When Words Fail, Music Speaks. | Paranoid Android by Radiohead

"Paranoid Android" is a song by English alternative rock band Radiohead, featured on their 1997 third studio album OK Computer. The lyrics of the darkly humorous song were written primarily by singer Thom Yorke, following an unpleasant experience in a Los Angeles bar. At more than six minutes long and containing four distinct sections, the track is significantly influenced by The Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". "Paranoid Android" takes its name from Marvin the Paranoid Android of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Paranoid Android by Radiohead

Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)

When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)
What's that...? (I may be paranoid, but no android)

Ambition makes you look pretty ugly
Kicking and squealing gucci little piggy
You don't remember
You don't remember
Why don't you remember my name?
Off with his head, man
Off with his head, man
Why don't you remember my name?
I guess he does....

Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me
From a great height
From a great height... height...
Rain down, rain down
Come on rain down on me

That's it, sir
You're leaving
The crackle of pigskin
The dust and the screaming
The yuppies networking
The panic, the vomit
The panic, the vomit
God loves his children, God loves his children, yeah!

“Paranoid Android”, by Radiohead, is a rather straight-forward song about isolation.  However, because the song uses abstract imagery and manages to tell two, overlapping narratives with only one set of lyrics, the song is ripe for lyrical analysis.  Literally, this is a classic tale of insanity.  Figuratively, and the meaning you’re more likely to connect with, “Android” is a requiem for the outcast; for the leftfield perspective.

The notion of wanting to get some rest in a noisy environment is something we all can relate with, but the outcast of “Paranoid Android” is pleading; begging to fall asleep, because his head is filled with “unborn chicken voices”. This can seem confusing until the line is read literally – imagine that there are actually chickens inside this man’s head.  “Unborn,” in this context, is a clever way of saying “non-existent”; not actually real.  He simply hears noises in his head, and the syncopated call of a chicken is a perfect image to express the chaos of auditory hallucination.

In another sense, these voices in his head are not in his head at all, but actually the sounds of the world around him (with which he feels such disconnect).  The outcast cannot view society as a screaming success because his senses are overwhelmed with the literal screaming of the oppressed; the crack of the metaphoric whip, keeping everyone at work (“the crackle of pigskin”); overwhelming gluttony (“the crackle of pigskin” i.e. bacon); the panic of the chased; the vomit from those who witness it all and of course, those too busy making money to care (“the yuppies networking”).  The outcast begs it all to stop, because he’s simply trying to get some rest.

As if a nagging reminder to his insanity and his disconnect, the promise of a peaceful sleep is lost; replaced by literal paranoia (“What’s that?”).  Already so broken-down, the only way this outcast can cope is to escape to a dreamlike state; to imagine an alternate reality where he is in command, persecuting everyone who has ever wronged him (“When I am King, you will be first against the wall — where your opinion is of no consequence at all”).

Unfortunately, due to what’s been bubbling under the surface, what should be a pleasant daydream turns into a manic episode.  Rather playful, optimistic longing is replaced with aggressive force.  As if he’s shaking the collar of society itself, he screams, “You don’t remember!  You don’t remember my name!”  Now, he’s in control and is using his power to get back at his enemies – “Off with his head now; off with his head!!”

Unfortunately, the mania subsides and is replaced with a calming, static depression.  He’s back to the real world and his fantasy is just that – a fantasy.  The difference is, there’s no going back.  Perhaps in the intensity of his manic episode, he has broken a law or two, for now passersby are scorning and ridiculing him for his insanity.  “Off with his head now!!” is both a mantra yelled at society and the actual response of society to the outcast’s madness.

A crowd draws and he’s told, “That’s it now — you’re leaving,” but he refuses to give-in; instead fighting back and running away (“the dust and the screaming”). The police presumably catch him, but not before he is beaten (“the crackle of pigskin”), shrieking in terror as the walls of his world cave-in (“the screaming”).  All the while, this is taking place in public, with businessmen and women rushing past, far too busy making phone calls to stop and observe (“yuppies networking”).

It is here where Yorke sings with a cruel jest, “God loves his children.”  It is here where the literal story of a man going crazy and the casual observations of the modern cynic merge.  In the literal narrative, this line is a delusional self-assurance, muttered by the outcast as he’s hauled away.   In the figurative narrative, the cynical observer is mocking the idea of “God” with a bitter sarcasm: “God loves his children,” as if to say, why would anyone Godly waste their attention on this hellish world?  Regardless atheistic implications, this line is important because it shows how both the outcast and the observer have lost all hope.

In the chaos of literal arrest (or the figurative personal disconnect felt towards society), the outcast gives in.  The reason we know the outcast is too tired to fight is because the song starts off with “I’m trying to get some rest,” as if to imply should our protagonist not recover soon, there will be no will to continue.  With no hope in sight, the outcast proclaims, “let it all rain down on me — let it pour from a great height, far up in the sky.”  As if lithium had entered, intravenously, into his bloodstream, our lonesome friend finds peace (even if in defeat).

As if to justify the abstract nature of this song, we hear a robotic voice chanting, “I may be paranoid, but I’m not an android.” In other words, the outcast might have been seen as eccentric; perhaps even paranoid for no reason, but at least he was feeling something.  The beauty of this song is that once you understand the general narrative, all the abstract imagery can be applied to a multitude of concepts, all seen from the observer / the outcast’d perspective.  This outcast is holding up a mirror to our world, but before he can even ask if we’re okay with the resultant image, he loses his mind.

A Magnificent Death

Beauty has a price. In this case, it sure is.

Once in a while, try to look up to the sky at night. When the sky is clear, if you're lucky, you're going to see a very rare occasion where there's a bright flicker in the darkness, brighter than usual stars that you see in the sky. And if you are extremely lucky, you might be seeing one of the mightiest event in the astronomical realm: supernova.

The white spot is SN 1994D, a supernova just outside the NGC 4526 galaxy.

Supernova, however, is not a star. Well, on a loose sense, it was, because what you're seeing is the death of the star itself in a form of massive explosion. The light that it produces is very bright, sometimes it can outshine an entire galaxy and expel its lifetime energy in a short time. It's also one of the main sources of heavy elements in the universe. The total energy output may be 1044 joules, as much as the total output of the sun during its 10 billion year lifetime. The likely scenario is that fusion proceeds to build up a core of iron.

In fact, either the fission or fusion of iron group elements will absorb a dramatic amount of energy - like the film of a nuclear explosion run in reverse. If the temperature increase from gravitational collapse rises high enough to fuse iron, the almost instantaneous absorption of energy will cause a rapid collapse to reheat and restart the process. Out of control, the process can apparently occur on the order of seconds after a star lifetime of millions of years. Electrons and protons fuse into neutrons, sending out huge numbers of neutrinos. The outer layers will be opaque to neutrinos, so the neutrino shock wave will carry matter with it in a cataclysmic explosion.

On average, a supernova will occur about once every 50 years in a galaxy the size of the Milky Way. Put another way, a star explodes every second or so somewhere in the universe, and some of those aren’t too far from Earth. About 10 million years ago, a cluster of supernovae created the “Local Bubble,” a 300-light-year long, peanut-shaped bubble of gas in the interstellar medium that surrounds the solar system.

Exactly how a star dies depends in part on its mass. Our sun, for example, doesn't have enough mass to explode as a supernova (though the news for Earth still isn't good, because once the sun runs out of its nuclear fuel, perhaps in a couple billion years, it will swell into a red giant that will likely vaporize our world, before gradually cooling into a white dwarf). But with the right amount of mass, a star can burn out in a fiery explosion.

A star can go supernova in one of two ways:

• Type I supernova: star accumulates matter from a nearby neighbor until a runaway nuclear reaction ignites.
• Type II supernova: star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity.

Type II supernovae

Let's look at the more exciting Type II first. For a star to explode as a Type II supernova, it must be at several times more massive than the sun (estimates run from eight to 15 solar masses). Like the sun, it will eventually run out of hydrogen and then helium fuel at its core. However, it will have enough mass and pressure to fuse carbon. Here's what happens next:

• Gradually heavier elements build up at the center, and it becomes layered like an onion, with elements becoming lighter towards the outside of the star.
• Once the star's core surpasses a certain mass (the Chandrasekhar limit), the star begins to implode (for this reason, these supernovae are also known as core-collapse supernovas).
• The core heats up and becomes denser.
• Eventually the implosion bounces back off the core, expelling the stellar material into space, forming the supernova.

What's left is an ultradense object called a neutron star, a city-sized object that can pack the mass of the sun in a small space.

There are sub-categories of Type II supernovas, classified based on their light curves. The light of Type II-L supernovas declines steadily after the explosion, while Type II-P's light stays steady for a time before diminishing. Both types have the signature of hydrogen in their spectra.

Stars much more massive than the sun (around 20 to 30 solar masses) might not explode as a supernova, astronomers think. Instead they collapse to form black holes.

Type I supernovae

Type 1 supernovae lack a hydrogen signature in their light spectra.

Type Ia supernovae are generally thought to originate from white dwarf stars in a close binary system. As the gas of the companion star accumulates onto the white dwarf, the white dwarf is progressively compressed, and eventually sets off a runaway nuclear reaction inside that eventually leads to a cataclysmic supernova outburst.

Astronomers use Type 1a supernovas as "standard candles" to measure cosmic distances because all are thought to blaze with equal brightness at their peaks.

Type 1b and 1c supernovas also undergo core-collapse just as Type II supernovas do, but they have lost most of their outer hydrogen envelopes. In 2014, scientists detected the faint, hard-to-locate companion star to a Type 1b supernova. The search consumed two decades, as the companion star shone much fainter than the bright supernova.

Recent studies have found that supernovas vibrate like giant speakers and emit an audible hum before exploding.

In 2008, scientists caught a supernova in the act of exploding for the first time. While peering at her computer screen, astronomer Alicia Soderberg expected to see the small glowing smudge of a month-old supernova. But what she and her colleague saw instead was a strange, extremely bright, five-minute burst of X-rays.

With that observation, they became the first astronomers to catch a star in the act of exploding. The new supernova was dubbed SN 2008D. Further study has shown that the supernova had some unusual properties.

"Our observations and modeling show this to be a rather unusual event, to be better understood in terms of an object lying at the boundary between normal supernovae and gamma-ray bursts," Paolo Mazzali, an Italian astrophysicist at the Padova Observatory and Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, told Space.com in a 2008 interview.

One Tasty Mess

According to the internet, the natives of the Maple Leaf country are generally identified being the most polite, civilised people on Earth. Though I personally never met any Canadian only that says sorry at every possible occasions, but I've heard from my travelling relatives that some Canucks that they've encountered displayed a very pleasant disposition - but that is different from apologising all the time. There are some other stereotypes that I can't help but identify Canada with, but take it from me, Canadians are the best in loving their quirks no matter what and be proud to be united as a country.

O Canada.... the glorious and the proud.

As a regular 9Gagger and a fan of countryball meme, I've seen some examples of how people outside of Canada try to make sense of these stereotypes. Making things into a parody or humorous anecdotes is the easiest way out to talk about things in such a way that the jokes become less offensive in tone. And amazingly, the representatives whose country was parodied gave mostly devil-may-care responses and laughed along with the jokes. The countryball comics helped bringing the risible atmosphere, and everyone was happily entertained.

Still in the topic of being a faithful 9Gagger, there's been a trend of posting drool-making quick food how-tos, and I have to say that Canada wins this one with a huge margin. Because once I searched the Québécois' most comforting junk food, I realised that there might be an actual kitchen in hell, filled with fat-inducing devil's food.

The magic word is... poutine. (Read it with a French Canadian accent to kick it up a notch)

King of Fries

It might not be the prettiest looking food in the world, nor I have found any pictures of this potato delicacy that look properly edible, but if you've had a bad serving of frozen french fries, you definitely want to eat this tasty mess. Poutine consists of (a lot of) french fries topped with gravy usually mushroom gravy and cheese curds. Some variations of it include chipped bacons, scallions, melted cheese, peas, onions, feta cheese, and many more. Basically, the bigger the mess you make, the better.



This dish came from rural Quebec in the late 1950s, but the precise point of origin is everyone's to claim, it seems, as some has stated that it came from Drummondville, Saint-Jean-sur-Richilieu, and Victoriaville. One of the most cited tale is that a restaurant owner named Fernand Lachance once exclaimed "ça va faire une maudite poutine!" (it will make a damn mess!) when he was asked by his regular Eddy Lainesse to add a charitable amount of cheese curds on his french fries. Many believed that it was the moment where the name originated from. As for the gravy, it was used to keep the fries warm longer. As expected, the dish gained fame quickly as the recipe spread throughout Canada, most often found in local grills and ski resorts.

Though some major fast food franchises in the Northern America have added poutine into their regular menu, unfortunately I haven't encountered any of those brands in my country that sell this dish (damn). But worry no more, for those who are curious of how heavenly poutine tastes, because there are bazillion recipes for poutine plus its variations on the web that will help you satisfy your crave. If you have tried poutine, lucky you. If you haven't, go make it. Now. Go. Hurry. Before your nutritionist catches you.

Here is the recipe of classic gravy poutine:

INGREDIENTS

4 lb. russet potatoes, skin-on, washed and dried
4 tbsp. unsalted butter
¼ cup flour
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 cups beef stock
2 tbsp. ketchup
1 tbsp. cider vinegar
1 tbsp. whole green peppercorns
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Canola oil, for frying
2 cups cheddar cheese curds

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut potatoes into lengths of about ¼" x ¼" x 4". Place in a large bowl, cover with cold water, and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

2. Meanwhile, heat butter in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour, and cook, stirring, until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add shallot and garlic, and cook, until soft, about 2 minutes. Add stock, ketchup, vinegar, peppercorns, Worcestershire, and salt and pepper, and bring to a boil; cook, stirring, until thickened, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat, and keep gravy warm.

3. Pour oil to a depth of 3" in a 6-qt. Dutch oven, and heat over medium heat until a deep-fry thermometer reads 325°. Drain potatoes, and dry thoroughly with paper towels. Working in small batches, add potatoes and fry, tossing occasionally, until tender and slightly crisp, about 4 minutes.

4. Drain on paper towels, and let cool for 20 minutes. Increase temperature to medium-high, and heat oil until it reads 375°. Working in small batches, return potatoes to oil, and fry, tossing occasionally, until crisp and golden brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer fries to paper towels to drain briefly, and then divide among serving bowls. Pour gravy over each serving of fries, and top with cheese curds; serve immediately.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poutine
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Classic-Gravy-Fries
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Self experience

And This is My Friend.

They say I’m a loner, but the fact is that I often get too shy to speak. Or maybe lacking the topics to talk about, there is no difference anyway. Point is, I am not that good at socializing. So I considered it to be quite a privilege when I was assigned to interview my partner about herself and her daily life. At least I could get to know her better without having to feel the anxiety and embarrassment when I have to do it myself — well, to be honest, at first the interview itself felt slightly awkward, but luckily the ice broke soon and we just laughed it out. Without much ado, let’s get this started.

Her full name is Alya Afifah Baktiar. I prefer to call her Alya, but it seems that my other classmates kind of disagree with me. For some reasons, lately they started to call her by this silly nickname that for her own sake, I am not going to tell you what it is, but it cracks me up every time someone call her by that nickname. She was born on April 11, 2000, which is very astonishing since she looks and behaves more maturely than other people her age. She resides at Panorama block C5, Arcamanik district, and her previous school is 7 Junior High School Bandung. Alya told me that both her mum and dad are both working, and she has an 11-year-old brother that rumour has it likes to commence a swearing-filled conversation with her. Funny and odd at the same time, it is.

Now here is the most amazing thing about her. Usually when someone asks us what our hobbies are, we tend to give answer with the light, fun activities we like to do regularly in our spare time. Normal people would say things like, “I like playing games, watching TVs or movies, reading books, etc.” but instead how this works for the universe that Alya lives in is that all of those are less interesting than doing maths. With the jumbling numbers, stumbling symbols, and everything. And she can, sometimes literally, do the questions in a blink. Since the day I figured this out, I’m always in the dilemma between feeling proud of having such an intelligent chair mate, and miserable because I want to be like her, but I find it difficult to love maths more than I love chocolate cookies. But do not be alarmed, aside from her unusual hobby, Alya also likes to kill her time with reading novels. I can say that her interests in literary is quite sophisticated, with classic novels as one of her favourite preferences in reading. One novel in particular that is her favourite is “The Beginning of Everything” by Robyn Schneider. Maybe one day I should look the novel up and try to read it, because I have never heard it before. Alya’s music taste is rather more girly than mine. With Taylor Swift being her favourite singer, the genre she chooses is, predictably, pop music, and also classical and instrumental music. For the latter I think we can agree on together.

Moving on from her interests, Alya wants to be a surgeon in the future. She targets for a scholarship in medical school in Dusseldorf, Germany, and hopes for an easier accommodation because her cousin lives in there as well. The reason why she chases a scholarship because she feels that the medical education and the chances of having a proper career path in Indonesia is quite difficult. For a plan B, Alya chooses to take the information science techniques in Institut Teknologi Bandung. I think her backup plan is affected by her idol figure to some extent, which is Steve Jobs. She said she likes him for his achievement for magnanimous success despite not having a proper education, which reflects such a hard worker he is.

Well, frankly there are some other cool facts about Alya, but before this turns into a profiling article like the ones they make in the TV series “Criminal Minds”, so I decide to finish this description here. Especially to Alya, forgive me if there are some unpleasant terms or erroneous facts that I inputted here, for this being my chance to add yet another person in my best friend list. I hope that you, the readers, did not doze off while reading this post and enjoy it as much as I am writing it. Thanks!

Hello World.

When I started my first blog years ago (actually it’s a Tumblr full of unicorns and rainbows) the first post ever was a reblog of the TV series Sherlock, and zero for any introduction. I did not even input my real name in the website, since I prefer to go anonymous on the land of the Interweb for the freedom of having fun. So when my English teacher asked me to start this one with a proper introduction… well, aside of a lot of self-shaming rants and random trivias, I tend to ramble once I write, so expect long posts from now on.

My name is Fauzia Nurrahmiaty. I think I have lived long enough to feel kind of sick of hearing people mispronounce my name, so please just call me Mia. I was born in December 1, 19**, in Bandung, the second and last child of my family. My brother is five years older than me and now he is on his second to last semester of his college education, in which he studies at Industrial Techniques Faculty at Telkom University. My dad is a telecommunication consultant, and the best part of his job is that it’s a freelance job so he most of the time stays at home. And my mom is no ordinary housewife, because she is active in a lot of activist organisations; sometimes she is even busier than my dad. I’m a Martian, because I live in Mars. No, I’m not one of those green tentacles-limbed, big white-eyed, slimy aliens that breathe in twenty seven types of helium isotopes to breathe. It’s just my own little perk of living on the street where my house stands, which is Jl. **** ***** II number **, M******** *****, Bandung. It is pretty far from school, about 11 kilometres away but at least there is a public transportation that is coursed straight to the housing complex.

All right, time to introduce my interests.

My penchants are pretty darn geeky and I am very passionate at them, though I am still far away from mastering or being an expert in any of them. Astronomy, cosmology, quantum physics, PC/console games, American and a bit of Japanese comic books, photography, fiction/script writing, world history, internet memes, movies, cool novels, sci-fi stuffs, and all sorts of things that makes the internet my special kind of heaven. Maybe that’s why I am not very good at physical activities, though I love to go for simple sightseeing to beautiful places. My parents like to call me an aspiring writer, but it works as sort of a sarcastic, disheartening nudge to my shoulder because I have not actually published any of my writings. Mostly they are not done yet or maybe they are just too absurd for normal people to read, but even if I do finish one of them I don’t think I will share it to you so soon. I am a terrible writer, but a very talented editor, so it takes almost forever to get even a short story done. Because of this my best friends like to call me the Worst Grammar Nazi ever, but I don’t mind anyway. But do not expect me to be such an unproductive author, though, give me some time to sharpen my skills and we will see that time when I publish a story. Or a novel. Or even a movie script. I don’t know, I just love the world of writing.

About my future. Well, this has been one of the trickiest decisions I have ever made. I have never had such firm grasp on plans for the future, both because I often lost in the present, and everything seemed interesting to do as a full-time career. I switched goals whenever I found an interesting subject. I have thought of being a psychiatrist, forensic doctor, medical doctor, movie director, stage actress, and computer programmer, until that day when I watched Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, the original series. I realised that my concealed passion in astronomy had turned into something more than just a topic to entertain myself. I realised that I want to be like him. People often misinterpret astronomy as a dull and unbeneficial path to take when choosing careers, but look at all the modern astronomers-slash-physicists that have made their way into great success in sharing everyone about the nature of the universe. Mr. Sagan, Richard Feynman, Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, etc., all of them are not nerds who lock themselves up in an underground library for weeks just to find out when is the best time to observe the moon. They are great at what they’re doing, and even greater in making tedious subject into something that we can easily learn while drinking afternoon tea. So with that in mind, I have decided that I want to be an astrophysicist, and with my modest ability to write, I hope to share the wonders of the universe in the form of glorious syntaxes.

I think that’s all I can tell you for now. Forgive me for any mistake or offensive things that I wrote, and I hope you will stick around my blog often.

Cheers,
Mia.