TellSpec and SCiO are about to release devices which will allow you “to get instant relevant information about the chemical make-up of just about anything around you.

Four examples of music that take a decidedly
different spin on the holidays. by Corbin Smith

Over the years, the recording industry has managed to create Christmas music for every mood. Thousands of sad piano takes on "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts Roasting Over an Open Fire), the pure pop joy of Mariah Carey belting out “All I want for Christmas is you,” the simple, light brain damage you get from a loud, irritating version of “Sleigh Ride.” But what about when you are in a VERY particular mood? When the season has transported you into one of life’s bizarre gutters, left you in such a particular place where you need a very particular sort of Christmas music to haul you out of it? For you, for this, I offer this guide to Christmas music for truly any mood. 

••••

For when you and your fellow teenage orphans—residents of a foster home owned by kindly old women in deep with the bank— just pulled off the Christmas Eve heist of the century to pay her mortgage and are tipping back a big ol’ glass of hot cider while looking over Portland: Bob Dylan, Christmas in the Heart

A few years back, Bob Dylan, our truest and most loving uncle, made a Christmas album. Surface analysis: it’s weird he did that. Deeper analysis: it’s not actually weird, because Bob admires folk music and the Great American Songbook, and Christmas music is a canon built from both. Even deeper analysis: it’s still pretty weird, because it’s weird to listen to Bob Dylan unleashing his signature late career Warm Croak on Christmas songs you’ve been inundated with your entire life.

But when you get past the sheer novelty of King Gravel intoning “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” a song made famous by Judy Garland, you remember that, oh yeah, Bob Dylan is one of history’s greatest musicians, and offers a wealth of feeling, warmth and energy—even (especially) when he’s pursuing a strange muse. His “Must Be Santa,” anchored by a loud accordion and augmented by a rechristening of the reindeer as post-war presidents, is pure jalopy shit—a sound of the Christmas gathering flying apart at the seams as candy-ridden children roam through the hallway and shove each other into toilets. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” is a standard ‘50s pop music take, lifted into something transcendent by Bob’s presence behind the microphone. “Winter Wonderland” and “Christmas Island” presents an alternate world Dylan, one more into vibing and tipping back, as opposed to an artist with an endless appetite for work and startling discipline.

The best song on here is Bob’s version of “Do You Hear What I Hear.” He is, after all, an old wise man now, wandering through deserts, handing out gifts. His intonation on “A child, a child/Sleeping in the night/He will bring us goodness and light,” is struck through with a warmth and sincerity that you don’t associate with Trickster Bob. Is it a performance of awe, trying to capture a world that still had some sense of the divine? Is it a true wonder in the potential of the child, a hope for the future? Is it just a straightforward exaltation of Christ himself? You can never really know with Bob, of course, but it stirs.

••••

For when your company—an international logistics concern—sent you on a last minute overseas business trip over Christmas, and you stroll the streets alone and alienated on Christmas Eve, until you walk into a fancy cocktail bar and lock eyes with another disaffected expat at the bar: Duke Ellington, The Nutcracker Suite

Did you know that Duke isn’t his real name? You see, when Duke Ellington was a child, everyone who lived in his neighborhood thought he seemed like minor royalty, and just started calling him Duke as a result. That was how smooth this man was, folks. But it would not have meant much if the Duke was not also a world historic musical genius. A bandleader, composer, a thinker, whose work brought a formal precision and imagination to jazz that changed the enterprise forever, transmuting it from an outgrowth of blues into the great American musical form.

One of the ways that Duke built this new form was taking forays into classical music, breaking apart or injecting the classical canon with improvisation and swing time, or likewise, taking the forms of classical music and overlaying them with original compositions informed by his lifetime as an orchestra leader working in a jazz idiom. In Duke’s hands, genre distinctions, of dance music or concert music, become wobbly, fall off the boat, drown in the ocean of his genius, and are reborn into an object of pure American greatness. 

In 1960, Duke, riding a popular revival as newfangled bebop artists codified his importance in their own development, worked with Billy Strayhorn—his longtime arranging partner—to break apart Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker suite, perhaps the most famous piece of dance music ever composed, and reforge it into this album, which takes Pytor’s famous melodies and remakes them into nine swing numbers. 

“The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy,” all ethereal glockenspiels in the ballet, becomes “Sugar Rum Cherry,” a terribly horny reforging that asks a question that would not occur to you otherwise: What if I kind of want to fuck the Sugar Plum Fairy? “The Nutcracker March” is now “Peanut Brittle Brigade,” a New Orleans parade of nutcracker men. “Chinoiserie,” the Duke’s version of “The Chinese Dance,” loosens up the source material to the point where it sounds like something someone might actually dance to as opposed to the Tchaikovsky original, bloodless to the point of making its subject seem alien.

••••

For when you’re driving home from your family’s yearly Christmas gathering—which was good, for the most part, but your Aunt Shelly got WAY too blitzed on eggnog and hot toddies and vomm’d in the backyard: Wynton Marsalis, Crescent City Christmas Card

There’s a lot to know about Wynton Marsalis, the trumpeter, band leader, and academic, who has long represented a kind of traditionalist approach to jazz performance and composition that can maybe seem a little square. And while I personally don’t know a lot about Marsalis, I do know about this album, a suite of Christmas standards he released in 1989. A lot of it is fairly standard jazz takes on Christmas classics: a trumpet playing a slightly off-kilter rendition of “Winter Wonderland,” a brassy vocal take on “Sleigh Ride,” “Carol of the Bells” with the forward momentum of the death chant replaced by laconic swing music jamming, and “Jingle Bells,” with a li’l woodblock that brings horse evocations to the party. 

But some of it is insane—insane in a way that makes you wonder what Wynton is trying to get out. Take this album’s version of “Silent Night”: a standard female vocal, trilling and ethereal, but set to a backdrop of woozy, uncertain horns, that give the thing a vaguely creepy vibe. What does it mean to set a hymn of the infant Christ in front of trumpets that suggest a danger lurking on the horizon? Is it an evocation of Herod’s men in the field, looking for the child so he may butcher any competition for his spot at the top of Israel’s local government? Is it broadcasting uncertainty about the future of this child’s life, over the fanaticism he would come to embrace, the horror of his violent death? Is it a way of juxtaposing the sentimental story of Jesus’ birth with the world of unease and terror that would form in his wake? 

Why would someone make a version of “Little Drummer Boy” that seems to intentionally bury the drums in the mix? Trumpeter’s jealousy? What does a laid back swing version of “We Three Kings” mean? That the kings were cool? Were they cool? I have never thought about it, really. By insisting that he press as much jazz shit as possible into these standards, Wynton runs up against the idea of these things as content about Christmas and into the idea of them as forms.

••••

For when she took the kids home after their mandatory Christmas Eve visit and you have wandered out into the cold night, purchased a six pack of Rolling Rock and a bottle of Mad Dog, and—two brewskies and five sips of fortified in—you plop down in the arched, gothic-style doorway of a neighborhood church, and just sit there, sipping and watching the rain come in, wondering when and how it all went so wrong: Benjamin Britten, Ceremony of Carols

20th Century British Composer Benjamin Britten was a sad man who made beautiful music. Ceremony of Carols is a song cycle for boys choir and solo harp, written on a boat coming back to England during the middle of World War II, when U-Boats were scouring the ocean, looking to send boats full of British guys plunging into the icy ocean. It takes a bunch of old Christmas and Baby Jesus related poems in various languages, sets them to music, and goes at it hard as hell. It’s beautiful, it’s faintly sad, it’s everything you need for a Christmas where the disappointments of the year fight against the idea of a wee babe, born in a barn, bringing hope into the world. NOT FOR LIGHT LISTENING, but essential for any soul slipping into darkness. 

[Politics] :
The Supreme Court has upheld a suspended prison term for former Rep. Youn Mee-hyang, who was convicted of embezzling donations to an advocacy group for South Korean victims of sexual slavery during World War II. On Thursday the top court upheld the 18-month sentence, suspended for three years, after ...

[more...]

When plastic debris meets coral

Sticky solution to the places on the body that are difficult to bandage up

I have spent many years as the boss and fully realize how many critical items we are responsible for and how much attention that requires. Unfortunately, as the boss, you forget about your own personal safety. My No. 1 concern is for you, the contractor — for your safety and that of your managers and all your employees.

The title of one Thursday session at ASSE’s Safety 2013: “Why Every Safety Professional/Manager Must Understand the Ideas of Peter F. Drucker,” presented by Jay C. Brakensiek, CSP, MSIH, EMBA, Claremont University Consortium, Claremont, CA. Brakensiek was a former student of Professor Drucker, considered the “Father of Management.”

I'm entranced by old technologies being rediscovered, repurposed, and reinvented. Just think, the term artificial intelligence (AI) entered the language in 1956 and you can trace natural language processing (NLP) back to Alan Turing's work starting in 1950. Text analytics has its antecedents in data mining. Data mining itself has a long history, all the way back to Thomas Bayes, who died in 1761, and his eponymous theorem that still informs algorithms regarding inference, probability, and predictions.

Preset (Everyday) + transform + exposure + graduated filter + radial filter. If shots like this take more than 2 minutes to edit, it’s probably not worth editing. ⏱
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Boxing Day will be the last day to get my Lightroom presets discounted, which leaves you only 3 more days! Get on it! ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)

Merry Xmas everyone! It’s giveaway time! ????????
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Thank you to all those who participated in my preset giveaway this week! The support makes all the hard work and extra effort worth it!
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Without further ado, the randomly drawn winners of my custom Lightroom presets are @l9lee @rchellau @bokeh.jay! Congrats and check your DMs soon for details! ????
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You still have until tomorrow to grab my presets (which this shot was edited with) for 50% off! They’ll be going back to regular price after so don’t miss out! ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)

I’ve gone subway hopping for photos in every city I’ve been to except the one I live in. ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)

I took this shot about a year ago when I had a very different editing style. A ton of faded blacks and, believe it or not, a subtle green tint (unknowingly inherited from the preset I was using at the time). Re-editing it now, I’m happy with the way my style has evolved, though I can already sense that I’m on the brink of evolving it again. And I’m okay with that. ???? (at London, United Kingdom)

Leading global consulting, technology and professional services company, Capgemini, has opened its new Melbourne Global Delivery Centre and Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud services Lab. The French multinational operates in 44 countries around the world and offers a range of integrated services in the business sector.

• Fed will 'most likely' need more cuts but should 'proceed cautiously'
• If Fed cuts too far past neutral, inflation could re-acclerate
• Difficult to know how many Fed rate cuts may be needed, and how soon they need to happen
• Fed has made a great deal of progress in bringing inflation down
• Fed not quite back to price stability yet
• US economic activity is resilient
• Labor market cooling gradually but not weakening materially
• Sees upside risk to inflation, downside risk to employment, says financial conditions may pose biggest challenges for monetary policy
• If bond yields continue to rise, the Fed may need less-restrictive policy

Logan last spoke in late October and wasn't quite this hawkish. I think the Fed cuts in December but takes a pause after that and waits to see how things play out.

TASHKENT, 21 September 2015 – An OSCE-organized week-long training course for Uzbek law enforcement bodies on identifying and tracing illegitimate assets and the various instruments of asset forfeiture and recovery began today in Tashkent.

Experts from the Basel Institute of Governance will share international best practices with senior representatives in charge of international legal co-operation and the fight against corruption and money laundering within the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Interior and other law enforcement bodies.

“The ability to launder ill-acquired assets outside of the jurisdiction of their country of origin is one of the major enablers of corrupt behaviours,” said Ambassador Gyorgy Szabo, Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan. “This is why the OSCE regards the identification and recovery of illegitimate assets, no matter where they might be hidden, as a crucial element of the fight against corruption.”

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan organized the training course jointly with the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation, the Basel Institute of Governance and the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan.

During the course, participants will also learn about the mechanisms of international mutual legal assistance and how they can be used during anti-corruption investigations.

Related Stories

• OSCE supports roundtable discussion in Uzbekistan on a methodology for assessing money-laundering and terrorism-financing risks
• OSCE organizes Regional Conference on Horticultural Trade in Tashkent
• OSCE Project Co-ordinator lights up central Tashkent with 20 solar-powered street lamps

VIENNA / WARSAW, 29 July2016 – To combat human trafficking,  a comprehensive, co-ordinated and victim-centred approach that includes creating opportunities for regular and safe migration, as well as protecting the human rights of migrants, is urgently needed by all state actors, civil society and multilateral organizations, said senior OSCE officials today ahead of World Anti-Trafficking Day on 30 July.

Multiple and complex security challenges such as armed conflict, the spread of violent extremism and radicalization leading to terrorism and climate change, have recently pushed millions of people into mass, mixed migration flows throughout the OSCE region, putting an increasing number of  them at risk of being trafficked.

OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier emphasized that “effective and early identification of potential victims and the fight against the impunity of perpetrators need to be at the core of any resilient security governance strategy. This is particularly important within the context of mixed migration flows, which expose already vulnerable individuals to trafficking syndicates.”   

“Human trafficking is a grave violation of the human rights of its victims – human beings who are exploited, most often for profit,” said Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). “A victim-centred approach, placing the protection of all human rights at the heart of efforts to prevent and end trafficking, is essential if we are to ensure that anti-trafficking measures do not further threaten the safety, dignity and rights of those we are responsible to help and protect.”

OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings Madina Jarbussynova stressed that crisis situations are placing strenuous challenges on already vulnerable groups within and around the OSCE region. “As we join the efforts of the United Nations on this World Day against Trafficking in Persons to raise awareness and promote the protection of rights and dignity of all, any protective measures should first and foremost be conducted in the best interest of potential victims, especially amongst irregular migrants, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and unaccompanied minors.” Focusing on the complex nexus between trafficking and conflict situations, Ambassador Jarbussynova will on Monday start a week-long official visit to Ukraine to raise awareness of human trafficking threats.  

Related Stories

• OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Steinmeier and Secretary General Zannier offer condolences on passing of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel
• OSCE Secretary General and Europol Director discuss need to address threat of trafficking children migrants
• Strong multilateral institutions, confidence-building instruments key in addressing divisions, say participants of OSCE Security Days in Berlin

Click the $4.07 coupon + 10% off with sub & save to get the final price. $1.20 cheaper than prime day $14.04 and the $17.54 deal in September.

Cheaper than the usual 1/2 price specials by some margin, eg Woolworths 1/2 price $19.75.

15% off selected (looks like most) Ubiquiti products as part of early Black Friday deals.

Highlighted in the promo email:

• Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Router - All-in-one WiFi 6 router USG 2x PoE Output - $390.15
• Ubiquiti UniFi G5 Turret Ultra Tamper-resistant IK04 IP66 Weatherproof 2K HD PoE Camera - $168.30
• Ubiquiti UniFi U6+ WiFi 6 Dual-Band 2x2 Access Point (No PoE Injector) - $147.9
• Ubiquiti UDM SE Dream Machine Special Edition 8x Gbe PoE RJ45 Ports 3.5inch HDD Bay - $798.15
• Ubiquiti UniFi Protect G4 Doorbell Pro PoE Kit with Chime - $632.40
• Ubiquiti UniFi WiFi 7 U7-Pro Access Point 9.3 Gbps Over-the-air Speed PoE+ Powered - $271.15

Cheap… bought 1 found it sturdy, ordered 2 extra spares.
Quick Lock Button
Air Vent Clip Option Included
Super Sticky Suction Cup
Secure your device effortlessly with the quick-lock button and super sticky suction cup. Enjoy versatile placement options with the included air vent clip. Stay connected and in control on the road with Click's adjustable car holder.

Very nice price drop for these tissues. Works out to be $1.35 per box. Enjoy!

• Made with 3 ply tissue for extra thickness. Kind to noses and perfect for make-up removal, mopping up small spills and wiping away tears
• Quilton Hypo-allergenic tissues are dermatologically tested to be extra gentle on sensitive skin
• Created with a unique combination of strength and softness
• Country of Origin: Australia
• Come in a variety of designs ( actual box design may vary from the ones shown here)
• Manufactured using FSC certified forest resources – your guarantee you are supporting forest sustainability for future generations

Good deal for < $700: AMD Ryzen 5 5625U scores 14,918 on PassMark

1% surcharge for card & PayPal payments.

HP 255 G9 Silver Laptop, AMD Ryzen 5 5625U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 15.6inch FHD IPS, Radeon Graphics, GbE, WiFi 6, BT 5.3, HD Cam, 41Wh Batt, 1.74 kg, Win11 Home, HP 1 Year Onsite Warranty

Says free shipping to Available to Metro areas only

Please follow title guidelines — Mod.

Original Coupon Deal

This is a decent price for one of my go to filaments for my BambuLab P1S.

SUNLU 3D Printer filament: Buy 6 Get 4 Free(Add 10) 10kg PETG From AU$120.4, 10KG PLA for about $135.4

I purchased the PLA 2.0 which cost about $150
but not sure how much better it is yet.

if you buy 10 rolls of PETG in black and white, each roll costs just $12.04 AUD.

The PLA comes to $13.54 AUD per roll and the PLA+ is priced at $14.19 AUD.

You need the CBT20 code as mentioned.

The shipping was very fast I got it within 3 days.

I’m very happy with my purchase, I compared to AliExpress and this seemed the best deal as far as flexibility in colours, a brand I like and fast shipping.

This popular deal is back. Ripper of a deal with S&S!

Limit of 2 per customer.

Great special if your old Knives block is dull and rusted like mine. I got it through Click & Collect to get rid of the delivery fee. Extra 20% off the sale price which brings down to $104. Bargin..

First time poster, so please take it easy on me if ive done any mistakes with the post.

Just bought these from WestCoast Hifi & customer service been prompt and awesome. I have put some features below which i pulled from the website but I don’t think you can go wrong.

Key Features

• 2-way 9.2 mm Dynamic Drive Unit with Balanced Armature
• Up to 5 hours battery for earbuds. Additional 16 hours from charging case
• True 24-bit audio connection with Adaptive Active Noise Cancelling
• Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX™ Adaptive technology
• Audio retransmission from charging case

Cheapest I believe by a long way. Similar price to the xe75 set

Micron Technology, Inc. (MU): Citi Analyst Recommends Buy as Semiconductor Selloff Nears Completion, Market Recovery Expected in 2025  Yahoo Finance

These ads aren't selling anything; they're coming for your data instead.

Amazon just dropped a new lineup of Kindles. I reviewed the 2024 Kindle Paperwhite, and it's the best e-reader out there.

Google – When you search for “kerning”, every instance of the word has a large amount of kerning.

[CW: strong, bleak/dark/violent humour, profanity] Frankie Boyle's American Autopsy was recorded shortly after the 2016 US election, and includes contributions from guests Sara Pascoe, Katherine Ryan, Michelle Wolf, Desiree Burch, and (unfortunately) Richard Osman. The show is based around three propositions concerning America, voted on by Americans in the audience. Link originally from a late 2016 post.

CNN contributor and former Obama adviser Van Jones said Wednesday on CNN's "Newsroom" that President-elect Donald Trump's pick of Fox News host Pete Hegseth as the next secretary of defense is "very alarming."

The post Van Jones: Fox News Host Running the Military Is ‘Very Alarming’ appeared first on Breitbart.

President-elect Donald Trump formally announced Wednesday that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is his pick for secretary of state. Trump issued a press release confirming numerous media reports that indicated Rubio would be chosen for the critical role. “Marco is a

The post Trump Confirms He Will Nominate Marco Rubio as His Secretary of State: ‘A Very Powerful Voice for Freedom’ appeared first on Breitbart.

County Court Judge Corinne Magid found prosecutors missed discovery deadlines multiple times and did not tell defense attorneys about a witness’ exculpatory testimony until the day before a jury trial was set to begin.

Featuring Colin Edwin, Pat Mastelotto, Lorenzo Esposito Fornasari, and Carmelo Pipitone.

"I've just been screwing around making weird music with it."

American Idol Season 22 Runner-Up, Will Moseley is set to release 'Everything But Me' December 6

In the locker room, players came to Forsyth’s defense with similar intensity.

By Eli Yudin Published: November 13th, 2024

By Keegan Kelly Published: November 13th, 2024

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”—James Madison Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unadulterated power in any branch of government is a menace to freedom, but concentrated power across …

The San Antonio Spurs say veteran coach Gregg Popovich is "expected to make a full recovery" after he suffered a mild stroke earlier this month.

Wales boss Craig Bellamy explains how his assistant coach, ex-Manchester City analyst Piet Cremers, has influenced "everything" he does.

Israel suffered one of the deadliest days of its ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon when six of its soldiers were killed in combat near the border.

As Rory McIlroy's nearest challenger for the season-long Race to Dubai title, South African golfer Thriston Lawrence is looking to make history at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai this week.

The food delivery app Wonder Wednesday announced it has bought Grubhub in a $650 million dollar combination debt and cash deal.