bonglonglong

Fewer children are being vaccinated and community outbreaks of easily preventible but highly contagious and sometimes deadly diseases are increasing.  The change is due to many parents who are concerned that autism is linked to the administration of vaccines despite significant studies that indicate non-correlation.

But never mind the old way of doing science, this is how we do it now:

The debate over vaccination has played out in the media, with actress Jenny McCarthy saying she believes vaccines trigger autism. Her views are at odds with those of actress Amanda Peet, a spokeswoman for Every Child by Two, which promotes vaccinations.

Report: More parents choose not to vaccinate

Delia Derbyshire was one of the pioneers of electronic sound, and is only now beginning to be recognized for her influence.

Perhaps she is most famous for her uncredited but pivotal role in the creation of the original theme music for "Doctor Who".  Her entirely electronic rendition of the piece is so powerful that the unique sounds she brought to it have persisted through its many revisions.

Most of the groundbreaking work she and her colleagues performed was done in anonymity at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.  Ron Grainer composed the "Doctor Who" theme but it is unlikely he could have imagined the amazing new sounds she had created from scratch.  After first hearing it he asked, "Did I write that?" to which Derbyshire replied, "Most of it."

Granier requested that she share the composition credit for the piece, but the BBC declined to do so.  This decision (which apparently stands to this day as she is still absent from modern "Doctor Who" credits) certainly led in some degree to the years of obscurity she endured after leaving the BBC.

At the end of her life she saw electronic music emerge from the dark ages of the 70s and 80s and begin to realize the potential she saw in it 40 years before.  As new musicians discover the pure expressive possibilities of creating entirely new sounds, they have also discovered the amazing work of Delia Derbyshire and her contemporaries and their lasting impact on music.

 

If you want to play with a G1 (HTC's new Android phone for T-Mobile) in advance, you can download the emulator and do with it almost everything you can do with the actual handset.

1. Download the SDK
2. Extract the archive
3. Download Jeffrey Sharkey's G1 skin for the emulator
4. Install the skin in android-sdk-*/tools/lib/images/skins
5. cd android-sdk-*/tools
6. ./emulator -skin G1

You can change the orientation (portrait/landscape) by hitting the 7 key on the numeric keypad (with NumLock off).  You may want to read the documentation to learn about the other options the emulator has, as well as how to trigger simulated events, such as an incoming call.

The victims, both farmworkers, told deputies they were awakened by a stranger applying spices to one of them and striking the other with a sausage.

From the Fresno Bee.

 

My 33rd Birthday was yesterday. My friend Nikki said "Hey, isn't this your Jesus year" ... the results follow.