This page will look much nicer in a browser that supports CSS, or with CSS turned on.

Uncertain Principles

Physics, Politics, Pop Culture

Friday, December 17, 2004

A Musical Question

So, there's this act called "The Streets," which is really one gawky British guy sort-of-rapping. What's up with that?

I mean, why is this clown getting radio airplay, from "alternative" stations, no less? His "songs" marry plodding, uninteresting beats ("Fit But You Know It" would have the most crashingly dull hook of the year, were it not for the existence of Lenny Kravitz's "Lady") to obscure and unintersting British slang, and wraps the whole thing in a "Wot you fink about dat?" accent that's just this side of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins.

To top it all off, he's really not even rapping. I mean, I'm not the biggest rap fan you'll ever meet, but I do recognize that there's some talent to what people like Eminem do-- there's a rhythm and a flow to the delivery that requires some skill to pull off.

Not this jackass, though. I swear, he's just talking over a lame and repetitive beat. There's nothing the least bit skillful about his performance-- the lyrics, such as they are, are just spoken flatly.

This is utter crap, from beginning to end. And yet, it gets played at least once a day on both of the alternative stations I listen to. What am I missing here?

Posted at 1:24 AM | link | follow-ups | 11 comments


Wednesday, December 15, 2004

It's Like a Whole 'Nother Country

When I walked out of the hotel to get in the cab to go to the airport, the cabbie got out to open the trunk for me. While doing so, he said, and I swear I'm not making this up, "Pretty frosty this morning, eh?"

Now, to be fair, this was the only time I heard somebody actually end a sentence with "eh," but really, it was just beyond parody.

That was hardly the only stereotypically Canadian thing I saw, of course, though most of the rest came from television. The Canadian equivalent of ESPN was pretty fascinating: the NHL is locked out, and they still found twenty minutes' worth of hockey stories and highlights (not county the twenty minutes spent on the latest breakdown in negotiations) for SportsCentre, including extensive coverage of an intra-squad game between players trying out for the junior national team. They do love their hockey.

Other sports coverage also tended toward the old ultraviolence, with a great deal of coverage of some boxing match or another, and a lot of pro wrestling. The first night I got there, I saw pro wrestling on three different channels, two of them simultaneously. I really hope they know it's fake.

Also, Sudbury has Tim Horton's like Boston has Dunkin Donuts. I think we passed at least six at various points, and it's not that big a town.

(This low point in international relations was brought to you by the letter "A.")

Posted at 7:44 PM | link | follow-ups | no comments


Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Souvenirs

I'm back from my trip to Northern Ontario, bringing with me a deep and profound hatred of the Toronto airport, a weirdly bulbous mug, and three business cards.

The hatred of Toronto's airport is from the many, many stupid and inconvenient features of that place, from their exceedinly picky ATM's, to the vast spaces between gates and maps, to the teeny tiny little sign indicating the "US Citizens/ US Passport Holders" line at Customs.

The mug is from the conference, a freebie handed out to all attendees (it's not a real conference if you don't get a coffee mug or a bag with a logo on it). I'm not sure why it's that shape, but, hey, free mug.

The business cards are from people who were interested in my talk, and would like to know more about the technique I was discussing, and other applications of it. These are by far the most important of the things I brought home.

The trick now is to parlay those cards into something that will advance my research program. That's going to be hard work, but for the moment, they let me feel like a player-- look, Ma, I'm networking! Tonight, I'm going to savor that, and go play with the best Emmy ever.

It's good to be home.

Posted at 9:39 PM | link | follow-ups | 7 comments


ΔxΔp ≥ h / 4 π

My stuff

orzelc@steelypips.org
What's with the name?
Who is this clown?
Does he know what he's talking about?
Archived Posts
Index of Physics Posts
RSS, version 0.91
The Library of Babel
Japan Stories

Δ E Δ t ≥ h / 4 π

Other People's Stuff

AKMA's Random Thoughts
Arcane Gazebo
Arts and Letters Daily
Balkinization
Boing Boing
Chronicles of Dr. Crazy
Confessions of a Community College Dean
Corndoggerel
Cosmic Variance
Crooked Timber
Brad DeLong
Diary de la Vex
Drink at Work
Easily Distracted
Electrolite
Electron Blue
Fafblog!
John Fleck
Gallimaufry
Grim Amusements
David Harris's Science and Literature Hellblazer
In the Pipeline
Invisible Adjunct
Izzle Pfaff
Knowing and Doing
The Last Nail
Learning Curves
The Little Professor
Making Light
Malice Aforethought
Medpundit
Chris C. Mooney
Musical Perceptions
Musings
My Heart's in Accra
Newsrack
Michael Nielsen
Not Even Wrong
Notional Slurry
Off the Kuff
One Man's Opinion
Orange Quark
The Panda's Thumb
Pedablogue
Perverse Access Memory
Pharyngula
Political Animal
Polytropos
The Poor Man
Preposterous Universe
Prometheus
Pub Sociology
Quantum Pontiff
Real Climate
The Reality-Based Community
SciTech Daily
Sensei and Sensibility
Slacktivist
Snarkout
Talking Points Memo
Through the Looking Glass
Unmistakable Marks
Unqualified Offerings
View From the Corner of the Room
Westerblog
Whatever
What's New
Whiskey Bar
Wolverine Tom
Word Munger
Yes, YelloCello
Matthew Yglesias

Book Stuff

Book Slut
Neil Gaiman
The Humblest Blog on the Net
Pam Korda
Lundblog
Outside of a Dog
Reading Notes
Seven Things Lately
The Tufted Shoot
Virtual Marginalia
Weasel Words
Woodge's Book Report

Sports

ACC Hoops
College Basketball (2.0)
Dave Sez
Hoop Time 3.0
KenPom
The Mid-Majority
Set Shot
Tuesday Morning Quarterback

Δ N Δ Φ ≥ 1 / 2

Reviews

BlogCritics
75 or Less Album Reviews
Rotten Tomatoes
The Onion A.V. Club

Geek Stuff

Annals of Improbable Research
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Britney Spears's Guide to Semiconductor Physics
The Comic Book Periodic Table
MC Hawking's Crib
The Museum of Unworkable Devices
Myths and Mysteries of Science
The Onion
Physics 2000
Sluggy Freelance
Sodaconstructor
Web Elements
Physics Central (APS)
This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics

Useful Stuff

Bloglines
Blogtracker
Web Design Group
Weblogs.com

While it is my fervent hope that my employers agree with me about the laws of physics, all opinions expressed here are mine, and mine alone. Don't hold my politics against them.

Weblog posts are copyright 2003 by Chad Orzel, but may be copied and distributed (and linked to) freely, with the correct attribution. But you knew that already.

If you use Internet Explorer, and the text to the right cuts off abruptly at the end of this column, hit "F11" twice, and you should get the rest of it. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Powered by Blogger Pro and BlogKomm.

Steelypips main page.