Bat for Lashes
I meant to put this in my last music post, but I had so many bands I totally forgot. I heard a bit about Bat for Lashes long before I heard their music. Many bands that get a lot of hype in indie music circles tend to either be really weird or really generic, so I wasn't anxious to hear Bat for Lashes. However, I'm really impressed. "Daniel" is a great song, although something about it reminds me of Pat Benatar.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Voter intimidation (a Eurovision post)
Radio Free Europe
Three months after the last Eurovision, a young Azeri man was called to the National Security Ministry and asked to explain his vote. He had voted for Azerbaijan's rival, Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia are currently locked in a territorial dispute, but why Eurovision votes are so important to them is unclear.
The whole situation is bizarre. As I mentioned before, Eurovision was three months ago, why are they going after him now? Why is the National Security Ministry even interested in how people voted? How much work was it for them to find out who were the individuals that voted for Armenia? What were they hoping to achieve?
In the end, the young man said he was finally made to write an explanation of his vote and sent away.
Three months after the last Eurovision, a young Azeri man was called to the National Security Ministry and asked to explain his vote. He had voted for Azerbaijan's rival, Armenia. Azerbaijan and Armenia are currently locked in a territorial dispute, but why Eurovision votes are so important to them is unclear.
The whole situation is bizarre. As I mentioned before, Eurovision was three months ago, why are they going after him now? Why is the National Security Ministry even interested in how people voted? How much work was it for them to find out who were the individuals that voted for Armenia? What were they hoping to achieve?
In the end, the young man said he was finally made to write an explanation of his vote and sent away.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
New Music (Sweden still rocks)
I figured it was time to share some new music I've found.
Tocotronic
Die Sterne
First, two German bands Marco told me about. I was curious about German bands that sang in German other than Wir Sind Helden. Tocotronic and Die Sterne were two of my favorites that he showed me.
Psapp
An American band that has some pretty interesting videos. Most of their songs are a bit more light-hearted than "I Want That", this one just happens to be my favorite.
Familjen
A Swedish band with an interesting electronica sound. Takes the song awhile to get started, so give it about 45 seconds.
Movits!
Swedish hot jazz rap!
Phoenix
A French band singing in English!? Now you know that's unheard of.
Valravn
Danish folk with electronica. Couldn't find a good video on YouTube. Reminds me a lot of Garmarna.
Vember
A local Berlin band I got to see in concert. I'm kind of disappointed by the music on their Myspace page. They have so much more energy live.
Vapnet
I actually first heard this band when I was in Sweden and completely forgot about them until now. I love the guitar part in this song.
Tocotronic
Die Sterne
First, two German bands Marco told me about. I was curious about German bands that sang in German other than Wir Sind Helden. Tocotronic and Die Sterne were two of my favorites that he showed me.
Psapp
An American band that has some pretty interesting videos. Most of their songs are a bit more light-hearted than "I Want That", this one just happens to be my favorite.
Familjen
A Swedish band with an interesting electronica sound. Takes the song awhile to get started, so give it about 45 seconds.
Movits!
Swedish hot jazz rap!
Phoenix
A French band singing in English!? Now you know that's unheard of.
Valravn
Danish folk with electronica. Couldn't find a good video on YouTube. Reminds me a lot of Garmarna.
Vember
A local Berlin band I got to see in concert. I'm kind of disappointed by the music on their Myspace page. They have so much more energy live.
Vapnet
I actually first heard this band when I was in Sweden and completely forgot about them until now. I love the guitar part in this song.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Firefox vs. Chrome
Since I got to Germany, I've been having trouble with Firefox. Certain sites just won't load in Firefox. However, Google Chrome works perfectly fine (haven't tested the status of Internet Explorer). So much to my chagrin, I've had to start using Chrome.
I downloaded Chrome when it first came out because it sounded interesting, but after using it for awhile, I didn't really get what was so great about it, and all I ever heard anyone say about it was it was fast. Since I no longer use dial-up though, speed isn't really an issue, so I quit using it, but left it on my computer in case it really did have a cool feature I was unaware of. So it was convenient when I started having trouble with Firefox.
So after a little over a month of use, here's my opinion of Chrome.
Pros:
-Faster start-up. I haven't noticed much difference when just surfing the web, but Chrome is much faster at getting up and going when I click the icon.
-More useful homepage. By default, the Chrome homepage shows the nine sites I visit most, instead of taking me to one homepage I may or may not use. However, I'd be surprised if there's not a Firefox application that does that. Much better than IE though, which freezes if I don't let the homepage load before doing something else.
-Probably less memory usage. Not so much a problem with this computer, but would have been nice in the past.
-Ctrl+F is cooler. It doesn't just highlight one word at a time, but highlights every instance the word I'm looking for shows up. Also, lines show up on the side-scroll showing you where on the page the words you're looking for are.
-Open new tab is the first choice when I right-click. Not so much a problem when I have a mouse with a third button, but lately I've only been using the touchpad.
Cons:
-No multi-option search bar. On Firefox there's a search bar thing that I can change to use different search engines if I want. On Chrome, you can use the address bar to search, but only with Google. Since Firefox does the exact same thing, it doesn't seem all that useful.
-Poor address guessing. When I start to type in an address, both Firefox and Chrome try to guess what I'm searching for. Firefox is much better at this. For example, sometimes if I'm looking for www.website.com, Chrome will give me www.website.com/randompageIdonotneed.html, and never suggest just the main page. Firefox also learns what I'm looking for much better. For many sites I visit regularly, I only need to type one letter and Firefox knows what I'm looking for, even if that letter never appears in the address (i.e. typing "s" brings up www.puzzle-loop.com, because it learned that I'm looking based on the site name, Slither Link). In Chrome, even if I visit the site a lot, if it has an odd address, it will never suggest it.
-Random download folder. Some time ago, I made it so that everything I downloaded in Firefox, went to my Desktop. I have a bad habit of forgetting I downloaded something, so having it on the Desktop is helpful. Chrome downloads everything to some random folder, so I forget there are files in it sometimes.
-No applications. This means, no ad blocking, no flash blocking, etc. I had no idea how many ads the sites I visit had until I started using Chrome. There have been so many moments when using Chrome I thought, I wish I could do this, and then remembered I could do just that in Firefox.
In the end, I'm going to stick with Firefox. Even if Chrome does certain things better, Firefox just does more.
I downloaded Chrome when it first came out because it sounded interesting, but after using it for awhile, I didn't really get what was so great about it, and all I ever heard anyone say about it was it was fast. Since I no longer use dial-up though, speed isn't really an issue, so I quit using it, but left it on my computer in case it really did have a cool feature I was unaware of. So it was convenient when I started having trouble with Firefox.
So after a little over a month of use, here's my opinion of Chrome.
Pros:
-Faster start-up. I haven't noticed much difference when just surfing the web, but Chrome is much faster at getting up and going when I click the icon.
-More useful homepage. By default, the Chrome homepage shows the nine sites I visit most, instead of taking me to one homepage I may or may not use. However, I'd be surprised if there's not a Firefox application that does that. Much better than IE though, which freezes if I don't let the homepage load before doing something else.
-Probably less memory usage. Not so much a problem with this computer, but would have been nice in the past.
-Ctrl+F is cooler. It doesn't just highlight one word at a time, but highlights every instance the word I'm looking for shows up. Also, lines show up on the side-scroll showing you where on the page the words you're looking for are.
-Open new tab is the first choice when I right-click. Not so much a problem when I have a mouse with a third button, but lately I've only been using the touchpad.
Cons:
-No multi-option search bar. On Firefox there's a search bar thing that I can change to use different search engines if I want. On Chrome, you can use the address bar to search, but only with Google. Since Firefox does the exact same thing, it doesn't seem all that useful.
-Poor address guessing. When I start to type in an address, both Firefox and Chrome try to guess what I'm searching for. Firefox is much better at this. For example, sometimes if I'm looking for www.website.com, Chrome will give me www.website.com/randompageIdonotneed.html, and never suggest just the main page. Firefox also learns what I'm looking for much better. For many sites I visit regularly, I only need to type one letter and Firefox knows what I'm looking for, even if that letter never appears in the address (i.e. typing "s" brings up www.puzzle-loop.com, because it learned that I'm looking based on the site name, Slither Link). In Chrome, even if I visit the site a lot, if it has an odd address, it will never suggest it.
-Random download folder. Some time ago, I made it so that everything I downloaded in Firefox, went to my Desktop. I have a bad habit of forgetting I downloaded something, so having it on the Desktop is helpful. Chrome downloads everything to some random folder, so I forget there are files in it sometimes.
-No applications. This means, no ad blocking, no flash blocking, etc. I had no idea how many ads the sites I visit had until I started using Chrome. There have been so many moments when using Chrome I thought, I wish I could do this, and then remembered I could do just that in Firefox.
In the end, I'm going to stick with Firefox. Even if Chrome does certain things better, Firefox just does more.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Blackwater Abuses
The Nation, first article
The Nation, second article
Blackwater is a private security contractor (mercenaries) hired by the US government for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has long been considered that Blackwater is basically a way for the US military to commit war crimes with getting in trouble. Blackwater does something wrong, the US government takes no responsibility and threatens to end their contracts with Blackwater.
The list of abuses Blackwater is accused of is quite extensive, and their very existence should be worrisome for everyone. They're basically a private entity with access to large amounts of weaponry and staffed by well-trained soldiers and is not answerable to any kind of government or international treaty.
The first article I've posted details the accusations of two former employees who do not wish to reveal their identities as they believe the owner has killed people before to keep them silent. The second article is an extension of the first, but deals more with the fact that despite the continued abuses, the US government recently renewed their contract.
The Nation, second article
Blackwater is a private security contractor (mercenaries) hired by the US government for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has long been considered that Blackwater is basically a way for the US military to commit war crimes with getting in trouble. Blackwater does something wrong, the US government takes no responsibility and threatens to end their contracts with Blackwater.
The list of abuses Blackwater is accused of is quite extensive, and their very existence should be worrisome for everyone. They're basically a private entity with access to large amounts of weaponry and staffed by well-trained soldiers and is not answerable to any kind of government or international treaty.
The first article I've posted details the accusations of two former employees who do not wish to reveal their identities as they believe the owner has killed people before to keep them silent. The second article is an extension of the first, but deals more with the fact that despite the continued abuses, the US government recently renewed their contract.
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