Fun with stats: digits in Pi

From Eve Andersson's Pi land, we have these histograms of the frequency of (base 10) digits.

The first 100 digits of pi:

0 8
1 8
2 12
3 12
4 10
5 8
6 9
7 8
8 12
9 13

Things even out pretty nicely by about 1 million digits:

0 99959
1 99757
2 100026
3 100230
4 100230
5 100359
6 99548
7 99800
8 99985
9 100106

The digits are just white noise, there might be an interesting pattern now and then, but that is to be expected statistically. Besides, these are base 10 digits, which are an arbitrary representation based on the fact that we have two hands with five fingers apiece…

I could share some more interesting facts and formulae, but printing the greek character pi on a blog is, as they say, a pain in the butt. And I am not in the mood for that tonight.



Fun with Cheney: Halliburton moves to Dubai…and Scooter

A brief break from the cats and synths to note today's news that Halliburton is joining Michael Jackson and others in Dubai, the Persian Gulf Disneyland and neutral zone.

Halliburton (Dick Cheney's former company) has been under huge suspicion and contempt for it's rather lucrative contracts in Iraq. And now it's headquarters is moving to Dubai…

…hmm…

This article in the Baltimore Chronicle and Sentinel somes up the “hmmm” quite well:

We know now that when Dick Cheney makes a foreign policy or war policy decision regarding Iraq or Iran or Saudi Arabia, he is really thinking about what it will do for Halliburton and Dubai–and for Dick Cheney.

Note that this move comes within days of new suspicion cast over Cheney after his former chief of staff and muppet I Lewis “Scooter” Libby was convicted of perjury:

Why'd you do it, Scooter, why?






Weekend Cat Blogging #92

For WCB 92 this weekend, we dig back into the archive. Here we see a seemingly erudite Luna catching up on some reading during a cold, rainy weekend back in February.

Metamagical Themas is quite a heavy tome for most humans, let alone cats. I suppose Luna is reminding me that I was going to post several more articles related to Hofstadter's writings. She also has a copy of the Yale alumni magazine and some modern furniture catalogs to keep her busy.

While we at CatSynth wax a little bookish, feats of athletics abound at whatdidyoueat, where Sundance and a rather fluffy Upsie do battle, all in good fun, of course. They also happen to be hosting this weekend. Go check out the other kitties in various states of activity, or lack thereof…





LBK finds a home!

Remember LBK, the “Little Black Kitty” from Nashville? Well, it looks like he found a home! From kitikata-san:

Little Black Kitty has a home! Little Black Kitty has a home! YAY! Little Black Kitty has a real name too! His name is Bruno! YAY! Bruno also has the lap of luxury that he deserves. Bruno's human likes to tap on his leg, and Bruno is more than happy to hop up on his lap to sit for hours to purr, to be petted and to nap. Bruno's lap of luxury is his favorite place to be.

We at CatSynth are happy to hear about Bruno finding such a nice home, something we wish for all our feline friends.



New Podcast Release: "Four Days"

A special treat for listeners of my podcast this Sunday! I am releasing a full-length (but lower fidelity) track from my RPM Challenge album, 2 1/2.

“Four Days” is a piece in the style of musique concrete, and fits into the overal narrative theme of the album 2 1/2. It has a really captivating and eerie quality, perhaps even a little spooky.

Enjoy!

(and please check out the current recordings available if you like it)






Weekend Cat Blogging #91: Enjoying the outdoors from indoors

Just a nice quiet day for us here at CatSynth to relax and do, well, not much of anything, except of course taking photos and videos and posting them on Weekend Cat Blogging.

Here, Luna gets comfy near the glass doors downstairs:

This week, we also have some Catster videos to share. Hear Luna's cute “hunting noises” and watch her tail go and she enjoys her favorite view out the bedroom window:

Videos, Movies, Pet Profiles, Catster

Another video from today over at Catster has Luna responding loudly to getting pet while surveying her domain…

Hehehe…let's crack open a window!

Click on the image above to enlarge, you can see another kitty outside (you can be sure that Luna sees him, too).

The big WCB roundup is being hosted over at champaign taste, where Louis' enjoyment of the outdoors turned into a scary “Lost Cat” story for a day. Thankfully, he returned in the evening and everything is fine. We're glad the Louis made it home safely. Go read his story and check out the other kitties this weekend.







RPM finished!

Well, it's been a pretty intense few days finishing up the RPM challenge, but we made it! Finished recording on Feburary 27, did some very cursory mastering and CD artwork on Feburary 28, and today, March 1, assembled the finished goods:


The final title was indeed “2 1/2”, and the final track list was as follows:

01 Prologue – Jerry Gray (1951)
02 Fragments in Gray
03 Twista Dilemma
04 Trieste 116
05 Four Days
06 ghanaplasticity
07 microkitty
08 RPM Filler Track
09 pique
10 Happy Machine
11 Epilogue – Count Basie (1953)

Musically, it's a fairly mixed result, some tracks were exceptional, others need a fair amount of work, which I can do at my leisure outside of the RPM challenge. But it is still a fairly good result for what was really just 2 1/2 weeks of solid work amidst the various other dramas of this past February…

At 11:30 this morning, I mailed it out from the post office in Scotts Valley, California. And with this simple act, it is done.

You can read some more detail of the last week on my rpm blog. As for me, it is time to rest.




CatSynth pic: Mimì and TB-303

Submitted by polynominal from Italy:

Mimì is a 8 years old female cat, born in the island
of Sardenia in Italy.
Her name is from a character of the opera “la Bohème”
composed by Puccini, although I could never bring her to the lyrical
theatre “La Scala” of Milan,
the city where I live and have my recording studio.
Mimì likes to stay in the studio for the warmy
heat produced by analog machines, perfect for little
cozy naps!
In the snapshot she's thinking of a way to sync a tb303
to an Elka Synthex's sequencer!
I hope she'll find out soon! 🙂

Besides being a classic analog instrument for techno and dance music, the TB-303 is quite a comfy location for a nap. Who knew?





LBK in Nashville needs a home

From our friend kitikata-san Weekend Cat Blogging 90 comes the story of LBK (Little Black Kitty) in Nashville. According to kitikata-san's human companion:

This little black kitty (LBK) was found in the middle of a very busy intersection of Wedgewood and 12 Ave. South in Nashville during rush hour. He had been hit by a car, or tossed out of a car. I stopped and a woman stopped to help LBK, and we took LBK to the vet. LBK is in a fantastic foster care situation now, so LBK can heal up, and get the remaining course of antibiotics. Amazingly, the vet said that LBK has no broken bones, only some trauma to his face.

Doesn't he look a bit like Luna in that photo?

LBK turns out to be a really sweet cat (seems like many little black shorthair cats have an exceptionally sweet disposition), enjoying lots of cuddling and pets, and purring. He also is quite healthy (outside of the whole getting hit by a car thing), neutered and apparently well cared for. All this adds up to the conclusion that he was someone's beloved companion. So what happened? Perhaps he simply got out and got lost, as seems to happen all too often. I also can't shake the idea from kitikata's human that he may have been “tossed out of car.” How could someone do that to such a sweet, loving, creature?

In any case, we hope LBK finds a good home, or is reunited with his original family. If anyone reading is in the Nashville area and interested in LBK, follow the “related link” below.