ArcherVox

Interrupted by cell phone? Make it part of the show!

2012-01-24T09:03:00.001-08:00

This video is so good, some people think it’s a sly commercial for Nokia, but it’s not – this actually happened.

Slovakian classical violinist Lukas Kmit was giving a fancy recital when, right after finishing a piece, a Nokia cell phone went off with its distinctive Nokia ringtone. After a brief angry glare, Kmit decided to do a little musical improvisation around the Nokia theme.

Result? Applause.

But here’s something you may not know: The Nokia ringtone is actually taken from a piece of classical music itself - Gran Vals, originally written by Spanish classical guitarist Francisco Tarrega in 1902. Use that little bit of knowledge to impress the hell out of your date.

(I’m guess Kmit knew that, though. Showoff.)

Dear Facebook: STOP

2012-01-22T10:24:00.001-08:00

Note to the Facebook powers that be: I do NOT want every single article I read, TV show I watch, song I listen to, online purchase I make, web site I view to be immediately posted to your never ending stream. Nor do I want to see these from my friends and Facebook acquaintances. Please, for the love of any and all gods, STOP. Stop now. Stop before you create a massive cancer on the Internet.

President Obama sings Al Green at the Apollo

2012-01-19T22:36:00.001-08:00

… and does a pretty freakin’ good job of it.

Is this poster offensive?

2012-01-18T18:27:00.001-08:00

AMC has released a teaser poster promoting the 5th season premiere of Mad Men – one of the best shows on TV – on March 25. But some people say this poster is offensive or insensitive, and it’s generating a bit of controversy.

Take a look at it and see if you can tell what some people find insensitive about it.

ACT NOW TO STOP INTERNET CENSORSHIP

2012-01-18T07:26:00.001-08:00

Email your Representative and Senators.

Tell them you don’t support SOPA/PIPA or the politicians who do.

In the Present: Live from Lyon

2012-01-16T11:10:00.001-08:00

Yes fans, "In the Present: Live From Lyon" is something you might want if you're a completist or if you want a document of this short-lived lineup right before they went into the studio to record with vocalist Benoit David. Oliver Wakeman, Rick's kid, handles keyboards here. (Geoff Downes came back into the fold later when Trevor Horn came on board as producer.) The old guard, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White are firmly at the helm.

Overall, it's okay – though a bit flat in some areas, especially some rather weak background vocals. Benoit David adequately replaces Jon Anderson at the mike for what turns out to be basically a live greatest hits collection. The weakness here comes from the fact that it doesn’t appear anything was later “fixed” in the studio, bad notes overdubbed, flat vocals re-recorded, as with most “live” records. So in that sense, purists might appreciate this more as a true document of what the show really sounded like.

Highlight: a dandy live version of the rarely played (up to this point) of Tempus Fugit. Jon had always resisted playing anything from the Drama album (understandable, since he was out of the group at the time they recorded it), but I’m one of the few fans who think that, musically at least, Drama was one of Yes’ strongest outings.

Another highlight: Astral Traveler gets a good workout, another song rarely included on live Yes albums. It’s my favorite pre-The Yes Album song.

I’m sticking with CDs

2012-01-16T10:17:00.001-08:00

No, I’m not a Luddite. No, I’m not an old man yelling at the kids to get off my lawn. But you damn kids with your lousy mp3’s! I’m sticking with CDs!

When I was younger, I had a pretty good collection of LPs. They were works of art. They were substantive. You could hold them in your hands and truly enjoy the artwork, especially those beautiful Roger Dean Yes covers. And the record itself was more than just a sound medium – it was a physical sculpture. The way the grooves caught the light, you could almost pretend to know that the music was good by the way the grooves looked.

And I watched as the new medium of CDs began to replace them. I didn’t complain. Yes, I was going to miss the larger size of the packaging – it took some of the enjoyment out of the cover artistry – but there was a definite improvement in sound quality.

Yes, I know there are audiophiles who, even today, insist, “Records sound better than CDs. They’re warmer!” With all due respect, bullshit. Maybe if you’ve got the highest of the high end of turntable equipment, you can sense this esoteric warmth you speak of, but for me, no. I LOVED music, and I never, ever got over the annoyance of, “And she’s buying a [click] stairway [click] to heavennnn [click] nnnn…” Not to mention the ever-present rumble of the turntable when you listened in headphones.

Yeah, maybe those early CDs did sound a little bit TOO perfect and a little too cold, but they were crisp and clear. And later, as recording techniques improved and the sampling rates got higher, even CDs began to sound better.

And now I’m watching another revolution, as people are buying less CDs and more mp3’s and digital downloads. Now, the medium isn’t just shrinking, it’s disappearing. The physicality is completely going away. But that’s not why I’m sticking with CDs.

I’m sticking with CDs for the same reason I replaced my album collection with them: the sound quality is better.

Look, mp3’s, aac’s, m4a’s and all are great, but for the most part, commercially-available downloads are NOT lossless files, and there IS too much compression. Even with my battered ears I can tell the difference inside a noisy car between a digital file and an actual CD.

Can the technology improve so that even compressed digital files sound as good as CDs? Yes, of course it can. But will it? It doesn’t look that way, because people today are downloading more of them than buying CDs. Record stores are disappearing. iTunes is the biggest music retailer in the world. And the consumers don’t seem to care that the quality of the reproduction is worse than it was before. There is no great demand to make it better. So it won’t be made better.

At least not until some Thomas Edison comes along and says, “Maybe you’re satisfied that a candle is bright enough, but wait until you see THIS!”

So I’m sticking with CDs for now. That’s not to say I don’t download a lot of music from iTunes, I do. But if it’s something I’m really into, some band I love, I buy the actual CD. Not just because I like holding it in my hands, but because it just sounds better.

And you kids stay the hell off my lawn.

Apes!

2012-01-09T20:41:00.001-08:00

The best movie of last summer is out on disc - Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Get it. More than prequel/reboot, it's a wickedly smart mirror image of the 1968 original, this time from the apes' point of view. Great flick. And it sets us up for the sequel so naturally that I can't wait for them to start production.

Steve Jobs action figure

2012-01-04T10:14:00.001-08:00

A Steve Jobs action figure. Not compatible with any other action figure.

In Icons
Image of the Steve Jobs figurine from the In Icons website.

Want to carry Steve Jobs around in your pocket? There’s an action figure for that. A 12-inch figurine of the co-founder of Apple is being promoted by the company In Icons for $99.99–beard, spectacles, mock black turtleneck, jeans and New Balance sneakers included. (The price doesn’t include shipping.) The unauthorized action figure, which some have called creepy due to its lifelike details, goes on sale next month.

It’s a FAAAAAAAAKKE!

2012-01-04T08:14:00.001-08:00

Anybody can make a Twitter profile. Hell, animals can – my own cat has a Twitter account. He made it himself. I didn’t help him at all. I swear.

But with celebrities wanting to connect with their audiences, Twitter had to come up with a way users could know that Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter profile was the real thing, and not one of the hundreds of fake handles Joe Blow in his mom’s basement created. So Twitter came up with the “verified account” so that you could rest easy in the knowledge that when Ashton tweets he’s eating a burger you know, for a fact, he’s eating a burger.

Well, like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and “reality” TV, all fantasies come to an end. We now know that just because Twitter says an account is verified, that doesn’t mean it’s real.

Wendi Deng is the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. She had been on Twitter for a short time and had one of those verified accounts. Only now we know that it wasn’t Wendi at all. The fake “verified” account fooled everyone, including people at Fox News, owned by Murdoch, which had quoted from the fake Twitter feed believing it was real.

Twitter has now admitted they made a mistake and have apologized to everyone.

So who was behind the fake Wendi Deng account? Nobody knows yet. But I’ll bet you a paycheck it was my cat.

Obama teleported to Mars

2012-01-03T15:01:00.001-08:00

Apparently, this is a real thing. A couple of guys are claiming that a young Barack Obama teleported to Mars as part of a super secret CIA program.

Gods, I love conspiracy theories!

Forget Kenya. Never mind the secret madrassas. The sinister, shocking truth about Barack Obama’s past lies not in east Africa, but in outer space. As a young man in the early 1980s, Obama was part of a secret CIA project to explore Mars. The future president teleported there, along with the future head of Darpa.
That’s the assertion, at least, of a pair of self-proclaimed time-traveling, universe-exploring government agents. Andrew D. Basiago and William Stillings insist that they once served as “chrononauts” at Darpa’s behest, traversing the boundaries of time and space. They swear: A youthful Barack Obama was one of them.
Perhaps this all sounds fantastical, absurd, and more than a little nuts. We couldn’t agree more. That’s one of the reasons we love conspiracy theories — the more awesomely insane, the better. Each week during 2012, when the Mayans tell us to expect the apocalypse, Danger Room will peel back a new layer of crazy to expose those oh-so-cleverly hidden machinations powering this doomed plane of existence. Welcome — back — to Tinfoil Tuesday.
According to Basiago and Stillings, Obama isn’t just lying about his identity. He’s lying about his military service record, too. While his political opponents in 2008 attacked him for never serving, in truth, he was concealing his participation in a hidden CIA intergalactic program hosted at a California community college in 1980.

Upset in the Burger Wars

2011-12-31T23:01:00.001-08:00

There’s an upset looming in the Burger Wars: Wendy’s is set to overtake Burger King as America’s second favorite fast food hamburger.

Number one? Oh, that’s McDonalds, of course, and they’re in no danger of losing the crown. So the big battle is for number two.

Recently, Wendy’s embarked on a big upgrade campaign, making over their restaurants and improving their burger recipes, going back to the way they USED to make them in the good old days – hot & juicy. I tried one of their new old burgers, and I gotta say, kudos Wendy’s. That’s the way to make ‘em. And America seems to think so, too. Experts predict Wendy’s will leapfrog Burger King for the number two spot sometime in 2012.

But part of me still loves Burger King. Love that flame-broiled taste. On the other hand, McDonald’s fries win for me. I’m not kidding – I used to grab a burger at a Burger King, then go across the street and get my fries from McDonalds.

But sometimes a big southwestern from Carl’s Jr. is the next best thing to sex. It depends on what kind of mood you’re in.

If you want something other than fast food chains though, I have to admit that the best burgers I’ve ever had in my life come from a little tiny place in West Hollywood called Hamburger Haven. Pure heaven! Grease, the way the gods intended us to eat it!

So slaughter up those cute little cows and let’s nom ourselves until we can’t nom any more! And are you worried about heart disease? Look, we’ve gotta die of something. So might as well die licking our fingers clean after devouring a hot juicy burger and letting that heavenly grease run down our chins! Damn, I am so turned on right now!

Congressional wealth distribution

2011-12-31T12:52:00.001-08:00

(H/t The Daily What)

4.74 degrees of separation

2011-12-31T10:55:00.001-08:00

Remember back in the 90’s when the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” was all the rage? If you don’t remember (what rock were you rotting under?) it went like this: You had to list six or less relational threads tying someone to Kevin Bacon. Most of the time, it worked.

Apparently, the game had its roots in some real sociological research that showed there were on average six degrees of separation between most people. A guy named Stanley Milgram published the results of a study he did on this back in 1967 (and smart Peter Gabriel fans will recognize him as the subject of Gabriel’s 1986 song “We Do What We’re Told”). But the six degrees thing actually goes back further than that – to a short story published in 1929 called “Chains.”

Modern scientists in conjunction with some folks from Yahoo and Facebook began wondering if those six degrees still hold true in today’s super-connected socially networked world, so they started some new research in August 2011. What they’ve found so far? That the world is shrinking – it’s not just six degrees separating us from each other, now it’s more like 4.74!

But “4.74 Degrees of Kevin Bacon” just doesn’t sound as cool.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T00:42:00.001-08:00

Get ready for 2012. Or in dog years, 14084.

Damn doors

2011-12-31T00:34:00.001-08:00

It’s happened to all of us, more than we care to admit. We’re sitting in the living room, ass flat on the couch. We get up, go to the kitchen, and then stand there… having forgotten what we came into the kitchen for.

Blame the doorway.

Yep, that’s right. Some new scientific research is showing that because of the way our brains work, walking through a barrier like a doorway can make us forget what we walked through it for. Because our brains often compartmentalize thoughts and plans, the act of leaving one room and entering another also “compartmentalizes” what we were planning to do, and the brain pushes it aside.

Brains can be so stupid.

Here’s an article at Scientific American that explains it in more detail. Fortunately, I didn’t walk into another room to write that down.

So when you’re standing there like an idiot, unable to remember what you’re there for, blame the doorway. That, or you’re drinking too much again. Oh hey, wait a minute, THAT’S what I came in here for. To get vodka. Okay, what were we talking about?

Windows 95, the musical

2011-12-30T19:06:00.001-08:00

Brian Eno is a musician and producer who’s been in the music biz longer than many of us have been alive. He’s done all kinds of music, but he’s most popular for “ambient music,” and well, if I’ve got to describe it, that’ll ruin it for you.

Microsoft knew what a cool guy he was, so when they were looking for some cool new sound to set their new Windows 95 apart (What? They had computers back then?), Brian was the guy they went to.

So Eno composed the little musical cue many of us came to forever associate with the booting up of our Windows 95 machines – hopeful, a new day dawning, a sun coming up somewhere over a hilly field of green grass with a gorgeous blue sky overhead and some fluffy white clouds that… Hey, wait a minute… that was the generic Windows XP desktop, wasn’t it?

Actually, Eno came up with 83 pieces of music, and Microsoft picked the one they liked the best. The four adjectives Microsoft gave him when they commissioned him was “inspirational, sexy, driving, provocative and nostalgic.” Imagine having to work all four of those things into just a few notes.

It’s not saying too much that Eno’s little musical cue is responsible for a big part of the Windows 95 experience, but it might surprise you to know that Eno isn’t a PC guy… Nope, he’s Mac, all the way. He says he composed the little piece of Windows music on a Mac, and he’s never used a PC in his life, nor does he ever intend to.

But that wasn’t enough to stop Microsoft from using his instantly recognizable little “theme” for Windows 95.

Harmony

2011-12-28T22:58:00.001-08:00

Occasionally, every once in a great while, you harmonize with someone. And when it happens, it feels so right, so natural, like it's the way we were made to be. But then you realize, if we were made to harmonize this way, why does it happen so rarely, and for some not at all?

Going home

2011-12-28T13:54:00.001-08:00

"For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I'm suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I'm not leaving. Maybe I'm going home."

War Horse

2011-12-27T17:10:00.001-08:00

War Horse is wonderful. It has the feel of a classic – like one of those movies you saw as a kid and never forgot, and even when you’re grown up thinking about it chokes you up all over again.

Films like this are why I love movies. It’s always great to watch a master at work, and Spielberg puts in one of his best efforts, though parts may be difficult to watch for those of us sensitive to depictions of animal peril. This one ranks right up there with Saving Private Ryan, and a theater full of young and old had bad cases of the sniffles when the credits rolled. It's a movie for anyone who's ever loved horses or any kind of animal. But it’s also a gritty war drama in its depiction of World War 1, like this generation hasn’t seen.

Five stars out of five. Easy. But then again I’m a sucker for this kind of movie, and I’m a sucker for Spielberg.

When I die…

2011-12-26T10:23:00.001-08:00

When I die, I'm going to tell whoever's there to lean in close to me, and I'll say, "Listen. I got away with it. I got away with all of it. 6 million dollars. And it's all buried at... at..." and then I'm going to cough and breathe out my last breath.

Mission Impossible

2011-12-23T18:38:00.001-08:00

J.J. Abrams' name on a movie hasn't disappointed me yet, and with Brad Bird (with his live-action directorial debut), they turn in the most fun impossible mission of all with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The vertigo-inducing building climb sequence would win the Oscar for best action set piece if they ever gave one out - definitely the most memorable one of the year. Tom Cruise will win back a lot of Hollywood goodwill with this one, and it's on its way to being the box office champ this weekend.

The first MI was pretty good, the second bored me to tears. The third, under the direction of Mr. Abrams, was the previous winner, but I dare say this one tops it. Fans of the original TV show get a lot more use of the Lalo Schifrin theme than the previous outings have given us, and we even get an exploding telephone gag thrown in for good measure.

Four magnetic gloves out of five. So much fun, you’ll almost think it’s summer.

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-21T07:31:00.001-08:00

The Jib Jab people are back, maybe for one last time. (By next year, the meme should be dead.)

The Hobbit–An Unexpected Journey

2011-12-20T19:22:00.001-08:00

Only a year to go…

Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

2011-12-17T21:26:00.001-08:00

Caught a showing at the Grove today… I think I was able to follow most of the movie, while wincing in pain at how loud it was.

That’s not the movie’s fault. Yes, there are lots of loud fight scenes, explosions and whatnot, but the last few years the Grove has been trying to outdo itself turning up the volume. I have permanent hearing damage from a showing of Inception… and the Grove is only turning them up louder. I’ve been to lots of concerts in my life… but none of them were ever as loud as an action movie at the Grove.

And this isn’t just some old guy whining. There were some teenagers in the theater with their hands over the ears in some parts. I kid you not.

It’s not like I haven’t complained. I have. Many times. Each time the smiles are more and more dismissive. So I can only tell my friends that if it’s an action flick, either take ear protection or don’t see it at the Grove.

Okay, old man yelling at clouds is over…

If you like the first Guy Ritchie Holmes flick, you’ll certainly like this one, no doubt about it. It’s as much fun as the first, if a bit more haphazardly paced. And where the first one took a moment to show us the sad loneliness of Sherlock Holmes, this one passes that by for more banter between Holmes and Watson.

Jared Harris’ Moriarty is the best thing about this latest chapter (and nice to see one of the supporting players from Mad Men on the big screen). And there are some fun nods to Holmes lore for the more literary-minded… including a nice little nod to a certain waterfall, though the film decides to turn that ultimate conclusion on its head (MUST make sure there’s room for the inevitable third sequel).

As before, the chemistry (and a little homoerotic playacting) between Robert Downey Jr’s Holmes and Jude Law’s Watson is terrific. My one complaint is that the gimmick of having Holmes’ interior monologue plan out some physical altercation and then carry it out is used too many times. They should have saved it for the final confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty – we would have been waiting for it expectantly, rather than dreading yet another appearance of it.

But when all is said and done, it rates at least as good as the first, and you get almost everything you expect from it. Three violins out of four.

Oh, one final note: the repetition of the “get that out of my face” gag apparently didn’t make it into the final cut, even though it appeared in some of the trailers. Unless I missed it because the damn thing was so freakin’ loud, that is.

The Spielberg Face

2011-12-14T23:01:00.001-08:00

An interesting video essay exploring Spielberg’s masterful use of the face closeup.

I’ll fight a chicken with hands!

2011-12-13T18:42:00.001-08:00

Bad Lip Reading: Rick Perry's "Strong" ad - watch more funny videos

Cat talk

2011-12-13T18:18:00.001-08:00

Cat: Have, have you drawn up a will yet?

Me: No, why?

Cat: Because you’re out of cat food.

Me: I don't underst--... Oh wait, now I get it.

Cat: Yeah, see what I did there? A little threat wrapped in some cuteness.

Men In Black 3

2011-12-12T18:49:00.001-08:00

The trailer for Men In Black 3 started making the rounds today. If this new sequel is better than 2 and at least half as good as 1, I’m there.

The first Men In Black was loads of fun, fast-paced, with a sufficient story and great performances… and not too long. Number two didn’t have any of those qualities. I barely even remember the second one, but the first is still fresh in my mind and I haven’t watched it in years.

The 90 best Twitters

2011-12-12T08:08:00.001-08:00

The 90 best Twitter accounts of 2011 are listed here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/the-90-best-twitter-accounts-of-2011.

Personally, I recommend @ChristianWheel, @MarconiBologna and @Pres_Bartlet.

Alec Baldwin cameo on SNL

2011-12-11T08:45:00.001-08:00

This is why Alec Baldwin is the funniest man on TV. He’s totally unafraid to skewer anyone, including himself.

Priceless

2011-12-05T20:47:00.001-08:00

This one goes into the play over and over again video file. Watch it with the captions on.

Stephen King’s “11/22/63”

2011-12-03T20:41:00.001-08:00

I finished reading Stephen King's "11/22/63" last night. It's already on a few best lists for 2011, and deservedly so.

I’m a big fan of King’s early work, but I began to lose interest when he started recycling plots and using stock characters in seemingly every book. But this one brings me right back into the fold, and it’s probably one of the most emotionally affecting novels he’s written. I won’t tell you how wrapped up in the story and the people I got. There were a few spots where I had to stop and, uh, clean my reading glasses. And I must admit that this one’s responsible for me losing track of time when I should have been sleeping, looking at the clock and saying, “Holy crap, it’s 3 a.m. already?” It’s been a long time since a book kept me up because I literally could not put it down.

The nice surprise here is that it turns out King shines so brightly at something other than horror, in this case science fiction/alternate history. But an even bigger surprise is that “11/22/63” turns out to be a love story, and a damn effective one at that. Sadie, the love interest, is so real and literally dances off the page with such a lifelike grace that the reader has no choice but to fall in love with her as well. I'm hard pressed to think of any other character in King's impressive oeuvre that seems as real.

This one goes on the shelf right next to "The Stand," King's best novel.

Loneliness

2011-11-26T23:42:00.001-08:00

No piece of music captures loneliness more than the adagio from the Gayane Ballet Suite. It's no wonder that Kubrick chose it to illustrate the loneliness of the Discovery astronauts in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Hugo

2011-11-26T15:52:00.001-08:00

Hugo is a singularly wonderful film. Go see it and you will carry it with you for the rest of your life. It is the gentlest of love letters. It's a love letter to magic. It's a love letter to films. It's a love letter to dreams.

The story – actually, stories – draw you in without much dialog, and that’s when you remember that this used to be the magic of movies, telling your stories with visuals and music. Fitting then that this is a monument to the earliest days of filmmaking, before there was sound, before there were movie stars.

Every performance is marvelous, from the main roles to the supporting players. The 3-D visuals are stunning, and the words as well as the pictures are sheer poetry. This is a film to see many times, inspiring, beautiful, and the kind of art that makes you ache at the wonder of it.

Windows 95 theme was composed on a Mac

2011-11-25T11:42:00.001-08:00

Remember Windows 95? The little theme that would play when you booted up? Turns out it was composed by Brian Eno... on a Mac.

Music legend Brian Eno has recently described the process of being hired by Microsoft to create a selection of possible themes for Windows 95.

Speaking on BBC’s The Museum of Curiosity Eno said the he was given a list of adjectives which the four second piece should convey -- including inspirational, sexy, driving, provocative and nostalgic.

Then he revealed that he used an Apple Mac to knock up 83 pieces for Microsoft to choose from before adding the kicker.

No I wrote it on a Mac. I've never used a PC in my life; I don't like them," he said.

President Bartlet on the Butterball hotline

2011-11-24T10:25:00.001-08:00

My thanksgiving tradition is watching this episode of The West Wing.

Cat in the pantry

2011-11-22T20:37:00.001-08:00

Couldn’t find Lionheart anywhere. Then I opened the food pantry.

Yessongs

2011-11-22T07:56:00.001-08:00

Bill Wyman (not THAT Bill Wyman, the OTHER Bill Wyman, the one who’s the former arts editor of NPR and Salon) has written an article at Slate called “The Best Live Albums: From Axl to Zeppelin,” and while many of the classic live LPs he notes are in my collection, I don’t agree with all his choices. For example, he doesn’t include the massive Yessongs by Yes on his list of best live albums.

Yes, Yessongs was three records long, a little excessive. Yes, it sounded like it was recorded in a phone booth. But it’s still my personal favorite live album, the best of what is today an almost nonexistent breed. And yes, Yes is my favorite group of all time, so I freely admit my bias.

Yes eventually became known for disappearing up its own posterior in spectacular, awe-inspiring ways, but on Yessongs they sound raw, fresh, young and energetic. Guitar god Steve Howe, who as he got older got slower and more anal, obsessively wanting us to hear every – single – note of his early leads, here sounds vigorous, passionate, sometimes racing, a way he hasn't played in decades. Jon Anderson sounds young and innocent (as opposed to older but still innocent). Rick Wakeman has star power with his massive keyboard array and shining robes. And new member (at the time) Alan White is furiously pounding away on the drums, sounding just a tad bit unrehearsed but making up for it with fire and passion.

This live album captures them at a time when the band was still relevant, had yet to jump over any sharks, and had just come off a string of three studio albums that made their marks on music history – The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close To The Edge – a band at the height of their powers.

Yessongs was how I was introduced to Yes. The first versions I heard of their classics were here, and sometimes the later revelation of the studio tracks was just a tiny bit of a letdown, so yeah, I have an emotional attachment. But I challenge any fan of moderately complex music to listen to the live version of Yours Is No Disgrace and not admit that damn, it shreds.

Enjoy a nice, hot cup of Brussels sprouts

2011-11-21T07:28:00.001-08:00

I sometimes think about alternate realities. I imagine a world where, instead of coffee being the morning drink of choice, everyone drinks Brussels sprout juice. I vomit a little in my mouth and think that coffee is a fair trade for having to live in a world where Brussels sprouts exist at all.

Rango

2011-11-19T21:01:00.001-08:00

I missed Rango when it was in theaters. For some reason the previews didn't fill me with an urge to see it, and when it showed up in my Netflix queue, I almost bypassed it. I finally put it on to get it out of the way.

Holy crap - what an awesome flick! One of the best I've ever seen... the animation is uncommonly good, the voice actors are flawless, and the story funny and entertaining with smart dialog. Five out of five bullets. I'm buying this one.

Two interviews

2011-11-14T23:13:00.001-08:00

America tonight had a chance to watch two interviews. One, with child molester Jerry Sandusky. Another with American hero Gabby Giffords. I chose Giffords. Sandusky isn't worthy to breathe the same air as Gabby. It is an insult to the universe that Sandusky lives on the same planet.

In Time

2011-10-30T12:25:00.001-07:00

Compelling concept, serviceable acting, and its message will resonate with those sympathetic to Occupy Wall Street. With the current protest climate, the producers luckily released the movie at the right time (no pun intended). A couple of unbelievable moments, like surviving a horrific car crash (and the special effects are rather amateurish in the sequence), are excusable with a bit of suspension of disbelief. Best sight gag -- a "99 Seconds Only" store. The audience I saw it with gave the movie a round of applause. I give it three and a half digital watches out of five.

Nietzsche cats

2011-10-28T08:05:00.001-07:00

When I woke up this morning I overheard the cats arguing Nietzsche. When I walked out into the living room they stopped and pretended they'd been licking their crotches all night long, humming little tunes and acting all nonchalant.

New device for the treatment of tinnitus

2011-10-17T23:40:00.001-07:00

There’s a new device that, along with therapy, is showing promise in alleviating the symptoms of chronic tinnitus. It’ll be available to the public beginning this month. It’s called ReSound Alera TS, and it utilizes a type of white noise masking that helps to retrain the brain to “ignore” the incessant ringing.

My pro-meat mini manifesto

2011-10-13T22:05:00.001-07:00

Here's why I refuse to eat vegetables: because it is morally wrong to eat something that can still feel. Cooked animals, on the other hand, are dead and don't feel anything. Plus, plants grow in the dirt, and yuck, who likes eating dirt? I think I've made my point. And you're out of mayo.

Archer on the phones

2011-10-05T22:45:00.001-07:00

In the late 90s, I did my best to teach Clear Channel Miami that I shouldn’t have to answer my own phone calls.

Archer on the phones by Rob-Archer

The two main reasons the Internet exists

2011-09-30T07:44:00.001-07:00

… are porn and cat pictures. And since I’m not posting any porn, here are some cat pictures.

Lionheart shows some love to the new printer:

And Cecil sees the light (and does his impression of the old RCA Victor dog logo:

Don Draper presents… Timeline by Facebook

2011-09-27T23:03:00.001-07:00

This is so brilliant, I almost don’t mind they’ve committed sacrilege upon my single favorite scene in all of Mad Men.

ReSound Introduces Alera TS for Tinnitus

2011-09-15T10:49:00.001-07:00

A new device is coming to market for the treatment of tinnitus.

Bloomington, Minn — Just in time for the International Hearing Society (IHS) conference in Boston, ReSound has introduced the Alera TS™, which combines an advanced hearing aid with a tinnitus sound generator (TSG).

TSGs are a common approach in tinnitus sound therapy. They work by administering sounds that are designed to make the disturbing tinnitus noise less noticeable, drawing the patient’s attention away from the tinnitus tones.
Michael Piskosz, MS, ReSound, commented in the press announcement, "This kind of sound therapy, when combined with informed counseling, is recognized as a highly effective way of managing tinnitus."
Alera TS also provides flexibility for individualized sound therapy. Hearing professionals can customize the device to address the personalized needs of each tinnitus sufferer.
The Alera TS is being introduced at a time when tinnitus is the most prevalent physical disability reported by military service members and veterans.

ReSound stated in its press release that 83% of Veterans Administration audiologists reported a significant or satisfactory improvement in their patients’ tinnitus symptoms after activating the TSG feature.

Study uncovers mechanism behind hearing condition

2011-09-15T10:44:00.001-07:00

Research continues into the causes of tinnitus. The latest research is not focused on the ear, but in the brain where it's now thought the condition really originates.

A study by a team of UC Berkeley neuroscientists has uncovered new cerebral mechanisms behind tinnitus, a currently incurable condition that produces a constant ringing or buzzing sound in the ear in the absence of other noise.

The study, published Sept. 6 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides an alternative hypothesis to the prevailing view that tinnitus is associated with neurons in the region of the cortex that is affected by hearing loss. The research, which was conducted by the UC Berkeley Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, shows that the higher-frequency neurons in the area of the cortex affected by hearing loss are responsible for the high-pitched noise characteristic of tinnitus.

According to Shaowen Bao, co-author of the study and adjunct assistant professor of neuroscience at UC Berkeley, this study is the first to attribute tinnitus to the sensory-deprived region — which is affected by hearing loss — of the cortex.

“Researchers have come up with the prevailing theory based on numerous studies and findings,” he said. “However, these findings are somewhat inconsistent. We hope we can get a more coherent idea of what’s happening.”

According to the American Tinnitus Association, tinnitus affects more than 50 million Americans with varying degrees of severity ranging from barely noticeable to debilitating. Although scientists have yet to identify a cure for the condition, popular treatment options include masking the tinnitus noise with music, which provides temporary relief, and training the neurons in the auditory cortex to enhance their response to lost frequencies, which helps to gradually reconnect the ear to the sensory-deprived neurons.

Bao and his team treated hearing-impaired rats with two drugs in order to increase their brain’s production of the GABA neurotransmitter, which inhibits the spontaneous firing of the sensory-deprived neurons — the cause of the ringing associated with tinnitus. But although these drugs were effective in treating the symptoms of tinnitus in rats, they cannot be used on humans because of the long-term side effects associated with them.

Although this is his first study on tinnitus, Bao said he hopes to build off this research to provide further insight into the field.

“We are very interested in using these molecular and cellular tools to pinpoint the mechanisms behind tinnitus and hearing loss more precisely,” he said.

Michael DeWeese, UC Berkeley assistant professor of physics and member of the institute, who researches the inability to focus attention on important sounds in the presence of distractors, said that researchers are focusing on this condition.

“Tinnitus is actually a very serious problem, and I think that many people are very surprised to hear that,” he said. “In the very worst cases, sufferers are suicidal.”

Growth Hormone May One Day Repair Cochlea Hair Cell Damage

2011-09-15T10:42:00.001-07:00

One day there could be a growth hormone that would regrow damaged hair cells in the inner ear. Not only could this lead to restoring hearing for those with age-related hearing loss, this would also help those with corresponding tinnitus symptoms.

Louisville, Ky— Researchers from Western Kentucky University and the University of Louisville have identified a growth hormone that repairs hair cell damage in the ear of a zebrafish. The findings may one day lead to a therapy for repairing cochlea hair cells in humans.

As hearing professionals are well aware, loud noise, especially repeated loud noise, can cause irreversible damage to the hair cells inside the cochlea and eventually lead to deafness. In mammals, this is irreversible; however both birds and fish are able to regrow the damaged hair cells and restore hearing. But how?

Researchers from Western Kentucky University and the University of Louisville experimented with zebrafish and examined their internal repair process.

They first looked for the zebrafish genes that were switched on or off after acoustic trauma and found distinct patterns of gene expression. Two days after noise injury in the zebrafish, inner ear cells were busy dividing to repair and replace the damaged hair cells.

The researchers traced the repair to an alteration in the regulation of 839 genes. Many of the cellular pathways involved were the same as those involved in cancer. This included a massive 64 fold increase in the transcription of growth hormone.

They then investigated the effect of injecting growth hormone (GH) on cell proliferation in control zebrafish utricles and saccules, since GH was significantly increased in the zebrafish following acoustic trauma.

The GH injection increased cell proliferation in the inner ear of non-sound-exposed zebrafish, suggesting that GH could play an important role in sensory hair cell regeneration in the teleost ear.

The research, published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Neuroscience, may one day lead to a growth hormone therapy for repairing damaged hair cells in humans.

Summing it all up

2011-09-12T17:07:00.001-07:00

Like my grandfather said to me once, "Don't shit in a flushing toilet." But he was dying of Alzheimer's at the time, and wasn't exactly shitting in toilets any more anyway. He also yelled, "FISH! FISH!" And if that doesn't sum everything up, I don't know what does.

“She must be watching a movie…”

2011-09-10T23:09:00.001-07:00

September 11, 2001, Glendale California. Shortly before 6 a.m. A ringing phone wakes me up. I hear my girlfriend groggily answer it, and I can hear, all the way over on my side, the voice of her mother, upset about something. Lots of “What? What? What?” coming from that side of the bed.

“What’s she on about?” I manage to mumble.

“My mom says a plane hit the World Trade Center in New York.”

It takes a minute for that very unlikely sentence to sink in to my sleepy brain, but the answer was plain as day to me. “She’s must be watching a movie or something,” I said.

“She says to turn on the TV!” There’s an urgency in her voice, and annoyed at what I think is her mom being confused and upset over nothing, I find the remote and turn on CNN.

There it is. A gaping hole. Smoke billowing out. We can see flames.

Now I’m awake.

It must have been some massive failure of the air traffic control system, some huge computer foulup. I tell her that somehow, some pilot wasn’t looking out his window, was looking at some instruments that were obviously completely screwed up, and flew right into the building.

But then I start thinking about how many systems would have to break down for that to happen. And what would a plane be doing flying that low anyway?

Still believing it was some small commuter plane, the CNN anchor breaks in and says they’re getting reports it was a jet. An airliner.

And as confirmations come in that it was a jet that hit the WTC, that’s when we see the second plane. Not sure of what we just saw, the news network (I can’t remember if we stayed with CNN or if we started flipping around) helpfully replayed the footage.

Our mouths are hanging open. I start to say, “How the hell can a computer mix up explain a fucking SECOND plane—” but as we both look at each other we have the same sudden, sickening thought forming in our heads, and the news anchor says at the same time, crystallizing the realization and finishing the thought for us, “This can’t be an accident. This is a terrorist attack.”

Cecil the cat jumped into bed with us, wondering why we were awake so damn early, and decided to capitalize on the opportunity and meowed for food.

I don’t think our eyes left the television the whole day.

Evolution

2011-09-09T08:23:00.001-07:00

Religion first asserted authority over humankind's disunity and individuality. Governments then asserted their authority over religion. And now corporations are asserting their authority over governments. It's evolution.

Moving through Kashmir

2011-09-05T00:10:00.001-07:00

Is there anything better than driving alone on a dark highway, no other cars and nothing but Zeppelin's Kashmir for company? I don't think so.

Jedi kittens.

2011-08-26T14:35:00.001-07:00

Yes, really. Jedi kittens. Just shut up and watch it.

Diamond Planet

2011-08-25T22:23:00.001-07:00

Here's one for your imagination: A planet that may be basically a big diamond has been discovered by astronomers. (It should be noted that Arthur C. Clarke, in 2010: Odyssey Two, speculated that the core of Jupiter was an earth-sized diamond. So once again, Clarke got there first.)

LONDON (Reuters) - Astronomers have spotted an exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard.

The new planet is far denser than any other known so far and consists largely of carbon. Because it is so dense, scientists calculate the carbon must be crystalline, so a large part of this strange world will effectively be diamond.

"The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon -- i.e. a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun," said Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

Lying 4,000 light years away, or around an eighth of the way toward the center of the Milky Way from the Earth, the planet is probably the remnant of a once-massive star that has lost its outer layers to the so-called pulsar star it orbits.

Pulsars are tiny, dead neutron stars that are only around 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) in diameter and spin hundreds of times a second, emitting beams of radiation.

In the case of pulsar J1719-1438, the beams regularly sweep the Earth and have been monitored by telescopes in Australia, Britain and Hawaii, allowing astronomers to detect modulations due to the gravitational pull of its unseen companion planet.

The measurements suggest the planet, which orbits its star every two hours and 10 minutes, has slightly more mass than Jupiter but is 20 times as dense, Bailes and colleagues reported in the journal Science on Thursday.

In addition to carbon, the new planet is also likely to contain oxygen, which may be more prevalent at the surface and is probably increasingly rare toward the carbon-rich center.

Its high density suggests the lighter elements of hydrogen and helium, which are the main constituents of gas giants like Jupiter, are not present.

Just what this weird diamond world is actually like close up, however, is a mystery.

"In terms of what it would look like, I don't know I could even speculate," said Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester. "I don't imagine that a picture of a very shiny object is what we're looking at here."

Tholian webbed

2011-08-23T23:22:00.001-07:00

Okay fellow Trek nerds, allow me to expose my Trek geekiness.

Yes, I am a Trekkie. Have been one since I was a wee lad. And when I grew up, I fell in love with The Next Generation. But I’ve always had a soft spot for the original series, what we Trekkists refer to as ‘TOS.’

TOS, as anyone familiar with television lore knows, only lasted for three seasons, and most Trekkers agree that the third season was, well, kind of awful. It had some outright howlers, and I never held it high regard. Gene Roddenberry had removed himself to the back office and given the show over to Fred Freiberger who, apparently, had some of his cliché action ideas he wanted to force onto the show.

But as I’ve been streaming the “remastered” version of the third season on Netflix, I came across probably one of the better episodes of the whole series – “The Tholian Web.”

Everything about this one was good. The story was compelling, the acting top notch, and all the little bits and pieces added up to an episode that made up for every bad thing about that particular season.

We Trekkers know this story, and all other episodes, by heart, of course.

The remastered special effects are sumptuous. But the little bits – a “ghost” Kirk floating around the ship, sufficiently spooky even though it’s one of the cheapest special effect that can be done – McCoy erupting into a near war of insubordination against Spock – Spock taking it coolly and calmly (like Obama with the tea partiers) – Spock saying, “I’m sure the captain would have said, ‘Forget it, Bones.’” – the lovely moment where McCoy finally calls Spock “Captain” – and the perfect epilogue as Spock and McCoy refuse to admit to Kirk that they listened to his final taped orders because they’d given up on him – all these little bits made it one of the standout episodes in all of Trek.

Oh sure, the writer in me can find some nitpicks to make, tiny little things I might have done differently if it were my story. But it wasn’t. And what’s there is a shining moment for the show. No, I really wouldn’t change any of it.

But there’s another reason why I’m particularly fond of this one. When I was a kid, all geeked out in my love for Trek, I finally got to attend one of those storied Star Trek conventions I’d heard about. Yes, I got to see lots of strange grownups, even geekier than I, wearing costumes they’d made themselves. But the highlight was a screening of this episode on a movie-size screen. At that time (the mid 70s) I’d never seen Star Trek on anything other than a 19-inch screen of questionable color balance. Seeing it there, big as life, made an impression.

So here I am, a lifetime later, with four, count ‘em, four other Trek series in, and eleven feature films, enjoying a pristine, high-definition viewing with new CGI special effects, on my 50-inch TV.

Progress is good. But so is the old stuff.

Human beings are just so… wonderful!

2011-08-22T22:51:00.001-07:00

Mom tries to sell son for $2000.

A Florida mom with an alleged prescription drug addiction was accused by police of trying to sell her 5-year-old son for $2,000.

Police said that Jessica Marie Beers, 28, offered to sell her boy to a couple that befriended her in a Tampa Bay-area church, My Fox Tampa reported. The husband, James Gardner, alerted Pinellas County sheriff's deputies about Beers' proposed trade on Saturday, The St. Petersburg Times said.

Sheriff's deputies had Gardner proceed with a phony deal to buy the kid. When Beers showed up at a prearranged meeting point to make the swap, they arrested her, booking her for sale of parental rights. She also allegedly violated the terms of probation for a prior grand theft arrest, ABC News said.

For years, Gardner and his wife had given money to Beers so she could pick up food and basic necessities, ABC News said. The couple eventually realized that Beers had a prescription drug habit.

The Herald Sun, of Australia, reported that Beers was homeless until the Garnders allowed her to move in with them.

Recently, she'd been relying on them to look after her son more frequently and finally, last week she allegedly offered to sell him. Gardner assumed she'd use the cash to buy drugs, news reports said.

Her son is in protective custody.

An addition to the household

2011-08-20T19:49:00.001-07:00

My neighbors moved, and since their outdoor cat Lionheart adopted me and spent almost all his time at my place, they decided to leave him with me. Cecil likes hanging out with him too, so no cat fights.

The last time I had two animals one of them was a dog, my boy Orson, rest his soul... I'd been planning to adopt another puppy but plans change. Besides, who could say no to this guy? He’s a total lap animal, and I think he’s got a little bit of puppy in him.

[Click to emfelinify]

We knew this was coming

2011-08-20T10:00:00.001-07:00

All of us in the radio biz knew this was coming. In an endless quest to eliminate jobs, this is the next logical step for our industry.

A non-human DJ will take to the airwaves next week in San Antonio, Texas, in what may mark another step on the path that puts flesh-and-blood radio personalities out of a job.

The DJ is an artificial intelligence program called Denise, who was built by Guile 3D Studio to serve as a virtual assistant to answer phone calls, check email, conduct Web searches and make appointments, among other tasks.

Dominique Garcia, a radio personality in San Antonio, purchased Denise for $200 and programmed the AI to serve as a DJ. Denise will hit the airwaves on Aug. 24 from 1 to 4 p.m. CST on KROV.

Potential drug treatment for tinnitus

2011-08-18T10:13:00.001-07:00

A drug that potentially eliminates drug-induced tinnitus in animals is being demonstrated.

Buffalo, NY – State University of New York at Buffalo (UB) researchers are highlighting a new drug therapy that eliminates tinnitus with a single dose in animal models, as well as other advances, at the Fifth Tinnitus Research Initiative Conference.

Sponsored in part by UB's Center for Hearing and Deafness, the reportedly sold-out conference is titled "The Neuroscience of Tinnitus," and is being held August 19-21 in Grand Island, NY.

A UB press release stated that top tinnitus researchers and clinicians from the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia will attend the conference, which is co-sponsored by the Tinnitus Research Initiative at the University of Regensburg, Germany.

Edward Lobarinas, PhD, assistant research professor of communicative disorders and sciences, will present work showing that two potassium ion channel modulators, called Maxipost and R-Maxipost, completely eliminated behavioral evidence of tinnitus in animals with drug-induced tinnitus. However, further research is needed to determine if these compounds suppress other forms of tinnitus.

Other UB researchers will present work on how hearing loss early in life affects sound tolerance, how the amygdala in the brain may influence the generation of tinnitus, and how the auditory cortex in the brain of animal models is affected by the disorder.

Other topics to be covered include evaluating effective strategies for assessing tinnitus; various treatments, such as cochlear implants, electric acoustic stimulation, and sound therapy; how light affects tinnitus; as well as scientific advances on the physiological, neurochemical, and biological mechanisms that cause tinnitus.

"The best tinnitus investigators in the world will be here," said Richard Salvi, PhD, chief conference organizer and head of UB's Center for Hearing and Deafness. He also said that the growing number of combat veterans with tinnitus will be a significant topic at the meeting.

In addition to the Office of Naval Research, the conference is sponsored by the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences in the UB College of Arts and Sciences, as well as the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Corporate and foundation sponsors include the Tinnitus Research Initiative, the American Tinnitus Association, Merz Pharmaceuticals, Auris Medical, Med-El Corp, General Hearing Instruments Inc, Widex International, Tucker-Davis Technologies, and Sleep Pillow.

Researchers claim an experimental medicine cures tinnitus with a single dose

2011-08-11T08:51:00.001-07:00

The problem is, it makes apes really smart.

Just kidding.

I’ve heard claims like this before, but researchers at the University of Buffalo claim they’re working on an experimental medication that has eliminated tinnitus in animals with a single dose.

UB research showing that a new drug that eliminated tinnitus with a single dose in animal models is among the advances that will be presented next week at the Fifth Tinnitus Research Initiative Conference, “The Neuroscience of Tinnitus,” sponsored by UB’s Center for Hearing and Deafness.

The conference, which will be held Aug. 19-21 on Grand Island, will explore new discoveries about the origins, diagnosis and treatment of tinnitus (the perception of sound without any acoustic stimulus), a disorder that affects 10-14 percent of Americans and is especially prevalent among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. While various therapies can help some sufferers, there is no medically approved standard treatment and no cure.

Top tinnitus researchers and clinicians from the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia will attend the conference, which is co-sponsored by the Tinnitus Research Initiative at the University of Regensburg, Germany.

“The best tinnitus investigators in the world will be here,” says Richard Salvi, chief conference organizer and head of UB’s Center for Hearing and Deafness, one of the world’s leading hearing research laboratories and Western New York’s only specialty clinic for tinnitus patients.

A documentary filmmaker, who is making a film on the disorder with the assistance of the American Tinnitus Association, will be at the conference interviewing some of these well-known researchers, Salvi adds.

Part of the increased attention to tinnitus, he says, is due to its growing incidence among war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“As many as 50 percent of combat soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who come back have tinnitus,” Salvi says. “In 2010, the Veterans Administration paid out more than $1 billion for tinnitus disability claims alone. It’s become a huge problem for military and VA hospitals.”

That’s because of the intense noise soldiers must withstand, Salvi explains, noting that this is why the U.S. Office of Naval Research is a major conference sponsor.

Topics to be covered at the conference include evaluating effective strategies for assessing tinnitus; various treatments, such as cochlear implants, electric acoustic stimulation and sound therapy; how light affects tinnitus; and the scientific advances on the physiological, neurochemical and biological mechanisms that cause tinnitus.

Edward Lobarinas, research assistant professor of communicative disorders and sciences, will present work he and UB colleagues have done showing that two potassium ion channel modulators, called Maxipost and R-Maxipost, completely eliminated behavioral evidence of tinnitus in animals with drug-induced tinnitus. Further research is needed to determine if these compounds suppress other forms of tinnitus.

UB researchers also will present work on how hearing loss early in life affects sound tolerance, how the amygdala in the brain may influence the generation of tinnitus and how the auditory cortex in the brain of animal models is affected by the disorder.

“The Stand”–possibly being done the way it was meant to be done

2011-08-10T19:31:00.001-07:00

“The Stand” is the best thing Stephen King ever wrote, a towering triumph of American horror that also straddled the world of modern apocalypses.

The TV miniseries version was good… but not even it could cover everything in the book. The novel is just so… massive and all-encompassing.

It remains one of my favorite novels of all time, one I’ve read and re-read many times, despite its length. Maybe it’s so ingrained in my consciousness because the first time I read it, I was home in bed with the worst flu of my life. In fact, on the night I started reading it, my flu was just getting bad. As the story progressed and I read along, my flu progressed. As I read of the whole world dying, I felt like I was.

I’d heard of attempts to do this as a film a few years ago, but I despaired because I knew one film wouldn’t be enough to do the story justice. But now there’s word that someone wants to pony up the dough to do it right… a multi-film arc, two or possibly even three big budget films to tell the story of The Stand the way it was meant to be told. And it’s being put in the hands of the people who shepherded the recent decade of Harry Potter films from beginning to conclusion.

This is terrific news, apocalypse fans!

The "Harry Potter" film series was a juggernaut pretty much from start to finish, occupying ten years of pop culture real estate by sheer force of will. There was no guarantee up front that the films would work, or that fans would be happy, or that the studio would be able to get all the films made before the kids got too old to star in them. It seemed like a huge challenge up front, and the way they pulled it off has been sort of overwhelming to witness. It is a triumph of filmmaking as mountain climbing, an accomplishment that few would have been able to pull off, much less with the style and grace of this series.

How many other film franchises genuinely got better as they went? How many film franchises produced eight films in a decade? Especially films of this size and complexity? "Harry Potter" is one of those singular things, and especially over the back half of the series, David Yates and Steve Kloves did a lot of the heavy lifting as the director and screenwriter of the films, and they made a whoooooole lot of money for Warner Bros. in the process.

Little wonder, then, that Warner Bros. is in the process of finalizing the deals for David Yates and Steve Kloves to re-team for a multi-movie version of Stephen King's epic "The Stand."

Best. Commercial. Ever.

2011-08-09T13:17:00.001-07:00

I think this may be the single best commercial I've ever seen.

Let the healing commence!

2011-08-03T19:20:00.001-07:00

Followup visit at the vet for The Cecil... he had the drain removed, there's a few more days of healing, I can let him out of the cone of shame when I'm around, but he has to wear it when I'm away. There is a change in his behavior, though -- he spends a lot more time in my lap, where he was always more independent before.

1979

2011-08-03T15:06:00.001-07:00

It was 1979... and corporate rock was on her last legs, but the aging whore still had the energy to mate with the exiled stepbrother of punk rock, and give birth to the monstrosity known as New Wave...

Deal reached

2011-07-31T18:17:00.001-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Time is money

2011-07-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

This movie looks to be interesting, not just because Olivia Wilde is in it (that’s enough to get my attention), but also because the sci-fi concept is compelling: a society where time literally is money.

If the movie is as interesting as the concept, it’ll be a winner.

Timberlake and Wilde star in the upcoming Andrew Niccol sci-fi thriller, "In Time," playing mother and son. Which makes sense in the context: the film is set in a world in which the aging gene has been halted at the age of 25, where the rich buy and trade the world's new currency, time itself, so that they stay forever young -- while the poor die at the hands of their robbed clocks.

Wilde and Timberlake, low down on the socio-economic ladder, have to fight for every minute they can; Wilde's character, Rachel, gave birth to Timberlake's Will and was able to survive until he caught up to her in age, but her time, it seems, is finally running out. On the flip side, Will is gifted 100 years by an "old" man who no longer wants to live -- setting off wild accusations and a fight for survival.

The film hits theaters October 28th.

Curing tinnitus in rats is great, but…

2011-07-29T11:24:00.001-07:00

Like the old medical research joke goes, “Curing it in rats is great, but what about me?”

Since scientists have finally figured out that tinnitus is mainly in the brain, not the ears, research has taken a few leaps forward, and already they’re working on effective treatments and even some possible cures for the condition.

In a recent study, Kilgard induced tinnitus in rats by exposing them to loud sounds. Then he used tiny electrodes to stimulate the rats' vagus nerve, a pathway connecting the brain to other organs. Each jolt of micro-current triggered the release of a substance called acetylcholine, which signals the brain to pay attention.

In sync with the stimulation, he played a wide range of tones — all except the one matching the frequency of their tinnitus — and repeated this 300 times a day for three weeks. The tinnitus disappeared in these rats, while a control group still had the condition.

In effect, Kilgard says, the rats' brains were retuned, unlearning the tendency to overfocus on one tone by increasing the number of brain cells dedicated to other sound frequencies.

Kilgard's study, published earlier this year in Nature, set the stage for a human trial by Dirk De Ridder, M.D., a neurosurgeon who heads a tinnitus clinic in Antwerp, Belgium.

De Ridder is implanting electrodes in 10 middle-aged tinnitus patients, each of whom has already tried various experimental techniques, including medication. He says he works with one patient at a time, as each undergoes vagus nerve stimulation coupled with sound therapy for 2 1/2 hours a day for four weeks. This is very much a pilot study, where the researchers hope to figure out some basic parameters (how long to continue treatment, among other things) that will guide a larger study.

The eventual cure might require some tiny electrodes to be implanted in the neck, but take it from someone who’s been suffering from the condition – which steadily gets worse – since 2003, that would be a small price to pay. Well, except for the monetary price, of course, since no doubt insurance companies most likely will not decide to cover them.

Tinnitus - a roadmap to a cure

2011-07-28T13:20:00.001-07:00

ATA's Roadmap to a Cure: Guiding the Way Toward Silence

What is the Roadmap to a Cure? Simply, it's a chart that identifies what we know about tinnitus right now and what additional information we need so that we can make progress in developing a cure. The Roadmap is a sequence of steps along four paths- A, B, C & D- that begins with finding out what is responsible for producing tinnitus and ends with a successful tinnitus treatment. Path A leads us to identify where the problem is in the brain. Path B will determine the underlying mechanism that causes tinnitus. Path C will lead us to develop a general therapy for tinnitus and Path D leads us to customizing the therapy or therapies for individual tinnitus patients.

We have highlighted some recent ATA-funded studies and placed them on the various paths they fit on the Roadmap to showcase the broad scope of tinnitus research supported by ATA.

To learn more about ATA's Roadmap to a Cure, visit ATA.org/research/roadmap-cure.

Just in time to spend more money

2011-07-26T22:31:00.001-07:00

Word is out that Star Trek: The Next Generation is being remastered for high-definition Blu-ray, set for release in 2012.

According to a new report, the long-awaited Star Trek: The Next Generation in HD project is starting to gear up at CBS with a possible "Best of" pack of four episodes on Blu-ray coming this year and more to follow in 2012. See below for more on TNG in HD.

Report: TNG in HD coming in 2012 w/ test in 2011

For years CBS has been talking about remastering Star Trek: The Next Generation in HD like they did for the original Star Trek series. In May our friends at Digital Bits reported that CBS was starting to gear up to give TNG in HD a shot. TrekMovie later confirmed that the talk inside CBS had increased on this project, but that there are technical challenges to this process. Now Digital Bits reports that sources at Comic Con are saying that the first effort for TNG in HD will be a test to come out in 2012:

Multiple sources I spoke with at Comic-Con have also confirmed our report from earlier this year that CBS is hard at work on Star Trek: The Next Generation – Remastered for Blu-ray release starting sometime in 2012. The latest word is that 4 test episodes are currently being worked on for release as a sampler/demo BD disc of the project, and that sampler disc will somehow be available to fans by the end of this year.

It is worth noting that 2012 is the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The remastered project for the Star Trek was released in 2006, just in time for the 40th anniversary.

TrekMovie will continue to monitor this very exciting project and provide updates when possible.

Knights of Badassdom

2011-07-26T09:37:00.000-07:00

I am so in line already for EVERYTHING about this.

One of civilization’s most vexing questions finally answered

2011-07-25T09:07:00.001-07:00

It’s a question that has vexed our entire civilization. But now the definitive, final answer has been revealed. Kinda.

The monkeys have been a big mistake

2011-07-23T20:05:00.001-07:00

For the most part, we’re a vile, vicious, violent species, aren’t we?

Multiple shootings at a motorcycle rally in AZ, shootings at a car show in Seattle, shootings at a roller rink in TX. And the bombing and mass shooting in Oslo. If I believed in a god, I would pray that he'd hit the reset button and start over again, this time with the dolphins, because his experiment with the monkeys has been a BIG disappointment.

Even though we’ve made some incredible advances in tools and weapons, we’re still the same vicious predatory animals we’ve always been, since the first ape thought, “Hmm, I can hear me thinking. Isn’t that odd?”

Shooting a bunch of kids... cowardly!

2011-07-22T13:06:00.001-07:00

Opening fire on a group of children... The person with a mindset that justifies an act of terrorism and cowardice like this has given up the right to be treated as human.

That politics or religion can be used as an excuse for this act should make us seriously reconsider both politics and religion.

Continuing breakthroughs in tinnitus research

2011-07-20T11:43:00.001-07:00

The big recent breakthrough is the discovery that tinnitus is centered not in the ears but in the brain itself. And figuring this out is a big step toward a treatment that works, or maybe even a cure.

Tinnitus is neurons “talking to themselves”

Tinnitus is generated by neuron activity in the brain, researchers say.

Tinnitus, that phantom ringing in the ears that affects millions of people, is generated not by the ear, but by neurons firing in the brain, according to a North American research team.

“Tinnitus is not generated by processes in the ear, but by changes in the brain when hearing loss occurs,” said one of the researchers, professor emeritus Larry Roberts from the Department of psychology, neuroscience, and behaviour at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.

Neurons, he said, are meant to talk to each other. When the ear stops talking to them, usually because of hearing loss, they start talking to themselves and this in turn generates the ringing. “The sound is generated by neuron activity.”

Roberts said the conclusion is the result of collaborative work in the past decade, but said many people are not aware it’s the neurons, or changes in the brain, producing tinnitus. Now the question is: how is the noise generated in the brain? “What are the neurons doing, and where are they doing it?” he said. “Our work will assist.”

Might lead to a treatment

Understanding how it happens might lead to finding a treatment. The findings also help scientists understand why tinnitus is such a difficult problem to treat, he added.

About 10 to 12% of all people have some form of tinnitus and about 1 to 2% of the population suffers from severe tinnitus.

We Can Fly From Here

2011-07-14T14:46:00.001-07:00

We can fly from here... back in the old days, we'd fly via starship like starship troopers... but we're a lot older now, so rather than starships it's old propeller-shaft airliners...

So opens the vibe of the new album by Yes, Fly From Here, their first in 10 years. They were already long in the tooth on their last couple of studio discs, the awesome The Ladder and Magnification, and time certainly hasn't stopped marching on.

But make no mistake, the oldsters can still play.

While "Fly From Here," the opening 25-minute suite, is based on a piece of music they were working on more than 30 years ago, it's fitting that the former Yes imagery of the Starship Trooper is replaced here by old, broken-down propeller aircraft, a picture of age, decay and obsolescence, as if the Yes men were embracing their advancing age, unafraid of the march of time because, hey, that's how it works. Time and age happens to all of us. Every day we discover things we can't do as well as we used to. The pretty girls don't smile at us as much as they did. Summer fades, winter comes on.

But these old, obsolete aircraft can still fly, given a little care and maybe a few replacement parts here and there.

One replacement part is new vocalist Benoit David, sitting in for the departed Jon Anderson, dropped (perhaps unceremoniously) from the group in 2008 after health problems. And to David's credit, he doesn't try to mimic Anderson, even though as the frontman of a Yes tribute band he's made a career out of sounding like Anderson. But David brings his own style to the equation, and actually evokes a lot more of Trevor Horn's brief stint as Yes singer on 1980's Drama.

And that's probably not an accident, since Trevor Horn is producing here as he did on 90125 and Big Generator. Geoff Downes takes over on keyboards just as he did on Drama. So the evocation is complete.

And Chris Squire blatantly ripping off a bass riff played by Horn on Drama's "Run Through The Light" brought a big smile to my face.

I can't quite say this disc is better than 1999's The Ladder, but this is a fine album, four stars out of five, and it's a worthy addition to the Yes catalogue, certainly better than the studio stuff on Keys To Ascension, and much better than the unfortunate Open Your Eyes, which is a Yes disc better left forgotten.

And it stands up pretty damn well with Yes' classic past, and that in itself is a great accomplishment.

Yes, Jon is missed, but Benoit David more than holds his own and adds just a bit of welcome freshness. The music is new and isn't just an imitation of anything that came in the past. And - as I've noticed - bits and pieces are actually sticking in my head after the disc is done spinning.

There's talk that if the album succeeds they'll dish out another one. Here's hoping it doesn't take another 10 years.

Slave Leia PSA starring Kaley Cuoco

2011-07-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

Maybe we’re all just worn out

2011-07-07T09:05:00.001-07:00

More and more each day, we give ourselves over to irrationality.

The media feeds into our intellectual laziness because that's what makes money. So we get reality shows, paranoia, sensational crime trials, fantasies about lizard people in disguise and all-powerful conspiracies pulling all the strings... All feeding into an all or nothing, black or white mentality, with no in-between.

Political debate on TV consists of, "Is too!" vs "Is not!" and it never goes deeper than that. We pronounce the death of any political campaign that can't successfully boil its "message" down to a bumper sticker.

Presenting the balancing view means we have to get someone on the air who says, "The sun is NOT hot!" to "balance" out the view that it is.

We pay vast sums of money for art that's nothing more than disaster porn, to see how much CGI can we use to show huge robots blowing up cities, rather than telling a story.

"We" are always good, pure, wholly innocent. "They" are always the foulest, most evil, most sinister beings ever created. No in between.

We've lost the ability to see human beings, and now we can only see caricatures. A clear view of reality is boring, only the fantastical, the overwrought, holds any interest for us.

Either we've gotten lazy, or maybe we're just all tired, worn out, fatigued by the constant barrage of the loudest noises we can make.

Maybe, in the final analysis, being a sentient species isn’t all the great of an idea. Maybe the whole concept is self-defeating, an evolutionary dead-end, destined only to burn itself out in an orgy of violent irrelevancy. We can’t take the strain of our own self-awareness. Maybe the day we decided to come down out of the trees was our first, biggest, most fatal mistake.

A Face In The Crowd

2011-07-03T00:15:00.001-07:00

Do yourself a favor: Rent the 1957 film "A Face In The Crowd" and let yourself be creeped out by Andy Griffith. Yes, that Andy Griffith. And marvel at how eerily prescient it is of the modern confluence of TV and radio demagogues with politics and corporate interests.

Watch it and see who it reminds you of. Keith Olbermann was sure. That’s why he dubbed a certain (now former) Fox News personality with a moniker inspired by this film.

President Obama has a way with the babes. I mean, babies.

2011-06-21T13:13:00.001-07:00

What I need

2011-06-12T23:25:00.001-07:00

I need sleep. I need to be able to experience silence again. I need more absorbent toilet paper. I need a more effective antacid. I need a Mustang convertible. I need to not lose my youth and relevance so quickly. I need fresher breath. I need a vacation. I need less stress. I need dishwasher detergent that doesn't leave streaks. I need faster Internet service. I need some quiet. I need a time machine so I can go back to simpler times. Free gasoline for a year would be cool too.

Denis Leary on why he "hates" Michael J. Fox

2011-06-03T11:52:00.001-07:00

Denis Leary, gearing up for the final season of "Rescue Me," talks Michael J. Fox (who did a great guest star turn on the show) being possibly nominated for his work on "The Good Wife":

If he gets nominated and wins that one, I'm going to his house and I'm stealing the Emmy from him. Like he needs another one! He also has, like, $600 billion in Spin City money. I hate him. He's a talented guy and nice and successful. He's the worst kind of friend because he's actually the greatest human being alive. There is no way to look good standing next to him.

The End of Eternity… again

2011-05-28T14:22:00.001-07:00

I just finished re-reading Isaac Asimov's "The End of Eternity" last night. The last time I read it I was a teenager... I saw so much more in it this time. Definitely Asimov's single best work.

I hear a movie version is stuck in development hell, and that's just as well. I think Hollywood would screw this up royally. They’d probably try to turn it into some mindless “sci-fi action thriller” with Will Smith and The Rock playing Time Cops who take names and kick ass. I fear the same thing’s going to happen to Hollywood’s planned movie on Asimov’s Foundation series.

Tinnitus research breakthrough

2011-05-25T10:59:00.001-07:00

Could be another breakthrough in ongoing research into causes and possible treatment of chronic tinnitus.

Australian researchers say they have identified a new brain region, the ventral subdivision of the cochlear nucleus, as a possible factor behind tinnitus.

Tinnitus is a potentially debilitating disorder of hearing which is characterised by the perception of non-existent sounds, usually roaring, hissing or ringing in the ears.

The changes in the brain that cause tinnitus are poorly understood. It is clear however that alterations in nerve cell electrical behaviour must underlie the abnormal "phantom" perception of sound that is experienced by tinnitus sufferers.

For many years, the exact site in the brain where this abnormal nerve cell behaviour occurs has been a contentious issue.

Read more: New Brain Region Linked To Tinnitus

Tinnitus treatment video

2011-05-23T14:24:00.001-07:00

Video about a type of tinnitus treatment that's helping some sufferers:

Tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, is the number one service connected disability for Veterans. In tonight's Health Watch, Ninnette Sosa introduces us a young vet who gets a promising therapy to help him with the anxiety that often accompanies Tinnitus. Watch video.

Harold Camping was wrong. Again.

2011-05-22T09:08:00.001-07:00

The last time Harold Camping said the Rapture was happening was 1994. He was wrong. He says he made a mathematical error.

And it appears he’s wrong again.

So what will Camping's excuse be this time? Some say he'll probably play the "Nineveh" card -- "Because we turned to God and prayed, he changed his mind and spared you. So you should thank us for saving you!"

He could play the faulty math card again, but it seems he's closed the road on that one --

Camping, however, will be awaiting Jesus Christ's return for the second time. He said his earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994 didn't come true because of a mathematical error.

"I'm not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature," he told The Associated Press last month. But this time, he said, "there is...no possibility that it will not happen."

So what excuse do you think he'll use this time?

Not that it matters much. Camping doesn’t really care that he was wrong again. Just like before, he made millions selling the end of the world to the gullible. He’s laughing all the way to the bank.

The End of Eternity

2011-05-18T10:49:00.001-07:00

I first read Isaac Asimov's "The End of Eternity" when I was a teenager. Re-reading it now, I'm convinced it's Asimov's best, and maybe one of the greatest sci-fi novels of all time.

It’s not that the concept is so mind-blowing –it is – but that the writing itself is so damn good.

And the idea of time travel as a sci-fi plot device is older than, well, H.G. Wells, but Asimov turned it on its head here: In the far future, mankind has mastered time travel, and a benevolent organization outside of time controls the destinies and fates of trillions of people, by managing the flow of time and events throughout future centuries.

I hear they're making a movie out of it - I don't see how, but I suspect they'll ruin it and try to turn it into an 'action thriller.' Ugh.

Set your clocks for the Rapture this Saturday!

2011-05-17T12:24:00.001-07:00

According to end times huckster Harold Camping, the Rapture - where all true Christians will suddenly vanish from the earth - is happening this Saturday. (Never mind all those other times he was wrong.) For Camping's followers, how about letting me have all your money and belongings now, since you can't take them with you and me and all the other nonbelievers are going to be left behind anyway?

Of course, not every Christian who believes in the coming Rapture thinks Harold Camping knows what he's talking about. While they may not set a date like Camping has (several times), they do fervently believe that some day, they and all other true Christians will suddenly disappear right before our very eyes... and what's more, this could happen at any moment.

I have a question for these people: If you really, really believe that at any moment, without warning, you could suddenly go poof, why the hell do you ever get behind the wheel of a car? Or pilot an aircraft? Or drive a bus?

Don't you care that your sudden disappearance will cause untold death and destruction? Don't you care that your suddenly pilotless plane or suddenly driverless bus could kill and injure many men, women and children? Don't you care your suddenly driverless car will run up on the sidewalk and mow down some poor pregnant woman?

Or do you not care because those left behind are going to burn in hell anyway, so they're not worth one ounce of your concern?

If you really, really believe you could be Raptured away at any instant, that is. Maybe you don't really believe that.

Mozart myth debunked

2011-05-17T08:17:00.001-07:00

You've heard the story time and time again, saw it portrayed in the movie Amadeus: Mozart, arguably the world's greatest composer, was buried in a pauper's grave.

Except that he wasn't. Mozart's pauper's grave burial is a myth.
Here's the real story:

Vienna Mythbusters and scholars will be quick to tell you Mozart indeed had money troubles when he died in 1791 at only 35. But his style of burial wasn't determined by his lack of wealth – which seems to have been due only to a short-term credit crunch rather than real poverty.

We can blame this erroneous Vienna urban legend on Emperor Joseph II. After all, it's his fault we don't know exactly where the great Maestro was buried. Inspired by the New Enlightenment, Joseph wanted to be rid of traditions he associated with the backwardness of the Catholic Church, so he targeted funeral rites.

One of the Emperor's rules was that members of Vienna's society (except those with a high social status) were buried in reusable coffins. The end of these caskets had swinging doors and the body was tipped through them into graves. The graves weren't mass graves, as is often written. Mozart had his own grave, but every 10 years, the Emperor decreed, all the graves would be plowed over so that the land could be reused for new graves.

Homeboy Veronica

2011-05-14T11:15:00.001-07:00

Back when I was young and beautiful, I spent all my spare time noodling on my guitar. Over the years, as I added more equipment and better instruments, I recorded some homemade demos here and there. Here’s the full “album” of the demos I’m choosing to make public (the ones I sing on are staying hidden for your own protection).

These are just unfinished demos, made for my own amusement between 1989 – 1999.

Homeboy Veronica, the homemade demos by Rob-Archer

The Light of Other Days

2011-05-13T23:59:00.001-07:00

The Light of Other Days by rob-archer

This is a track I originally recorded at home in Ft Lauderdale FL in 1998 on a primitive digital recorder with a Strat and a cheap drum machine. In 2005 I tweaked a bit.

Obama Laughs at Seth Meyers Osama Bin Laden Joke

2011-05-03T08:31:00.001-07:00

Battlestar Galactica redux

2011-04-23T23:55:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Netflix (whenever the streaming would work) I've managed to cycle through the entire run of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, one of the finest television shows ever made.

During its original run, interrupted by long months in between seasons (or half seasons), parts of the threads of the story were lost to me. But this time, being able to watch them all in just a few weeks, the story held up much better than I remembered... Even the turn to mysticism in the final season seemed to make more sense in context.

I was hooked from the opening moments, but I love it even more after the second viewing. Truly a television masterwork, and some of the best writing I’ve ever seen put on any screen, large or small.

But Netflix viewers, beware: the versions they stream are apparently edited for syndication. You’ll notice the cuts especially during the recaps at the beginning of each episode (“Previously, on Battlestar Galactica…”) because you’ll see bits of dialogue that had been edited out.

The edits are most maddening in the finale – entire scenes have been excised, some of them quite vital to the story. Because of that, buying the entire show on disc (with the unedited & unrated version of the finale) has now been put on my to-do list.

Can somebody loan me 250 bucks?

Netflix streaming problem solved

2011-04-23T09:18:00.001-07:00

Those of you who follow me on Twitter and Facebook know that for the past few months I’ve been griping about Netflix – specifically their streaming service.

I love the idea of having movies and entire runs of my favorite TV shows available at my fingertips. And using my Sony Blu-ray player to stream high definition Netflix to my TV looked beautiful. Except for one problem – the streaming sucked. There were constant stoppages for rebuffering, sometimes so bad that I could only watch 10 seconds or so before the stream would freeze. Awfully hard to watch something that way.

Finally a call to Netflix brought the answer that it might be my Internet provider’s fault. So I decided to run a test and stream something to my PC that was giving me fits over my Sony. And lo and behold streaming a hi-def movie or TV show to the PC went perfectly, not one stop, whereas it was impossible over the Sony.

That meant the problem wasn’t with my Internet service or Netflix. And after some Googling, I discovered that lots of other people have been complaining about the same problem with their Sony Blu-ray players.

Apparently there’s something in the Sony firmware that doesn’t like Netflix streaming. But Sony refuses to acknowledge there’s a problem, so I don’t expect a firmware update to address the issue.

The solution to my streaming problem? Get rid of the Sony and get an LG Blu-ray player for Netflix streaming.

The tinnitus/depression link

2011-04-21T10:00:00.001-07:00

Some new findings are suggesting that tinnitus and depression are linked in the brain's limbic system.

The thinking used to be that depression was a natural reaction to the sudden onslaught of continual noise in the head and ears that robs people of sleep, concentration and the enjoyment of life. But these new findings seem to show that the link between tinnitus and depression go much deeper.

Researchers from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) have theorized that the human limbic system can make some people more vulnerable to tinnitus than others and perhaps cause depression.

The researchers’ theory is that the limbic system—a linked network of brain structures involved in emotion, behavior, and long-term memory—acts as a gatekeeper to keep the tinnitus signal from reaching the auditory cortex, the part of the brain that mediates our conscious perception of sounds. In people with tinnitus, they suggest, the gate has “broken.”

In previous studies, Josef Rauschecker, PhD, DSc, and his colleagues in the Department of Neuroscience, the Division of Audiology, and the Department of Otolaryngology at Georgetown University had noted a significant loss of volume in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), an area located in the frontal lobe of the brain, of people with tinnitus. The finding was intriguing because although this isn’t an area of the brain that processes sound, it is an area that has the potential to modulate sensory information—such as sound—because of its intimate connections with key structures in the limbic system.

The fact that tissue loss in this particular area was a prominent feature was puzzling, but changes had been noted before in other structures associated with the limbic system in people with tinnitus. Previous researchers had tended to interpret the involvement of the limbic system as a reflection of the emotional reaction to the sound. The depression that often accompanies tinnitus (and that has deep roots in the limbic system) was seen as a normal reaction to an upsetting condition that wouldn’t go away.

However, Rauschecker’s team wondered if the damage they saw in the mPFC wasn’t a consequence of tinnitus, but instead a part of its cause.

Is your iPhone stalking you?

2011-04-20T10:22:00.001-07:00

Is your iPhone secretly tracking everywhere you've been? These security experts say yes.

It turns out that your iPhone is keeping a record of everywhere you've been since June. This data is stored on your phone (or iPad) and computer, easily available to anyone who gets their hands on it. Why? Apple won't say. We're creeped out.

The enormous privacy startle, apparently enabled by this summer's iOS 4 release, was discovered by two security researchers, one of whom claims he was an Apple employee for five years.

Nothing tells you the truth like the past.

2011-04-15T22:57:00.001-07:00

"My best friend left me here in our small town years ago. But now he's back. He seems older, kind of stretched, thin about the face. It's like there's a forest fire burning somewhere in his brain, and no one can get in to put it out. He looks like he’s about to have a thought that’ll make his head explode. But maybe I can convince him to stay this time. Because nothing here has changed, and that's what he needs."