Day: January 27, 2007

I’m all for making a song your own when you do a cover version, but I’m less enthusiastic when I hear an actual change in the lyrics. For instance, I’ve been hearing a line from R.E.M.’s “The One I Love” sung as “A simple
thought to occupy my time.” Which, from where I’m sitting, sort of screws over the original intent and meaning of the song (wherein it’s “a simple prop.)

Also, the fact that some tracks are only available in iTunes when you purchase an entire album…? Rather lame — and that sort of defeats the whole purpose of a service like iTunes, which allows me to pay for only the songs I want. Maybe I don’t want the entire soundtrack to a particular movie. Maybe I already own some of the other songs on it and would prefer not to pay for them again. Maybe there’s no good reason why the record company or studio can’t make each individual track available.

I’m just saying.

BBC News reports:

The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.

The bird, a captive African grey called N’kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.

Though said not to be a big fan of Monty Python for some reason. (Link via Warren Ellis.)

And speaking of Python and parrots: Martin Lewis wishes to register a complaint. (“Well, it’s… it’s errr… probably pining for a surge…”) Via Mark Evanier.

Brave new world:

  • “Isolated tribes in the Amazon are now using satellites, computers, and even Google Earth to guard against threats from logging, agriculture, drug wars, and oil operations.” [link | via]
  • “It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their ‘immortality’. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.” [link | via]
  • “Somark Innovations announced this week that it successfully tested biocompatible RFID ink, which can be read through animal hairs. The passive RFID technology could be used to identify and track cows to reduce financial losses from Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) scares. Somark, which formed in 2005, is located at the Center for Emerging Technologies in St. Louis. The company is raising Series A equity financing and plans to license the technology to secondary markets, which could include laboratory animals, dogs, cats, prime cuts of meat, and military personnel.” [link | via]
  • “British scientists are on the verge of producing a revolutionary flu vaccine that works against all major types of the disease.” [link | via]