Blog Post #5

The first presentation that piqued my interest, was the Cassette Tape. This presentation was created by someone in my group, and it had a few points that stood out to me. Firstly, I was very glad to hear that the presenter mentioned The Rolling Stones' utilization of the cassette tape in the 60s. This was most prominent with popular songs such as I Can't Get No Satisfaction. This was great to hear because I am a huge Rolling Stones fan. I have listened to their music religiously for the past 2 - 3 years. When she was presenting this information to the class, I couldn't help but smile and nod my head and say, "Yeah that's true." Below is an image I really like. Taken by Aubrey Powell in 1973. In accordance with the Goats Head Soup album.

Here is an awesome YouTube Video someone made at a museum that houses the original tape recorder! Unfortunately, it doesn't provide any details as to where it's located, but I thought it would be worthwhile to include. 

Youtube Video

Furthermore, to add to that, the Stone's relationship to the Cassette tape goes beyond the Out Of Our Heads 1965 album. They also used this awesome technique on some other famous songs. From what I know, they incorporated the cassette tape when recording, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and Street Fighting Man. All amazing songs that mixed alternate tunings with revolutionary recording methods to create some of my favorite tones and sounds in all of Rock N Roll history. As a guitar player myself, I see Keith Richards, among others, as a revolutionary artist. His influence is a substantial reason as to why I have continued to play for the last 3 years. Aside from the stones, I'm just a music fan in general. So hearing about the originality of the cassette tape and how it evolved into MP3 and our iPhone, made for one of my personal favorite presentations. 

Article about Keith's Cassette Tape

Other presentations caught my eye as well. I thought the telegraph presentation was interesting too. In part because I did not know that the telegraph was used to communicate and send signals to trains carrying supplies. My knowledge of the telegraph was slim to none beforehand.

But this anecdote got my curiosity going. I wonder how exactly that worked. I suppose they would communicate via radio signals about what cargo each train would be carrying. This is something new to me, and I was glad that the presenter included it. 

I did find a little article that goes into more detail as to how trains would work with the telegraphs, in terms of transmitting information. Makes me think about how limitations in technology impacted society, and how modernization in the last 1800s and early 1900s was implemented.

This article talks about Granville Woods, the original railway telegraph developer. It is from the:

National Inventors Hall Of Fame website. 

Additionally, the presentation about Bluetooth included one of my particular favorite pieces of information. I thought it was very cool how the Bluetooth logo, was derived from a Nordic character. I also was unaware that a historical figure originated the name as well. The reason that this interested me, was because If I had one million guesses, I never would've guessed that Bluetooth had ties to such ancient history. That was the wildest thing I heard from all of the presentations because it was so out of left field. Though I was very glad to hear it. I was attracted to the connections to the deep mythology of the origins of Bluetooth and Norse mythology as well. 

From what I recall from the presentation, I believe that I have found a pretty cool image ( drawing ) of the original Nordic figure that initiated the Bluetooth name. Looks very cool. Just looking at this, drives the point home. I just think it's crazy to think about how such a modern invention, could date back to events from centuries ago.