Mentatul

Month: April 2016

  • Kalya Scintilla – Rises In The East

    Kalya Scintilla – Rises In The East

    Get ready to be snapped away into a universe built by a myriad sounds. There are more things happening here than on some entire albums. And yet… a powerful sense of purpose permeates the melody.

    There are very few songs that score this highly on the “mind-blowing” scale.  Close your eyes and let your mind reach ecstasy through rhythm. And remember: bad sound ruins good music.

    You can listen to the song for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did purchase Kalya Scintilla’s album :).

    https://kalyascintilla.bandcamp.com/track/rises-in-the-east-2^

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8UqpSAPZbw^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    http://open.spotify.com/track/1rgXwFzNvFzv0LEqp5C11j^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/44195481^

    This Weekly Song entry has been brought from the FaceBook archive of Weekly Song^. This project was originally started through a FaceBook page, about 13 months prior to launching Mentatul. Slowly but surely, the entire FaceBook archive will be brought here.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00536-KalyaScintillaRisesInTheEast-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Kalya Scintilla – Rises In The East’ desc=’Get ready to be snapped away into a universe built by a myriad sounds. There are more things happening here than on some entire albums.’]

  • Yet Another Battery Technology Discovery to Forget

    Yet Another Battery Technology Discovery to Forget

    Rejoice, for scientists have accidentally found a way to prolong battery life with up to 400%:

    http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-accidentally-made-batteries-that-last-400-times-longer^

    Now rejoice less, because in the past decade we’ve learned about at least twenty such discoveries. Not a single one made it to the market yet. I don’t know if this is some sort of commercial strategy or if these discoveries are just very difficult to implement for mass production and thus, unfeasible.

    Our frustration with battery technology has been simmering for many years, which is why it is probably quite easy for any University to obtain funding for addressing this concern. Perhaps this is the reason why these “discoveries” keep popping up – the researchers need to publish something to justify their work and the press is eager to disseminate it because we all want to charge our devices faster and have them last longer on a single charge.

    I wish they’d finally bring at least a minor improvement to market, because energy storage technology has been advancing at a snail’s pace for many decades now. The only major advancement was the switch to lithium and that happened a long time ago (even though it’s true that lithium technology has progressed a lot). For now, I’ll just forget I read about this recent discovery and get back to being resigned regarding this entire affair.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00522-YetAnotherBatteryTechnology-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Yet Another Battery Technology Discovery to Forget’ desc=’In the past decade we've learned about at least twenty such discoveries. Not a single one made it to the market yet.’]

  • The next Step after the Reuse of Space Launch Vehicles

    The next Step after the Reuse of Space Launch Vehicles

    After several failed attempts, SpaceX made history when it managed to successfully land its reusable Falcon 9 rocket booster on a (robotic) ship stationed off the Florida coast:

    http://www.space.com/32517-spacex-sticks-rocket-landing-sea-dragon-launch.html^

    SpaceX has been planning and trying to reuse launch vehicles for quite a few years now. This success is a milestone for reducing the cost of our ventures into space. The road towards efficient space exploration and development is, however, a long one.

    Let’s think bigger. Let’s think about large space stations, asteroid mining, colonies on the Moon and Mars. Many of these projects will need an initial investment originating from Earth, probably consisting of pre-manufactured goods. As a species, we have to think long-term.

    Returning the boosters back to Earth is a costly business. The immediate costs are the fuel and support operations. The long term cost is that we might deprive ourselves of an important head-start when it comes to building in outer space. This potentially has a much greater impact than the immediate costs. So should we really bother so much about returning our launch vehicles? What if we take the reuse concept one step further?

    A booster is essentially a huge fuel tank coupled to a propulsion system. In the coming decades, advancements in robotics will make it increasingly feasible for us to consider asteroid mining or building large extraterrestrial habitats, either in Earth’s orbit or on other planets. Hopefully, we will soon find ways to re-use everything we struggle so hard to escape Earth’s gravity with.

    Updated on May 6, 2016: SpaceX did it again^. Congratulations to them!

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00517-NextStepAfterReuseLaunchVehicles-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’The next Step after the Reuse of Space Launch Vehicles’ desc=’After several failed attempts, SpaceX made history when it managed to successfully land its reusable Falcon 9.’]

  • Desert Dwellers – Bodhi Tree Dub (Sunrise Mix)

    Desert Dwellers – Bodhi Tree Dub (Sunrise Mix)

    When it comes to fusing Oriental influences and soundscapes with the best electronic music, Desert Dwellers are second to none – perhaps tied. This song is best listened using a sound system with some serious bass capabilities – you’ll understand why roughly 90 seconds into it.

    A deep, bouncing bass permeates the song, almost as if to assure the listener that these guys aren’t messing around here. Completing the tune is a mystical-sounding chant, perfectly blending in with the flowing, pulsating melody.

    You can listen to the song for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did purchase a lot of Desert Dwellers from Bandcamp :).

    https://spacetepeemusic.bandcamp.com/track/desert-dwellers-bodhi-tree-dub-sunrise-mix^

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZVRjYJ6hdc^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/2Z4hHpdGJb2xeM9NVh7EHl^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/5774408^

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00491-DesertDwellersBodhiTreeDub-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Desert Dwellers – Bodhi Tree Dub (Sunrise Mix)’ desc=’When it comes to fusing Oriental influences and soundscapes with the best electronic music, Desert Dwellers are second to none – perhaps tied.’]

  • Isn’t It Cute When Animals Escape the Zoo?

    Isn’t It Cute When Animals Escape the Zoo?

    In the past few weeks the news has been abuzz with several stories coming from zoos around the world. These articles tend to attract quite a few readers it seems, mostly because people seem to think it’s kinda cute when animals prove us they’re smart, or that they can take initiative in a given situation.

    There was this octopus^ that managed to escape its prison through some pipe, much to the delight of its human wardens. Then, a bit less funny was this chimp^ who had to be tranquillized while doing what it knew best – having fun above the ground. After the chemical did its job, during some not particularly dignifying minutes, the chimp fell and was skillfully saved from hitting the pavement.

    Then, things turned nasty when a tiger killed^ its keeper at yet another location. It is now when humans finally start showing compassion. Of course, its towards their fellow, a keeper, which apparently had a good bond with the tiger. And let’s not forget the deaths at SeaWorld^, a place where patrons used to eat lunch while trainers did tricks with killer whales, one of the most intelligent mammals in the world.

    I deeply regret that humans have died while “working” with animals. I think that this can be prevented if we start treating these beings with the respect they deserve. This doesn’t mean that we should stop hunting animals if it is in our nature, but it does mean that we should start treating them with respect.

    So then it should be of no surprise when I’m going to write that: no, it’s not cute at all when animals escape the zoo. These creatures do not belong in the zoo. Even though a zoo has the side effect of educating people about animals, it also spreads a terrible message about the way we’re running things on this planet.

    Last year I’ve visited a place where they had various animals in a covered enclosure that only had two sets of windows. Three monkeys were gathered in front one of the windows, looking at the world outside. I didn’t have to be an expert in animal body language to understand that those monkeys felt miserable. Maybe I’d feel better if I could unsee that image, but I prefer to have it burned into my brain, because such a memory will help me keep my energy when advocating animal rights on this planet.

    Try imagining living your entire life in a space equivalent to a football stadium and perhaps you’ll partially understand what most animals feel like in a zoo. In one place, I’ve seen three different species of felines being crammed between five glass walls. What we’re doing to our fellow life-forms is degrading and unfair.

    Education about animals can happen in a myriad of ways. Television has been around for many decades. With the advent of Virtual Reality, we’ll soon be able to visit natural habitats from the comfort of our homes. It’s time to say goodbye to the concept of a prison for animals. Let’s not forget in what period of our civilization these places have been invented.

    I’ll close this off with this cute series about how things would look if the roles of humans and animals would be reversed:

    http://www.boredpanda.com/satirical-animal-rights-illustrations-parallel-universe^

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00483-CuteWhenAnimalsEscapeZoo-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Isn't It Cute When Animals Escape the Zoo?’ desc=’In the past few weeks the news has been abuzz with several stories coming from zoos around the world.’]

    Updated on April 30, 2016: no later than three days after publishing this, I’ve learned about this plan to create a dolphin park in the Arizona desert^. The builders fended off criticism with the usual claims of such entrepreneurs – that the animals will be well taken care of and that the place will offer “education” to our young. You can be well taken care of in prison, but it’s still a prison. As for education, what sort of example are we offering children when their parents cage animals for money?

  • MIKTEK – Ominous Ride

    MIKTEK – Ominous Ride

    Addictive through its tranquility, MIKTEK’s art shines despite its unassuming, subdued tonalities. Yet, even as the solemn bass leaves no doubts about it, the listener will feel a great force in play here. This is the second song from MIKTEK’s “Elsewhere” album that I’m featuring here, and it may not be the last.

    You can listen to the song for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location. And in case you’re wondering, yes, I did purchase MIKTEK’s album :).

    https://ultimae.bandcamp.com/track/ominous-ride-album-edit^

    YouTube (decent quality, and featuring a really nice fan-made video):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COE-2yhgFZM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COE-2yhgFZM^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/3SzItwon1n8Bbdk3JBdfyz^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/66907672^

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00472-MiktekOminousRide-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’MIKTEK – Ominous Ride’ desc=’Addictive through its tranquility, MIKTEK's art shines despite its unassuming, subdued tonalities.’]

  • Microsoft’s New Direction Is Not Surprising

    Microsoft’s New Direction Is Not Surprising

    Together with its new CEO, the software giant is embracing the inevitable: transforming its users into a data product. Google is, arguably, the company that has done this with the greatest degree of success. Jealous, Microsoft ran the “Scroogled”^ smear campaign against its competitor. It dropped it in 2014, probably when somebody decided that, after all, Google’s strategy is more in tune with the times.

    Two years later and Windows 10 is phoning home hundreds of time every day, even when told not to^. The company said it will provide a “fix” for this, but as the article I linked cleverly points out: as operating systems start to increasingly rely on their companies’ cloud infrastructure, especially when it comes to Artificial Intelligence, we will be forced into all sorts of privacy trade-offs.

    But what worries me the most is the fact that Microsoft is moving towards transforming Windows into a closed ecosystem, emulating the model established by Apple and, later, Google. For better or for worse, Windows’ popularity has ensured that developers have a popular platform that they can deliver products on, with few intermediaries.

    However, with the upcoming Universal Windows Platform, Microsoft is taking its first steps into placing itself as a leech between developers and customers, charging not only for the operating system but also taking a profit share from producers – just like pretty much all other “app stores”. If this comes to pass, it will be particularly harmful for game developers, with games being one of the most profitable products sold in the Microsoft ecosystem.

    No wonder Tim Sweeney of Epic Games is upset (while Gabe Newell of Valve started a long time ago to heavily invest in the Linux ecosystem):

    http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/4/11160104/tim-sweeney-microsoft-walled-garden-criticism^

    In all fairness, Microsoft is making the right moves to stay profitable. Each year, there’s fewer people willing to renew their Windows licenses, so it’s no wonder that the company ponders offering updates to Windows 10 for free, while in the same time devising new ways to turn a profit. The App Store model has been implemented successfully by many companies, why should Microsoft remain behind?

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00465-MicrosoftNewDirectionNotSurprising-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Microsoft's New Direction Is Not Surprising’ desc=’Together with its new CEO, the software giant is embracing the inevitable: transforming its users into a data product.’]

  • Apollo 440 – Stealth Mass in F#M

    Apollo 440 – Stealth Mass in F#M

    If somebody would ask me to explain what life is without using words, I’d play this song for them. Actually, I’ve come to believe that words are of very little use when describing fundamental concepts such as life, consciousness or emotions. The more we use words, the further we get from what we try to describe. Most things need to be experienced to be understood.

    Yet, here is my humble attempt to write a few words about this glorious song. It starts with her voice, a voice that surrenders to the mysteries of ineffable depths. Then comes the music. They orbit each other in a cathedral of majestic sound. The melody builds, flows, recedes and then comes back for the final ecstasy.

    The journey is too beautiful to describe in anything but hyperbole. When I mentioned a cathedral of sound, I literally meant that. This song is architecture through music. There’s the deep, thumping pulse that contrasts the divine voice. There’s the lonely, repetitive chord, the echoing bell, the sweeping curtains of prolonged notes and sounds.

    Hopefully these words will stir your curiosity. So dare to close your eyes and see what this song speaks to your mind. Take your own journey. Forget my words, throw them away and paint your own landscape.

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dK8sr1WKFo^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    http://open.spotify.com/track/6oVP50X2gVyWvCOglKObQC^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/1029156^

    This Weekly Song entry has been brought from the FaceBook archive of Weekly Song^. This project was originally started through a FaceBook page, about 13 months prior to launching Mentatul. Slowly but surely, the entire FaceBook archive will be brought here.

    When I posted this song on the FaceBook page of the Weekly Song, more than a year ago, I wrote a few different words about it. I’m pasting them below, as an alternate, perhaps even more honest review of this musical jewel.

    “I truly rediscovered this song in 2013 and it became one of the most moving melodies that I ever had the joy to experience. I could write a short essay about the feelings and thoughts that this song evokes, but I fear that this will rob this work of art of some of its value. Take my word and listen to this one eyes closed, see what it does to you.”

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  • Why the Panama Papers Are a Big Deal

    Why the Panama Papers Are a Big Deal

    Last week, the first results of a masterpiece in investigative journalism, civic attitude and international collaboration started to show up. Lots of people owning great fortunes ran into the misfortune of having not only their hidden wealth, but also their tax-avoiding ways exposed to the world at large, thanks to a massive document leak.

    The Panama Papers consist of 11.5 million confidential documents that provide detailed information about more than 214,000 offshore companies listed by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, including the identities of shareholders and directors of the companies. The documents were made available to the Süddeutsche Zeitung beginning in early 2015 by an anonymous source, an unremunerated whistle-blower using the pseudonym “John Doe”. We will probably hear about the Panama Papers^ quite often in the weeks to come.

    Heads already started to roll. The highest profile resignation so far is that of Iceland’s prime minister:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/world/europe/panama-papers-iceland.html^

    And of course, it is just lovely when the leader of a superpower declares that this is a plot by another superpower. Nothing says “I’m guilty” louder than this:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/08/world/europe/vladimir-putin-panama-papers-american-plot.html^

    It’s not the first time we’ve seen such leaks, but this is one of the largest yet. Stashing money in tax havens is an ancient practice of the super-rich. It’s known how and why it is done. However, the Panama Papers go a long way towards illuminating the details of these affairs – we have numbers, names of people, dates and connections.

    Of course, it’s all legal, but it’s the wrong kind of legal; the cowardly kind – the kind that says “my fortune has too many zeros to afford paying taxes in my country” or “I don’t want you to know how filthy rich I am, because then you’ll start suspecting that I’m a politician on the payroll of corporations, a puppet that will do their bidding and sell my people’s country to them”.

    Indeed, the Panama Papers are a big deal and I think it would be great if you start reading more about this subject. Find people from your country that are involved in the scandal and raise awareness about this. I believe that these discoveries will help us on our way towards economic and political reform.

    I wanted to say that “perhaps some of these wealthy tax-dodgers will learn from this scandal and change their ways”. Then, I observed the sad joke hidden in that phrase. Of course they’ll change their ways: they’ll find other ways to hide their wealth instead of using it to improve our world and to ensure a better future for our followers.

    Still, I’m ever the optimist, so I harbor the hope that the truths we uncover go towards advancing our society’s self-knowledge and therefore lead towards evolutionary steps forwards. In time, these people will realize that it is far more satisfying to invest in our future rather than stressing out to hide their insubstantial wealth, numbers in a computer.

    Updated on May 9, 2016: the Panama Papers are now searchable online. Here’s how to navigate them^. And this is where you can find them^.

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00451-WhyPanamaPapersAreBigDeal-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Why the Panama Papers Are a Big Deal’ desc=’Last week, the first results of a masterpiece in investigative journalism, civic attitude and international collaboration started to show up. Lots of people owning great fortunes had the misfortune of having not only their hidden wealth, but also their tax-avoiding ways exposed to the world at large, thanks to a massive document leak.’]

  • Pogo – No Worries

    Pogo – No Worries

    This cute little song can be a wonderful break from the hustle and bustle of a busy day. Or it can be many other things, as long as these have something in common with “uplifting” and “playful”. It’s a really fun (and even addictive) listen and that’s pretty much all I even want to say about it.

    You can listen to the song for free, in good quality, on BandCamp, which is one of the best websites when it comes to supporting artists. You can also purchase the song (or album) from this same location.

    https://pogomix.bandcamp.com/track/no-worries^

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcBLX4v8rfw^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/2GXIN2ZOwvPBvAQHKwkhhO^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/104068912^

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/00443-PogoNoWorries-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Pogo – No Worries’ desc=’This cute little song can be a wonderful break from the hustle and bustle of a busy day.’]