Sunday  30 Jul 2023           comment?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that AI software can separate recorded music into its component parts but I'm impressed that it works as well as it does, especially for drums: a set of instruments with indefinite pitches.

YouTube has postings of isolated drums from a few King Crimson records, giving me new insight into music that I've been listening to for almost 50 years. The coda of Lament (starting here at 6:38) has seven measures of drums in 4/4 while the guitar plays eight measures in 7/8.

Saturday  29 Jul 2023           comment?

13 years ago, I wrote:

Of all the buildings I've lived in over the years, only one (to my knowledge) is no more: 135 West 22 St. in Manhattan, torn down (along with a few adjacent buildings) a couple years ago and replaced by a taller building.

Another building I lived in--albeit briefly--has also been replaced: 2040 Davies Way in Los Angeles. Friends let me stay there for a few weeks in 1981 when I started a new job and was looking for more permanent housing.

Davies Way is at 1300' above sea level in the hills above West Hollywood. I didn't have a car and was getting around by bicycle. I wasn't experienced with managing long steep descents and I melted a pair of brake pads on one of my first days there.

Saturday  22 Jul 2023           comment?

At about 3:24 PM today, the eight closest planes to me were all gliders.

Friday  21 Jul 2023           comment?

Thursday  20 Jul 2023           comment?

Google Maps spells Zaqistan wrong. Open Street Map gets it right. Bing Maps has never heard of it.

Zaq Landsberg says he's gotten hundreds of letters from Pakistanis wanting to immigrate to Zaqistan, which may have something to do with why Zaqistan's contact page says it's not possible to live there.

Wednesday  12 Jul 2023           comment?

I came across this California kingsnake a couple days ago. It looked like it had recently lost a fight. I've cropped this pic to show the portion that remained photogenic. I've always liked the look of this species. The markings occur in many variations.

Tuesday  11 Jul 2023           1 comment

from a 1784 essay by Immanuel Kant:

Enlightenment is the emergence of the human being from its self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to make use of one's understanding without direction of another. This immaturity is self‑incurred when the cause of it lies not in the lack of understanding but of resolution and of courage to make use of it without direction of another. Sapere aude! Have courage to make use of your own understanding! is thus the motto of enlightenment.

Laziness and cowardice are the causes why so great a part of human beings, long after nature emancipated them from other people's direction, nevertheless gladly remain underage all their lives; and why it becomes so easy for others to set themselves up as their guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor. If I have a book that has understanding for me, a spiritual advisor who has a conscience for me, a doctor who decides on a diet for me, and so on, then I need not to trouble myself at all.

a cartoon from 1984:

Saturday  01 Jul 2023           comment?