Come In, Rangoon!
Bagheera likes the R601W">http://www.questforsound.com/tuners/tuners_R601PW.htm">R601W Tube Hi-Fi FM/AM Classic Radio. What's not to like? It's tubed, has a walnut cabinet, and she looks good on it.
Compared to What?
Philip Freeman argues that the "demise of the album" is a lazy trope.
Complexity Visualized
"VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks." Mission accomplished, I'd say—but then, I'm already a huge fan of Edward R. Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
Compression Redux
Why listening to music is no longer relaxing. How many times do we have to say it? Enough already with 1dB dynamic ranges!
Concert Photography 101
DIY Photography posts an extremely useful how-to. I've done my fair share of concert photography and, if I'd read this article first, I wouldn't have nearly as many pictures of people standing behind microphones.
Confessions of a Car Salesman
Chandler Phillips thought he was applying to Edmunds.com for a job writing an advice column on buying and leasing cars. The editors had a better idea. They asked him to go undercover and work as a salesman at two lots: a high-pressure import dealership on the "auto mile" and a no-haggle American showroom.
Confirmation Bias
My buddy John Atkinson likes to say that what makes science work is not simply the measurement of observed phenomena, but the scientist's refusal to believe those measurements. I once asked him if he'd teach me to do audio measurements and he said no, "because you'd believe the measurements—a good scientist knows the measurements are trying to lie to him."
Constabulary Notes From All Over
Somehow I don't think we're going to be seeing this one in The New Yorker.
Continental Aikido
Conventional wisdom holds that continental strength relies upon the solidity of rock at a depth of 15km and that below that pressure and heat cause the rock to flow as liquid. Not so fast, say Klaus Regenauer-Lieb, Roberto F Weinberg, and Gideon Rosenbaum. Their new study says that "through dynamic interaction the strongest part becomes the weakest."
Control!
While the Naim for Bentley system has a six-disc changer, I found its glove-box mounted iPod cradle awfully useful. It has the MFI (made for iPod) authentication chip, so all of your iPod's playlists, titles, and other metadata are displayed on the GPS touchscreen in the center of the console. All iPod functions can be controlled through the touchscreen, including scrolling though all selections or leaving a playlist for shuffle.