The Panther Speaks

Thursday Slow Jams I

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 07:07:12 -0400

A long while back, my office mate and I used to have ‘Slow Jam Friday’. It was a great end to the week. I want to bring the tradition back, but I’m working Sundays - Thursdays right now, so Thursdays it will be. I never hear slow jams anymore! Where are they?

1. Gerald Levert: I Was Made To Love You http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17yNzTZgyS8

2. Hall and Oates: One on One http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsxa8d9Tp9s

3. Ginuwine: In Those Jeans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaoq-Mu6XHg&feature=relmfu

4. Atlantic Starr: Love Me Down http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_8EVFETrDQ

5. Tweet: Cigarettes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gavrRte5Wng

6. Rap remixes usually don’t do it for me on the sj tip but I can’t get enough of this remix of MC: We Belong Together http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8SA-72W5iY&feature=fvst feat. Jada and Styles P. It’s not really a slow jam at this new tempo. Whatever.

7. Trey Songz: Neighbors Know My Name http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E98IYokujSY

8. Frank Ocean feat. Andre 3K: Pink Matter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8KoJQChzA8

9. Jeremih: Late Nights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL7rLYn4nl4

10. Ciara feat. Ludacris: Ride http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp6W4aK1sbs

The Luda verse is entirely unnecessary. Most verses on Ciara songs are completely unnecessary.

Samchillian Chip Chip Chip TeeeePee More...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:40:57 -0400

Samchillian Chip Chip Chip TeeeePee

More here: http://www.protomusic.com/innovative/the-samchillian/

mpdrolet: Winds during the Shackleton Expedition, Antarctica,...

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:02:23 -0500

mpdrolet:

Winds during the Shackleton Expedition, Antarctica, c.1915

Frank Hurley

Jokes on jokes on jokes

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:59:11 -0500

Jokes on jokes on jokes

Why #Occupy Will Be Bigger than the Tea Party

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:54:04 -0500

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/11/occupy-vs-tea-party-what-their.html

I’ve been doing some reading on network theory lately and the #occupy movement provides an excellent opportunity for some analysis.

Looking at the network graphs, we see a stark contrast between the two “twitter universes”. The #Occupy movement consists of several hub clusters, with certain figures’ tweets being amplified throughout a small, dense network, then later repeated out to other hub clusters (a network variant of the “People’s microphone”?). But the most striking thing about it is how the inter-connectivity in the #Occupy graph acts as an amplifier. Blue lines represent re-tweets and mutual following, gray lines represent just following. So not only do we have a variety of hub and respective clusters, they seem to be listening to each other. Not everyone is being retweeted, but I’m willing to bet that a closer analysis would reveal that the sources of many of the popular retweets are not major news organizations or existing activists but new people brought up by the movement.

We’re going to see some of those users’ following explode. There’s a theory called “preferential attachment”, which you can think of as a high school popularity contest. Once a network unit reaches a critical number of attachments, whatever they have to say becomes important by the virtue of the fact that everyone knows about it. Inevitably, some of the casual users will be drawn into these hub clusters by becoming impressed with these tweets and following, and unless the amount of available users has been ‘tapped out’ (which I doubt) some of these new followers will bring along hub clusters of their own.

A large criticism of the movement is that it is leaderless and cannot offer concrete demands. This is the strength of #occupy at this stage in the game. Mutual following and the retweeting of information is what draws people into the network. The Tea Party graph, on the other hand, shows what is popularly referred to as an echo chamber. We see a closed system in which mutual following and retweeting is low. In essence, the whole network is a single hub and community, with remarkably less outside links than the #Occupy graph. Since the largest nodes in the network retweet each other AND mutual following and retweeting is low, the likelihood of attracting new hubs is low. In essence, the three major groups are shouting at each other, but they’re not really listening.

What does this mean? There are some caveats to this graph. The sample size is low, and #Occupy is out in force in the real world, while the Tea Party is not organizing the way they used to. The value of a Twitter network as a proxy for real world organization is difficult to determine, particularly as Tea Party members tend to be older and not as tech-focused as the younger #Occupy members. On the other hand, since Twitter is a valuable tool for organizing and can’t really be matched for speed by other technologies (phone, email) #Occupy has the upper hand as far as attracting new members. In political terms, #Occupy has taken on network characteristics similar to an insurgency, where new hubs form and loosely attach themselves to existing ones.

In other words, Twitter matters. It’s not a perfect proxy for network connections, but I suspect that the real-life networks of the movements are similar.

The Tea Party certainly looked this way at first, and I think any sort of political organizing has an insurgent element at the beginning. But by coalescing into an echo chamber (I suspect by trying to gain “legitimacy” through the attachment of Republican Party members and existing fundraising networks) the Tea Party has in effect solidified into a faction, with limited ability to draw in new members.

If Occupy doesn’t let the Democratic Party co-opt it, if police keep macing non-violent protesters, if pictures and tweets and facebook posts continue to fly, this is going to turn into a force to be reckoned with. Don’t centralize, don’t install permanent leaders, make as many decisions by consensus as popular, and continue to talk about it. This thing is going to grow, and grow, and grow, and grow.

Two Essential Books for Understanding the American 20th Century

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:32:00 -0400

“The Clansman” by Thomas Dixon

“Gone with the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell

Some racist, racist shit. Worth reading, important, influential, disgusting. And don’t give me that “important moment for cinema” nonsense for “Gone with the Wind”. Important for racist cinema.

Finished “Gone With the Wind”, the novel. It’s great. Read it. Wow. Yes, it’s racist as hell. And so was America in the 1860s, and the 1930s, and now. You’ll get a whole new perspective.

Occupying

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:21:30 -0400

Just got back to DC, everyone is talking about these new “Occupy” movements sprouting across the country. First of all, what a terrible name. “Occupying Powers” hearkens back to the wrong parts of the 20th century

Can we not call these ‘bread riots’ anymore? Is that phrase too patrician, too imperial, too old-fashioned? I understand that they’re for the most part non-violent, but what we’re looking at here is a bunch of unemployed and underemployed and sympathetic people trying desperately to shake a piggy bank that’s been raided weekly for years now. This is why camping out is such an effective strategy. “Screw you guys, this is my home.”

I bought these kids books at an Arabic book fair in front of Tel...

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:21:40 -0400

I bought these kids books at an Arabic book fair in front of Tel Aviv University. When I told the seller (a student) I was learning Arabic here started laughing and said “You know you can go places where they actually speak Arabic right? Like Jordan?” Which is a fair point, but in my defense, I’m not learning how to speak Arabic but rather read it (and understand news broadcasts and formal speeches) because the formal written version (called fusha) is different from the dialects everyone speaks. Which would still probably be easier in Jordan.

Anyway, it’s taken me a while but here’s what’s going on in Aladdin:

(I couldn’t find the first book so we start in the middle of the story)

The caravan, heavily laden, traveled east, forging through the Sinai desert. The teams assembled after making some headway and a vigorous, middle-aged man led Aladdin away from the group, his beard and sideburns lined with gray, his features forceful and manly, and he said to Aladdin:

“My name is Kemal Addin of Akko (Also Acre, a port city north of Haifa on the coast of Israel), and I have already spent much of my life among the caravans; I bundle together the goods and I tie them up, and I have traveled through the exotic countries in the land of Egypt, and I know and am certain that whosoever dies in a an exotic land dies a martyr; your father has charged me to hurry to you, and he said to me, “When you find yourself in the company of Aladdin and he plays his wondrous oud (an Arabic lute), if you return it safely and victoriously to me you will receive the bonus and honor you deserve.”

I don’t know what happens next but the picture looks like something wild is about to go down:

The Most Important Article You Can Read About "Fundamentalist Islam"

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 08:46:49 -0400

The Most Important Article You Can Read About "Fundamentalist Islam":

“It is an awkward position to be in,” he wrote of his situation. “How can one simultaneously fight against a powerful government, a pervasive and sensationalist-prone media and a group of overzealous, rash youth who are already predisposed to reject your message, because they view you as being a part of the establishment (while, ironically, the ‘establishment’ never ceases to view you as part of the radicals)?”

-Yasir Qadhi, Yale Professor, Islamic Scholar, Salafi

Dogmatic orthodoxy in any cultural diaspora should be understood as a way to maintain identity in an unfamiliar context. Anyone who’s lived abroad recognizes the tiny rituals they maintain from their culture of origin, the obstinate insistence on cooking things a certain way, the nagging need to address others in keeping with one’s internal schema rather than prevailing cultural norms. I

t’s a complicated matter even when one’s schema does not claim universality. My American interpersonal hierarchy recognizes the existence of “Mr.” “Ms. “Miss” “Mrs.” “Sir” “Ma’am” “Professor”. In my studies here in Israel, my instructors are no less “Professor-like”; they lecture from the front of the classroom, often standing while we, the instructed, are seated, selecting students to respond to questions they pose, directing our inquiries, etc. In all of this they are like the majority of American academic instructors - thus it is mentally jarring to address them by their first name, as the power dynamic is identical to a situation in which I would address them by an honorific.

For a system claiming universality, the problem is compounded. In a universal system, principles are expected to apply no matter what the context of the believer. The more similarities that exist, the less difference one discerns from their “home” or “root” schema, the more alarming it is to find deviations, the more tempting it is to resort to confrontation to reconcile these deviations, the more stark the contrast between the “right way” identified with home practices, and the “evils” of the new culture one has been thrust into.

I am unsure if this tension can consistently be resolved in a non-violent fashion. Enforced assimilation presents its own problems which may lead to violent outcomes as well. The most prudent path for the dominant culture is one of conditional acceptance, an approach grounded in recognition and acceptance of difference, but providing strong norms of behavior to which all groups are expected to adhere. The downfall of this approach, of course, is that it requires both state-level and societal engagement on both a group and individual basis, a requirement that approaches the impossible in most countries.

Best Rap feat. Marching Bands

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 06:00:00 -0400

Swizz Beats, Timbo, and Mannie Fresh all over this. All links to youtube.

Ruff Ryders - Down Bottom

Yung Wun - Tear It Up

Petey Pablo - I Told Y’all (From Drumline)

Outkast - Morris Brown

Missy Elliot - We Run This

Young Buck - Get Buck

Mystikal - Bump Me Against The Wall (Ok, a stretch)

Crime Mob - Rock Yo Hips

Shut Up - Trick Daddy feat. Trina (Earworm chorus)

Ying Yang Twins - Halftime

Shawty Lo - They Know

Destiny’s Child - Lose My Breath

C-Murder Feat. Mr. Magic and Snoop - Down for My N’s

Lil Kim feat. Mr. Cheeks - The Jump Off (Blair Marching Band used to kick this every chance we got)

Kanye West - Touch the Sky

Kanye West - Jesus Walks (Chappelle’s Block Party) Look at him standing up there with Common and John Legend, looking like a professor in his houndstooth jacket. What happened Ye?

“The Way, The Truth, The Light, The Drum” Spirit of...

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:52:18 -0500

“The Way, The Truth, The Light, The Drum”

Spirit of Drums (Rebounce) - Lonesome Echo feat. Mutabaruka

Found the superior Sumo rebounce (no synth) on some Sounds of Ibiza-type thing years ago in a record store in Chicago.

Crowd of 200,000 fill Tahrir Square in Cario to watch Yusuf...

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:33:00 -0500

Crowd of 200,000 fill Tahrir Square in Cario to watch Yusuf Al-Qaradawi’s first speech upon his return to Egypt after 50 years in exile. Will this be Qaradawi’s Khomenei moment?

Qaradawi, a widely-respected cleric and spiritual leader of Egypt’s highly influential Muslim Brotherhood praised the cooperation between Coptic Christians and Muslims in the overthrow of the Mubarak regime. The statement, coming on the heels of the deadly Christmastime bombing of a Coptic church may indicate a softening of Qaradawi’s previously antagonistic speeches about the coexistence of Christians and Muslims, but only the future will tell.

Watch Qaradawi on Youtube

On Wisconsin

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 08:13:20 -0500

Premise: America’s educational system keeps sliding downward in international rankings.
Premise: More qualified school teachers will lead to higher-achieving students (see NCLB, 2001)
Premise: In a market economy, higher paying jobs will attract more qualified applicants
Premise: Education is one of the foundations of a liberal democracy, and is the engine of entrepreneurship.

Conclusion: Cut teacher pay and benefits to close budget shortfalls.

Oh, Egypt

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:27:18 -0500

According to the front page of the International Herald Tribune the Egyptian military is working hard to protect its economic interests, including furniture factories and olive oil presses. It seems to me that commentators at the moment have been falling on a left/right divide where the Left praises a new era of openness for the Egyptian people and the Right is convinced that that the Muslim Brotherhood is ready to lay claim to the parliament, put the Christians to the sword and march on Israel.

PREDCTIONS ARE DANGEROUS BUSINESS, BUT HERE GOES:

With a temporary junta ruling the country right now, neither option seems to me as likely as a Turkey-style parliamentary democracy with strong “military consultation”. Hysterics aside, the Muslim Brotherhood claims ~25% of the electorate support. I can see this expanding a bit if the Brotherhood becomes a legal party, but they were not the originators of the protests and do not hold widespread support. They are also not Hezb’allah. While there are some arms floating around the Brotherhood and their members have carried out attacks in the past, they are not a force for popular struggle in the model of the PLO or Hizb’allah. They’re more religious than your mainstream American Republican, but not by a whole lot. Were they Christian they would be Christian Democrats in Germany.

The analogue in the Muslim world, of course (What a problematic and deceiving phrase!) is Erdogan’s RKP, not Hamas or Hizb’allah.

I see a centrist governing coalition with the the Brotherhood and possibly the Wafd at its core. The Wafd was the nationalist party of independence and is at least nominally secular, giving it strong symbolic grounding; if the military chooses a vessel through which to rule this seems a likely candidate. Wafd’s boycott of the elections, along with the Brotherhood, lends them credibility in the eyes of the anti-Mubarak movement.

Reflections on "The Social Network"

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 16:57:42 -0500

Once, proto-electron man lived in the age of darkness. Proto-electron man stumbled through the the World Wide Web alone, lost in a sea of pornographic advertising, webrings, and forums inhabited by sadistic trolls. If he wished his ideas to be known, he could send them through a message carrier to another, trusting that the recipient would be able to make it out through the sea of dread spam.

But one day, Zuckerburg arose among the men. Zuckerberg was not like other men; He wished to see proto-electron man reach his potential. No longer, He said, did he wish to see mankind drift aimlessly through the World Wide Web; nor would he be lured into the dens of trolls if he wished his voice to be heard. And Zuckerberg did bring Facebook into the world, enacting a covenant with his people the Harvardians, and the Harvardians entered into covenant with Zuckerberg, and it was good. Thus the Harvardians did proselytize the Word of Zuckerberg unto the Yalites and the Stanfordians and the Boston Universitim. And soon did his good word spread, enveloping the land from flannel-splashed halls of Tacoma, Washington to the beer-frothed floors of Miami, from gathering to gathering until there was nary a soul who did not belong to this covenant, and Zuckerberg looked down upon that which he had created, and deemed it good.

For Zuckerberg was a benevolent master; he asked not for sacrifice nor tribute; he asked only for that which all men gave freely and easily: information. Before the mighty edifice of Facebook had been erected mankind thought little of its information, for though all possessed it, no one had mastered its collection and harnessing. And so the people, not knowing what they had bequeathed unto Him granted Him more, creating the icon of the “Profile Picture” and keeping Him and His agents abreast of their statuses.

And so Zuckerberg and his Facebook expanded, and the rosary of the iPhone was added to the paraphanalia of His cult, and his worshippers could be seen thumbing them, deep in thought. And they did use them upon the buses and in the cars, and yea, upon the subways. And in places where the call of Facebook did not reach they petitioned their temporal masters, until monuments to the iPhone were built that did deliver Facebook to them once again, even underground.

Picture Story

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:57:00 -0500

I don’t know who that guy is but he’s standing in front of my bar

In former times if you died alone your cat would eat you. Now your television will.

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 07:49:03 -0500

In former times if you died alone your cat would eat you. Now your television will.

Just got through with this blue little number

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:07:05 -0500

Quick read, sheds light on the difficulties of formulating systemic values (among others) when ignoring or misinterpreting a large swath of cultural inheritance. Foucault gets some much-needed re-reading regarding his construction of The West as a closed system, and the examination of Orhan Pamuk and Salman Rushdie’s work as Orientalist texts is interesting if not fully convincing. Almond manages to avoid discussions of authenticity and instead focuses on the crafting of lenses and frameworks through conscious and unconscious repetition of tropes.

Also Julia Kristeva gets shellacked.

Graffiti I have seen. DC, The Wall in Bethlehem, San Jose (Costa...

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 10:38:45 -0500

Graffiti I have seen.

DC, The Wall in Bethlehem, San Jose (Costa Rica)

I like the direction Precious Moments has taken lately.

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 10:29:02 -0500

I like the direction Precious Moments has taken lately.