Archive for March, 2008

Explaining music through maths

Monday, March 31st, 2008

Maths has always been a big part of music, and I'm not just talking about 'math metal' (or prog rock or whatever label you want to give it). There's long been a school of thought that a number of musicians and composers have used both the "golden ratio" and the Fibonacci Sequence to compose music.

This Binary Universe, an experimental album by Brian Transeau (aka BT), includes a track entitled "1.618" in homage to the golden ratio. The track features musical versions of the ratio and the accompanying video displays various animated versions of the golden mean.

Pearl Drums positions the air vents on its Masters Premium models based on the golden ratio. The company claims that this arrangement improves bass response and has applied for a patent on this innovation.

Now follow me, as we look at how modern day songs can be dissected via maths.

Firstly, let's take a look at how Meatloaf's "Anything for Love" can be broken down in graphical format.

Things I\'d do for love

Here's another simple graph, highlighting the simplicity of the Kelis classic.

Milkshake Chart

I wouldn't classify Rick Astley as math metal, but maybe I've been wrong all these years.

Rick Astley

Right Said Fred, broken down into percentage of sexy.

right said fred

Ok, this isn't strictly maths, but it's a flow chart, surely that's very close to maths?

Grease

Another, not really maths, but maybe you could call it a bizarro Venn diagram or something.

Barbie Girl

And finally, Evita for dummies.

Countries that can cry for me

That is all. Have a good day.

If you dig it, digg it.

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Will Ferrell and Dave Grohl duet

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Here's a little afternoon delight for y'all. Will Ferrell and Dave Grohl live, together, on the one stage, at the same time, together, almost literally...

Those two guys seem to complete one another, and the only thing that could have completed this clip would be if they'd started 'making out'.

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Blank Shooting still shooting blanks

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

The best blog on the planet is back! Blank Shooting has reloaded and is once again firing round after round of... well blanks... off into the world wide web. Critics are calling it the greatest blog to ever exist and the blog most likely to bring about world peace*.

In other unrelated news, apparently the Death Star blew up. Most people, Ewoks included, cheered and celebrated. I think it is time we acknowledged the effect the destruction of the Death Star had on the other victims. The Storm Troopers.

Death Star

* please note: when I say critics, I mean me, and when I call it "the greatest blog to ever exist and the blog most likely to bring about world peace" I may be slightly exaggerating.

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Chuck Norris reads his favorite facts

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

What's better than a whole butt load of Chuck Norris facts? I'll tell you what! A whole butt load of Chuck Norris facts read out by the man himself, Mr Chuck Norris.

Some people wear Superman pyjamas, but Superman wears Chuck Norris Pyjamas.

Chuck Norris just took a holiday to the Virgin Islands. Now they are just called The Islands.

When Chuck Norris dives into a pool, he doesn't get wet, the water gets Chuck Norris.

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Watch a free video for free

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Here's another free offer I found while browsing the Commission Junction site. CinemaNow.com are giving you the opportunity to watch a video for free, in what I'm guessing is a way to get people to trial their product.

Free stuff is good stuff, and the CinemaNow site has all the latest releases so it's worth a look in that regard. Take a look, you might like it, or you might not, either way, you can still watch a video for free.

Watch a Video for Free on CinemaNow.com!

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How does EntreCard positioning affect your credits?

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

How does EntreCard positioning affect your credits? Thats the simple question that I was asking myself during the whole SwollenPickles.com down time. So I decided it was time for me to find out. My EntreCard experiment began.

To summarise, my car site wasn't doing so well in terms of EntreCard. A spot was worth a piss weak 5 credits, which, in technical terms is sweet F all.

One of the main reasons it has done so poorly with EntreCard is that I just haven't had to time to do the whole card dropping thing using that account.

Another factor that may or may not have impacted upon the performance was the positioning of the widget. I had shifted it quite a way down the page, well and truly below the fold. So, my experiment is a simple one, by positioning my EntreCard widget above the fold on my car site, will the number of credits a spot on my site costs increase?

For the purposes of this experiment, my personal drop rate for my car site account will remain at less than 5 per day. I'll give this experiment a week or so, and report back on my very scientific findings. I just bet you can hardly wait!

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Krystal Forscutt bound for LA couches and holding a massive tool

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

“Australia’s Hottest Party Girl”, well according to FHM anyway, Krystal Forscutt, is heading to LA to try and break it in the US. Yes, it’s old news, but then, I’m slow, and aren’t big on keeping abreast of current affairs.

Aussies may remember Krystal from Big Brother, as the surgically enhanced ‘bombshell’ who seemed to spend 99% of her time in a bikini. Since then she’s become a regular in “mens” magazines like Zoo, and FHM.

Now ordinarily, this sort of thing wouldn’t make news at the office of Swollen Pickles, however this time, I’m going to make an exception, for two reasons. First, I have a couple of pictures that are sure to “stir the loins” of some of my readers, and second, I’d like to draw attention to her breakout quote.

Now take a look at the following picture. Try, if you can, to drag your attention to the pull quote attributed to Krystal to the top left of the image.

“LA is going to be a lot of work – a lot of castings and sleeping on couches.” Wow. LA, casting and sleeping on couches in the one sentence. Let your imagination run for a while, and see where it ends up!

Krystal Forscutt

Ahh… in training for the LA adventure, here’s Krystal holding a massive tool.

Krystal Forscutt handling massive tool

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