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POPSDigital Sound Separator The new tool promises to give musicians and producers powerful new ways to manipulate recordings both old and new.It might let studio engineers peer inside a chord-heavy rhythm-guitar part and nudge individual notes into tune. Or it could let them salvage unheard takes by classic musicians like Duke Ellington or Jimi Hendrix, left unreleased due to out-of-tune instruments or misplayed notes. It will certainly give musicians new ability to sculpt sound, such as prerecorded samples or loops, as if they were modeling clay.
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POPSBlind Gorilla Josephine Can See Again! Josephine would be about 80 in human years. The $10,000-$12,000 procedure, along with equipment and supplies from Alcon Laboratories, were all donated. You can see a short video here: http://multimedia.boston.com/m/26753584/nearly-blind-gorilla-can-now-see.htm
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POPSGod Told Me To! A Massachusetts bigot gets fired. Good for him. And thank you Faux News for being far and balanced in your news story. As they say, actions have repercussions.
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POPS Economic Stimulation I’m a little late to today’s economic-stimulus exasperation party. Sorry. I was busy working at my unstimulated private-sector job, which uses pulp, ink, trucks, pens, notebooks and a lot of eletronics plus electricity and employs hundreds of taxpayers directly and indirectly to tell people how the hacks are trying to shaft them in Boston. It was great. I enjoyed it. Even though, far from looking for or getting any support, we’ve had to fight the government over simple things like the freedom to enter business relationships with other news organizations that might have made us more financially viable. Thank you, Ted Kennedy, liberal lion.
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POPS The Obama Work-Out War-weary Obama manages a decision … more golf! Boston Herald: WASHINGTON - President Obama has outperformed former President George Bush in a key area - he’s hit the links as many times in nine months as Bush did in nearly three years, political Web sites reported. Politico, a political news and gossip site, and the Chicago Tribune’s The Swamp, reported that CBS’ Mark Knoller - who documents presidential statistics - Tweeted Sunday, “Today - Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24. Took Bush 2 yrs & 10 months.” The Swamp noted that after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Bush quit golf, saying, “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf . . . I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal . . . ” Come on, guys. Iraq was different. That was Bush’s war. Afghanistan? That’s Bush’s other war! http://www.julescrittenden.com/2009/10/27/golf-for-we-not-for-thee/
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POPSNo Bundler Left Behind in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.” Yup, they’re just haggling over the price. Many Obama bundlers have secured slots on federal advisory panels and commissions. Still more have benefited from the time-honored patronage tradition of rewarding political benefactors with ambassadorships. Clinton did it. Bush did it. And despite all his fantastical, Balloon Boy-level rhetoric of bringing a “new politics” to Washington, Obama’s done it, too. His ambassador to London, Louis Susman, is a Chicago crony with no diplomatic experience who bundled between $200,000 and $500,000 for Team Obama and is known as “The Vacuum Cleaner” for his fundraising prowess. His ambassador to France, entertainment mogul Charlie Rivkin headed up Obama’s California fundraising operations, raking in $500,000 for the campaign and another $300,000 for the inaugural. His ambassador to Spain, Boston money
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POPSSomething to think about…. 45 minutes: The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32. 1 hour: He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100. This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.
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POPSSigning Away Our Sovereignty
We should be aware that Obama intends to roll out for Senate approval a series of international treaties that will further bind America to the will of the international community if they are ratified. Bit by bit, America's autonomous power is being taken away. The Boston Globe provides a public relations gloss by calling these treaties a means of fulfilling "Obama's vision of global cooperation." This is one view, I suppose. Another view would be that our policies will be tied down by these treaties -- and we will be judged by international bureaucrats and held to their interpretation of what our obligations are under the treaties. International treaties require only Senate approval. Obama will begin with treaties designed to achieve his vision of a world without nuclear weapons. But that is just the beginning. Efforts will begin to bind America to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea....This will hurt our nation's ability to mine the world's seas for oil and gas....
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POPSNo One Tried To Help Assault Victim What is wrong with us? More from story "I wanted to understand why no one else came forward, why there was this crowd of people standing there watching. watching. There were plenty of people who could have moved forward in numbers. I didn't have to go alone. "We need to help each other, if someone needs help as a fellow citizen it's important for us to come forward and help, not to watch and let this happen,. to take action." Flavell, 40, was arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court. He is charged with assault with intent to rape and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Flavell has a long rap sheet and is classified as a Level 3 sex offender,
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POPSFirst, Do No Harm BU Med student accused of Craigslist killing and robberies. Gender-bending Harvard-educated rifle-wielding wife-murdering dermatologist Richard Sharpe ends it all in prison. Hooker-frequenting hammer-and-slash wife-murdering prominent allergist Dirk Greineder seeks a new trial. Harvard-trained doc who walked away from surgery does time on drug charges but skates on child rape charges when witness refuses to testify. You’ve got your nursing Angel of Death du jour. Nursing assistant accused of terrorizing elderly. Drug docs to the stars! A rash of them are staring at charges related to buried mistakes Jacko and Anna Nicole. All that’s before you get to the little remarked-upon regular run of docs who believe in hands-on examinations … whether their patients need it or not. In a lot of those cases, the oath should have been “First, Do No Pharm.” But howbout, “First, Weed Out Barmy.” I know, I know, for every murderous, abusive wackjob there are thousands of caring,
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POPSBanks Do Not Make Good Neighbors Ross Wallace, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, turned in his check for $500 and waited on the auction floor in full dress uniform for a chance to buy a Detroit house on the cheap. Wallace, 27, said he did not want to leave his fiancee and two children with a mortgage before shipping out to Iraq later this year. “I still have student loans and I’m trying to be responsible. I don’t want to leave debt,” he said. Wallace waited for the auction to roll around to Detroit’s Boston-Edison district, a once stately area that was home to boxing legend Joe Louis and Motown founder Berry Gordy. But he was quickly outbid. An unidentified investor at the front of the room who had scooped up several dozen properties took the home Wallace wanted for about $15,000. “Why am I competing against a bank?” he said later. “It would be common sense to have a separate process for people who want to move back to the city or it’s going to stay empty.”
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POPS The $cience of Harry Potter The museum defends the intellectual value of what is sure to be a cash cow of an exhibit by noting that the 200 movie props it features offer a window into innovation. “You see these props and think, ‘How did they do that?’ It is an inspiration for people to explore what it took to create these movie worlds,” said Paul Fontaine, vice president of education at the museum. And that inspiration is essential to scientific innovation, he says. “When you think of the foundations of science, it is creativity; what it takes to transform fantasy to the screen. We hope people take away those foundation skills,” Fontaine said. The museum is home to displays about DNA, electricity, astronomy and anatomy. But some area academics agree a re-creation of Hogwarts is not out of place. Andrew Cohen, physics professor at Boston University, references popular movies in his lectures to make complex theories tangible. So, could Hagrid’s Care of Magical Creatures
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POPSMind-Reading Technology Development Primitive, but intriguing. Maybe if we survive 2012 we will just plug our brains into the computer and bypass the keyboard. I have suspected for some time that some clippers are ghostly autopoetic entities emerging from the mesh of internet complexity.
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POPSSlasher Politics Per Jigsaw’s instructions, turncoat Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) shepherds the insurance company nitwits to their demise. No reason why the ”Saw” franchise shouldn’t jump on the pop-culture Obama cheerleading train like everyone else in La-la with a little B-flick health-care advocacy. And with the loan officer thing, there’s something for everyone! One thing slasher fans may want to bear in mind, though. When your gaping, bloody saw wounds need to be stitched and stapled up, do you really want to wait in line for the lowest bidder? Boston Herald’s Tenley Woodman gives Saw VI a “D.” No, not for the feel-good politics embedded in the middle of a feel-bad extravaganza. … it is the depraved acts and gore that make these films objectionable. Hate to quibble, but I think that’s what makes them marketable.
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POPSFormer Gitmo Detainee Killed by Saudi Forces Although declared innocent by liberals in America this one time terrorist was wrongly killed in the line of duty while attempting to blow himself up. Hmm seems to me he was determined to die one way or another. Instead of releasing these terrorists why not just let them bow themselves up?
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POPSBoondock Saints II: All Saints Day The Boondock Saints 1999 .....It's particularly gory and bloody, but this just makes it all the more realistic. In real life, there is a significant amount of blood when someone is shot in the head. The movie has some Christian subtexts, I think I've heard about five major theories about the whole movie's meaning. This shows, in my opinion, that there was obviously a lot of thought put into the movie. I'd recommend it to anyone who can stand the gore, even if they aren't Christians. 10/10
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POPSMassachusetts Resident Charged With Plotting Jihad in U.S. . . booked at the Sudbury police station before being turned over to federal authorities. Federal agents have searched Mehanna’s home and say he is a U.S. citizen. A bail hearing has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in federal court. Abousamra left the United States for Syria on Dec. 26, 2006, officials said. He said he would be back within a month after visiting his wife, but has never returned, officials said. The plot included plans to fire at emergency responders, but was abandoned because the men could not obtain the weapons, authorities said. They declined to name the mall or mallsthe men were targeting. Automatic weapons may be more of a challenge, but if you can’t get your hands on guns, even in Massachusetts, you aren’t trying hard enough. It looks like the kind of bust that, during the Bush years, some people would have considered a joke. You don’t hear the sneering anymore. Instead, people behave and talk as though the threat is dated, passe, no longer a concern.
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POPS Miller Time Sure, the last Beer Summit was an empty political gesture, something Obama was forced into after he stepped in it.* This one could actually be meaningful, if everyone behaves, sincerely tries to become a better person … which is asking a lot, I know. Likelihood of it happening? Zip. But maybe the White House Press Corps, which initiated the last Beer Summit, could try to prompt this one. By asking the president about it, like they did last time. Checking Google news, not seeing that has happened. * Boston Herald, take a bow. Fired the twin rockets of Sgt. Crowley’s distinctly unracist past and his position as a police academy racial profiling instructor that blew up that race thing in Gates’ and Obama’s faces. I remember watching Gates on CNN that afternoon, and the president at his press conference that night, thinking, “Have a good time, guys. Rockets impact in the a.m.” If Skip had just returned our calls …
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POPSAnimal hoarding:An expert illuminates the psychology behind this behavior Hoarders often have major dysfunction in work, social and daily activities, reduced awareness of surroundings, and impaired ability to form close relationships with people. Contrary to what we originally thought, animal hoarding does not seem to be strongly associated with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and it is not yet defined as an independent psychological condition. Clinical evaluations indicate that it is often associated with a wide variety of psychological disorders, including borderline personality disorder.
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POPSMedia Ignoring Conservatives' Return to Dominance of Political Book Market In September of that year, the Boston Globe proclaimed liberals "triumphant" against "conservatives' decade long hold on popular culture." Yes, it seemed such wonderful liberal values were finally en vogue. Barnes and Noble, reacting to the outpouring of Bush-bashing literature in August of 2003 announced that it would set up ‘political science/cultural affairs' tables at its stores to feature the newest partisan works. But conservatives have reclaimed their hold on the Times's bestseller page. The closest any of the top 15 hard-cover non-fiction books gets to a defense of liberalism or the Obama Administration is In Fed We Trust by David Wessel "The books from the left strike me as an obvious reaction to Bush," conservative commentator Tucker Carlson told the Associated Press in 2003. "And for people who buy them, it's a way of voting against him in an off-election year." With Bush gone, liberals no longer have a blatant target at whom to direct a coordinated
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