Who actually has access to the internet?

Here's an interesting recent report on internet access in the US.

On page 9, there's an executive summary listing the main findings of the report. But the graphs and tables further on are worth scrolling down to.

In short: findings show that internet access correlates with education levels, income levels, race and ethnicity, geography, rurality of location, and disability of potential internet users. No big surprises, but for those of you who live on the internet, a good reminder that much of the world does not.

If you are interested in world-wide statistics on internet access, look here.

Learn to Sing Harmony

(Squee alert)

I found my (early!) birthday present today.

A year or two ago, I found Susan Anders' great CD Harmony Singing By Ear
It's a fun and interesting way to play around with harmony, especially for someone with no musical training at all. She keeps the theory rather low-key, and then you can skip the theory/strategy tracks when/if you just want to practice your part.

Today I found that she has put out an iPhone app for learning harmony/parts. It only has three old chestnuts included for now, but there are indications that songs will be added in future versions. (Lean on Me; Proud Mary; Teach Your Children, all three in SATB arrangements) It sells for $2.99, and is more of a part-learning tool than anything else (no theory here). There are four parts, and a music track for each song. You can turn the music track off or on, and you can set each of the parts to either full loudness, half loudness, or off.

I love it! My kind musical friends who bear with my constant pleas for separately recorded parts of vocal arrangements will love it, too!

What would/will make it even better:
1) more songs;
2) a looping function;
3) a programmable looping function (i.e. I want the bass part alone 4 times, then add in the soprano for 3 repetitions, then add the background music for 5 repeats, etc.);
4) a slider control for volume of each part, or at least a volume level added between half loudness and full loudness;
5) more songs.

The only person who won't love it is LP, who will have to listen to me hum and sing along....but then again, now hu doesn't have to go birthday shopping for me, either!   ;-)

(Disclaimer: I have no connection to to this product or its makers, other than that I am a happy customer.)

Community and Street Life

Not so recent article from Treehugger.com regarding a not so recent but very interesting study. The gist of it (aka newsflash) is that more cars on your street means less personal interaction. But also: less awareness of details. Part of what is cool about this is how the data is visualized/drawn, and how people's visual memory/perception of their neighborhood is used to come up with quantifiable data, rather than just anecdotal evidence.


Revisiting Donald Appleyard's Livable Streets from Streetfilms on Vimeo.