Yearly Archives: 2005

Bob Moog, one of the fathers of electronic music, has died at 71. From [“Moog Music”:http://www.moogmusic.com/]:

bq.. ASHEVILLE, N.C. – August 21, 2005 – Bob died this afternoon at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71. Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme or GBM) in late April 2005. He had received both radiation treatment and chemotherapy to help combat the disease. He is survived by his wife, Ileana, his five children, Laura Moog Lanier, Matthew Moog, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog, and Miranda Richmond; and the mother of his children, Shirleigh Moog.

Bob was warm and outgoing. He enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. He especially appreciated what Ileana referred to as “the magical connection” between music-makers and their instruments.

No public memorial is planned. Fans and friends can direct their sympathies or remembrances to www.caringbridge.com/visit/bobmoog.

Bob’s family has established The Bob Moog Foundation dedicated to the Advancement of Electronic Music in his memory. Many of his longtime collaborators including musicians, engineers and educators have agreed to sit on its executive board including David Borden, Wendy Carlos, Joel Chadabpe, John Eaton, David Mash, and Rick Wakeman. For more information about the foundation, contact Matthew Moog at mattmoog@yahoo.com.

We’ll miss you Bob.

p. I grew up five miles away from Moog Music, and used to spend time as a teenager at Moog’s showroom in Cheektowaga, NY. It was always thrilling when a new Moog synth was released.

In accordance with his last wishes, Hunter S Thompson’s ashes will be sent into the sky in 34 fireworks mortar tubes. From [“Rocky Mountain News”:http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4011107,00.html]:

bq.. Hunter S. Thompson’s cremated remains, mixed with fireworks and packed into 34 mortar tubes, were en route to Woody Creek Wednesday.

The unusual shipment from New Castle, Pa., via padlocked truck is one of the final steps towards a funeral Saturday expected to mix solemnity with pageantry.

Thompson’s only son, Juan Thompson, stresses the respectful tone he wants to strike, but acknowledges that his father’s funeral wishes were unusual. Based on Hunter Thompson’s comments in a 1978 BBC documentary, fireworks launchers will arc his ashes from a 153-foot structure capped by a double-thumbed, red Fiberglas fist.

Actor Johnny Depp, a friend of Thompson’s who portrayed the writer in a film, is footing the estimated $2 million cost of the send-off.

From the [“Hollywood Reporter”:http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/people/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001017139]:

bq.. Joe Ranft, Pixar Animation Studios’ head of story for more than a decade and a cornerstone of the company’s creative team, died Tuesday when the car he was riding in plunged into the ocean after running off the road in Mendocino County, Calif. He was 45.

A spokeswoman for the Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office confirmed Wednesday that Ranft was one of two people who died when the 2004 Honda Element they were traveling in veered off the road while heading north on Highway 1.

Ranft was a co-writer on 1995’s “Toy Story,” for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and 1998’s “A Bug’s Life.” Before Pixar, he was a leading member of the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was a writer on 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast” and 1994’s “The Lion King.”

Ranft’s voice-over work for Pixar included such characters as Heimlich in “A Bug’s Life” and Wheezy the Penguin in “Toy Story 2.”

From Science@NASA:

bq.. The lowest-hanging full moon in 18 years is going to play tricks on you this week.

Sometimes you can’t believe your eyes. This week is one of those times.

Step outside any evening at sunset and look around. You’ll see a giant moon rising in the east. It looks like Earth’s moon, round and cratered; the Man in the Moon is in his usual place. But something’s wrong. This full moon is strangely inflated. It’s huge!

You’ve just experienced the Moon Illusion.

Sky watchers have known this for thousands of years: moons hanging low in the sky look unnaturally big. Cameras don’t see it, but our eyes do. It’s a real illusion.

This week’s full moon hangs lower in the sky than any full moon since June 1987, so the Moon Illusion is going to be extra strong.

What makes the moon so low? It’s summer. Remember, the sun and the full Moon are on opposite sides of the sky. During summer the sun is high, which means the full moon must be low. This week?s full moon occurs on June 22nd, barely a day after the summer solstice on June 21st–perfect timing for the Moon Illusion.

When you look at the moon, rays of moonlight converge and form an image about 0.15 mm wide in the back of your eye. High moons and low moons make the same sized spot. So why does your brain think one is bigger than the other? After all these years, scientists still aren’t sure why.

Maybe it’s the shape of the sky. Humans perceive the sky as a flattened dome, with the zenith nearby and the horizon far away. It makes sense: Birds flying overhead are closer than birds on the horizon. When the moon is near the horizon, your brain, trained by watching birds, miscalculates the moon’s true distance and size.

The best time to look is around moonrise, when the moon is peeking through trees and houses or over mountain ridges, doing its best to trick you.

p. Note that the best time to see this illusion in the North East is 7:25 PM on June 20, 8:39 PM on June 21 and 9:43 PM on June 22.

From Yahoo:

bq.. Producers had always indicated that the movie would likely debut after the TV show ran its course. But with the show continuing to perform well, averaging about 10 million viewers last season, the Simpsons brain trust decided to move forward now, according to a rep for 20th Century Fox, which will distribute the Simpsons film.

“They are working on hammering out a script, but there’s no title or production date or release date,” studio spokeswoman Antonia Coffman told E! Online Wednesday. “We always wanted the show to end first but it just keeps going. Now they’ve worked out a team to simultaneously do [both the film and show].”

From SiliconValleyWatcher:

bq.. Google plans to use trucks equipped with lasers and digital photographic equipment to create a realistic 3D online version of San Francisco, and eventually other major US cities.

The trucks would drive along every San Francisco street using the lasers to measure the dimensions of buildings, to create a 3D framework onto which digital photos can be mapped. This would complement the mostly top-down view of San Francisco available through Google’s Keyhole satellite photo application.

The goal is to create similar 3D online versions of other cities in the US and overseas.