The dog that didn't bark... at E.T. in the shed

Is it just me, or are the odds that we'll find demonstrable proof that aliens visited Earth really, really low?

Consider the following:

1) If aliens had visited Earth anytime in the last two or three thousand years, there would not only be conclusive proof, but the aliens wouldn't have kept it a secret. I don't see why they'd come all this way and then just hide. Why?

2) Having the technology to travel from some distant solar system to Earth correlates with having the technology to defend yourself rather well. Visiting Earth, aliens probably wouldn't be very frightened.

3) Or suppose they were helpless and desperate. What good would hiding do? "Damn, we really need their help, or resources, or something. But let's not make our presence known, it would be rude."

4) But those three reasons are bullshit compared this simple one: That if alien had ever visited Earth during recordable history, it would be a huge coincidence. Look, the natural history of Earth is a split-second relative to the history of the universe, which would make recorded history a split-split second. It's not as if other species evolving on other planets, apt for the sort of ratiocination necessary to develop the technology to travel interstellarly, would necessarily be evolving concurrently with the evolution of humans on Earth. Such evolution could have begun millions of years prior to the natural history of Earth (or may begin millions of years after humans are extinct). And so if the chances of such a species were high, you'd think they would have already contacted us. Or, considering how recorded history on Earth is a fraction of a second relative to the natural history of Earth, you'd think, if aliens ever visited Earth and decided not to stay or leave a calling card, they would have visited Earth during a period of time before recorded history.

I'm not saying there are no aliens- The probability that there aren't or weren't or will never be aliens is very low, considering nothing else than the vast number of solar systems and stars and galaxies and vast opportunities for such a species to evolve. But that such a species were to evolve concurrently with humans, having the technology for interstellar travel and us not having been made aware of it yet... Pretty unlikely.

Algo-rhythm & blues

So we're seen proposed algorithm analysis and evaluation of all kinds of performance and quality (Sabermetrics, perhaps, being the most popular). And we've seen how algorithms can actually compose music in the style of various artists. However, can a computer analyze music for its quality?

uPlaya alleges it can.



To test it out, I ran a few of my own surefire hits through its mill (and neither did very at all).

Something about the ads I see on Facebook share some common characteristic...

but what exactly is it?

If you've ever questioned the importance of symmetry to aesthetics...

MAKE YOUR OWN SNOW FLAKE!

Even someone as talentless as me can ass-back their way into something as pretty as this:

"...coconut shy, but vanity fair"

East Side Story, like Squeeze (the band responsible for it), is one of those gems of pop-culture that I never grow tired of, and yet rarely recommend to others. Why? Because I know many people won't like either the album or the band, and even if they did, they wouldn't admit it.

Despite this small tragedy, I feel compelled to openly express my love and admiration for Squeeze. Although we'd all like to think ourselves poets of integrity and deepth of T.S. Eliot, or musical artists with the grit and sight of Bob Dylan, some of us been divined (if divined at all) Gilberts and/or Sullivans, or in the case of Squeeze, Diffords and/or Tilbrooks. I will admit that I am one of them, an epigone of McCartney and not one of Lennon (A fox, not a hedgehog?). Every song I've come to write over the years has invariably turned out catchy and clever, at the expense of substance.

Fortunately, genius comes in various guises, including schlock itself. To me, music doesn't get much better than what I see as 'pop brought to its logical conclusion,'. This list includes Rocky Horror Picture Show, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and, of course, Squeeze. And East Side Story is the apogee of their arc.

In addition to the white-soul classic 'Tempted', each song is a wonderful example of the genre it rips off. 'Labelled With Love', the country-western tearjerkers, 'Vanity Fair' the teenybopper's lament, 'In Quintessence' the Motown bass-driven, backbeat rocker. And my personal favorite, 'Picadilly':

At last, the cure to monkey color-blindness (Next up: fish eczema and tone-deaf cattle)

But in all seriousness, this is rather amazing: gene therapy altering perception and the conception of new colors:

“Ultimately we might be able to do all kinds of interesting manipulations of the retina,” he said. “Not only might we be able to cure disease, but we might engineer eyes with remarkable capabilities. You can imagine conferring enhanced night vision in normal eyes, or engineering genes that make photopigments with spectral properties for whatever you want your eye to see.”

"It was the tiiiiime of the preacher..."

Holy shit, I love this album.

Over the last two years, I think I've listened to this album straight-through at least 30 times. And I've found, listening to it again today, miraculously it's still fresh.

However, to be fair, I should mention that I first heard The Red Headed Stranger during a particularly melodramatic time in my life ("It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times..."), and this album played the perfect score. Wistful, slow and murderous. And that every song on the album seems to be played in the same key helps blur the lines between just enough to give the impression of a concept album. What's the concept? I have no clue. "Drunk"? "November"? Something somber... Now I can't hear it without thinking of that particularly dark time, nor can I recall that time without the faint sound of Willie Nelson's voice in my head.

Anyway, since that time, I really haven't found another album or artist has excited me as much, or compelled me to go in search of everything that artist has ever done. And since that time, I haven't had a lasting interest in any genre of music other than country blues. But perhaps it's because I simply haven't had much interest in music in general.