Month: June 2010

Chamber Of Commerce Says Taxpayers Should Help Pay For BP Spill Cleanup; GOP Leader Agrees, Then Recants

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Hey there, Americans! I’m sure, by now, many of you have had some time to reflect on the massive, unfolding Deepwater Horizon oil disaster and thought to yourselves, “My, that really is a terrible, apocalyptic cock-up!” But have you gone so far as to think to yourself, “My, that really is a terrible, apocalyptic cock-up, the costs of which I should logically be burdened with, because I am responsible for everything that happened?” No? Well, you should maybe start thinking that way, because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce thinks you should!

[From Chamber Of Commerce Says Taxpayers Should Help Pay For BP Spill Cleanup; GOP Leader Agrees, Then Recants]

ariel pink’s dallas connection

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Some of our readers may have noticed the highly complimentary “Best New Music” review of Ariel Pink’s latest record on Pitchfork this week, and if you’ve been keeping tabs on his career over the past several years, you might find the review pretty surprising given Pitchfork’s luke-warm response to almost everything else the guy’s ever done. Of course, it’s just all too convenient that Pitchfork has finally come around to Ariel Pink now that he seems to be responsible for many of underground pop music’s most important trends over the past couple of years, but I suppose such behavior is pretty typical of the site these days.

The reason any of this matters to us, however, is that there’s a local connection– the excellent first track on the new album, “Hot Body Rub,” was recorded by Ariel Pink in Dallas with a group called Added Pizzaz, which features Aaron, Stefan AND Dennis Gonzalez (double/electric bass, drums/vibes and trumpet, respectively), as well as:

“Jim Lehnert on sax and trombone, Dennis Gonzalez on trumpet and Tamara Cauble on violin.. With the team of production and sound design by Vas Deferens Organization. Vas Deferens Organization is made up of Matt Castille, and Eric Lumbleau.”

The group apparently worked on a number of other tracks with Pink as well, and we’ll have more on that for you here as soon as we confirm all the details.

Update: We should mention that the track was recorded at Klearlight Studio, which has not only had a wealth of good local artists working there lately, such as Darktown Strutters, True Widow, the reunited and legendary underground metal act Divine Eve, and the excellent Berliner Eins, which features the studio’s own Jay Jernigan and Jonathan Montpas; but also yielded the Ariel Pink/VDO collaboration Shits and Giggles and the Trick Or Treat LP, which was mostly overlooked after it was recorded nearly two years ago, and possibly even more music from Ariel Pink that may or may not ever see release. And as has been reported, the studio of course, also acts as a label, with releases on its own Restore Vinyl imprint.

I can’t help but feel that Dallas is one of the only places where Ariel Pink recording in an actual studio and increasingly departing from his bedroom sound, which has been one of the most talked about and important narratives in music in 2010, goes largely ignored even though DFW is one of the actual settings for said narrative. And yet every painful acoustic troubadour project gets top billing. Hey, as some smart dead guy said, “That’s the way of the world.”

Correction: Earlier we had listed Jimi Bowman as being part of Berliner Eins, when he was in fact, the mix & mastering engineer on the duo’s 7-inch release, which you should make every effort to hear, since there are very few things like it in the current local scene. We apologize for this very rare mistake. -DL

[From weshotjr.com]

(A) Futuristic, (B) Retro, (C) Organic or (D) Architecture « Dornob

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In discussion with Dornob, he noted that one of the highest forms of praise one can receive is when someone tells you they recognized something as your design because it looked unlike anything you have done to date. His inspirations include such ground-breaking architects as Antoni Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff – designers who diverged from the mainstream styles of their times.

[From (A) Futuristic, (B) Retro, (C) Organic or (D) Architecture « Dornob]

Steve Ballmer doesn’t get it – Fortune Tech

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Microsoft’s CEO knows the future of personal computing lies with mobile, yet he continues to live in the past.

I sat incredulous last week listening to Steve Ballmer display more out-to-lunchness than I’ve ever heard from a major CEO. His company, Microsoft (MSFT), only recently lost the battle of most valuable technology company to Apple (AAPL). He is presiding over the umpteenth reorganization of the company he has run for years, having succeeded his pal, Bill Gates. His online business, whose Bing search engine is making modest gains against industry leader Google, lost more than $700 million last quarter.

Yet here was Ballmer traveling down a semantical rabbit hole over the future of the PCs. In Ballmerworld, it doesn’t matter that the PC is shrinking in relevance. Any device is a computer, and people will want to use Windows because they’re so familiar with it. By the way, Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest release, is crushing it, further proof that computer users love Microsoft.

CEOs certainly are paid to put on a happy face and represent as well as possible. But hearing Ballmer at the Wall Street Journal’s D conference left me with one question: What is the guy smoking? Windows 7 has been a “success” in part because Microsoft’s previous effort, Vista, was such a stinker. Businesses the world over held off so long on upgrading their PCs that once Microsoft got it right they had no choice but to start replacing obsolete equipment.

Semantics aside, Ballmer knows as well as anyone that the future of personal-computer industry is in mobile devices. Here, Microsoft’s hand is so weak that its most important global equipment partner, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), is buying a beleaguered smartphone maker, Palm (PALM), for its superior mobile operating system. Ballmer’s reminiscing that Microsoft was ahead of the curve on mobile software only draws attention to the fact that the PC kingpin’s cash, power, research and market might have left it approximately nothing in the phone arena. That’s not good. If the growth is in mobile devices and Microsoft can’t shoot straight on anything other than a PC or a laptop (and, to give credit where its due, gaming devices), then its fearsome cash flow and market position in the corporate enterprise mean less than nothing going forward. In the area of computing where Microsoft has been thrashed by Apple, it is nothing more than an extremely well-funded yet dysfunctional and emotionally scarred company. (This seems like a good time to point out that Microsoft has been pursuing tablet computers for a decade, the very segment Apple dominated in a couple months. But then that would feel like piling on.)

[From Steve Ballmer doesn’t get it – Fortune Tech]

Drumbeats: The Tech Press Turns on Microsoft’s Ballmer – Newsweek

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Microsoft has a problem—a big one. The problem is not just that its CEO, Steve Ballmer, has had a disastrous 10-year run. That’s been obvious for a while now, as I first pointed out last October in a piece titled “The Lost Decade—Why Steve Ballmer is no Bill Gates.”
It even prompted me to predict, last fall, that Ballmer would get pushed out of Microsoft this year.

That wasn’t a popular position at the time. Microsoft’s head of PR called my piece a “hit job on Steve,” and told me all the ways I was wrong and stupid and off the mark. Then he pretty much stopped communicating with me.
I figured he was just in denial, or maybe just saying what he needed to say because he was getting paid to say it.
But my goodness, how much difference a year makes—because these days everyone seems to be piling on Ballmer. And that poor PR guy has a much bigger problem on his hands.

[From Drumbeats: The Tech Press Turns on Microsoft’s Ballmer – Newsweek]

BBC – Music – Review of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today

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Other highlights arrive in the 70s Bowie funk snark of opener Hot Body Rub, Bright Lit Blue Skies’ quietly euphoric pop radio charge, L’estat’s synth whirl and Reminiscences’ pleasant, aquatic drift. In fact, every track on this superb album is a winner – and, draped in the quiet glamour, fun and stateliness of bygone radio pop-rock, evidence that Ariel has emerged from his bedroom to exact his revenge on Hollywood’s Hills.

[From BBC – Music – Review of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – Before Today]

Thad Allen Letter To Tony Hayward: BP Is Not Being Transparent

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen has written to BP CEO Tony Hayward demanding “more detail and openness” about how the company is handling mounting damage claims in the wake of the Gulf Coast oil spill.

Allen reminded Hayward in the letter dated Tuesday that the company “is accountable to the American public for the economic loss caused by the oil spill” and said he recognized Hayward has “accepted responsibility” for it.

[From Thad Allen Letter To Tony Hayward: BP Is Not Being Transparent]

‘The New Marijuana’: Where Do We Blow From Here? : NPR

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Los Angeles, for example, is infamous for having more medical marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks coffee shops. These are the storefronts that sell medicinal pot, typically offering an assortment of designer varieties with names such as Super Bubba Kush, Granddaddy Purple and Hollywood OG. At Venice Beach, one dispensary has become something of a tourist attraction by using carnival-style pitchmen to lure in customers.

[From ‘The New Marijuana’: Where Do We Blow From Here? : NPR]

Walruses in Louisiana? Eyebrow-raising details of BP’s spill response plan

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Louisiana walruses? Seals swimming along the Gulf Coast?

These creatures normally live in the Arctic Ocean, not the Gulf of Mexico, but they’re listed as “sensitive biological resources” that could be affected by an oil spill in the area in a document filed by BP last June with the U.S. Minerals Management Service. More than a month after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig blew out and sank on April 20, the British oil giant’s regional spill response plan drew some severe criticism from the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

[From Walruses in Louisiana? Eyebrow-raising details of BP’s spill response plan | Analysis & Opinion |]

Cage fighter who ripped out partner’s heart charged

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LONDON – An American cage fighter accused of ripping out the heart of his training partner while he was still alive will be charged with murder and torture, though his lawyer blamed the killing on a psychotic fit.

Jarrod Wyatt (picture), also cut out his friend’s tongue and tore off most of his face in a brutal assault in Klamath, California, that police said looked like a scene from a horror film.

They found the 26 year old standing naked over his friend’s body with body parts, including an eyeball, strewn around the blood splattered room.

Wyatt told police he had drunk a cup of tea spiked with hallucinogenic mushrooms and became convinced his close friend Taylor Powell was possessed.

According to an autopsy, Mr Powell, 21, bled to death after his heart was ripped out. The coroner said he was still alive when his chest was sliced open with a knife.

Wyatt told the police he had thrown the heart into a fire along with other organs that he had removed from the body. He told investigators he cooked the body parts because he was fearful Mr Powell was still alive and he “needed to stop the devil”.

Police had been called to the grisly scene after a third friend had witnessed a sudden mood change in Wyatt after they had all ingested the wild mushroom tea.

Mr Justin Davis told police he returned to the flat to find Wyatt naked and covered from head to toe in blood. He also saw Mr Powell’s mutilated body.

Lawyer James Fallman, who represents Wyatt, has claimed the wild mushrooms caused his client to act in such a violent way and he had no control over his actions.

“My client was trying to silence the devil,” he said. “I think he was having a psychotic fit based on the mushrooms he had.”

In an attempt to get the charges lowered, the lawyer also tried to argue that Wyatt believed Mr Powell was threatening his ex-girlfriend and overreacted trying to defend her. AGENCIES

[From TODAYonline | World | Cage fighter who ripped out partner’s heart charged]

Explorer | Inside LSD | National Geographic Channel

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LSDs inventor Albert Hofmann called it “medicine for the soul.” The Beatles wrote songs about it. Secret military mind control experiments exploited its hallucinogenic powers. Outlawed in 1966, LSD became a street drug and developed a reputation as the dangerous toy of the counterculture, capable of inspiring either moments of genius, or a descent into madness. Now science is taking a fresh look at LSD, including the first human trials in over 35 years. Using enhanced brain imaging, non-hallucinogenic versions of the drug and information from an underground network of test subjects who suffer from an agonizing condition for which there is no cure, researchers are finding that this “trippy” drug could become the pharmaceutical of the future. Can it enhance our brain power, expand our creativity and cure disease? To find out, Explorer puts LSD under the microscope.

[From Explorer | Inside LSD | National Geographic Channel]

The Strange Money Trees of England | Amusing Planet

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When you were a kid, you probably often heard your mother chiding that “money doesn’t grow on trees” in an attempt to curb your expensive demands. If only you knew, you could have told her that money, in fact, does grow on trees. At least in England they do.

There are places in England where you can find trees with coins hammered and bent into the bark. Nobody knows for sure why people pushed coins into the trees. Some believe it brings good luck. Others believe that the amount of coins pushed in by an individual may result in them producing the same amount of children.

Money trees can be found all over Britain. All I need is a plane ticket… and a pair of pliers.

[From The Strange Money Trees of England | Amusing Planet]

Titan: Nasa scientists discover evidence ‘that alien life exists on Saturn’s moon’ – Telegraph

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Researchers at the space agency believe they have discovered vital clues that appeared to indicate that primitive aliens could be living on the planet.

Data from Nasa’s Cassini probe has analysed the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan, which experts say is the only moon around the planet to have a dense atmosphere.

[From Titan: Nasa scientists discover evidence ‘that alien life exists on Saturn’s moon’ – Telegraph]

Pocket protector, meet your cousin: the iPad suit

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Apple products often spawn ecosystems of product categories to facilitate their existence. The iPod and iPhone, for instance, gave birth to speaker docks, FM transmitters and protective cases. And now an ecosystem of products is materializing for the iPad: they include cases of all sorts, bean bag lap rests and, yes, clothes. Suits, to be specific.

Upscale Manhattan tailor Mohan’s Tailor Shop, which boasts a clientele including Barry Bonds, Walt Frazier and Gary Carter, recently unveiled a custom made suit with a jacket pocket to accommodate the iPad (as reported in the WSJ). The impetus for it was the result of several customer requests for the feature; since its unveiling, the tailor says it has received about “100 calls and scheduled several dozen appointments with customers over the next several weeks” for a fitting.

Mohan’s must be pulling off some magic of its own to fit Apple’s “magical” device in a jacket pocket. At 1.6 pounds, I’m guessing the iPad may pull one side of the jacket lower than the other, thus necessitating some kind of counterbalance.

Personally, I’d rather just use a bag.

[From Pocket protector, meet your cousin: the iPad suit]

  

41 Hilarious Mugshots – Urlesque

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Getting arrested sucks, but the unpleasantness of it all doesn’t stop thousands of people from being apprehended every day — and, to be fair, not everyone who gets nabbed is even close to what most would consider a criminal. Mugshots can tell us a lot; some spice up their gloomy trip by maintaining a cheerful attitude through the booking process, the results of which are funny and sometimes endearing mugshots.

[From 41 Hilarious Mugshots – Urlesque]

At D, all hail the iPad | Beyond Binary – CNET News

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RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.–There is one clear star emerging at this year’s D: All Things Digital conference: Apple’s iPad.
In addition to all the stage time that the tablet got during Steve Jobs’ talk last night, it is also dominating the discussion with other presenters.
Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg sang Jobs praises for several minutes, before declaring: “His greatest accomplishment is going to be this tablet.”
“As Steve said last night, there is something indescribable about the connection,” Katzenberg said. “Our children are going to get educated on it. They are going to play on it. They are going to consume more media on that than any other (device).”
Katzenberg said he now only carries his BlackBerry and iPad and not a traditional laptop.
“The laptop is yesterday’s news,” he said.

[From At D, all hail the iPad | Beyond Binary – CNET News]