To live is to suffer...

Today's soundtrack is a live performance by The Aristocrats (Marco Minnemann, Guthrie Govan, and Bryan Beller).  I just recently learned about this group and their CD has already been ordered. Amazing progressive jazz. It sounds like a cross between Allan Holdworth and Stick Men. You can learn more about The Aristocrats on their website.

Too much for you? Chill out to Ellington and Coltrane performing In a Sentimental Mood.

I'm not a big movie watcher. But Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is one of my favorite films of all time. If you've never watched it, you should. And it's been a long time since I saw his film Ran but I recall it being visually stunning. Because of all that, the article about Kurosawa on How Creatives Work was really interesting.

In case you think Miley Cyrus' twerking was the worst ever, at least she didn't catch on fire.

Looks like DFW has a lot of job openings.

Keeping in mind that the earth is spherical, 2D maps can sometimes visually distort things. For example, see just how big Africa is.

I thought renting tires was weird, but you can rent chickens. (2 hens, coop, feed for 7 months is $350)  From fowl to fish: a great graphical representation of 150 million years of evolution of the spiny-rayed fish.

I'm not a huge fan of photography, but you should checkout the gallery at Time is a Dimension.

I hereby name this newmoticon Ultra-Orthodox Hippie.

Ever wonder what Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars would've sounded like had Beethoven written it?

NASA lets you Spot the Station with this website that tells you where and when you can expect to see the International Space Station at your location.

For vintage NASA stuff check out this video about the computers onboard Apollo. (And if you haven't, I highly recommend the book Digital Apollo.)

NASA was offering social media credentials for the upcoming Antares launch on 17 September. I spent more time thinking about applying than you might have expected.

The periodic table of alcohol by designer mayra.artes on Visual.ly. (How does a drink called Shit on Grass make the cut while a vodka martini doesn't?)

Interns - was your summer wasted or not? 30% of you want more real work. (For the record, we only give our interns real work. That's a mixed blessing because a lot of real work is real dull.) 28% of you had unpaid internships (which are illegal - if you're unpaid, you're a trainee and can't do anything that directly benefits the business).

Donald Sultan, Black and Colors, 2006 - Just learning about this artist and liking what I see.

Enjoy the MoMA's website for their 2011 exhibition de Kooning: A Retrospective.

Computer scientists, there are a few things that programming in an academic environment doesn't teach you about programming in the "real world" and that's OK. The main thing is you'll be coding for more people other than yourself.

Real-time social programming: Codeivate.

If you agree with the author that "calculus is one of the major intellectual achievements of Western civilization" but yet you still don't believe you fully "get it" here's Calculus for the Intelligent Person (as opposed to Calculus for Dummies).

What was asked was "Should MBAs learn to code?" What was answered was "Was it worth learning to code?" 83% yes. This goes back to one of the core platforms of the Business of Software conference - it's easier for tech people to learn the business than for business people to learn the tech. (But that isn't the relevant question either.)

My only regret is that YouTube only has a Like button and not a Love button for this and other videos about Lancelot Link.

Most of my aviation pr0n now gets posted to my Pinterest page but Lockheed Martin's Code One magazine has a great compilation of outstanding images from 2013.

Maurice Noble may be one of the most unknown artists of the golden age of animation. There's a new book about his work coming out soon that's already on my wish list at Amazon. Another artist who needs broader recognition is Eyvind Earle.

Listen to Scrod, a track from the upcoming Levin Minnemann Rudess album.

Steely Dan's Aja is one of my absolute favorite albums of all time. Here's a 1-hour video "rockumentary." 

Trey Gunn blogs about a recent solo/trio performance with Michael Manring and Allonso Arreola. Three bass players together? You just gotta watch the teaser video in his post.

James Jamerson's bass work on Steve Wonder's song For Once in My Life gets animated and cited as the pinnacle of his work.

More bass you say? OK, coming in 2014 is the collaboration between bassist Colin Edwin and Lorenzo Feliciati, Twinscapes.

It's been a long time since the last one. Here we see a red hot ball of lead and a gummy bear.

This may be one the scariest things on earth: the elephant's foot at Chernobyl.

Write your name in Runes courtesy of NOVA.

Or write it in the style of the new Yahoo! logo.

Suds: A photo set of beer labels. A list of the 15 least and most healthy beers. (Bass Ale is one of the least healthy, Guinness one of the best.) Speaking of Guinness, were you one of the collectors who plundered a treasure trove of original Guinness artwork? And now you can spread your beer on toast, in Italy at least.

Continuing the hot new trend of craftsmanship pr0n comes this multiple part series from John Neeman Tools. Making an axe, a chisel, a knife.

Eyal Gever's sculpture satisfied the Cold War/nuke fetish in me but you'll be surprised by how it's made.

Sorry. Nothing puerile or even silly to close with this week. (I couldn't get the farting Facebook Like button to work.)

...to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. ~Nietzsche