(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

image
...am here to tap through the walls.


Wed Mar, 19 2008

With Much Talk Of "Hammers"

"'Ultimately,' said Kathie Olsen, deputy director of the National Science Foundation, 'our goal is to transform, institution by institution, the entire culture of science and engineering in America, and to be inclusive of all—for the good of all.'"
Disaster looms. "Radical transformations", many of the usual suspects, math geeks begging for girls, toy trains sleeping in baby carriages, and Soviet-styled "theater". You know: the same ol' drama. Sample:
"Valian is intent on radically transforming society to achieve her egalitarian ideals. She also wants to alter the behavior of successful scientists. Their obsessive work habits, sin­gle-minded dedication, and 'intense desire for achievement,' not only marginalize women, but also may compromise good science. She writes, 'If we continue to emphasize and reward always being on the job, we will never find out whether leading a balanced life leads to equally good or better scientific work.'"
I have a question:

How many angles can dance in a pin-head's head? This idiot is complaining because some people work hard, and she can't have that.

Look out: there are more darkenings coming.

(link: Diana)

Mar 19, 08 | 1:46 pm

AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}