"If the truth was really known about the origins of Jazz, it would certainly never be mentioned in polite society." The expression arose sometime during the later nineteenth century in the better brothels of New Orleans, which provided music and dancing as well as sex. Jazz has been around for more than a hundred years now. It is not the result of choosing a tune, but an ideal that is created first in the mind, and willed in the music, inspired by A Passion for Jazz.
posted on Aug 30, 2007 - View this thread

All these worlds are yours, save Europa. Attempt no landings he...llo! What the hell is wrong with you!? Did you just nuke Jupiter?
posted on Apr 9, 2007 - View this thread

Teenager Thiogo Olson achieved nuclear fusion with an apparatus built in his basement from parts found at his local hardware store and on eBay. Another teenager put together her very own Littrow Spectrograph for $300. Young people have been doing some fascinating science ever since the first kid combined vinegar and baking soda in their model volcano. Not only are they making some remarkable discoveries, they're finding it pretty lucrative.
posted on Mar 17, 2007 - View this thread

Jazz '71-'89 Dave Douglas posed the challenge: “Is there a writer who can take on the project of an unbiased overview of music since the end of the Vietnam War?” The Bad Plus answered (though not unbiased). The Guardian and NY Times weighed in. Suck it, haters. And ultimately, Behearer used a wiki to answer the call.
posted on Feb 15, 2007 - View this thread

Mahavishnu Orchestra - One Word
Weather Report - Seventh Arrow/Umbrellas
Squarepusher's 8-track [1] [2 + Buddy Rich]
Jaco Pastorius - Portrait of Tracy
Cannibal Ox - Pigeon
posted on Feb 13, 2007 - View this thread

Mr. Frank J. Stola (flash): a self-described professional musician who mangles any and all genres he attempts. Don't miss his take on instrumental fusion rock classical jazz, revolutionary country n western traditional, or heavy metal instrumental on CD Baby. Equally marvelous are his strange, minimal videos. And don't forget to pick up Mr. Stola's myriad products at his Cafepress store. Is he serious?
posted on Dec 11, 2006 - View this thread

Teen goes nuclear (but in a good way).

Thiago's mom, Natalice Olson, initially was leery of the project, even though the only real danger from the fusion machine is the high voltage and small amount of X-rays emitted through a glass window in the vacuum chamber -- through which Olson videotapes the fusion in action.

The Z Machine
"At first, we were disbelieving," said project leader Chris Deeney. "We repeated the experiment many times to make sure we had a true result." Scientists set record for hottest ever temperature record - 2 billion degrees Kelvin, or 3.6 billion degrees Fahrenheit, at one point the machine produced more energy than was put it. But they're not sure how, possibly fusion. High-res photo, higher-res photo, wikipedia, everything2.
posted on Mar 9, 2006 - View this thread

The Lucifer Project. "This is a documentation and study of the feasibility of creating a sustainable fusion reaction from an initial fission reaction on Saturn caused by a significant quantity of Plutonium-238 being inserted deep into the atmosphere." [via: del.icio.us/blackbeltjones]
posted on Nov 21, 2005 - View this thread

ITER goes to France. Amazing stuff happens at 100 million degrees Celsius.
posted on Jun 28, 2005 - View this thread

The largest and most powerful laser facility ever designed is currently being constructed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA. I had an opportunity to tour this facility earlier this year, and the sheer magnitude of this engineering project is staggering. The precision required for ignition has been compared to "trying to hit the strike zone with a baseball from 350 miles away". Although the scientists and politicians responsible for the National Ignition Facility claim it will help lessen the danger of nuclear weapons, many critics argue it is merely an attempt to work around certain non-proliferation treaties.
posted on May 23, 2005 - View this thread

Putterman also suggests the crystals could be used as microthrusters for tiny spacecraft. By accelerating deuterium in one direction, the spacecraft would be propelled in the opposite direction.
Ok, so I know nothing about physics, apart from what I learned getting beat up in grade school, but this seems both legit and cool. Here's a MeFi discussion of the other kind of desktop fusion, you know, the kind with the bubbles. A picture of the bubble machine.
posted on Apr 28, 2005 - View this thread

I know this has been on everyone's mind, but I just read this article today and was astounded at my lack of foresight. Silly me, here I was worrying about global warming when what I need to be fretting about is the decrease in fuel's impact on the structure of international banking! Will we run out of fossil fuel before it's too late to save the environment from pollution and greenhouse gasses? The abiotic nuts think we've got plenty more. Personally, I think we can kiss the marvel that is suburbia goodbye and start contemplating the fact that the focus on the post-post industrial revolution will not be information, but rather agriculture. And since solar panels and windmills and the like are made of materials that are extracted, transported, and fashioned by using oil-powered machinery, my money's on the folks who're stockpiling uranium for all those shiny new nuclear plants we're going to need. So, do we have a plan? You bet we do! Oh. Well, we'll just rely on the advancement of technology to allow us to weasel out of it! Me? I've actually always wanted a horse.
posted on Apr 14, 2005 - View this thread

Researchers Report Bubble Fusion Results Replicated. Bring on the Mr. Fusion, please.
posted on Jan 20, 2005 - View this thread

New validation of desktop fusion claims - far from hating the small crustaceans, God has a plan for shrimp : to point scientists towards the secret - tiny bubbles! God also has a pan for shrimp, and some cajun blackening spices too...
posted on Mar 3, 2004 - View this thread

A new fusion of cinema and cyberspace will be seen in Peter Greenaway's upcoming film "The Moab Story" (NYTimes article). Unlike other Hollywood websites, the film's site will deepen the story beyond imagination. Greenaway's "megalomaniacal" plan is to create "The Tulse Luper Suitcases" ("The Moab Story" is the first phase), which will "eventually include three to five films, a 16-part television series, a touring theater production, several books, DVD's and Web sites and an online computer game."
posted on May 19, 2003 - View this thread

Take enough electricity to power 100 houses for two minutes and use it to generate enough elecrticity to power one 40-watt lightbulb for one ten-thousandth of a second. What do you have? Nuclear Fusion.
posted on Apr 7, 2003 - View this thread

Good Ol' Foreign Home Cookin': Mexicans, Italians and other foreigners are just as surprised with what passes for Mexican and Italian food in the U.S. as Indians are to encounter chicken tikka masala or vindaloos in the U.K. Americans and Brits visiting the countries whose cuisines they think they know and love must be similarly surprised. Well, purists be damned! Not only is "faux foreign" cuisine sometimes very tasty (less pretentious than "fusion" cooking, for instance), in some cases (e.g. Tex Mex) it can be a damn sight better than the supposed original. And let no one argue these confusions aren't fun... [Apologies it the post looks funny and full of ampersands and the links don't work: my first no-right-clicking post on a mac...]
posted on Dec 13, 2002 - View this thread

The best guitarist you never heard in your life. Shawn Lane is an underground hero in guitar circles. Born 1963 in Memphis Tennesee, he joined Black Oak Arkansas at the age of 13 , beat Ted Nugent in a cutting contest, and made Billy Gibbons fall off his bar stool. Shawn now plays with the Jonas Hellborg Trio - Windows media clip here. I admit that fusion and guitar heroics are not to everyone's liking. But, if you like this kind of thing, you must agree that this guy is the the real deal.
posted on Sep 20, 2002 - View this thread

What The Hell Is THIS All About? WTF? Is Fusion Anomaly a crazy encyclopedia? A warped search engine? A mind control machine? What's up with the entities, the flavors, the words and all the other stuff? Who's doing it? And why? Please advise. All instances of the famous MetaFilter detective work would be greatly appreciated.
posted on Feb 5, 2002 - View this thread