I am so reluctant to admit, but July is coming to a close. I am not a winter person, so I spend all summer in denial that it will ever end. Sadly, it is foolish to do so. Today is the last day of July and there is no use in denying it. So I am posting a July playlist to mark the passing of this wonderful summer month. Alas, we hardly knew ye!
As usual, this playlist is composed of songs that are in current rotation on my iPhone. They are what comes up when I play it on shuffle. That doesn’t mean they are new songs. Many are quite the opposite. The only exceptions to the rule are that I only included the first song that popped up by each artist, and it had to be something that is available on Rhapsody. Otherwise it couldn’t be in the playlist. Click on the button and you can listen to the whole thing.
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Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood – Bettye LaVette From a new album, Interpretations: the British Rock Songbook, this is a version of this classic by one of the most uncompromising and important pioneers of Detroit Soul.
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Monthly Archives: July 2010
Music in the Clouds
Source: My Grafitis in Tehran (http://my.opera.com/nbt4u/blog/)
A day before that the American Public Radio program Marketplace had an interesting segment on cloud computing and streaming music, but from a totally different angle. This time it is not the users that uploads and access their own files, but rather rather the users subscribe to a huge digital library of music and stream what they want. Most of these services also offer the opportunity for downloads for users who want to be able to take their music offline. The best known examples of this are Rhapsody.com and Lala.com, recently purchased and shut down by Apple. For a monthly fee you can listen to whatever you wan in the order you want. In essence it is a vast online digital library.
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Praise and Blame. Well, Pretty Much All Praise.
The video below is a recording of “Did Trouble Me,” a Gospel song by Susan Werner, as sung by Tom Jones on his new album Praise and Blame. To most people Tom Jones is probably best know for songs like “What’s New Pussycat?,” “Green, Green Grass of Home,” “It’s Not Unusual,” and his cover of Prince’s “Kiss.” Praise and Blame is his second release on Lost Highway Records, better known for releasing music that might be labeled “Roots Music” or “Americana.” It turns out the fit between Jones and the label is not at all a forced one.
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High-Speed Rail. The US v. the World
Check out this video. It contains so really eye-opening information about the expansion of high speed rail in the US, particularly in relation to other countries. It’s not the most exciting presentation, but the chart lays out some surprising facts.
Below is a screen capture of the chart for reference. Now let me add some context. The US has a land mass of 3,717,813 sq.miles and Japan about 145,883. In spite of that vast difference in size, the US is literally many hundreds of miles behind the US in terms of the expansion of high speed rail. The US has an inconsequential amount of high speed rail currently in operation and it looks like less than 1,000 miles planned to be in operation by 2025. Japan has approximately twice that already in operation and is still planning modest expansion.
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Checking Facts on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Disaster
The April 20 explosion that started oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico has prompted a slew of claims and counterclaims about the disaster. What caused it, how it’s being handled, the history of drilling accidents in the area – all are subjects ripe for false or misleading statements by politicians and others.
We keep track so you don’t have to. Some of the lowlights so far, in no particular order.
* Some Republicans falsely claimed Obama was slowing the cleanup by not waiving the Jones Act, which actually doesn’t apply to the cleanup operations.
* Obama said he issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. Not quite. Much drilling continues.
* A Republican governor keeps saying the spill is the first big blowout in the Gulf, failing to note a 1979 disaster that continued for 10 months, and numerous smaller blowouts.
To get it you have to log in the site and thus apply sildenafil online canada for it through online. One should inquire all his queries relating to sex and its levitra without prescription diseases. This anti impotence medication is easily available on the online shops because here the viagra generic usa medicines are cheap and good at quality side by side the company or shop is offering the best brand to a reasonable price. generico levitra on line In what capacity can a man build his charisma? To expand one’s charisma one needs to first comprehend the explanation behind losing it in any case. * A DNC ad claimed that a GOP lawmaker spoke for his party when he said BP deserves an apology. But that apology had already been rejected by other leading Republicans.
There are plenty more where those came from. See our “Analysis” section for a roundup of the oil-spill whoppers we’ve encountered.
Academic Freedom Media Review, July 17-23
Academic Freedom Media Review
July 17 – 23, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Note: The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here or at this link. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.
UC-Irvine Urged Not to Suspend Muslim Student Union /
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/23
BP and Academic Freedom
Cary Nelson, Inside Higher Education, 7/22
Ultimatum to Illinois Over Catholic Studies Instructor
Inside Higher Educatin, 7/21
A Tougher Conflict Policy at Harvard Medical School
Duff Wilson, The New York Times, 7/21
What if College Tenure Dies?
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Academic Freedom Media Review – July 10-16, 2010
Academic Freedom Media Review
July 10 – 16, 2010
Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Persecuted Scholars Find Refuge in the Netherlands
UAF-SAR, 7/16
Three University of Zimbabwe students appear in court
The Zimbabwean, 7/16
Academics attack RCUK’s ‘dogmatic stance’ in refusing to rethink impact
Paul Jump, Times Higher Education, 7/15
The Growth of Private and For-Profit Higher Education in Britain: Competition or Collaboration?
Geoffrey Alderman, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 7/15
Teaching or Preaching?
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Education, 7/15
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Beautiful Game Sets Records on Twitter, Growing Interest in the US
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Apparently the World Cup final represented the largest period of sustained activity for an event in Twitter’s history. According to Twitter Blog, during the final, people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages. I really don’t have anything to add to the post, as it speaks for itself. Clearly Twitter is now a global phenomenon.
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Some Grey Bloke is a Favorite
Some Grey Bloke is one of my favorite YouTube channels. Here are two recent videos that make me laugh. The first raises the question of the World Cup and just why we call it that. Now that Graham mentions it, I’m annoyed, too.
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Argentina Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage
People protest same-sex marriage bill outside Argentina's Congress in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. (Natacha Pisarenko/Associated Press) Read more: http://tinyurl.com/argentine-marriage
Argentina has just joined the club of nations that has legalized same-sex marriage. Yes, the nation that many stereotypically associate with overwrought machismo, and in which the Catholic Church still exerts considerable influence, has taken this radical move. It seems clear that the tide is turning, at least in the “West.” It’s turning here in the United States too, the setbacks like last year’s referendum in Maine and Prop 8 in California, or the large number of amendments to the constitutions of various states passed to protect the “sanctity of marriage” during the past 5-6 years.
I want to use this post to make a detached, rational argument why this is a good trend, based on fundamental American values about the nature of our government in relation to individual rights. It’s odd that someone with my political beliefs might make the argument on these terms, but ultimately it is a libertarian, perhaps even conservative argument. I’ll make no appeal to emotion, putting forth touching stories of nontraditional families or the devastation wrought by deeply held emotional ties are denied.
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