26.5.08

What does this mean?


I was reading this article which compares the nutritional value of different drinks, when I read this quote (with no apparent references):


Australian researchers found that mixing liquor with diet drinks can intensify the alcoholic effect by 50%

Is this true? I immediately started searching for said study, but haven't yet found it. Is anybody else bugged by the lack of references on Men's Health articles?

And anyways, what does it mean when something "intensifies the alcoholic effect"? Does it magically increase the congener count of the beverage? Is less water absorbed thus making you thirstier, thus making you drink more? And the real question, will I get drunk faster? I want to know!

I wish I could find those mysterious Australian researchers.

24.5.08

Computer-Generated Music

(from radiolab)
Musical DNA

Which came first: Language or Music? We're still not sure, but now we'll ponder what comes next. Producer Jonathan Mitchell brings us a piece about David Cope, the composer and professor at UC Santa Cruz, who cured his artist’s block by writing a computer program to do the dirty work for him. His program, named EMI (Experiments in Musical Intelligence), deconstructs the works of great composers, finding patterns within the voice leading of their compositions, and then creates brand new compositions based on the patterns she finds. But it's not just copy and paste. She brings something new to the pieces. Drift along to the eerily enchanting music of EMI Mahler and ask yourself this: What would Mahler think of an EMI Mahler score? Brilliant music? A forgery?



Download computer-generated music

23.5.08

Rube Goldberg Machines

Something fun for a Friday afternoon...

A Rube Goldberg machine is an incredibly overengineered apparatus that performs a very simple task in very indirect and convoluted fashion.



11.5.08

Cup Of Brown Joy - Elemental

Bloody brilliant!



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