Vista News & Ramblings

Food Court Musical

Sandi — 2008-05-31T02:05+00:00

Food Court Musical

A well done Food Court Musical.

Sixteen agents from Improv Everywhere staged a spontaneous musical in the food court of Baldwin Hills shopping mall in Los Angeles. It started out by one agent planted as a worker behind a food counter who just breaks out into song for no apparent reason other than she needs a napkin. The rest were planted as shoppers or eating customers and used wireless microphones tied into the malls PA system.

Watch the video. It really caught the patrons in the food court off balance: the WTF! looks on some faces are near priceless.

The link at the top of this post has the background behind the scenes from Improve Everywhere.

Elephant Art

Sandi — 2008-04-25T00:04+00:00

MY father used to say "If a pig flies you don't criticize him for doing so badly." I think the same can be said for Elephants that paint as the picture below shows.

Watching the videos below just blew me away. Some say that this isn't creativity or talent, but something the elephants learn by Rote. I choose to believe otherwise.

Elephants Painting Flowers

Their work may only be a bit above human stick figure painting. Nevertheless it's probably a little better than I and other artistically challenged humans can do.

Watch this elephant, rescued from abusive treatment in Burma, now paint an amazing self portrait. You'll be amazed at how his talent unfolds.

So touched by their horrific backgrounds and loving personalities, ExoticWorldGifts.com now supports, "Starving Elephant Artisans" by selling their paintings so they can continue to have a new life in Thailand.

Elephant Painting Self Portrait

That should be worth a plug for Exotic World Gifts who sells the elephant paintings.

H/T Dean's World

Dizzler Multimedia Player

Sandi — 2008-01-19T19:01+00:00

This is a nice player I came across. It has just about any public domain song ever published. You can search by artist or song title, but best of all it's free.

You can get your own at Dizzler.com (Free registration). But it's not only for playing music. You can search YouTube and other internet videos.

Embed it for use it on your website, or download the desktop version. If you use it on your desktop you can also listen to radio stations, or play the many included games.

The skin is fully customizable, meaning that you can just change skins, or change individual parts of the skin's image (like changing buttons, images, menus etc).

Are These Kids Good or What?

Sandi — 2007-08-05T17:08+00:00

I've decided that Sundays will be a day for video blogging. So today is going to be about the Tuttle family. The Tuttle kids play in this clip and they are Michael (8) Sullivan (10) accompanied by their older sister Molly (13).

El Cumbanchero

Jack Tuttle, their father, is a music instructor. The family live in the San Francisco Bay area. You can find more information on his webpage. His daughter Molly's webpage is here.

Gnarls Barkley Crazy Theremin Jam

Sandi — 2007-06-24T05:06+00:00

Another Theremin post, simply because I find it's such an amazing instrument. Eventually I am going to build this RS Ultimate Theremin (around $70 in Radio Shack parts).

Starting My Day With Music

Sandi — 2007-05-24T15:05+00:00

Aziz a contributer at Deans World got me going on David Hasselhoff this morning. Well to be honest I just love his music ...well his voice especially. Actually I've two favorites, but really don't know which I like better.

This one: "Du"

Or this one: "Jump in my car"

A Novel "BREAKPOINT: terrorists vs. transhumanists"

Sandi — 2007-05-22T16:05+00:00

Source KurzweilAI.net

This book sounds like a good sci-fi read.

Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke’s BREAKPOINT novel, set in the year 2012, is based on emerging technologies. "Globegrid," a high-speed global network, links supercomputers worldwide. Combined with advanced AI software, it promises to reverse-engineer the brain, revolutionize genomics, enable medical breakthroughs, develop advanced human-machine interfaces, and allow for genetic alterations and even uploading consciousness. But it spurs a terrorist-fundamentalist Luddite backlash against transhumanists, as hackers take down the power grid, and destroy vital international data and telecom links, communications satellites, and biotech firms.

Dj Tiesto: Techno Genius At Work (Power Mix)

Sandi — 2007-03-07T16:03+00:00

It belies my age to enjoy this kind of music, and hope there are a few others besides me who enjoy it as well.

I can listen to good beats all day, and the violin isn't half bad either. Thanks to my friend Andy for the link.

Crichton, Robot

Ed — 2007-03-02T18:03+00:00

Of sorts, this post is a review of Michael Crichton's latest novel, "Next." I say "of sorts" because I'm not going to run down the character development or plot or anything like that. Part of that may be because the author didn't bother to, either, but that's part of the "review."

Like most of Crichton's books, Next is a story with its fundamental grounding in present or near future technology. In this case, Crichton is revisiting a scientific discipline he first explored in 1990 with Jurassic Park: genetics. Comparisons to Jurassic Park end here, however, and not in a good way.

I enjoy Crichton's writing style. I respect the (literally) years of painstaking research he does prior to tackling a subject in fiction. As a way to learn the basics of current ethical, political, and scientific concerns with genetics, Next is a great read. "I, Robot" (Asimov) was a great read, too, though it was much less a novel and much more an exploration of case studies in computer logic. This is the best comparison to make.

Crichton has loosely crafted a barely engaging story with cardboard characters, and has done so in hopes of raising public awareness for some crises and issues he sees with the current state of genetics, most specifically the legal issues surrounding ownership and patent of genetic materials and findings.

In this respect, it is very similar to "State of Fear," Crichton's last novel, which examined global warming. Fear, at least, had some character development and a decent McGuffin. Next does not. It was a novel that I personally found an interesting and engaging read, but I doubt most people would, and I would certainly not expect this to be the beachside page-turner that many of his previous novels were. I read "Disclosure" cover to cover in about 9 hours. Crichton needs to return to form, spending as much time on character and plot as he does on his scientific crusade. Until then, he will steadily lose readership.

“I miss me, too,” he said.

Galt — 2007-02-02T14:02+00:00

As the Super Bowl XLI approaches, and many thousands or perhaps millions of sports fans will be enjoying the spectacle.....I wonder if it's worth it.

Yes, I love to occasionally watch sports, however mostly Olympic Sports. Not the hard-driving one on one Football type except for perhaps the Super Bowl. The "best of the best" is hard to resist.

In an Op-ed by Thomas A. Bowden who writes for the Ayn Rand Institute Source he states; "Spectator sports invite us to take pleasure in our capacity for admiration. Different athletes display different virtues--one performs well under pressure, another shows consistent excellence despite advancing age, a third publicly takes pride in his accomplishments--but each contributes to the vast storehouse of sporting memories that fans draw upon every day, as reminders that difficult goals can be achieved by focused, dedicated effort."

I can agree with his evaluation, and his overall Op-ed, but still a nagging doubt arises, after reading in The New York Times two weeks ago about Andre Waters, the former Philadelphia Eagles player who committed suicide last November and was later determined to have had significant brain damage caused by football-related concussions.

Now another New York Times article Dark Days by Alan Schwarz and despite the positive spin by Thomas A. Bowden, which I can philosophically agree with nags at me.

The reality of Ted Johnson comments; “There’s something wrong with me,” said Mr. Johnson, 34, who spent 10 years in the National Football League as the Patriots’ middle linebacker. “There’s something wrong with my brain. And I know when it started.” should cause alarm among the NFL, but I doubt it will, nor will Football come to an end.

In my own youth I loved Baseball, as many young boys do, and wanted to be the greatest pitcher in the world. My idol was Bobby Shantz, because one of my Stepfathers had been his Minor League catcher before Shantz would become famous, and then disappeared to relief pitcher because of a pitched ball breaking his left wrist. Shantz was a lefty, and considered one of the best Fielding pitchers of all time.Source:Bobby Shantz

With coaching from my Stepfather, I became a better than average pitcher, though not a lefty, and as things were in those days, bats, balls, gloves, and catchers masks were a premium, unless some neighborhood kid had one. So,filling in as a catcher one day, I missed my pitchers wave off call, and caught a rising fastball dead square in the forehead, and was out cold they tell me for more than 15 Min's.
I'd suffered a major concussion which took me weeks to recover from. My baseball days were done, as I could never take a ball coming at me head-on again. All the practice, sweat, and blood given up ended in an instant.

For me it was a single moment in time, that ended what might have been....and since I'd never been a physical contact sport type, I can still understand what drives those that take it game after game. That overwhelming desire to achieve, to ignore the pain, and the concussions evident in Football to be the "Best of the Best": I wonder again.....is it worth it?

As Ted Johnson says, "I miss me, too."