Since the moment it was revealed that the “nation’s most courageous dog” [Update: named “Cairo”] served alongside the 80 Navy SEALs who took out Osama bin Laden, America’s fascination with war dogs has hit a fevered pitch. =more=

From xkcd via M.

Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and (seemingly) random motion.

Photo by M.

The classic Max Roach solo performed by Bill Bruford:

Notice that the beginning of John Bonham’s ‘Moby Dick’ is lifted from this:

(via Jon Mattox)

Aside of occasionally jamming out to shake off Life’s dust, I haven’t really spent much recent time on the drum kit working out new patterns. But I’ve been sorta noticing this one lately, played as triplets. Four notes on top, two on bottom:

RLRLrl RLRLrl RLRLrl RLRLrl

(CAPS hands; lowercase feet.)

Just sat on the kit and worked out with that for about an hour. Can apply it everywhere. Has the same sort of flexibility as the Single Paradiddle-diddle (Rudiment 19), or perhaps more accurately, a non-alternating Double Paradiddle (Rudiment 17). Play around with the accents on the toms and snare. Sounds familiarly badass. Like, why didn’t I use this earlier?

Here it is in action, first two seconds:

Just in from Pirco, a cool variation:

RLRLrlRLL RLRLrlRLL RLRLrlRLL RLRLrlRLL

This pattern is 36 notes. Notice how you can play it over-the-bar in 4/4 time to get a 3-over-2 feel. Sixteenth-note triplets:

RLRLrr RLLRLR LrrRLL RLRLrr
RLLRLR LrrRLL RLRLrr RLLRLR
LrrRLL RLRLrr RLLRLR LrrRLL…
etc.