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Against Capitalism

Here is a really succinct summary of the most popular criticisms of capitalism, by G.A. Cohen, who identified as a analytical marxist (“marxism without the bullshit”) and had a really weird sense of humor.


The Bjorklund Algorithm

The following problem is considered by Bjorklund, in connection with the operation of certain components (such as high voltage power supplies) of spallation neutron source (SNS) accelerators used in nuclear physics.
Construct a binary sequence of n bits with k one’s, such that the k one’s are distributed as evenly as possible among the zero’s. For [...]


Posted
16 March 2011 @ 8pm

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90’s Rave Piano

Last year I asked Metafilter where I could find more music like Doctor P’s Sweet Shop, a rave nostalgia track that seemed to be mandatory play during the months I’d been going to shows in England. Empath came through with this seemingly canonical but in any case brilliant playlist of early 90’s rave tunes with [...]


Posted
8 March 2011 @ 3am

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You are listening to Los Angeles

A stream of the Los Angeles police scanner feed and dramatic ambient music, via Metafilter Projects.
Reminds me of this KLF track. I’m impressed and confused by how evocative even prosaic spoken word recordings can sound with some music behind them.


Posted
7 March 2011 @ 7am

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Slit-Scan

Artist Golan Levin maintains “An Informal Catalogue of Slit-Scan Video Artworks and Research”.
Popular uses of the effect include the stargate sequence at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey and (if you’re British) these Dr. Who titles. In many CMOS image sensors, the diachronic polling of pixels is considered a bug, leading smartphone owners to [...]


Posted
5 March 2011 @ 9pm

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Davidope

Davidope produces animated gifs, often with an op-art feel, and curates pretty sweet examples of the same.


Posted
5 March 2011 @ 7pm

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The Wobbulator

An implementation of an idea of Nam Jun Paik’s. If you’re in DC, you should really see the installations of his work at the American Art Museum. They’re intense.


Posted
5 March 2011 @ 6pm

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Music Animation Machine

Youtube user smalin posts these great animations, the result of several decades of experimentation, that portray the structure western art music tunes. It’s hard to say what makes a mapping from one sense to another successful, but these are some of the best attempts I’ve seen. I wonder if someone with a better ear might [...]


Keeping a Diary

Through this post on MetaFilter Music I discovered the tale of Reverend Robert Shields, which seems too perfectly allegorical to have actually happened. Here is an interview with the man and his NYT Obituary.
He kept a written log of his life broken up into five minute intervals. He claimed his diary was complete, that every [...]


Pop Music

The KLF were two British chaps who exposed the mass sphexishness of the music world, fired machine gun blanks at award show audiences, made and set alight a million quid, and wrote a wonderful book to help you follow in their footsteps.