The Blind, Autistic Slave Who Helped Form Modern Music

Blind Tom Wiggins was one of the most remarkable individuals in American history. Not only was he born blind and a slave, but he was also very probably autistic. Yet, he became a true pioneer of modern music. Here John Davis plays one of Blind Tom's compositions, the Cyclone Gallop:

John Davis goes in search of Blind Tom’s grave:

The fascinating story of Blind Tom and his mindboggling talents can be found here.

A musical heir of Blind Tom was Missouri’s own John William “Blind” Boone. His story was perhaps less tragic than Tom’s, but still remarkable. Blind Boone, whose mother was a runaway slave, could have become a wealthy man through his music but he appears to have given most of his income away. Here John Davis plays Blind Boone’s Southern Rag Medley No. 2:

You can read more about Blind Boone here.

Leonard Cohen at Glastonbury 2008

Hallelujah:


There Ain’t No Cure for Love:


Anthem:

Some more stupid graphs

more song chart memes


more song chart memes


more song chart memes




more song chart memes


more song chart memes

Counteracting Global Warming by Manipulating the Earth’s Albedo

Theoretically, global warming can be reversed by reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space. The cheapest and simplest solution to global warming I’ve seen is to increase cloud cover by spurting seawater up into the sky. This short video about it is well worth watching:

Another plan, the Global Albedo Enhancement Project, involves covering a vast area of desert in white plastic. Keeping the plastic white seems to be the hard part. The use of vacuum-cleaner robots has been considered.

There are also things that the average citizen can do to help raise the earth’s albedo.

What got me thinking about albedo was this article from Tree Hugger.