Let’s prove this theory by studying the recent most popular stories list on CBSNews.com. The key words that seem to drive clicks include:

• adorable cat (x2)
• Palin+Trump (2012 Presidential campaign mates)
• terrible teeny-bopper pop music

This is a disturbing list, America

I rest my case.

“Improve your life. Do better at stuff. Be super duper. Get energetic power and strength for things.”

People need specificity. They need explicit directions.

They need “10 Surefire Ways to Avoid That Crack in the Sidewalk You Trip on Every Day on the Way to Work.”

Have you ever heard a pianissimo on the radio? Nope. How can a song build to a rewarding musical climax without crescendo?

As we come to the end of the decade, we turn to one of the more dramatic changes we’ve heard in music over those 10 years: It seems to have gotten louder.We’re talking about compression here, the dynamic compression that’s used a lot in popular music. There’s actually another kind of compression going on today — one that allows us to carry hundreds of songs in our iPods. More on that in a minute.

But first, host Robert Siegel talked to Bob Ludwig, a record mastering engineer. For more than 40 years, he’s been the final ear in the audio chain for albums running from Jimi Hendrix to Radiohead, from Tony Bennett to Kronos Quartet.

Bob pointed to a YouTube video titled The Loudness War. The video uses Paul McCartney’s 1989 song “Figure of Eight” as an example, comparing its original recording with what a modern engineer might do with it.

“It really no longer sounds like a snare drum with a very sharp attack,” Ludwig says. “It sounds more like somebody padding on a piece of leather or something like that,” Ludwig says. He’s referring to the practice of using compressors to squash the music, making the quiet parts louder and the loud parts a little quieter, so it jumps out of your radio or iPod.

Ludwig says the “Loudness War” came to a head last year with the release of Metallica’s album Death Magnetic.

“It came out simultaneously to the fans as [a version on] Guitar Hero and the final CD,” Ludwig says. “And the Guitar Hero doesn’t have all the digital domain compression that the CD had. So the fans were able to hear what it could have been before this compression.”

According to Ludwig, 10,000 or more fans signed an online petition to get the band to remix the record.

“That record is so loud that there is an outfit in Europe called ITU [International Telecommunication Union] that now has standardization measurements for long-term loudness,” he says. “And that Metallica record is one of the loudest records ever produced.”

via The Loudness Wars: Why Music Sounds Worse : NPR.

And the presence of Andrew Bird at #5 on the list tosses stinging salt in my influenza wounds – I had tickets to see Bird when he came to DC recently, but in the end had to sell my tickets because I was sick with H1N1. Ouch.

I can’t fault the selections in terms of quality. I am thoroughly enjoying the music while typing this post. In the end, however, this playlist represents just one dimension of the multi-faceted musical world in which I choose to exist.

So, go ahead, download some of these albums. But find yourself some music from other countries and genres, too.

Regina Spektor (left), Grizzly Bear (top middle), Dirty Projectors (bottom middle), M. Ward (top right), Andrew Bird (bottom right)

Excerpt:

We could tell early on that 2009 was going to be an outstanding year for music. Bands such as Animal Collective, Andrew Bird, Bon Iver and Antony and the Johnsons all released new music, and that was just in January. By the time we posted our online ballot to vote for the year’s best music, we had a dizzying array of albums and artists from which to choose.

Thousands of votes poured in and, just as it is every year, the race was very close. In our mid-year ballot, Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion was the most popular album. But by the end of this year, Grizzly Bear had edged its way to the top, with Animal Collective, Phoenix, Neko Case and Andrew Bird rounding out the top five.

Story: All Songs Considered Listeners Pick The Best Music Of 2009

But sadly, sickeningly, this story is real. We can’t ignore the gruesome and depressing reality of situations like this one, where people’s ignorance leads to unjust suffering by innocent children. Until the world is aware of what’s happening, these kids won’t be saved.

So much is wrong; where do we begin? It’s not a simple scientific misunderstanding, an old wives’ tale like eating too soon before swimming, that leads to torture and execution of humans. This is a fundamentally disrupted society, one based upon hideous dogma and a lack of real education.

Teaching people that witches, in fact, don’t exist will not repair the splintered holes in this society. The damage is so tremendous, the gap between reality and an ideal so large, I don’t know what tools will stand to do the repairs.

Excerpt:

EKET, Nigeria (AP) — The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him — Mount Zion Lighthouse.

A month later, he died.

Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of “witch children” reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

via Churches involved in torture, murder of thousands of African children denounced as witches — latimes.com.

The answer is 145 miles. In other words, you’re never more than 2 1/2 hours from a Big Mac.

Excerpt:

“For maximum McSparseness, we look westward, towards the deepest, darkest holes in our map. There, in a patch of rolling grassland, loosely hemmed in by Bismarck, Dickinson, Pierre, and the greater Rapid City-Spearfish-Sturgis metropolitan area, we find our answer. Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald’s, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car!”

via Infographic of the Day: McDonald’s Heat Wave | Designage | Fast Company.

I have included below the text from a PDF document attached to an online course, BCH 5045 – Graduate Survey of Biochemistry, at the University of Florida. I assume it was written by the course’s instructor, Dr. Charles Guy.

http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/teach/guyweb/bch5045/Vampires%20and%20Biochemistry.pdf

Vampires and Biochemistry

Perhaps you are a fan of Twilight the movie or the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, or True Blood the television drama series created and produced by Alan Ball, based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Vampires with their frightening appearance and unusual powers and weaknesses can cause one to pause and question how this is possible. Can this mythicalogical being brought to life in Dracula, the 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula, have any basis in reality? Is there any connection to what we know about biological systems that could explain vampirism? I doubt that you would be surprised if I said yes, since this is a biochemistry course website.

Although I am no expert on the vampire mythology or the speculative scientific explanations, there are a few possibilities that others have proposed. Perhaps the most robust explanation is that the vampirism is based on the viral disease rabies (Gomez, 1982; 1992; 1998). The vampire folklore originated in Central Europe in the latter half of the 18th century where injuries caused by rabid dogs and wolves was common (Theodorides 1986). At this time, Eastern Europe was rife with claims of vampire sightings. The 3-dimensional structure of the rabies virus nucleoprotein-RNA complex is shown to the right, and what an incredibly amazing structure it has.

Perhaps the most defining characteristic of a vampire is the biting of its human victim. This affirms the fact that a vampire is a living being, and as such he or she becomes inclined to bite those around them and not only to feed on a victim’s blood, but potentially spread the disease that has already infected them (Theodorides 1998). This is strikingly similar to what can occur when rabies has been transmitted to a person. Disease symptoms include cerebral dysfunction, anxiety, insomnia, confusion, agitation, paranoia and a terror progressing to delirium. Large quantities of saliva and tears are produced, and difficulty swallowing stemming from throat and jaw paralysis causes panic when the person cannot drink or quench his or her thirst. Who hasn’t heard of rabid animals indiscriminately attacking and biting someone?

Dr. David H. Dolphin in a lecture at an AAAS meeting is attributed to have proposed an alternative explanation for the vampire myth that werewolves and vampires may have been based on people suffering from a rare class of genetic diseases known as porphyrias. He suggested that characteristics commonly associated with vampirism such as protruding teeth, avoidance of sunlight, drinking blood, and disfigurement could have been the symptoms of people with a porphyria. Porphyrias are a group of rare genetic diseases that primarily manifest their effects in blood as a result of a defect in the production and synthesis of the heme prosthetic group in hemoglobin (Cox 1995). Symptoms of the disorder porphyria cutanea tarda include disfigurement by light-induced blisters that can cause scarring and skin discoloration. In severe cases, excessive hair growth on the face and hands, gum degeneration, and neurological disorders can occur. Those suffering from a porphyria must avoid the sun and some compounds that can exacerbate the symptoms, including certain metabolites that accumulate in, you guessed it, garlic. Repeated blood transfusions can be required to treat the disease.

Porphyria cutanea tarda results from a dominant mutation in the gene encoding the enzyme urophopyrinogen decarboxylase (Taylor 1998). This enzyme catalyzes the fifth step in the porphyrin biosynthetic pathway that produces precursors for the synthesis of heme-containing molecules. Mutant skin cells accumulate uroporphyrinogen, the enzyme’s immediate precursor. Uroporphyrinogen when illuminated by light will become highly reactive and begin transferring electrons to molecular oxygen. The resulting production and accumulation of reactive oxygen species will cause extensive damage to skin cells and can kill them.

Hampl and Hampl (1997) have suggested that a deficiency of niacin and tryptophan could produce symptoms compatible with being the basis for the vampire myth. Pellagra is a vitamin deficiency disease characterized by lack of niacin (vitamin B3) caused by decreased intake of niacin, tryptophan, or possibly leucine. The protein amino acid tryptophan is a precursor of niacin biosynthesis and niacin is a building block of the nicotinamide coenzymes essential for a host of biochemical processes. People suffering from pellagra are hypersensitive to sunlight. The skin of a pellargrin exposed to sunlight becomes red, scaly and marked by hyperkeratosis. Inflammation and edema can occur and lead to depigmented, shiny skin and/or brown scaly areas. Niacin deficiency will also cause brain degeneration and dementia with symptoms that include insomnia, anxiety, unjustified aggression, and depression. Pica can accompany pellagra. Pica is a craving for substances not usually regarded as food such as ice, clay or other crunchy substances. This odd symptom can be a cause of iron deficiency, or a symptom of an iron deficiency in the person who has become anemic. A pellagrin who happens to become extremely anemic because of gastrointestinal bleeding could give the impression of being ‘the living dead’ (Hampl and Hampl 1997).

So there you have it. There could be a connection between the folklore of vampirism, and clinical symptoms of known diseases, or just as likely perhaps not. We will never know for sure, but this little story briefly illustrates how biochemistry can relate to myths and classical literature and suggest interesting possibilities.

Albertini A.A., Wernimont A.K., Muziol T., Ravelli R.B., Clapier C.R., Schoehn G., Weissenhorn W., Ruigrok R.W. (2006) Crystal structure of the rabies virus nucleoprotein-RNA complex. Science 313, 360-363.

COX A.M. 1995. Porphyria and vampirism: another myth in the making. Postgrad. Med. J. 71: 643–644.

Gomez-Alonso J. 1982.Rabia y vampirismo: hiptjtesis sobre una interpretacion medica del vampirismo. Jano (Barcelona) 514: 30-33.

Gomez-Alonso J. Rabia y Vampirismo en la Europa de los Siglos XVIII y XIX. Tesis Doctoral. Madrid: Facultad de Medicina

Gomez-Alonso, J. 1998. Rabies A possible explanation for the vampire legend. Neurology 51: 856-859

Hampl J.S. and Hampl W.S. 1997. Pellagra and the origin of a myth: evidence from European literature and folklore. J. Royal Soc. Med. 90: 636-639.

Taylor, C.B. 1998. Vampire Plants? Plant Cell. 10: 1071-1073.

Theodorides J. 1986. Histoire de la Rage, Cave Canem, Paris: Masson, 78-9

Theodorides J. 1998. Origin of the myth of vampirism. J. Royal Soc. Med. 91: 114.

This should be good news for those bemoaning the decline of the industrial manufacturing segment of the American economy. We can replace the forging of automobiles with the forging of controversy by the media.

If the media can whip up a storm this quickly 0ver a pair of shorts, then one finds some insight into how much of this health care debate, and the oft-covered clashing between progressives and conservatives, might be just a illusory flame fanned by news outlets.

After all, how much of health reform coverage is about issues and how much is about “death panel” sound bites? Yes, an ill-minded politician must first utter those drivel words, but after they leave his or her mouth, they are born into a life of their own via the resuscitative breath of the news. I’d rather the phrase were never spoken at all, but avoiding the over-exposure of such distracting and worthless issues would be a worthy consolation.

Next story: Justice Sotomayor photographed on vacation not wearing her judge’s robe!

(See poignant story below from Newsweek about the “news” of Michelle’s shorts.)

Who, Exactly, Is Outraged At Michelle Obama’s Shorts?

Kate Dailey

(Dana Felthauser/AP)

Michelle Obama wore shorts to visit the Grand Canyon. Have you heard? Everyone is up in arms—if by “everyone” you mean no one, or rather a large, shadow-y group of no ones.

According to the Today show, “some” are calling her fashion choice inappropriate—but the article quotes only those who support the look or, in the case of Washington Post fashion writer Robin Gihven, those who are “ambivalent” about bare legs for an August hiking trip in Arizona.

The Examiner declares Obama beautiful, then bemoans the fact that “some members of the media and the public” are upset. Who are those members of the media and the public? We don’t know—the article then goes on to endorse Obama and rebuke the nameless attackers. Even in the comments, readers overwhelmingly approved of Obama’s choices, save for the few spare trolls that will always criticize a photographed celeb (the shorts are unflattering, etc). My experience from reading the NEWSWEEK comments shows that if there’s something negative to be said about the administration, an anonymous reader will usually say it, often in several consecutive posts. If the comments are mostly positive, then there probably isn’t much of a controversy.

Continue reading at:

The Human Condition : Who, Exactly, Is Outraged At Michelle Obama’s Shorts?.

This particular talk is by Jan Chipchase, principal researcher at Nokia, and is titled, Our Cell Phones, Ourselves. He’s got a pretty sweet gig. He travels around the world, observing people and their use of mobile phones, amongst other individual and social behaviors.

I always find it valuable to be reminded that adoption of a given technology globally does not necessarily occur fit the same pattern as in developed nations, much less the US.

For example, listen to the story about African makeshift “banking” via mobile phones. Would we call sending money in this manner a “wireless transfer”?

PSFK recently posted (via Edible Brooklyn) about a nascent young farmers movement and its emerging name, Greenhorns.

Growing up in Iowa, I was surrounded by farming most of my life. At the same time, I was not raised in a farming family myself. So, my knowledge and understanding of the modern farming lifestyle falls somewhere in the middle between a concrete-imprisoned New Yorker and a dirt-under-the-nails Iowan farmer.

I haven’t seen The Greenhorns documentary yet, but I have already sensed the critical factor that will determine the success of this movement.

Will small farms, selling their products locally to the surrounding community, be hip enough to be sustainable?

Farming is hard work. The only guarantee is uncertainty. What will the weather be this year? Too wet to plant? Too dry to grow?

Future young farmers won’t be drawing to the profession by promises of fame or fortune. So what will they receive?

They will need to feel respected. They will need to feel valued. They will need to feel like others care.They will need to feel hip.

Besides, consumption of local produce is up against some innate obstacles today. It often costs more and/or requires more effort to obtain local produce than it does to jot down to the cheap mega-super-hyper-big-box grocery mart. Plus, eating locally leads to inevitable sacrifices. Can one ever buy a local orange in Iowa? Can a local banana be bought anywhere in the US?

Assuming that one’s decision to eat locally is voluntary, not mandated by, say, extreme carbon taxes, a serious change in behavior is required. This won’t be easy.

The Spendid Table radio show organized a group of people whom spent one year eating locally called the Locavore Nation. Such a task isn’t easy – it requires serious commitment and a drastic change of lifestyle just to find dinner on short notice. Imagine driving down the interstate at 11pm. McDonalds, Wendy’s, Subway, 7-Eleven, In-N-Out. Where’s the local food? Sorry, you’re eating long-distance or you’re going hungry tonight.

Unless you’re into foraging for edible greens in the median.

[via PSFK]

Here are some enjoyable hipster critiques:

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization from Adbusters (apparently quite a popular site for hipsters, ironically)

MasterCard Commercial

Hipster Olympics

POYKPAC Sports presents the Hipster Olympics, live from Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Inspired by Monty Python’s classic sketch “Upperclass Twit of the Year”.

Some via: LaughingSquid

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