Scientific American Special Report - Energy

I subscribe to Scientific American, which I find to be an outstanding magazine, and every so often they send out special issues, mini issues, reports, and the like. This special report that I have linked to below is a fantastic conglomeration on the efforts in energy systems to date. It's a great rescource for anyone interested in the science of energy systems, and the future of power.

link1:http://s498.photobucket.com/albums/rr348/ShockBolt/Energys%20Future/

link1: http://www.filesavr.com/sciamsseenergysfuture

Genrenology - An absurd obsession of musical taxonomy

Genrenology: it means "the study of genres" and is by far one of the most absurdly complex, often frustrating, and keenly important areas of musical classification.

There is a massive problem with music: there is too much. A bland statement as it first appears, the reality is that it's honestly true. There are so many artists, albums, songs, bands, remixes, mixes, collaborations, collections, conjunctions, styles...one would think that finding a song should be easy given the amount of information that exists to identify it. No. It isn't. The ".mp3" file format has been revised twice now to include more and more erroneous information per file. This is a wonderful attempt at at the very least reducing the confusion over music, unfortunately there are well over 30 sound file formats, and at least half a dozen that are very popular, in competition with "mp3". 

I decided that I would start a personal project, which may become part of a larger one, with the goal of creating a singular, universal identification system capable of making sense of the worldwide musical mess.

There is at least 3 orders of magnitude more species of living organisms than there are similar of music. I started with the brilliant organization system of biology, to which the system is known as taxonomy. 

I like this system, it's relatively simple, address all exceptions known thus far, and is universally agreed upon. My problem with it is the use of latin, which is actually a good thing because it makes it a unique system, seperable from others. This is something important to note I venture.

So, I thought about how the taxnomy system works. 

It starts with the principle definition of the largest catagory: Life.

Life is any self-perpetuating chemical reaction. This definition works for everything we define as being alive, so it is a good definition.

Now I wanted to see if I could apply the same principle to the category in question: Music.

Music is "I looked it up first: (from Wikipedia) How to define music has long been the subject of debate; philosophers, musicians, and, more recently, various social and natural scientists have argued about what constitutes music. The definition has varied through history, in different regions, and within societies. Definitions vary as music, like art, is a subjectively perceived phenomenon. Its definition has been tackled by philosophers of art, lexicographers, composers, music critics, musicians, semioticians or semiologists, linguists, sociologists, and neurologists. Music may be defined according to various criteria including organization, pleasantness, intent, social construction, perceptual processes and engagement, universal aspects or family resemblances, and through contrast ornegative definition." ...well shit! Fail.

Ok, so appearantly the confusion in the music classification system starts here, at the definition of music. Great! If no one can agree on how to define music, than it can never be classified.

My frustration provokes thought. I'm a problem solver, this is what I do. Ok, so...what is music

Let me try breaking it down:

1) Music only involves sound. There are no exceptions.

2) Music is designed by man to communicate emotion. This is more than likely going to be debated by many, but both historically and currently, the fact holds true.

Thus, music is the artistic use of sound to communicate emotions.

Unfortunately music is a type of art, and art is technically undefinable because art involves everything, and anything that involves everything is infinate, and something that is infinate is undefinable. Thus, scientifically speaking, music is undefinable because it is a type of art.

Technically, this is true. However, I dissagree that art is not definable, rather, i believe art has a specific definition. That is, art must serve a purpose to be considered art. This eliminates exceptions like the blank canvas scenario: "If I were to frame a blank canvas, could I call it art?" "Only if you explain why you framed a blank canvas, and somehow associate that information with the object itself" 

-- This is a work in progress. 

Honors Class: Media and Politics - Assignment 1

I wanted to share my political analysis of Rachael Maddow's most recent show with the readers. I don't think it's particularly good, and i think my analysis is possibly very wrong, but at the same time I am posting it because I want to know what is wrong about it.

Political Analysis of the Rachael Maddow Show

Aired On 1/13/2009 on MSNBC at 9 pm ET

            Firstly, and before I comment on the political perspective of Maddow’s show, I would like to comment on the show itself. As a spokesperson and news anchor Rachael Maddow is good, professional, and maintains a vagrant respectability, whilst attempting at levity. No, she is not extraordinary, she is not fascinating, and she does not strike a chord with my personality. She is not necessarily boring, but she is mundane. I can watch her show without feeling offended, but I also do not feel that she is capable of inciting or even changing my emotions or opinions. She reminds me of a well written technical manual; she tells you information that may or may not be relevant, her tone is unobtrusive, she is not particularly emotional herself, and she maintains a professional and structured tone that does not affect the presentation of information. Her show is the kind I would have on in the background while doing homework. Needless to say, I wouldn’t watch her show because it lacks entertainment of any sort. Her inflections do not emphasize critical information, thus I would have to pay particular attention to the content in order to comprehend what she was saying. Furthermore, her attempts at humor are mild failures at best and if the levity were taken out I don’t think I would even notice. I feel like I am watching her, but not her show. It seems like she is not the one in control, rather, she is merely a tool of her writers. She isn’t bad, she just isn’t anything unique, special, or even remotely interesting.

                The moderate pace of speech combined with the lack of emotional expression lead me to believe the show’s intended audience would be classified as 45 and older, more toward the older stretch, and slightly more female than male, though I cannot explain why I feel that way. I just think she communicates more effectively to a female audience because she is female. Then again, she isn’t really very feminine, which is why I would think the demographic would be split 49:51 male to female. I would also be inclined to say that the audience is predominantly Caucasian, but also very much Asian-American as the leading minority. I can explain my reasoning’s for this assumption, but they are complex and albeit potentially offensive, so I will not disclose them unless permitted and/or invited to.

                Politically, Maddow herself seems almost perfectly neutral; most likely because she seems to show no personal emotion toward either end of the political spectrum. The show itself however, in part due to MSNBC itself, and more so because of the viewpoints of the writers, seems overwhelmingly biased toward the Democratic Party and/or its ideals. I had to be certain of this, so I watch segments of several of her shows and the result was conclusive. This bias is only apparent in the nature of the content itself. It is completely blatant and requires no analysis of more complex ideals. Usually bias is more difficult to declare because it is only apparent through the individuals tone, inflections, gestures, or micro-comments. In her most recent show, she spent 58 seconds talking about anything not related to the Republican party, and while she did make negative comments toward the republican party, she also made equally positive ones, and almost never spoke of the opposing party. This is true of all of the shows I watched. The final definitive evidence regarding the political orientation of the Rachael Maddow show comes from the following statement: “The inauguration of President Barrack Obama is now 6 days and 15 hours away…ish”. The only other time she even mentions the democrats is in this statement; “…Secretary of State Nominee Hilary Clinton, the biggest political celebrity in America whose name is not Obama…”, which is also clearly defending Republican superiority with mild sarcasm.

- Info 

Cool places on the Internet

I love fine things. Ideas well put together. General goodness. Below is a list of some great websites in order from most favorite to least favorite. I'll provide a short description of the site below each URL.

http://phrontistery.info/index.html

Definately not a beautiful site to the eyes, but by far the most interesting collection of content. English Professors and literature gurus alike will adore this site. I visit this site often for references.

http://www.tranism.com/weblog/

I don't know why the url has almost nothing to do with the page it hosts, which is called Electro^plankton, but this blog/forum is very extraordinary as it combines several ideas that do not ordinarily cooperate into a sleek, fascinating package. Description "Electro Plankton:  A blog about design, technology, music, and fashion." This site definately helps my nerdy self stay posh and in the mix of a highly dynamic and creative culture.

http://johnschlemmer.com/

Don't really know how I found this site, but John is quite the talented graphics designer and if you like cool and intriguing, this is definately both. The site is done in flash, and is mainly the artist's personal gallery, archive, website, and promotional venue. Good stuff.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i//msnbc/Components/spectra/spectra.html

I don't know the history or inspiration for this project site, but whomever came up with the concept is brilliant. Although a bit laborious, the site provides users with an incredibly unique way of staying in touch with the news. Courtasy of MSNBC. Seriously check this out, it'll blow your mind.

I have tons more to share, but duty calls. I can't blog indefinately, I'm a real person too. Stay in touch, more to come.

Moving

As Some of you may have noticed, my blog has changed names. I wasn't satisfied with my first attempt at the blog, mainly i thought informagination sounded bad, and the word should really be infomagination. I think the choice I made sounds better when spoken aloud; it has a nice flow, the "r" in my first rendition was unnecessary. Also, my previous blog entitled "The Brenner Blog" was virtually unfindable on google search because there are so many Brenners. It wasn't unique enough. I also thought that my account's email address was a hideos typo, "informangination". again, i don't like the "r" and the "n" is just wrong. So, alas, I changed it to my liking. It's now more symmetrical and solid, flows better, has a stronger purpose and definition, and the email address matches the blog name. It is also far more unique of a blog title than before.

English 102 - Week 2 discussion post

For my English 102 class we had to read the following article: http://www.gladwell.com/2008/2008_05_12_a_air.html

and comment on it. I was this weeks discussion leader, so i got to write the question for the group. 

The following is the question, followed by my own response. Please read the article first, it's a great read.

Subject: On Gladwell's "In The Air"

Firstly, I would just like to point out that I have never, honestly, I have not once before in my life been so powerfully moved and educated by a single document. 

Then, because I could write a 24 volume series of novels on the subjects prompted in the article, I would like to give you the question now, so that you wont have to read through potentially a hundred thousand words before you find the assignment.

So here it is: After thoroughly reading "In the Air", comment on how the idea of multiplicity, (that innovation is nothing unique), changes anything in regards to humanity's progress.

Subject: Re:On Gladwell's "In The Air"

In my opinion, knowing that it doesn't matter if I think of it or not whether something will be invented doesn't change my own quest for knowledge. It's still possible that I file the patent first. It's a race, and competition fuels ingenuity. There's even a reward associated with winning the race, which is all the more reason why an individual should not give up on pursuing his or her own inventions. I found it very interesting that this article said a whole lot with out really saying much of anything. Gladwell is a brilliant writer, I will say that flat out, but I think this article is a whole lot of not very much. What I mean is that he provides an enormous amount of support to prove a point that does not have nearly any significance. Sure, it's interesting, no doubt, but what changes? How does the fact that two or more people have the same idea at the same time versus an individual change how innovation and progress works? It really doesn't. I think that there is a much bigger and far more important point to this article: that while it may not matter who comes up with an idea, the speed at which ideas are developed increases dramatically when people collaborate. Think tanks are very powerful, this is nothing new. But beyond the scope of an individual idea, the entire progress of humanity could potentially be accelerated dramatically by cooperating even more than exists today. Then again, I am defeating my own argument by saying this. As the article made clear, I am not the first person to realize this, thus there are already, and have been for sometime, inventing conglomerates formed to specifically address the idea that collaboration is better than individual competition. If necessity is the mother of invention, than curiosity is the father. Is it depressing or hilarious that before I read this article i was bent on the idea of creating a research company that sold patents...I though I had a great idea...I guess i did, but so did many, many others. So what should I do with my life? What's the point in pursuing my dream when so many have already done it? Speed. I'm willing to bet that if I.V. and the think tanks of IBM, Intel, nVidia, and the likes got together one day we would have a quantum computer that works in two months rather than each of them inventing it separately in two years. By that notion we could have cloning it 5 years instead of 50, fusion in 10 years instead of 100, interplanetary colonies in our lives rather than our children's lives. Sure it make take 3 months to get to mars...so what? It used to take a month to get across the Atlantic not some 400 years ago. We as humanity won't be done learning until we know absolutely everything there is to know, and at that point, we will literally become god, able to control the whole of existence. So, the idea that eventually our universe will cease to exist doesn't startle me one bit, because I know that we will have figured out how to stop that from happening, or, we may just create a whole new universe, or several. We will stop cancer, we will clone humans, we will eventually extend our lifespans well past 200 years. We will colonize the entire universe until there is no more universe left and we will not stop there, we will continue to spread outward into infinity with absolutely no end. For that matter we may not be the first, and for that matter there may be no first. Who knows...well, no one at the moment...but eventually we will figure it out. Curiously the behavior of Human beings is very similar to that of a virus. Whether or not that says much of anything about us is debatable. - Info

Power

Thought the page looked...well...verbose. It needs some pictures. Or, maybe just a picture. Thought I would just put in one of my own favorites. It's a macro shot of the power button on my computer monitor, yet somehow it empowers me just by looking at it. Its glow is soothing, a guiding light. Or, to hell with all the metaphors, i just think it looks cool. - Info

If I could change just one thing i did last quarter...

The following is an assignment for my university course, which is a required class at Drexel. I like the way this assignment turned out, and wanted to share it and hear about what others think.

 Assignment 2 – “If I could change just one thing I did last quarter…”

                There were a lot of things I did wrong, or didn’t do at all, my first term at Drexel. Nevertheless, it was an invaluable learning experience and a wakeup call I definitely needed. I wouldn’t say I had too much fun, or worked too hard, or not hard enough, or any of that. No, it’s much simpler than that. I just needed to realize what I wanted for myself.      

                That may sound silly to some, but what I mean by that is I just needed to find the motivation I required to propel myself forward and keep myself moving along. The whole term I was being dragged along, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, but always being dragged: almost like I was running behind a car…with a rope attached. I needed to find the click in my head that would tell my body to get up in the morning, to get to class on time, to do my homework, and to be pro-active about my assignments. It really boils down to a matter of maturity. I believe that the struggle I encountered my first term here at Drexel was harsh, maybe a little harsher than I could wish to cope with, but in the end it was necessary to helping me find what I was looking for.          

                By no means am I driving the car yet, that’s where I want to be, but atleast I feel that I’m on my feet and running at the same speed as the car, and maybe I’m beginning to close the gap just a little bit. Meanwhile, my mind rambles on about the fact that I still have to get the laundry done that I didn’t get done over the weekend, it’s almost 10:00pm, I’m already extremely tired, I’ve yet to do the calc homework or chemistry homework that I should have done by tomorrow morning, and I have a class at 9:00am, which leaves me only three options: a) go to bed immediately and get up at 5 in the morning, b) go to bed after I get everything done and be miserably tired tomorrow morning, or c) drink lots of caffeine and stay up all night. I’m not a morning person, so option a is out of the question. I value my sleep greatly, as it greatly affects my performance mentally and physically, thus option c is out. I’ll hybridize and compromise the two solutions, I’ll get what I absolutely need to do tonight done, and when I wake up I’ll drink a lot of caffeine. Had I had the forward-minded-ness and initiative to think about things this way last term, I believe I may have done better in all of my classes. Honestly I just don’t think there’s any way I could have passed calc 1 last term and been able to succeed in calc II this term. I know I need at least a 3.00 gpa. I need it for my scholarship, I need it for my co-op employer, I need it for myself. But I want more. I want to feel like I know what I’m doing, and feel more than good about doing it. I want to be pro-active.               

                Reverting that tangent, I think the think I would have liked to change about last term was the amount of initiative I had. But reflection is only as good as the result of what has been learned from making the mistake. History often repeats itself, likewise, history is mankind’s greatest knowledge. Humanity knows far more now than all of the inhabitants of earth could possibly understand. Through the act of recording knowledge for use later, we can expand upon the base of knowledge we currently maintain. Thus, I need to go back and look at what I messed up last term so that I will not repeat myself this term. I believe I have done that by reflecting on last term through my own point of view by writing down the answer to a simple question of choice.

                I commented on my blog that I consider myself a work in progress, yet I maintain the fact that I have indeed come a long way. Nevertheless, I have much further I would like to go. - Info

Uniquity- a state of being unique

This is just a quick thought I had. To those of us who find despair when they are reminded that there are no two people exactly alike, remember this and it may help you feel more comfortable: The Earth maintains an increasing population of 6.5 Billion and rising... The law of large numbers is on your side, because statistically, there are several people who agree on almost all of your opinions. To find them, you just have to let them know you are looking...

- Info

Welcome - Why I Am Here, Doing This

I've always wanted web space of my own. Facebook, MySpace, and the like don't count as personal web space in my opinion; too little control, too much conformity, too many annoying gadgets. I feel like Facebook is like an apartment, or rather, a hotel room: a numbered unit which is the same size, shape, and decor as all of the other rooms. Sure you may be able to change who can and can't see your room, you can change the layout of the furniture, you might even be able to get a mini bar with a fridge; but the snacks aren't always free. Sure you can get in touch with people on Facebook, but it's like having to use the Hotel's room number calling system, only you can't call outside the hotel. You may be able to choose who can see what your room number is, but there are always ways people can find it. And why hide? What are you hiding from? Face bookers shouldn't be afraid of, well, anything on Facebook. Having a Blog is like building your own house, from scratch. You can put it anywhere, everyone can see it, and the only thing you have to fear is dependent upon the information you divulge that you are frightened about.  Friends an colleagues have told me that they worry about their "image" on Facebook, some to the point of re-doing their entire profile several times a week, because they are worried about how it changes their image. So, I finally decided that it is time to make a blog. Here I am, my first post. I can honestly say it's a great feeling: to finally step out the door, get some fresh air on the internet, taste the space. (Yummy) I like not having to worry about a coming bit storm, a hurricane of hate, or bytes of bad. I really don't know what I'll end up posting here, but I can promise that whatever I post, it will be me. - Info