Sunday, August 5, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Diamond District - In The Ruff Instrumentals
Via Strictly Beats. Great instrumental album to bump while working.
A couple of the tracks seem to repeat one beat. Maybe I'm just going crazy. All in all, good work album.
A couple of the tracks seem to repeat one beat. Maybe I'm just going crazy. All in all, good work album.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Humans Can Fly
Posted this a while back, but it's just so cool I need to repost it.
The track @ 1:00 is JDiz Organ & Sackcloth Fashion - Under Man. Can't find the 1st song online.
In September 2010, Shin Ito set a world record flying 10.87 miles over Davis, California. He flew for 4:57 and reached a top speed of 177 mph. THAT'S INSANE. Can you imagine flying in the air for 5 minutes? Can you imagine flying in the air period?!
The track @ 1:00 is JDiz Organ & Sackcloth Fashion - Under Man. Can't find the 1st song online.
In September 2010, Shin Ito set a world record flying 10.87 miles over Davis, California. He flew for 4:57 and reached a top speed of 177 mph. THAT'S INSANE. Can you imagine flying in the air for 5 minutes? Can you imagine flying in the air period?!
Too Good to be True
I just tried this drink called Bai5. It's great. It's a sweet juice (actually it's only 4% juice so I'm not sure what to call it - it's a sweet drink). It's also supposedly good for you, as it uses 'coffee's secret superfruit.' Turns out the skin that shells a coffee bean is a fruit and its full of antioxidants, which modern marketing says is really good for me. I don't know why and it's too late to google it.
The bottle goes on to say that "Just one gram of Bai pure coffee fruit extract has the astonishing antioxidant power of 4,000 ORAC UNITS." (their all caps and bolding, not mine). I have no idea what ORAC UNITS are. It sounds like some power metric for a trading card game I would be playing if I were in the 5th grade.
What really struck me about the juice was its low calorie content. It has 5 calories per 8 fl oz, totaling a little over 10 calories for this significantly sweet 16.9 fl oz bottle. I checked the usual suspect; aspartame. It doesn't have any. The trick, ladies and gentlemen, is an ingredient heretofore unbeknownst to me: erythritol. It's now my new best friend, as through some heavy googling (i.e., ~5 minutes), the only negative side effect I could find was farts. And farting I have been. But hey. It's pleasure doing business with you erythritol.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
14KT Mix by Rhettmatic
Dope mix by Rhettmatic of the Beat Junkies.
@0:52, 2:43, 7:04, 11:18
14KT BEAT MIX by Rhettmatic by jrocc
@0:52, 2:43, 7:04, 11:18
14KT BEAT MIX by Rhettmatic by jrocc
Monday, April 18, 2011
Bill Russell - Mind Games
I'm a huge Celtics fan. In honor of the beginning of the NBA Playoff season, here is a great video highlighting one of the legends of the game, Bill Russell. Russel played 13 seasons with the Celtics, and won 11 championships, more championships than any North American professional athlete in history. Not only was Russell one of the greatest players of all time, he was active in the Civil Rights Movement, for which he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama in 2011.
This video provides some insight into the 'intellectualization' of basketball that Russell was accused of by Wilt Chamberlain. I love the spiritual connotations in the discussion of Russell's playing style, such as this line at 4:10;
"Perhaps his greatest mental ability was to sift through all the mind's clutter to discover and harness purity of purpose. A distilled dedication to one goal: winning."
I also enjoyed this line from Bill at the very end; "There are 10 players, 3 refs, 2 hoops, 20,000 people, 1 ball. What's gonna happen with that ball is the most interesting thing." It may seem obvious to some, but this fact that it all comes down to what happens with the ball has been somewhat of a revelation to me. Everything else that occurs on the field or the court is a means to affect the ball.
Some other notable lines;
- Russell: "Psychologically, you have to make the opposite player question what he's doing...you have to create doubts."
- "Russell blocked shots without blocking them because people wouldn't take shots because people were afraid to take them. He changed the whole game."
- Russell: "I would block a guy's shot and say 'Yes, we did that to you. If you come back, we'll do it again. If you come back again, we'll do it another time. So you're going to have to find something else to do.'" (@2:42)
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Jay-Z - The Blueprint [Reconstructed]
This album [download here] dropped a year and a half ago via Kevin Nottingham, but I just heard it today, 'cause I sleep like that. All the tracks off the original Blueprint come equipped with heavy new beats, and I must say, they are delicious. 2dopeboyz.com gives the background on the project; 'KN ran a contest for folks to rework the production side of Hov’s classic. Each producer used the same samples for each record.' This album has introduced some fantastic new producers: Sima, Bidimridim, G.C., EB Productions, S.T.T.R.E.S.S., and more. If y'all know any good jams from these guys, post 'em in the comments.
My favorite track from the album is below. I've blasted this track right hurr about 20x times today. 'LET'S GET SHIT POPPIN' is the sentiment I'm left with. Let me know your favorite tracks off the album.
"More Girls, Girls, Girls" produced by Sima
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Raw Stiles
What's better than an amazing new producer that comes out of the blue? One that posts their music for free. Raw Stiles dropped his debut album, Hello Lovely EP, a little more than a year ago. Featuring original compositions from the man himself that have been likened to the school of J Dilla and Madlib, you know it's bound to be bangers. If your head isn't nodding straight through, get your ears checked.
Raw Material Vol. 1 is a compilation album featuring some great jazz/funk jams courtesy of Raw Stiles' diligent crate digging.The selections are all gems, with my personal favorite coming in at track 6: Don Rendell's 'Blue Mosque.' Raw Material Vol 2 features two longer mixes, both phenomenal. Listen and download all of Raw Stiles' music here.
It Ain't Hard to Tell (Four Tet Remix) - Nas / Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Beautiful song. Excellent remix by Four Tet, providing a fresh take on an all time classic. The glitching at the end is a bit jarring, but hey.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Queen Latifah - Just Another Day
File this one under "insanely dope hip hop." You might be more familiar with Latifah from her acting career beginning in 1993, but Latifah first hit the stage when she dropped All Hail the Queen in 1989. This particular track was a single off her 1993 album 'Black Reign,' which also featured the classic track 'U.N.I.T.Y.' An amazing beat combined with Latifah's flow which is gentle but firm, fitting since (apparently) 'Latifah' means 'delicate' in Arabic.
Are We Lost Mammals of an Approaching Transcendental Epoch?
Are We Lost Mammals of an Approaching Transcendental Epoch? from StrangeLoop on Vimeo.
You tell me. Awesome video. Awesome song. Deep title. 'Nuff said.
The Force (will one day be) Strong With This One...
An absolutely adorable / hilarious super bowl ad from VW. Das Auto? More like Das AWESOME!
Bad-Ass Legos
'In a medieval forest, a simple lumberjack is granted the greatest power of all time. Created by Paganomation for the LEGO Club Show in early 2010.'
SO AMAZING! I would have killed to have some of these lego monsters when I was a kid. The song and video go great together, really tight production all around. You can view some photos from the production here. How they turned those photos into this awesome video is beyond me.
Enjoy!
Friday, January 21, 2011
Test Drive a Tesla Roadster for $25
Just heard from my friends at GOOD Magazine (definitely check them out) about Getaround, a new company that has a web / smartphone platform enabling peer-to-peer car sharing. Make money from that parked car of yours!
"Since the invention of the automobile, we've been conditioned to think that only one person should own and use each car," says Getaround co-founder Elliot Kroo. "Getaround is changing that paradigm by enabling people to access a vehicle instead of having to possess one."
The best part? One getaround member is helping promote the company and the love of electric vehicles by renting his $100k+ Tesla Roadster for $25 an hour!!
Still trying to find out where this generous owner resides...please post in comments if you find out!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
'Your Brain on Computers'
“...people are walking around fatigued and not realizing their cognitive potential...What can we do to get us back to our full potential?”
Art Kramer, straight lampin. Photo courtesy of Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
“Attention is the holy grail,” [David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah] says. “Everything that you’re conscious of, everything you let in, everything you remember and you forget, depends on it.”
----
...technology has redefined the notion of what is “urgent.” How soon do people need to get information and respond to it?...the drumbeat of incoming data has created a false sense of urgency that can affect people’s ability to focus.
...a seminal study from the University of Michigan that showed people can better learn after walking in the woods than after walking a busy street. The study indicates that learning centers in the brain become taxed when asked to process information, even during the relatively passive experience of taking in an urban setting. By extension, some scientists believe heavy multitasking fatigues the brain, draining it of the ability to focus.
Mr. Strayer, the trip leader, argues that nature can refresh the brain. “Our senses change. They kind of recalibrate — you notice sounds, like these crickets chirping; you hear the river, the sounds, the smells, you become more connected to the physical environment, the earth, rather than the artificial environment.”
Mr. Braver accepts the Michigan research but wants to understand precisely what happens inside the brain. And he wonders: Why don’t brains adapt to the heavy stimulation, turning us into ever-stronger multitaskers?
“Right,” says Mr. Kramer, the skeptic. “Why wouldn’t the circuits be exercised, in a sense, and we’d get stronger?”
This has become such a sizzling field of research that two years ago the National Institutes of Health established a division to support studies of the parts of the brain involved with focus.
Behavioral studies have shown that performance suffers when people multitask. These researchers are wondering whether attention and focus can take a hit when people merely anticipate the arrival of more digital stimulation.
“The expectation of e-mail seems to be taking up our working memory,” Mr. Yantis says.
Working memory is a precious resource in the brain. The scientists hypothesize that a fraction of brain power is tied up in anticipating e-mail and other new information — and that they might be able to prove it using imaging.
“To the extent you have less working memory, you have less space for storing and integrating ideas and therefore less to do the reasoning you need to do,” says Mr. Kramer, floating nearby.
“There’s a real mental freedom in knowing no one or nothing can interrupt you,” Mr. Braver says. He echoes the others in noting that the trip is in many ways more effective than work retreats set in hotels, often involving hundreds of people who shuffle through quick meetings, wielding BlackBerrys. “It’s why I got into science, to talk about ideas.”
He wants to use imaging technology to see whether the effect of nature on the brain can be measured and whether there are other ways to reproduce it, say, through meditation.
Mr. Kramer says he wants to look at whether the benefits to the brain — the clearer thoughts, for example — come from the experience of being in nature, the exertion of hiking and rafting, or a combination.
...how and why people are distracted by irrelevant streams of information.
“If we can find out that people are walking around fatigued and not realizing their cognitive potential,” Mr. Braver says, then pauses and adds: “What can we do to get us back to our full potential?”
As they near the airport, Mr. Kramer also mentions a personal discovery: “I have a colleague who says that I’m being very impolite when I pull out a computer during meetings. I say: ‘I can listen.’ ”
“Maybe I’m not listening so well. Maybe I can work at being more engaged.”
The Group;
- David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and the trip's organizer.
- Todd Braver, 41, the fast-talking, brain imaging expert, psychology professor at Washington U. in St. Louis.
- Steven Yantis, 54, the tall and contemplative chairman of the psychological and brain sciences department at Johns Hopkins, who studies how people switch between tasks;
- Paul Atchley, 40, a professor at the University of Kansas who studies teenagers’ compulsive use of cellphones
- Art Kramer, 57, a white-bearded professor at the University of Illinois who has gained attention for his studies of the neurological benefits of exercise...Among the bright academic lights in the group, Mr. Kramer is the most prominent. At the time of the trip he was about to take over a $300,000-a-year position as director of the Beckman Institute, a leading research center at the University of Illinois with around 1,000 scientists and staff workers and tens of millions of dollars in grant financing. He is also intense personally — someone who has been challenging himself since early in life; he says he left home when he was a teenager, became an amateur boxer and, later, flew airplanes, rock-climbed and smashed his knee in a “high-speed skiing accident.”
- Also on the trip are a reporter and a photographer, and Richard Boyer, a quiet outdoorsman and accomplished landscape painter
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print
Art Kramer, straight lampin. Photo courtesy of Chang W. Lee/The New York Times“Attention is the holy grail,” [David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah] says. “Everything that you’re conscious of, everything you let in, everything you remember and you forget, depends on it.”
----
...technology has redefined the notion of what is “urgent.” How soon do people need to get information and respond to it?...the drumbeat of incoming data has created a false sense of urgency that can affect people’s ability to focus.
...a seminal study from the University of Michigan that showed people can better learn after walking in the woods than after walking a busy street. The study indicates that learning centers in the brain become taxed when asked to process information, even during the relatively passive experience of taking in an urban setting. By extension, some scientists believe heavy multitasking fatigues the brain, draining it of the ability to focus.
Mr. Strayer, the trip leader, argues that nature can refresh the brain. “Our senses change. They kind of recalibrate — you notice sounds, like these crickets chirping; you hear the river, the sounds, the smells, you become more connected to the physical environment, the earth, rather than the artificial environment.”
Mr. Braver accepts the Michigan research but wants to understand precisely what happens inside the brain. And he wonders: Why don’t brains adapt to the heavy stimulation, turning us into ever-stronger multitaskers?
“Right,” says Mr. Kramer, the skeptic. “Why wouldn’t the circuits be exercised, in a sense, and we’d get stronger?”
This has become such a sizzling field of research that two years ago the National Institutes of Health established a division to support studies of the parts of the brain involved with focus.
Behavioral studies have shown that performance suffers when people multitask. These researchers are wondering whether attention and focus can take a hit when people merely anticipate the arrival of more digital stimulation.
“The expectation of e-mail seems to be taking up our working memory,” Mr. Yantis says.
Working memory is a precious resource in the brain. The scientists hypothesize that a fraction of brain power is tied up in anticipating e-mail and other new information — and that they might be able to prove it using imaging.
“To the extent you have less working memory, you have less space for storing and integrating ideas and therefore less to do the reasoning you need to do,” says Mr. Kramer, floating nearby.
“There’s a real mental freedom in knowing no one or nothing can interrupt you,” Mr. Braver says. He echoes the others in noting that the trip is in many ways more effective than work retreats set in hotels, often involving hundreds of people who shuffle through quick meetings, wielding BlackBerrys. “It’s why I got into science, to talk about ideas.”
He wants to use imaging technology to see whether the effect of nature on the brain can be measured and whether there are other ways to reproduce it, say, through meditation.
Mr. Kramer says he wants to look at whether the benefits to the brain — the clearer thoughts, for example — come from the experience of being in nature, the exertion of hiking and rafting, or a combination.
...how and why people are distracted by irrelevant streams of information.
“If we can find out that people are walking around fatigued and not realizing their cognitive potential,” Mr. Braver says, then pauses and adds: “What can we do to get us back to our full potential?”
As they near the airport, Mr. Kramer also mentions a personal discovery: “I have a colleague who says that I’m being very impolite when I pull out a computer during meetings. I say: ‘I can listen.’ ”
“Maybe I’m not listening so well. Maybe I can work at being more engaged.”
The Group;
- David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and the trip's organizer.
- Todd Braver, 41, the fast-talking, brain imaging expert, psychology professor at Washington U. in St. Louis.
- Steven Yantis, 54, the tall and contemplative chairman of the psychological and brain sciences department at Johns Hopkins, who studies how people switch between tasks;
- Paul Atchley, 40, a professor at the University of Kansas who studies teenagers’ compulsive use of cellphones
- Art Kramer, 57, a white-bearded professor at the University of Illinois who has gained attention for his studies of the neurological benefits of exercise...Among the bright academic lights in the group, Mr. Kramer is the most prominent. At the time of the trip he was about to take over a $300,000-a-year position as director of the Beckman Institute, a leading research center at the University of Illinois with around 1,000 scientists and staff workers and tens of millions of dollars in grant financing. He is also intense personally — someone who has been challenging himself since early in life; he says he left home when he was a teenager, became an amateur boxer and, later, flew airplanes, rock-climbed and smashed his knee in a “high-speed skiing accident.”
- Also on the trip are a reporter and a photographer, and Richard Boyer, a quiet outdoorsman and accomplished landscape painter
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=print
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