I've Suspected This For Years
What? The writers who post blurbs on book covers haven't actually read the books? I'm shocked, shocked.
Wes Phillips
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Years Ago in Germany
"In [Daniel Kehlmann's] first novel translated into English, the 31-year-old literary wunderkind's breezy, sometimes charming and ultimately inconsequential work follows the actual lives, careers and eventual intersection of two of Germany's brightest scientists: explorer, geographer and naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt and the astronomer and aptly crowned 'prince of mathematicians' Carl Friedrich Gauss."
Love to Hate You, Baby
Why we love to hate Paris Hilton—not that most of us would behave any differently had we been given the chance to grow up entitled and ignorant.
Reverse Dictionary
Ever been stuck for a word—say, you know exactly what it means, but you just can't remember <I>le mot juste</I>? A good reverse dictionary can help.
Symbolic Logic
Jeff Wong sends along a link to the Oxford University Press's "Ask the Experts" page. I like the "Jargon Buster" grammar feature, but this page on symbols is cool, too.
The Trouble With Truffles
<I>The Amateur Gourmet</I> received a press release promoting Alain Ducasse's $320 white truffle <I>prix fixe</I> menu. He wrote back that neither he nor his readers could afford that, but he'd gladly come taste it and report on his experiences. Ducasse said sure and <I>TAG</I> posted his report, as promised.
Monday Cat Blogging
"The Cat Attack uses the latest research in chaos theory and complex systems to emulate the movements and personality of a cat's favorite prey. This "virtual mouse" technology utilizes algorithms based on a six-dimensional coupled nzmap system modeled on the neural network of a real mouse. What that all means is that the Cat Attack's "virtual mouse" will become your cat's new best friend!"
There Lies the Disc, the making of the new Cantus CD
<B>Wes Phillips on the Sessions</B>
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One of the enduring myths of audiophilia is that of the recording as a true and honest picture of a musical event—a sonic "snapshot" that captures a unique moment of time the way a photograph captures the light of a day long since past.
Into the Abyss
<I>CJR</I>'s oral history of embedded journalists in Iraq 2003–2006.
Etymotic Research Cuts the Cord
On November 7, Dr. Mead C. Killion, founder and president of Etymotic Research, invited <I>Stereophile</I> to experience the company's newest in-the-ear high-fidelity earphone, the ety-8. What was so special about these half-ounce 'phones? No wires—the ety-8's are the industry's first and only in-the-ear, high-accuracy, noise-exclusion earphones.