Thomas J. Webb’s Ecology Blog

As time approaches infinity, Heaven approaches Hell. (at least Pure Land Buddhism lets you quite when you get bored)

Meet an unfrozen (non-lawyer) caveman, Ug and a liberal, Uwe.

Uwe: We must protect that helpless seal from those evil poachers!

Ug: Seal delicious. But kill too many and Earth-Mother kill poacher.

(after a pause, then a wry smile)
Uwe: Yeah, I hope they get what’s coming to them.

Ug: Ug kill Uwe for saying stupid thing!

Uwe: No, you’re a peaceful, nature-loving people!

Ug: Yes, Ug feed Uwe to Earth-Mother.

Uwe: Yeah, see, that contradicts the “peaceful” part.

Ug: What that?

Uwe: You know, pacifism? Turn your other cheek when you get slapped?

Ug: I slap fox, fox bite. I slap bear, bear maul. I slap worm, worm burrow in soil.
Ug appears giddy
Ug: What creature learn you that?

Uwe: Jesus, but I only follow his secu-

Ug interrupts…

Ug: Where Jeezus? Ug hunt! Ug hunt! No-run-away-beast gift from Earth-Mother!

(to be continued…)

Here’s the latest band-collab.net flier. (more…)

People ask me how I get so good at Japanese, even though I’ve never lived there. Well, the short answer is I had a Japanese girlfriend, but that’s not the whole story.

Here is how you learn Japanese. It’s not easy.. at first, it’s downright impossible, but it’s the most genuine way (short of moving to Japan, of course). Here’s what you do (please click “read more” below if you don’t see the clip):

1. Watch this, try to pick up as much as you can.
2. Watch it again, but relax a little bit.
3. Watch it again and try to write down or type everything you hear (you don’t have to write down the kanji.. roomaji or カタカナ are fine)
4. If necessary, keep on watching it again and again until you can write down everything you hear.
5. Translate what you have.
6. Watch it again, pretend you didn’t have to do all that (yes, the pretending is important psychologically) and that you’re just watching Japanese programming and understanding it.

(more…)

A Shared Pre-Christian Past? - By Edward Dutton

Here is a paper that seeks to find commonalities in the pre-Christian religiosity of Finland and Greenland, by comparing baptism ceremonies between Finnish and Greenlandic Lutheranism. Both point to a pagan (and, in the case of Greenland, still persisting) belief in a “name spirit”. The article makes the point that those two religions, being Shamanistic (from a society that is more primitive hunter/gatherer and not highly socially stratified) share more in common with each other than Finnish paganism did with Norse paganism, at least that from the late pre-Christian era. (more…)

Music is in our genes : Nature News

Here is an interesting article on Nature. It’s a study that show a correlation between genetics and singing patterns in African tribes. This reminds me of how me and my dad would joke that we’re good at drumming because of our Afro roots (there are unverified, yet plausible family legends of Sub-Saharan African ancestry on the English side of the family).

The study used an arbitrary set of ways to measure singing patters, such as presence of yodeling, pitch, etc and looks at correlations with geography and with genetics. The strongest relationship was with genetics. Of course, this doesn’t rule out the possibility that culture passed down generations can be more powerful than influence from neighboring tribes especially given that people move around a lot, so it would only add up to noise.

Now, if a child adopted from another tribe had difficulty with his or her host family’s singing style (unlikely, though it was a good gag in The Jerk), this might give credence to the notion that “Music is in our genes” and even to the absurd racialist notion that culture is burnt onto the EEPROM, not installed on the hard drive. That being said, it’s not too far-fetched to think that people who’s ancestors were in tribes that placed greater importance on music in ritual would, on average, have more innate musical talents. The musical sense in general is universal and that would mean that we’ve been doing this stuff as long as, or even before, we were human.

Unfortunately, since it’s been long enough, you need a subscription to Nature to read the article now, but it was free when I read it.

Oftentimes, I’ll have ideas about aesthetics that are generic and can apply to any art form. Some principles apply to any art, especially with regards to the appeal aspect. I’ve done posts on this before, but for now on, they’ll all be posted in “art principles”. It’s my nature as a programmer to find patterns. Write generic templating code and implement specifics later…
People like things that are like people, like an individual:

• Is complex. A good [movie] can be watched repeatedly and you find something new on each watch. Some things will always be mysterious, just like a person always dies with secrets. It’s a mistake to think that little unnoticeable things themselves make something more appealing. Rather, knowing that such things exists is enough to make it more appealing. (more…)

Here’s the latest press release for band-collab.net. When I finish additional features (like the note editor), I’ll do more. Gotta toot your own horn, kids.

Band-collab.net Online Music Collaboration Released with WebDAW™

Wrightwood, CA - - 12/8/2007 - - Osaka Red, LLC officially makes band-collab.net, a web-based platform for collaboration between musicians, available to the public. Band-collab.net promises to revolutionize the way musicians work on music, delivering on great as-yet undelivered promises of the internet. (more…)

And I’m stuck in the mountains with my corolla :/