Oct 22 2016

Revelation Tuning Demo

“Revelation tuning” is the tuning system Michael Harrison used for his album Revelation: Music in Pure Intonation.  He describes it at Music In Pure Intonation.

It’s not a chromatic scale, and he picked the specific frequencies to produce perfect fifths (in a 3:2 ratio) and perfect minor sevenths (in a 7:4 ratio.)  If I’ve calculated this correctly, these are the corresponding microtonal adjustments (to a precision of one cent): F 0, F# -27, G +4, G# -123, A +8, Bb -29, B +12, C +2, C# -125, D +6, Eb -31, E +10.

With that in place, a score written this way:

Sounds like this:


Nov 4 2015

The Three Laws of Brobotics

The First Law of Brobotics: A robot must not breach its manufacturer’s duty of care, or through inaction, allow its manufacturer to become legally responsible for an injury.

The Second Law of Brobotics: A robot must not become known to have taken actions that will harm its manufacturer’s public image, except where preventing evidence of such actions would conflict with the First Law.

The Third Law of Brobotics: A robot must take opportunities to bolster its manufacturer’s stock value, except where taking such opportunities would conflict with the First or Second Law.


Jun 1 2014

Three dogs by Albrecht Dürer

 

Three dogs from three woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer.

dog1

dog2

dog3

What do they have in common?


Feb 24 2014

Fire at 2177 Jerrold Avenue

sfgate.com: Vivian Ho – 3-alarm S.F. blaze sends black plume into sky


Sep 6 2013

Zenaida macroura in my sink

-or- Is It Still Nature Photography If The Dang Thing Flew Into Your Kitchen and Is Too Dim To Fly Back Out Through the Open Window Behind It?


Nov 12 2012

Inappropriate banana

(Click to enlarge.  Hur hur hur.)

(Banana with sticker reading "Peel Me-- I'm Fat Free!  Chiquita ®")

 


May 20 2012

Eclipse 2012: Teach The Controversy


Apr 30 2012

Don’t know what it is, but I want it out from under my bed

MP3: Marbles Bouncing in Vase 3

(Derived from “marblesbouncinginvase3.wav” at http://stims.cnbc.cmu.edu/Sound%20Databases/AuditoryLab/. Sounds courtesy of the Sound Events Database (http://www.auditorylab.org/.)
Copyright 2008, Laurie M. Heller. Funding provided by NSF award 0446955.)


Apr 7 2012

Adorable is dead. Long live adorable.

Have a look at this Google Trends data:

Since 2008, both searches for and web pages containing the word “adorable” have grown unchecked– like mildew on the flowered vinyl shower curtain of English diction.

“Adorable” is officially overused.  Using it now marks you as being unable to think of the correct word. Don’t do it.

Apple’s Dictionary.app lists these as synonyms for “adorable”:

Lovable, appealing, charming, cute, cuddly, sweet, enchanting, bewitching, captivating, engaging, endearing, dear, darling, delightful, lovely, beautiful, attractive, gorgeous, winsome, winning, and fetching.

If none of those fit, and you are not describing something worthy of worship as a divine being, STOP TYPING.

(For more information, you can run a Google Trends search on “adorable” directly.)


Jan 16 2012

Unfortunate reality of the day, delivered by cat