Capitalogix

Postmodern Jukebox's Cool Cover of "Creep" [Music Video]

Creativity isn't limited to creation.  

Sometimes how you approach something changes it. 

For example, in music, there are some pretty famous covers that "beat" (or revitalize) the original. 

• Aretha Franklin's Respect (An Otis Redding song) is so familiar that it seems like it's the original.
• Disturbed's The Sound of Silence (A Simon&Garfunkel song) has a whopping 236 million views on YouTube.
• Johnny Cash's version of Hurt (A Nine Inch Nails song) has over 50 million views on YouTube.

If you want to stretch it ... how about a death metal version of Mary Poppins?

Some bands exist primarily to do covers.  Few do it like Postmodern Jukebox, which an avid following – and an abundance of talent.    

Here is one of their hits, a torch song inspired version of "Creep" by Radiohead.  Worth a listen.

 

As I was putting this together, I came across a different version of Creep played on a Gayageum (a traditional Korean instrument).  

Different ... but interesting.

There are many ways to approach almost everything.

 

I Don't Fear Artificial Intelligence - I Do Fear Artificial Stupidity

I don't know if you've ever tried to paint a room - but if you have, I'm sure you've come across some bizarre paint names. 

How does that relate to AI?

Well, Janelle Shane is a research scientist, and neural network aficionado - as any good data scientist should, she spends a lot of her free time playing with neural networks (... to varying results). 

Recently, she attempted to train an algorithm (specifically char-rnn, a neural network that attempts to anticipate the next character in a sequence) to create new paint colors and accompanying names. 

After it was fully trained, here are the results: 

 

via LewisandQuark

As you can see, it knows there are colors, but it struggles to keep the names associated with the appropriate color. 

"Turdly" seems pretty close though ... but I always wanted to paint my room "Stanky Bean."

As you might know, that was not the first time artificial intelligence has created something artificially stupid. 

For example, how about when Microsoft attempted to create an AI chatbot named "Tay" by analyzing tweets?

Tay quickly became very .... very racist. 

via TheVerge

Clearly, mistakes were made (and Tay isn't as dangerous as a human racist) – but, it does raise questions.

AI is cool ... But, artificial stupidity is still scary.

For now, that is the way it is. 

As we explore new avenues and smarter algorithms for AI to be trained with, it will be interesting to see what Frankenstein's monsters we create. 

A Tale as Old As Time ...

I watched Beauty and the Beast this weekend, with my youngest.

 

via filmschoolrejects

 

He's not so young anymore, and it feels like these two toddlers aren't either.   If you haven't seen this yet, watch ... It's a fascinating and funny time-lapse.

 

 

Two toddlers escaped their cribs and held a party in their bedroom. 

By the way, Beauty and the Beast was pretty good.  It's a faithful representation of the original cartoon, and a reminder that while children get older and technology changes, some things don't.

Facts or Fiction: How Faithful is Your Favorite "True" Movie's Story?

Recently, there's been a lot of talk about fake news and fact-checking the contents of the news and what public figure say.  However, I haven't heard much about measuring the veracity of movies.

This site was kind of interesting.

It purports to rank the relative veracity of various movies. 

For example, "Selma" is impressively accurate  (as is "The Big Short") ... "The Imitation Game"?  Not so much.

 

via Information is Beautiful

This interactive breakdown lets you be as "pedantic" as you want -- letting the "truth" be relatively flexible, or seating the truth-scale at "only what objectively happened".

So, where does your favorite film fall?

Pretty interesting.

Quick, Draw!

Our non-human overlords haven't taken over yet.

However, A.I. is getting smarter faster.

Can a neural network learn to recognize doodles?

Google's Quick, Draw! will try and guess what you're drawing.

It did pretty well with mine, and I did not inherit my dad's artistic skills. 

Try it by clicking below!

 

 

Kind of cool!

Finding Dory

On Father's Day, my son took me to Finding Dory.  

Let's not dissect the story ... I appreciated spending time with my son  (but also the art and the technology used to make it).

   

 

The current state of animation is mind-blowing (not just 3D ... the textures, shading, and sense of natural movement.

The rendering math is cool.  Yes, I know that makes me a nerd.

But, they are using GPU servers to do massive computation (just like a Quant Fund).  

Watch the video, below, to see how they did it.

 

 

CNet via YouTube.

I don't think this is what Beyoncé had in mind ...

I recently went to a Beyoncé concert.  Not as good as a Cowboys game, but impressive talent nonetheless.

Meanwhile, this guy has some talent and is covering her material ... just not enough of his body.  All The Single Ladies, will never be the same.  Worth a watch for the laugh.

 

via YouTube.

 

This was fun too.

 

 

via YouTube.

And here is a link to Beyoncé doing that same song a little differently.

 

Happy New Year

Best wishes to you and yours.  JibJab nailed my resolutions for the year!

 

 

JibJab via YouTube.

Looking forward to a great 2016!

Cool Comparison of Harry Potter and Star Wars [Infographic]

The first reactions to 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' are here, and people are thrilled ... Even Wired liked it.

Ah, the Hero's Quest ... a formula that has worked for centuries.

Check out this document showing the differences between the plots of Harry Potter and Star Wars.

 

 

J.K. Rowling has said, "I haven't the faintest idea where my ideas come from."  Well, Wikipedia lists over two dozen influences and analogues (and is interesting, if you like that sort of thing.)

Or, you could just glance at the following infographic.  It highlights the similarities between Harry Potter and Star Wars pretty clearly.

 

 

Sometimes it is better not to analyze the trick and just enjoy the magic.

Other times, just let Saturday Night Live do a parody of it.

Related articles

• Incredible Infographic - The Fascinating Franchise of Harry Potter (basekit.com)
• The Magic Of Harry Potter (grumbleltd.wordpress.com)
• Bank on Harry Potter to conjure up the cash (telegraph.co.uk)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

In the spirit of 'Independence' ... here is a photo of the British Royal Family.  It could be captioned: "Did Phillip Fart?"

The expressions are priceless!  Notice Harry, and of course, the Queen.

 

 

What do you think?

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• What Happens When Our Computers Get Smarter Than We Are? (TED)
• Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. (Aerogramme Studio)
• Watching Porn With Porn Stars Is Hilariously Awkward. (HuffPost)
• U.S. Suspects Hackers in China Breached 4 Million People’s Records. (WSJ)
• IBM is buying thousands of Macs for its employees. It wants to deploy around 50,000 MacBooks by the end of the year.  (9to5mac)

 

Trading Links:

• Most Millionaires Think They Are Middle Class. (CNBC)
• Uber is Now Worth MORE than Federal Express. (Lindzon)
• Feds’ Crystal Ball Shows Oil Comeback. (Investing Daily)
• Who Is Saudi Arabia Really Targeting In Its Price War? (OilPrice)
• How The Fed "Engineered A Massive Squeeze In The Markets" with the Help of 683x Leverage. (ZH)