Create instant mixtapes, build a custom coffin, plus buzzworthy band Frightened Rabbit, other new music and more!
Sarah's Pick of the Week:
What's the deal with the online speed reading application Spreeder?!
The Gist
Story #1: The Dark Knight is ruling the box office and is now the 23rd biggest film of all time! Find out more here.
Story #2: 1,000 superhero costumes are up for auction, including Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man suit! Find out more here. More details on the auction here.
Story #3: A total solar eclipse will occur on Friday, August 1st! Find out where and how you can see it here.
Top 5 List - Why Moujan & Heather thought X-Files: I Want to Believe sucked:
- Mulder & Scully Are Old & Depressing
- No Conspiracy
- Annoying Fans in the Audience
- Forced Dialogue
- Dumb Story
Sarah's On the Prowl:
Create and share instant mixtapes from your Pandora or Last.fm profiles with Favtape!
Creative Coffins with Moujan:
This week Moujan touches upon the ever-so-delightful topic of death with a segment on unusual coffins.
Learn more!
- The Ga tribe of Ghana creates colorful coffins to celebrate the dead
- British based coffin-makers, Vic Fearn & Company, showcase their unusual designs at CrazyCoffins.co.uk
- Casket Furniture: Coffins you can use before you die!
- And finally, design your own coffin while being environmentally friendly with Creative Coffins.com
Music with Heather: Frightened Rabbit
Get your very own copy of their latest album "The Midnight Organ Fight" here.
More New Music:
Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
And be sure to check out their video Some Velvet Morning featuring Kate Moss.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Also, watch the music video of the song Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! on the album, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Islands - Arm's Way
Be sure to follow all of the popSiren girls on twitter!
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Posted by dren on 08/02/2008 at 01:54:17 pm in popSiren
omigosh... Ms. Sarah Lane... Ms. Director of Production...... We need BLOOPERS! I *really* miss those lol..
Good show -- the new format is growing on me, but still I want the show to last longer. Maybe that's just me craving too much popSiren, though lol.
Good job, ladies. Keep it up :)
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Posted by Cacogen on 08/01/2008 at 10:50:53 pm in popSiren
"You probably are old... lol.
"
And as such, of course, I don't have sex; that would be gross. God forbid I ever contemplate having sex once I get into my 40's...Like, OMG! Old People Sex! Barf!!!!!
Gillian Anderson is all of, 39? I trust you ladies will have the good sense and taste to give up that pastime well before, like, such an advanced age, right?
;)
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Posted by scott88008 on 08/01/2008 at 10:31:48 pm in popSiren
#1) Old people do have sex (thanks a lot Sarah)
#2)I have pretty eclectic taste in music (Jobim, Sinatra, Marilyn Manson, The Doors, CSN&Y, Flobots, Eminem, Modest Mouse, The Bird and the Bee, Beethoven, etc.) but don't like music podcasts that much. Heather covers that quite well in her segment and I follow her on Twitter for her recommendations.
#3)Moujan was hilarious as usual.
#4) I still love Sarsh despite the old people comment.
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Posted by Cacogen on 08/01/2008 at 04:35:06 pm in popSiren
"Hey everyone! Thanks for all the good feedback on Spreeder. I guess I never really thought about how it could really help someone learn to read faster. If it works for you, then I'm glad I brought it to your attention!
Also, although my music site LOOKED like Muxtape, it wasn't! It's Favtape, and it pulls from Last.fm... totally different! To me, anyway. :)
Keep that feedback coming. Like I've said, it always helps us to know what you like and don't like!
Peace on Friday,
s"
Hey Sarah, if you like that Nick Cave album, you might want to check out Cave's band from the late 70's and 80's: "The Birthday party" ... drug-addled, noisy, sort of gothic, bluesy dirge.
Actually, I'm guessing you'll hate it. ;)
My thing with the music segments is that they feel a bit like cheap filler in lieu of actual content. But, as I'll freely admit, I'm not the targeted demographic (Male, 34).
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Posted by bianca on 08/01/2008 at 04:27:39 pm in popSiren
Personally, I use Spreeder because I always put off reading articles. I just drag it and make it into a little bookmark on my bookmarks toolbar but I never read it. Over time, they sort of accumulate and annoy me, so I just delete them. I never get around to read them. With Spreeder, it sort of makes sure I pay attention to the article (heh), and I'm able to read the article super fast, and I never get those annoying bookmarks just hanging around anymore.
Favtape is pretty good, although it sort of messes up on even the less obscure tracks. I hope that improves soon; I really love this service. (:
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Posted by sarahlane on 08/01/2008 at 04:02:43 pm in popSiren
Hey everyone! Thanks for all the good feedback on Spreeder. I guess I never really thought about how it could really help someone learn to read faster. If it works for you, then I'm glad I brought it to your attention!
Also, although my music site LOOKED like Muxtape, it wasn't! It's Favtape, and it pulls from Last.fm... totally different! To me, anyway. :)
Keep that feedback coming. Like I've said, it always helps us to know what you like and don't like!
Peace on Friday,
s
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Posted by darknessgp on 08/01/2008 at 03:50:33 pm in popSiren
"
You probably are old... lol.
No, but seriously I agree with you. Music is one of those things that is different for everyone. I might like Band A that is in the same genre and sounds similar to Band B which I might not like at all. People that have similar tastes (according to last.fm and other services) in music to me tend to also like stuff that I don't like at all. and then there are people who clearly don't have any relation to my taste in music, and that makes for a very boring music segment with Heather and Sarah. Seriously, when watching the last episode right when Sarah was doing the intro to Heather's music segment I mentally went "Well, some more bands I won't like. Should I skip?" which I did skip the segment. I believe Alex gave people's tastes as the main reason they don't do Music on TRS. Which I tend to agree with.
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Posted by Cacogen on 08/01/2008 at 03:03:33 pm in popSiren
"
Yeah, I wish they would ease up on the music focus a bit; I'm not accustomed nor particularly inclined to receive music recommendations in this manner -- but perhaps I'm old.
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Posted by Cacogen on 08/01/2008 at 02:46:54 pm in popSiren
"This is my horribly botched attempt at an explanation of Spreeder.
When you learned to read way back in elementary school, part of what you learn are "sight words" (*link*
So, what Spreeder attempts to do is present words to you at a slow enough speed that your brain can recognize and comprehend them, but at a fast enough speed that you do not have time to subvocalize the words.
Take me, for example...
When I read a normal website or book, I read at around 150 to 200 words per minute due to subvocalizing. When I copy text into an application like Spreeder, however, I can usually read at 350 to 400 words per minute. I will still catch myself trying to subvocalize what I read, but Spreeder presents words too quickly and forces me to move on. I have noticed very little difference in my overall comprehension when using Spreeder as opposed to reading more slowly and directly without it.
I do, however, wish Spreeder would incorporate a slight pause when a ",", ".", or other punctuation is encountered. Sometimes not having this pause causes ideas to run together in my head. A good use for Spreeder would be if you read a ton of blogs each day. You can probably get through them in half the time once you become used to Spreeder."
I read at about 500 words a minute and "subvocalize" as much as any generally competent reader. It seems dubious to me that subvocalization constrains reading speed to any substantial degree -- perhaps if your jaw, lips, and tongue are actually visibly moving... in which case perhaps it can help remedial readers. I would have to look into it, but it strikes me as pseudoscientific nonsense.
**edit**
Had a look at the wikipedia entry on subvocalization:
"Advocates of speed reading generally claim that subvocalization 'places extra burden on the cognitive resources, thus, slowing the reading down.' These claims are currently backed only by controversial, sometimes non-existent scientific research; in some cases, concepts are drawn from pseudoscience and urban myths about the brain."
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Posted by Argopo on 08/01/2008 at 10:57:02 am in popSiren
Re: Spreeder
What about information retention? Yeah, speed reading allows you absorb text at a high rate of speed but how much of that is retained? What would happen if you put Proust's In Search of Lost Time or Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain through Spreeder?
I could understand its use for discardable web articles - but still...
"I have noticed very little difference in my overall comprehension when using Spreeder as opposed to reading more slowly and directly without it.
"
I gave it a try. It will take a while for me to get used to it.
Re: X-Files
And I thought Heather and Moujan were hard-core Mulder and Scully fans. I saw the movie and enjoyed it. Ok, so shoot me. Yeah, no aliens, no broad conspiracy plot, no smoking man, lot's of soul searching about belief, a bit of introspection. I guess, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. Also, both X-File films suffer from bad lighting making the principals look worn and ragged. Whoever Carter hires for his TD shouldn't be allowed to hold a flashlight, much less light a movie.
Also, I left the theater before the credits finished. I read elsewhere that there was an end-piece to the film. Details please?
I think at the end of the day, for X-Files fans to get the film they want, we will need to write the script ourselves.
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