flog

From here:
http://www.electricsix.com/band.php
--
Key Words: Justin Bieber, Robert Pattinson, Glenn Beck, Lady GaGa, Louis Pasteur, You.

If you’ve ever attempted to continue living on planet Earth in our lifetime, you understand full well that there are many forces acting against you. The forces acting against you….are oppressive, like the humid march of days. These forces like to play with things before they destroy them. You are being destroyed by forces. You.

You should by now also understand there are two forces working on your behalf. The only reason you still have a fighting chance are Detroit’s premier over-21 band Electric Six….and the benevolent violence and magnetic gravitational pulses of the stars, planets and moons in the cosmos. For centuries, we humans have taken refuge in the goodness, love and order that rains down on us from the heavens above. For decades we have turned to dangerous drugs to help us travel backwards in time, to sit with the wizards that conceptualized and realized….the Zodiac.

The Zodiac is comprised of the 12 constellations that are visible from the moon. They exist along a circular axis known as the ecliptic divided by 30 degrees each. Their energy is transmitted through invisible particles discovered by the pharaohs known as the zero particle ….which was determined by Louis Pasteur to have a particular value of 0. There are 88 constellations in the sky. There are 88 counties in the state of Ohio. There are 88 keys on Tait Nucleus’ piano. Zodiac is Electric Six’s 7th studio album. 7 multiplied by 88, multiplied by 88, multiplied by 88, divided by 12, to the power of 30, divided by zero……is zero. And now you see where this is going.

Our bank accounts are sitting at zero. We need to sell another record.

Electric Six realizes this moment in music, this moment in moments. We are naming our record Zodiac, in order to double your chances of survival. We have 12 songs on this record. We have arranged the songs to correspond with the signs of the zodiac in an effort to half-heartedly personalize our connection with you. The songs are almost in alphabetical order. If “Jam It in the Hole” weren’t so amazing and needed to be nearer to the beginning, the tracklisting would be in alphabetical order. Just like if the stars in Capricorn actually resembled a goat, we would take some of this astrology horseshit more seriously.

Zodiac begins in a most hauntingly poppy fashion with “After Hours”, aesthetically borrowing more from the Martin Scorcese film of the same name than with the Velvet Underground song of the same name. Plugging in the names of popular figures like Martin Scorcese and Velvet Underground, along with Justin Bieber, Robert Pattinson, Glenn Beck, Lady GaGa and Thomas Dolby increase the chances of this press release reaching more people via search engines.

Zodiac differs from many of its predecessors in the Electric Six discography. It is largely lower-fi, not necessarily in sound, but in essence. Tracks like “I Am A Song!” and “Table and Chairs” see the band embracing its love of The Poppy Family, Neil Diamond and yes, The fuckin’ Doors.

But Electric Six will always hold the center with equilibrium force. Songs like “Jam It in the Hole”, “Clusterfuck!” and “American Cheese” show you that Electric Six is never done being the band that you want us to be. We are Electric Six. And we must electrify you.

Finally, the band is proud to showcase its first cover song since our 2005 album Senor Smoke. “The Rubberband Man” by The Detroit Spinners, originally released in 1976, might be the catchiest, most upbeat song ever written. Electric Six has long talked about performing this song. And our horoscope told us it was finally time.

To summarize, Electric Six is a force in league with other forces to keep you safe from evil forces. We have a 7th studio album coming out on Sept. 28, 2010 that will be released on Metropolis Records. This record is called Zodiac and it features Electric Six at the height of their musical confidence….at the apex of their musical abilities. At the zenith of everyone up in this here universe tonight. You belong to the city. You belong to the night.

Electric Six is touring North America on the “Rent is Too Damn High!” starting on Sept. 15.

Electric Six is:

Dick Valentine (Aquarius)
Tait Nucleus? (Aquarius)
Percussion World (Aries)
Johnny Na$hinal (Cancer)
The Colonel (Libra)
Smorgasbord (Typical Sagittarius)



1. After Hours - 2:22
2. American Cheese - 4:20
3. Clusterfuck! - 4:36
4. Countdown to the Countdown - 3:08
5. Doom and Gloom and Doom and Gloom - 5:23
6. Jam It in the Hole - 3:51
7. I Am a Song! - 3:44
8. It Ain't Punk Rock - 3:58
9. Love Song For Myself - 4:20
10. Rubberband Man - 3:50
11. Table and Chairs - 4:36
12. Talking Turkey - 4:20

In my dream this morning, I asked my aunt if I could bum a cigarette and she said "I thought you weren't smoking cigarettes anymore." and I said, "Oh, yeah, I don't really want a cigarette.".

I saw this on a bumpersticker in town yesterday: "I'll take god and guns, you can take Obama." to which I had to reply "OK". I'd like to think that the universe of discourse in the American theater is more diverse than just these three items, but if I'm forced to choose I'll have to agree that Cracker Man can have his god and guns and I'll take Obama.

However, as time wears on it becomes less and less palatable being an Obama fan. He has handily shown that he isn't really a progressive and that he suffers from the same pathological inability to actually stand up and keep his campaign promises. Not all that surprising but disappointing nonetheless.

Back to the bumpersticker, though. I am left wondering how someone can be so out of touch with reality that they think Obama is opposed to god or guns. He is escalating the war in Afghanistan and maintaining the war in Iraq (which Jesus told W to start in the first place). It looks to me like the reality is god, guns, and Obama.

I wrote this script recently to convert a random string of 1s and 0s someone posted on Facebook into its ASCII equivalent. So, now I share my creation with "the world".

--

Option Explicit



Dim crap

Dim uncrap

Dim ch

Dim i

Dim j

Dim k

Dim digit



crap = "01100001011111010011011000100001110101100110110000110001100010011111001011010010110100101010010101010010100010100101010101001010010101001000101010100011000100101000011010101010001111010010101000110101010010000010000110110101010001011110101010100101101001010010100010000111000101010010001100010110000101010101001010000011101010101010"

uncrap = ""

ch = ""

i = 0

j = 0



' Read 7 byte chunks of crap

For i = 0 To Len(crap) \ 7



  ch = Mid(crap, (7*i) + 1, 7)

  

  ' Convert binary number to a base-10 digit

  ' and convert that digit to an ASCII character

  digit = 0

  k = 0

  For j = Len(ch) - 1 To 1 Step -1

    If Mid(ch, j, 1) = "1" Then

      digit = digit + (2 ^ k)

    End If

     

    k = k + 1

  Next

    

  uncrap = uncrap & Chr(digit)

Next



WScript.Echo uncrap

I haven't had a cigarette since last Thursday around 3:00PM. I just stopped because I finally decided that even though the nicotine high is enticing, smoking cigarettes was going to eventually make it impossible for me to go hiking, which is one of the few activities that I simply and fully enjoy unequivocally.

Of course, I've stopped before for a week or two but this time I seem to lack any desire to start up again. We'll see how it goes.

Last night at the Cub Scout Leaders' meeting, the current Cubmaster for the Pack (i.e., node 0 on the cub scout leaders org chart) announced that she will be stepping down at the start of the new scouting year in September and she was putting a call out for someone to step up to take her place. You may recall, two and a half years ago, I reluctantly answered a similar call for an assistant den leader position because: a) I knew no one else was going to volunteer and b) if I was going to be involved with a program that I had, at best, ambiguous feelings towards, I should be in a position to help steer the program, which, in retrospect, was a good call. I've had fun and my sons have had a rich scouting experience so far.

But, this turn of events was not anticipated. So, here I am now, the foul-mouthed, atheist Cubmaster.

I was stuck behind a left-lane-driving-non-passer the other day who had a bumpersticker proclaiming simply that Pope Benedict The Kidtoucher says: "Defend Life". At the moment, I was disappointed to learn the pope had nothing to say about slower traffic keeping right.

Having seen this sticker before, I've been perplexed to figure out the point. Presumably, this is a bumpersticker solely for other Catholics since no one else rightly gives a rat's ass what the pope has to say about topics, but for the sake of argument what would defending life entail? I would guess it could mean refusing to wear rubbers or get abortions and occasionally holding a sign when a Death Row convict is actually scheduled to be executed.

What about refusing to take antibiotics or undergo chemotherapy? Probably not.
How about avoiding eating meat? Maybe.
Or avoiding eating plants? Definitely not.
Would the pope condone refugee action on the part of Catholics to subvert US Military operations? I would think not.

As far as I can tell, "Defend Life" means "refuse to use technology to control your reproduction because women are just cum buckets that should be pregnant all the time, and sometimes, if you feel like it, hold up a sign to demonstrate your moral superiority but don't ever take any real action to challenge the status quo".

I want to know why when I search my gmail inbox, the search term 'coord' returns 0 hits but 'coordinator' returns 34 hits.

"The closeness with which Hox genes regulate one another is illustrated - startlingly - by the fact that Hox genes frome one species can regulate corresponding Hox genes in another, totally different species. A Hox gene called 'deformed', for example, is involved in shaping the back of the head in flies. In addition to the DNA sequence that encodes a regulatory protein, the 'deformed' gene contains a regulatory element akin to the operator sequence that Jacob and monod found in the 'lac' operon [a group of 3 genes that work together to oversee the breakdown of lactose in E. coli]. This element is essential for the 'deformed' gene to do its job properly. Mammals, such as mice and humans, also contain a gene very like 'deformed' which is involved in the development of the back of the head, specifically part of the hindbrain. It is reasonable to suppose that the mammalian and fly versions of 'deformed' are homologues - that they share a common evolutionary descent from a gene which shaped the backs of the heads of the long-extinct common ancestor of flies and mammals some 600 million years ago. Given that all other traces of this common ancestor vanished more than half a billion years ago, it is remarkable that genes from flies and mammals can stand in for each other. In 1992, Alexander Awgulewitsch and Donna Jacobs of the Medical University of South Carolina took the 'deformed' regulator element from flies and showed that it regulated the activity of the mouse version of 'deformed', in the mouse hindbrain. To show that this was no fluke, William McGinnis of Yale University and colleagues did a converse experiment, showing how regulatory elements associated with the version of 'deformed' found in humans could substitute for the 'deformed' regulatory element in embryonic flies. These amazing results show that Hox genes have been as vital to the evolution of animal form as they are to the creation of every new animal embryo - whether fly maggot or human baby." -- "Jacob's Ladder", Henry Gee, p 179

"I believe both the existence of broad algal fronds and Eophyllophyton hints at something rather important; they suggest that marine and terrestrial plants evolved the capacity to make flattened organs long before the idea took off. We should be cautious, however, in supposing from evidence of this sort that all land plants had the genetic capability of producing leaves whenever in their evolutionary history it suited them. To reach beyond speculation of this sort, we need to turn to molecular developmental genetics, the study of genetic pathways used and reused to build organisms. Making a leaf, and much else besides, requires homeobox gene networks (also present in animals) t organize growth and development by ensuring cells take on the right form and function depending on where they are on the plant. In plants, the so-called knotted homeobox gene (KNOX) family plays a critical role in leaf formation and is present in some green algae, mosses, ferns, conifers, and flowering plants. It functions in a similar manner in different plant groups: when KNOX genes of a fern are put into a flowering plant and vice versa, they still work. In other words, plants with diverse evolutionary histories posses them and their function is highly conserved, exactly as we would expect if the genes are very old." -- "The Emerald Planet", David Beerling, pp 19-20

I'm left wondering where the evidence is for the wall of separation that evolution deniers hypothesize exists between species. They are fond of admitting (because the plain facts of reality require them to, not because it is a natural conclusion of their hypothesis) that "microevolution" (that is to say, adaptation or variation) occurs, but are equally fond of proclaiming that "macroevolution" (that is to say, speciation) never occurs. The reason speciation doesn't occur is because species represent separate kinds of god's special creation and the kinds must remain distinct. Besides, it's still "just a mosquito/horse/ape/bacterium" anyway.

Ok, so if that is the case, then why are species so goddamned similar on a molecular level?

"A comprehensive overview of the structure of Civilization II savegames and scenarios._