adactio / Jeremy Keith

Huffduffed (558)

1. Music on Your Brain

   Music is more than just pitch and rhythm, timbre and tempo. Music can comfort. Or annoy. It helps us celebrate – and mourn. Music can foster a sense of group identity. (Consider national anthems.)

   Are human beings hard-wired to enjoy music? What role did music play in the evolution of human societies? What would life be without music?

   In this World Science Forum, we talk to Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist at McGill University. He’s an expert on music cognition and the author of two books: This is Your Brain on Music and The World in Six Songs.

   Levitin argues that music is at the heart of human nature. The World’s Rhitu Chatterjee spoke with Levitin for The World Science Podcast.

   http://www.world-science.org/forum/music-brain-daniel-levitin/

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   Tagged with music neuroscience linguistics science book:author=daniel levitin book:title=this is your brain on music book:title=the world in six songs

   —Huffduffed by adactio 13 hours ago

2. Obama’s new words, Avatar in the Amazon and a Chinese satire

   As Obama enters the second year of his presidency, he’s dropped some expressions — “war on terror”, “Af-Pak”, even “Middle East”. His administration has invented a few too: “remotedly piloted aircraft” (drones) and “overseas contingency operations” (wars). Also, a special screening of Avatar in Ecuador for indigenous groups. What did these Shuar and Achuar speakers think of Avatar’s invented language, Na’vi? Finally, a new online satirical movie is all the rage in China. It features a Chinese double-entendre phrase aimed at avoiding government censorship. The movie also includes a fantastic “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” rant.

   http://www.theworld.org/2010/02/05/obamas-new-words-avatar-in-the-amazon-and-a-chinese-satire/

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   Tagged with language speaking linguistics obama china film:title=avatar

   —Huffduffed by adactio 14 hours ago

3. In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka from Chatterbox Audio Theater

   A traveler to a penal colony witnesses the horrific punishment inflicted upon those who break even the smallest of laws. But when a new leader rises to power, will the merciless be treated with mercy?

   • Director: Andrew Sullivan
   • Length: 29:38 minutes

   From: http://www.chatterboxtheater.org/node/347

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   Tagged with book:author=franz kafka theatre drama short story chatterbox

   —Huffduffed by adactio 14 hours ago

4. X Minus One: Project Mastadon

   The tale of time travel and the possibilities of setting up a colony in prehistoric America.

   By Clifford D. Simak.

   From: http://www.archive.org/details/XMinusOne560605054ProjectMastadon

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   Tagged with science fiction sci-fi book:author=clifford d. simak time travel

   —Huffduffed by adactio one day ago

5. Mark Adams from Vitsœ talks to Dieter Rams

   As head of design at Braun, the German consumer electronics manufacturer, Dieter Rams emerged as one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20th century by defining an elegant, legible, yet rigorous visual language for its products. The exhibition showcases Rams’ landmark designs for Braun and furniture manufacturer Vitsœ, examines how Rams’ design ethos inspired Braun’s entire product range for over 40 years and assess his lasting influence on today’s design landscape.

   From: http://designmuseum.org/podcasts

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   Tagged with design products dieter rams braun

   —Huffduffed by adactio 2 days ago

6. The Conversation 2: Don’t Twiddle the Knobs

   Today my guests are Dave Nanian, Adam Keys, Christina Warren, Mike Davidson, and Merlin Mann.

   We discuss Flash, HTML5, and the future of the web, Gowalla, Daringfireballwithcomments – was it legal? was it wrong? was it funny? the newsvine acquisition and NOT selling out or giving up the indy spirit, how to not dupe your readers, technology and kids, comments and giving up control, and how creating an identity on the internet can be both good and evil.

   From http://5by5.tv/conversation/2

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   Tagged with technology web html5 flash newsvine comments

   —Huffduffed by adactio 3 days ago

7. Fun Inc.: Why games are the 21st century’s most serious business

   Why should we be taking video games more seriously?

   In 2008 Nintendo overtook Google to become the world’s most profitable company per employee. The South Korean government will invest $200 billion into its video games industry over the next 4 years. The trading of virtual goods within games is a global industry worth over $10 billion a year. Gaming boasts the world’s fastest-growing advertising market.

   In addition to these impressive statistics, video games are creating a whole new science of mass engagement which is beginning to revolutionise the way we research and understand economics, human behaviour and democratic participation. Games are used to train the US Military, to model global pandemics and to campaign against human rights abuses in Africa.

   Journalist and author Tom Chatfield visits the RSA to examine the ways in which virtual game worlds can function as unprecedented laboratories for exploring human motivations, and for evaluating economic theories that it has never been possible before to test experimentally.

   He will argue that games are becoming one of the most powerful tools available for raising awareness of political, ethical and environmental issues, and promoting action across an extraordinary range of fields and disciplines – from medicine to warfare to, perhaps most importantly, education.

   Response by Ed Vaizey MP, Shadow Minister for Culture

   Chaired by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent

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   Tagged with fun games design gaming book:author=tom chatfield rsa

   —Huffduffed by adactio 5 days ago

8. The seventh episode of the Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast

   In the seventh episode of the Mac-cessibility Round Table Podcast, knights Cara Quinn, Eric Troup, Darcy Burnard, Holly Anderson, Steve Sawczyn, and Josh de Lioncourt discuss Apple’s big event to introduce the iPad slate computing device, its accessibility, speculation on how VoiceOver may differ from the iPhone, and what we think it means for the future.

   http://www.lioncourt.com/2010/01/29/the-mac-cessibility-round-table-podcast-007-ipad-therefore-i-want/

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   Tagged with apple accessibility ipad

   —Huffduffed by adactio 6 days ago

9. How To Think About Science: Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer

   In 1985 a book appeared that changed the way people thought about the history of science. Until that time, the history of science had usually meant biographies of scientists, or studies of the social contexts in which scientific discoveries were made. Scientific ideas were discussed, but the procedures and axioms of science itself were not in question. This changed with the publication of Leviathan and the Air Pump, subtitled Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life, the book’s avowed purpose was – “to break down the aura of self-evidence surrounding the experimental way of producing knowledge.” This was a work, in other words, that wanted to treat something obvious and taken for granted – that matters of fact are ascertained by experiment – as if it were not at all obvious; that wanted to ask, how is it actually done and how do people come to agree that it has truly been done.

   The authors of this pathbreaking book were two young historians, Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, and both have gone on to distinguished careers in the field they helped to define, science studies. Steven Shapin will be featured later in this series, but How to Think About Science begins with a conversation with Simon Schaffer. David Cayley called on him recently in his office at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science at Cambridge where he teaches.

   http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/science/index.html#episode1

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   Tagged with science book:title=leviathan and the air pump book:author=steven shapin book:title=simon schaffer

   —Huffduffed by adactio one week ago

10. Italian Food by Elizabeth David

    The daily reading from James Bridle’s Mattins on Monday, February 1st, 2010.

    From http://mattins.shorttermmemoryloss.com/

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    Tagged with book:author=elizabeth david book:title=italian food cooking italy mattins food

    —Huffduffed by adactio one week ago

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