Computer chip implanted in humans?
A Florida technology company is preparing to seek government approval for a computer ID chip that would be implanted inside the body and could be used to store everything from secret codes to sensitive medical information. (...)Scary. The technology is here.The company also is developing another implant device that would work in conjunction with the VeriChip to allow satellite tracking of an individual's every movement. The tracker is already attracting interest across the globe for tasks like foiling kidnappings, the company says.
"If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each person's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility."
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(found at wood s lot)
"I'm interested in making something I don't understand."
-- John Cage
This quote really sums up a lot of the work I have been doing lately. I am interested in making music that I am not in complete control of, and that I don't completely understand. I kind of just set up the environment and let it run, skirting the line between form and randomness. (Most of this stuff has not been released as of yet. Check out Velum or Colors for a sample.)
I found this quote at subterranean notes, whose author also seems to be somehow involved in electronic music. One to keep an eye on.
Why do telephones have to be so loud and annoying? I want home telephones that emit a pleasant, soft, bell-like tone to let me know that someone is trying to call me. Why do they have to sound so urgent?
And, why don't they invent cell phones that you can program with your own sound to use as the ring? Then, you can have it say something like, "Psst. Hey, Bill. There's a call for you." You would hear it, of course, because you are attuned to respond to your own name. It would be far less annoying for everyone in your vicinity, and there would be much less confusion as to whose phone was actually ringing.
Pentagon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentiment Abroad
The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries, military officials said.
Sustainability Doesn’t Come Naturally: A Darwinian Perspective On Values by Richard Dawkins
Humans are no worse than the rest of the animal kingdom. We are no more selfish than any other animals, just rather more effective in our selfishness and therefore more devastating. All animals do what natural selection programmed their ancestors to do, which is to look after the short-term interest of themselves and their close family, cronies and allies. If any species in the history of life has the possibility of breaking away from short-term Darwinian selfishness and of planning for the distant future, it is our species. We are earth’s last best hope, even if we are simultaneously the species most capable in practice of destroying life on the planet. When it comes to taking the long view we are literally unique. No other species is remotely capable of it. If we do not plan for the future, no other species will.
They Have a Word for It - A list of words from other languages that do not directly translate to English. (via Rebecca)
Pointers:
Molecular Expressions Image Gallery
Schizophrenia linked to mother's lack of sunlight
Final Meal Requests from Texas Department of Criminal Justice
The World's Longest Slinky (Check the audio samples)
Washington Plans Unprecedented Camera Network
Check Matt and Mike's pages for their words, photos, and videos from the Khyber show. This thing was well documented.
UPDATE: Video from my part of the performance is now available here: low bandwidth or high quality.
I wasn't planning on travelling down to Philadelphia for the show on Sunday night, but at the last minute I decided to come down and surprise the rest of the band. I just showed up out of the blue a couple of hours before the show and they nearly fainted from joy. It was great!
Overall, the evening was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the performances. Mall's melodic ambience, Arkitekchur's droney guitar wanderings, Collette Carter's unique drum machine pop, and Transient's Plaid-esque upbeat electronics -- all quality.
We went on at around 11:00pm. I started out the set with a brand new, unfinished, fractured melodic piece which was received fairly well. Then Mike (Nintari man) went on and tore it up. His stuff was really really impressive. Complex aggressive beats and emotive melodics mangled and tweaked to perfection. People were loving it. Next up was Matt (Cerebral) who also kicked some major butt. The first track he played was so beautiful and powerful... And of course there was the California Games remix. Wonderful stuff.
There should be pics and video clips up on teamtechno.com fairly soon.
My buddy Matt has put up a few of his bootlegs for download. He's actually been doing these for quite awhile now, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the phenomenon has recently become popular. I especially recommend "Michael Jackson vs. Global Communication". The timing is just scary.
If you happen to be in the Philadelphia area this weekend, I highly recommend checking out this show.
The Kyber is located here.
There's also a write up in the Philadelphia Weekly about the label and the show.
If you go, be sure to keep an eye out for those Team Techno fellers. They'll knock yer socks off.
Please excuse the re-arrangement. I was afraid that people coming to my site (who are not familiar with weblogs) might be confused when the first thing they see is some link to some article.
http://www.teamtechno.com/bill/ and http://www.williamfields.com/ will now take you to the splash page.
This weblog is now located at:
http://www.teamtechno.com/bill/weblog.php
I removed all color, font, and link specifications, and made all of my gifs transparent, so this site is now fully customizable. It will follow your browser color, font, and link display settings. Even white on black sort of color schemes should work, although you won't be able to see the gifs in that case.
This guy Tom is great. Check out his free fonts, his videogame music (one song is in 23/16 time!), his Illustrated Guide to Breaking Your Computer, Snoot.org, and I especially like his page on the Crap Art movement.
Excuse my rant, but listening to the news recently has really made me angry. I feel like the United States government (and military) is putting its people in danger. The "War on Terrorism" is doing nothing but creating more hatred for the United States, generating more "terrorists".
It is impossible to threaten another country, go in with your military, and target certain portions of their population without pissing off large numbers of people. This is not the way to attain peace. (It is, however, a good way to build up justification for massive military spending.)
Let's put the shoe on the other foot. (My apologies to the Chinese for the following example.) Imagine if China developed into a massive military superpower, and they started threatening the United States, calling us "evil", and claiming that we are harboring "terrorists" (people who are against the Chinese government, the things that they do, etc). Then, imagine if they came into the United States with mass numbers of troops and military equipment and started marching through your town. Then they start their operations of seeking out particular United States citizens that they feel are threatening to the "Chinese way". Or, even worse, if they started bombing from the air, occassionally accidentally wiping out a neighborhood. How would this make you feel?
Let us put ourselves in the shoes of the people of North Korean, the people of the Phillipines, the people of Iraq, and the people of Iran.