Nerdcore

Music

Top Ten Best Live Aid Performances

Barrier-bustin’ Internet may lead to a music industry “middle class”
In one of the final sessions of the Future of Music Policy Summit, panelists discussed how the music industry is going through a process of “disintermediation,” where fewer steps stand between artist and audience, thanks to social networking and Internet distribution. “Someone spoke earlier about a ‘musician’s middle class,’” said Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora.com. “In this world, you don’t need to be a full-time professional musician.” Instead, the speakers noted that it’s possible for amateur musicians or independent bands to reach new and unexpected audiences over the Web.

DRM advocates getting nervous about consumer backlash
You all know the slogan: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” At the Digital Rights Strategies conference in New York City, a similar message could be heard: “DRM doesn’t anger consumers, content owners abusing DRM anger consumers.”
Few, of course, would argue that the mere existence of DRM is a bad thing. Locked away in a vault somewhere or trapped in one of those nifty mirrors featured in Superman, DRM can do little harm. Such assertions are merely academic, of course. Tools are designed to be used, and DRM is being used to do what it was designed to do: control how consumers interact with content.
But the growing backlash against DRM is causing dissension in the pro-DRM ranks. Paul Sweeting’s excellent report on the DRS conference records the frustrations of the DRM community at the tactics of the content industry. They apparently feel that an overzealous content industry is abusing DRM; this is a bit like Smith & Wesson complaining that bullets can kill.

Music News Toolbox: 50+ Links For Discovering New Music

A Fistfull of DJ-Sets:
Annie Mac – Mash Up 09/21
Fedde Le Grand – Essential Mix 09/23
Jazzanova @ Multikulti 09/23

A Bunch of Bootlegs:
the Verve – Wigan Demos

Movies

Monster From The Ocean Floor
Directed (1954) by Wyott Ordung. Starring Anne Kimbell, Stuart Wade and Dick Pinner.

The Blank Generation
Experimenteller Musikfilm: Directed (1976) by Ivan Kral and Amos Poe. Starring Patti Smith, Television, Ramones, Heart Breakers, Talking Heads, Blondie, Harry Toledo, Marbles, Tuff Darts, Wayne County, Miamis, Dolls, and Shirts.

Holy Batman, Batman!
The internet, as we all know, is good for nerds of all types. Personally, I’m a Batman nerd. Specifically a devotee of the Batman television show starring Adam West and Burt Ward. The internet has been very good to us.

David Hasselhoff als Hampelmann
Den Papst zum ausschneiden und selberbasteln hatten wir schon. Ich hätte mir ja als nächstes einen Hampelchuck Norris gewünscht, aber Hasselhoff geht auch klar.

Root of all Evil?
Religion als die Wurzel allen Übels, gar nicht so weit von dem entfernt, was ich denke:
In addition, though religions preach morality, peace and hope, in fact, says Dawkins, they bring intolerance, violence and destruction. The growth of extreme fundamentalism in so many religions across the world not only endangers humanity but, he argues, is in conflict with the trend over thousands of years of history for humanity to progress – to become more enlightened and more tolerant.
Wikipedia

MOVIE TOOLBOX: 85+ Tools and Resources for Movie Fans

The Secret of Star Wars Fandom
Six feature films, three spinoff films, five television series, plus video games, books, and merchandise, plus a big chunk of the internet, all devoted to the Star Wars universe. There will always be movies with fans, but those who identify with Star Wars are so numerous, so prolific, and so vociferous, they redefine what it means to be a fan.
Those who love the Star Wars universe the most spend an inordinate amount of time criticizing the movies.

Greatest Movie Deaths of All Time
Decapitations, Acid Loogies, disembowelments, explosions, gunfire, giant sharks, dismemberment, booby traps, psychic powers, impalement, suicides, they’re all here; welcome to the greatest movies deaths of all time video blog.

Design

Spiderman Lamp
Light up the night with the web-makin’, wall-crawler himself. It’s Spider-Man’s head, and it lights up! This Spider-Man EVA lamp will be a great addition to your child’s bedroom. This red webbed face of Spider-Man will fit right in with your child’s Spider-Man theme.

Differences between the Chinese and the Germans : An Infographic Exhibition
Chinese Artist Yang Lui has a brilliant Infographic exhibition “Ost trifft West“ (”East versus West“) highlighting the differences between Germans and Chinese.

A Book on the Art of Letter Arrangement
by Sallie B. Tannahill. (A former teacher of lettering at Columbia University and a friend of Vojtech Preissig – the Czech typographer and book designer – whose work gets sampled frequently throughout the book.)
The goal of P’s and Q’s is to show the infinite variation and approach to letter design through an artistic lens via examples. In the introduction Tannahill states, “Well-selected letters, drawn with force and quality, arranged in good proportion, tone and color, and grouped . . . may be as fine and as complete as (any) design.”

Und so.

Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: Apes that write, start fires and play Pac-Man
Savage-Rumbaugh asks whether uniquely human traits, and other animals’ behaviors, are hardwired by species. Then she rolls a video that makes you think: maybe not. The bonobo apes she works with understand spoken English. One follows her instructions to take a cigarette lighter from her pocket and use it to start a fire. Bonobos are shown making tools, drawing symbols to communicate, and playing Pac-Man — all tasks learned just by watching. Maybe it’s not always biology that causes a species to act as it does, she suggests. Maybe it’s cultural exposure to how things are done.

Uh: Das Internet ist der wahre Klimakiller
Die Internetnutzung wächst rasant – und das ist schlecht fürs Klima. Denn der Energiehunger des Datennetzes ist kaum zu stillen: Besonders die Großrechner von Firmen verbrauchen Unmengen an Strom. Der CO2-Ausstoß des gesamten Internets ist inzwischen so groß wie der des weltweiten Flugverkehrs.

Art of the Yakuza: Japan’s Tattooed Men & Women
Centuries ago in the days of the Shogun, Japan’s authorities would mark criminals with tattoos to distinguish them from the rest of the population. These highly visible tattoos usually took the form of a black ring around the arm; with rings added as convictions increased. These marked men were usually discriminated against so they tended to stick together, eventually forming the organized, mafia-style gangs now known as “Yakuza”. Worn proudly as symbols of status and dedication, Yakuza tattoos have evolved into magnificent, multicolored full-body masterpieces.

City of toothpicks

Monster plant grows 5ft in a weekend and bursts through greenhouse roof
A rare Mexican plant which flowers only once in its lifetime has bloomed in Britain. Scientists at Bangor University have waited 28 years to see the Century Plant (Agave americana) blossom. Nobody was more shocked to see the 20ft specimen in full bloom than curator Nigel Brown, who planted the seed when he was a young student in 1979.