found_drama

I don’t know whether or not to be thankful that someone out there had the presence of mind to create the [tag]libwpd[/tag] suite of conversion utilities. On the one hand, it has allowed me to rescue dozens (hundreds?) of poems, short stories, essays, notes, starts to novels, completed novellas, lists, and other assorted writings from being otherwise forever locked in the crypt of the [tag]WordPerfect[/tag] file format that I used pre-2000. On the other hand, it has enabled me to resurrect dozens (hundreds?) of poems, short stories, essays, notes, starts to novels, completed novellas, lists, and other assorted writings from being otherwise forever locked in the vault of the WordPerfect file format that I used pre-2000.

I’m hoping that some good comes out of this. There’s a lot of unrealized material in there with a lot of potential. If only I can stop thinking about the totally asinine and juvenile werks with dates like “September 1997″.

currently playing: Built To Spill “Gone”

• Project Orion: unpublished documents
  (a photoset on Flickr by Xeni)
  (tags: future history news surreal research)
• Please Standby
  Ars Technica article (via /.) about “standby” power consumption, energy and cost savings, and the “1W” initiative - - a “MUST READ”
  (tags: essay environment energy tech hardware future todo)

The Bitch I’m Broke Method
(Date Added is in the last 6 months, Genre does not contain Mix; Limit to 10 items selected by most often played.)

1. The Rapture “Pieces of the People We Love”
2. TV on the Radio “Wolf Like Me”
3. Tokyo Police Club “Nature of the Experiment”
4. Under the Influence of Giants “In the Clouds”
5. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan “Ramblin Man’”
6. My Brightest Diamond “Golden Star”
7. Broadcast “Poem of Dead Song”
8. The Decemberists “O Valencia”
9. Stars of Track and Field “Movies of Antartica”
10. Silversun Pickups “Waste It On”

Hey wait a minute… That reads a lot like the track listing on SC’s I-95 mix! Damn him…

The Fuck Off Method
(Last Played is in the last 7 days; Limit to 10 items selected by random.)

1. Peeping Tom feat. Norah Jones “Sucker”
2. Gus Gus “Gun Acid”
3. Voxtrot “Whiskey”
4. The Beastie Boys “Groove Holmes”
5. Gus Gus “Starlovers (House of 909 Mix)”
6. Nick Hook “Enhanced”
7. a.nov “Soda Walker”
8. Gus Gus “Believe (LFO Remix)”
9. Nirvana “All Apologies”
10. DJ Linus “Who Stole The Soul? (Weed Cut)”

That’s more like it?

currently playing: The Black Keys “My Mind Is Ramblin’”

Via /.: A new paper out of Cornell (PDF) finds a compelling correlation between [tag]TV[/tag] viewing in young children (3 years old and younger) and incidents of [tag]autism[/tag].  Being no fan of television myself, I’m certainly intrigued by the proposition - - anything to cut down on the television.  My problem with the article/thesis/whatever (however) is that they don’t mention the brain in any substantive way.  The word “brain” appears in one quote, in one statement, and in the title of something in the references section.  So the question is begged: HOW IS TELEVISION EFFECTING THE BRAIN?  I don’t even really see any speculation on what biological, chemical, or neurological effects television is supposedly causing in the brain to cause this disorder.  I suppose these authos are from the “Johnson Graduate School of Management” and “Department of Economics” but still — this seems like a major oversight.

Anyone care to speculate?  How could television viewing have lasting effects on the brain?  What effects might those be?  Hmm…  Someone fund a follow-up study in a [tag]neuroscience[/tag], please.