Stormcaller.net: Conversation Intercom

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Sunday, October 24, 2004 - "Conversation Intercom"
Saw Soulwax last night at the Carling Academy, Birmingham. They are one of my top three bands (along with Muse and Oasis), so to finally manage to see them live after failing to get tickets in London was brilliant. The support band, Tom Vek, were pretty good. They weren't exceptionally talented individually, except possibly the drummer and bassist, but they blended together to produce a very smooth and polished rock sound.
Soulwax were... awesome. Just fantastic. The set was a bit short, and they could have played some more of their older tracks. Still, their new album, "Any Minute Now" is so excellent that I didn't mind them playing mostly stuff from that. In particular, their live performance of "NY Excuse" from the new album just blew us all away.
We also got to meet the band afterwards (twice, in fact), who were really cool and appreciative that we had enjoyed the gig so much - not at all arrogant, like many bands. They even promised to get us on the guest list for the after show party, but the guys on the door wouldn't accept anyone not on the pre-organised list so we didn't get in. Even so, we had a great night.
> Science/Tech

Another prediction of Einstein's General Relativity theory holds up. NASA's Lageos II satellite, an atom-perfect sphere orbiting the Earth, was tracked using precise laser range finders and used to construct a very accurate model of our planet's gravitational field. They found the first direct evidence that the Earth's rotation is actually dragging space and time around with it. [Details]
Robots. I want a robot vacuum cleaner! [Details]
Intel have scrapped their planned 4Ghz chip, instead choosing to focus on several other means of improving performance. [Details]
More photos of the volcanic activity around Mount St Helens... [Display] [Display]
...including an evil bear! [Details]
The U.S. military needed to test whether the concrete being used to construct a nuclear power plant was aeroplane-proof... So they crashed an F4 Phantom jet head first into a wall. [Download - 1.42MB]
Science or bollocks? B3ta reader tests "wrapping your mobile phone in tin foil increases reception" theory. [Details]
"Graphene" has been created by slicing off individual layers of graphite. It effectively only exists in two dimensions, and could have as many possible applications as carbon nanotubes, which are effectively rolled-up graphene anyway. [Details]
> Geek

"Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars", the new "Farscape" miniseries, has aired on Sci-Fi in America... and was a huge success! I've not seen it yet (no UK air date yet), but everyone has been saying it was awesome, and it smashed the ratings. [Details]
...It's out on DVD in January, with the whole four hours of the show and plenty of extras. [Details]
The Register points out the latest music industry idiocy. [Details]
George Lucas now stealing material from children's rhymes! [Destroy]
...just like he did from the playground. [Destroy]
> Stuff

"Kaboom" - a video of an air raid constructed entirely out of toys and christmas decorations. Incredible. [Download - 9.06MB]
Proof that TV is distressing. [Details]
Cows With Guns! Stupid and long, but every time you decide to turn it off something cool happens. [Destroy]
This is what happens when you leave your mobile phone unlocked. [Details]
Remember that idiot referee, Urs Meier, who robbed England of winning against Portugal at Euro 2004 by disallowing Sol Campbell's perfectly fine goal? His website has been hacked, and a fake apology message put up! [Details]

Replies: 2 Comments

Hmm, not enamoured of the cow flash - it just doesn't quite live up to the pure silliness of the song.
Which, I should add, is somewhat old.
It really lives at:http://cowswithguns.com/
And, from way back when in the catnews archives:http://members.iinet.net.au/~afleay/cow/
Bovine insanity :)

Posted by Vitenka on Sunday, 24 October at 10:54 PM GMT.

Well, yes - we even had a Planetarion clan called [CWG] for Cows With Guns, if you remember. The flash is new, though, if pretty stupid.

Posted by Stormcaller on Monday, 25 October at 12:14 AM GMT.