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via WSJ

Source:
Inspired by a Bunny Wabbit
BILLY COLLINS
WSJ, June 28, 2008; Page W1
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121460099221711769.html

Posted at 06:01 AM in Humor, Television | Permalink

Video compilation to In My Life, from Rubber Soul

Posted at 09:04 AM in Music, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0)

Federal Lands in the US

via Strangemaps

Posted at 06:14 AM in Design, Travel | Permalink

Very cool collection of music related links:

1. Pandora

   Fall in love again, with the possibility of stumbling across a brand new artist, group or band that have been captured through Music Genome Project and overseen by Pandora, so that the flow of new musical talents don't go unnoticed. If you enjoy sampling the sounds of a creative crop of new and still probably new, undiscovered talented, then you will find a whole new world of sounds to delight your listening pleasures.

2. Last.fm

   Last.fm offers more music  than you can shake a stick at. Join the community and make new friends who share the same interests as you do. Last.fm members can play full tracks and customize your playlist according to your own unique tastes.

3. IMEEM

   If you really dig your music, then you have come to the right place. IMEEM is the biggest and most comprehensive music  resource on the web to get great music. Join the IMEEM community and share your music interests with others or watch music videos if you are not too busy.

4. Songza

   Songza offers music fans the opportunity to search for and listen to the artist or song that they want to on the web. Users are not required to subscribe or pay for the services unlike Last.fm or Rhapsody does. An added bonus Songza pays for licenses from all of the major performing-rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC) and these companies pay the publishers and writers in proportion to the number of plays they get on Songza, so the artists are getting paid and the listener are getting to listen to free music on the web.

5. thesixtyone

   This website offers music lovers great music to listen to, but not to download. The unique twist is that listeners can earn points by bumping up songs that you like that catches on with other listeners and they too can bump the song up, too. Listeners are the ultimate judges of the song's success or failure. It's kind of like American Idolon steroids.

The next 60 are here . . .

Source:
Music Rules 2: Top 60 Music Websites That Deliver the Greatest Free Music
by Nelson Doyle, Jun 1, 2008
http://www.webupon.com/Audio/Music-Rules-2-Top-60-Music-Websites-That-Deliver-the-Greatest-Free-Music.132133

Posted at 02:05 PM in Music | Permalink

What ? No Stick? Kinda silly for a 425 hp muscle car

2008 DODGE CHALLENGER SRT8A

Source:
New-Old Pony Enters the Corral   
JERRY GARRETT
NYT, June 15, 2008   
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/automobiles/autoreviews/15AUTO.html

Posted at 06:01 AM in Automobiles | Permalink

Posted at 04:22 PM | Permalink

A Complete list of articles responding to the talking points circulated by the Global Warming Denialists:

"How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic," a series by Coby Beck, contains responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming.

There are four separate taxonomies; arguments are divided by:

Stages of Denial,
Scientific Topics,
Types of Argument, and
Levels of Sophistication.

The full linked set is at Gristmill, but here is a flavor of all the subjects covered:

Stages of Denial

1. There's nothing happening

a. Inadequate evidence

There is no evidence
One record year is not global warming
The temperature record is simply unreliable
One hundred years is not enough
Glaciers have always grown and receded
Warming is due to the Urban Heat Island effect
Mauna Loa is a volcano
The scientists aren't even sure

b. Contradictory evidence

It's cold today in Wagga Wagga
Antarctic ice is growing
The satellites show cooling
What about mid-century cooling?
Global warming stopped in 1998
But the glaciers are not melting
Antarctic sea ice is increasing
Observations show climate sensitivity is not very high
Sea level in the Arctic is falling
Some sites show cooling

c. No consensus

Global warming is a hoax
There is no consensus
Position statements hide debate
Consensus is collusion
Peiser refuted Oreskes

Thats only the first 10%. At Gristmill, the list is quite exhaustive, and is fully linked and cross referenced . . .

Posted at 06:28 AM in Science | Permalink

from "Yellow Submarine"

Posted at 08:30 AM in Music, The Beatles, Video | Permalink | Comments (0)

Very cool:

About a third of all the Sun-like stars in our galaxy harbor modestly sized planets, according to a study announced Monday by a team of European astronomers.

At a meeting in Nantes, France, Michel Mayor of the Geneva Observatory and his group presented a list of 45 new planets, ranging in mass from slightly bigger than Earth to about twice as massive as Neptune, from a continuing survey of some 200 stars.

All of the planets orbit their stars in 50 days or less, well within the corresponding orbit of Mercury, which takes 88 days to go around the Sun, and well within frying distance of any lifelike creatures.

Among the bounty is a rare triple-planet system of “super-Earths” around the star HD 40307, about 42 light-years away in the constellation Pictor. The planets are roughly four, seven and nine times the mass of Earth and have orbital periods of 4, 10 and 20 days, respectively.

Source:
A Bounty of Midsize Planets Is Reported   
DENNIS OVERBYE
NYT, June 17, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/space/17planets.html

Posted at 08:06 AM in Science | Permalink

A few quick snaps from the show Weds nite: If you ever have the opportunity to sit close to the stage, its worth spending too much money (face value!) to see a show that close up!

Posted at 07:18 PM in Music | Permalink