refueling to the New York City metropolitan area under the U.S. State Department of Energys Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project.

schedule

2005-02-13T16:21:00.000-06:00

uhh i think i have one of the wost class schedules ever this term. im taking photo 3, geom. trig. alg., and AP environmental sci. plus a correspondence course at UW-Madison "Intro. to Latin Literature."

Yeah Madison is where i hope to go next year. If not that then maybe U of I or Iowa or Indiana. either way im majoring in classics (greek and latin). I also plan to study abroad in Rome or Athens my junior year.

If anyone is reading this can you suggest somewhere interesting to go this summer? My dad said he'd buy me a ticket anywhere as long as I stay in a youth hostle (a free hotel where you have to work in order to stay).

first post

2005-02-13T03:23:00.000-06:00

Well here it is, my own blog. lets see if the revolutionary idea of "bloging" carries any value.

I've been a passive observer of blogs for a few years now and I realize that the medium is versatile. I'll give it that much. hailed to be the future of mass media; fucked up slutty teenage girls, theologians and authors come together under one domain to communicate with each other, themselves, and the public.

Now im not quite sure what direction ill be taking this thing in. There are so many options. This will probably float among all the things a blog can be. I've seen my friends blogs and I haven't been too impressed. Mostly angsty rambling and whiny poetry.

Hopefully I take advantage of this and not let it become another piece of wasted space.

Check my profile for other info