Soulless Music, a Quiet Place, and the Deep, Dark Lake at the Bottom of the Ocean
5 oddities to ponder and share
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Quick note: Links are bold and underlined. Have fun with those. And now onto the oddities! 🤪
The Invisible Silent Circle
Jessica and I watched the first season of “Tulsa King.” Fun show. In one episode, they feature a place in Tulsa, Oklahoma known as the “Center of the Universe.” It’s an anomaly in that when you stand in it - it’s a concrete circle framed in with bricks - people outside of the circle can’t hear. You’re in an invisible soundproof bubble.
I’ve never visited this particular place before but I have friends in Oklahoma. Maybe I should go visit them and find my quiet place.
Google is Making Mysterious Music
Google has created a text-to-music program. In short, a user inputs a prompt and Google Music LM will spit out a fully-composed and performed piece of music to match it. For instance, here’s a screenshot of one they feature for Salvador Dali’s “The Persistence of Memory”:
This is really fascinating, weird, and disturbing. As you may already know, I’m weary of AI technology and, as a musician, this gives me fermata.
T2 and Gray Goo
No doubt you’re familiar with the movie “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (a.k.a, “T2”). The T-1000 robot is a metal fluid-like monstrosity that can rebuild itself and shift form. It’s not so much a robot as it is millions of tiny robots called nanobots working together, like cells in the human body, only evil.
These nanobots bear a striking resemblance to something known as Gray Goo, a theoretical doomsday scenario in which self-replicating nanobots consume the earth and everything in it. Both the T-1000 and Gray Goo are theoretical… but for how long?
The Road Floats
In China, there’s a floating road. That’s right, the road just floats there on the water. I would call it a bridge but I don’t think that would be accurate. Here’s a video of it.
Here’s what’s odd about this: why aren’t there more roads like this? It seems so simple and elegant. At the same time, you may ask why anyone would need a road like this. After all, it’s a tourist attraction. Still, I would like to walk along something like this. It’s the closest that a guy like me would come to walking on water (like my Hero).
A Dangerous Lake at the Bottom of the Ocean
Speaking of water, have you ever heard of a lake at the bottom of the ocean? Sounds impossible, right? Well, I saw this video years ago and was mystified. I revisited this underwater lake and found another strange video, one that shows an eel tying itself in knots after venturing into that deep, dark, briny abyss.
What mysteries lie within this strange body of water within water? Is it a home for undiscovered creatures? Is it a base for aliens? Is it a bachelor pad for C.H.U.D.? We may never know.
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Until next time, stay oddly beautiful!
Jason