|| General || § ¶Buy Blue?
Here's an intriguing idea: why not rate companies that we all deal with every day by their "blueness" or their "redness". That is, by how they contribute to political parties and election campaigns, and on their various policies and actions?Well, here it is: BuyBlue.com
Here's their mission statement:
You may have voted blue, but every day you unknowingly help dump millions of dollars into the conservative war chest. By purchasing products and services from companies that donate heavily to conservatives, we have been compromising our own interests as liberals and progressives.
BuyBlue.org is a concerted effort to lift the veil of corporate patronage, so consumers can make informed buying decisions that coincide with their principles.
Currently, we are developing an extensive and interactive website where users will be able to monitor corporate activity in real time. We cannot do this alone; we need an army of Blue buyers to be the eyes and ears of this movement. All we have to do is put our money where our mouth is to make it profitable to be ethical.
Our collective buying power WILL make a difference, and we WILL be heard.
This could be a very powerful and positive lever for change. I just don't know yet how legit it really is. But it is worth watching. What do you think?
Imagine walking into a store and asking: "Are you Bluish?... Funny, you don't look Bluish".
|| default || § ¶Geomagnetic Storms Headed Our Way
Two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are heading toward Earth and they could spark strong geomagnetic storms when they arrive on January 16th-17th. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras. The CMEs were blasted into space by M8- and X2-class explosions above giant sunspot 720 on Jan. 15th.Visit spaceweather.com for more information and updates.
This will definitely affect ham radio operations. From HFRADIO:
Comment from the SIDC (RWC-Belgium): 2 full halo CMEs are detected. The first one, associated with the M8.6 flare from sunspot group 05 (NOAA 0720) peaking at 06:38UT, Jan 15 was already mentioned yesterday. The second full halo CME was visible at 23:06 in LASCO-images and is associated with an X2.6 flare from the same group peaking at 23:02. Both CMEs are formally associated with those flares because only with those flares a type II outburst was seen. Both halo CMEs are considered to be geoeffective. ACE data showed recently a changing in several physical quantities (around 10:30UT): higher density, decreasing temperature, high solar wind speed, increased total interplanetairy magnetic field. These are signatures of an ICME passing ACE: possibly the first one arrived. The second one has still to come (later today, early tomorrow). A major/severe (K >= 6/7) storm is possible, depending on the orientation of the magnetic field carried by the plasma cloud. Both times, the proton fluxes increased. Early this morning (Jan 16), the threshold was passed (>10MeV). The >50MeV curve is likely to pass also the threshold.
|| General || § ¶Other Minds 11 Program
The Other Minds 11 Festival program is now available (pdf) The Festival is February 24-26 at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Tickets are still available, but they are selling fast. You can order them online at www.ybca.org, or call the box office 415-978-2787 (11am-6pm Pacific time, weekdays).
|| default || § ¶61 and in L.A.
Victoria and are in Los Angeles for a long weekend, staying with family and seeing friends. On Thursday I turned 61. This is very strange. I don't think of myself as being old. I even think of myself as pretty young. Probably because I was so often skipped ahead in school I was always the youngest in the group (I started college at 16!). Many times I look at someone and assume that they are much older than me (especially if they're taller!), only to find out later that I'm at least 15 years older than THEM! Very strange.So we flew down to L.A. on Thursday, mainly to use up some expiring freq flyer miles, but also to see friends and visit the Getty Museum.
The Getty Museum: Spectacular! That's the only word I can find to describe it. Not only are the grounds and building amazing, high up on a hill overlooking the L.A. basin and out to the sea, but the collections are phenomenal. One could very well spend days here. And, it's FREE! ($7 to park, however). Saw and exceptional photo exhibit of "found" photographs that started me thinking about doing something with my mother's photo album.
We will have to come back.
And today we were invited to attend the sound mix for a new movie on the Sony Pictures lot. My friend Nik, a composer of film and TV music, is doing the music for a new film and the sound/music mix is taking place now. We toured the lot (in the rain) and sat in on the mixing process, which is very laborious. I only got to hear 4 bars of Nik's music, but the whole thing was quite fascinating. First off, everyone is using Macs, except, perhaps the final mixing which looked like some proprietary Sony software running probably on Sony PC servers. But the music director was running ProTools on a large Mac system with a PowerBook on the side. An amazing thing to watch.
But, its pouring rain here. They say L.A. hasn't had this much rain in 30 years.
We're staying put tonight with our friends. Chicken roasting in the oven. Nice way to turn, .. , oh, 61.
|| General || § ¶Music from Other Minds WEBSITE!
Managed to hack together a website for my radio program using some fancy CSShttp://www.rchrd.com/mfom/
|| General || § ¶This Is Really Longhair, and the Violin Is Cool
There's a great article by Allan Kozinn in today's New York Times on Daniel Bernard Roumain, violinist and composer who will be one of those featured at this year's Other Minds 11 Festival of new music February 24-26 in San Francisco.DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN may be getting tired of being described as the only classical composer and violinist who has dreadlocks and loves hip-hop. Yet since he is still in the early stages of his career, distinctions of any kind can be useful.
Mr. Roumain has found that once people get past the visual image and hear his inventive, energetic music - a varied body of work that runs from Coplandesque orchestral scores to chamber pieces inflected with various forms of pop and electronic music - they want to hear more. And having seen him, they don't forget him. So if the description irks him, he isn't saying so, yet.
Read the whole article. You may need to register first.
You can hear his Second String Quartet on Music from Other Minds on KALW 91.7 FM Friday January 21st at 11pm.
|| General || § ¶The Ends of the World as We Know Them
Jared Diamond provides a sobering look at the history of once-powerful societies, and how they collapse, in an Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times:In this fresh year, with the United States seemingly at the height of its power and at the start of a new presidential term, Americans are increasingly concerned and divided about where we are going. How long can America remain ascendant? Where will we stand 10 years from now, or even next year?
Such questions seem especially appropriate this year. History warns us that when once-powerful societies collapse, they tend to do so quickly and unexpectedly. That shouldn't come as much of a surprise: peak power usually means peak population, peak needs, and hence peak vulnerability. What can be learned from history that could help us avoid joining the ranks of those who declined swiftly? We must expect the answers to be complex, because historical reality is complex: while some societies did indeed collapse spectacularly, others have managed to thrive for thousands of years without major reversal.
Read the full article. You may have to register first.
As Ms Stein once wrote: "Let me recite what history teaches. History teaches."