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Algorithmic Gasoline

Zuckerberg added, “The fact is, there is no truth. There’s only interaction scores with content. Lies and truth don’t come in to it. Our business model is based on this idea. See, there’s this little fire and our algos throw gasoline on it to make it a bigger fire. Bigger fires make us more money. And who doesn’t like watching things burn?”

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From Plague Notebooks

This is from Michiku Kakutani’s “Pandemic Notebook” published in the New York Times Book Review on Sunday, May 17, 2020.

“Camus’s novel can also be read as an allegory about the struggle against the Nazi occupation of France. Like members of the Resistance, Dr. Rieux knew ‘there must be no bowing down’ to the plague–no compromise with evil, no resignation to fate. He identified with victims of the plague–‘ there was not one of their anxieties in which he did not share, no predicament of theirs that was not his’–and he knew the ‘essential thing was to save the greatest possible number of persons from dying.’

It’s this sense of individual responsibility, combined with his feelings of solidarity with others, that enable Dr. Rieux to hold fast to two not entirely contradictory truths: the understanding that we must remain ever vigilant because the plague bacillus, like the poison of fascism or tyranny, ‘never dies or disappears,’ and the optimistic belief that ‘what we learn in time of pestilence’ is ‘that there are more things to admire in men than to despise.'”

And that’s the quote of the day.

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Action at a Distance

The perfect composition for the real-time virtual space in which distance creates slight delays of an unknowable degree. The canvas for the work is real-time and yet slightly displaced at each endpoint of the network. Like real life, except moreso.

“In C”

by Terry Riley

Instruction for beginners

1 Any number of people can play this piece on any instrument or instruments (including voice).

2 The piece consists of 53 melodic patterns to be repeated any amount of times. You can choose to start a new pattern at any point. The choice is up to the individual performer! We suggest beginners are very familiar with patterns 1-12.

3 Performers move through the melodic patterns in order and cannot go back to an earlier pattern. Players should try to stay within 2-3 patterns of each other.

4 If any pattern is too technically difficult, feel free to move to the next one.

5 The eighth note pulse is constant. Always listen for this pulse. The pulse for our experience will be piano and Orff instruments being played on the stage.

6 The piece works best when all the players are listening very carefully. Sometimes it is better to just listen and not play. It is important to fit into the group sound and understand how what you decide to play affects everybody around you. If you play softly, other players might follow you and play soft. If you play loud, you might influence other players to play loud.

7 The piece ends when the group decides it ends. When you reach the final pattern, repeat it until the entire group arrives on this figure. Once everyone has arrived, let the music slowly die away.

San Francisco State University School of Music presents “In C” by Terry Riley

Join the School of Music Percussion Ensemble on Thursday, May 7th 1pm as either a participant or viewer.

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That Place

That place where where you are
Not the moving picture
of the place where
you are not

No matter how well
it tricks the eyes and ears
No matter what images
it conjures in the mind

It’s still weak tea
compared to the place
where you are right now
As time flows
within you and without you

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