Sunday, February 19, 2006
Korea and Spain: An Unlikely Mating
"A music manuscript discovered in the Spanish island of Mallorca is grabbing headlines here in Korea because it is the work of the composer of the Korean national anthem." Details.
Composers Paycheck
Mozart and Chocolates
Oh how I want to sample these:
" It's a symphony of sweets, a cantata of chocolates, a fugue of fantastic desserts on display at Vienna's ornate Hofburg Palace." Read the rest.
" It's a symphony of sweets, a cantata of chocolates, a fugue of fantastic desserts on display at Vienna's ornate Hofburg Palace." Read the rest.
Kurzweil Interview
A very fascinating interview with Kurzweil is found here.
Key graf: "We'll have sufficient hardware to recreate human intelligence pretty soon. We'll have it in a supercomputer by 2010. A thousand dollars of computation will equal the 10,000 trillion calculations per second that I estimate is necessary to emulate the human brain by 2020. The software side will take a little longer. In order to achieve the algorithms of human intelligence, we need to actually reverse-engineer the human brain, understand its principles of operation."
Read it all here.
Key graf: "We'll have sufficient hardware to recreate human intelligence pretty soon. We'll have it in a supercomputer by 2010. A thousand dollars of computation will equal the 10,000 trillion calculations per second that I estimate is necessary to emulate the human brain by 2020. The software side will take a little longer. In order to achieve the algorithms of human intelligence, we need to actually reverse-engineer the human brain, understand its principles of operation."
Read it all here.
The Little Piano that Came Home
ONe of those ahh stories:
"A miniature grand piano with a unique history has been returned to Camp Shelby where it was made more than 60 years ago by German prisoners of war." A very nice write up and you can read it here.
"A miniature grand piano with a unique history has been returned to Camp Shelby where it was made more than 60 years ago by German prisoners of war." A very nice write up and you can read it here.
Earthquakes and pianos
Despite a mixed spate of reviews, I still want to see this movie.
Here's what Bloomberg's says, "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'' is a hokum tale of mad scientist Dr. Droz (Gottfried John), who kidnaps famed opera singer Malvina (Amira Casar) on the eve of her wedding. He then invites piano tuner Filisberto (Cesar Saracho) to his island hideaway, ostensibly to ``retune'' his collection of automata, but also to take part in an acting out of the lost wedding that will cure Malvina of a mental affliction." More here.
Here's what Bloomberg's says, "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'' is a hokum tale of mad scientist Dr. Droz (Gottfried John), who kidnaps famed opera singer Malvina (Amira Casar) on the eve of her wedding. He then invites piano tuner Filisberto (Cesar Saracho) to his island hideaway, ostensibly to ``retune'' his collection of automata, but also to take part in an acting out of the lost wedding that will cure Malvina of a mental affliction." More here.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Bobby Short's Piano
Wow. That's a lot of dough for one Bechstein.
"The late cabaret singer Bobby Short's grand piano sold for $132,000 US in an auction of his personal effects, Christie's said." Read the rest.
"The late cabaret singer Bobby Short's grand piano sold for $132,000 US in an auction of his personal effects, Christie's said." Read the rest.
What Not to Put on an iPod and other news
EFF has the scoop on the latest in lunacy:
"It is no secret that the entertainment oligopolists are not happy about space-shifting and format-shifting. But surely ripping your own CDs to your own iPod passes muster, right? In fact, didn't they admit as much in front of the Supreme Court during the MGM v. Grokster argument last year? Apparently not." Read the rest here.
Of direct interest to bloggers, Dan Mitchell reports in the Times that,
"Sony BMG, fresh from being exposed by a blogger for planting stealth, and potentially dangerous, antipiracy code in some of its CD's, is seeking interns to plug its artists online. The interns will promote artists in Web communities where many people go specifically to share music without the influence of corporate marketers."
Why am I not surprosed that it's Sony ? And elsewhere in the news, here's the latest on the payola scandal.
"It is no secret that the entertainment oligopolists are not happy about space-shifting and format-shifting. But surely ripping your own CDs to your own iPod passes muster, right? In fact, didn't they admit as much in front of the Supreme Court during the MGM v. Grokster argument last year? Apparently not." Read the rest here.
Of direct interest to bloggers, Dan Mitchell reports in the Times that,
"Sony BMG, fresh from being exposed by a blogger for planting stealth, and potentially dangerous, antipiracy code in some of its CD's, is seeking interns to plug its artists online. The interns will promote artists in Web communities where many people go specifically to share music without the influence of corporate marketers."
Why am I not surprosed that it's Sony ? And elsewhere in the news, here's the latest on the payola scandal.