Category: Random News

Anyone who has heard the original Doctor Who theme knows it was a major event in electronic music. While it seems somewhat simple by today’s standards (probably pretty easy to do with a computer) it was light years ahead of its time when released nearly 40 years ago.

Now a wealth of recordings have been discovered, including some music that would be at home in today’s modern dance clubs.

A hidden hoard of recordings made by the electronic music pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme has been revealed – including a dance track 20 years ahead of its time.

Delia Derbyshire was working in the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop in 1963 when she was given a set of written instructions for a theme tune for a new science fiction series.

Now David Butler, of Manchester University’s School of Arts, Histories and Cultures has revealed for the first time the existence of 267 tapes found in Ms Derbyshire’s attic when she died in 2001.

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Well not necessarily totally blind, but 12 ravers at an outdoor party in Russia are reporting retinal damage following an outdoor party with a big laser light show.

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How To Beat The Claw Game – Watch more free videos]]>

No, she’s not dead yet (I thought the same thing). It’s just that the planning stages for her funeral are underway and according to officials it will be a formal state funeral, not seen since the funeral of Winston Churchill. Thatcher, now 82, is said to be in good health but people are getting ready. From the article (so you don’t have to go to Wikipedia):

In the 19th century, four state funerals were granted to “commoners” – Lord Nelson after his death at Trafalgar, the Duke of Wellington, a prime minister as well as victor over Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo, Lord Palmerston and William Gladstone, both popular inhabitants of No 10.

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A remote island in Alaska had to be evacuated by sea after a the volcano Okmok Caldera erupted, sending a plume of ash and smoke nearly 30,000 feet into the air as this Coast Guard photo shows. More info from the Alaska Volcano Observatory .

A fishing vessel had to rescue 10 people from a remote farm after a Coast Guard rescue helicopter had to put down in Dutch Harbor due to ash and smoke in the air.

The Anchorage Newspaper is also covering this story.

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The on again off again love affair with streetcars in DC is back on again, I think.

The Washington Post is reporting that streetcars should be rolling along a stretch of unused railroad track in Anacostia shortly, serving about 1,400 people a day at a cost of $45 million, which is about $32,000 per passenger. The cars have already been built (well, a few at least) but are stuck in the Czech Republic as the tracks are just not ready yet.

There are plenty of areas that could use streetcars in DC, though Anacostia does not immediately jump to mind as one of them. Making it an option for people to get ‘out of their cars’ should be the goal of most public transit programs, not merely taking people from one form of public transit (buses) and placing them in another (expensive street cars).

But that’s another story.

(and yes, that is a picture of a DC street car in the Czech Republic)

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From Dallas Texas city council meetings.

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon. County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts. Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office. Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.” That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy. Mayfield shot back that it was a figure of speech and a science term.

I mean, WTF? The stupidity level of the world continues to increase. ]]>

guy dancing around the world. The song’s name is Praan and you can order it on Amazon. Stream of Life by Rabindranath Tagore The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures. It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers. It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow. I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment. UPDATE: Here are the words in Bengali from the composer’s blog

Praan Lyrics – Transliteration Some people have asked for this. So here you go. Bhulbona ar shohojete Shei praan e mon uthbe mete Mrittu majhe dhaka ache je ontohin praan Bojre tomar baje bashi She ki shohoj gaan Shei shurete jagbo ami (Repeat 3X) Shei jhor jeno shoi anonde Chittobinar taare Shotto-shundu dosh digonto Nachao je jhonkare! Bojre tomar baje bashi She ki shohoj gaan Shei shurete jagbo ami

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