Audiophiles are lucky when it comes to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, especially when you consider the embarrassment of riches that are the Shostakovich String Quartets. If you dig LPs, there are two essential batches of complete recordings: the Borodin Quartet and the Fitzwilliam Quartet. On CD, there's the fabulous <I>live</I> edition by the <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//musicrecordings/671/">Emerson Quartet</A>, rendered in superb sound by Da-Hong Seetoo.
These animated Nissin Cup-O-Noodle ads are great! Almost makes me want to buy some just to say thanks.
You simply <I>have</I> to read "The Peekaboo paradox," a fantastic piece of writing by Gene Weingarten. (It's long, so you might prefer to print it out and save it for later.) It conforms to a formula I admiringly call <I>The New Yorker</I> paradigm, in which a writer introduces you to a subject you think you don't have much interest in (in this case a children's party entertainer) and makes it fascinating. <I>Then</I> you discover that the <I>real</I> story is so much deeper and compelling than you could have ever imagined.
Parts is parts you say? They don't make 'em like these any more.
Rules? We don't need no rules! Oh, you mean these are <I>our</I> secret laws? Nevermind.
Over at <I>NewScientist</I>, there's an article on an alternate gravity theory called scalar-tensor-vector gravity (STVG), which seems to have an edge on Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). Which one meshes best with the data? Why the one that contains quantum, of course! Well, kinda sorta.
If we were late, we didn't care. An elevator showed us out onto a floor where people gathered round a table blanketed in champagne and wine. We made our way, and caught attention.
Here's an article from <I>USA Today</I> about vendors selling fully loaded iPods on eBay. Is this a legitimate fair use issue? My gut reaction is no—if vendors were selling loaded iPods for market value or used value, it might not trip my BS detector. But when you are charging several hundred bucks extra for the 11,000 songs you've loaded on the iPod, it seems to me that you've crossed that fair use line in the sand—we've established what you are and now we're just negotiating price.
Great, readable essay by William Gibson on the season that changed his life. He has some fascinating thoughts on H.G. Wells that have made me want to dip back into that writer's work.
Set your irony scanner to high and read about the kerfluffle involving the MPAA making copies of a film submitted for a rating. Even better, if the film maker sues, the MPAA's defense will probably hinge on whether or not it intended to sell it. Does that mean if they argue successfully that intent to profit is the definition of piracy that we can make copies too if we promise not to sell them?