A guitar passed through several filters joins forces with sweeping electronic textures, setting the mood before the monolithic beat arrives. Echoing and contrasting the tribal-industrial feel of the rhythm is an airy female voice sample, cleverly intertwined with the electronic arrangement. A beautiful mood-setter by one of the best electronica bands hailing from Romania.
The development of self-driving vehicles is progressing at a steady pace. It’s only a matter of time before seeing a human drive a vehicle on public roads will be akin to seeing a horse and carriage on a motorway. Even if introduced globally right now while still in development, self-driving technology would drastically reduce fatalities.
Unfortunately, today’s society would only accept this technology if it is perfect. That’s because it is “understandable” that crazed primates may kill other beings because of recklessness and inattention, but it certainly won’t be tolerable for a computer to make a mistake, even if it would happen a thousand times less often – and most likely due to freak coincidences rather than the machine actually making a mistake. But society will evolve. Self-driving is here to stay and like it or not, primates will soon be relegated to driving on the race track or some other place where the potential of threatening life is lower.
And while self-driving is currently one of the most debated topics, we should really be talking about self-piloting, which is a more generic term. It covers more of what will actually happen: all machinery will soon be able to pilot itself. So how would worldwide fleet of interconnected self-piloting machinery change life on Earth?
From the very first minute of this song we are greeted by an impressive array of instruments and motifs. The mélange of electronica, choirs and acoustic instruments continues to mature well into the second minute. Only then is the melody truly taking off as Kristy’s voice blossoms.
The acoustic and vocal part of the song is transported into the future by means of shiny, spotless electronic beats. Evocative choirs join Kristy as she sings her way towards the ecstatic end.
This is a journey of surprising diversity and intensity. Eyes-closed listening is highly recommended.
The plummeting price of fossil fuel has made certain industries quite profitable due to decreasing production and delivery costs. It also marginally helped car owners in certain parts of the world, even though the actual fuel price has not decreased as much as crude price.
Unfortunately our reliance on fossil fuels may end up being much more costly in the long run than any short term gains. Here’s an article that explains why the situation is the way it is while also highlighting one of the worst effects of the worldwide drop in oil prices: collapsing oil-depending economies whose fall hurts millions of people.
Time for a hopeful look towards tomorrow. Desert Dwellers’ psybient song “New Generation” was begging for some more message. As luck would have it, Temple Step Project stepped in the project. Now, the already awesome vibes of “New Generation” are joined by a beautiful speech which integrates seamlessly with the music.
Temple Step Project went all in for the “new generation” message and gave the song a powerful, intentful message – if at time a bit too bombastic for its own good. It’s one of the better remixes out there. Even better, courtesy of a wonderfully composed fan-video we are transported to what is and what could be. I’ll link the original song too because it’s too good not to.
Facebook doesn’t really do its job when you ask of it to follow a website for you. Here you will find two images that explain how you can properly follow a page on Facebook. Unless you change your notification settings as shown in the images, the default behavior is that whatever you see in your news feed is at the whim of algorithms designed to extract money out of everybody using the website – users on the one side and advertisers on the other. Sadly Facebook treats as advertisers even non-profit content creators such as myself, but more on that inside the article.
It’s a pity that I even have to type this but alas, due to the rather unfair algorithms employed by Facebook (and many other social networks), I realize it’s necessary to explain the current situation. Before I start, I’d like to emphasize that I have no problem with Facebook making a profit. As a living commercial entity, it needs to survive in order to evolve. But what will it evolve into? We as users of Facebook need to voice our concerns if we wish to have a say in its evolution. A social network should be the best place to make oneself heard but unfortunately, in the case of Facebook this is increasingly false.
Facebook currently deepens the chasms between social groups, reducing one’s opportunity to discuss with people outside one’s comfort zone. Like any company, Facebook wants its users happy. Happy users spend more time on the website and make the company more money.
Another way Facebook algorithms are hurting is treating non-profits as if they were advertisers. The website is built quite “intelligently” so that it coerces the owners of pages into paying for getting exposure.
You can’t play this song. It plays you. If you let it, it’ll stretch your mind far towards funkyland and load it up with a sphere of crazyjoy. Then, the intellectual bow will be fired and the ball of crazyjoy will be shot back into our reality with a noisy twang. It will reach Earth at full power, trumpeting and tip-toeing its chaotic-yet-charming dance, changing tempo, keeping the ear guessing at what’s going to play its drum next.
I present you with one of the best geopolitical analysis articles I’ve read in the past couple of years. It’s also quite a long read. But if you care about the conflict between the world’s superpowers, this will be an excellent use of your time since it’s also very well written.
The text goes in ample detail regarding cyberwarfare and how Russia has become a force to be reckoned with in the field of social media manipulation. You will also learn why it was possible for Russia to influence the elections in the United States. In turn, this will make it clear that democracy is facing a threat as a result of the intense polarization affecting many societies on Earth.
Telling a tale through music is one of the most beautiful joinings of the arts. The atmosphere-building in this song is done with supreme mastery. Every instrument is introduced at just the right time and is being kept on the stage for exactly as much as it should. For example there’s some delicate percussion starting at 0:28. It stays around for less than 20 seconds.
Kenny’s voice is just perfect for the story he’s telling. The reverb is used in ample amount, but again, ideal for the mood being conjured. As the song builds up, a choir joins voices with the singer, telling us important things about life from a gambler’s perspective. And this brings me to the lyrics. The song does very well at imparting life wisdom through the use of analogy.
In the past few years we’ve learned a lot about how plants communicate with each other. The first such communication to be discovered was through volatile organic compounds that plants secrete in order to notify each other of predators. This is known as hormonal sentience.
