And You're A Rocket Queen, Oh Yeah!

Just don't call Tessy Thomas an Agni Aunt.

Of course, this profile has to talk about how she "does the tightrope walk between home and career". Why can't she be admired simply for her professional achievement?

WWH Is Looking for Contacts in Burma

An email request from Peter.

"After the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, we have been trying to get information about the situation and how people who would like to help can best do so. But with Myanmar having been so cut off from the rest of the world, we have no contacts in the country.

If you know someone in Myanmar/Burma, could you help us get in touch with them? Ideally, people in the country who join us on the blog, or send us updates in some way.

We'd like to hear from people with reliable NGOs, secular charities, even in government or administration. The kind of information we are looking for is what the scale of destruction is, what emergency supplies and essential commodities are most needed, where money could be most effectively donated, organisation that need volunteers (many are willing to fly to Myanmar at their own cost, for instance), and so on.

You could leave a note in the comments here or in the GoogleGroup in this thread or in this Facebook group thread"

Continuing To Be Amazed By The Web Since 1994

Google adds Hindi to its translation page and there goes the rest of my day.

Puerile brains being what they are, I headed over to the page to translate my favorite Chuck Berry lyrics into Hindi. I was *so* entertained that I think I will cancel my basic cable subscription and maybe even stop renting DVDs and reading books. Maybe I will dedicate the rest of my life to translating Chuck Berry songs into Hindi. Take a look:

मेरा एक टन टन लिंग , मेरे एक टन टन लिंग
मैं चाहता हूँ कि मेरे साथ खेलने के लिए एक टन टन लिंग
मेरा एक टन टन लिंग , मेरे एक टन टन लिंग
मैं चाहता हूँ कि मेरे साथ खेलने के लिए एक टन टन लिंग

Are you not astonished at the - ahem - tool's ability to preserve the song's meter? And what about the translation of "Ding a ling" into "टन टन लिंग"? The master's innuendo, beautifully preserved in another language from another culture! PURE GENIUS!

I was going to post the translation to Prince's "Sexy M.F." but decided against it. Not because this blog is PG-13 but because the translation to the chorus (and a few verses) is just OUTRAGEOUSLY funny and I would rather you discover the beauty of that song, in Hindi, all by yourself.

Update: The reverse translation of "My ding-a-ling" into English is even classier. (Thanks, Space Bar!)

I have a gender ding, ding one of my gender
I want to play with my ding a gender
I have a gender ding, ding one of my gender
I want to play with my ding a gender

Nargis

MSF's statement on their operations in Myanmar, in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.

"We are concerned that some of our patients may have treatment interruptions, either because they cannot access our clinics and/or because they have lost their medicines during the cyclone."

A Quick Lesson in Harmony Singing

Update: Found something even better and it's also on Pandora's blog: A page that lists examples (from pop/rock music) of some of the different kinds of harmony.
****

I just discovered that Pandora has a blog and it even carries the occasional music lesson! I found this excellent video primer on harmony singing on the blog.

What makes the video really cool is that it takes one simple melody line and applies different harmony techniques to it: tutti, "drone", unison, counterpoint etc. You need absolutely NO knowledge of musical theory to enjoy the video.



If you prefer a link to the page, go here.

I also found a very interesting page on harmony singing for Bluegrass music. (For the uninitiated, this page definitely needs some rudimentary knowledge of musical theory.)

I often wonder why harmony (especially counterpoint) was ignored by classical musicians during the early days of music development in the Indian subcontinent? Though one of the delights of Indian classical music is hearing the tanpuras's shimmering Sa and Pa (the classic interval of fifths; C and G notes) forming patterns with the notes of the raag/composition.

Real Engineers Don't Wear Suits, That's All

Go see "Iron Man" with your 10 year-old. He or she will leave the theater begging to be enrolled into an engineering/robotics program.

The engineering workstation sequences (in which Tony Stark develops the suit) were just jaw-droppingly cool.

Disappointment of the evening: Black Sabbath's song doesn't appear till the closing credits. Bah. I had always imagined an Act II montage showing Tony Stark prototyping and testing the suit, with this song blasting in the background.

John Cage-ism

"In Zen, it is said, if something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all."

(Source: Wikiquote, via a comment on BoingBoing)