Booting Up: Mark Zuckerberg, say Ello to my little friend | Boston Herald

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/2014/09/booting_up_mark_zuckerberg_say_ello_to_my_little_friend

One people, 1,200 sausages

One people, 1,200 sausages http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29380144

this pressed: Which new multiple myeloma drug will the FDA approve next? | Multiple Myeloma Blog

via Which new multiple myeloma drug will the FDA approve next? | Multiple Myeloma Blog.

this pressed: BBC News – Banks shut branches over Hong Kong protests

Pro-democracy protestors blocked large parts of central Hong Kong, where many financial firms are located

Standard Chartered and several other banks have suspended some of their operations in central Hong Kong following mass pro-democracy protests.

Bank branches that offer over-the-counter services have been closed, as well as ATMs and cash deposit machines in affected areas.

Some firms have also advised their staff to work from home or go to secondary offices.

Thousands of demonstrators clashed with police, who fired tear gas, on Sunday.

via BBC News – Banks shut branches over Hong Kong protests.

MUSSORGSKY (arr. Stokowski) Night on Bald Mountain: great compositions/performances

MUSSORGSKY (arr. Stokowski) Night on Bald Mountain

Here is Leopold Stokowski‘s (1882-1977) transcription of Modest Mussorgsky‘s “Night on Bald Mountain”. This is the version most famously featured as the ending sequence of the Disney film “Fantasia” (1948), and that most famously caused quite an uproar among movie-goers due to the demonic imagery used in the aforementioned clip.

Stokowski was a prodigy along the lines of Maazel, entering into the Royal Academy of Music to study composition and conducting at the age of merely 13. During his long span as one of the most prominent and important conductors (not to mention one of the greatest) he was actually a very controversial figure. What many people probably don’t know is that Stokowski was a great champion of contemporary music, giving the U.S. and/or world premieres of works by Elgar, Vaughn Williams, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Hovhaness, Copland, Barber, Berg, Feldman and other contemporary composers. He is also very important to the history of modern concert practice as well, popularizing the batonless technique of conducting, as well as inventing and popularizing the “pops concert” and the modern chairing of a symphony orchestra. He was able to produce what was then referred to as “the Stokowski Sound”, although what is now called “the Philly Sound” (one of the many, illustrious orchestras he was resident conductor for), and was the greatest influence on many conductors proceeding him, particularly Leonard Bernstein. His transcriptions and editing of works were considered uncoif at the time, a practice that had long since become outdated as printed music became more available, but they are now one of the things he is best-known for, particularly this and his orchestration of Bach’s Toccata en Fugue in D Minor BWV 565.

Performed here in 1966 by the London Symphony Orchestra.

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• Modest Mussorgsky – Saint John’s Night on the Bare Mountain (Original score) / Abbado – LSO: great compositions/performances
• Camille Saint-Saëns – Danse Macabre (National Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor:Leopold Stokowski): great compositions/performances

Jose Carreras. Siete canciones populares españolas. M. de Falla: make music part of your life series

Jose Carreras. Siete canciones populares españolas. M. de Falla.

  Jose Carreras

Manuel de Falla: Siete canciones populares españolas (1914)
El Paño Moruno, Seguidilla Murciana, Asturiana, Jota, Nana, Cancion & Polo.
Jose Carreras, tenor.
Martin Katz, piano.

Rostropovich plays the Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite # 1: great compositions/performances

Rostropovich plays the Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite # 1

   inwit
Mstislav Rostropovich plays the Sarabande from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007. Filmed at the Basilique Sainte Madeleine, Vézelay, Yvonne, France in 1991.

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Svetlanov conducts Tchaikovsky – Capriccio italien, Op. 45: great compositions/performances

Svetlanov conducts Tchaikovsky – Capriccio italien, Op. 45

  ClassicalRecords

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893):

Capriccio italien, Op. 45

Written in 1880.

Yevgeni Svetlanov, conductor
U.S.S.R. Symphony Orchestra

(Released in 1971.)

ClassicalRecords is a Youtube channel where I upload some excellent performances from the LPs in my collection. I’m uploading these LPs because they are either not available on CD, out of print on CD, or just difficult to find.

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• Today’s Birthday: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840)

At least 31 feared dead near peak of Japanese volcano

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0HN05K20140928?irpc=932

Obama: We underestimated Islamic State extremists (+video) – CSMonitor.com

http://m.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2014/0928/Obama-We-underestimated-Islamic-State-extremists-video

Lenin statue torn down in Ukraine

Lenin statue torn down in Ukraine http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29405089

Maria Callas. Sola, perduta, abbandonata. Manon Lescaut. Giacomo Puccini: great compositions/performances

Maria Callas. Sola, perduta, abbandonata. Manon Lescaut. Giacomo Puccini.

   Giovanni Bellucci

Maria Callas, soprano.
Philharmonia Orchestra.
Dir. Tullio Serafin.

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Mottetto per San Paolino – Giacomo Puccini(1858-1924): make music part of your life series

Mottetto per San Paolino – Giacomo Puccini(1858-1924)

  gibar05

Mottetto per San Paolino – Giacomo Puccini(1858-1924)

Lucca, 21 Giugno 1997 nella Chiesa Monumentale di San Giovanni

baritono : Mauro Buda

Cappella Santa Cecilia della Cattedrale di Lucca
Orchestra Lirico-Sinfonica del Teatro del Giglio

Direttore : Gianfranco Cosmi

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Gioachino Rossini – “Kyrie” from “Messa di Gloria”: make music part of your life series

Gioachino Rossini – “Kyrie” from “Messa di Gloria” (Raul Gimenez & Francisco Araiza)

  LindoroRossini

“Dear God: here it is finished, this poor little Mass… I was born for opera buffa, you know it well! A little science, some heart, that’s all…”

– composer’s envoi to “Petite Messe Solennelle“.

Cover of Gioacchino Rossini

Rossini is generally perceived as an operatic composer, and thus, his sacred works are sometimes perceived as lacking in the light of other pieces in a similar vein. Some have also remarked that Rossini’s sacral works are simple continuations of the traditions he created during his compositional career. In many ways, it is so, as the presented two works show. But, like in most cases with Rossini and belcanto, the pieces never lose a certain irresistible charm and beauty.

In this new series of uploads I am pairing up two completely different but, nonetheless, both surprisingly refreshing masses by Rossini: an early, even a bit immature work, “Messa di Milano”, and a later, more elaborate piece, “Messa di Gloria” (which comes from the 1820s). My goals fall into to two categories: first off, to present the selections that I have chosen for posting and to provide some short ideas on the works; and, secondly, as the pieces, like most masses, follows the same basic structure and share the same text, to compare them.

Rossini’s “Messa di Gloria” was performed in the Church of San Ferdinando, Naples, in March 1820. Only one page of the original manuscript exists (in Brussels), but a complete set of parts lies in Naples Conservatory. Rossini seems to have been “helped” by another hand in the contrapuntal sections and that the final section, “Cum sancto spiritu”, was composed by Pietro Raimondi. The mass, Rossini’s only work written during the period he wrote for the theatre and the first sacred work of his maturity, is generally wondrous, though almost too operatic. Indeed, the whole thing takes some getting used to because a lot of Rossinian fingerprints one is used to hearing emerge from the opera pit here turn up in a liturgical context.

I’m only uploading several selections, including the complete Kyrie, Gratias, the Domine Deus (both set as terzets) etc., which I consider rewarding in some way or another. I’m providing the whole structure of the piece to give you a basic idea of the way Rossini set up the classical Mass succession, while the presented pieces are marked by a “*”.

Sumi Jo – soprano,
Ann Murray – contralto,
Raul Gimenez & Francisco Araiza – tenors,
Samuel Ramey – bass.

1. Kyrie (*; chorus). Another sustained opening for chorus, contrasted with ominous horns and nervous strings.
2. Christe (*; duettino for the tenors). A superb, if unusual for a sacred work, passage, beautifully joining together the tenors’ vocalizing over a simple dotted bass line.
3. Kyrie (repeat of the opening). As this piece is a complete repeat of the original opening, I decided that it would be possible to skip it in this posting.
4. Gloria (chorus and quartet for all, except one tenor).
5. Laudamus (aria for soprano).
6. Gratias (aria for tenor).
7. Domine Deus (terzet for soprano, contralto and bass).
8. Qui tollis (aria for tenor and chorus).
9. Quoniam (aria for bass).
10. Cum sancto spiritu (chorus).

Pacific Chorale sings Rachmaninov Vespers: Rejoice, O Virgin: great compositions/performances

Pacific Chorale sings Rachmaninov Vespers: Rejoice, O Virgin

  Pacific Chorale

Artistic Director John Alexander conducts Pacific Chorale in “Rejoice, O Virgin” from Sergei Rachmaninov‘s All-Night Vigil (Vespers), Op. 37 in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California.

“Rejoice, O Virgin (Bogoroditse Devo)” is published by Musica Russica, Inc. Used by permission.
http://www.musicarussica.com

Video footage courtesy of PBS SoCal.
http://www.pbssocal.org

Stock photo courtesy of iStockphoto.
http://www.istockphoto.com


This live performance of the All-Night Vigil is available on CD.
http://www.pacificchorale.org/recordings

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NYP: KURT MASUR Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: great compositions/performances

NYP: KURT MASUR Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

  Eliwoney Cabral

NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

CONDUCTOR: KURT MASUR

Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

today’s holiday: Confucius’s Birthday

Confucius’s Birthday

This is a time to commemorate the birth of the teacher Confucius, perhaps the most influential man in China’s history. In Qufu, Shandong Province, China, the birthplace of Confucius, there is a two-week-long Confucian Culture Festival. During the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, Red Guards defaced many of the buildings in Qufu. They have since been restored, and the festival held there attracts scholars from China and abroad. The festival opens with a ceremony accompanied by ancient music and dance and includes exhibitions and lectures on the life and teachings of Confucius. More… Discuss

quotation: Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. Victor Hugo

 

Victor Hugo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Discuss

 

today’s birthday: Georges Clemenceau (1841)

Georges Clemenceau (1841)

Clemenceau was a French journalist and statesman whose politics brought him into conflict with Napoleon III’s government. After spending several years in the US, he returned to France and became mayor of Montmartre. In 1880, he began publishing La Justice, which became the primary organ of Parisian radicalism, and he later published Emile Zola’s “J’accuse,” a passionate criticism of the Dreyfus Affair. He served as premier during World War I and was a key architect of what treaty? More… Discuss

Hospital Garb Could Be Your Own

Traditional hospital gowns have been the butt of many a joke, but for those who have to don them, they are no laughing matter. Being hospitalized can rob a person of much of his dignity, and while aspects of this are unavoidable, hospital apparel does not have to be one of them. In many cases, researchers say, it is clinically reasonable for patients to wear their own clothing, or at least pants underneath their open-backed gowns, but few take advantage of this because most are unaware that it is an option. More… Discuss

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Murphy’s Law

Murphy’s Law is the humorous axiom stating that anything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong. Its namesake is likely Edward A. Murphy, an engineer on US Air Force rocket-sled experiments. During one trial, someone methodically wired each sensor involved in an experiment backwards, prompting Murphy to remark, “If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.” How did Murphy’s Law become known to the public? More… Discuss

word: cogent

cogent 

Definition:	(adjective) Appealing to the intellect or powers of reasoning; convincing.
Synonyms:	weighty
Usage:	Having put forth an indisputably cogent argument, Sally won the debate. Discuss.

this pressed: Flash – Writers and readers go mobile and social at Wattpad – France 24

28 September 2014 – 07H25

Writers and readers go mobile and social at Wattpad

inShare

AFP

File picture shows visitors browsing e-books for children at the 64th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, GermanyFile picture shows visitors browsing e-books for children at the 64th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany

Allen Lau considers himself living proof that love of good writing is alive and well in the age of streaming video and terse text messages.

He offers as further evidence the 32 million people who each month visit online literature social network Wattpad, which he and Ivan Yuen launched eight years ago as an online venue for writers and readers to connect.

“Wattpad is the world’s largest community for reading and writing,” Lau told AFP during a recent visit to San Francisco to meet with investors in the Toronto-based startup.

“We’ve created a mobile and social storytelling experience.”

Of the more than nine billion minutes spent monthly reading at Wattpad, about 85 percent is done using smartphones or tablet computers, according to Lau.

More than a million Wattpad users are writers, who typically upload a chapter at a time while readers tune in the way they might watch episodes of a television series.

“We make story telling very different and unique,” Lau said.

– Readers shape stories –

Readers share feelings, thoughts and criticisms with one another and authors at the social network, sometimes shaping fates of characters or directions of stories.

“Writing and reading have traditionally been very solitary experiences,” Lau said.

“In this case, writers get constant feedback from readers in real time; and from the reader perspective it is almost like watching a TV show with 10 million people all at once.”

Readers are free to wait until books are complete and then binge on chapter after chapter, but that is rarely the case at Wattpad. The most common question fired off at the service was said to be “When will the next chapter be released?”

After Wattpad noticed writers providing links to music videos to listen to as background for reading, the social network added a way to embed YouTube clips.

“It has been so widely used, if you go to YouTube and search ‘Wattpad’ you will find millions of videos,” Lau said.

“The writing is the main actor, but we have supporting characters: video and sound.”

Wattpad sees a quarter of a million chapters uploaded daily, with about 24 hours worth of reading arriving at the service each minute.

Less than half the visits to Wattpad come from the United States, and the service is growing strong in an array of countries including Turkey, Italy, Britain, and Spain.

“Not everyone has an e-book store, a library, or a regular book store, but everyone will be on the Internet and everyone will have a smartphone,” Lau reasoned.

“I am the walking proof that it is rubbish people aren’t reading as much; the Internet is helping people to read and write more.”

– Writers find fame –

The Wattpad mobile application is free, as is access to work uploaded by writers. More than half the stories on Wattpad were written on mobile devices.

Wattpad writers don’t get paid, but exposure at the social network provides opportunities for them to make money.

via Flash – Writers and readers go mobile and social at Wattpad – France 24.

is Ello A Viable Alternative To Facebook? – What’s New Now PCMag PCMag

is Ello A Viable Alternative To Facebook? – What’s New Now

  PCMag

Social network Ello was thrust into the spotlight as users flocked to it in response to Facebook’s restrictive “real name” policy. Is Ello the social networking alternative many of us have been waiting for? Join PCMag’s Max Eddy as he explains what Ello is and what challenges they face if they are going to compete against Facebook.

What’s New Now is PCMag’s daily report where we cover the most talked about technology story of the day. Check back every day as we suggest why the story is important to you and provide expert analysis and opinion on the topic.

Read up on the Minecraft sale to Microsoft on PCMag.com: http://goo.gl/pHeg8C

Watch this episode and more in our ‘What’s New Now’ playlist: http://goo.gl/oCiRJZ

Subscribe for daily updates: http://goo.gl/hMyJr1

Follow PCMag on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PCMag
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This pressed: Hello, Ello! What you need to know about the new social network stealing users from Facebook – Salon.com

Mark Zuckerberg (Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Facebook has been abuzz of late about a curious new phenomenon: People leaving Facebook in favor of a smaller, simpler social media site called Ello. The fervor for Ello took hold this week in light of Facebook’s recent “real names” crackdown – forcing folks to use their legal names on their profiles or be locked out of the service – which has especially affected members of the LGBTQ community.

Though there are other Facebook-alternatives, including Diaspora and Google+, many are now flocking to Ello.

What is Ello?

Ello is an invite-only social network created by Paul Budnitz, along with graphic designers Todd Berger and Lucian Föhr, and creative engineers from Mode Set. By the creators’ own description, Ello is a “simple, beautiful, and ad-free social network.”

(Back in March, the Daily Dot reports, the team was working pro-bono.)

via Hello, Ello! What you need to know about the new social network stealing users from Facebook – Salon.com.

this pressed: Social network Ello gets boost after Facebook boots drag queens – The Washington Post

“You are not a product,” its manifesto declares. It decries social networks that track and record “every post you share, every friend you make and every link you follow” then sell the data to advertisers.

“We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment,” it proclaims. “Not a tool to deceive, coerce and manipulate — but a place to connect, create and celebrate life.”

via Social network Ello gets boost after Facebook boots drag queens – The Washington Post.

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As Obamacare Pays Medical Bills, Red States Pressured On Medicaid – Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2014/09/28/as-obamacare-pays-medical-bills-red-states-pressured-on-medicaid/

10 things to know about Ello, the ad-free social network – CNET

http://www.cnet.com/how-to/what-is-ello-the-ad-free-social-network/

Meet Ello, the social network that wants to be the anti-Facebook – CNET

http://www.cnet.com/au/news/meet-ello-the-social-network-that-wants-to-be-the-anti-facebook/

Syria Airstrikes Target IS Oil Facilities

http://m.voanews.com/a/airstrikes-against-is-militants-continue-in-syria/2465050.html

Bloomberg

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-28/hong-kong-police-declare-rally-illegal-urge-protesters-to-leave.html