Blind Testing
Jonah Lehrer has been promoting his new book <I>Proust Was a Neuroscientist</I>, which means I've heard him interviewed on the usual chattering-classes suspects. And every time I hear him, I think I need to read his book.
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Intelligent Design?
Which parts of the human body could <I>you</I> design better?
Marjan Satrapi
My wife gave me a copy of <A HREF="http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/graphicnovels/catalog/display.pperl… Complete Persepolis</I></A> for my birthday and I've been devouring it greedily. Satrapi's graphic novel uses a charmingly primitive visual style to tell a horrifying story of growing up in revolutionary Iran.
Closing Your Eyes to Listen to Music
Scientists say your brain does it for you. Now, I'd like them to reverse the experiment to see if that's why okay home theater can be "good enough," but so-so hi-fi seldom is.
Snake Oil
Maybe we need a new word for over-advertising results.
The Real Wilfred Owen
Jeremy Paxman argues that the last lines of "<I>Dulce et Decorum Est</I>" were not meant cynically.
New Crit on Popular Music
Wow, Mark Steyn is even crankier than I am.
To Hell and Back
Jay Allen Sanford describes his horrifying descent into crack addiction and homelessness. It's not a pretty story, except that he did make it back.
What technology is your main amplifier? What brand and model is it and why did you choose it?
It's been several decades now since the tube <I>vs</I> solid-state debate began, with no end in site. Now we have some digital (PWM or class-D) contenders. What technology is your main amplifier? What brand and model is it and why did you choose it?
Olive and MusicGiants Team Up
<A HREF="http://www.olive.us">Olive Media Products</A>, manufacturers of audiophile-quality Olive music servers, has partnered with <A HREF="http://www.musicgiants.com">MusicGiants</A>, the leading site for CD-quality music downloads. Olive's well-received Opus line of digital players now allows users to download, store, manage, and play large collections of CD-quality music directly from MusicGiants without needing to buy or rip CDs, select track by track, or use a computer. (You can find John Atkinson's positive review of the Olive Symphony <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/mediaservers/406olive/">here</A>.)