New video - Bees and the LHC

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzhLlsk1k78

Next: The One-Dimensional Universe

Turtles and the Tenth Dimension

And now for something completely different. This completely crazy and unashamedly NSFW music video was created by my son Todd in his alternate guise as a gangsta rapper named "Lil Deuce Deuce". I hope you enjoy it in the spirit of fun with which it is offered.


A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6qLj8X67HA

The full name of the song is "Dimension X" NINJA TURTLES/10th DIMENSION RAP, and
his lildeucedeuce channel YouTube channel is at this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/LilDeuceDeuce.

What can I say? It makes me laugh. Next time we'll return to slightly more serious discussions as we look at the connections between Bees and the LHC.

Till then, enjoy the journey!

Rob

Next - New video - Bees and the LHC

Courage

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKyvO90iPek

We're continuing to look at some of the songs from my 1983 vinyl LP, Rob Bryanton - Alcohol and Other Drugs. When we looked at Gimme a Beer!, I described how the play that these songs were written for toured the high schools of Saskatchewan back then, and how the project started with an intensive workshop of brainstorming and improvisations with a collective of actors all in their twenties, really not long out of high school themselves.

This song in particular owes a lot to that workshop, where one of the actresses came forward and told an intense and moving story of how she ended up painting her initials with an old gym sock outside the principal's office in the middle of the night, but what drove her to commit that act was never dealt with because people just wrote the event off to "that's what happens when kids get drunk". The final verse states its message strongly:

But you’ve really got to be there / With nothing else in your way
If you want the world to listen close / To everything you say

Is this overstating the point? Some commenters on YouTube are unhappy with what they perceive as the "preachiness" of some of these songs, which, when you come right down to it were written for a play sponsored by the Saskatchewan Alcoholism Commission: these songs were written for a high school audience, and are intended to nudge people into examining their own attitudes towards alcohol and other drugs. The commenters who loved We All are Chemicals or Gimme a Beer! (two songs which at first glance appear to joyously celebrate overindulgence) are not impressed with songs like these which end up arguing for sobriety. What truth works for you? No matter how you feel about these matters, it still takes courage to state an opinion that goes against those around you, which should be the final message of this song: have the courage to stand up for what you believe in.

I also mentioned in a previous entry that both this song and Just a Shy Guy were playlisted by our local FM rock station Z99 back then: I've always been grateful to program director Ed Walker and morning personality C.C. for their support of this project, which at the time was highly unusual: recording music in your living room or basement and getting it on the radio was pretty well unheard of back in 1983.

Here's the lyrics:

COURAGE - music and lyrics by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

Sometimes I get angry
Sometimes I wanna shout
Sometimes it’s so hard to find a way
To let my feelings out
Wanna tell off all the teachers
When they don’t try to understand
Can’t they see that I’m just me
Doin the best I can

I say, give me some courage
I need some courage
Give me the courage
To say what I want to say

Last night I was angry
My friends they told me what to do
They said “Take a drink of courage
Get into something new”
So we took a drink of courage
And we emptied every glass
And don’t you know my courage grew and grew
As every hour passed

I said “Give me some courage
I need more courage
Give me the courage
To do what I want to do”

The next thing I remember
It was three or maybe four
Broke into the school and headed
Right for the principal’s door
I was swimming through a dream world
So far gone I couldn’t talk
I was paintin my initials
With an old gym sock

But you’ve really got to be there
With nothing else in your way
If you want the world to listen close
To everything you say
Cause even though I know the reasons
For what I did last night
Everybody chalks it up to alcohol
And nothin’s ever made right

So I say, give me the courage
I need some courage
Give me the courage
To be who I want to be

And I say, give me the courage
… to never do that again.

Other songs from this album:
We All are Chemicals
Gimme a Beer!
Just a Shy Guy
Trying to Escape
Insidious Trends

Next: Turtles and the Tenth Dimension

Rebecca Black and QWOP

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXs-QE2-464

Back at the beginning of 2008, I started something I call the Google Suggestions Time Capsule Project. Every Sunday, I've taken a moment to type the 26 letters of the alphabet into my Google Search and make note of what suggested search items come up as Google's 26 picks for the most likely information I would be looking for.

Using this as a way of tracking the zeitgeist, the popular culture meme-space of the predominantly American-culture internet has been interesting, and there've been some notable shifts that have happened over the almost three and a half years that I've been tracking this. Here's a few I'd like to point out today.

The very first list I made note of contained Zoey Zane as the suggestion for the letter z, which may well prove to be the only time the assumed name of a murdered internet porn actress will come up as the number one suggestion for a letter.

Here's that first list:

Sunday, January 6 2008, 11 am CST, Saskatchewan Canada:
amazon, best buy, craigslist, dictionary, ebay, facebook, google, hotmail, imdb, john lewis, kohls, limewire, myspace, next, orkut, paypal, qvc, redtube, sears, target, utube, verizon, wikipedia, xtube, youtube, zoey zane.

Two weeks later, Zoey's name was gone from the list. In fact, it's turned out to be relatively rare for people's names to appear in this list at all. "Obama" appeared at the beginning of March 2008, only to be replaced by google's social networking site "Orkut" before the month was done. In November 2008, for one week only, we saw "John McCain", "Obama" and "Sarah Palin" appear as the suggestions for j, o and s: this was in the week of the American elections, of course.

The following week "Jennifer Hudson" appeared as the replacement suggestion for j, a remarkable bit of pop culture since she came in seventh in the 2004 American Idol competition, received a 2006 Academy Award for her role in the film Dreamgirls, but it was the release of her debut record album in 2008 that finally vaulted her to the top of the google list for six weeks.

Interestingly, Obama, now the president of the US, also stayed at the top of the list for six weeks, while John McCain lasted one and Sarah Palin lasted three. Obama returned to the list in January 2009, this time staying there for seven weeks. But after that, we were not to see another person's name at the top of the list until this week.

Rebecca Black, the internet teen sensation people love to hate, appears this week as the top response for the letter r. Her video, Friday, is currently at almost 100 million views on YouTube, but the like/dislike ratio is what's completely unusual: almost 2 million people have given the video a thumbs down, and only a quarter million have given it thumbs up. Wired Magazine published a cover story in 2008 about people who are "internet famous", Rebecca seems to be a shining example of that term.

Speaking of internet famous, ever hear of QWOP? It just finished a seven week run as the top result for q. This simple flash game asks you to control an olympic runner using four letters on your keyboard. For me, this one was remarkable because unlike the Rebecca Black story I've seen almost no one in the media talking about this game, and yet it's the number one search suggestion. Yet another example of how the internet has become its own medium? You bet.


Enjoy the journey!

Rob Bryanton


UPDATE: in a surprising turn of events, after reaching over 165 million views, Rebecca's video was removed from YouTube on June 13 2011, just as the video blog version of the entry was about to be posted. Apparently, the creators of Rebecca's video had decided to start asking people to pay a fee for every view of the video, and she retaliated by demanding that her video be pulled off of YouTube.
Good luck, Rebecca!
Next: Courage


A direct link to Rebecca Black's video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0

New video - Evidence for Seeing the Future?

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo_Mq6LKhI8

New video - Infinite Division

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV5H1u5eq5E

To read along with this blog entry go to http://imaginingthetenthdimension.blogspot.com/2010/12/infinite-division.html

Livin on the Edge of the World

A direct link to the above video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOGtj5J3wBI

This song was written back in 1982, was not part of the live show that most of the other songs on this 1983 album were written for, but it had a tangential connection to the ideas from the rest of the album and seemed like a good one to include because of that.

Over the last few months, in blog entries like Just Geometry, Bees and Tangential Thinking, More Tangential Thinking and At Right Angles to Spacetime, we've been returning to some of the basic ideas behind my approach to visualizing the extra spatial dimensions. I've talked before about how I went for decades showing people the basic ideas of my approach, drawing little diagrams on napkins or whatever was available, but until I read Michio Kaku's Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension, I had always thought that my approach was useful for visualizing nothing more than the seven dimensions of our reality. Kaku's book gave me a way of thinking how my logic could be extended to ten spatial dimensions, but even seven is mind-blowing enough!

So, way back in 1982 I was already fascinated by the concepts of extra spatial dimensions, and that was a part of what I was thinking about as I created this song - if you are operating from a realm which is not confined to our 4D spacetime, from a fifth dimension which is somehow "outside" of our reality at another angle, then the title of this song is a way of thinking about that concept. Here's the lyrics:

LIVIN ON THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
- words and music by Rob Bryanton (SOCAN)

What am I s’posed to do with you when you’re so far away
I need to have your near me
How am I s’posed to get the news, the issues of the day
Who’s gonna set me straight?
Hey hey hey

What were you tryin to say to me the day you made it clear
You said “Look inside yourself now”
But you don’t know the things I see, you’ve never felt the fear
As I stand before the mirror

Can’t you see I’m livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world, hey hey hey

I’ve got to be stronger, gotta take control
Got to give my life some order
I can’t take it any longer, don’t know where to go
Then you tell I must grow

Well can’t you see I’m livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world, hey hey hey

Sometimes I scare myself
I take me by surprise
Sometimes I scare myself
Believin my own lies

Can’t you see I’m livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world
Can’t you see I’m livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world
Can’t you see I’m livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world
Can’t you see I’m livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world
Can’t you see I’m livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world
Livin on the edge of the world
I am livin on the edge of the world
Hey hey hey

Next: Rebecca Black and QWOP