Washington Post: Food Truck for Peace

This is such an inspired idea!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/food-truck-will-deliver-message-of-mideast-peace/2013/01/25/b121ea7e-6665-11e2-93e1-475791032daf_story.html?hpid=z1

Throughout human history, the concept of breaking bread has had a powerful hold on our imaginations. Food, and the culture and traditions surrounding it, is one of the original methods of brokering peace. Back in the earliest days of homo sapiens, the acquisition of food was a costly group effort that strengthened the bonds within one's immediate community. In Ancient Greece, offering food and shelter to visitors became an integral part of upholding the honor of one's house. In many cultures, it was considered taboo to bring weaponry to the table, and any harm that befell a guest at one's table brought great dishonor upon the host.

It's time that we brought everyday Jews and Muslims to that table. In the most political city in the melting pot that is America, peace -- or at least understanding and friendship -- might well take root via food.

Cover-a-Week #4: "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service

A bit late today, because I was at an open mic (the one at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, which was fun and which I'll definitely be revisiting!)


http://youtu.be/0MtdArsuFek

The microphone seems to have some trouble with high notes. Hmm...

If I Used Twitter

tonight's update would be:

My sister just said, "I am a compromising cow." Surprisingly, it made complete sense in context.

Cover-a-Week #3: "Blowin' in the Wind" by Bob Dylan

I seem to be meeting my deadlines so far:


http://youtu.be/tUCECwQUwgU

I've always thought of the ukulele as a quintessentially folk instrument, so it's particularly suited to this kind of song. (It's also the sort of music I happen to like.) I should play a Hawai'ian piece at some point; I'm thinking "Aloha Oe," unless anyone has other suggestions?

BBC: This is Why We Should Let Young People Sleep In

This article reminds me of a diary entry I from my high school days:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7932950.stm

I think this warrants some explanation. See, I used to keep a diary in high school. Looking back at it, I realize I may not have been very good at actual diary-keeping. There are entries written entirely in Tengwar -- which, while a good system for maintaining secrecy, is also somewhat inhibitive to actually reading said entries -- and long digressions about Napoleon and epidemiology and black holes (different entries), and not actually that much about how my day went. So, while I can't read these diaries and get a particularly good sense of what daily life was like in high school, I now remember that for a brief period in 2005, I thought that the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 was the most fascinating event of the millenium. Or something.

Anyhow, in said diary, there's an entry from 2006 wherein I complain about how early I had to wake up for school (6:30 am). In that entry, I came up with what I thought was a pretty logical theory explaining why teenagers didn't like to wake up early. I postulated that it was an evolutionary advantage for adolescents in hunter-gatherer societies to be awake late in the night in order to keep a continuous lookout for the tribe; this would have been necessary because people were still living in fairly un-defended dwellings, where they could easily be attacked by carnivorous predators. Naturally, it seems like the elderly go to bed early and wake up extremely early (just look at all the old people doing Tai Chi in the park!), and real adults keep what society considers normal hours. Therefore, it would be up to the adolescents to bridge the gap between say, midnight, when the adults go to bed, 5:00 AM, when the elderly wake up. Nighttime is when the big nocturnal predators hunt -- and also when mammalian prey, which included homo sapiens, was most vulnerable, because of their reliance on sight over the other four senses. Adolescents tend to have the best night vision and the fastest reflexes, making them the ideal group to keep watch in the darkest hours.

Of course, this evolutionary advantage is no longer so advantageous, as teenagers now have to operate on a largely adult schedule. I think it causes a lot more teenage stress than adults generally believe. (I think this applies to people in their twenties, too -- like me.) This program sounds like a good way of addressing it, and it's a pity I didn't have something like this when I was in high school: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/7932108.stm

Now I'm a "real" adult, so I guess I have to stick to the nine-to-five, even though it's not natural to my biorhythms. I guess it's better than eight-to-three.

Bovine Compasses?

I was reading this what-if on xkcd yesterday, which, in the context of photosynthetic cows, noted that cattle have a natural tendency to align themselves north-south. Apparently there's even been research on the subject: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/08/22/0803650105.

Short of photosynthetic cows -- or even cows equipped with solar panels, as xkcd suggests -- I wonder what sorts of applications this bovine property might have. A cow would make a particularly large, unwieldy, and recalcitrant compass (and presumably you'd never know if it was actually facing north-south, or whether there was simply something tasty/interesting in the general direction of its head). A herd of cows, though -- that might be promising. Perhaps a cowboy, if stranded during a solar eclipse (or just a really cloudy day), could use his herd of cows to determine the direction in which they ought to be heading?

Cover-a-Week #2: "Eli, the Barrow Boy" by The Decemberists

http://youtu.be/0dqZYJ2NA8Y

For some reason, the best thumbnail shot YouTube could give me was one where I'm gazing perplexedly into the distance...

I don't want to cover too many songs by the same artist, but I'll definitely do another Decemberists song at some point. There are so many good ones to choose from! (Does anyone have a favorite?) I'm thinking perhaps "Red Right Ankle," or "The Engine Driver," or "Leslie Anne Levine." Thoughts?

io9: Let's Bring Back the Greek Gods!

Because they were so much more interesting than the all-powerful monotheist deities people worship now!

http://io9.com/5974126/can-we-bring-the-greek-gods-back-please

Granted, religion isn't meant to be entertaining so much as to provide followers with a roadmap to a pleasant afterlife and an explanation for all questions not yet answered by science. But the Greeks had both those (well, perhaps not always the nicest afterlife) as well as extremely colourful and often interactive mythology. I don't fancy getting abducted by a Greek god, but going to an oracle sounds like quite the experience. (Then again, the oracle of Delphi was supposed to be on psychotropic fumes emitted by the volcanic vents in the area.)

In any case, it sure beats Calvinism!

More Cute Pandas!

You thought you had already seen the cutest pandas ever, don't you? But you haven't seen this:

http://boingboing.net/2011/09/28/baby-pandas-need-a-nap-photo.html

Considering they're a severely endangered species, I certainly didn't expect to see so many in one place. As the comments suggest, there's a near-universal desire to climb in there with them and cuddle them.

Cover-a-Week #1: "Dear Old House" by Amanda Palmer

Here's my first video:


http://youtu.be/R9EgejFjr50

I've said my bit about this piece in the video and in this post. It's one of my favorite ukulele songs, and also my first encounter with the instrument. (And Amanda Palmer is awesome.)

Now I'm trying to decide what I'll cover next week.

Discover: How Would Time Travel Actually Work (or, something for all the Whovians)?

A good, cogent article on the physics of time travel:
http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/02-the-real-rules-for-time-travelers/

I first encountered this explanation of time travel in Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban, where Harry and Hermione use a Time-Turner to save Sirus and Buckbeak. (I trust that I didn't spoil the book for anyone -- and if I did, you're way behind the times!) The detail of the Time Turner chapter that I found most memorable was the thud of the executioner's axe: Harry and Hermione heard it fall in real time and assumed that Buckbeak had been beheaded; however, when they went back in time to rescue the hippogryff, they realized that the sound they'd thought was Buckbeak's decapitation was actually the executioner swinging the axe into a hunk of wood in frustration upon discovering that Buckbeak had escaped. Harry and Hermione, therefore, did not change the timeline using the Time Turner; rather, events incorporated all nonlinear parts and intersections of the timeline.

The concept of free will, as the above article notes, becomes problematic if this framework of time is true. Nature, it would seem, is more like a Greek tragedy than we Americans would like to believe. We are uncomfortable with the idea of external limits on our free will, and time is too nebulous to most of us to think its laws as insurmountable as, say, those of Newtonian physics. If we were told that our free will is limited by gravity (no matter how much we might wish to levitate through the air, we cannot), we do not find it unjust. Told that Oedipus had no choice but to kill his father and marry his mother, despite all of his attempts to escape his fate, we find his situation grossly unfair. The above description of time travel suggests that our universe operates more like Oedipus's than we'd imagined.

I believe in free will. I do. But I'd love to try time travelling -- it sounds fascinating.

Challenge for 2013: Cover-a-Week

It's the beginning of a new year, which means that it's time for New Year's resolutions. I've been thinking about my next big project (NaNoWriMo, which I've been doing since high school, isn't quite new anymore). Here it is: I will record one cover song every week this year.

The idea is borrowed from several musicians I admire, namely Jonathan Coulton with his "Thing-A-Week" project, and Victoria Vox with her "52 Covers" project. I first started considering it because I noticed that, whenever I played the ukulele for my friends, I always ended up playing the same five or ten songs. I've owned a ukulele for about a year, and while I have written a few songs, I haven't really increased my repertoire of covers. So I thought I'd take a leaf out of the NaNoWriMo book (pun intended!) -- having your wordcount on the website for everyone to see really motivates you to get in those 50,000 words -- and make this a semi-public project, so that my friends can watch and poke me if I don't post a video that week. (Having a built-in component of accountability is especially important for this sort of endeavour.)

The rules:

1. I will post a new cover song every week. I will do my best to adhere to this schedule (posts will most likely happen every weekend), but I'm allowed to make up for weeks I've missed or anticipate missing by posting more than one cover on some weeks.
2. The posts will be public and easily accessible via YouTube.
3. During weeks when I'm especially busy, I am allowed to use songs I already know. Given that my current repertoire consists of six or seven songs, that's about a month-and-a-half of free passes. I think that's fair. (Unlike JoCo and Victoria Vox, I'm not a professional musician.)
4. I'll try not to cover too many songs by the same artist. (I don't listen to that many artists, though, and not all of them produce uke-able songs.) 
5. (Not a rule, but...) I'm open to requests!

In addition to learning lots of songs, I'm also hoping that I'll improve my ukulele skills. As it stands, I would consider my current level of ukulele-playing serviceable but not impressive. I would say I've hit a bit of a plateau in the past month or two; I've also been watching YouTube videos of Jake Shimabukuro, who makes everything I've seen anyone do on the ukulele pale in comparison.

I'm also told that I ought to get some sort of (cheap, functional) external microphone to plug into my laptop. Anyone have any suggestions? (Or for that matter, do you think it necessary?)

And that's my New Year's resolution. Wish me luck!