Indie band sings about the solar system

sciencepunk — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:19:47 +0000

Michael Hearst of One Ring Zero writes:

I just did a Google search for "science blogs," and landed on your site. And the first thing I see is a picture of The Magnetic Fields, who are good friends of mine, and who I've toured with. Very strange. The reason I was searching for science blogs is because my band, One Ring Zero, is gearing up to release a new album on Sept. 7th ... our first studio album in 3 years. The theme and title for this one is PLANETS. The album is a sort of revisit to our solar system, as the 100th anniversary of Holst's The Planets approaches. Here's some more info on the project, complete with a blurb from Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

The album features guest performances by Mark Feldman (Masada), Hamilton Berry (Vampire Weekend), Curtis Hasselbring (Slavic Soul Party), and guest lyrics by Rick Moody (The Ice Storm). Here's the video to "Venus":

If you liked that, you can order the full album here.

sciencepunk Sun, 08/15/2010 - 15:19

Weekend Diversion: Bright vs. Dim

esiegel — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:05:02 +0000

Weekend Diversion: Bright vs. Dim

Take a look at this picture, and tell me where the brightest parts and dimmest parts are:

Well, obviously, just to the left of the color gradient, it gets darker than anywhere else. Also, just to the right, it gets lighter than anywhere else. And that's the way it is, isn't it?

Or is this an optical illusion; a trick of your eyes? Let's chop the image up into three parts and find out:

Well damn, there isn't a "darker band" or a "lighter band" there at all, this is just your inability to see properly! This effect of your eyes is known as a Mach band. (Maybe that will be the new title of the next Playstation hit?) Why does this happen? Because all brightness is relative when it comes to your eyes. If a bright thing is next to a dark thing, it appears brighter than if it's next to another bright thing; and vice versa for dark things. When I take the context away, you don't see the illusion. Neat, huh?

esiegel Fri, 04/04/2008 - 20:05