I have trouble listening to music with words because I sing along in my head, and I have a trouble listening to classical music because I play along in my head (I'm a violinist).
I think whether you feel relaxed listening to 'worded' music is highly dependent on what the lyrics convey. For example, if you were to listen to Meditative chants (Vedic/Hindu/Buddhist/Sanskrit Peace chants as an example), whose sole purpose is to invoke Peace in the mind, you'd find them relaxing. Here's one such example of a 'Shanti Mantra' (Peace chant): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywdlxIIKiU4 .
On the other hand, if you listen to hardcore Heavy Metal, or violent Hip-Hop lyrics, you'll find it has the opposite effect, and gets you all worked up.
On stardate 3715.3, the starship USS Enterprise arrives at Gamma Trianguli VI, a planet that appears to be a tropical paradise with very rich natural resources. Captain James T. Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Ensign Chekov, and Mr. Spock, along with five other survey personnel (Hendorff, Kaplan, Landon, Mallory, and Marple, all of whom are killed except Landon), beam down to the surface to have a look and to make contact with the natives.
They discover a world of poison dart-shooting plants, unstable explosive rocks, and bizarre lightning storms that appear out of cloudless skies. Hendorff is shot by a plant and is killed, and then Spock is hit by another plant's darts when he steps to block them from hitting the Captain. Spock is stunned, and McCoy rushes over to assist, injecting him with Masiform-D serum to counteract the poison. Spock is more resilient to the poison and later recovers on his own.
Realizing there is too much danger, Kirk orders an immediate beam-out, however Mr. Scott reports that the ship's power systems are being drained by an unknown energy field emanating from the planet – they're losing potency in the anti-matter. The Enterprise's transporters don't have enough power to beam anyone back. As if this weren't enough, Spock reports that someone is hiding in the bushes, watching them.
A few minutes later, the sky clouds up and a bolt of lightning snakes down and hits Kaplan, killing him. Shortly thereafter, Mallory calls in on his communicator. He's near the village and says it's "primitive, strictly tribal," but that there's something else of great interest. His communicator fails and he runs back to the landing party to report, but trips over an explosive rock and is killed.
Spock notices they are being watched again. Kirk arranges to decoy and ambush their "observer", finding it to be a shy and frightened primitive humanoid who wears glitter and colorful paints on his skin. Kirk promises not to hurt the curious man and holds him for questioning. The man calms down and identifies himself as Akuta (Keith Andes), chief of the people known as the "Feeders of Vaal". Spock notices that Akuta appears to be in some kind of communication with someone, and points out the small antennae on Akuta's head. Akuta explains that those are his "ears for Vaal", enabling him to interpret Vaal's commands for the people, and that he is "the eyes and the ears of Vaal", who is their god.
Meanwhile, Mr. Scott calls down to inform Kirk that the Enterprise is being pulled down from orbit around the planet by some kind of tractor beam and is unable to break away. Kirk asks Akuta about "Vaal", and requests to be taken to meet him. Akuta agrees and leads the landing team to a large stone dragon head carved into the side of a hill. Akuta points to the structure and indicates that it is Vaal.
The dragon's mouth, with steps cut into a tongue, appears as a kind of doorway. Spock's tricorder indicates that it leads underground. The structure is also protected by a powerful force field. The temple appears to be some type of sophisticated computer, possibly built by an ancient civilization, with a rudimentary artificial intelligence, a thirty-foot force field, and emanating great power. Spock also concludes that it may be the source of the energy draining field that is affecting the Enterprise.
Akuta says Vaal is "sleeping", but will awake "hungry" and might speak to the landing party at that time. He then leads the party to meet his people. They appear as young men and women, but all have a curious, childlike mentality. Kirk points out that the tribe doesn't seem to have any children and asks Akuta why. Akuta doesn't know what a child is, saying that Vaal has forbidden love and copulation, and provides them with "replacements" as they are needed. McCoy scans the tribe and is shocked when he discovers they are ageless and all in perfect
The world's largest content delivery network says it has enough servers and the right kind of network to "mitigate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks," Neil Cohen, Akamai's senior director of product marketing told CNET. DDoS describes the practice of overwhelming a Web site with traffic so that it can't be accessed.
Some well-known sites were the targets of DDoS attacks launched by a loosely connected group of WikiLeaks supporters who call themselves Anonymous or Anon for short. The group lashed out at companies they consider to be hostile to WikiLeaks, the service responsible for publicizing an enormous amount of classified U.S. government documents. Some of those attacked were MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and Amazon.
MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal stopped processing donations made to WikiLeaks while Amazon stopped hosting WikiLeaks servers. At this point it appears that Amazon was able to withstand the attack while MasterCard and Visa's sites were inaccessible for extended periods.
Cohen said few other companies have as much experience as his with defending Web sites from this kind of threat. He said that late last month, a number of U.S. retail sites came under DDoS attack from multiple different countries. Cohen said he was unaware of who was behind it or why, but he said that Akamai helped some of the retailers withstand the onslaught of hits to their sites, which in some cases reached to 10,000 times the normal daily traffic to some of these sites. None of the sites went down, he said.
"What we did over the last decade was built out our network and we now have 80,000 servers in 70 countries," Cohen said. "We can mitigate DDoS attacks by having a server extremely close to the court rather than try to absorb the attack in one centralized location. As an attack grows in size and distributes out to more bots, we have a server near the compromised machines. As the attack gets bigger, our network scales on demand."
While there are reports that Anonymous is giving up on DDoS attacks related to the WikiLeaks case, it is unlikely that we've seen the end of them. In retaliation against the entertainment industry's antipiracy attempts, Anonymous knocked out the Web sites belonging to the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Hustler magazine, and the U.S. Copyright Office.
Here come the 'sponsored' tweets for the twits to watch and twitter about!
Seriously, it was worthless before, now it's more so, except for the marketers and the twits who 'follow' them and think they're all smart and cool for using twitter.
I find that the internet, and Google-like search capabilities mirror and satisfy my mind's innate desire to jump from one thought (and topic) to another.
Now, in addition to thinking random thoughts (which the mind/brain tends to do), I can read up and learn about on these subjects which earlier used to be just thoughts, and in that sense it makes me more learned.
What this encourages though, is a more unsteady thought pattern, with related and seemingly 'random' web searches about this thought stream.
I'm considering taking up meditation to encourage a 'calmer' mind that doesn't jump around as much between thoughts.
For some reason, Slashdot rejected my submission back then... here it is, based on this Guardian story:
"YouTube is running a (very) brief trial of their new live streaming platform: 'This new platform integrates live streaming directly into YouTube channels; all broadcasters need is a webcam or external USB/FireWire camera. Included in the test is a "Live Comments" module which lets you engage with the broadcaster and the broader YouTube community. For the purpose of the trial, this offering will only be available today and tomorrow. Based on the results of this initial test, we'll evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide.'"
The multiple dieties in Hinduism merely translate to various aspects of the One Absolute Infinite Consciousness.
The thinking here is that the "Absolute" is so unfathomable that everybody has a different view of it (like the fabled elephant and 8 blind men). These aspects can be viewed as different dieties and even as different religions.
Indeed, Hinduism allows and *encourages* different views of the Absolute, and thus is inherently Pluralisitc (accepts all religious paths as equally valid, promoting coexistence).
Spirituality is not compatible with the scientific method.
In general I agree with this sentiment, and am agnostic in my religious beliefs. However, a broad statement such as this in my opinion has a two-fold problem:
It assumes that all religion is incompatible with science.
It assumes that there is no 'middle path' where science and religion can coexist and be in agreement.
Allow me to elaborate.
Eastern religions at their core (Hinduism , Buddhism, probably others) do indeed say that science is key to understanding 'reality' as we perceive it. Some of the philosophies that these religions put forth are:
'Reality' as we perceive it is an illusion (Maya)(or a Matrix if you will).
All our observations (including scientific research) are limited to our existence within this 'simulation'.
Underlying this 'illusion' is a common consciousness (Truth/God/$DIETY).
All religions are merely different views into the same perceived 'reality' and hence equally valid (aka Religious Pluralism).
'Enlightenment' is the process of realizing the above.
I like to think of 'us' as in-game characters in say Pacman, observing the maze as 'reality', whereas the actual 'reality' is the microprocessor, and electricity that 'pervades' it.
Most of my understanding of this subject is based on some books I've read (The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra is a good one), and a number of prominent scientists have expressed an interest in Vedantic philosophy such as:
Erwin Schrodinger:
"He had a life-long interest in the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism, which influenced his speculations about the possibility that individual consciousness is only a manifestation of a unitary consciousness pervading the universe."
Nikola_Tesla:"Nikola Tesla, was much interested in its cosmogony and its rational theories of the Kalpas (cycles), Prana and Akasha. His notion based on the vedanta led him to think that matter is a manifestation of energy . After attending a lecture on vedanta by Vivekananda Tesla also concluded that, modern science can look for the solution of cosmological problems in Sankhya philosophy, and he could prove that mass can be reduced to potential energy mathematically."
Eugene Wigner: "He developed interest in the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism, particularly with its ideas of the universe as an all pervading consciousness."
So anyway, my point is that by painting all religions/philosophy under a broad brush of being strictly 'non-scientific', not only do we simultaneously discount several distinct philosophies but we also discount ideas that may be construed as 'unscientific' today and 'scientific' in the future (cue "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.").
Maya is an age-old concept in Hinduism, and other Dharmic religions.
Even the concept of Nirvana in some of these philosophies is merely the realization of the fact that the Universe as we experience it is an illusion (or Maya).
The concept is a little like that depicted in "Matrix", and the closing soundtrack of "The Matrix Revolutions" even carried a Sanskrit hymn from Hinduism that alludes to this philosophy.
I find Ferry Halim's creations simple, creative, beautiful, artistic and addictive. For example, notice the simple, yet elegant 3D effects in this game.
Great for a lonely/drunk Friday evening, when complex games are too mentally exhausting.
The Google Mini offers the simplicity and power of Google's enterprise search technology at a great price. An integrated hardware and software solution, the Mini offers true plug-and-play installation and can be purchased online. Whether you're looking to search your company's internal information or your public website, the Mini has the features for your business.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm loving the Star Trek Reruns on Netflix too!
I have trouble listening to music with words because I sing along in my head, and I have a trouble listening to classical music because I play along in my head (I'm a violinist).
I think whether you feel relaxed listening to 'worded' music is highly dependent on what the lyrics convey. For example, if you were to listen to Meditative chants (Vedic/Hindu/Buddhist/Sanskrit Peace chants as an example), whose sole purpose is to invoke Peace in the mind, you'd find them relaxing. Here's one such example of a 'Shanti Mantra' (Peace chant): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywdlxIIKiU4 .
On the other hand, if you listen to hardcore Heavy Metal, or violent Hip-Hop lyrics, you'll find it has the opposite effect, and gets you all worked up.
RIP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apple_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)
On stardate 3715.3, the starship USS Enterprise arrives at Gamma Trianguli VI, a planet that appears to be a tropical paradise with very rich natural resources. Captain James T. Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Ensign Chekov, and Mr. Spock, along with five other survey personnel (Hendorff, Kaplan, Landon, Mallory, and Marple, all of whom are killed except Landon), beam down to the surface to have a look and to make contact with the natives.
They discover a world of poison dart-shooting plants, unstable explosive rocks, and bizarre lightning storms that appear out of cloudless skies. Hendorff is shot by a plant and is killed, and then Spock is hit by another plant's darts when he steps to block them from hitting the Captain. Spock is stunned, and McCoy rushes over to assist, injecting him with Masiform-D serum to counteract the poison. Spock is more resilient to the poison and later recovers on his own.
Realizing there is too much danger, Kirk orders an immediate beam-out, however Mr. Scott reports that the ship's power systems are being drained by an unknown energy field emanating from the planet – they're losing potency in the anti-matter. The Enterprise's transporters don't have enough power to beam anyone back. As if this weren't enough, Spock reports that someone is hiding in the bushes, watching them.
A few minutes later, the sky clouds up and a bolt of lightning snakes down and hits Kaplan, killing him. Shortly thereafter, Mallory calls in on his communicator. He's near the village and says it's "primitive, strictly tribal," but that there's something else of great interest. His communicator fails and he runs back to the landing party to report, but trips over an explosive rock and is killed.
Spock notices they are being watched again. Kirk arranges to decoy and ambush their "observer", finding it to be a shy and frightened primitive humanoid who wears glitter and colorful paints on his skin. Kirk promises not to hurt the curious man and holds him for questioning. The man calms down and identifies himself as Akuta (Keith Andes), chief of the people known as the "Feeders of Vaal". Spock notices that Akuta appears to be in some kind of communication with someone, and points out the small antennae on Akuta's head. Akuta explains that those are his "ears for Vaal", enabling him to interpret Vaal's commands for the people, and that he is "the eyes and the ears of Vaal", who is their god.
Meanwhile, Mr. Scott calls down to inform Kirk that the Enterprise is being pulled down from orbit around the planet by some kind of tractor beam and is unable to break away. Kirk asks Akuta about "Vaal", and requests to be taken to meet him. Akuta agrees and leads the landing team to a large stone dragon head carved into the side of a hill. Akuta points to the structure and indicates that it is Vaal.
The dragon's mouth, with steps cut into a tongue, appears as a kind of doorway. Spock's tricorder indicates that it leads underground. The structure is also protected by a powerful force field. The temple appears to be some type of sophisticated computer, possibly built by an ancient civilization, with a rudimentary artificial intelligence, a thirty-foot force field, and emanating great power. Spock also concludes that it may be the source of the energy draining field that is affecting the Enterprise.
Akuta says Vaal is "sleeping", but will awake "hungry" and might speak to the landing party at that time. He then leads the party to meet his people. They appear as young men and women, but all have a curious, childlike mentality. Kirk points out that the tribe doesn't seem to have any children and asks Akuta why. Akuta doesn't know what a child is, saying that Vaal has forbidden love and copulation, and provides them with "replacements" as they are needed. McCoy scans the tribe and is shocked when he discovers they are ageless and all in perfect
...then it exploded.
nothing.
I can only say nothing.
Akamai had a role to play in the defense as well.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20025477-281.html
Akamai says it can defend against Anon attacks
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20025477-281.html#ixzz187QnPlDV
Akamai managers say they could have bolstered the Web sites that buckled under attacks launched recently by Internet vigilantes.
The world's largest content delivery network says it has enough servers and the right kind of network to "mitigate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks," Neil Cohen, Akamai's senior director of product marketing told CNET. DDoS describes the practice of overwhelming a Web site with traffic so that it can't be accessed.
Some well-known sites were the targets of DDoS attacks launched by a loosely connected group of WikiLeaks supporters who call themselves Anonymous or Anon for short. The group lashed out at companies they consider to be hostile to WikiLeaks, the service responsible for publicizing an enormous amount of classified U.S. government documents. Some of those attacked were MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and Amazon.
MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal stopped processing donations made to WikiLeaks while Amazon stopped hosting WikiLeaks servers. At this point it appears that Amazon was able to withstand the attack while MasterCard and Visa's sites were inaccessible for extended periods.
Cohen said few other companies have as much experience as his with defending Web sites from this kind of threat. He said that late last month, a number of U.S. retail sites came under DDoS attack from multiple different countries. Cohen said he was unaware of who was behind it or why, but he said that Akamai helped some of the retailers withstand the onslaught of hits to their sites, which in some cases reached to 10,000 times the normal daily traffic to some of these sites. None of the sites went down, he said.
"What we did over the last decade was built out our network and we now have 80,000 servers in 70 countries," Cohen said. "We can mitigate DDoS attacks by having a server extremely close to the court rather than try to absorb the attack in one centralized location. As an attack grows in size and distributes out to more bots, we have a server near the compromised machines. As the attack gets bigger, our network scales on demand."
While there are reports that Anonymous is giving up on DDoS attacks related to the WikiLeaks case, it is unlikely that we've seen the end of them. In retaliation against the entertainment industry's antipiracy attempts, Anonymous knocked out the Web sites belonging to the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Hustler magazine, and the U.S. Copyright Office.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20025477-281.html#ixzz187QiBtJU
Seriously, it was worthless before, now it's more so, except for the marketers and the twits who 'follow' them and think they're all smart and cool for using twitter.
Now, in addition to thinking random thoughts (which the mind/brain tends to do), I can read up and learn about on these subjects which earlier used to be just thoughts, and in that sense it makes me more learned.
What this encourages though, is a more unsteady thought pattern, with related and seemingly 'random' web searches about this thought stream.
I'm considering taking up meditation to encourage a 'calmer' mind that doesn't jump around as much between thoughts.
"YouTube is running a (very) brief trial of their new live streaming platform: 'This new platform integrates live streaming directly into YouTube channels; all broadcasters need is a webcam or external USB/FireWire camera. Included in the test is a "Live Comments" module which lets you engage with the broadcaster and the broader YouTube community. For the purpose of the trial, this offering will only be available today and tomorrow. Based on the results of this initial test, we'll evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to our partners worldwide.'"
I, for one, welcome our new TV replacement.
I, for one, welcome our new Matrix overlords, and will be on the holodeck if you need me.
The multiple dieties in Hinduism merely translate to various aspects of the One Absolute Infinite Consciousness.
The thinking here is that the "Absolute" is so unfathomable that everybody has a different view of it (like the fabled elephant and 8 blind men). These aspects can be viewed as different dieties and even as different religions.
Indeed, Hinduism allows and *encourages* different views of the Absolute, and thus is inherently Pluralisitc (accepts all religious paths as equally valid, promoting coexistence).
(speakers on, detach mouse for best effect).
In general I agree with this sentiment, and am agnostic in my religious beliefs. However, a broad statement such as this in my opinion has a two-fold problem:
Allow me to elaborate.
Eastern religions at their core (Hinduism , Buddhism, probably others) do indeed say that science is key to understanding 'reality' as we perceive it. Some of the philosophies that these religions put forth are:
I like to think of 'us' as in-game characters in say Pacman, observing the maze as 'reality', whereas the actual 'reality' is the microprocessor, and electricity that 'pervades' it.
Most of my understanding of this subject is based on some books I've read (The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra is a good one), and a number of prominent scientists have expressed an interest in Vedantic philosophy such as:
in addition to prominent figures such as , Max Muller, Fritjof Capra, Aldous Huxley, Romain Rolland and several others who commented in favor of this theory/philosophy/religion.
So anyway, my point is that by painting all religions/philosophy under a broad brush of being strictly 'non-scientific', not only do we simultaneously discount several distinct philosophies but we also discount ideas that may be construed as 'unscientific' today and 'scientific' in the future (cue "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.").
Even the concept of Nirvana in some of these philosophies is merely the realization of the fact that the Universe as we experience it is an illusion (or Maya).
The concept is a little like that depicted in "Matrix", and the closing soundtrack of "The Matrix Revolutions" even carried a Sanskrit hymn from Hinduism that alludes to this philosophy.
college students were found to be better at flinging poo than chimps.
Great for a lonely/drunk Friday evening, when complex games are too mentally exhausting.
The Google Mini offers the simplicity and power of Google's enterprise search technology at a great price. An integrated hardware and software solution, the Mini offers true plug-and-play installation and can be purchased online. Whether you're looking to search your company's internal information or your public website, the Mini has the features for your business.
Who do I make this check for $699 out to now?
Q1. What is lguest?
A. RTFM n00b.
And no, I have nothing better to do on this fine Friday evening. Heh.
Google pushes 100-mpg car
Google plugs in and goes green
Frankly, I'm surprised this hasn't made it to a /. article yet.
/* insert meaningful and descriptive comment here */
It's not a purse, it's European!