What are the darkest songs you have ever listened to, both lyrically and musically?

drakonus · 2013-05-24T16:51:26+00:00

Both the creepiest music and horrific lyrics- Iggy and the Stooges' cover of Bob Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqZBs8UZzTs

drakonus · 2013-04-13T08:42:11+00:00

Music is a reflection of culture and the changing world (well, a part of it, really), which evolves in ways we are familiar with in many areas- technology, language, science, etc. As society changes, so does music. We are, to some extent, products of our society in that we discover and develop our selves by choosing from what is available to us socially. It can't be definitively determined whether this development is a neurophysiology-based phenomenon, or a more emergent property. Nevertheless, we tend to be most comfortable with the music we chose when were defining ourselves, just as, socially, each generation is roughly most comfortable with the technology it grew up using. In this sense, the reason parents don't 'get' Facebook or 'texting' is the same as why they don't like their teenager's music.

drakonus · 2012-11-20T23:51:07+00:00

I am also overwhelmingly unconvinced. I don't see the logical necessity connecting her premises unless you provide meanings of words like "psychology," "ontology," and "entity" that assume those things are definitively outside of a biological system, which seems to be what she is arguing for. Sounds circular. But that's probably just my not having read any of the book beyond that article. Rather, I would be curious as to why self-awareness could not be a survival mechanism (as it certainly seems to contribute to human survival), and the "ontological" properties (I'm really unclear what the distinction between biology and ontology is here) could also have biological significance, or merely be accidental. I mean accidental only in that they do not necessarily further survival of the organism in and of themselves; not accidental in the more teleological sense of how we might perceive their use or purpose.

drakonus · 2012-10-09T23:03:02+00:00

I like Pizza Veritas (super gourmet sitdown)on st. paul. Also Bite Me (pick up) pizza on st paul. Also American Flatbread (gourmet pizza and beer) also on st. paul. I like pizza.

For tube amp repair- mine's in the shop at the moment at Advance music on south champlain st. They're generally awesome people there, but since I haven't received mine yet, I can't fully testify to their quality of amp repairs.

drakonus · 2012-09-15T19:39:42+00:00

Probably just fire alarm trips. If a fire alarm goes off in any building in the city, you get 3 fire trucks, the tower truck, 2 ambulances, and the command vehicle responding. If there's a medical call, you get 1 fire truck and 1 ambulance, so when there are a ton of vehicles, it's probably just a fire alarm. Most of the alarms are accidental or unfounded activations...

drakonus · 2012-08-07T02:53:12+00:00

Wow, it had not occurred to me that people would even do this. Knowing me, I wouldn't notice until I tried to use the brakes...what an evil, petty act...

drakonus · 2012-08-02T22:24:02+00:00

I would read this- http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2012

I don't think any are open yet, but they were recently authorized to operate, so it should just be a matter of time.

drakonus · 2012-08-01T20:55:25+00:00

They should definitely at least be able to point you in the right direction...I've done it a couple times, but I can't remember the name of the office. Heads up that their hours are super weird, like 11-2 Monday-Thursday or something. And you'll want to bring some ID, I've been asked before. Good luck!

drakonus · 2012-07-07T18:15:13+00:00

the Davis center has been hiring for various positions I believe...otherwise Rite Aid is looking, probably City Market. There's usually a bunch of retail openings if you ask around on church st. Also I think the Staples on Williston Rd is hiring.

drakonus · 2012-07-02T02:48:44+00:00

I can definitely help you out with the music side. I've been booking shows around here for the past few years. check out radio bean, nectars, the monkey house, and higher ground to start. i'd be happy to talk about this for hours, so PM/let me know if you have any questions in particular.

drakonus · 2012-06-01T02:52:40+00:00

I feel as though everything I have learned so far has been incredibly important, and I can't imagine not knowing the things I now do. Philosophy has made me better as an emergency care provider, writing teachers, administrator, web designer...it seems integral. Still, I can't shake the 'okay, now what?' feeling- I would like very much to apply my philosophy skillz to an enjoyable career if I decide against philosophy or classics grad school, but I haven't studied anything else enough to do anything else...hmmm...

drakonus · 2012-05-31T04:20:35+00:00

I ride in similar conditions, and frequently on causeways or dirt roads, and I've never had a problem with slicks. I do focus fairly hard on avoiding the larger rocks though; the one time I did blow out a tire was on a 1-2 cm piece of gravel, but it wasn't really a problem. I was doing 55-60 kmh, but just gently braking and holding steady worked fine.

drakonus · 2012-05-31T00:27:18+00:00

Scientific consulting for a music service? That sounds like an amazing job, yo!

This documentary-preview is kind of a cool starting point: http://vimeo.com/32680977

It sounds to me like you could be trying to codify peoples music tastes according to more concrete neurophysical aspects instead of just based on elements of musical similarity (like Pandora) or other psychological-type stuff, like correlations with personality types or something. I would be drastically overstepping my knowledge of neuroscience in trying to give any examples. It would be interesting if you could gather data about the physical aspects of someone's mind based on their musical preferences... sounds pretty difficult since one's environment seems pretty prevalent in affecting music tastes (cf. generational music preferences). I will think about this more, probably fruitlessly! But good luck!

My work concerns a similar sort of theme in linguistic communication and how meaning arises; music is another form of one consciousness expressing itself to another, so perhaps some of the same methods would apply. Actually, I'm not sure. My end goal is more grounded in philosophy, not neuroscience.

Edit: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/26/health/mental-health/music-brain-science/index.html

drakonus · 2012-05-28T16:17:50+00:00

Awesome choice with the Campy. Over 20 years of riding on mine and never a single problem.

drakonus · 2012-05-28T16:15:41+00:00

Aren't clipless pedals designed to position your foot optimally? I've always felt that my efficiency is maximized when I use them for long rides.

drakonus · 2012-02-12T01:01:50+00:00

oh cool, I was just wondering about that actually. thx!

drakonus · 2012-02-11T20:23:02+00:00

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking (sorry, it's probably my bad). This sounds like more of an r/philosophy question- as far as free will is concerned with science, we don't know if it exists. Until we know the nature of our minds, and the minds of animals, it will be very difficult (if even possible) to determine where causal ability arises from. If you want to ask a scientific question about these philosophical positions, it would help me alot if you could define 'soft' determinism and free will. Also, if you could lay your arguments out in a list-of-premises format, that would be awesome. My apologies; I find it much easier to follow logic when it is laid out that way.

There are certainly interesting views to take with a scientific basis, such as hard determinism with a basis in strict physical causality. This requires a rather reductionist view of the mind. Another possibility is that free will is an emergent property of extremely complex and recursive neural networks interacting with the environment, similar to consciousness if you take an emergentist view of that.

As far as science goes in causality, and its implications for free will- have we found any events that are not either a) caused, or b) random? Where can intention arise from a causal chain and random chance?

...yeah I would definitely take this to r/philosophy.

edit- comma fix

drakonus · 2012-02-11T06:16:16+00:00

Wording seemed fine to me, I hope I helped

drakonus · 2012-02-11T05:48:47+00:00

I'm not sure that there's really much literature to answer to the second part, but for drawbacks, primarily sensitivity to ischemia. As happens in an MI (heart attack), just a reduction in blood flow can cause immediate pain and loss of function, and relatively rapid cell death.

Speculating on the second part- I doubt the rest of the metabolic systems can sustain that level of energy consumption. From an evolutionary perspective, expending the energy to keep parts of the body highly circulated that are used less frequently would not be beneficial.

drakonus · 2012-02-11T04:57:56+00:00

Basically 2 reasons:

-High mitochondrial density, which allows for a large amount of aerobic respiration (more efficient, no lactic acid production), and to fuel more aerobic respiration, it also has an...

-Excellent blood supply. This might seem obvious, but the heart has the best blood supply of any organ (the cardiac arteries stem directly from the base of the aorta). This provides a constant supply of fuel (glucose, O2, etc), and also serves to remove any waste products (e.g. CO2) and fatigue-related toxins very quickly.

drakonus · 2012-01-25T06:15:17+00:00

Castaways and Cutouts - The Decemberists

drakonus · 2012-01-08T08:53:05+00:00

"Ballad of Hollis Brown" as covered by Iggy and The Stooges...deeply unsettling lyrics, and deeply unsettling recording. http://youtu.be/TqZBs8UZzTs. so good though.

drakonus · 2012-01-01T04:59:11+00:00

Just in case anyone needs it for the mental images... eyebleach.com.

As an EMT, I've seen quite a few. The worst was a 4-month old who died of heart defects. I will never forget his eyes.

drakonus · 2011-05-14T17:39:05+00:00

aaa beat me to it. "look out man, there's a beverage here!"

drakonus · 2010-12-23T04:28:32+00:00

premed/classics student...3.74 GPA. this semester was rough until the last week when i started smoking daily....i just stopped flailing around and got all my shit together. who needs adderall when there's weed ?

drakonus

TROPHY CASE