This Bird Has Flown
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Rubber Soul. Looks better than the usual tribute record—especially Ben Harper's "Michelle."
Wes Phillips
Sort By: Post Date TitlePublish Date
Who Owns Baseball Statistics?
I have to admit I've never even thought about this IP issue.
Mmmmmm, SB.
I'm addicted to science news, in case you haven't noticed, so one of the best discoveries I've made recently is Seed Media's ScienceBlogs, which is billed as "the web's largest conversation about science. It features blogs from a wide array of scientific disciplines, with new voices coming on board regularly. It is a global, digital science salon."
Dr. Bronner's Quote Generator
Back in college, I used to spend waaay too much time in the morning contemplating all the text on the label of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap. One day I realized that this was a bad way to start the day before coffee and I began to decant the stuff into unlabeled bottles. Still do, for that matter. If you've never seen the original, the quotes are no less random in sequence.
Was America Discovered By China in 1418?
That's what a newly discovered 1763 copy of an earlier map is said to "prove." Has anybody else out there read Kim Stanley Robinson's alternative history The Years of Rice and Salt? It's a good 'un.
Second Coolest Car Ad Ever?
Honda made the best">http://www.metacafe.com/watch/7521/cool_honda_commercial/">best commercial ever. Now it has made one that's almost as good. Call it a concerto for Civic and chorus.
A Dimple in the Space-Time Continuum
Evidence that a Black Hole leaves a dent in space-time "just like a dimple in one's favorite spot on the sofa."Right, that's precisely the homey metaphor that immediately occurred to me. Isn't anybody else alarmed by alterations in reality as we perceive it? i mean, it is all about me, isn't it?
"We're So Glad You're Back!"
Of course, being cats, Huckleberry and Bagheera said it to my luggage, not me.
Waking Up Drunk-Like
Sleep inertia is a wonderful phrase, one I'm sure to add to my personal lexicon. "We found the cognitive skills of [some] test subjects were worse upon awakening than after extended sleep deprivation," researcher Kenneth Wright said. That's because in some of us, the cortical areas responsible for problem-solving take longer to wake up than other parts of the brain—as much as 12 hours, in my case.
Volvo's Jigsaw Puzzle Hardtop Convertible
One of my most pleasant memories from living in Santa Fe was cruising the back road to Albuquerque to visit Brian Damkroger for the first time in John Atkinson's classic Mercedes ragtop. Naturally, it started to rain and we had to pull off the road and wrestle his roof back onto the car. All this Mercedes mechanical sophistication and we still have to do this by hand? I thought.