"Another Ten Years Go By" --Queen Parody

Tom walks warily down the street,
With the brim pulled way down low.
Aint no sound but the sound of his pod,
Lap tops ready to go.
Are you ready, are you ready for this?
Are you ready for the robots, yet?

Out of the sky line the robots come,
Taking over the world. YEAHHH.

Another 10 years go by, Another 10 years,
And another 10 years, and another 10 years, another 10 years go by!
“HEY! I’M GUNNA GET YOU TOO!”
Another 10 years go by.

How do you think I’m gunna learn to live,
without my brain turned on?
You took me for everything that I had,
And hooked me up like a phone!

Are you happy? Are you satisfied?
The world is pretty much a machine.
Out of the sky line the robots come,
Taking over the streets.

Another 10 years go by, Another 10 years go by,
And the humans are gone, yeah the humans are gone,
Cause another 10 years went by.
“HEY! I’M GUNNA GET YOU, TOO!”
Another 10 years go by.

There are plenty of ways
you can save the world,
like walk instead of drive.
You can hike it
You can bike it
You can go outside and make them robots mad.
There is still time, yes it’s not too late
We’re waiting on the world to change

Out of the skyline the robots see
The humans aren’t gunna retreat.

The humans are back again! And the humans are back and the humans are back, the humans are back again!

A REAL Live musical!

Okay, so even though I've posted for Aesthetics and for Scientific Revolutions I still want to share the following video with everyone. Today in class we talked about art and how it becomes so much more when it's interactive. I totally agree! This video was filmed in Belgium; a dance team put together a quick routine to a song from The Sound of Music. The dancers then performed in one of Belgium's largest train stations in a way that made it seem like a real musical. They dressed completely casual and came out of nowhere! It's an amazing video and I'll bet it'll give you all goosebumps. Enjoy!

Cell Theory

One of the basic principles of biology is cell theory. We'd assume that people have known that cells are the basic building blocks of life, but before the 1600s nobody even questioned how every living thing was structured. In 1665, Robert Hooke took a thin slice of a cork and examined it under a microscope. He noticed honeycomb-like patterns that inspired him to keep investigating the newly discovered image. Because of his association of honeycombs and the compartments (cells) within them, he named them cells. Hooke did not understand their purpose nor did he know that they could be living things, since he was looking at nonliving cell walls, but when he made his findings public, it allowed an array of research to begin. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek was the first man to witness and make note of living cells in an algae plant. He called them animalcules which literally translates to "little animals" and he, like Hooke, influenced another step of cell research. Finally, in 1837, two European biologists Theodor Schwann and Matthias Jakob Schleiden put their heads together by talking about their own individual research. They both had an epiphany that the cells in plants and animals were very similar and put together the first formal and accurate definition of cell theory! It was simple, but it was a great start: All living organisms are composed of either multicellular or unicellular cells, they are the most basic unit of life, and they come from pre-existing cells. There were many other important biologists that helped form this theory. They're not always given credit for the work they did but through our project, we'll give credit to everyone that deserves it. The Cell Theory is one of the most important ones in history because it has allowed humans to understand living organisms on a much deeper level which has helped us advance studies in helping living organisms.

links for more information:

http://www.nature.com/ncb/journal/v1/n1/full/ncb0599_E13.html>

http://www.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&source=hp&q=cell+theory&um=1&ie=UTF-8&scoring=t&ei=0rbjSsWkC8Xl8QaG0-mHBw&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CDMQ5wIwCg

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead

This wonderful work of art was created by a group called "Passion Pit" which was formed by five guys in 2007. The men, Michael Angelakos (lead vocals/keyboards), Ian Hultquist (keyboards/guitar), Ayad Al Adhamy (synth.), Jeff Apruzzese (bass) and Nate Donmoyer (drums), came together because Michael Angelakos originally started writing songs for his girlfriend as a valentines day present (aww, cute). When the group realized that they had something going they started playing at small venues, then bigger ones, and then they were voted Best New Act in the Boston Phoenix's Best Music Poll (yay for small groups making it big!). Finally, the group started becoming well-known outside of Boston and here I am today, in Vermont, admiring their unique talents that were showed to me by another loyal fan via YouTube.
After being showed the music video online and showing it off to my own friends, I've learned that Passion Pit plays as far as Ohio, Washington, California, and even in Canada. They've made it big all because of a romantic idea for Valentines Day which is one of the reasons I appreciate them as a whole, they seem very funky and cute. However, I can't pinpoint exactly what draws me to this song and their style considering I am an avid Country Music fan. Electronic music is definitely not even in the range of country. But I'll try to dig deep for some specific reasoning:
First of all, the music video is insane! It's abstract, it's unique, it's something that I couldn't even dream of thinking up by myself. I'm impressed that the band could somehow find it in them to put a creative twist on their music video, making it look like concrete art with different shots of their hands and faces. I'm not sure what the technique was exactly, but it seemed that they took multiple photos of the lead singer while he sang along and then they put some of the photos together on a computerized spinning screw so it resembled a flip book (if you're not sure what a flip book is, check it out! They are way cool). Passion Pit also uses color and design as if they invented it. In the music video there are parts that look like an itunes visualizer, with swirling, twisted lines in blues and greens and pinks and reds and yellows. It's beautiful. And this leads me to what this song is about: love!
Aside from the obvious fact that it was written as a valentines day gift, the lyrics represent a very strong love (for the lyrics, click here). At one point in the song the lyrics read, "they crowd your bedroom like some thoughts wearing thin against the walls, against your rules, against your skin." To me, this means that their love is overpowering all of their morals. It's that kind of love that keeps them up all night, whether it be because they're together all night(wink, wink) or because they can't stop thinking about each other when they're apart. The song expresses how in-your-face love is. Michael sings about how love is not only blind, but that it's blinding. And his technique lies within his emotional, poetic and metaphoric lyrics. In order to understand what he was feeling when he was writing to his valentine, I had to read deep into his metaphors about fire and stars and saltwater and more.
The mixture of how he uses his words and how the electronic band created a funky music video is what makes it art, to me. They explain love as being untamed, intense, and blinding. In the video they use colors and shapes and designs and random images to show how overwhelming love is. They bring it to life! And because of their techniques, their art follows the emotionalism theory. The song and the video is set up to express a specific emotion (love), but not everyone is going to catch that. Before I looked up the lyrics and learned the background of the song, I thought it was just dance music with no deep meaning. It's pretty straight forward. Love is clearly represented in this song and love is one of the most widely known emotions to the humankind hence, emotionalism.
How does this all relate to class? We've been talking a lot about good ol' Jesus Christ who preached about love and kindness. He is the father of true, pure love. And although I don't personally believe in much of the stories from the bible, I do agree with Jesus's teachings. And if you haven't already discovered this about me, I love love.

Echolocation In Lake Champlain Helps Us Reveal CHAMP!

A few days ago I read an article about a woman, Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, who came to our good ol' Lake Champlain for some unsolved mysteries. Muggenthaler is a bioacoustician who studies animal communication and cognition. She can record echolocation sounds underwater and figure out what the animal that makes those sounds actually is. Species like whales and dolphins use echolocation underwater and the funny thing about this is that they happen to be the only aquatic animals that use echolocation. Whales and dolphins do not live in lake Champlain so what did she find?

According to the article "Making Sound Waves" in Seven Days, Muggenthaler knows that the noises did not come from a beaver, an otter, a deer, a moose, a sturgeon, a turtle, or a zebra mussle. And it's definitely not a man-made sound. She told the newspaper that she can't exactley say that it is our mysterious Champ, but that it is something we have yet to see or find. According to the echolocation that Muggenthaler recorded, she can determine that the creature is about 15-feet long, it can swim at insane speeds, and it's got a very advanced brain (this is obvious since it has dodged humans for years now, even after multiple sightings). Muggenthaler and her crew will be studying the lake for the next three years, hoping to solve the mysteries beneath the waters surface. So far they've heard and recorded three different sounds that are definitely not coming from the same animal. Their next task is to locate the actual animals.

So, will we all be alive when the mythical Champ is revealed? Or is this just another lie to add to our stories? I've been interested in the Champ theories since I was a little girl and my grandfather would take me to the beach to see the monster. Of course I never did have my own sighting, but I have faith in science and in everyone that took a picture of their own rare sightings. Muggenthaler is also someone I'd like to take seriously since she almost refused to take the job in the lake because she didn't want to "participate in a monster quest". That is a good, real scientist right there. Let's hope she uncovers Champ!



For the full article and more details go to: http://www.7dvt.com/2009making-sound-waves