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Right Angle:Backstage 01/31/23

All this and so much less on this members-only edition of Right Angle: Backstage.

Former used star salesman Bill Whittle has plans to reduce the Panda population, Scott Ott offers to eat a bug for a ridiculously small amount of money if split 300 ways, and Steve has breaking news that it’s cold in Colorado this time of year.

All this and so much less on this members-only edition of Right Angle: Backstage.

49 replies on “Right Angle:Backstage 01/31/23”

The CEO of Colossal has formed a division within his company to focus on bird-related genetic technologies. They are also planning to De-Extinct the Dodo Bird.

There is also a version of the Milky Way called “Simply Caramel”. It is a Milky Way without the nugget and is filled only with rich, creamy caramel. They’re delicious!

A few comments about 3D sound perception:

In addition to volume, the ear/brain system takes a least two other features of the sound into account to locate it. One of them is harmonics.

The ear on the side from which the sound is coming will have the high harmonics while the ear in the shadow of the sound will have lost most of the higher harmonics. I think that the shape of the ear also helps to filter harmonics to give some up/down positioning.

In addition to harmonics, the brain can also distinguish the phase difference from each ear, which also give information about the position.

Unfortunately, I totally lost hearing in one of my ears just before Quadraphonic Sound was invented, so I have never been able to experienced it. But I rely a great deal on harmonics as my only means to sense a sound’s direction.

Great documentary, as is Muscle Shoals. Incredible group of studio musicians who made everybody from Sinatra to Simon and Garfunkel.

Always was a big Beach Boys fan … and still quite a fan of that era of pop rock and prog rock.

If I could have made a suggestion about the small cat getting out of its cage, it would be that they put a cardboard box out near the cage. No cat on this planet can resist an empty cardboard box, and I have two cats to prove it.

Mine are attracted to both and lie down on any one they can, but boxes are addictive to cats big time. I recently saw a meme of what looked like seven cats all piled into a rather small box. I’m betting the bigger cats would have the same reaction. Cats are gonna cat.

Diagonally cut PBJ’s are more efficient than the commie horizontally cut sandwiches in so many ways, in particular, the ease of which each of the two acute corners can be stuffed into one’s mouth (not at the same time) and bitten off with little or no squeeze out of lower viscosity jelly, or medium viscosity preserves. While the squeeze out of a commie horizontally cut PBJ is much more messy and annoying, don’t even get me started on trying to eat an uncut PBJ sandwich. Nope. Diagonally cut PBJ’s (and also egg salad) sandwiches are the way to go.

Then there’s this:

Re Bill’s comments about Brian Wilson and the Wrecking Crew.

.
Elton John was talking to the audience about Brian Wilson at the Kennedy Center tribute to Wilson….
“For a keyboard player like myself, he (Wilson) changed the goalposts, when it came to writing songs.
I’m getting very technical here, but he was one of the first people to move the root note in the chord and play to the 3rd or the 5th on the base…..
And that, if you’re a songwriter or keyboard player, was revolutionary….”
I don’t know what that meant, but for a songwriter and musician of the level of Elton John to call Brian Wilson a genius, and do so honestly and earnestly, is impressive.  

Your wish is coming through Steve. nelson
Life Finds a Way
‘De-Extinction’ Startup Plans to Bring Back the DodoOn Tuesday genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences announced it has secured $150 million in seed funding to resurrect the famously extinct flightless bird — along with the woolly mammoth and the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger. Colossal, founded in 2021 by Harvard geneticist George Church and entrepreneur Ben Lamm, aims to edit the genomes of living relatives of the extinct creatures to create proxy species that would fill their empty ecological niches. All three animals’ genomes have been sequenced, but “de-extinction” will probably take years: It relies on technology that’s still being developed — though it could eventually benefit human health care too. (Sources: Gizmodo, Wired)

Peanut butter (either smooth or chunky — mood dependent) and either strawberry or raspberry jam (not jelly, preserves, or some other evil, conspiratorial concoction) with cold raw milk (straight from the Jersey cow with cream blended-in). That was and is my second favorite snack combo. First? Chocolate brownies and/or chocolate cake with previously-described milk. The list goes on from there.
Please return to your previously-programmed media consumption while I consider a snack.

I may be one of the few people to grow up in these United States that absolutely can’t stand PB&J. Worst thing ever as far as I am concerned. 2nd worst was anything made with Fluffernutter.

“You were so busy figuring out if you could do it, you never stopped to ask if you should.” Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park

I remember the promotion from last year, though I had forgotten where it was. For some reason I disagree with Bill and think it is a good, funny idea. I was expecting they would send the donor a pic, but sending a video to the ex makes some sense, though at that price you’d really have to hate the person but know the e-mail address was active and in use.

I’m a football fan, desperately worried that they are going to pursue victimizing and racializing CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. It will be the end of contact sports.

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