Memestate

Cold press coffee.

From MAKE: Blog: HOW TO cold press coffee:

Steep a full pound of coarsely ground coffee in 9 cups of cold water in a sort of plastic pail and allow the "mulch" to soak for 12 hours. With the pull of a plug, a thickish coffee syrup drains through a filter into a glass carafe which you then store in the refrigerator. When you want coffee, you measure some into your mug and add hot water or milk.

A friend of mine introduced me to this method of brewing coffee back when I was an undergrad. This sounds unappetizing, but this is the absolute best way of making iced coffee. MAKE picked this one up from Health News Digest (http://healthnewsdigest.com/news/article_2020.shtml).

Palm based blogging client Vagabond released as open source.

From Vagabond Released as Open Source:

For a while (since 2003) I’ve been selling a simple Palm blogging app through online stores for a few dollars a copy. It wasn’t making me any money anyway, and I think a good blogging app for the 650 would really kick some ass. Something people could hack on and extend and come up with novel usages for. I figured I would toss my hat into the ring and release a free version of Vagablog along with the source code.

I've been looking for something like this for quite a while. In fact, I started blogging with the idea that I would actually use my old Treo 90 to do my writing. At the time, I found a blogging client that worked on the Palm and had a Windows based conduit that moved the content out to a fairly bare bones perl based cgi based blog. I was never able to get it working reliably, so I dropped the idea of blogging on the palm. Two years later (on July 20), I'm still blogging. Now that some quality blogging clients are starting to emerge, I'm ready to give Palm blogging another try.

Happy Birthday.

A birthday shout out to my anonymous friend whose blog shall remain unlinked.

Images and Meaning 2

From Slashdot | Graphics in Science:

Nature has an interesting nugget about the second meeting of the Image and Meaning Initiative which was held at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It is about the use of graphics in presenting scientific data. I am also a big advocate of using nice graphics in scientific presentations, but I also agree with Felice Franel, the founder of I-M, that not all images are meaningful scientifically. In fact, one encounters (and I am ashamed to admit that I have published) images that look nice but have no scientific import at all. One very cool Harvard physics professor, Eric Heller, produces wickedly beautiful (and meaningful) images of quantum mechanical models. These images have made the covers of Science and Nature, and are featured in his online art gallery, which was reviewed in the New York Times in 2002.

My major professor was in invited participant to the Image and Meaning conference at the Getty. It sounds like it was an incredible conference. I really want to do more work in this area when I finish up the dissertation. The article from Nature is at http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050627/full/050627-16.html.

Day 3 of the Wakarusa Music Festival.

Old Crow Medicine Show.
Originally uploaded by Rich Anderson.

After 14 hours of music on Saturday, Patrick and I got a late start on Sunday for the final day of the Wakarusa festival. We started with a hike out to the Campground stage for MOFRO's second set. The tent housing the stage was absolutely packed. I wouldn't be surprised to see these guys headlining festivals before too long. We stayed at the Campground stage for the beginning of the Greyhounds set.

Next up was Little Feat back at the main festival grounds. Little Feat can still jam with the best of them. They extended Dixie Chicken out to about 30 minutes.

The rest of the festival was about bluegrass for me. After catching the tail end of Donna the Buffalo, we settled in to the Revival Tent for the Old Crow Medicine Show. Like the Hackensaw Boys, the Old Crow Medicine Show plays a traditional Appalacian style of bluegrass. I was very impressed with OCMS. Highlights of their set included Tell It to Me, which reminds me of the Grateful Dead's Casey Jones and their encore, a cover of the Grateful Dead's U.S. Blues.

Next up was Galactic. Like Particle, I've seen Galactic so many times, the I would have been better served checking out one of the other bands. We stayed for about half of Galactic's set before heading back to the Revival Tent to hear the tail end of the Hot Buttered Rum String Band's set and Splitlip Rayfield. I really regret not hearing more of HBRSB's set. What I heard sounded really good. They are on the list of bands to check out the next time they come to town.

Splitlip Rayfield is a really interesting band. Imagine the Ramones crossed with a bluegrass band and you've got Splitlip Rayfield. I saw them open up for the Drive By Truckers last fall in Dallas at Trees and I've been hooked ever since. Splitlip Rayfield is another band that I would highly recommend. Splitlip Rayfield's set marked the end of one of the better festivals I've done. Patrick's take on day 2 of Wakarusa is out on the Betamax Guillotine. My pictures from Wakarusa are out on Flickr.

Day 2 of the Wakarusa Music Festival.

Hula Hoop.
Originally uploaded by Rich Anderson.

The second day of Wakarusa was one of the more intense days of festival going I've done. The day started with a set from MOFRO. MOFRO is currently one of my favorite bands out there. They describe themselves as "front porch soul." They are very southern and unapologetic about it. Front man, J.J. Grey, takes a conversational approach on stage. Every song has a story. The set was tight, but the highlight was J.J. Grey's banter.

I split the next set between the Hackensaw Boys and Rose Hill Drive. The Hackensaws are a bluegrass band hailing from Charlottesville, VA. They play straight forward Appalachian style bluegrass. Rose Hill Drive reminds me a bit of the Queens of the Stone Age. They have talent to burn and are a band worthy of checking out in the future.

We caught a little bit of Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise before heading to the Sun Up Stage for Karl Denson's Tiny Universe. KDTU is one of my favorite bands. I first heard them at Bonnaroo in 2002. KDTU is one of the bands that I'll drive as far as Austin to see. Unfortunately, they rarely come within 4 hours of Denton. KDTU's set was more jazz than funk, but was still excellent. Gov't Mule keyboard player, Danny Louis, sat in on the set.

Next up was Particle. Particle is another of my Bonnaroo 2002 discoveries. Particle is a fairly intense electronic based jam band out of Los Angeles. They describe their music as "space porn." Particle has been at every festival that I've been to in the last couple of years. When restricted to a 50 minute time slot, they pretty much always play the same set. They were good, but I think I would have been better off catching one of the other bands playing that time slot.

The Wakarusa schedule makers displayed a true sense of cruelty with the next time slot. They scheduled Gov't Mule, KDTU's second set, and Wilco at the same time. These were three of the bands that I made the trip to Kansas to see. Gov't Mule and Wilco were billed as festival headliners. I'm not sure what the festival organizers were thinking by putting them at the same time. I mentioned in my earlier post that my fantasy of seeing an Uncle Tupelo reunion was dashed by Jay Farrar pulling out of his Saturday solo set, and I had seen KDTU earlier in the day, so I decided to go with Gov't Mule. Gov't Mule played an excellent 2.5 hour set. The highlight of the set was the Mule's slow, hot rendition of All Along the Watchtower. I also ran into a friend of mine from graduate school who is doing his PhD at KU during the early part of Gov't Mule's set. Patrick took this opportunity to sample both Wilco and KDTU's set. One of my festival regrets was missing Michael Kang of the String Cheese Incident jamming with KDTU.

Patrick and I hiked out the Campground stage to see Matisyahu's second set of the festival. This set was a little more mellow than the set on Friday afternoon. It was still good, but it wasn't worth the hike. We ended the day with the String Cheese Incident's late night set.

A small forest fire was blazing behind one of the campgrounds. That seemed like a good point to call it a day. Patrick's take on day 2 of Wakarusa is out on the Betamax Guillotine. My pictures from Wakarusa are out on Flickr.

Day 1 of the Wakarusa Music Festival.

Wakarusa.
Originally uploaded by Rich Anderson.

It only took me two weeks to get this up, but I've got all the pictures I took at the Wakarusa Music Festival up on Flickr. I've also set up a public group for festival pictures if anyone is interested in sharing their pictures.

I've been to a number of festivals in the last couple of years. This year's Wakarusa festival was one of the best. The weather was absolutely perfect. The drive up to Kansas from Denton and back wasn't bad at all. I drove both ways on this trip and it really didn't seem like a seven hour car ride. Wakarusa is supposed to be a three day festival, but they've had a "pre-festival" lineup both years of the festival's existence. We didn't make it to Lawrence in time to catch any of the Thursday night sets.

Friday started with a quick lunch and a few excellent beers at the Freestate Brewery. We made it out to the festival grounds in time to catch the Gourds set. The Gourds are based out of Austin and make frequent stops at Dan's Silverleaf in Denton. I've been watching this band for a number years and they just get better each time I see them. The first highlight of the festival came when the Gourds ended their set with their infamous cover of Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice, which included segues into Waylon Jennings' Good Ol' Boys (theme from the Dukes of Hazzard) and Cheap Trick's Surrender.

Next up was Son Volt. Wakarusa had some intriguing elements to the line up this year. Wilco and Son Volt were both in the line up. An early version of the schedule had Jay Farrar and Wilco playing on the same day, back to back on the same stage. Throw in the fact that Max Johnson of the Gourds', who was a founding member of Wilco and a touring member of Uncle Tupelo, and Wakarusa looked like the perfect opportunity for an Uncle Tupelo reunion or at least some cool guest spots. Unfortunately, Jay Farrar pulled out of his solo set on Saturday and the fantasy of seeing some Uncle Tupelo never came to be. As much as I love Son Volt, Jay Farrar doesn't have much stage presence. They played a tight, fast set. Seeing Son Volt live isn't much different then hearing their studio releases. The highlight of the set for me was Drown.

After Son Volt finished up, we made our way out to the campground stage to catch self-described "Hasidic Reggae Superstar," Matisyahu. I would be lying if I claimed that I went to see Matisyahu for any reason other than the novelty. Matisyahu reminds me a bit of Sublime with a little bit of hip-hop thrown in. The lyrics were a bit heavy on the religious side of things, but the band has some talent and can jam with the best of them. Matisyahu was my first new discovery of the festival. I would highly recommend checking them out if the opportunity presents itself.

We made our way back to the main festival ground after Matisyahu, to catch Umphree's McGee. Umphree's McGee is one of those bands that I've had many opportunities to see over the last couple of years, but I never bothered to check them out. Umphree's McGee remind me of a cross between a straightforward jam band such as Phish or Moe and a progressive rock outfit such as Yes or Rush. They've got talent to burn. This is another band I would recommend checking out if the opportunity arises. The highlight of the set for me was their cover of Steely Dan's Hey 19.

The Wakarusa organizers set up the first real tough choice for me after the Umphree's McGee set. They had Railroad Earth and the North Mississippi Allstars playing at the same time. Since I've seen the Allstars a number of times, I decided to check out Railroad Earth. Railroad Earth is an east coast based bluegrass outfit. I probably owe them another listen, but I wasn't as impressed with Railroad Earth as I was with some of the other bluegrass bands that played the festival such as Splitlip Rayfield, the Hackensaw Boys, the Hot Buttered Rum String Band, and the Old Crow Medicine Show.

We finished the day up with Ozomatli. Ozomatli is a huge, latin, hip-hop band out Los Angles. I'm not familiar enough with Ozomatli to comment too much on their set, but they bring the same kind of energy into play that Robert Randolph does to his shows. The music was good and they ended their set by filing out into the crowd to form a giant conga line while their roadie's disassembled their equipment on stage. This is another band that I will check out if they come around the Dallas area.

We headed of the festival out to the sounds of the String Cheese Incident playing Best Feeling on another stage. It was a pretty good way to end the day. Patrick's take on the first day of the festival are out on the Betamax Guillotine.

GPS Tagging Photos for Flickr, Mappr, Google Earth.

From MAKE (HOW TO GPS Tag Photos: Flickr, Mappr, Google Earth....):

Here's the simple, non-techy way of tagging photos with the location of where you took them on planet Earth. There are lots of ways to do this, and I'll write about those later- but this is fun thing to do over the holiday weekend. As an added bonus, I'll show you how to see your photos on a cool Mapping application called Mappr, as well as Google Earth...

After hanging out at Where 2.0, I've been more interested in tagging my photographs with where they were taken with the exact latitude and longitude so I can later do some interesting things with them. This how-to is just the start of some mapping hacks, step-by-steps etc- I wanted to start out with the simplest method possible so even the non-techies can play.

The Ray Kurzweil Reader.

From MAKE (The Ray Kurzweil Reader):

The Ray Kurzweil Reader is a collection of essays by Ray Kurzweil on virtual reality, artificial intelligence, radical life extension, conscious machines, the promise and peril of technology, and other aspects of our future world. These essays, all published on KurzweilAI.net from 2001 to 2003, are now available as a PDF document for convenient downloading and offline reading. The 30 essays, organized in seven memes (such as "How to Build a Brain"), cover subjects ranging from a review of Matrix Reloaded to "The Coming Merging of Mind and Machine" and "Human Body Version 2.0." Link.

I don't buy all of Kurzwel's ideas, but he is always an interesting read.

Royal Society Finds Lost Newton Papers.

From Slashdot (Royal Society Finds Lost Newton Papers):

"The Royal Society has a story on a Lost Newton manuscript rediscovered. From the article: 'The notes are written about alchemy, which some scientists in Newton's time believed to hold the secret for transforming base metals, such as lead, into the more precious metals of gold or silver...The notes reflect a part of Newton's life which he kept hidden from public scrutiny during his lifetime, in part because the making of gold or silver was a felony and had been since a law was passed by Henry IV in 1404.'"

I've been fascinated with the enlightenment lately (primarily due to Neal Stephenson's excellent Baroque Cycle) so this is pretty interesting to me. I'm actually reading James Gleick's biography of Newton right now and I've got Lisa Jardine's biography on Robert Hooke on the increasingly large stack of books to read after I finish the dissertation.