The Truth About the Roswell Dissection?
John Humphreys spills the beans.
The Two-Box Solution
My favorite audio product of 2008 isn't precisely an audio product—it's a home theater in a box. I'm referring to Polk's lovely SurroundBar 360, which sells for $1200 and gives you a low-profile 48" "sound bar" and a base station, which includes an optical disc player, DSP processing, and an AM/FM tuner. The base station, of course, contains all the amplification the sound bar requires. Also included is a special umbilical to connect the two pieces—and, in a savvy little detail that tells you a great deal about how much thought has gone into the SurroundBar 360, the connectors on that cable cannot be connected "wrong."
The Undeclared War On Curiosity
It's no secret that I'm a fan of good writing. Well, if you ask me, Jon Carroll writes more better stuff every day than most writers write ever. This column is great even by Carroll's high standards. Just read it and see why Carroll's column is my first stop every day.
The Violence of the Lambs
I told you baaaad things happened when you monkey around with sheep.
The Virtual Museum of Toilet Paper
A subject I'd just as soon put behind me.
The Walt Whitman Archive
I emailed my cousin, the gorgeous and talented Jean Carwile Masteller, about the wonders of reading Cotton">http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:jDVL8c_Arv0J:etext.virginia.edu/toc… Mather on the internets and she countered with the fabulous Whitman Hypertext Archive. Both are courtesy of the University of Virginia's digital library project, where my old friend Thorny Staples is helping Mr. Jefferson's university do wonders in the electronic age.
The War on the Unexpected
Bruce Schneier, coiner of the phrase "security theater," writes that we've "opened up a new front on the war on terror. It's an attack on the unique, the unorthodox, the unexpected; it's a war on different. If you act different, you might find yourself investigated, questioned, and even arrested -- even if you did nothing wrong, and had no intention of doing anything wrong. The problem is a combination of citizen informants and a CYA attitude among police that results in a knee-jerk escalation of reported threats.
The Well-Tempered Clavier
A shockwave interactive analysis of Bach's dissertation on harmony—with an emphasis on the fugues.
The World's Most Dangerous Element
A nuclear physicist reviews Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element, arguing that understanding the element could help us construct a rational policy for dealing with its dangers.
The Worsley Institute of Blu-Tack Art
It's not just for speakers any more.Thanks, Jeff.