Blog

Recommended Songs (sorted by most recommended songs)

Over Our Heads : Zero 7 (Score = 139.92)
Silent Running : Carbon Based Lifeforms (Score = 96.08)
Central Plains : Carbon Based Lifeforms (Score = 94.82)
Ramblin' Man : Lemon Jelly (Score = 77.63)
Let Go : Kosheen (Score = 77.34)
Good Bye Emily Feat. Gabriella Hanninen : Parov Stelar (Score = 77.34)
Sunset Spirals Take 2 : Xploding Plastix (Score = 76.55)
The Shen : Infected Mushroom (Score = 66.15)
Radian : Air (Score = 64.71)
People In The City : Air (Score = 63.21)
Billy The Kid Strikes Back : Ott (Score = 60.84)
Spannered in Pilton : Ott (Score = 58.2)
Walking Wounded : Everything but the Girl (Score = 54.89)
We Three Kings : Marion Meadows (Score = 52.25)
Family : Pat Metheny (Score = 51.28)
Shining : Peace Orchestra (Score = 49.79)
Inhaler : Hooverphonic (Score = 49.11)
Stunning : 8mm (Score = 48.91)
Longsight M13 : Ian Brown (Score = 47.56)
Home : Pat Metheny (Score = 46.38)
Crawling Up A Hill : Katie Melua (Score = 43.23)
Keep What Ya Got : Ian Brown (Score = 43.07)
Breathe : The Cinematic Orchestra (Score = 41.53)
Boogie Woogie : Kruder & Dorfmeister (Score = 40.25)
Private Session (25th mix) : Lovers Lane (Score = 39.46)
Breathe : Bliss (Score = 38.58)
Nyana : DJ Tiësto (Score = 38.58)
Tin Tin Deo : David Sanborn (Score = 38.45)
You Are Everything : Ken Navarro (Score = 37.98)
Exhale (Shoop Shoop) : Kirk Whalum (Score = 37.26)
My Cherie Amour : Marion Meadows (Score = 37.12)
Crazy English Summer : Faithless (Score = 36.87)
Vai Vai : Thunderball (Score = 36.84)
The Key : Tosca (Score = 36.78)
The Only Ones : Moloko (Score = 36.67)
The Proxy : RJD2 (Score = 36.54)
Tiger In The Night : Katie Melua (Score = 36.24)
Strut : Kevin Toney (Score = 35.88)
Linger : The Cranberries (Score = 35.81)
Get Misunderstood : Troublemakers (Score = 35.56)
E-Pro : Beck (Score = 35.5)
Midnight In A Perfect World : DJ Shadow (Score = 35.43)
Twice : Little Dragon (Score = 35.33)
Lounge : Esthero (Score = 35.26)
Domination : Peace Orchestra (Score = 35.13)
Walk On The Wild Side : Rick Braun (Score = 34.81)
Looking Up (Jazz) : Gregg Karukas (Score = 34.68)
The Cosmic Game : Thievery Corporation (Score = 34.55)
Fly Away With Me : Pamela Williams (Score = 34.17)
The Sheriff : Fila Brazillia (Score = 34.05)
Blue Water : Eric Marienthal (Score = 33.58)
Single : Everything but the Girl (Score = 33.56)
The Great London Traffic Warden Massacre : Morcheeba (Score = 33.37)
Sail Into the Sun : The Funky Lowlives (Score = 33.26)
A Tear In The Open : DJ Tiësto (Score = 32.88)
Bleu Cheese : Fattburger (Score = 32.87)
Speck of Gold : Afterlife (Score = 32.66)
Anybody Here? : Naomi (Score = 32.62)
Don't Invent Me : Mandalay (Score = 32.59)
Honey : Tosca (Score = 31.62)
Night Calls : Everette Harp (Score = 31.52)
Slowly : Amon Tobin (Score = 31.24)
Soulful Strut : Grover Washington, Jr. (Score = 31.24)
Beautiful Together (Signum Remix) : OceanLab (Score = 31.23)
Play : Flunk (Score = 30.84)
Take me to the Mardi Gras : Bob James (Score = 30.81)
To the Point : Dan Siegel (Score = 30.7)
Let's Take A Ride : Norman Brown (Score = 30.38)
Hell Is Round The Corner : Tricky (Score = 30.37)
What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4) : DJ Shadow (Score = 30.21)
Elle et moi : Lemongrass (Score = 30.09)
South Beach : Marion Meadows (Score = 30.01)
Airport : dZihan & Kamien (Score = 29.82)
Long Road : Funki Porcini (Score = 29.81)
Definition : Kruder & Dorfmeister (Score = 29.78)
Nightfall : Kim Waters (Score = 29.74)
Beautiful Together (Original Mix) : OceanLab (Score = 29.52)
Brighton Beach : Télépopmusik (Score = 29.12)
Make a Wish : Conjure One (Score = 29.01)
Moonlight Shadow : Mike Oldfield (Score = 28.91)
From a Seaside Town : Aim (Score = 28.85)
Kissing : Bliss (Score = 28.56)
blowing bubbles : Opia (Score = 28.44)
Lazy Moon : Groove Armada (Score = 28.37)
Speechless : Kruder & Dorfmeister (Score = 28.31)
Mister Magic : Grover Washington, Jr. (Score = 28.28)
'84 Pontiac Dream : Boards of Canada (Score = 28.23)
In the Hands : Chuck Loeb (Score = 28.1)
When Can I See You : Kirk Whalum (Score = 28.03)
Inertia Creeps : Massive Attack (Score = 28.03)
Parks : Four Tet (Score = 27.93)
Ghannali : Grace Deeb (Score = 27.93)
The Call : DAB (Score = 27.91)
Hey Saturday Sun : Boards of Canada (Score = 27.76)
Glow : UNKLE (Score = 27.73)
Ode To My Family : The Cranberries (Score = 27.7)
Road to Nowhere : DJ Krush (Score = 27.51)
You're Not Alone : Olive (Score = 27.48)
Arabiyon Ana : Yuri Mrakadi (Score = 27.44)
I Wish : Najee (Score = 27.24)

God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved

By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will FLOURISH. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out - perhaps because they are impressed by their Devotion.

"If a person is willing to sacrifice for an abstract god then people feel like they are willing to sacrifice for the community," says James Dow, an evolutionary anthropologist at oakland university in Rochester, Michigan, US, who wrote the program - called Evogod (download the code here).

Dow is by no means the first scientist to take a stab at explaining how religion emerged. Theories on the evolution of religion tend toward two camps. One argues that religion is a mental artefact, co-opted from brain functions that evolved for other tasks.

Aiding the people

Another contends that religion benefited our ancestors. Rather than being a by-product of other brain functions, it is an adaptation in its own right. In this explanation, natural selection slowly purged human populations of the non-religious.

"Sometime between 100,000 years ago to the point where writing was invented, maybe about 7000 BC, we begin to have records of people's supernatural beliefs," Dow says.

To determine if it was possible for religion to Emerge as an Adaptation, Dow wrote a simple computer program that focuses on the evolutionary benefits people receive from their interactions with one another.

"what people are adapting to is other people," he says.

Religious attraction

To simplify matters, Dow picked a defining trait of religion: the desire to proclaim religious information to others, such as a belief in the Afterlife. He assumed that this trait was Genetic.

The model assumes, in other words, that a small number of people have a genetic predisposition to communicate unverifiable information to others. They passed on that trait to their children, but they also interacted with people who didn't spread unreal information.

The model looks at the reproductive success of the two sorts of people - those who pass on real information, and those who pass on unreal information.

under most scenarios, "believers in the unreal" went extinct. But when Dow included the assumption that non-believers would be attracted to religious people because of some clear, but arbitrary, signal, religion flourished.

"somehow the communicators of unreal information are attracting others to communicate real information to them," Dow says, speculating that perhaps the non-believers are touched by the faith of the Religious.

Ancient needs

Richard Sosis, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, US, says the model adds a new dimension to the debate over how religion could have Evolved, which has previously relied on verbal arguments and speculation. But "these are baby steps", he cautions.

Sosis previously found that in some populations - kibbutzim in Israel, for instance - more religious people receive more assistance from others than the less faithful. But he notes that the forces that maintain religion in modern humans could be very different from those that promoted its Emergence, thousands of years ago.

Palaeolithic humans were probably far more reliant than modern humans on the community they were born into, Sosis says. "[Now] you can be a Lutheran one week and decide the following week you are going to become a Buddhist."

Journal reference: Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Stimulation, vol 11, p 2 by Ewen Callaway

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13983

A list of great music I've discovered thanks to Last.fm. All artists/groups have music available for free download:

A Smile and a Ribbon [indie pop/twee]

Aerospace [indie pop/twee]

Afterlife [chillout/lounge/electronic]

Airiel [shoegaze/rock]

Akurat [rock/ska/reggae]

Ana Popovic [blues/blues rock]

Andra and the Backbone [alternative rock/intrumental rock]

Andy McKee [guitar/acoustic/fingerstyle]

The Appleseed Cast [alternative rock/emo/post-rock]

Backseat Goodbye [acoustic/folk/indie pop]

Beeshop [acoustic/folk/singer-songwriter]

Benjamin Bates [dance/house/trance]

Benton Falls [indie rock/alternative rock]

Billie the Vision & The Dancers [indie pop]

Bodo Wartke [comedy/german/cabaret]

The Boxer Rebellion [alternative rock]

Brandtson [indie rock]

Burns Out Bright [alternative rock]

The Butterfly Effect [alternative rock/hard rock]

Canastra [rockbilly/rock and roll]

Carey Ott [indie/singer-songwriter]

Charme Chulo [alternative rock]

Clair De Lune [indie rock]

The Clay People [industrial rock/rock metal]

Cross My Heart [emo/indie/indie rock]

Day Of Rising [emo/punk rock/rock]

Delons [alternative rock]

Desert City Soundtrack [alternative rock]

Die kleinen Götter [punk rock]

Erick Turnbull [acoustic/fingerstyle/guitar]

Everything [alternative/alternative rock]

Fakie For Nothing [emo/pop punk/post-hardcore] Free tracks can also be found at http://fakie4nothing.com/

Fatima Spar und die Freedom Fries [balkan/gypsy]

Fooldoor [indie pop]

For Your Ears Only [acoustic/ambient/guitar/instrumental]

Francis Cabrel [chanson francaise/singer-songwriter]

Garden Grows [indie/pop]

Goodbyetomorrow [acoustic/alternative/indie]

Guadalajara [ska/ska punk]

Hallelujah The Hills [alternative rock]

Head On [alternative rock/hard rock/metal]

Hello Saferide [indie pop]

Herbrightskies [post-hardcore/screamo]

The Higher [pop rock]

Holiday Parade [emo/indie rock/pop punk]

In Stereo [pop punk]

ist [rock/ska]

James William Hindle [acoustic/folk/indie]

Januarove prekvapenie [alternative rock]

Jason Crowgey [folk/indie]

Jason Silver [ballads/piano/singer-songwriter]

Jena Kraus [folk/singer-songwriter]

Jimmy Robbins [acoustic/pop rock]

Discoveries in May 2008.
Artists whose albums became a part of my music collection marked with bold text. The rest I've yet to fully check out.

*******************************************

VOCALS
* Afterlife
Tags: downtempo, chillout, lounge

* Airlock
Tags: trip-hop, electronica, female vocalists

* Claire Voyant
Tags: darkwave, ethereal, gothic

* Endless Blue
Tags: trip-hop, female vocalists, ethereal

* Hector Zazou
Tags: ambient, downtempo, electronica

* Lunascape
Tags: trip-hop, female vocalists, electronica

* Lunik
Tags: female vocalists, trip-hop

* Mandalay
Tags: trip-hop, electronica, downtempo

* Moya Brennan
Tags: celtic, irish, female vocalists

* Nicola Hitchcock
Tags: trip-hop, female vocalists, downtempo

* Olive
Tags: trip-hop, electronica

* Orbient
Tags: ambient, electronica, experimental

* Portishead
Tags: trip-hop, female vocalists, electronica

* The Silk Demise
Tags: trip-hop, downtempo, electronica

* Stellamara
Tags: ambient, ethereal

*******************************************

INSTRUMENTAL / AMBIENT
* Bola
Tags: electronica, idm, experimental

* Cardamar
Tags: electronica, chillout, ambient

C&M burns your floor, in every club in every country, no matter... Even if your dancefloor is your livingroom, your car or your showercell.

This time including the usual toc-intro and for the first time with a picture to download, just click the new, red button.. Your iPod will like it.

Keep it burning and download it from here:
http://www.truehouse.net/mixes/mix042008.mp3

Tracklist:

Intro
GROOVEJUNKIES - "Dr. Feelgood"
Quentin Harris - "My Joy"
Bongoloverz - "The Ministers"
Kelly Rowland - "Daylight"
Miguel Migs - "Giving It All"
Yves Murasca - "All About Housemusic"
Syke 'n' Sugarstarr - "Delicious Garden"
Mike Polo - "Gipsy woman"
Funkerman - "Speed Up"
Hot Hands - "quiero tus caricias"
Miguel Migs & Lisa Shaw - "All Night High"
Jazzloungerz - "Joy"
Afterlife - "Let It Go"
Justin Michael - "Celebration of Music"

Artwork:

Take your top 20 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference. You can compute your own score at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/eclectic.php

My eclectic score is currently




The 84 related artists for my profile are

Afterlife, Air, Aphex Twin, Apparat, Arovane, Autechre, B. Fleischmann, Badmarsh & Shri, Beck, Blur, Boards of Canada, Bonobo, Chris Coco, Cyantific, Drowning Pool, Ellen Allien, Ellen Allien & Apparat, Eluvium, Explosions in the Sky, Faithless, Four Tet, Godsmack, Gorillaz, Herrmann & Kleine, High Contrast, Honeyroot, INXS, ISAN, Imogen Heap, Interpol, Jem, Joey Fehrenbach, Justice, Keane, Kettel, Korn, Lamb, Lemon Jelly, Logistics, London Elektricity, Mandalay, Manual, Massive Attack, Massive Attack vs. Mad Professor, Moby, Modeselektor, Morcheeba, Muse, Nathan Fake, Nu:Tone, Oasis, Passengers, Plaid, Portishead, Prefuse 73, R.E.M., Remy Zero, Röyksopp, Sia, Sigur Rós, Snow Patrol, Squarepusher, Stardust, Static-X, System of a Down, Talvin Singh, The Chemical Brothers, The Fray, The Police, The Postal Service, The Verve, Thievery Corporation, This Will Destroy You, Thom Yorke, Thomas Bangalter, Tosca, Travis, Tricky, Tristeza, Tycho, Télépopmusik, UNKLE, Zero 7, dZihan & Kamien

Daughter Darling - Mermaid
Blonde Readhead - For the Damaged Coda
Jon Hopkins - Circle
Afterlife - Like Prana
Aesop Rock - Troubled Waters
Boards of Canada - 1969
Alif Tree - Enough
Wax Tailor - Our Dance
Rooney - Sleep Song
Michelle Shaprow - Anything You Say
Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay
The Shins - Pink Bullet
Paul & Price - Sunday Afternoon (feat. Toddy Ivy)
Radiohead - Sail To The Moon
Modest Mouse - Blame It on the Tetons
Breakestra - Cramp Your Style
The Opus - Isis feat. Lord 360
Robert Miles - TSBOL
Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Ursula Rucker - The Return To Innocence Lost

Ok getting carried away now..

Hope is all that we have
With each birth, every tear, we have hope, we have hope

Speck of gold in your heart
Everyone, everyone
Speck of gold in your heart
Every sun, everyone

Speck of gold

Cold, cold ways, I won't
Hold you heart to this light
One and all, one and all
Speck of gold

Speck of gold, that we just unfolded
Love your heart, love your heart
Speck of gold, everyone hold our sun
Wanna live

Speck of gold

Speck of dust on our sun
Shade our world, shade our world
Speck of dust on everyone
Save our sun, save our world

Speck of dust on our sun
Shade our world, shade our world
Speck of dust on everyone
Save our sun, save our world
Afterlife