I might start posting here again. Maybe.

I'll be moving to San Francisco on June 27.

ReverbNation

I got a ReverbNation account! The finished songs are up now - check it out heeya.

The triumphant return

I've been away a while. Now it's late and I'm feeling self-aggrandizing. New songs!

Passer

Yawp (finished)

Tabula Rasa (finished)

And finally...

Dick Van Dyke rescued by porpoises

The porpoises were not available for comment.

Balloon head dolphin

P. hoekmani (image from the Beeb article)

Archeologists have discovered the fossilized remains of a new type of dolphin on the bottom of the North Sea. The dolphin, christened Platalearostrum hoekmani after the Dutch fisherman Albert Hoekman, who trawled up a bone from the beastie's skull in 2008, seems to be most closely related to the modern-day pilot whale and probably lived between 2 and 3 million years ago. It had a bulbous forehead and a short, "spoon-shaped" rostrum (snout) and would have grown up to 6 meters long.

Pilot whale (G. melas)

New ones

New paintings!

For Kristine

Galaxy

Whale breaks record

A humpback whale has broken the mammalian record for longest migration. She swam at least 9,800 miles, traveling from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in search of a mate. Cosmos Magazine has more:

The female humpback was first photographed among a group of whales at a breeding ground on Abrolhos Bank, off Brazil's southeastern coast, on 7 August 1999.

By sheer chance, it was photographed more than two years later, on 21 September 2001 by a commercial whale-watching tour at a breeding ground near the Ile Sainte Marie off the eastern coast of Madagascar.

Distinctive tail and spots

The whale was identified thanks to the distinctive shape of its tail and a pattern of spots on it.

"It is the longest documented movement by a mammal, about 400 km longer than the longest seasonal migration that has been reported," according to the research, headed by Peter Stevick of the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The Internet Song

New demo! A song of longing, set on the internet.

Lights in the sky

Strange lights in the sky over DC, southwest of Bethesda from about 2:50 - 3am this morning. A steady, punctuated flickering, red and blue, for a while, not intermittent flashes. My Scully hypothesis is that it was a) police lights or b) distant lightning. Didn't really look like either of those. I'm still formulating my Mulder hypothesis.

Did anyone else see them?

Internet gleanings/current events

Some cool stuff in recent news:

First, this. Astronomers have discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a red dwarf, Gliese 581, about 20 light-years away. It's in the habitable zone, meaning that water could exist in liquid form on the surface. Life, Unbounded explains:

With a 37 day orbit (putting it about 0.15 AU from the 1/3rd solar mass star) there's a good chance that GL 581 g is tidally locked - with a permanent day and night side, although it's by no means clear that tidal locking is inevitable. This poses significant questions about any climate on the planetary surface - something astronomers and planetary scientists have been worrying about for a while for this kind of scenario. A thick enough atmosphere and thermal transport could help even out the drastic day/night temperature difference and keep things stable.

 And then this: two dolphin species, the Guyana dolphin and the bottlenose dolphin, have been observed to alter the structure of their calls during interspecific interactions. This is cool for several reasons: first, it adds to our evidence that dolphins are skilled mimics. Secondly, it opens the possibility that these two different species could be capable of communicating with each other in some way. From the Beeb:

When bottlenose dolphins swim together, they emit longer, lower frequency calls, that are modulated.

In contrast, Guyana dolphins usually communicate using higher frequency whistles that have their own particular structure.

But often, the two species swim together in one group. These interactions are usually antagonistic, as the larger bottlenose dolphins harass the smaller Guyana dolphins.

When the two dolphins gather, they produce quite different calls, Dr May-Collado has discovered.

Crucially, calls emitted during these multi-species encounters are of an intermediate frequency and duration.

In other words, the dolphins start communicating in a style that is somewhere between those of the two separate species

In sadder news, Shiloh, one of the bottlenose dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, has died after a long illness. She was the mother of Chesapeake, the first calf born in captivity at the Aquarium, and the grandmother of Bayley, who is now about two years old. Shiloh was estimated to be about 31 years old, which isn't bad for a dolphin, but the news still came as a shock. I studied Shiloh's whistles for more than a year. Her contact call was a pretty, modulated upsweep with which I became very familiar. I'm going to miss her. So long, Shiloh, and thanks for all the fish.

And finally, I went to hear Richard Dawkins and Neil DeGrasse Tyson speak at Howard University the other day. The talk was an unscripted chat about the "poetry of science". Tyson spent a little too much time showboating - I would have like to hear more from Dawkins, devoted little fangirl that I am - but overall it was most enjoyable. I have to say, though...  Tyson was voted World's Sexiest Astrophysicist by People Magazine in 2000, but that Richard Dawkins is foxy. That hyperliterate Oxford-honed diction, that silver hair, that sultry voice... sigh.

Oh, and there are lots of new songs in the works: the Gargle Blasters are working on a cover of Pink Floyd's Young Lust... ooh, I need a dirty woman.



Coming attractions:

• The finished version of Homeopathy (in both censored and uncensored form... because this is a family blog)
• The finished version of Uncertainty (now with 100% more awesome due to sax solo by my dad)
•  More Young Lust
• Tabula Rasa (too full of angst for immediate release)
• The Night You Can't Remember (Magnetic Fields cover!)
• The Internet Song (work in progress)

Man, we almost have a setlist! Watch out, open mic night - the Gargle Blasters are coming.

Created things

Some recent ones:

Spray paint! I'm miffed the photo doesn't show off the eye-stabbingly fluorescent orange color it actually is. 

12x12 canvas, acrylic and ink

Piece of plywood, acrylic and ink

Huge piece of plywood, acrylic and ink

Homeopathy + MySpace

Another demo from the Gargle Blasters! This one's about homeopathy (from thoughtbunny to mp3 in under 24 hours, aw yeah)...



Our gallant triumvirate of sexy has only had a name for about a day, but wow it's all over the internet. Feed the collective ego here and here!

Uncertainty Strikes Back

Check out the latest version of Uncertainty, recorded with Alex in his most excellent basement!

Uncertainty

I wrote half a love song about physics. Have a listen!



I’m uncertain as to whether I should trust you
I’ve never been all that good at romance
You always seem to know just what I’m thinking
And that thought makes me happy in my pants

You’re photon-like in your acceleration
Stick with me baby, surely we’ll go far
I’ve calculated just how fast you’re moving
I just can’t be quite certain where you are

And curled up, cat-like, in my bed
The thought keeps turning in my head
It fills me with both joy and dread
I think I’m both alive and dead

*UPDATE*

New verses! Now with increased GarageBand sexiness!



I’ll pull you in past my event horizon
To terraform my lonely little moon
My heart is beating faster than a pulsar
And burning like the Lyrids do in June

Oh darling, won’t you tell me that you love me?
You light up the dark matter in my soul
I find my lust for you is supermassive
And growing like Andromeda’s black hole

Sperm whale... off Miami Beach

An injured sperm whale calf has been spotted off the coast of Miami Beach. Efforts are underway to find its mother, but if she is not found, the calf will probably be euthanized.

The opening was fantastic! Forgot to take pictures, as usual, but turnout was impressive and the company was grand. Thanks guys.