Here’s some relaxing mayhem.
Micro Mayhem! from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios on Vimeo.
Category: Found Online
Caveat: Pictures of the Electron Cloud
Scientists have been taking pictures of hydrogen atoms. Or looking at them, anyway, using imaging technology – it’s not really photography at this level, but I assume these false color images are based on data being collected, which makes them pictures at some level of abstraction – they’re graphs of what the atoms and their electron clouds look like. Let’s not forget that a photograph is a photograph – a graph of light.
Caveat: Юлий Ким
Yuliy Kim (Юлий Ким) is a rather famous Russian folk musician, who became popular in the 70’s and 80’s as a “subversive,” performing concerts and making music in opposition to the Soviet authorities. He is also, interestingly, ethnically Korean and was born in the Russian Far East. He worked for some years in the 50’s or 60’s as a school teacher in Kamchatka (the part of Russia across from Alaska, more or less).
There are several hundred thousand ethnic Koreans still living all over Russia, and an equal number in the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia (notably Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, to where they were deported by Stalin in 1937).
What I’m listening to right now.
Юлий Ким, песни об Израиле (Songs about Israel).
Like a lot of Russian folk music that was tied to the opposition in the communist era, it’s tightly intertwined with various Russo-Jewish traditions. So that’s how you get a Korean singing about Israel in Russian. The Koreans and Jews in Soviet Russia have had similar histories in some respects, not least in their having been persecuted on an ethnic basis for perceived congenital disloyalty. Kim’s father was executed by the Stalinists not long after his birth, for example.
Here is a picture of Kim with Yuri Koval in 1964, that I found on a Russian-language blog.
Caveat: El Kabong Borrows from the Middle Class
I love El Kabong so much. He is my favorite cartoon character from my childhood. Here is a more contemporary re-imagining of the El Kabong mythos.
Heheh, mythos. I used "el kabong" and "mythos" in the same sentence.
That's weird, isn't it?
More originally, here is an old one, in which El Kabong battles Walker de Plank.
A memorable quote:
El Kabong never quits.
He rights wrongs,
punishes oppressors,
gives to the poor,
robs from the rich,
borrows from the middle class!
Caveat: Why I Didn’t Major In Art
This video shows why I didn't major in art or creative writing in college. I don't think my fragile ego could have handled the whole criticism thing. I have huge sympathy for this woman.
Caveat: homoeomerous from one end to the other
As is often the case lately, I really enjoyed a recent blog post by the philosopher Justin E.H. Smith. He’s a talented writer and addresses novel topics in a creative way. His posted is entitled: “The Moral Status of Rocks.” He recounts an annecdote of a visit to Iceland and a woman saying that in Iceland, one doesn’t simply smash rocks for smashing’s sake. This is an interesting thought.
He finds his way to discussing things as disparate as vegetarianism and abortion. One lengthy, insightful quote:
Even smashing a mere chunk of solidified lava –evidently purely passive, and homoeomerous from one end to the other– can be experienced as a transgression by the person who is properly sensitized, for whom the chunk shows up as salient within her ethically charged environment. Are fetuses morally relevant? Yes, they are. So are chunks of lava. Does that mean you mustn’t destroy them? Not necessarily, but you shouldn’t suppose that the way to gain license to destroy them, whether this license is conceived cosmically, socially, or individually, is to produce arguments that cut them off from the sphere of moral relevance.
He uses the word “homoeomerous” – I’d never seen it before. Finally, he seeks out a new (really, very old) way of characterizing our space, which resonates with me despite my atheism.
There are souls, gods, ancestors (whatever!) all around us; they are in evidence in the structure and cohesion of nature; and it is a transgression against them to needlessly violate this structure and cohesion.
Caveat: Star Trek Musical
I saw this video. It was funny.
Note that I have attempted to reconfigure my blog's auto-cross-posting feature. This post, therefore, may or may not show up in facebookland.
Caveat: The Monkey Farter Collapses Into a Mirror
I can't even begin to explain how funny I find this.
The comedian Ze Frank has a lot of truly humorous material at his website, "a show."
He also has some pretty insightful, philosophical stuff. He talks about how to change who you are.
He talks about happiness.
Caveat: Oops! That space worm gobbled up Michigan.
There’s a genre of hiphop called “nerdcore.” This, I like.
What I’m listening to right now.
MC Frontalot, “I’ll Form The Head.”
Lyrics.
[MC Frontalot]Bright-colored robotic space rhinocerithat we pilot — why? ‘Cause they’re in supply.Plus, we heed the cry of our planet’s populationto defend them. We report to battle stations!Split screen — ready! — and our rhinos are rocket shipswith fully articulated tusk, jaws, and hips.They come equipped with individual special attacks,none with a lack (but a couple a little bit slack).I’m not naming any pilot specifically,but we’re all color coded so you notice that typicallyI (in the gold) lead the charge, do the most damageto whatever very giant space invader managedto threaten the globe in yet another of our episodes.This week? Malevolent galactic nematode!Already beat up the squad when we faced him.I’m calling it: let’s form a giant robot and waste him.Monster misbehavingPlanet’s needing savingSituation’s grave andI’ll form the headThe enemy is cleverWe’re smaller but whateverWhen we put it togetherI’ll form the headY’all can do the treadingSwing energy macheteIf combination’s readyI’ll form the headI’ll form the headI’ll form the head[ZeaLouS1]What the deuce, Pink? What’d I tell you last time?Got my agent on the phone, watch it with the worm slime.And watch a star shine. Focus in your cameras.‘Cause it’s a damn crime, being so glamorous.Now pan it, yeah at us, shot of the supremeMister Quoise Rhinobot. Them? My lackey team.You got the nimrod with the yellow laser beamand the other guy’s otaku (and he wants to talk to me).Between scenes, sometimes I feel out of place.Oh yeah, I’m the biggest damn star in outer space.Dear fans, I am powered by your flattery.Love, little old me (not the diva or the daiquiri).Back on track, team! And if you require meto show some pearly whites, I’ll remind you why you hired me.There’s no rivalry, just me instead.I’ll be back in fifteen, just in time to form the head.Monster misbehavingPlanet’s needing savingSituation’s grave andI’ll form the headThe enemy is cleverWe’re smaller but whateverWhen we put it togetherI’ll form the headY’all can do the treadingSwing energy macheteIf combination’s readyI’ll form the headI’ll form the headI’ll form the head[Dr. Awkward]Am I the only one who’s finding this peculiar,that fighting giant aliens is getting too familiar?It’s bad enough, and just my luck, my bot is lightish red,but do we always have to argue over who should form the head?NASA-trained, I’m only overlooked cause I’m the nice guy.I’m overqualified. I’ve logged six months of flight time.Astrophysicist, but still there’s no respect for me.The “Golden Boy” and Quoise couldn’t spell the word trajectory.Now they have me face-to-face and fighting with some fish bait.Ten minutes left? We’ll never finish at this rate.We need a plan, re-running through other enemies,but every battle has two-minute breaks within the memory.All these giant insects, they put the world in jeopardy.I remember MegaMoth as if it happened yesterday.I think it’s time that we combine and rip this thing to shreds,but only if you promise me that I can form the head!Monster misbehavingPlanet’s needing savingSituation’s grave andI’ll form the headThe enemy is cleverWe’re smaller but whateverWhen we put it togetherI’ll form the headY’all can do the treadingSwing energy macheteIf combination’s readyI’ll form the headI’ll form the headI’ll form the head[MC Frontalot]Pink! Turquoise! Stick together! Some sayUltraMegafauna only clicks together one way.If that is apocryphal, might offer you turnsup top, where the view’s at. You can look sternwhile we pose so menacingly, brandishing blade,about to rid us of the enemy with one swoop. Yayyy!Not now! Time’s critical. Don’t debate this again.Oops! That space worm gobbled up Michigan.Monster misbehavingPlanet’s needing savingSituation’s grave andI’ll form the headThe enemy is cleverWe’re smaller but whateverWhen we put it togetherI’ll form the headY’all can do the treadingSwing energy macheteIf combination’s readyI’ll form the headI’ll form the headI’ll form the head
Caveat: Facebook Updates
I was just explaining to a friend that I have a passive-aggressive dysfunction with facebook. I didn't explain it very well. This video that I just now ran across explains it much better.
So please forgive me for not always logging on to facebook or for not clicking or noticing things you do there.
Plus, that update guy in that video reminds me of a boss I used to have. Which reminds me of something a coworker said today that made me laugh: "I don't want to see any more academy boss faces!" Heh. What are "academy boss faces"?
Caveat: Loop and Delay: A Song About People And Sasquatches
I've never been that much into the "beatboxing" phenomenon, but this guy, Reggie Watts, takes it to a whole new level. I'm blown away.
He's a comedian too, with a remarkably wide repertoire. Here he is doing TED, with a mix of his "loop and delay" beatboxing bits and some really bizarre, essentially dadaist comedy – it includes, for example, "a song about people and sasquatches and french science stuff." He does these weird mashup riffs of made-up languages, too. I see him as half hip-hop beatboxer working at a high-tech startup company, half Borges on psilocybin.
From another one of his routines, he says, "At one point, innovation didn't exist." His point: someone had to come up with it. How did that work?
On thinking outside of the box: "As children know, sometimes boxes are very hard to get out of."
What I'm listening to right now.
Reggie Watts, "NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert." Note that his first improv in this bit is a tribute to NPR – at least the acronym and coffee sippers.
Caveat: Sinking
This is a funny video I ran across, that resonates with because of my role as an EFL teacher.
Caveat: Грин Кард США
Sometimes, on US-centric websites, I get to see some pretty amusingly inappropriate targeted banner advertisements, because of my Korean IP address. Sometimes they get it right, like this one.
But other times they miss, and get it wrong. Very wrong. I’ve seen Chinese and Japanese ads, but this is the first one I’ve seen in Russian.
It’s asking if I want to get a US Green Card. How many people, sitting in Korea, surfing a US-based website, would click that link? Maybe 1? I mean, of the entire possible population? It looks like maximal targeted ad fail.
Caveat: More People
Caveat: Diving giraffes and other miscellany
A. Have you seen the famous French diving giraffes?
I believe they are computer-generated.
B. Unrelatedly… over the weekend, there were fireworks at Lake Park (호수공원) a few blocks from my apartment – because of the Childrens Day festivities. I knew what they were, but I also thought: that's what it would sound like if North Korea attacked.
Then, yesterday, as I stepped out my apartment to walk to work, the civil defense sirens sounded. "Ah, right," I thought. "It's exactly 2 pm, first Tuesday of the month." That's a typical time for a civil defense siren, although they seem to move around a bit within that general coneptual frame. But normally I'm either already at work or still sitting at home when the 2pm sirens go off. I think I witnessed one once before, some years ago, although they happen every month.
Everyone stopped driving. People in yellow vests went out into the street and stopped cars and even pedestrians. So I was standing on the corner of Junang-no and Gangseon-no for 15 minutes until the drill was over, thinking once again about North Korea. I took out my phone and looked at the Korean-language news site, to pass the time. The first article I read (er, tried to read) was about the USS Nimitz (nuclear aircraft carrier) visiting the South Korean city of Busan [美항모 니미츠호 11∼13일 부산항 입항(종합)]. Is there a pattern here?
In fact, the Norks seem to be behaving better lately. Or else they got what they wanted: South Korea gave them some money recently. Extortion works.
C. Lastly, another bit of miscellany:
"You
should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day, unless you're too busy;
then you should sit for an hour" – old zen saying (or just someone on
the internet).
Caveat: Units of Canadas
This was extremely interesting and funny.
I’d like to see the same done for other countries. Especially of note – although South Korea is about the same size as that sticky-down part of Canada southwest of Toronto (I guess it’s called southern Ontario?), South Korea has 1.5 times the population. Combined with North Korea, it’s about 2 units of Canadas. And then, let’s visualize a map of China or India done in units of Canadas. (Thanks to tumblr I Love Charts for pointer to this.)
Caveat: The Cookie Business
"Now I got 99 problems and Jay-Z's one of them." – Barack Obama, about Jay-Z's recent trip to Cuba with Beyonce (referencing Jay-Z's popular song "99 Problems").
Unrelatedly…
What I'm listening to right now.
"Cookiewaits" [a Tom Waits / Cookie Monster mashup] – "God's Away On Business."
The lyrics (my own transcription, mostly):
I'd sell your heart to the junkman baby
For a buck, for a buck
If you're looking for someone
To pull you out of that ditch
You're outta luck, you're outta luckThe ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
There's leak, there's leak,
In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business.
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business.Digging up the dead with
A shovel and a pick
It's a job, it's a job
Bloody moon rising with
A plague and a flood
Join the mob, join the mobIt's all over
It's all over
It's all over
There's a leak, there's a leak,
In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business.
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business.[Instrumental Break]
God damn there's always such
A big temptation
To be good, To be good
There's always free cheddar
In the mousetrap, baby
It's a deal, it's a dealThe ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
The ship is sinking
There's leak, there's leak,
In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business.
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business.I narrow my eyes like a coin slot baby,
Let her ring, let her ringIt's all over
It's all over
It's all over
There's a leak, there's a leak,
In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
God's away, God's away,
God's away on Business.
Business.
Caveat: Things Keep NOT Happening
The graph at left really made me laugh. I have long suspected that a lot of things weren’t happening, and finally I have some real data to back up my intuition.
Caveat: Canuckistan Rising
I guess there are enough Punjabis in Canada (and especially Vancouver) to make Punjabi hockey-fan music a thing. This is a bhangra-ized paean to the Vancouver Canucks sung in Punjabi.
Actually I think it's pretty cool – not that I was ever a hockey fan.
Caveat: Entropy Engines
I found this rather mind-blowing article at a website called Physics Buzz. It's about some theoretical modeling work being done in the field of AI (artificial intelligence). I can't begin to claim to really understand it – and that's just the layman's article, I wouldn't dream of trying to read the actual published paper. Apparently there are some interesting results emerging from a simulation program they call "Entropica" that suggest that just programming something to seek the "most possible future histories" (which sort of suggests something quantum-mechanical but I don't think it really does) leads to intelligent-seeming behavior. Is it really intelligent, if it's just trying to maximize entropy? Very weird and interesting. A few paragraphs from the summary:
Entropica's intelligent behavior emerges from the "physical process of trying to capture as many future histories as possible," said Wissner-Gross. Future histories represent the complete set of possible future outcomes available to a system at any given moment.
Wissner-Gross calls the concept at the center of the research "causal entropic forces." These forces are the motivation for intelligent behavior. They encourage a system to preserve as many future histories as possible. For example, in the cart-and-rod exercise, Entropica controls the cart to keep the rod upright. Allowing the rod to fall would drastically reduce the number of remaining future histories, or, in other words, lower the entropy of the cart-and-rod system. Keeping the rod upright maximizes the entropy. It maintains all future histories that can begin from that state, including those that require the cart to let the rod fall.
"The universe exists in the present state that it has right now. It can go off in lots of different directions. My proposal is that intelligence is a process that attempts to capture future histories," said Wissner-Gross.
I predict that if the research behind this article turns out to be "real" – in the sense that it isn't later falsified or found to be lacking in rigor – that it could be a more-than-incremental step in the development of AI (i.e. revolutionary).
Caveat: It’s Raining Cats
What I'm listening to right now.
My Robot Friend, "It's Raining Cats." This song is derived from that more well-known "It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls (1982), but with different lyrics. As of this posting, it has 540 views on youtube. I'm predicting more than that.
The lyrics:
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow
By the same auteurs, "Robot High School."
Caveat: Double Demographic Whammy
I ran across a pretty interesting article at Quartz. Quarz is an annoyingly-formatted spin-off of The Atlantic – perhaps I'm just too old-school to appreciate the smartphonesque stylings at Quartz. Regardless…
The article is about South Korea's demographic problems, which are even worse than I'd been thinking. The article includes the graph below, which the article reproduces from KNSO (Korean National Statistics Organization, I think), which covers the range from 1960 projected out to 2050. The proportions between youth, working-age and elderly is striking.
The article goes on to talk about the youth problem. The idea that a country with 22% youth unemployment has a shortage of workers is something I'd already sort of realized. The article attributes this to the country's over-obsession with college education, which leads to a vastly over-qualified workforce relative to the types of jobs available, but I'd like to suggest a different reading.
South Korean society has changed so much, and so fast, that there is a kind of "culture-gap" between the youth and the older members of the society. This was observed in the recent elections, for example. In a country where personal relationships – those built between peers, especially, but then between one's family and one's peers' families, too – are so important in finding jobs and building careers, the fact that youth and older workers essentially pertain to different cultures means that they no longer have a space in common where they can build those critical relationships.
If, for example, the young people are no longer interested in working until 10 pm and then going out drinking with their older work-mates in an appropriately deferential way, then those older work-mates are going to begin to view those younger workers as "bad workers" and begin to exclude them from the social circles where jobs are retained and careers are built.
This is just speculation, on my part. But I think there's more going on that just an "education gap" in Korea's weirdly astronomical youth unemployment rate.
Caveat: Not About Us
I ran across this video the other day.
Not About Us from michaelear on Vimeo.
Caveat: You just need fire and a little faith
The video is better than the song. It's a god operating a touchscreen mechanism, and getting frustrated and messing with his creation – like a guy playing Sims or something in that vein.
What I'm listening to right now.
The Leisure Society, "Fight For Everyone." I couldn't find the lyrics online, and I'm too lazy to write down a full transcription myself. But one line: "You just need fire and a little faith"
Caveat: checking in
People are sending me emails with the subject: "checking in."
Yes, I'm still here.
See? …I blogged.
In an unrelated observation, I learned recently that Neil Armstrong had to pass through US Customs in Honolulu after returning from the moon – see form image below.
Caveat: Rhopalic
A ‘rhopalic’ sentence is a sentence or a line of poetry in which each
word contains one letter or one syllable more than the previous word, according to Dmitri Borgmann in Language on Vacation. Here is an example given:
"I
do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing
handwriting; nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality,
counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes
intercommunications’ incomprehensibleness." – attributed to Ramnath Ragunathan
Each word is a letter longer than the preceding. The first word has one letter, the last has 20 letters – and there are 20 words.
Caveat: 부두차일
This woman rocks Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” on a traditional Korean instrument called a 가야금 [gayageum].
Note: the term “Chile” in the name of the song should be pronounced roughly /chail/ (hence my transcription to hangeul above) – it is not a derivation of the name of the country “Chile” nor is it related to “chili” peppers. It’s rather meant to be an approximated spelling of the dialect pronounciation of the word “child” without the “-d” sound at the end.
Caveat: Turkeys, On The Other Hand…
… as opposed to five little monkeys.
Caveat: Motorville
This is a really amazingly entertaining and yet allegorical video. Well done. Let's inject some petroleum and get this party started.
Motorville by Patrick Jean from Iconoclast on Vimeo.
Caveat: The Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense
A linguistic note: "Bollocks" as used above is the British equivalent of the US term "Bullshit" – meaning false or exaggerated statements or nonsense.
Caveat: Gotta go, buffalo
I want to build a lesson plan around this "Good-Bye Poem." It's a composite of several versions I have found. I'm sure there are many variations.
The Good-Bye Poem
See you later, alligator!
After a while, crocodile!
In an hour, sunflower!
Maybe two, kangaroo!
Gotta go, buffalo!
Adios, hippos!
Ciao, ciao, brown cow!
See you soon, baboon!
Adieu, cockatoo!
Better swish, jellyfish.
Chop, chop, lollipop.
Gotta run, skeleton!
Bye-bye, butterfly!
Better shake, rattle snake.
Give a hug, ladybug!
Blow a kiss, goldfish!
Take care, polar bear!
Our school day now ends.
So, good-bye, good friends!
I could see making the lesson for my lowest level (1st and 2nd graders) all the way up to my most advanced (e.g. my current "poetry" unit with my 9th graders).
Caveat: Evolving National Wealth
It's amazing the interesting things that can be done with survey data. This chart reposted at the I Love Charts tumblr (from a site called upworthy) is fascinating.
I wonder where South Korea would be on this chart – I have a sort of suspicion it would be an outlier much like the US, and for similar cultural reasons – i.e. the prevalence of evangelical strains of Christianism.
I also would be curious to see the same chart with each US state separated out and treated as separate countries with their individual state-level survey results and varying individual state-GDP figures. Would there still be outliers? Or would you find each individual state cleaving closer to the curious curve that was discovered?
Caveat: Friedrich Squarepants
How can this be bad? The website called Buzzfeed forces us to explore the underlying identity of the two great thinkers, Spongebob Squarepants and Friedrich Nietzsche.