Month: April 2017

  • Mari Boine – Big Medicine (Bluetech Remix)

    Mari Boine – Big Medicine (Bluetech Remix)

    Healing songs are rare jewels of creation. Bluetech took one and it intertwined ritualistic percussion and ghostly chanting textures into its structure. There are several other changes gleaming from the instrumental side. They all contribute to the creation of a mystical atmosphere while in the same time infusing the song with the unique ingredients that call to our body’s ancestral lust for pattern and rhythm. The result is yet another masterful creation from one of the best psybient music projects out there.

    The original song is beautiful but – at least for my taste – this remix brings the originally sparse instrumental to perfection. Now, the music is a much more reliable vehicle for Mari’s voice. I’ve linked the original version too, since it may be preferred when in need of a quieter, acoustic journey.

    Healing songs are worth seeking, and on Bluetech’s album “Love Songs to the Source” you can find more than one.

    “There’s a wild melody
    There’s a million harmonies
    There’s a note with everyone
    There’s a big medicine

    Think we know what we need now
    Think we got it figured out
    Right inside of everyone
    There’s a big medicine”

    You can listen to the melody 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 Bluetech’s album 🙂 (since this is where this song can be found).

    https://interchill.bandcamp.com/track/big-medicine-bluetech-remix^

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwDB4_Uyra0^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/5nCk7XRpE5OQvLfKb6YCpU^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/12666604^

    Original song:

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY9z4sSDCwg^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/5xhu3Tew14jvCMtB7TD78K^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/1147469^

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  • Catholic Church Releases “PopEye” Digital Guardian Angel

    Catholic Church Releases “PopEye” Digital Guardian Angel

    Less than a month after introducing the SalveAtion Digital Assistant^ to the world, the Catholic Church is at it again. Wishing to expand its virtual economy, the Church has identified several key areas for improvement. Enter PopEye, a faithful’s most faithful guardian angel, designed to keep track of the user’s sins or lack thereof.

    In case you haven’t been following the news, SalveAtion – launched three weeks ago – allows Catholics to purchase various Church services using a virtual currency called the innoCent. The currency can be gained by the faithful when they listen and share sermons or convert their friends to Catholicism. innoCents can also be purchased for real money. However, Vatican’s Business Intelligence division has noticed that shortly after SalveAtion went out of beta, purchases of innoCents took a nosedive. This is where PopEye comes in.

    Here’s what father Luigi Banuti, archcoder of the application told us: “We sought ways through which to boost innoCent spending. Sin redemption was an obvious choice. When a sin is recorded it will be stored in the user’s Digital Purgatory database until it is redeemed via SalveAtion, our other application. To keep our subjects interested, PopEye will offer increasingly large rewards the more days a person has been sinless.”

    We asked Luigi how will PopEye realize that a sin has been committed: “We have enlisted the help of machines for this most noble work, but there will be supervision by mystic volunteers. PopEye will be a faithful’s ever-watchful angel. It will use the smartphone’s camera and microphone to send us information that will help our subjects attain a sinless life.”

    When asked about the privacy implications of all this, Luigi declared that true faithful have nothing to hide. Interestingly enough, the application has been growing in popularity. Christians seem to be happy to have their lives beamed directly to God’s representatives on Earth.

    Even more interesting is the tiny press conference held just hours after PopEye launched. During the event, which has escaped the attention of only but the most inquisitive of journalists, the Vatican has announced a sweeping partnership with the Interpol and law enforcement organizations in many Catholic countries.

    For its benefit, the Church will get access to criminal records and minor offenses (speeding tickets, parking violations, etc.) for all of its subjects, ready for easy conversion into sins that can later be redeemed via innoCents using the SalveAtion app. As part of the deal, law enforcement agencies will be provided with information that can help sinners be delivered sooner and more effectively than ever.

    Vatican’s newly established Digital Deliverance department has provided us with the list of rewards that sinless faithful can expect to get the longer they last without committing a sin.

    • 1 day, “Sinner No More”, 2 daily innoCents.
    • 3 days, “Careful Faithful”, 4 daily innoCents.
    • 10 days, “Sinless Decathlon”, 10 daily innoCents.
    • 50 days, “Devotee”, 15 daily innoCents.
    • 100 days, “Watchful Faithful”, 20 daily innoCents.
    • 300 days, “Ardent Follower”, 40 daily innoCents.
    • 1000 days, “Micro Saint”, 100 daily innoCents.
    • 4000 days, “Most Faithful”, 150 daily innoCents.
    • 10000 days, “Mini Saint”, 200 daily innoCents.

    Clarification: officials were adamant that we should emphasize the “Pope” in PopEye and capitalize the “E” so that this most sacred software work is not confused with the cartoon character. We’re not so sure if this is such a good idea since some readers might spell it as “pop eye” or “pope ye” rather than “pope eye”.

     

     

     

    This text has been published in the “Satire” category for a good reason.

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  • Red Snapper – Keeping Pigs Together

    Red Snapper – Keeping Pigs Together

    Experimentation is the key to progress. Music is also a subject of this simple property of intelligence. Like all forms of intelligent expression, music evolves through time, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. I like to think that this melody belongs to the first category.

    It seriously caught my attention when, at around the 2 minutes mark, the song reaches its full speed in what is a panoramic show of force. Indeed, when listening to it, one may feel like being taken on a fast, dizzying flight across a landscape of wild sounds. My only complaint is that I felt like the ending is a bit over-done and might interfere a bit with the atmosphere that the artists have worked hard to create during the song.

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=damFjx6bnX4

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=damFjx6bnX4^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/1w4xMh8oVSS5ylNtNYSwZX^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/29376271^

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/01270-RedSnapper-OurAimIsToSatisfyRedSnapper.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Red Snapper – Keeping Pigs Together’ desc=’When listening to it, one may feel like being taken on a fast, dizzying flight across a landscape of wild sounds.’]

  • Kitchen 3.0

    Kitchen 3.0

    The age of interconnected devices and gadgets is slowly dawning. This category of communications-capable electronics has been labeled “the Internet of Things” – somewhat of a misnomer now-a-days when it is obvious that the security threat of any machine reachable from the Internet is enormous. Perhaps quantum cryptography will one day address this issue. Until then, home owners will probably be safer by using offline “smart home controllers” with manually-upgradeable firmware in what will be an Intranet of Things.

    Irrespective of the name, this new wave of electronics is still barely in its infancy. Any company worth its salt has to prepare for how business will change in the coming decades. And there’s nothing more disruptive than what is basically the rise of the first mainstream generation of highly task-optimized robots. Indeed, a smart refrigerator is basically a robot focused on a certain task.

    While the first robots accessible to everybody will still function very much like our current appliances, their smarts will open up a myriad opportunities for ground-breaking innovation. Because the kitchen contains a large amount of appliances, let’s explore how all these can be interconnected in order to provide an evolutionary leap when compared to today’s emerging Kitchen 2.0 where we do have smart devices but they are working by themselves rather than in cooperation.

    The purpose behind any post in this Futurology^ category is to launch a wild, boundless speculation regarding what the future holds regarding a certain concept. To get things going, here are some of the things I imagine we’ll find in the kitchens of the near future (coming decades). Feel free to submit your own ideas in the comments below. With your approval I may integrate these in the article, giving proper credit.

    • Among its kitchen brethren, the refrigerator is going to see some of the largest changes to the way it operates. First of all, it will be able to manage its own contents and automatically order things its owners usually consume. Secondly, it will become smaller due to the increased efficiency in food delivery.
    • The way goods arrive in our household will fundamentally change, paving the way for new companies to establish themselves or creating new opportunities for profit for existing companies, such as Walmart which, 7 months after this article was published, has started experimenting with deliveries directly to the refrigerator^. Almost all perishable goods will be delivered by robots, most likely by self-driving trucks. We can’t exclude aerial drones that land packages on the rooftop of buildings. However, this is far less energy efficient and current experiments with this technology are either marketing gimmicks or attempts to create a segment for very fast but also very expensive shipping.
    • After delivery, a property’s own small transport robots will take the goods and store them in a Central Refrigerator. From there, the products will be distributed upon request to individual household refrigerators.
    • There will be no need for a refrigerator to have more than a day’s quantity of milk because more milk will be just 1 to 5 minutes away. Apartment buildings will have a Central Refrigerator somewhere in the basement, so quite close to family refrigerators. Product delivery will be slightly longer for areas with villas (due to the Central Refrigerator being located in a separate building somewhere close by).
    • All food orders will go to the Central Refrigerator. This will, in turn, bulk orders together and get the best offers from various warehouses in the area. Such a system will also save power due to having more efficient storage and much less heat leakage – the main door of this large refrigerator will almost never open because small delivery robots will go in and out through isolating access hatches.
    • Cooking a meal will often be as easy as pressing a button. People will be able to download recipe-programs for their kitchen. A recipe will therefore consist of a list of items that the refrigerator has to order and a set of instructions for various kitchen appliances. Some ingredients such as flour, sugar, oil, will be available to purchase in packages with the exact dosage required for the recipe, reducing waste and making it easier for Kitchen 3.0 to prepare the recipe.
    • Kitchen appliances will be integrated in one single block inside which ingredients can be transported from one section to another using various robotic arms. I’ll call this the Kitchen Block. Products that don’t require refrigeration will be brought from a larger storage compartment, either inside the home or a common storage location used by more families.
    • Baking a cake for example will consist of the mixer requesting items from various storage locations. The mixer will also be able to assign tasks to other sections of the Kitchen Block, such as asking the oven to toast some nuts before sending the cake batter to it.
    • All appliances will therefore be a part of a single unit, able to give instructions to each other. This will be done using preferably open source protocols and open standards, which is probably the only way for the manufacturers of various robots to be able to allow these machines to work with each other.
    • There will still be plenty of room for people to cook by themselves if they so wish, but more and more citizens will become recipe downloaders and/or developers. Creating a recipe program will probably not be so difficult, since in the coming decades computers will be operable using natural language. This transition is already taking place.
    • Despite the recipes being programs, they will be human-readable, making it very hard for an attacker to hack Kitchen 3.0. Combined with a strict security policy based on user approval and only minimal communication with the Central Refrigerator and similar “Master” robots, Kitchen 3.0 has good security prospects.
    • On the topic of Master robots, does every home really need something as complex as a Kitchen Block? Perhaps it should belong together with the Central Refrigerator, serving more than one household. This way, costs will be kept down and cooking will be more efficient. Then, Kitchen 3.0 could be split into a central section and a trimmed down “thin client” located inside each family’s home.

    The Futurology Disclaimer: I do not claim that my ideas are original. I’m sure these suggestions are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved, but hopefully they’ve scratched enough to get anybody inspired to come up with more. I’m also sure many of these ideas are already being worked on by several organizations. If any of the ideas listed by anybody on this page are original and will benefit any organization, I expect credit to be given where it’s due.

    Version history:

    2017-02-16 – 1.0 – Written.
    2017-09-23 – 1.0.1 – Added a link about Walmart experimenting with deliveries directly to the refrigerator.
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  • Vitalic – Under Your Sun

    Vitalic – Under Your Sun

    This melody is a fountain of euphoria. It’s also one of those rare dance songs that have beautiful lyrics. Singer France Picoulet conjures a dreamy veil through which the solid-paced rhythm pulsates with vigor. But when she takes off, wow does she fly high!

    “I’m on your side to pray
    I’m on your side to stay and float
    but when you turning to seek
    I don’t know who, who you are.

    I’m on your side to ride,
    I’m on your side to fight
    but when you’re turning to seek
    I don’t know who, who you are

    People say that’s not light, it’s only pain
    but it’s under your sun, I want to be.
    People say that’s not light, it’s only pain
    but it’s under your sun, I want to be.”

    YouTube (decent quality):

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

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    http://open.spotify.com/track/0wd05Jt02bbFoAFThgy4dQ^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/61043342^

    This Weekly Song entry has been brought from the FaceBook archive of Weekly Song^. This exploration 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/2017/04/01599-VitalicRaveAge-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’Vitalic – Under Your Sun’ desc=’This melody is a fountain of euphoria. It's also one of those rare dance songs that have beautiful lyrics.’]

  • 60 Seconds Documentaries

    60 Seconds Documentaries

    Because the attention span of the average Internet denizen has decreased a lot, especially during these times of information overload, new ways of presenting information are always welcome. Enter 60 seconds documentaries.

    I linked a few, starting with this very funny goat yoga event:

    https://www.facebook.com/60SecDocs/videos/vb.1536789006633925/1698720017107489/?type=2&theater^

    Chainsaw artist:

    https://www.facebook.com/60SecDocs/videos/1701354346844056^

    Camel decoration:

    https://www.facebook.com/60SecDocs/videos/1687482744897883^

    [ax_meta lnimgurl=’http://mentatul.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/01871-60SecondsDocumentaries-Thumb.jpg’ lnimgw=’250′ lnimgh=’250′ title=’60 Seconds Documentaries’ desc=’The attention span of the average Internet denizen has decreased a lot. New ways of presenting information are always welcome.’]

  • Parov Stelar – Charleston Butterfly

    Parov Stelar – Charleston Butterfly

    Nothing says “sparkling party” better than some high quality electro-swing. And there are very few artists that do electro-swing like Parov Stelar does. The instrumental is adventurous. The singing is all sorts of groovy. So, get up and let the brass loose! Throw all worries out the window and smile, smile, smile. Even though a caterpillar dies in this story, this is quite the uplifting song.

    Interestingly enough, the only place where I could find the long version of the song is YouTube. Spotify and Deezer both have shorter versions (they are all complete, but the YouTube version has an extra minute of electro-swing sweetness). Even though Parov Stelar is a contemporary musician, I’m rather disappointed by the lack of DRM-free purchase options for his art.

    “As I killed the caterpillar
    Fell into a curious thriller
    Could not become a butterfly

    As I killed the caterpillar
    I started to end my life
    Fell into a curious thriller

    Could not become a butterfly
    To choose you now into my life

    Wanna be your butterfly
    Smile, smile, smile at me

    Hold me tight, and I feel free
    Smile, smile, smile at me”

    YouTube (decent quality, long version):

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

    For Spotify Users (high quality, short version):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/0NaDQi9jqm0f8YXXsBxZwb^

    For Deezer Users (high quality, short version):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/116676298^

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  • Productivity in the Age of Mixed Reality

    Productivity in the Age of Mixed Reality

    In the past few years we’ve witnessed the launch of more than a dozen HMDs (Head Mounted Displays). Several of them are already available in large numbers. HMDs focused on entertainment (Oculus, Vive) rely on taking over visual perception completely via Virtual Reality. HMDs focused on productivity (HoloLens) mix real life with computer generated imagery drawn upon a transparent display. There are other combinations and means of mixing visual information, so all of this technology has recently been put under the umbrella term Mixed Reality.

    This post concerns the productivity aspects of Mixed Reality. It’s a topic I’ve been meaning to play with for more than a year. I find it quite fitting to debut the Futurology^ section on Mentatul with this text, especially since just as I was preparing to write, I stumbled upon the following news (this has to be the work of a muse):

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-trials-hololens-technologies-construction,33490.html^

    The purpose behind any post in the Futurology^ category is to launch a wild, boundless speculation regarding what the future holds regarding a certain concept. To get things going, here are some of the things I imagine can be accomplished in the future (productivity-wise) using Mixed Reality.

    I’ll list my ideas chronologically, starting with the first things that came to my mind back when I read about what Google Glass can do. Feel free to submit your own ideas in the comments below. With your approval I may integrate these in the article, giving proper credit.

    • Workers are busy adding the finishing touches to a building. Using an HMD similar to a pair of glasses (like HoloLens for instance), they see the position of all other workers, as if they would see through walls. All wiring and pipes are also drawn in their exact positions inside the walls as the user looks around.
      All workers see directions pointing them towards the location of the next task. Let’s take for example the installation of a network socket. The worker is helped to locate all tools required for the task. After the task is completed, a test immediately shows if the connection is successful. If it is not, the worker can simply look around through the walls and see where to go and fix the connection.
    • Operators of large machinery are assisted in anything they do by architectural plans projected over real life terrain. Machines are integrated with this projection and “snap” automatically to the highlighted locations, needing only rough supervision. Of course, operators will soon become completely unnecessary because…
    • Architects are allowed to control and direct robots directly from their office. Work done in CAD applications, after passing several simulations and authorizations, is downloadable by robots that simply print out the structures. Architects are able to use Mixed Reality to fly around the construction site from the comfort of their homes. This technology can be used to construct human-ready colonies as well as mining stations anywhere in the solar system.
    • Before AI becomes sufficiently advanced to perform all these tasks, humans are recruited to supervise the operation of these robots (as is already done in the mining industry^). Gamers might find employment opportunities in a future that relies on a person’s multi-tasking skill, quick reflexes and ability to channel one’s mind into an alternate reality. Think of it as a huge real time strategy game where a gamer controls an army of construction robots.
    • Taking this to the next step, humans supervise self-driving vehicles that are stuck for some reason or require human intervention. Planes, boats and anything that moves is accessible in a “first person” view.
    • The security implications of all that I’ve written are enormously hugely massively gargantuan, and that’s an understatement. However, quantum cryptography might address this issue.
    • Repair manuals are displayed onto a device as the user is fixing it (this tech already on its way!^). With a good system in place for spare parts management, this enables any reasonably handy person to fix almost anything. Of course, this means that the religion of Consumerism^ should give up on one of its founding principles: planned obsolescence.
    • Taking this one step further, in times of crisis when a hospital is not accessible, simple surgical programs can help lightly trained individuals to perform tasks that would normally be beyond their capability.

    The Futurology Disclaimer: I do not claim that my ideas are original. I’m sure these suggestions are just scratching the surface of what can be achieved, but hopefully they’ve scratched enough to get anybody inspired to come up with more. I’m also sure many of these ideas are already being worked on by several organizations. If any of the ideas listed by anybody on this page are original and will benefit any organization, I expect credit to be given where it’s due.

    Version history:

    2017-02-08 – 1.0 – Written.

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  • Hocico – About A Dead

    Hocico – About A Dead

    Ever heard about a musical genre called aggrotech? No, it has nothing to do with agriculture. It’s an exotic combination between electronica instrumentals and metal music atmosphere and vocals. And it sounds wicked!

    After the merciless instrumental kicks off, the banshee singer will soon start its rant against organized religion. Even though the lyrical content is stuck with a rather limited spiritual perspective, I can’t say that I completely disagree with the message.

    This song is a gorgeously hideous example of aggrotech. It comes from one of the most renowned bands in this niche genre. I’ve known about the Mexicans of Hocico for many years. Finally, it’s time to bring this shining dark gem to the Weekly Song.

    “You said he’s around us
    Well, then tell us where
    Cause you went back to your place
    And there was no one
    To help wipe out the disgrace

    Hey you, Mr. Priest
    If you can speak to God
    Tell me, did he offer the kids
    Who you raped while you
    Prayed for your soul?

    God is dead
    God is a noise in your head
    Can he talk to you?
    Not to me
    God is dead
    God is a waste in your brain
    Can he talk to you?
    Not to me

    You said he’ll bring peace
    Well, then tell us when
    Do you expect us to live in fear
    Of motherfuckers who kill
    For a god who’s dead?”

    YouTube (decent quality):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3tRrQ5jY1s^

    For Spotify Users (high quality):

    https://open.spotify.com/track/3fJCEXW7VXbtCLZamRps8W^

    For Deezer Users (high quality):

    http://www.deezer.com/track/52973301^

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  • Boys Need Extra Empathy Lessons

    Boys Need Extra Empathy Lessons

    The fact that empathy is a career-enhancing skill should give parents enough reason to instill it in their children. The fact that empathy can also stimulate a social group’s technological progress through increased collaboration and innovation should give governments enough reason to implement it throughout the educational system.

    Here’s an article that explains exactly why empathy is so important, complete with the necessary explanations to drive the point home:

    https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/06/25/why-its-imperative-to-teach-empathy-to-boys/^

    Even though we evolved emotionally quite a bit in the past centuries our society continues to often exhibit a severe lack of empathy, especially when it comes to the male demographic. Perhaps it’s time for governments to realize that empathic men are more useful than those whose emotions were twisted in order to condition them to become obedient soldiers, ready to slaughter each other to fill somebody’s coffers. Perhaps that made sense last century, but we’re past the point where we can survive a third world war, so any investment in that sort of competition is a recipe for social bankruptcy.

    I insist on the government aspect because it is the fastest and most efficient way to implement such changes. Government controls standardized education. Education is what forms not only our children, but future parents as well. It is of critical importance that future parents are empathic, so that the children to come develop in a proper environment both at home and at school.

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