That Pepsi Commercial

That Pepsi Commercial

Corporations, , ,

I am saddened by the fact that Pepsi took a noble message and a beautiful story only to ruin everything by having a script and implementation so utterly disrespectful towards minorities, women and social classes. Pepsi wants to say “we should look beyond social classes”, but instead highlights the ugly differences that exist between the privileged and the other 99%. The commercial is also a rather sad mix of cliché and kitsch.

Bottom line? It’s bad taste. Just like Pepsi and the rest of the canned sugar industry.

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Baby Alpaca - Strictly Sexual

Baby Alpaca – Sea of Dreams (Turbotito Remix)

Weekly Song

Baby Alpaca’s “Sea of Dreams” is a calm, beautiful song, which is why I linked it below as well. Turbotito’s remix is, however, more to this (dreamy) listener’s linking. The clever use of echo and resonance gives the song a different (dreamy) texture.

Both versions of the song are equally evocative and they share the same good (and dreamy) lyrics. They are both relying on lots of reverb to invoke the (dreamy) mood. It’s due to my love of electronica that I choose the remix version as title (and main feature) of this (dreamy) Weekly Song entry, even though you can find both (dreamy) songs here.

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Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond

2 CommentsWeekly Song

From the very first seconds, this avatar of musical art promises to send its passengers to the far reaches of imagination. The finesse at play here is all too evident. While the mighty sound creature begins to unfold its wings, through solemn, constant touches of the synthesizer, a myriad smaller musical happenings occur in the background. And this is barely scratching the surface of what can be said about the first minute and a half of this masterpiece in composition and meaning.

Soon, the soft, calm synth landscape is punctuated by a lonely guitar, bringing a whole new dimension of sharpness and… sincerity. Then, the melody bursts to life, echoing, warping time and space. And it’s still only the beginning.

Words are blinded by the light of genius. The only way to reward this creation is to close my eyes and let it live inside me. And a long life it will be, for songs such as this one are touched with the magnetism of divinity.

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North Korea & KickStarter

North Korea Open Sources Nuclear Weapons Program, Goes KickStarter

Satire, ,

The Internet is abuzz following the news that North Korea has Open Sourced its nuclear weapons program. General Nuk Yu of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the person behind a new GitHub account that has uploaded ballistic missile and nuclear warhead designs.

The repository also contains a how-to guide to avoiding United Nations sanctions, a list of countries and regimes willing to work together towards an Open Nuclear Stockpile and a manifesto about ensuring world peace through mutually assured destruction.

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AWOLNATION - Megalithic Symphony

AWOLNATION – Sail

Weekly Song

This melody came on my radar thanks to an amazing fan-made YouTube video. It’s so good that whenever I read the song’s title, the first thing I think about is not the music, but the playful, over-the-top video full of youthful exuberance and vibrant energy. This one is simply off the charts in the “cute” category!

Of course, this is not to say that this isn’t a great song, because it is! It’s a fabulous combination of rock, synth-driven textures, distorted vocals and dreamy choirs. Definitely a song I’d put in a collection meant to expand one’s musical horizons. But really, make sure you see the video :).

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Why Do We Make Children Sleep Alone

Why Do We Make Children Sleep Alone?

4 CommentsParenting,

I’ve been meaning to write something about what I think regarding having children sleep in their own rooms. Fortunately I found this excellent article first. It says everything I would have said, and then some. It’s well researched and will hopefully give parents and parents-to-be some good food for thought. Key concepts: emotional stability, effective sleep, nurtured development.

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Tristania - Ashes

Tristania – Endogenesis

Weekly Song

This melody is an enthralling journey into the value of contrast. It bites, but it’s as if it does so only to bring further value to the soft touches that will always follow. It’s a composition of staggering diversity. Few melodies have this much happening in the space of less than 8 minutes. There’s nary a second of boredom and hardly any repetition. The song goes through several movements with excellent pace and in total harmony. It’s a work of art of undoubted rarity.

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The AI Stock Market Wars

The AI Stock Market Wars

2 CommentsTechnology, ,

Before Artificial Intelligence develops free will and would even be in a sufficiently advanced position to decide if humans are necessary on this planet, we seem to be doing a pretty good job of destroying ourselves anyway by giving a dangerous amount of power over to semi-intelligent algorithms. Enter the artificially intelligent hedge fund.

But what’s this talk about “destroying ourselves”? Can these things actually kill? Well, let’s look at this way: these algorithms are designed to make profits for their owners by moving investments from one company to the other. In other words, stock market algorithms are playing with the fate of companies in order to make profits for investors. But unlike a human, an algorithm is not programmed for empathy, mercy or intuition. Such algorithms could potentially annihilate a promising company simply because it made some errors in reporting or short-term financial planning.

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Anugama - Shamanic Journey

Anugama – Shamanic Journey

Weekly Song

Embark on a peaceful exploration guided by calm percussion and air instruments. One such air instrument is the human voice. Mystic choirs flow along with the music, weaving a dreamy tapestry. The invocation for inner peace is the song’s only spoken word, so that the entire composition becomes a mantra of surprising clarity and purpose.

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