Mr Quiet's blog

BBC News - The myth of the eight-hour sleep #health #science

via www.bbc.co.uk

We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.

Why Quantum Theory Is So Misunderstood - Speakeasy - WSJ #science

via blogs.wsj.com

I recently gave a lecture, screened on the BBC, about quantum theory, in which I pointed out that “everything is connected to everything else”. This is literally true if quantum theory as currently understood is not augmented by new physics. This means that the subatomic constituents of your body are constantly shifting, albeit absolutely imperceptibly, in response to events happening an arbitrarily large distance away; for the sake of argument, let’s say on the other side of the Universe.

Maybe the most beautiful music ever #youtube #music #video #nowplaying #mahler

via www.youtube.com

Uploaded by DeutschlandRocks on Jul 31, 2009
The sound level is too low, turn your volume up!

Gustav Mahler: The last 10 minutes from the Finale of his 10th Symphony.

That symphony is unfinished, only a torso. Written in 1910/ 1911. The Mahler-experts Deryck Cook and Berthold Goldschmidt created this performing version of that torso, you're listening here. Performed by the Berliner Sinfonieorchester, the conductor is Kurt Sanderling.

For me the whole symphony, especially the Finale, is the most beautiful music ever known. That last 10 minutes start after a shocking dissonant climax of bitterness, when the strings and horns turn the hard emotions down again.

Frederick Delius: Summer Night on the River #music #quiet

via i12bent.tumblr.com

Touched by a Wild Mountain Gorilla (HD Version)

via www.youtube.com

An amazing chance encounter with a troop of wild mountain gorillas near Bwindi National Park, Uganda

Charles Limb: Building the musical muscle

via www.youtube.com

Uploaded by TEDtalksDirector on Dec 1, 2011
http://www.ted.com Charles Limb performs cochlear implantation, a surgery that treats hearing loss and can restore the ability to hear speech. But as a musician too, Limb thinks about what the implants lack: They don't let you fully experience music yet. (There's a hair-raising example.) At TEDMED, Limb reviews the state of the art and the way forward.

Charpentier - Depuis Le Jour from Louise

   

Three versions of the aria "Depuis Le Jour" from Gustave Charpentier's opera "Louise".

Maria Callas is Maria Callas, full of emotion but with a tendency to over "wobble" on the high notes.

Kiri Te Kanawa is very precise and has a wonderful voice but for me the Leontyne Price version taken from the Derek Jarman contribution to the 1987  film "Aria" is exquisite and by far my preferred version.

Happy Birthday, Stephen Sondheim - Video Library - The New York Times

Happy Birthday, Stephen Sondheim - Video Library - The New York Times

Murmuration #video #starlings #amazing

via vimeo.com

A chance encounter and shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena.

TateShots: Turner Prize 2011, George Shaw

via www.youtube.com

Uploaded by tate on Oct 20, 2011
Painter George Shaw is one of the nominees for the Turner Prize 2011.
For almost two decades his subject matter has been the place in which he grew up, a housing estate in Coventry and the surrounding streets. Every detail is scrupulously captured in Humbrol enamel paint, the kind of paint used by children on Airfix model kits.

Shaw's paintings are full of nostalgia for a lost childhood and exude a sense of time passing. More recently he has focused on the grim urban decay that is slowly infecting the local area.

The Turner Prize is a contemporary art award that was set up in 1984 to celebrate new developments in contemporary art. The prize is awarded each year to 'a British artist under fifty for an outstanding exhibition
or other presentation of their work in the twelve months preceding'.