Wednesday, March 7, 2018

The Shepard tone

Being a lawyer in Wisconsin sucks today.  Why?  Because in Utah the State Bar accidentally sent a very tasteful (really it was) photo of a topless woman to every lawyer  in the State.  They were advertising their annual spring convention and OOPS - BOOBS!!!  Well - I can see that convention getting a lot more lawyers attending this year.

NOT the breast move! 

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The Brewers are deep deep into analytics and sabrmetricts with David Stearns at the helm.  He is one of 12 GMs that obsesses over numbers and moneyballishness.  Notice how the Brewer scoreboard no longer has AVG next to players. It has been replaced with OPS which is on-base pct (OB) and slugging pct (SLG) added together to create a much more meaningful number.  AVG has been proven to be sort of a meaningless stat and is going the route of pitcher Wins and Saves as meaningless. 

Sorry sorry - thinking baseball as our draft starts THIS MORNING and will last the next 3 weeks. 24 teams 20 rounds. Face to face it would take a while but since we are dealing with managers in three countries  . . . . it's a long process.    I have pick #17 later tonight I think. 

Sadly pick #1 is in Tacoma and he is not even up yet.

On that note there are 12 MLB GMs that have never actually played the game in college, minors or majors and are statistically driven.  Their combined winning percentage last year was .514.  

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Anybody have an Alexa?  There is an issue all of a sudden with Alexa's  - spontaneous and at random creepy chuckles.  Middle of the night all of a sudden without warning Alexa chuckles out of the blue and goes to sleep again!   People are freaking LOL. 

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3.5 inches of snow in the storm and another 0.5 last night that will evaporate away today in the sun.  We are in for a week or quiet below average temp's.  The average high is about 40 now.  I can't see us getting above average at least until NEXT Thursday. That's OK.  Anything about 30 feels good to me now.

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Has anybody seen Dunkirk? We have the DVD but have not seen it yet.  My brother saw it and  said it was REALLY stressful - but here is a trick they used to make it even MORE stressful. 

The Beatles have used it, Pink Floyd (Echoes and Meddle) has used it, Batman movies have used it and Super Mario has it.  . . . it's called The Shepard Tone and is ingenious.

It consists of several tones separated by an octave layered on top of each other. As the lowest bass tone starts to fade in, the higher treble tone fades out. Then once the bass is all the way in and the treble is all the way out, it loops back again. Because you can always hear at least two tones rising in pitch at the same time, your brain gets tricked into thinking that the sound is constantly ascending in pitch.
            
If you want to hear what this sounds like go here - WARNING - his sound can cause anxiety and panic attacks. If you suffer from either of these conditions, do not listen to this sound generator.

https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/shepardAudioIllusionToneGenerator.php

There was a show on PBS about why many consider Sgt Pepper the greatest album ever created. They went into the science behind all the songs and I was amazed at what they found.   "A Day In The Life" has something like The Shepard tone on that last chord.

I had only listened to the album for entertainment but seeing how the scientific community was all crazy about the album.  I need to find that program again.

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For some bizarre reason I did not know Alderman Rule is stepping down from his Aldermanship.  This literally saddens me as I really appreciated his involvement in the city process and we are losing a good one.

VOTE ANDY TRAXLER

Artist recreation (?? sp?) of what a bus COULD look like 

VOTE JASON THEILAND - he needs to buy bus  :-)

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Seems the blue wave is a real thing but it's different in every state.  Wisconsin seems to be the 6th  biggest blue wave behind Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, and Pennsylvania.

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McDonalds brought out their new burger yesterday in 3,500 locations!  FRESH MEAT.  Not frozen.  Not here in Columbus yet but by May all the equipment will be switched out for no more frozen patties staying warm under a heat lamp.  Each burger will be fresh grilled (like Culvers).

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There is a new book out about what people SHOULD eat after 10 years of research and like 30,000 people taking part.

It is better to eat pizza in the morning then cereal.  Milk is a marketing ploy and really does not do THAT much good for you. Red meat is not bad at all and actually better then chicken.  Of course fat is not a bad thing at all. SUGAR is!

And more but did you know that carrots do not help your eyes at all?  The whole carrot thing comes from WWII when the British were hiding radar.  They said their planes could see at night because their pilots were eating carrots.  Carrots were the one food there was plenty of in WWII.

So all of a sudden carrots were a big thing. There is absolutely zero link between carrots and eye site. It's all marketing.

Nuff said