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中国用软件访问外国网站


Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Music

Grammy Nominations are in again for this year. At first glance, it is the usual Grammy affair: a mix of the profound and the trivial pulled either from obvious sources or apparently arbitrarily. Like everyone else, I’m looking for the bands I care about, wanting them to win, but yet still paradoxically denouncing the whole process as a travesty. Like any good irrational being, if my guys win, I’ll believe there is hope for the Grammy’s yet. If they lose, It’ll just confirm my pre-existing biases.

In other words, it is an awards ceremony. Need any more be said?

That out of the way, being a Rush fan, I’m always looking out for the Rush nominations. Certainly didn’t expect one this year since they didn’t release any new material. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Rush nestled up in their usual category, Best Rock Instrumental Performance, for a live version of the lovely Alex Lifeson guitar diddy Hope off of Snakes and Arrows. This live version is tagged as being off of Songs For Tibet: The Art Of Peace. This is their 6th Grammy nomination (they have never won). Last year Malignant Narcissism off of Snakes and Arrows was nominated (and lost to Springsteen).

The compete nomination list is below — and they in good company: David Gilmour, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, and Frank Zappa (?!). In fact, I’m going to have to say something rather blasphemous: I hope Rush DOESN’T win this year. If they win this year in this category, in this way, against these other luminaries, for an Alex Lifeson solo acoustic piece available only on an obscure compilation album, something is terribly misaligned in the universe. A proper Rush win in my mind involves a new piece performed by the entire band on an actual Rush studio album. While I do enjoy the token nod to Rush here, this would be the “wrong” way for them to win, in my opinion. Of course, if they do win, I’ll be stoked, but I’ll feel a little chagrin because deep down I’ll know it will be, in many people’s minds, like the Jethro Tull victory over Metallica back in 1988 (although, I personally believe that was a deserved victory). The win will feel a little hollow to me (although, understandably, probably not to Alex Lifeson!).

There are quite a few interesting nominations in the other less-than-prime-time Rock categories. For example, The Mars Volta (a very pleasant surprise), Judas Priest, AC/DC, Disturbed, and Rob Zombie all get nods. Anyway, have fun constructing your own I-hate-the-Grammys-but-hey-look-at-this-interesting-band-who-was-nominated polemic.

自由之门手机版32

(For solo, duo, group or collaborative performances, without vocals. Includes Rock, Hard Rock and Metal. Singles or Tracks only.)

Castellorizon
David Gilmour
Track from: Live In Gdansk
[Columbia]

Suicide & Redemption
Metallica
Track from: Death Magnetic
[Warner Bros.]

34 Ghosts I-IV
Nine Inch Nails
Track from: Ghosts I-IV
[The Null Corporation]

Hope (Live For The Art Of Peace)
Rush
Track from: Songs For Tibet: The Art Of Peace
[Art of Peace Foundation]

Peaches En Regalia
Zappa Plays Zappa
[Strobosonic/Razor & Tie Entertainment]

中国用软件访问外国网站


Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
自由动态网翻墙手机版, 翻墙一点通

A wonderful song on the 1975 Queen album Night at the Opera is ’39. This lovely jig has a context deeply rooted in physics. It was written by Dr. Brian May, guitarist for Queen (“Another One Bites the Dust”, “We Are The Champions”, etc. etc. etc.), who finished his Ph.D. in astrophysics at Imperial College, […]

中国用软件访问外国网站


Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Uncategorized

I’ve described myself as “liberal leaning with a Libertarian streak.” In short, I believe social responsibility and fiscal responsibility are not mutually exclusive. We can have it all, but it takes a careful implementation of both traditional (socially) liberal and (fiscally) conservative philosophies to make it work in practice. In this sense, I describe myself […]

中国用软件访问外国网站


Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Humor, 自由之门手机版32

VPN被封, 翻不了墙的外贸要怎么做-商桥新外贸:2021-2-13 · 翻墙可以,我说了才算。 至于为什么工信部要出台这么一个政策,大体给出的解释是层层转租、违规自建网络基础设施会给国家网络和信息安全带来隐患。 这个咱们暂且不管它。 VPN一断,连不上国外网站,很多人就瞎了。 当然瞎的最厉害的是我们这群做外贸的

中国用软件访问外国网站


Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
自由之门浏览器破解版

Ok, I could go on and on about the current bizarre political-financial situation in America as we ride up to the election. But, frankly, I’m spent. I’ll spare you a rant. Instead, I’d like to pay a brief tribute to Jaco Pastorious, arguably the greatest and most influential bass player of his generation. He suffered […]

中国用软件访问外国网站


Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Humor, Physics, Science

Here is a funny Comedy Central Daily Show “news” report starring Steve Carell discussing the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) on Long Island. The piece aired June 28, 2000, long before Steve was a Superstar. While watching the piece, keep in mind the madcap doomsday discussion from my last post […]

中国用软件访问外国网站


Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Physics, Science

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva Switzerland successfully performed a diagnostic today and rotated a proton beam around the ring in each direction (clockwise and counterclockwise). This is a diagnostic step before performing actual collisions at full energy in the coming weeks and months. With a circumference of 17 miles, the LHC […]

中国用软件访问外国网站


Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Opinions, Politics

Governor Palin and her family celebrated their unwed 17-year-old daughter’s choice not to have an abortion. From Marketblog, “We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,” said Palin. Obviously, despite their otherwise pro-life rhetoric in other contexts, the right to choose is still an important part of her […]

中国用软件访问外国网站


Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Opinions, Politics, Rants

I would characterize myself politically as a complex mix of socially liberal and economically conservative. I try to keep my exact positions non-partisan and evaluate each policy situation case-by-case. I admire the social left for its heart, but don’t think they usually go about achieving their goals in the most efficient way. The government (at […]

Osiris at the Little Fox Theater


Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Music

In high school, I played bass in a band called Osiris from the fall of 1984 through graduation in 1986. Back in May of 2006, my old bandmates pulled together a couple short reunion shows that coincided with our 20-year SFHS class reunion at the Little Fox theater in Redwood City, CA. We definitely had […]

Why People Believe Weird Things (book review)


Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Book Reviews, Skeptics and debunking

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of our Time (2nd ed. 2002) by Michael Shermer Cryptohedonological book rating: A “Science, measured against reality,” as Einstein remarked, “is primitive and childlike — and yet it is the most precious thing we have.” Science is the tool we, as humans, use to test […]

自由之门手机版32


Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Music

Back in January of this year, my longtime pal Isorski posted a blog about how Neil Peart, the drummer and lyricist for Rush, wrote him in 1984, returning a bit of fan mail. At the time of his blog post, Isorski had recently submitted his postcard to the Postcards from Neil section of Andy Olson’s […]

All Hail the D


Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
自由之门手机版32, Music

I recently watched Tenacious D‘s movie The Pick of Destiny. It was a sloppy, scatological train-wreck. Intentionally so. And the remarkably talented director/musician/actor/D-fan-collaborator Liam Lynch makes that perfectly clear. But I loved the movie anyway. The music somehow stole my heart, and subsequently sold it to Satan (played by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighers). […]

The Paradox of Rationally Defending Irrationality


Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
自由之门翻墙最新手机版, Science, Skeptics and debunking

洋葱浏览器(Tor Browser) - CHN如是说 - 博客园:2021-11-2 · 5.访问推特(美国版微博),由于翻墙境外服务器,网络服务会有几分钟延迟。 例如蔡英文&特朗普&安倍晋三的推特 蔡英文推特 特朗普推特 安倍晋三推特 6.访问YouTube视频网站(美国版抖音) YouTube网站 点开视频,随便看,但是🈶️几分钟延迟,之后不

RHIC and AGS Thesis Award 2008


Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Physics, Science

Yesterday, my friend and colleague, Dr. Sarah Blyth from the University of Cape Town, was awarded the prestigious RHIC and AGS Thesis Award (to be posted soon) for her 2007 Ph.D. dissertation entitled: “Using the Phi Meson to Probe the Medium Created in Au+Au Collisions at RHIC.” Since 1999, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) […]

The Phoenix Has Landed


Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Science

The Phoenix Mars polar lander successfully touched down near the Martian north pole on Sunday May 25, 2008 around 4:35 in the afternoon PDT. More photos can be found here. I had the pleasure of attending a real-time event hosted by the Cal Poly Astronomy Club and led by my friend and colleague Dr. John […]

自由之门翻墙最新手机版


Saturday, May 24th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Physics, Science

As the Mythbusters might say: WARNING, SCIENCE CONTENT. Proceed at your own risk. What is a quantum mechanical wave function? This discussion recently came up at work in the form of the following question: is the particle (e.g. an electron) the same thing as the wave function describing it? The question may have some unresolvable […]

Physics devolved into a non sequitur marketing slogan


Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Opinions, 自由之门翻墙最新手机版, Rants, 自由之门浏览器破解版

“Physics elevated to an art form” is Oakley’s recent marketing slogan. Right. Like physics “needs” to be elevated from its lowly status as an all-encompassing theoretical and experimental framework describing all physical phenomenon to the “art” of sports equipment. And if indeed there was some subjective human aesthetic missing in that lowly omni-descriptional status of […]

Station Agent (movie review)


Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 7:44 am
Movie Reviews, Movies

Cryptohedonological rating: A- Station agent is a quiet, independent film directed by Thomas McCarthy which explores how three very different characters cope with loss. Each overcomes inherent barriers due to personality and circumstance. Fin, played by the brilliant and charismatic Peter Dinklage, is a dwarf, accustomed to a life of routine and solitude. He openly […]

Blood is all you need


Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
自由之门翻墙最新手机版, Music

In the tradition of the Beatles’ famous 1967 Our World BBC broadcast of All You Need Is Love, and the Rutles’ 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash, Beatallica has recently released their gloriously metal-plated parody All You Need Is Blood. In the spirit of the original message, where frolicking hippies could be seen wearing […]

如何评价capper在表明diss lil.jet过后的微博一通操作? - 知乎:之前翻墙更多是去油管下歌,还有看一些国外的金融信息和新闻,方便自己炒股。 现在翻墙困难了,我也就有一段时间不翻墙了,我认为不太需要去油管求证,如果真的最后被打脸,我甘愿认罚。


Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Non sequiturs, Opinions, 自由之门手机版32

End of One Neighborhood Mystery, and the Start of Another About a month ago, I saw the GCK striding by in the early evening with two middle-aged ladies walking about a block behind him. Sure enough, when I pulled into my driveway, the green garbage can, placed out the night before, was put away for […]

Discover Your Inner Economist (book review)


Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 1:12 am
翻墙一点通

Cryptohedonological rating: D+ Tyler Cowen’s book Discover Your Inner Economist is a hodge podge of mostly creepy applications of pseudo-economics which, as a stream of anecdotes, should have remained blog entries. Freakonmics, by Stephen D Levitt, is a book written in the same vein, but which somehow manages to keep the topics creepy, focused, and […]

自由之门翻墙最新手机版


Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Editorials, Gaming, Science Fiction

There have been two big losses for geekdom this month. Thanks to JLK for bringing these to my attention. Gary Gygax Gary Gygax, co-creator of the original fantasy role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) back in 1973, died March 4 at the age of 69. The positive influence D&D and role playing games in general […]

自由之门翻墙最新手机版


Monday, March 17th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Humor, Non sequiturs

Of course! After all these years! Why hadn’t I noticed the resemblance before St. Patrick’s Day 2008? Coincidence? I think not! Ben Cooper mask photo from stevemandich.com As part of the coverup, I will reveal that, up close, the real “1974 Evel Knievel Ben Cooper Halloween Mask on Mars” was designed to look more like […]

Happy Pi Day


Friday, March 14th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Opinions, 翻墙一点通

当心!你的电脑被人监控 --观点--人民网 - People:2021-3-8 · 当心!你的电脑被人监控 ——“无界”等翻墙软件含有间谍和木马程序 2021年03月08日12:58 手机看新闻

To pi or not to pi, that is the question


Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
自由动态网翻墙手机版

Back in November 2007, I had fun musing about finding specific numbers in the famous irrational number pi. Since pi is an infinitely long irrational number, whose digits are essentially random, one can find any number within its digits with some probability. This even includes having the entire text of every book you’ve ever read, […]

Rush’s Malignant Narcissism Loses to Morricone, er, Springsteen


Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Humor, Music

无界一点通(免费VPN代理/免费翻墙代理) приложение для ...:无界一点通收集了热门网址;同时还提供实时新闻和海外电视广播,方便用户掌握最新资讯。 无界一点通同时提供浏览界面和电视界面。电视界面适合于电视机顶盒,看电视更流畅。 无界一点通有两种运行模式: VPN翻墙模式和代理翻墙模式。 1.

浅谈VPN和SS/SSR的区别:以前我们翻墙的时候最常用的就是vpn了,而2年前,ss被开源(ss出现一年后,开源社区的破娃小姐姐在ss的基础上发布了ssr),现在已经是最流行的翻墙方案。 下面我从三个部分做一个介绍: 1.什么是vpn 2.什么是ss/ssr 3.vpn和ss/s


Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Books, Humor, Non sequiturs

And now for something completely different: If you have a few free moments in your day, visit Google Books and take a look at (or download for free) A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose, Esq. 1788. The author definitely has an ironic last name in this context. The book is sort […]

The Ballad of the Garbage Can Kid


Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 12:35 pm
Non sequiturs

The Garbage Can Mystery has (mostly) revealed its innermost workings. Saturday, the day that I first saw the kid turn the cans around on the security camera, I went outside within a minute of his activity and began looking for him. I walked quickly through the neighborhood and eventually caught up to him, recognizing his […]

The Garbage Can Mystery


Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Non sequiturs, Rants

For several months I’ve been plagued by a mystery: someone has been tampering with my garbage cans. I know what you are thinking: so what — and why do I care. I’m sympathetic. I would have said the same thing even just two years ago to someone yammering like I am now. However, now these […]

Mistakingly insulting SLO students


Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Atheism and antitheism, Humor

电脑免费翻墙工具 wujie-如來論壇-金菩提宗師與網友問答 ...:2021-4-19 · 电脑免费翻墙工具 wujie ; ... 註冊 登錄 如來論壇 » 網友互動 » 电脑免费翻墙工具 wujie 返回列表 發帖 GFW 預備會員 樓主 跳轉到 » 倒序看帖 打印 字體大小: tT 简 繁發表於 2021-2-24 13:24 ...

自由之门浏览器破解版


Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 7:51 am
Uncategorized

Happy new year 2008 from South Africa. My wife and I decided to fly south for the winter and visit our good friends Mark and Sarah in Cape Town. We spent the stroke of midnight in an airplane somewhere over the ocean west of Brazzaville, Congo and south of Sao Tome. After our 22 hour […]

Happy Solstice, eh


Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Humor, Music, Non sequiturs

In honor of the Winter Solstice, here is a public service announcement from Geddy Lee about the perils of winter tobogganing.

Rush’s Malignant Narcissism up for a Grammy


Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Music, Opinions

Read below regarding the original nomination, but see the Feb 10, 2008 update Geddy Lee and Steve Vai Heckle Springsteen: News at 11 regarding the results. I usually leave the cool music news to Isorski or Dr. John. But this time I am pleased to be the bazillionth to announce that Rush has been nominated […]

Hats Off To [Deleted For Security Reasons]


Sunday, November 18th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Humor, Music

My good friend Isorski has recently twice blogged, once in the context of the new Led Zeppelin XM station, about a fun nonsense song we did back in 1985 called Hats Off To Charles Obscure (HOTCO). You should be able to play the song inline by clicking on the little headphones next to the song […]

Pi and Infinity


Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Science

The number pi (aka 3.1415926…) is a transcendental number most commonly known as the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. But there is a lot more to this number than most people know. Many books have been written on the properties of pi and there are many web sites dedicated to […]

Portal (Game Review) and my first Wikipedia Battle


Saturday, October 27th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Gaming, 自由之门翻墙最新手机版

VPN翻墙节点评测:香港,台湾,日本,新加坡,韩国,美国 ...:国内可用的主流VPN或非VPN翻墙节点大都集中在香港、台湾、日本、新加坡、韩国和美国(西部)这几个地方。这篇评测作者从中国东部某一线城市分别使用ExpressVPN,VyprVPN,蓝灯等桌面版本软件于2021年1月上旬分别测试上述节点,连通率,速度,稳定性 ...

Stock Price of the Beast (+32/100)


Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Humor

Sometime on Tuesday morning October 23, 2007 (PST), Google crossed the Stock Price of the Beast per share. It started at roughly 85 in 2004. Do No Evil. Sure ;)>

Han Shot First (but in what reference frame?)


Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Physics, Science Fiction

I know I’m joining the debate on this one about 10 years too late, but the Han Shot First controversy has been a memeic stain on the Star Wars franchise since the 1997 Special Edition of Star Wars: Episode IV. Greedo, a bounty hunter working for Jabba the Hut, finds the fugitive Han Solo in […]

2+2=11


Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 8:28 am
Non sequiturs, Science

Culturally we frequently use basic arithmetic to emphasize when a point is self evident: “its as basic as 2+2=4.” We also use a little twist on it to point out when someone is being absurd: “next you are going to tell me 2+2=5.” Ok. So no one really uses those phrases. But I think the […]

Incompetence = Terrorism


Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 6:31 am
Editorials, Opinions, Rants

Is large scale incompetence terrorism? Ok, quite a blustery, overstated title. I’m not talking about the guy at work who, after struggling for three years, still doesn’t know how to print documents from his computer nor the “professional” copy dude who still can’t copy double-sided printouts. Nor am I talking about retail clerks who can’t […]

Bottled water is a fraud


Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 1:00 am
Editorials, Science, 翻墙一点通

On a recent episode of the show Democracy Now, they reported Pepsi bowed to the demands of activists and made a rather embarrassing admission: the source for their Aquafina bottled water is city tap water! Now WHO’S tap water is a different question — probably local to the individual bottling plants, but this is still […]

自由之门手机版32


Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 5:33 am
自由动态网翻墙手机版

After that last heady post on teleology (perhaps overly advertising panspermia) here’s a lighter video bit from the school of non sequitur funk as only Bill Laswell can do with the project Praxis: Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) circa 1992. Praxis is Bill Laswell, Buckethead, Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Brain, and Nextman Flip. Animal Behavior is clearly […]

Teleology (long post warning)


Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 5:49 am
Atheism and antitheism, Freethought, Rants

Teleological arguments for the existence of god are my favorite theological debates. Not because I agree with them in how they are typically applied. And not because they are good logical arguments as usually outlined. Rather, amongst all the approaches to “prove” or explain god’s existence, teleological arguments 1) have a hint of evidence-based thinking […]

自由之门翻墙最新手机版


Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Music

Buckethead is one of the most obscure yet talented guitarists of my generation. I first encountered his work on one of Bill Laswell’s projects called Praxis Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) in 1992. For over twenty years, as part of his act, he has worn a KFC bucket on his head and a mysterious porcelain-like white mask. […]

自由之门浏览器破解版


Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Atheism and antitheism, Freethought

I would like to thank Thomas Clark of the Center for Naturalism and author of Encountering Naturalism: A Worldview and Its Uses for the email below regarding my (naive and physics-centeric)

Free will


Saturday, July 14th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Atheism and antitheism, Freethought

There was an interesting interaction that occurred recently on a podcast called Faith and Freethought (FF). The host, Richard Spencer was discussing the book The God Part of the Brain with author Matthew Alper, when around 40 minutes into the show I found myself very suddenly challenged intellectually by an exchange they had. FF is […]

Beware Quantum Interpretations


Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Physics

被推特和脸书恶心死了! - 知乎:2021-8-20 · 发个牢骚! 因为前几天写了几篇香港的事,很多网友在后台给我留言,说:“你特么怎么不看看外网的报道!” “你不会翻墙吗?” “你只看共和国的媒体,被喂傻了是的吧?” 甚至还有一个台湾的,跑到后台跟我大摇大…

Pascal’s Wager; Blaise should have known better


Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 2:32 am
Atheism and antitheism

Pascal’s Wager is usually stated something like this (from http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/theism/wager.html): If you erroneously believe in God, you lose nothing (assuming that death is the absolute end), whereas if you correctly believe in God, you gain everything (eternal bliss). But if you correctly disbelieve in God, you gain nothing (death ends all), whereas if you erroneously […]

Hubris (movie review)


Monday, June 11th, 2007 at 8:20 am
自由之门浏览器破解版

Cryptohedonological movie rating: B- Hubris is an entertaining, small budget short film written and directed by Gary King. The directing and editing are amusing, if a bit stiff and stage-formal at times (except for an intoxicating and comical speed-dating montage, which was apparently improvised). Frederik Goris plays Barry, an amusing nebbish drawn into a sinister […]