According to our friends ‘over the pond’ at Select Car Leasing UK, (big time racing fans- go figure!) the history of F1 Racing Video Games began with 1982’s ZX Spectrum home computer. Cue up the time machine and take a look at this nifty info-graphic to discover the rest.
Fitness plateaus – we’ve all hit them before and they are nearly impossible to break. Did you know that health journals may help you get past a plateau or move back toward unhealthy habits?
Logging food intake and exercising seems tedious; however, Jenn Zerling http://jzfitness.com , MS, CPT, the author of Breaking the Chains of Obesity, 107 Tools shares the importance of a health journal:
Food diaries and activity points allow you to see common threads of repetition, which causes the body to become stagnant in weight loss. The body needs to be SHOCKED; therefore, switching up healthy foods and exercise programs will end stagnancy and help you get to your goal.
Don’t lose sight of fitness goals after the summer. Most North Americans gain between 5 to 15 pounds during fall and winter. These are the most dreaded pounds to lose as they are more “vanity” weight. Get into the same game of New Year, New You all year-round by logging food intake and activity points.
Demolishing the need to attempt weight loss from February through May: keep good track of the optimal behaviors needed during the “lost ages” time frame and you won’t worry about meeting your weight goals. Focus on common plateau causes including: Healthy hydration, Fiber: simple vs. complex carbs, Sedentary lifestyles: 9 to 5 work days should = three 10-minute bursts of fitness, Lifestyle and stress. For the Silo, Kelly Taylor.
This article from Michael W. Diehl looks at social and economic inequality and the need to asses the costs and benefits that accrue to persons of varying status in social hierarchies.
This “behavioral ecology” has historically been concentrated on food selection between classes or statuses. Has ancient competition for food resulted in modern human social and economic equality? Read on by clicking on the blue image below. CP
Supplemental- Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs motivational model
Wolf Audio Systems Announces Its Luna R High Fidelity Audio Servers
JACKSONVILLE, FL, — Wolf Audio Systems, a company dedicated to providing the ultimate in digital music source components today announced the introduction of its Luna R Audio Server, created to deliver the finest-available high-resolution and streaming audio playback. Leveraging technology and infrastructure developed for the award-winning Alpha 3 SX class of audio servers, Wolf has refined the second generation of the Luna to achieve audio quality levels previously found only in Wolf’s full-sized server lines.
The Wolf Luna R is, first and foremost, engineered to deliver extraordinary audio performance. Utilizing the same silicon architecture found in the Alpha 3 SX, Wolf’s second-generation Luna brings the Luna line much closer to Alpha and Red Wolf-level sound quality. The redesigned Flux Capacitor master clock is an optional upgrade; by operating at a high 24MHz clock rate, the Flux Capacitor ensures more accurate reconstruction and transmission of digital audio.
Depending on the option chosen, the Luna R features either an audio-modified Windows 10 Pro or new, proprietary Linux-based WolfOS operating system. The Luna R offers 2TB storage capacity (expandable to 32TB), 24-bit and DSD playback capability, an upgraded Flux Capacitor 24 MHz master clock and additional improvements. The Flux Capacitor creates one of the most perfect USB Audio signals with less jitter and better accuracy, for a more natural and more involving musical presentation, whether in stereo or multichannel PCM and DSD.
The Luna R has a sleek, half-rack design that fits easily into any audio system. It can play back a wide variety of stereo and multichannel audio formats including FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, SACD, DSF, DFF, (PCM) from 16 – 32 bits, 44.1, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192, 384, and 768 kHz audio, and DSD DoP and Native up to DSD1024.
At the heart of the Luna R is Wolf’s Windows-based operating system. Users can also opt to utilize WolfOS Linux-based operating system, based on Ubuntu software. The WolfOS features a custom kernel that offers the lowest I/O latency possible, keeps the audio functions isolated from the rest of the server and works seamlessly with the Luna R’s output circuitry. The Luna R includes 2TB of SSD (solid state drive) storage capacity for ultra-fast access to all content. An optional 32TB of expansion capability can also be added internally, while the Luna R can interface with external hard drives and any NAS system via the network. The Luna R’s Teac Blu-ray transport, now standard on Wolf audio servers, enables users to rip CDs and play audio discs in DVD and Blu-ray. The drive can also burn discs for storage or transport.
The Luna R incorporates a host of additional refinements to ensure ultimate audio performance. These upgrades are the result of a collaboration between Wolf Audio Systems, Stillpoints and eXemplar Audio. The refinements address the areas of micro-vibration control, electrical grounding and radio frequency interference (RFI) suppression. For example, the server incorporates Portals, a new patent-pending type of grounding-noise conditioning, to remove MHz- and GHz-frequency power contamination and deliver a new level of clarity and resolution. Stillpoints internal standoffs are used to attenuate internal micro-vibrations, while constrained layer damping materials reduces ambient vibration to the case and non-critical componentry. Audience OHNO high-purity oxygen-free copper internal wiring ensures maximum signal purity.
The Luna R offers easy access to its musical content via HDMI and DisplayPort for use with a television and/or monitor. Its wireless connectivity also allows the user to control all functions using a wireless keyboard, mouse or tablet, or via a home automation system remote control, and also remote access via web browser and iOS/Android applications.
Like all Wolf Audio servers, the Luna R is compatible with a wide range of audio applications and streaming audio formats including Roon, JRiver, Audirvana, Qobuz, Tidal, Deezer and others. The server can connect to a TV or monitor to display album cover art, artist, track and album information and more. It offers a full complement of USB, Ethernet, HDMI and IR inputs and outputs, ensuring compatibility and full function for years to come.
The Luna R is currently available in black or silver finish at a retail price of $4,500 usd with 2TB of storage, and $5,000 usd for the Luna R Pure Digital Edition, with the Flux Capacitor included and 4TB of storage. The unit can be supplied with optional Stillpoints Mini SS isolation feet at an additional $500 usd.
At the time of this writing, it is still unclear whether the already postponed Olympics will go ahead as planned for Summer. Tokyo Olympic officials have said reports of another cancellation are false and that enough Covid vaccines have been secured to vaccinate every citizen of Japan. That bodes well for the games going ahead. With that in mind let’s optimistically report on a story about one of our favorite Summer Olympic sports: Surfing.
This year, the Wyland Foundation will be supporting the efforts of the USA Surfing team at the Tokyo Olympics through fundraising merchandise and Wyland painted surfboards to be auctioned off. The Wyland Foundation will be integrating the efforts to maintain healthy waterways and coasts into this year’s National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation with an emphasis on the recreational role water plays in our lives.
“Just painted two surfboards for the US Olympic surf team. Carissa Moore, 4 time world champion and a member of the US Olympic Team for the Tokyo games and I pictured here at Haleiwa Alli Beach Park. I’m proud to be a US Olympic artist. Aloha!” said marine life artist, Wyland.
For years, WylandFoundation.org has rallied the support of mayors and cities throughout the United States to urge constituents to consider their environmental impact. The group works on educating constituents about CO2 emitted from our homes and lifestyles. Thousands participate nationwide annually pledging to save billions of gallons of water.
Founded in 1993 by environmental artist Wyland (best known for his series of 100 monumental marine life murals), the Wyland Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, protecting, and preserving the world’s oceans, waterways, and marine life. The foundation encourages environmental awareness through community events, educational programs, and public art projects. For more information, go to wylandfoundation.org.
What made this auction particularly interesting is the fact that pricing was reasonable and grading conditions were meticulous. Not always the case on other online auction sites (E-something, Kiji-something), Heritage Auctions or “HA” take great pride in the fact that their faculty includes not only comic fanatics but also experts in antique books and printing. It’s safe to say that ‘what you see and what you read’ here is ‘what you get’.
In my opinion, Tales of Mystery starring the Marvel character Thor is still an undervalued comic book, even with all of the Marvel movie appearances. Consider that the first run Thor series was benefited by the pencil skills of Mr. Jack Kirby. Jack is an icon in the comic book collector world. Unique style? Check. Quality character poses? Check.
Sure, we all know the main reason for the comic was to set the stage for Thor (introduced by the way in 1962’s Tales of Mystery #83) but there’s also the less considered crossover appeal of major stories (and covers) utilizing such Marvel characters as Magneto , The Incredible Hulk and even Hercules.
Tales of Mystery, like other comics from the early 1960’s, has a naivete and a simple message: Good guy half-god deals with life and an identity crisis. And that’s the fun factor.
That’s a long time. Thor is still around, starring in major motion pictures and wielding the mighty mjolnir. He’s not going away. So if you have the money, investing in one or more of these books is not only a fun move, it’s a wise move. Sure to increase in value. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.
Starting in 2022 it will be possible to ask for the beloved’s hand in marriage while flying over the lunar surface to the sound of Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon”. The one-week interplanetary flight will be carried out using a self-contained and autonomous spacecraft allowing the two lovers to travel alone.
The ApoteoSurprise agency, a French marriage proposal planner specialized in creating extravagant proposals, introduces a whole new service for 145 million dollars which will allow 21st century handsome princes to propose while flying around the Moon. Reaching for the Moon in the name of love is about to become a reality, the ultimate goal of the Paris-based agency being to “stage the craziest and most outstanding marriage proposal of the last 13.8 billion years“.
From March 2022, elite lovers will be able to book the all-included service on the site www.proposeinparis.com and five months later find themselves enjoying the following program:
– Twelve weeks of pre-requisite technical and physical training.
– Takeoff on D-Day from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
– Richard Strauss’s “Thus spoke Zarathustra, Op.30” (Theme from 2001 Space Odyssey) resounding in the two space tourists’ helmets when the first effects of weightlessness are felt.
– Arrival in lunar orbit, three days later, flying over the satellite’s grayish surface at only 200/300 kilometers altitude.
– Cut-off of all communication with Earth for around thirty minutes while the capsule flies over the dark side of the Moon.
– The Frank Sinatra song “Fly Me to the Moon” played halfway through the orbital flight, allowing the suitor to make his marriage proposal far from any form of human life (engagement ring secretly hidden in his spacesuit).
– A spectacular Earth-rise seen from behind the lunar craters and return trip of nearly four days before atmospheric re-entry and final touchdown.
The flight-plan followed by the space capsule will mirror that of the mythical Apollo 8 mission in 1968. The spacecraft, traveling at a speed of up to 38,000 km/h, will be equipped with eight cameras allowing the couple to immortalize their entry into the history of the conquest of space and the conquest… of love! For the Silo, Nicolas Garreau.
I had reason to visit and work at Abbey Road Studio in London, and it still seems surreal!! My colleague Jayson Tomlin, Gary Katz (producer of Steely Dan), and myself were there to do testing and evaluation of some new technologies we’ve been working on for broadcast and consumer applications.
We spent a full day working in one of the mix-down studios, along with members of the BBC, Scotland Yard, Abbey Road, David Perreau, Felix Konrad, and some of Gary’s record producer ‘buddies”…Hugh Padgham (Genesis, Rush, Phil Collins, Police, Sting, XTC), and Elliott Randall (studio guitarist for Steely Dan).
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| Frank with Hugh Padgham (left) and Gary Katz (right) |
Our connection with Gary has enabled us to connect with key members of the music production world, which in turn has enabled us to further evolve technologies for broadcast, and soon the consumer markets. Our work at Abbey Road was another step along this process, and it raised the bar for us, on what is expected of our products.
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| Frank on the steps of Abbey Road Studios |
Being able to set foot into the building and studio where the Beatles recorded and produced all of their material was breathtaking. I’ll never forget, as we were wrapping up the events for the day, the studio engineer, whom we were working with, said “hey guys come with me, two is now open!” In my mind I’m thinking “this is where all the ‘magic’ happened.” So, off we went, and sure enough we walk into studio #2, and it’s still pretty much the same as if John, Paul, George, and Ringo were there the day before. Getting chills—again—as I write this!!
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| Jayson Tomlin and others take in Studio #2 |
Probably the most gratifying moment that day was towards the end. Hugh Padgham had been listening to some tech I’d developed, and told me how he’d done work with the late George Martin. His comment was how he had a good sense about how George produced the Beatles, and could we apply my ‘gizmo’ to their music.
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| Abbey Road Cafeteria |
So…in the building they recorded the album Abbey Road, we added some treatment to the song “Golden Slumbers.” Together, all of us were in awe to hear the Beatles music, with some treatment from our efforts, done at Abbey Road!
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| Tape deck used in the recording of Sgt. Pepper’s |
There’s a skylight in the ceiling of the studio we were working in. While listening, I looked upward through the skylight, and thought, “if Mr. Martin, Mr. Lennon, and Mr. Harrison are listening, my hope is you won’t feel I let you down.” I felt a tear trickle down upon having this thought. Quite possibly one of the coolest occurrences in this boy’s life!!
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| Frank between pianos used for the Beatles’ “Get Back” and John Lennon’s “Imagine” |
Modestly, it was reassuring when each of our well-known music industry guests gave us the “thumbs up’ for our efforts. Further indication of how our little organization keeps growing and raising the bar! In closing, my sincere thanks to Jayson Tomlin, Gary Katz, Hugh Padgham, Andrew Scheps, and Elliott Randall for your feedback and friendship!!
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| Recording mixer used to record Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon |
For the Silo, Frank Foti.
(Calgary, Alberta) The Canadian Federation of Taxpayers (CTF) has issued a new report on global carbon taxes, showing most countries have frozen or rolled back carbon taxes, but US climate scientist James Hansen is pushing for a $210/t carbon tax in Canada by 2030. Hansen’s argument is that the tax has to be high enough that people will buy into the carbon dividend (rebate to lower income households) – effectively making Canadians into carbon serfs and a carbon welfare society. CTF reports: “About half of the emissions covered by carbon taxes are priced below US$10/tCO2e, according to the World Bank’s most recent State and Trends of Carbon Pricing (2019).” Canada has more than 600 greenhouse gas reduction/incentive measures on the books, which have never been audited for effectiveness.
As revealed by Lawrence Solomon in the 2009 article “Enron’s Other Secret” “James Hansen, the scientist who more than any other is responsible for bringing the possibility of climate-change catastrophe to the public, was among the scientists Enron commissioned.”
Enron had profited from cap and trade, but the company collapsed into a pile of ashes in 2001 due to off-book accounting and financial fraud.
None-the-less, a group of green billionaires took up the global cap-and-trade challenge, apparently working from the Enron carbon/cap-and-trade scheme model, as reported by Nisbet in 2018. Like Enron, they have funded local and global environmental groups to agitate for policies in countries around the world, favorable to their proposed global cap and trade plan. The plans require a price on carbon with the intention of funding their trillions in vested interests in renewables. Many of these groups are associated with the Tar Sands Campaign that has falsely created “Fear and Loathing” of the Alberta oil sands and driven a downturn in the economy.
Canadians now face an onslaught of Carbonbaggers – the number one being Mark Carney, now UN Climate Czar and former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor. Carney threatens firms with bankruptcy if they do not comply with his demands to report on climate risk and abandon fossil fuel investments.
As Robert Lyman’s new report shows: “Broken Promises: Why Renewables Offer No Resilient Recovery”, Carney is misleading the public and investors on global oil consumption and demand.
Both oil production and consumption have risen by more than one million barrels per day per year since 2012.
• Oil demand is at its highest level in history.
• In absolute terms, oil demand is growing twice as fast as renewables.
• Global oil reserves have risen throughout the period, from 1141 billion barrels in 1998 to 1730 billion barrels in 2018; peak oil is nowhere in sight. That is a 10 million barrel per day increase over the nine years.
• In absolute terms, natural gas is experiencing the fastest rate of growth of all energy sources, almost three times as fast as renewables.
• Natural gas demand is at its highest level in history.
Friends of Science Society says carbon dioxide from human industry is a nominal influence on climate change, known since the 2013 IPCC AR5 report. The fact that financial ‘experts’ like Mark Carney are still pushing the climate-carbon dioxide catastrophe theme constitutes a violation of securities regulations related to ‘material change’. Furthermore, as Roger Pielke, Jr. reports, climate catastrophe scenarios are the product of green billionaires pushing the ‘climate porn’ scenario, which is far from reality or business-as-usual.
“Green” groups in Canada are demanding that the new Canadian Infrastructure Bank be used to finance their green crony capitalist schemes.
Friends of Science Society issued a request for ethics investigation into the development of the Canadian Infrastructure Bank in Nov. 2017. The Conflict of Interest concerns expressed there are still valid in their opinion.
Evidence from Norway to Zimbabwe shows that carbon taxes have no discernible impact on emissions reduction and are simply oppressive to taxpayers and industry. Friends of Science Society says Carbonbaggers should not be using carbon taxes as a means of creating a Canadian climate welfare state, especially not driven by foreign influences, street theatre, and deception.
See “The Roots of Global Warming”.
Friends of Science Society is an independent group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens who are celebrating its 17th year of offering climate science insights. After a thorough review of a broad spectrum of literature on climate change, Friends of Science Society has concluded that the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2).
Featured image by @HeatherLibby
