I collect old microphones and I came across this interesting stereo mic on a collector’s website. It is designed to give accurate stereo recordings by making the mic into the form of a human head with realistically shaped ears for the receiving sections.
Of course, it is a dumb idea, but beautifully implemented
“The KU 100 is a human head replica with microphones inside of the ears. It is used for binaural pick-up to create the most realistic stereo recordings. This third-generation design is loudspeaker compatible, and accurately reproduces ambient acoustics with information about distance, direction, and perspective. It offers exceptional speech intelligibility in noisy environments. Applications for the KU 100 include radio drama, special effects for film, outdoor nature recordings, acoustic evaluation, and scientific research. The KU 100 package includes the head, IC 5 (10 meter) extension cable, AC 20 adapter cable, internal battery supply, external AC power supply unit and aluminum carrying case. The microphone can be powered by external phantom power or by an internal battery supply. Thus, remote location recording is possible with only a minimum of extra accessories.”
Erica spent a good chunk of her childhood on roller skates cruising the sidewalks of the New York’s East Village. She was very disappointed when they moved up to the burbs and there were no sidewalks and the roads were covered with tarred gravel. I bet there was a time when I could have talked her into trying out for the Roller Derby. They are having tryouts this September.
I’ve often thought of shanghaiing my brother Larry and cousin Bob and going down to Yonkers to watch a match. I am a little concerned because Yonkers has so many really bad neighborhoods. I think it would be fun, but I’d insist on taking Larry’s car.
There are a bunch of funny stories about the art on this North Broadway storefront. John B. met the artist in a bar in Nyack and wanted her to come to poker. She was all for it, except Jim didn’t want any 20 somethings at the poker table. My mother had some strong opinions about the paint job, as did my aunts.
I, for one, would have liked some new blood (and money) at the poker table. I am not that impressed with the art work, but I think that the village overreacted. The whole situation is much more 1969 than 2009.
John Shirley is one of my favorite writers. I just finished his latest book Bleak History.
Bleak History is a fantasy novel that has its roots in SF type fantasy such a Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife and Heinlein’s Magic Incorporated. Bleak History has quite a bit in common Poul Anderson’s Operation Chaos books. It has that sense of wonder that is characteristic of the best Science Fiction, and it will sit on my bookshelf with the books that I will read again and again.
I am now aware that the current dropdown menu has issues where the underlying elements bleed through and prevent the menu from being clicked. It works great in firefox, but is deadly in IE7. I am tempted to upgrade to IE8, but that is not a good solution.
I apologize to visitors who are having a hard time with it. At various times today, as I get a chance to work on it, you may see the entire site broken.
I have a Google alert on my name. Every time Keith Graham comes up in the news I get an email. There are rugby players, hairdressers, even a web page designer that share my name.
One Keith Graham writes for newspapers in and around Atlanta. I saw the title Reasons to Oppose Health Care Reform in a news page called “Like the Dew, A Journal of Southern Culture and Politics”, and I figured that some Keith was disgracing the name. Then I read the article. The article is 10 really dumb reasons to avoid health care reform:
1) You are so rich and so sure that you always will be that you don’t even need medical insurance.
and 9 others.
I like the last one:
10) You think voting against your best interest is cool.
If you read the article, make sure you read the discussion at the end – they are very good. The anti-health care factions all sound like they wear tin foil hats.
Well, I’ll let this guy into the brotherhood of Keith Grahams. He did a good job, except for the misleading headline, but that was meant to be ironic, and we Americans, as is often said, have trouble with irony.
About the author (the other) Keith Graham (not me): (this other) Keith Graham lives in Atlanta most of the time and on St. Simons Island on Georgia’s coast the rest. Like so many Southerners, Keith was named for a blind piano player, who is now little remembered, and he spent his earliest years living with his parents in the back rooms of a small-town Georgia radio station. Later, he moved to several other states, including North Carolina twice, before returning to Georgia. He has worked for a series of newspapers, including The Atlanta Journal and Constitution from 1979 to 2007.
A friend of mine joined facebook because his significant other is gravely ill with cancer. He uses his wall to keep friends and family informed. It is very sad. He moved her into a hospice last week and then married her in a bedside ceremony. They have been living together for about 30 years, but they decided to make it official.
At first, I thought that it was not a good idea to make things so public, but I think it saves him from having to repeat sad news to dozens of people, and so makes a hard time a little easier. I am painfully aware that I have no idea how to express something comforting. I am very afraid that I will do or say something wrong (even this post is probably a bad idea). He is mostly an internet acquaintance and I’ve only met him a few times face to face, but we have many good friends in common. I met his wife once at a Blues concert.
I made some changes to the home page and the blog. My intent was to improve the navigation. Of course, I wound up changing the wrong elements and, as of 10 minutes ago, the blog is totally screwed. Since the blog is so big it takes 15 minutes to republish it and any mistakes I make are bound to be seen by a few people.
My weeks of traffic glory are now over. Stumbleupon no longer sends me traffic and the BoingBoing link is not sending any new surfers. Inexplicably my Google Page Rank is now down to 1 on the blog and 3 on the home site. This makes no sense unless I somehow offended the Google Gods. I am worried that my eBay pages, which make a good chunk of money, have somehow polluted the site.
My traffic is back to pre-stumbleupon rates plus about 30%. Gone are the days of 1,500+ viewers a day. I’m back to normal. I did notice that people explore more of the site, which is nice. The average person is looking at 4 or more pages, and that is phenomenal.
The reason that I redid the navigation menus is that I want to see this trend of surfers actually reading pages keep going up.
Hunter S. Thompson is still my most popular entry. My Joke-a-day blog is somehow getting hits, even though it is experimental and I never linked to it. Next is the clich� page. A surprise hit are the blog entries about my poker buddy Jim’s kid Stella Maeve who is an actress and is surprising everyone with her performance in The Runaways.
I just checked and the pages seem unbroken and the menus work again. Any ideas for improving the navigation would be appreciated.
I finished about 100 pages of John Shirley’s Bleak History last Friday and the book is in the truck calling to me. Shirley reaches right out and grabs you with this one. The only good thing about going to work on Monday is that I can read Bleak History for 45 minutes on the bus.
This is a good one, and no you can’t have it when I’m done. Buy your own.
Erica does some fancy stitching. She mixes up some modern stuff with very complex reproductions of needlecraft from 300 years ago. She sent me this site that she noticed because I blogged Lovecraft’s birthday yesterday.
I collect old microphones and I came across this interesting stereo mic on a collector’s website. It is designed to give accurate stereo recordings by making the mic into the form of a human head with realistically shaped ears for the receiving sections.
Erica spent a good chunk of her childhood on roller skates cruising the sidewalks of the New York’s East Village. She was very disappointed when they moved up to the burbs and there were no sidewalks and the roads were covered with tarred gravel. I bet there was a time when I could have talked her into trying out for the Roller Derby. They are having tryouts this September.
John Shirley is one of my favorite writers. I just finished his latest book 
I have a Google alert on my name. Every time Keith Graham comes up in the news I get an email. There are rugby players, hairdressers, even a web page designer that share my name.
Nebula Alert is a good space yarn with a nautical flavor.
