TED talks: Jill Bolte Taylor, a neurologist, on the effects of a stroke - on her

I came across this on Donald Clark's blog (there a couple of interesting things on pledging allegiance to the Queen, and how managers fail to develop...).

TED talks is a very interesting resource - a series of lectures, recorded and published on the web. Kind of like intellectual YouTube. In this talk, neurologist Jill Bolte Taylor describes how the brain works, and what it felt like when she had a massive stroke. Rather like Alice in Wonderland, apparently.

TED talks: Jill Bolte Taylor, a neurologist, on the effects of a stroke - on her

I came across this on Donald Clark's blog (there a couple of interesting things on pledging allegiance to the Queen, and how managers fail to develop...).

TED talks is a very interesting resource - a series of lectures, recorded and published on the web. Kind of like intellectual YouTube. In this talk, neurologist Jill Bolte Taylor describes how the brain works, and what it felt like when she had a massive stroke. Rather like Alice in Wonderland, apparently.

LolBlair - LolCatz go political...

...this made me laugh a lot...

They are very funny!

LolBlair - LolCatz go political...

...this made me laugh a lot...

They are very funny!

Jazz Radio!

It can’t have escaped your notice that I listen to jazz; and that I like listening to the radio.

For a while, in the dim and distant past, these two passions came together: London started a jazz radio station, Jazz FM. They played jazz during their test broadcasts – lots of proper jazz, that is – but when it came to regular broadcasts, they tended to play blues and soul and so on, leaving their jazz programming to the evenings and late nights. (I used to go to sleep with the radio on; a trick I learned when visiting friends in New York.)

Then they dumbed down, because no one apart from me was listening, and Jazz FM became Smooth FM, instead. Nice.

Then about 18 months ago, theJazz was launched: a nationwide, digital (DAB) only station. It stuck to pretty much the more listenable side of things, but when I wanted to listen to jazz and couldn’t think what I wanted to play, it was there, and I could hear music I liked anytime on the radio.

But GCap, who owns theJazz, has had a change of management; and the new boss doesn’t believe DAB is going to payback their investment, so GCap’s DAB-only stations are being canned.

( Read more... )

And then I thought I would try out LastFM an internet based service (that lots of you already listen to, I know!). I had read that LastFM had got licences to play all sorts of tracks, so I thought I would try it out.

I think their Tag Radio is brilliant. The thing I like about listening to the radio is the randomness and unpredictability of it – listening to things that are new to me or that I wouldn’t listen to. This widget picks up tracks tagged with “jazz”; and I can skip any that I don’t like.

I can even play it through my hifi (by linking my little handheld machine up to my amplifier).

Magic!

Jazz Radio!

It can’t have escaped your notice that I listen to jazz; and that I like listening to the radio.

For a while, in the dim and distant past, these two passions came together: London started a jazz radio station, Jazz FM. They played jazz during their test broadcasts – lots of proper jazz, that is – but when it came to regular broadcasts, they tended to play blues and soul and so on, leaving their jazz programming to the evenings and late nights. (I used to go to sleep with the radio on; a trick I learned when visiting friends in New York.)

Then they dumbed down, because no one apart from me was listening, and Jazz FM became Smooth FM, instead. Nice.

Then about 18 months ago, theJazz was launched: a nationwide, digital (DAB) only station. It stuck to pretty much the more listenable side of things, but when I wanted to listen to jazz and couldn’t think what I wanted to play, it was there, and I could hear music I liked anytime on the radio.

But GCap, who owns theJazz, has had a change of management; and the new boss doesn’t believe DAB is going to payback their investment, so GCap’s DAB-only stations are being canned.

( Read more... )

And then I thought I would try out LastFM an internet based service (that lots of you already listen to, I know!). I had read that LastFM had got licences to play all sorts of tracks, so I thought I would try it out.

I think their Tag Radio is brilliant. The thing I like about listening to the radio is the randomness and unpredictability of it – listening to things that are new to me or that I wouldn’t listen to. This widget picks up tracks tagged with “jazz”; and I can skip any that I don’t like.

I can even play it through my hifi (by linking my little handheld machine up to my amplifier).

Magic!