Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Music Tuesday: A bevy of year-end lists from tUnE-yArDs and more

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Music Tuesday: A bevy of year-end lists from tUnE-yArDs and more

In 2011, music videos were as varied as the artists who made them: we saw a string of videos featuring parties you wish you'd been at. On the indie circuit, found footage and ghostly, atmospheric imagery dominated the landscape. We also saw musicians get behind the camera and make some extraordinary self-directed music videos. This week we invited a musician who's ending up on a lot of year-end lists to share with us their year-end lists — and one from a record store for good measure.



2011: Merrill Garbus' Picks

Merrill Garbus' tUnE-yArDs may have been embraced by the indie community, but tUnE-yArDs isn't your average twee indie pop. If anything, Garbus is the antidote to twee: she's got a big, blowsy voice and she explores its range with refreshing abandon, edging into abrasive territory in a way that is curiously not abrasive. She's also profoundly influenced by African music, and you can hear itthatin the layered chirps and coos of some songs, which draw directly from the Central African pygmy vocal tradition. Yes, heady stuff -- but Garbus also loves her dance music, and that's why her album w h o k i l l has connected on such a visceral level with so many fans this year. (It sounds like very little else in any genre.) We were intrigued to know what music inspired her this year; her choices may surprise you.







2011: Amoeba Music's Picks

Last but not least, California's largest independent music store employs a small army of music nerds. In one fell swoop of collective bargaining, they agreed on their 22 (22!) favorite music videos of 2011. Nobody has their fingers in as much music as these folks; consider this a quick primer on some great music that you might have missed.







See you in 2012!



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched "Favorite Albums of 2011."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/D8f_kyOLAwQ/music-tuesday-bevy-of-year-end-lists.html

[G] Geoffrey Canada and Capella University livestream panel on education reform

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST

YouTube Blog: Geoffrey Canada and Capella University livestream panel on education reform

One person can make a difference. Just ask Geoffrey Canada, an education reform advocate whose groundbreaking work in Harlem schools set a precedent across the United States. It's even inspired U.S. President Barack Obama to apply his model to cities across America.



On December 28 at 3:00pm PT, Geoffrey Canada will deliver a keynote speech about education reform, hosted by Capella University and streamed live on YouTube. The keynote presentation will be followed by a panel discussion on critical issues with leaders in the field of education reform, including Dr. Steve Perry and Dr. Christy Hovanetz. The panel will also answer questions submitted via YouTube here.



In the meantime, here's some of Canada's past work:







So check out the live event at 3:00pm PT on December 28 on Capella University's Inspire Ideas YouTube Channel, and we hope you enjoy.



Jen Howard, Education Director at Google, recently watched "YouTube for Schools: Join the Global Classroom Today!"


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/Kao8cvWIYE8/geoffrey-canada-and-capella-university.html

[G] Introducing YouTube Slam

Posted: 27 Dec 2011 03:59 PM PST

YouTube Blog: Introducing YouTube Slam

Have some free time this week? Think you can find the next singing sensation, viral video like Charlie bit my finger or Surprised Kitty?



Then come play YouTube Slam—a video discovery experiment we cooked up with folks from Google Research. Each week a new crop of videos battles head-to-head in Comedy, Cute, Music, Bizarre and Dance Slams, where your votes determine who wins the Slam and gets featured on the leaderboard.







Earn points for predicting the crowd favorites, and see how you stack up against other players at the end of each week. Get your daily dose of the most talented, hilarious, adorable or weird videos on YouTube, and you could help uncover the next big thing.







You can also subscribe to our Slam channels to see each week's video leaderboards: Comedy, Cute, Music, Bizarre or Dance. Pick a Slam and start playing!



Tomas Izo, Software Engineer, recently watch "Brick By Boring Brick: Paramore (Storm Kaden Cover)" via YouTube Slam.


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/ar5C7AdTt-0/introducing-youtube-slam.html
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, December 26, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Remembering a remarkable Soviet computing pioneer

Posted: 25 Dec 2011 12:07 PM PST

Official Google Blog: Remembering a remarkable Soviet computing pioneer

In many parts of the world, today is Christmas—but in Russia and Eastern Europe, which use the Orthodox calendar, December 25 is just an ordinary day. Little known to most, however, it's also a day that marks the anniversary of a key development in European computer history.

Sixty years ago today, in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Soviet Academy of Sciences finally granted formal recognition to Sergey Lebedev's pioneering MESM project. MESM, a Russian abbreviation for "Small Electronic Calculating Machine," is regarded as the earliest, fully operational electronic computer in the Soviet Union—and indeed continental Europe.

Recently we were privileged to get a first-hand account of Lebedev's achievements from Boris Malinovsky, who worked on MESM and is now a leading expert on Soviet-era computing.


Turn on captions for the English translation.

Described by some as the "Soviet Alan Turing," Sergey Lebedev had been thinking about computing as far back as the 1930's, until interrupted by war. In 1946 he was made director of Kyiv's Institute of Electrical Engineering. Soon after, stories of "electronic brains" in the West began to circulate and his interest in computing revived.

Sergey Lebedev*

Initially, Lebedev's superiors were skeptical, and some in his team felt working on a "calculator"—how they thought of a computer—was a step backward compared to electrical and space systems research. Lebedev pressed on regardless, eventually finding funding from the Rocketry department and space to work in a derelict former monastery in Feofania, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Work on MESM got going properly at the end of 1948 and, considering the challenges, the rate of progress was remarkable. Ukraine was still struggling to recover from the devastation of its occupation during WWII, and many of Kyiv's buildings lay in ruins. The monastery in Feofania was among the buildings destroyed during the war, so the MESM team had to build their working quarters from scratch—the laboratory, metalworking shop, even the power station that would provide electricity. Although small—just 20 people—the team was extraordinarily committed. They worked in shifts 24 hours a day, and many lived in rooms above the laboratory. (You can listen to a lively account of this time in programme 3 of the BBC's "Electronic brains" series.)

MESM and team members in 1951. From left to right: Lev Dashevsky, Zoya Zorina-Rapota, Lidiya Abalyshnikova, Tamara Petsukh, Evgeniy Dedeshko

MESM ran its first program on November 6, 1950, and went into full-time operation in 1951. In 1952, MESM was used for top-secret calculations relating to rocketry and nuclear bombs, and continued to aid the Institute's research right up to 1957. By then, Lebedev had moved to Moscow to lead the construction of the next generation of Soviet supercomputers, cementing his place as a giant of European computing. As for MESM, it met a more prosaic fate—broken into parts and studied by engineering students in the labs at Kyiv's Polytechnic Institute.

*All photos thanks to ukrainiancomputing.org.

Posted by Marina Tarasova, Communications Associate, Ukraine
URL: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/remembering-remarkable-soviet-computing.html
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)