We Saw a Chicken …

Author: scruss

  • if you see a fork in the road

  • International panel of experts conclude sound from wind turbines has no harmful effect on human health

    Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects: An Expert Panel Review [PDF]

    Executive summary:

    People have been harnessing the power of the wind for more than 5,000 years. Initially used widely for farm irrigation and millworks, today’s modern wind turbines produce electricity in more than 70 countries. As of the end of 2008, there were approximately 120,800 megawatts of wind energy capacity installed around the world.

    Wind energy enjoys considerable public support, but it also has its detractors, who have publicized their concerns that the sounds emitted from wind turbines cause adverse health consequences.

    In response to those concerns, the American and Canadian Wind Energy Associations (AWEA and CanWEA) established a scientific advisory panel in early 2009 to conduct a review of current literature available on the issue of perceived health effects of wind turbines. This multidisciplinary panel is comprised of medical doctors, audiologists, and acoustical professionals from the United States, Canada, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. The objective of the panel was to provide an authoritative reference document for legislators, regulators, and anyone who wants to make sense of the conflicting information about wind turbine sound.

    The panel undertook extensive review, analysis, and discussion of the large body of peer-reviewed literature on sound and health effects in general, and on sound produced by wind turbines. Each panel member contributed a unique expertise in audiology, acoustics, otolaryngology, occupational/ environmental medicine, or public health. With a diversity of perspectives represented, the panel assessed the plausible biological effects of exposure to wind turbine sound.

    Following review, analysis, and discussion of current knowledge, the panel reached consensus on the following conclusions:

    • There is no evidence that the audible or sub-audible sounds emitted by wind turbines have any direct adverse physiological effects.
    • The ground-borne vibrations from wind turbines are too weak to be detected by, or to affect, humans.
    • The sounds emitted by wind turbines are not unique. There is no reason to believe, based on the levels and frequencies of the sounds and the panel’s experience with sound exposures in occupational settings, that the sounds from wind turbines could plausibly have direct adverse health consequences.

    International panel of experts conclude sound from wind turbines has no harmful effect on human health – CanWEA news release

    Wind gets clean bill of health – thestar.com

  • dropping nuclear reactors from a great height

    This looks like the engineers had far too much fun trying to find ways of damaging a small (simulated) nuclear reactor: SNAP rector safety tests

  • best of 2009 (top 10 for hexadactyls)

    Again, to my own rules; what I discovered this year, and not necessarily ten:

    • Spoils — Alasdair Roberts. Alasdair’s transformed from a good (if somewhat doleful) Scottish folkie to a full-on demented psych-folker with this record. The Wyrd Meme EP is nifty too.
    • Banjo — Billy Faier. I know this album was recorded in the 1970s, but it’s as far away from tedious lick-based picking that most people link to the banjo. The fact that Billy’s giving it away free now doesn’t hurt, either. It’s kinda prog banjo, if you must.
    • Old Dog — Chris Coole. Chris has been recording for more than a decade, but this is his first solo album. Fabulous songwriting (Old Dog, and The Bottle Got the Best of Me is sounds like something that Porter and Dolly should’ve sung), brilliant playing, and all this from a man who can smack himself inadvertantly on the nose with his own coffee grinder.
    • Signal Morning — Circulatory System. Only five years late. Worth every minute.
    • Clifton Hicks — Clifton Hicks. Zero production; just a guy singing along with his banjo. But both so well.
    • Hypersomnia — entertainment for the braindead. Julia Kotowski makes achingly beautiful lo-fi noises.
    • Sing the Greys — Frightened Rabbit. Visiting Scotland, and having a crappy job over the summer, made this my singalong-driving album of the year. The Midnight Organ Fight has a high nift-factor too.
    • Yours Truly, The Commuter — Jason Lytle. Probably better than anything he did with Grandaddy. His free christmas album of piano music is pretty spiffy too.
    • Lord Cut-Glass — Lord Cut-Glass. I didn’t get into the Delgados when they were around (silly me; there was some fine fine music in Scotland while I still lived there), but Alun Woodward belted out a classic this year. Bought on a whim (a small Scottish coin, or unicycle) at Monorail in Glasgow, it’s a favourite when stuck in traffic on the 401.
    • Waxing Gibbous — Malcolm Middleton. Who knew that miserabilism was so much fun? Actually, it was Devil and the Angel from his first album that got me back into his work.
    • Love It Love It — Nana Grizol. And I do love it; noisy punk from the friends of Elephant Six. Technically the new album Ruth comes out next year, but it’s out already if you’re not hung up on physical media.
    • These Four Walls — We Were Promised Jetpacks. Scottish – yeah!

    Quite a bit of Scottish content in there, I know.

    Some late arrivals and miscellaneous:

    • I was probably supposed to like Goodnight Oslo by Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 more than I do, but there was so much music this year it kind of got buried.
    • My sister  (Wendy Arrowsmith) has a new album out, Seeds of Fools.
    • Dunno what Friendly Rich was thinking releasing Pictures at an Exhibition so late in the year. It’s a twisted jazz take on Mussorgsky, and nothing to be modest about.

  • Arnie play’s Bill’s new kit banjo

  • it is of course part of some colossal oilpatch conspiracy

    I was in Edmonton this week, so I picked up a copy of Vue Weekly purely to have some real, hold-it-in-your-hands Bob the Angry Flower. And this is what it was:

    floop-as_printedBut I go online and find the web version:

    floopand I’m left asking, “But WHY???”

  • banjo apostrophe catastrophe

    Oh dear, Gold Tone – you should really learn about apostrophes:

    gold tone ad with no apostrophesI hereby provide all the missing punctuation, just to prove that banjo players aren’t all a bunch of snaggle-toothed illiterates:

    ””””””””’

  • flat rat -splat- fancy that

    flat rat

  • woodwork squeaks and …

    Peter Stampfel on freak folk origins.

  • 2009 contenders

    This year, I can revert to my own slightly unusual system of the music that found me during the year. I listened to a lot in 2009:

    • Délivrance — A Hawk And A Hacksaw
    • Reservoir — Ah Holly Faml’y
    • How To Get To Heaven From Scotland — Aidan Moffat + The Best Ofs
    • Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free — Akron/Family
    • Spoils — Alasdair Roberts
    • The Wyrd Meme — Alasdair Roberts
    • Alela & Alina — Alela Diane featuring Alina Hardin
    • The Pirate’s Gospel — Alela Diane
    • To Be Still — Alela Diane
    • Old Crows / Young Cardinals — Alexisonfire
    • Danse Manatee — Animal Collective
    • Merriweather Post Pavilion — Animal Collective
    • Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’re Vanished — Animal Collective
    • Monday At The Hug And Pint — Arab Strap
    • Calling Out of Context — Arthur Russell
    • Springfield — Arthur Russell
    • Litany — Arvo Pärt
    • March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland — Beirut
    • Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant — Belle and Sebastian
    • The Life Pursuit — Belle and Sebastian
    • Both Sides Of The Gun — Ben Harper
    • let’s do something… — Bill Evans & Megan Lynch
    • Banjo — Billy Faier
    • Banjos, Birdsong, and Mother Earth — Billy Faier
    • Live at the Cafe Lena — Billy Faier
    • The Art of the Five String Banjo — Billy Faier
    • The Beast of Billy Faier — Billy Faier
    • Travelin’ Man — Billy Faier
    • In The Future — Black Mountain
    • Together Through Life — Bob Dylan
    • Blood Bank — Bon Iver
    • For Emma, Forever Ago — Bon Iver
    • The Very Best Of Booker T. & The MG’s — Booker T. & The MG’s
    • Words of Wisdom — Brian Dewan
    • Another Green World — Brian Eno
    • I Just Wasn’t Meant For These Times — Brian Wilson
    • Gold — Buddy Holly
    • My Maudlin Career — Camera Obscura
    • Underachievers Please Try Harder — Camera Obscura
    • Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) — Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band
    • Modern Silence — Casper & The Cookies
    • Jukebox — Cat Power
    • Bird and Diz — Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie
    • Old Dog — Chris Coole
    • Inside Views — Circulatory System
    • Signal Morning — Circulatory System
    • Bring Me Your Love — City And Colour
    • Clifton Hicks — Clifton Hicks
    • Outer South — Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band
    • Superfly — Curtis Mayfield
    • Hey Everyone — Dananananaykroyd
    • 1990 — Daniel Johnston
    • Dirt of the Angel — Danny Barnes
    • The Folkways Years 1959-61 — Dave Van Ronk
    • Curse Your Branches — David Bazan
    • David Henman Band — David Henman Band
    • …For The Whole World To See — Death
    • Venus on Earth — Dengue Fever
    • Pioneers Who Got Scalped: The Anthology — Devo
    • Fly — Dixie Chicks
    • Home — Dixie Chicks
    • At Newport — Dizzy Gillespie
    • Heavy Ghost — DM Stith
    • Hombre Lobo — Eels
    • Mountain Meadows — Elliott Brood
    • Elvis Perkins In Dearland — Elvis Perkins In Dearland
    • What Is Free To A Good Home? — Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
    • Watch The Fireworks — Emma Pollock
    • Dead Relatives — Emm Gryner
    • The Summer Of High Hopes — Emm Gryner
    • hydrophobia — entertainment for the braindead
    • Hypersomnia — entertainment for the braindead
    • Raw Timber EP — entertainment for the braindead
    • seven (+1) [aaahh.005] — entertainment for the braindead
    • Distillation — Erin McKeown
    • Sing You Sinners — Erin McKeown
    • We Will Become Like Birds — Erin McKeown
    • Liege & Lief — Fairport Convention
    • Reservoir — Fanfarlo
    • Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes
    • Flight Of The Conchords — Flight Of The Conchords
    • Lungs — Florence and The Machine
    • Folk Uke — Folk Uke
    • Roughin’ It — Fred Spek’s Camp Combo
    • Quietly Now! — Frightened Rabbit
    • Sing the Greys — Frightened Rabbit
    • Swim Until You Can’t See Land — Frightened Rabbit
    • The Midnight Organ Fight — Frightened Rabbit
    • St. Elsewhere — Gnarls Barkley
    • Felt Mountain — Goldfrapp
    • Seventh Tree — Goldfrapp
    • Supernature — Goldfrapp
    • Veckatimest — Grizzly Bear
    • Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill — Grouper
    • Ellipse — Imogen Heap
    • Speak for Yourself — Imogen Heap
    • The Creek Drank the Cradle — Iron & Wine
    • Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart EP — Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
    • Privilege — Ivor Cutler
    • The Inspiration Of William Blake — Jah Wobble
    • The Glass Bead Game — James Blackshaw
    • Yours Truly, The Commuter — Jason Lytle
    • The Utmost — Jayme Stone
    • Riceboy Sleeps — Jónsi & Alex
    • Ramblin’ Son — Julian Fauth
    • Autobahn — Kraftwerk
    • Tour De France — Kraftwerk
    • World of Goo Soundtrack — Kyle Gabler
    • Of Whales and Woe — Les Claypool
    • Alright, Still — Lily Allen
    • It’s Not Me, It’s You — Lily Allen
    • Lord Cut-Glass — Lord Cut-Glass
    • The Liberty of Norton Folgate — Madness
    • Snakebite — Magic Slim & The Teardrops
    • Kiss Me Quick — Makita Hack And The Log Rollers
    • 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine — Malcolm Middleton
    • A Brighter Beat — Malcolm Middleton
    • Sleight Of Heart — Malcolm Middleton
    • Waxing Gibbous — Malcolm Middleton
    • Dibango: Rough Guide to Manu Dibango — Manu Dibango
    • Little Hells — Marissa Nadler
    • Youth — Matisyahu
    • Big Meal Time! — Max & Frank Evans with the Family Supper Stringband
    • Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? — Metric
    • Oracular Spectacular — MGMT
    • Armchair Boogie — Michael Hurley
    • Ida Con Snock — Michael Hurley
    • Singing Insects of Missouri — Missouri Department of Conservation
    • Toads and Frogs in Missouri — Missouri Department of Conservation
    • The Hawk Is Howling — Mogwai
    • Hold Time — M. Ward
    • Love It Love It — Nana Grizol
    • “Ruth” — Nana Grizol
    • Middle Cyclone — Neko Case
    • Obligatory Villagers — Nellie McKay
    • Lipstick Killers — New York Dolls
    • At My Age — Nick Lowe
    • Chelsea Girl — Nico
    • Hymns and Hers — Oliver Schroer
    • Achilles’ Heel — Pedro The Lion
    • At 89 — Pete Seeger
    • Wonderland — Pogo
    • Like Hearts Swelling — Polmo Polpo
    • Porn Sword Tobacco — Porn Sword Tobacco
    • The Rubber Room — Porter Wagoner
    • Tales From The Punchbowl — Primus
    • Different Class — Pulp
    • The Essential Ramblin’ Jack Elliot — Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
    • Raising Sand — Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
    • Goodnight Oslo — Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3
    • Exit Strategy Of The Soul — Ron Sexsmith
    • Time Being — Ron Sexsmith
    • Sam Hinton Sings the Song of Men — Sam Hinton
    • Whoever Shall Have Some Good Peanuts — Sam Hinton
    • Smokin’ and Drinkin’ — Scotty Campbell and His Wardenaires
    • Secret Machines — Secret Machines
    • Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols — Sex Pistols
    • The Remix Album…Diamonds Are Forever — Shirley Bassey
    • Color Voice — Sinkane
    • Stand! — Sly and the Family Stone
    • Love.Life.Ukulele — Sophie Madeleine
    • African Spirit — Soweto Gospel Choir
    • Tres Tres Fort — Staff Benda Bilili
    • Telescope — Steve Dawson
    • Let’s Get Small — Steve Martin
    • The Crow — Steve Martin
    • Never Gonna Touch the Ground — Still Flyin’
    • Barn Yard Banjo Pickin’ — Stringbean
    • The BQE — Sufjan Stevens
    • 25 O’Clock (Remastered) — The Dukes of Stratosphear
    • Psonic Psunspot (Remastered) — The Dukes of Stratosphear
    • Buddha Electrostorm — Thee American Revolution
    • I Thought You Knew — The Ebony Hillbillies
    • Sabrina’s Holiday — The Ebony Hillbillies
    • Hex Enduction Hour — The Fall
    • Are You Sleepy? — The Gerbils
    • Shout Monah — The Haints Old Time Stringband
    • The Smell Of Our Own — The Hidden Cameras
    • Tyrannosaurus Hives — The Hives
    • 21 Singles — The Jesus & Mary Chain
    • At Large — The Kingston Trio
    • Something Else by The Kinks — The Kinks
    • Monk’s Music — Thelonious Monk
    • Bootleg Six-Pack — The Mammals
    • Evolver — The Mammals
    • Mount Eerie — The Microphones
    • Thieves — The Organ
    • The Phonemes — The Phonemes
    • There’s Something We’ve Been Meaning to Do — The Phonemes
    • The End of the World — The Real Tuesday Weld
    • England’s Newest Hit Makers — The Rolling Stones
    • New Seasons — The Sadies
    • Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters — The Twilight Sad
    • The Flat Earth (Collector’s Edition) — Thomas Dolby
    • The Golden Age Of Wireless (Collector’s Edition) — Thomas Dolby
    • The Singular Thomas Dolby — Thomas Dolby
    • FeelingPulledApartByHorses — Thom Yorke
    • O — Tilly and the Wall
    • Music for Spaceships and Forests — twi the humble feather
    • Introducing Vakoka — Vakoka
    • Tight Knit — Vetiver
    • At the Cut — Vic Chesnutt
    • Unmap — Volcano Choir
    • How Can I Keep From Singing — Wendi Hunter
    • Seeds of Fools — Wendy Arrowsmith
    • These Four Walls — We Were Promised Jetpacks
    • Let’s Talk About It — White Denim
    • Dos — Wooden Shjips
    • Fever To Tell — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
    • It’s Blitz! — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
    • Show Your Bones — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
    • Crusp Srexstling — Zumm Zumm

  • can you see the computer hidden in this picture?

    Of course you can: it’s the laptop right behind the monitors. That’s more than our IT group could, though; they didn’t upgrade my computer ‘cos they couldn’t find it …

  • banjer banjer banjer

    Music in the Wood

    I trekked out to Music In The Wood, the music shop in Rockwood that’s just been opened by Hugh, Wendi and Mac Hunter. It’s a nice drive out there, certainly once you’re past the 407/401 mess. Norval, Georgetown and Acton still have some small-town charm amidst the stripmalls.

    It seems I had a lucky escape, as Bill Rickard was to be bringing in some of his much discussed Dobson banjo kits. Had he been there, I would have bought one on the spot. The price is fantastic, and y’know, I really need a fretless …

    All of Hugh’s banjos were sold, but he had five of Bill’s in the store. Two of them were the gorgeous spun-over rim types, a kind which hasn’t been made properly in the last century or so, until Bill started last year.

    Bill Rickard banjosBill Rickard spun-over Dobson banjosThe grand opening of the shop isn’t until next Saturday. I can’t make it, alas.

  • cheque bookmark

    helie1

    Found in a library book. Had it been a higher denomination or not so old, I would have found a way to return it.

  • they bloody built it

  • manifold: ur doin it wrong

    This is supposed to be a nice site map, but Manifold GIS has this impenetrable and counter-intuitive user interface. No wonder it has such an active user community; they’ve all paid for it and are desperately trying to get some value out of it.

  • but no autotuning

    I gave my Wind Energy for the Perplexed (2009 remix) talk for the Kingsway PEO on Friday. Lots of industry folks were there.

  • iRed Lite – Takes Apple Remote Further

    iRed Lite
    iRed Lite is just the thing if you’re rushing to put a presentation together, and you want to use your Apple Remote to flip the slides

  • poppin’ panda heads

    There’s something quite disturbing about Meiji “Hello Panda” biscuits. They’re happy little panda heads that you bite into and goo comes out.

    Disturbing, true; tasty, definitely.

  • Stuck at the Border / Unexpected Spector

    So I was at The Dakota Tavern last night, expecting to see nana grizol with Colleen and Paul. I got there far too early, and notice that there was no sign of Theo Hilton or the rest of the band. I learned from Colleen (whom I’d met before) that they’d been stopped at the border, so Colleen and Paul were playing a longer set, and Colleen’s partner Ron Sexsmith would play later.

    Immigration for musicians annoys me. The costs of visas, and the processing time required, basically means that most bands I’d want to see risk getting turned away at the border. Since touring is how these bands make their living, everybody loses.

    Still, Colleen and Paul – assisted by a couple of Colleen’s friends – ended their set with a lovely version of Jeff Mangum’s arrangement of I Love How You Love Me [mp3, lo-fi phone recording].

  • wrong in every possible (good) way

    deathchase on rockbox on sansaI found my bricked Sandisk Sansa E250 in a pile in the basement. I thought I’d give it one last try to get it going. After much faffing about, I found that applying this fix – Corrupted version.txt/Fw update not working in recovery mode? The solution !!! – Sansa e200 FAQ – abi>>forums (which resulted in a failed boot saying something about an mi4 not being found) followed by Recovering a bricked Sansa had it working with the fairly awful Sandisk firmware. So it was off to Rockbox for the latest version.

    I have to say, Rockbox 3.4 is pretty neat. They’ve now got proper USB reading/writing/charging, so that you never have to see the clunky Sandisk UI again. When plugged in, the player acts as a USB keyboard for controlling your music. Apparently the E250 can now support MicroSDHC cards, which it couldn’t before. But best (and least useful) of all, is that you can play 3D Deathchase and other ZX Spectrum games on it …