Hadron Collider Rap

This is awesome...

From boingboing.net

Movie star gossip...

I normally never indulge in movie star or celebrity gossip...

But this is too cool to just shrug off...

A bunch of my favorite Hong Kong/Chinese film industry folks are gonna be associated with Bhutan..

That's coz Tony Leung (and Carina Lau) are getting married in Bhutan (At the Uma Paro resort) ... and guests include Wong Kar Wai and Faye Wong among others..

How cool is that... 3 of my all time fave personalities from the HK film industry and all of them gonna end up in Bhutan!!

Who knows, maybe that'll inspire Wong Kar Wai to shoot a movie in Bhutan! :-)

http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_258012.html

And for those of you who're asking why is Faye Wong so special.. check this out. Here's a clip from Wong Kar Wai's "Chunking Express" with Faye Wong in it, and the song is also Faye Wong's cover of (The Cranberries) "Dreams"... :)

Summer's here..

Crap.. it's been a while..

so just to check in and say i'm alive..

it'll be a busy summer so posting frequency will be inversely related to temperatures, (and golf scores)..

But in the meanwhile.. enjoy this..
Weezer's video, featuring the internet video famous people!! Even the Numa Numa guy is there... :D

on TV...

Our lab and research has been getting some press attention lately..

I have posted some of the print stuff already...

Now here are some of the TV clips.. (dorky as it may be!)

This one is from WBZ-TV, Boston, February 21.





This one from CBS-42, March 4.




and National News here.. from NBC Today Show, Mar 25.



In the first two clips I'm hemming and hawing my way through...
In the last clip you may catch a quick glimpse of me, if you don't blink. :D

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

From boingboing.net
by Cory Doctorow

Naomi Klein (No Logo) and Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón (Children of Men) have created a short film to accompany her latest book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," whose thesis is that present-day global capitalism took hold when its advocates learned to exploit disasters. After a disaster (war, tsunami, terrorist attack), you can push your agenda for worsening labor conditions, looser regulation, and pocket-lining exercises (Enron, Halliburton) while the reeling, disaster-struck population of the world has its attention elsewhere.

Klein attributes this technique to Milton Friedman, who is reported to have said that "only a crisis -- real or perceived -- produces real change." She connects this idea to the fundamental notion underpinning CIA torture techniques (as reported in CIA interrogation manuals from 1963 and 1983) -- to produce a state of shock in which the victim is out of control of her faculties, a "suspended animation" that can be exploited to get victims to do things that violate their own ethics or beliefs.

The Cuaróns' filmmaking is superb, as is Klein's writing. This is a chilling and powerful 7-minute film, and it made me want to pick up the book as soon as possible.

Do watch the video. I haven't read the book yet but it looks like it'll be pretty good.

The future republicans..

How creepy is this?

Here are some of the future of the USA in the College Republican National Convention Tour...

Max Blumenthal finds that they strongly support the war in Iraq... But why aren't they fighting then??

Hypocrites...

and what's with Tom DeLay.. Why is he still around??

Check out the video...

Nepali Troubadour in Kalimpong

Kalimpong - 1st May, 2007

14 year old traveling musician (Gainey)with his Chaar Taarey (four-stringed) Sarangi. He was from Dhankota, Nepal and was traveling around the area door-to-door singing Nepali folk songs.

Enjoy the video.

from www.kalimpong.info!

More multi touch displays...

Jeff Han (of the multi-touch display fame - from TED last year) has started Perceptive Pixel.

Here's a video of the technology.. This is different from the TED talk he gave last year. The screen is much bigger and it's vertical. I'm thinking he has to do something about the ergonomics though! It's get tiring moving your arms around like that while standing. The apps he's using are also very very neat (Yay Google Earth)!! I think the applications require the invention of such technology rather than the technology bringing about the applications.

(By the way multi-touch technology is already being used in MacBook touchpads and the new iPhones..)

The Little Match Girl

The classic Han Christian Anderson fairy tale, The Little Match Girl, has been adapted into a short animated film, and which has been nominated for an Oscar.

Watch it: It is beautiful, poignant, bittersweet... exactly as i remember it when I first heard/read it when I was much much much younger.

http://www.worldspace.nu/The_Little_Match_Girl_avi:watch

Thank You Jon Stewart

We have all seen TIME Magazine's choice for person of the year 2006.. right? It's YOU. Really.. YOU. you. you.

Yes, sad state of affairs...

And then Jon Stewart goes and says exactly what is on all sane peoples' minds.

Here you go:

dylan dylan dylan

The first Dylan concert I attended was on November 11, 2000. And now six years later, almost to the day, I had the pleasure of seeing him live again, here in Amherst. WOW. The concert was everything that I had hoped and prayed for and more. It's all too common for people to be disappointed at Bob Dylan's live performance, and so I was very nervous about this one. But it was excellent. We could've gotten more.. He could have played the guitar instead of the keyboards. He could've sung so many other songs.. but well, we can't expect him to sing EVERYTHING now, do we??

Anyway, 6 years ago, before the proliferation of personal blogs, I had written a long description of the concert for the benefit of my friends and family back home. In keeping with the tradition, here's one for this concert. I should've written it sooner when it was fresh in my mind.

Anyway, a quick quick review and then pictures and videos huh?

The opening band first - Twas The Raconteurs, a side project by Jack White of the White Stripes. They were good.. a little heavy for a Dylan opener I'd say.. but noisy powerful and good nonetheless. The highlight of their show was a long long loud powerful cover of "Bang Bang".

And now for Dylan...

....

...

Ahhhh.. Screw it.. I read this great review of the show from an "R. Godlis" at expectingrain.com. And there's no way I can top that review. He/She has said everything that I wanted to say and more and more and more... These veteran Dylan followers.. who tag along to every possible Dylan concert.. they know a lot. They're grizzled and grey listenin to Dylan and they've tailed him and loved him and hated him but know him better than anyone else.. I'm not going to presume to know Dylan. I'm just gonna doff my hat off to these fans.. and post their review! :)

Review by R. Godlis


Just waking up from last night's 3 hour drive back to NYC from
Amherst, looking bleary-eyed over breakfast at my scribbled notes
from a show full of surprises.

I'll try to keep the intro material brief. Took my 13 year old
daughter along to her first BD show. Tix in the NYC area were
ridiculously expensive for last row balcony seats, so we went off to
Amherst with reasonably priced 4th row floor seats via ebay. Well
Approximately 4th row, not Positively Fourth Row. Security was so slim in
this college arena, that there were rows of fans standing in front of
the first row of seats. Making our 4th row like the eighth. So it was
more like a general admission standing show with folding chairs in place
to reserve your spot. I saw a few campus police officers trying to move
people along - but believe me,the riot squad was not restless tonight. No
complaints though. I actually like to see Dylan at these places. No
suits, no skeptics, just enthusiastic college kids and middle-aged fans,
with the occassional stoners thrown in for comic relief. An arena that's somewhat intimate where even the last rows can see pretty well.

Dylan seems very relaxed in these places. And tonight he was full of
energy and surprises - right from the start.

Looking at last week's setlists I expected him to open with Maggie's
Farm, Absolutely Sweet Marie, or Cats in the Well. But Boom - just like
that he opens with a fantastic, clear sounding Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat-
with cool organ & a welcome harmonica break.

I looked at my daughter and said - we're in for a good night. But
little did I know. Next up - The Man in Me - was easilly
recognizable from the musical intro. In fact all the songs, even in their
new versions were clearly recognizable. This song is where we got the theme of the night - sung in a very strong voice - "the man in me will hide sometimes to keep from being seen, that's because he doesn't want-
to- turn-into-some-machine..." He did this verse twice! Finished it with
another harp break. Catch your breath. Now Tweedledee, with some very
Augie Meyers like organ trills, followed by the first quiet MT song of
the night - "When the Deal Goes Down" augmented with a carnival-like
organ. And then boom again - we got that great new version of Cold Irons
Bound - how's that? - the one that's been circulating from the Boston
show - which just builds upon itself. Feeling like I can't help it if
I'm lucky...

Sidenote - Dylan seemed to spend a lot of time after each song
walking over to his little table of stuff stage right - Harmonica - Beads
- His Academy Award - Setlists?Songs he wanted to play? - and then
wandering over to the band with something to say. Changes is what it
looked like to me. Did I say the organ sound was turned up nice and
loud?

Next came the 62-62-64 stuff done electric - a very nice Hattie
Carroll (more organ frills), I Don't Believe You (Mendicino like
organ playing - another harp solo - and more organ noodling). Then
into John Brown, not unexpected but still a bit of a surprise
coming on the heels of Hattie Carroll. I spent a lot time telling my daughter - he hardly ever does this one.

But then, big surprise again - Watching the River Flow - a late start on
the vocals as the band waited for him to finish a few more bars of his
organ intro. Some dylanesque drawn out RiiiiiVER FLOWwww vocals and then
the man turned into an Organ Maniac in the break - finishng up by
matching notes with the pedal steel behind him. Did I say there was
absolutely no upsinging tonight - except for the MT stuff where it is
actually part of the original versions? Thank you.

Next - some organ playing in the dark and, another surprise, Sugar
Baby. Very inspired is what I scribbled down. Lots of pedal steel in this
one. Not exactly the "dark" version of a few years ago, but nice to hear
- everyone picked up on the "these bootleggers" verse and the "amount of
trouble women bring" verse. Next - a good loud Highway 61. Followed by
Spirit on the Water - everyone was waiting for the "whompin good time
verse, of course. In fact this crowd was having a whompin good time all
night. They were very vocal. No party poopers in Amherst.

It was at this point that my daughter asked me how many songs he had done
so far - and with my scribbled notes in the dark arena I couldn't really
do a count - but up next came "Summer Days", and we both knew from
looking at the past setlists that we were on song # 13 of 16 - last song
of the regular set.

I figured Bob was on automatic pilot now. He was going to come back and
do Thunder on the Mountain/LARS/AATW and be out of there...

When after the break, he starts playing a slow number! What????

And just like that we're into an amazing "Lenny Bruce". Just dead on. The
high point of an evening full of high points. Why is this night different
than all other nights? Only Bob knows. This is why we go to these shows.
Even my kid knew she was seeing something different. And on top of that
she got a very good "Like A Rolling Stone" - which was just fine as the
closer - just like 1966 in 2006.

We set our direction home for the late night 3 hour drive back to New
York City - thinking I do believe we've had enough.

Review posted from http://my.execpc.com/~billp61/111506r.html#1, via expectingrain.com

From "Spirit On The Water":

You think I'm over the hill
You think I'm past my prime
Let me see what you got
We can have a whoppin' good time

And this was the line that said it all.. and the audience said.. nay, you're not over the hill. let's go ahead and have that good time.

Here are some pictures:


The Raconteurs...













AND...

Here is a really poor put together video of a clip of Thunder On The Mountain. Sorry for the crappy quality. Just wanted to show Dylan dancing at the keyboards. :D

wat to do we are like dat only

This video is awesome.. beautiful.. brilliant. A definite keeper..

12 days of christmas...

for Indians.. :D



By Boymongoose

well well well..

What do we have here!!!

Bhutanese english music video... :p



AND



Look for some more on youtube.com... ;) ...

thanks to Chhimi Penjo for pointing me to these...

microsoft designs the ipod package..

hehe... funneee

The root of all evil??

Channel 4, from the UK, aired this no-holds barred 2-part series on religion, hosted by none other than Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins. The avowed athiest, in this show, challenges what he describes as 'a process of non-thinking called faith'. The videos are available as torrents via..

part 1 (mininova)
part 2 (mininova)

(If you arent familiar with torrents, download and use Azureus to get the videos..
or maybe if you ask me real nice I could get them to you on a CD... :) )

Anyway, the documentary is astounding.. but my fear is, as with all the debates regarding science and religion, it will be ineffective... for whatever Dawkins is trying to say. It is not going to change any minds coz, as always, those believers in science already know the facts.. and those with blind faith in their religions (over science) refuse to budge from the stand they have taken. And the in-betweens really don't care about the debate.. It's quite sad really.

Wish some US Network would have enough cojones to air the documentary in this country!

Anyway, I can go on a rant about it for ever.. I'll save y'all that and you can just do yourselves a favor and watch the documentary..

It doesn't matter what you believe in.. or don't believe in.. it is a must watch documentary.

And once you're done watching it and thinking... WOW... damn... scary... shieeeeet.. and all that... head on over to this page about the American Taliban and get scared even more.

Yup.. that's the country.. and the world we live in.

Thanks to Lapax, the panopticist, and boing boing for the links and sources..