137-Year-Old Submarine Discovered
Actually, people knew it was there, they just didn't realize what it was. Be sure to check out the photo gallery.
Wes Phillips
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Pooh on the Couch
Turns out that the 100 Acre Wood was a place "of disenchantment, where neurodevelopmental and psychosocial problems go unrecognized and untreated."
Maybe There Is Accounting For Taste
Scientists studying the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) think they've discovered the neurons responsible for making choices. Soon, they may tackle the <I>really</I> important issues, such as whether some audiophiles are genetically disposed towards choosing solid-state over tubes.
Dance Monkey, Dance
A short film by Ernest Cline. This monkey says yay! Or should that be "oook"?
The Well-Tempered Clavier
A shockwave interactive analysis of Bach's dissertation on harmony—with an emphasis on the fugues.
Heaven In Your Head
April 24: On Saturday, April 22, the audio forum <A HREF="http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/index.php?">Head-Fi</A> staged its first national meet at the Adria Ramada Inn and Conference Center in Bayside, NY. The meet, organized by Aaron Kovics (Head-Fi tag: immtbiker), occupied over 3300 square feet of floor space, most of which was divided into manufacturers' display tables and forum members' demonstration areas. Yep, you read that right—unlike ordinary hi-fi shows, the Head-Fi meets are opportunities for the attendees to show off their systems, sample and compare professionally manufactured components, and demonstrate their DIY projects. In fact, one of the biggest surprises I experienced when I attended a regional meet at the same venue last <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/111405headfi/">November</A> was that some of the DIY projects not only sounded as good as the commercially available gear, they were built to standards of fit'n'finish that rival "real" products as well.
Grace Design m902 Reference D/A headphone amplifier
In his bimonthly column, "The Fifth Element," John Marks has tried to identify pro-audio components that would be of interest to audiophiles. In his June 2005 episode, John wrote about Grace Design's m902 D/A headphone amplifier ($1695), the Colorado company's replacement for the 901, which had long been a favorite of his. Changes include: the handling of single-wire sample rates of up to 192kHz; unbalanced analog outputs, controlled by the front volume control, to allow the unit to be used as a preamplifier; a cross-feed processing circuit licensed from www.meier-audio.de; power-supply revisions; and the provision of a USB digital input, in addition to S/PDIF, AES/EBU, and TosLink.
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HeadRoom Desktop D/A headphone amplifier
Looking at all of the high-end headphones and headphone accessories available today, it's difficult to even remember how barren the head-fi landscape was in the early 1990s. Back then, headphones got no respect, except for exotic, expensive electrostatic models, yet most of the world listened to music through headphones all the time, mostly through crappy cans connected to portable players. (Well, maybe it wasn't <I>that</I> different a landscape.)
I Say, Holmes!
The real Victorians who inspired Sherlock Holmes.
Stuff That Makes Me Go Hmmmm
Economist Richard Florida's 2002 article, called "The Rise of the Creative Class: Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race." Basically, Florida argues that "lifestyle amenities" like a cultural scene and diversity makes some cities more attractive to creative people who build economically successful enterprises than other cities that lack these features. Fine, I accept this, especially since Florida bolsters his arguments with impressive charts and metrics. I should also add that the "lifestyle amenities" argument is taken very seriously by cities like Sioux Falls, where JA & I were told that the addition of an arts center helped the local industries and hospitals attract quality personnel away from major metropoli.