Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Well today was the first day of Climate Week. The event really centralises in New York City but with so much going on at the same time, this is turning out to be a global set of events. I’ll try to report as much of it as I can see, so far much of it is extremely encouraging and I hope the trend will continue.
The first thing to mention is of course the Global Climate wake up call, which is probably finished by now as 1pm has now come and gone on the far side of the USA. My wife and I took part in it on St Andrew’s Square in Edinburgh and I was pleased to see that it was not going to be 3 people and a baby but a good 30-odd people gathered holding their phones up in the air. Hundreds of people have sent pictures to Avaaz to show just how global the event was, from Australia to India, Mongolia, France and of course the UK. You can catch a glimpse of us on this photo, this photo and this photo. Unfortunately, it started to rain just as we were wrapping this up so I was unable to take photos myself.
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Here’s a really cool article from Music Radar: A free lesson by Paul Gilbert on how to play Bach’s prelude in D Major on the electric guitar. You may think it’s a bit outlandish to play classical music on the electric guitar but bear in mind that both Paul Gilbert and Yngiwe Malmsteen regularly cite classical composers among their greatest influences. People such as Bach, Paganini or Mozart (Bethoveen’s kinda cool on the guitar too ).
Check it out here, looking at the tab and all those even 16th notes, my brain isn’t sure if it can instruct my fingers to do that ever
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Remember Greg Craven? I did a post about him some weeks ago, you should be able to find it with the related links below. Well I just wanted to plug an audio streaming of an interview he gave local Oregon radio station kboo fm where he talks about Climate Change and takes questions from locals along with Dr Christina Hulbe, a Professor of Geology.
It’s about 56min long and it’s a very nice listen. Check it out!
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
The is a story currently running about some scientists having come up with some way of capturing CO2 out of the atmosphere and engineers building devices with that technology integrated in them with the prospect of storing that carbon back in disused coal and oil wells deep under the ground.
For some reason, geoengineering is becoming a rather popular topic of discussion in the fight against climate change. But can it really help?
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Spotted via Truth in Shredding, it seems high profile magazines are chipping in these days to present their idea of who is the best in the world of guitar. This time it’s Elle, usually more concerned about catwalks than stadium stages, who’ve come up with their own list of the 12 greatest female electric guitar players. So here it is:
- Joan Jett
- Lita Ford
- Nancy Wilson
- Jennifer Batten
- Donita Sparks (L7)
- Kelley Deal (The Breeders … remember “Canonball”?)
- Carrie Brownstein
- Poison Ivy (The Cramps… not the Batman villain
)
- Ruyter Suys
- The Great Kat
- Marnie Stern
- Orianthi (Santana’s protégée and would have played with MJ on his This Is It tour)
So I have to admit, of these 12 I only know 4 by name and add an extra 2 for those whose band I’d heard about. The rest of them are pretty obscure to me, but you know what? I can’t think of anyone else they might have left out.
To me it says there’s a serious lack of truly kick ass female shredders. You don’t need large amounts of testosterone to be a good player so I think it would be awesome if more girls made it out there on stage. Michael Jackson was quite good at giving them a chance (Jennifer Batten and Orianthi), I think there’s definitely room for improvement on the guitar scene!
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
When I first put the Chickenfoot CD in my player, the first song that really struck to me as being above the others definitely was Soap On A Rope, so I’m really glad they’ve decided to release it as their next single.
What’s more, this video is a great amount of fun. In fact, I can’t remember when I last laughed out loud watching a music video… well maybe for Oh Yeah! I can’t insist enough on how tremendous it is to see those 4 guys having the amount of fun they seem to be having. The music business has been so corrupted with money and other copyright and royalties issues that it’s a real bowl of fresh air to watch these guys. Don’t think I’m being naive, if you’ve not bought the Chickenfoot album, you can listen to it for free on Spotify as well as on the Chickenfoot website.
Meawhile enjoy the video
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Short one this time. Here’s a phone interview carried out by 411mania with guitar legend Steve Vai about his up and coming projects, i.e. the new DVD and his Michael Jackson tribute in Germany
…quite uplifting to hear Steve says “nobody’s a bad player”, makes me feel happier for some reason
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
As those of you following Steve Vai on Twitter will know, the man is working on a new DVD filmed during one of his shows at Minneapolis called “Where The Wild Things Are”. I must admit to never have been fortunate enough as of yet to see Steve play live but there is still hope. Until a new show comes along, this DVD should provide quite an idea of just how much of a show he can put together.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
A few days ago I mentioned that both Renault and Nissan had unveiled prototypes of upcoming models for Zero Emission Electric Vehicles (EVs). Well Nissan has now fully unveiled its upcoming car, it’s called the LEAF and looks pretty snazzy, here’s what it looks like:
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Remember a few weeks ago, I mentionned the new Paul Gilbert Ibanez flanger stomp box AF2. This is one of those products that encases the signature sound of the artist, and in the case of Paul if you’ve had a few listens of Silence Followed by a Deafening Roar, you’ll know what I mean.
Well Ibanez have recently posted a promotional video featuring the man himself going over his expectations and his first test drive of the new pedal. A fun watch
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Well you don’t get much news for a while and all of a sudden two things happen at once. Today, thanks to the guys at Better Place relaying this type of news, two prototypes of Zero Emission fully Electric Vehicles have been unveiled. One is by Renault, the other by Nissan. Now I’m a big fan of EVs and I really hope these will quickly replace the gas guzzlers (mine included) currently clogging our roads and warming the atmosphere. However, these vehicles still need to be viable for the market as it changes so let’s see what these new models have to offer.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Yeah I know another boring environment entry but this sort of thing gets me all excited. In the last few weeks, though I suspect it’s been in the works for longer than that, it’s become apparent that the UK is showing a willingness to commit to a greener economy in terms of energy and transportation among other things.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Now this is the sort of news I like to read before I head off to sleep. Under a new scheme currently being put in place by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, people who generate their own power through renewable methods (normally solar or wind) could be put on a scheme that allows them to get money back, thus countering claims that renewable energies are more expensive to the user than enery from fossil fuels.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
I’ve only found this out today by pure chance reading the Metro (which rarely happens these days, yet I saw 2 copies today). So today is apparently Green Britain Day, an initiative in the spirit of the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games to encourage the British population to become greener together. I’d put the related YouTube video, but all it is is the God Save the Queen behind a green-hued Union Jack so nothing exciting.
Leading to this day however, is a project called Team Green Britain that encourages people to “join teams” related to one specific way one can become greener.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Following the tragic and untimely death of Michael Jackson last week, a multitude of artists have started offering tributes to the late King of the Pop. According to Music Radar, from which the video below came from, there are rumours going around about a tribute concert similar to the one done for Freddy Mercury in 1992 which famously gathered bands such as Metallica and Guns n’ Roses.
While this is uncertain, the following is just one of many tributes, more fitting to this blog than most artists you would see at the Glastonbury Festival, i.e. Guitar legends Steve Vai and Andy Timmons offering a cover of ‘Beat It’ all done with guitars of course. Check it out, it’s pretty cool, Vai playing Van Halen \m/
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Well it’s not much but it’s something. There were apparently obstacles to the UK building more wind farms in order to increase their chances to meet the EU targets of 15% energy supplied from renewable sources by 2020.
The first obstacle was that it was believed the grid could not cope with the irregular nature of the supply from the turbines thus having to invest in coal-powered plants as a backup. That’s now been disproved. Secondly, building wind farms offshore* was believed to be costly and inefficient. That has also been disproved, though there is no link to statements or studies so you’ll just have to take the BBC’s word for it.
There are still some obstacles however, the fact that wind turbines have to be imported brings their cost up due to a poor pound as an example.
* offshore wind farms do produce more power as the winds are stonger offshore but as per an earlier statement, a lot of people prefer wind farms ‘out of sight’…
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Here’s finally something to be proud of. This afternoon, Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) have unanimously agreed to reduce carbon emissions from an initial agreement of 34% to 42% by 2020. In the longer term, the idea is to have them reduced by 80% by 2050.
This won’t be easy, and there wil be resistance by those who prefer to remain with the status quo but when it happens at government level, there is at least some hope for some action to be taken. Sure Scotland is only a little over 5M People and on the world population scale, it’s nothing compared to the USA or China but if such a small nation can inspire, first the rest of the UK, Europe and then the rest of the world there can then be hope for some more global action.
I am now looking forward to seeing how it’s being practically put to use. Banning all new coal power stations would be a start.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
I should check Digg more often, there tends to be some interesting articles that don’t get picked up anywhere else.
Anyway, this is just a quick post to plug this very interesting article from Time Magazine on line about whether wind power can finally overcome fossil fuels as the main energy supplier, at least in the US.
I’m always wondering if I’m the only one who finds wind farms beautiful and awe inspiring, and would certainly not mind one off in the view of any of my windows…
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
A few weeks ago when I introduced the Manpollo Project, I mentioned that Greg Craven, the guy behind all the videos I posted, was in the process of writing a book about his ideas on how to tackle the seemingly endless debate about Climate Change. Well things are moving along, the book will be in stores from the 7th of July and you can order it from Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and even Greg’s own website. It’s called “What’s The Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate”
Sound kinda dull? Yeah I didn’t major in marketing, so sue me… or not, preferably. I tell you what, just have a quick look at Greg’s new video below. I’ve pre-ordered my copy months ago, but maybe you would be interested too:
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Pinged back from various sources but original from Jenn again.
That’s right Mr Big. is back and they’re coming to Europe in September. The good news is, they’re coming to the UK, the bad news, not to Scotland… in fact they seem to only do one date per country, except Spain where they do 3 gigs, go figure. Here are the details:
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Another innovative initiative that came up yesterday. The supermarket chain Sainsbury’s will set up an experimental system in one of their branches in Gloucester wereby their tills and refrigeration cabinets will be powered using energy generated by a device powered by shoppers’ cars driven over it. The cars create a rocking motion in the device which could generate up to 30KW per hour according to Sainsbury’s.
While there is some question over the greenness of this initiative, it still relies on cars after all, it’s a step in the right direction for supermarkets to be more self sufficient in generating their own energy. Hopefully more ideas like this will be developped by other chains to reduce energy emissions and be more efficient.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
I love those new initiatives that show great inventiveness and forward thinking, with a tinge of humour.
A company called United Utilities has been given the green light to turn domestic wastewater into biogas that can then be fed back into the pipelines to heat people’s homes. The first such system will be put in place in Manchester and should be operational by 2011.
Imagine that, reducing pollution while staying warm at the same time. “Gardiloo” becomes “Garde au chaud”… no that’s not funny nevermind
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
There seems to be a variety of bands willing to pay tribute to Metallica, one of the most awesome Metal bands of all time, with instruments other than overdriven guitars, bass and drums, the result of which is something really quite cool.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Thanks to Jenn for pointing this out.
Here’s an interesting passage:
PG: Well I had just done a couple of instrumental records. Those actually did great for me. Especially in America and Europe. When I did my first instrumental record, Get Out of My Yard, Joe Satriani took notice and asked me to do the G3 tour with him, and my career kind of took off. I was kind of joking that when I quit singing, my career took off….
http://www.yesweekly.com/article-6456-a-conversation-with-paul-gilbert.html
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This is a bit of an ambitious post to embark on at this time of the night but it’s been in my mind pretty much all day so I should lay it bare before it goes away again.
There are many steps one can take to make improvements to their homes to optimise the resources available to us, in particular, those coming from nature. So here’s a few jumbled thoughts on what improvements could be done, assuming budget wasn’t an issue. Let’s start this series with:
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Kudos to Mark for pointing this out. The following is an absolutely beautiful 93min long movie available on YouTube for free called The Home Project. The purpose is to increase global awareness on the impact mankind has on the environment using footage of the planet taken from the sky.
Merci à Mark pour avoir fait part de ce project. Ce qui suit est un superbe film de 93 min disponible sur YouTube gratuitement appelé The Home Project. Le but est d’augmenter la sensibilisation mondiale à propos de l’impact que l’humanité a sur l’environment en se servant de vidéos de la planète prises du ciel.
Have an hour and a half to spare? Don’t miss this and please pass it around:
Happy World Environment Day everyone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU
Si vous avez une heure et demie de libre, ne manquez pas de le regarder et faites passer:
Bonne journée mondiale de l’environment a tous
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
When it comes to fencing, one has to be really weary about the sort of material available on YouTube. The levels of skills are varied and it’s probably more prudent to assume that those skills only reflect the individual portrayed rather than the group as a whole.
Having said that, there’s 2 schools with a pretty good reputation (in my bokos anyway) which I wanted to present here.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Just got this from LickLibrary, it looks like whoever will win Guitar Idol, is going to get more than they get themselves in for:
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Yes that’s right, the New York Times reports that according to a report by the United Nations Environment Program, of the $255 billion spent in building new power plants and generators in 2008, $140 billion was spend building infrastructure for renewable energies.
While that does not mean that newable energies are overtaking fossil fuels in the global netowrk, it’s at least encouraging to see that even as the world was plunging into a recession, there has been efforts made to invest in cleaner and more efficient energy sources.
The interesting trend is to note that the main investments didn’t come from countries like the US or the EU but from China and other developping countries, that is to say the very countries which are more likely to be affected by the dramatic changes in the Earth climate.
So there’s still much work to be done, but it’s yet another step
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Here’s a really cool piece of news I came across earlier today, which is quite promising in showing that some people are actively trying to find viable alternatives to fossil-fuels.
The Eden Project in Cornwall is looking at powering its greenhouse using Geothermal energy. The idea is to dig shafts 3 to 4 Km deep to reach hot rocks, capture the heat and use it to generate electricity. Although this seems like a complicated system involving lots of digging and a complex infrastructure (well in my mind anyway since I’m no engineer), it’s at least another step towards trying a new method to wean us off coal and oil.
The plant is due to be operational by 2012.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Here’s another post I’ve been wanting to compile for a while. In the last 12 months, a variety of signature guitars, amps and effect pedals have been released, most of which presented at the 2009 NAMM show so here’s a selected list of the artists I follow:
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
I’ll admit it straight away, I’m all in favour of renewable energies such as wind, solar, wave or tidal so when I see countries like Britain, which happens to be where I live, wasting their resources trying to implement Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), it kinda makes me cringe.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
I’ve been meaning to blog about this for some time now and though I may not reach as wide an audience as I would ideally like to, I feel that since time is very likely running out, now is as good as any other time.
Back in September 2008, I came across a guy on YouTube who was going by the username wonderingmind42. His real name is Greg Craven and he’s a simple science teacher from a High School in Oregon. What he did was put together a video to present a simple solution to Global Climate change called “The most terrifying video you’ll ever see“. With a catchy title like that, he did attract a lot of attention (2M+ views to date), but also a lot of criticism. People were pulling apart his argument completely missing the whole point of his video. Having caught on that, he then set out to make a herculean series of 45 10-min videos to try and address every single point that people were asking about from Risk Management to “What about God” to What we can do and more. The series is called “How it all ends” and if you’re up to it, the playlist of all 45 videos is below. There’s no music or anything, just him presenting solutions and rationales in a very simple way and a wide range of funny hats.
One weekend I had lots of free time, I did set myself to watch them all and, well, to say it opened my eyes would be a bit of an understatement. Since then, it feels like no matter what I do, it will never be enough to help tackle the issue. So hopefully you can watch it too and make your own mind.
If you do watch it all, you will soon come across the idea of the Manpollo project. The idea is simple, if mankind can come together to build projects such as the Manhattan project or the Apollo project to have mankind do a “giant leap” forward, to paraphrase Neil Armstrong, then in an unprecedented situation such as Global Climate Change, we should once more be able to come together and do a similar project, which we could call the Manpollo project.
Some folks have taken the idea to heart, not governmental folks, but random people like you and me and created Manpollo.org, a website and also community of people I mentionned in the past who seek to find some sort of solution, share ideas, scientific discoveries and so on.
Greg has also been contacted to write a book about his video series. The book should be released in July this year and has been on preorder on Amazon for a few months now. If you think a bunch of videos is too heavy for you, maybe a book would be a better choice.
Greg’s fundamental message is “spread the word” and so I do. Maybe you could too…
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
I know this would probably be more suited in a tech-related blog entry but I don’t quite do those anymore, though I might in the future. However, having read a wee bit about the whole whoo-ah regarding WolframAlpha being the new challenger to Google, I couldn’t help but being intrigued so when it finally went live last week I gave it a try.
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Good question isn’t it? You may have heard about it if you follow certain artists news but essentially I would say that this is the latest Joe Satriani project… Now that’s not very fair since there’s more than him involved in it, but hey, like Paul Gilbert I’m biased
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
It’s kinda funny because I’m not technically that big of a Mr Big. fan but any new stuff from Paul Gilbert I’m right on it So without further ado, here’s the video for Next Time Around, something with a little Green Tinted Sixties Mind flavour that will appear on an upcoming “Best of” album
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Over the last few months I have become more aware of some issues that seem to drag our civilisation down a dirty black hole and so have been trying to find what other people are proposing to drag us out of it. One of these proposed solutions comes from a new company called Better Place
Originally published at J-L Web. You can comment here or there.
Yeah so I have quiiite a bit of catching up to do but I’ve put in a new feature on here earlier and need to see if it works. So prior to their reunion tour in June, Mr Big. feat. Guitar Hero Paul Gilbert, did a couple of gigs at the Tokyo Hard Rock cafe and appeared on Japanese Television. A HD version of Daddy Brother Lover Little Boy (aka The Electric Drill song) is available on YouTube and it rawks, see below
- http://ardamhe.free.fr/html/manuels.htm (in French)
- http://jfgilles.club.fr/escrime/bibliotheque/catalogue_traites.html (in French)
- http://www.thearma.org/manuals.htm
- http://www.the-exiles.org.uk/download/Category.asp?ID=3
- http://www.aemma.org/library_960plus.html
- http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~wew/fencing/manuals.html
- http://www.georgehernandez.com/h/xMartialArts/Biographies/WMABiographies.htm
- http://www.ahfi.org/resources.php
This should be enough for now. A lot of these will provide the same files, quite often pdfs put together by Bill Wilson actually. I won't detail what's in each link, I'd just say go have a look and see what you can find...
You also find a lot of pages will specialise in some specific master of arms and overlook others. I've tried to keep to lists that provide as much choice as possible. If you know of any other useful and concise sources, comment here, thanks ;)
To prevent such a legistlation from being put in place, there is a petition I would urge all of those who care about this issue, or even those who care about those who care to add your name to the petition available at:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/swords/
Feel free to pass this around, I've made this entry public as an attempt to reach a wider audience.
Thanks
Edit: The Official Home Office Announcement
Important: This list is constantly updated, however it is not maintained on LiveJournal anymore. If you wish to view the current full list, please check http://www.j-lweb.co.uk/links/european-swords-resources/ Thanks ;)
Sword retailers in Europe:
UK:
http://www.historicalfencing.org/Macdonaldarmory/
http://www.armourclass.co.uk/
http://www.medieval-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/Hanwei_Swords.html
http://www.duellistswords.com/ (Swords made in Spain, special mention to the Inquisition sword: http://www.duellist.com/swordsfromtoledo/swords.cgi?product=Battle-Ready-Swords&pid=15 ^^))
http://www.ancientbattlecrafts.com/ (early blades on-line for now but they have rapiers in stock) -> Site offline / DNS not renewed
http://www.countercut.com/ (UK importer of Angus Trim blades)
http://www.swords.co.uk/ (Barrington Swords, mostly Hanweis on the more expensive scale)
http://www.raven-armoury.co.uk/
http://www.battleorders.co.uk/acatalog/index.html
http://www.blades-uk.com/
http://www.medieval-arms.co.uk/ (I think these guys sell on ebay as well...)
Denmark
http://www.albion-europe.com/
France:
http://www.sport7.fr
http://www.armes-medievales.com/
http://www.comptoir-du-chateau.net/achat/index.php?catid=39
http://perso.orange.fr/nationsports/planeteescrime/escrimeanc/escrimeanc.htm
http://vente.antikcostume.com/rapieres-epees-et-dagues-g26.htm
Czech Republic:
http://www.lutel.cz/
http://www.armouronline.com/
http://www.sword.cz/eindex.htm
http://www.armart.antiquanova.com/
http://www.arms-armor.cz/
http://templ.host.sk/
http://www.templ.net/english/
Italy:
http://www.deltin.net/
http://www.banfiarts.com/ (only in Italian)
http://www.coltellerialagona.it/shop/home.php (Italian and French only it seems)
http://www.bottega.medioevo.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 (the English flag does not seem to work...)
Spain:
http://www.aceros-de-hispania.com/
http://www.todoespadas.com/
http://www.xyfos.com/
http://www.espadasnegras.com/ (note: those last 3 basically sell the same stuff...)
http://thetimeseller.40.ylos.com/eng/index.html
http://www.armasdondiego.com/
http://www.bermejoswords.com/index.html
http://www.armsoftheworld.com/ (they're not immediately obvious as being Spanish but their phone number gives them away... and they sell Toledo Swords, ie mostly wall-hangers. However I have just (as in 25/08/07) fallen in love with this one...)
Germany
http://www.drachenschmiede.de/start/index.html
http://www.drachenhort.com/catalog/
http://www.west-coastonline.com/
http://www.hr-replikate.de/englisch/index.html
http://www.schmiede-balbach.de/ (German only)
http://www.solinger-blankwaffen.de/homeeng.htm
http://www.wkc-solingen.de/startweb.php
http://www.art-connection.de/index.html
http://www.rittermarkt.de/
Sweden
http://www.algonet.se/~enda/hand_eng.htm
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/swords.htm
http://www.gavelins.com/sword/
Netherlands
http://www.shogun.nl/
Finland
http://www.kp-art.fi/jt/index.html (click on "miekat" to see his swords)
I think that'll be it for now.
I should point out that these are sword retailers, not all of them are suitable for wma / sca use. Some are more expensive than others but at least that's a start...
Edit: I really have to stop drooling over Number 2, I'm not sure my keyboard can take it ^^)
Edit 2: List thoroughly updated and entry made public for wider use ^^)
Comments
Other screenings are planned in the next few days, check…
Also, thanks for posting that trailer. I definitely want to see The Age of Stupid now.