Art cannot result from...

Later this month, Rare Noise Records will release the self-titled debut album from MUMPBEAK featuring keyboardist Roy Powell, four bassists (Levin, Feliciati, Blumenkranz, and Laswell) all backed up by Pat Mastelotto on drums. Preview three tracks here.

If you prefer something a bit more laid back, stream Markus Reuter's Live in Bethlehem 2013 and if you like it the download is free.

Paul Emile Borduas, Reception Automnale, 1953. Gorgeous. From the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

A magic card trick with a story by James Galea. Quite impressive, but I guess that's why they call it magic.

Do you know why infographics suck? Because the facts, when they aren't contrived, are usually wrong. Here's a map-based infographic with state by state alcohol facts. It claims that Virginia is the only state where beer isn't the preferred drink but also that in Texas more people like Margaritas than any other drink. I suppose the folks at College Humor were probably toasted when they created it. That's the last time I go to them for hard-hitting news.

Ranking of various countries based on their proficiency in English. From a WSJ article about how learning English is becoming less popular and/or necessary in China.

Ten animated short films are up for consideration for an Oscar. Judge for yourself: Feral, Get a Horse!, Gloria Victoria, Hollow Land, The Missing Scarf, Mr. Hublot, Possessions, Requiem for Romance, Room on the Broom, and Subconscious Password.

Take a couple of minutes to watch this video montage of 243 titles from animated films.

OK, so maybe animation isn't your cup of tea. The AFI has a musical montage of 100 movie quotes that you might like better.

You know a technology has reached some level of maturity when their are websites devoted to its failures. Check out this Flickr photo pool of 3D print failures.

accidental aRt (I have no idea why the R is upper case) is what you get when data visualization goes wrong.

And if you watch this compilation of infomercial fails, you'd think no one anywhere ever has a good day.

A page from the world's least erotic sex manual. When the man is loading the dishwasher and the woman must come over, because he is loading it wrong, it is called the "dishwasher position."

Solving the greatest conundrums of our time, science shows that women are two percentage points more attractive when seen in a group as opposed to by themselves. The cheerleader effect has been validated!

Able-Archer was a NATO exercise in 1983 that the Soviets misinterpreted as a real move toward a first strike and which cause them to put their nuclear forces on alert. Some call it the closest the world came to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis. I'm not certain how much of this information is new because I've read about it from various sources. And my recollection, which could very well be wrong, was that Able-Archer was more of a communications exercise and didn't involve actual forces on the NATO side.

When you have a free hour or two, consider spending it reading about Have Doughnut, a declassified DIA report about evaluation of a MiG 21F.

What if all the ice melted? Besides warm drinks we'd have different shorelines (and apparently no more Walt Disney World). Explore these maps from National Geographic.

Rafael Rozendaal (sorry about omitting the umlauts) is an internet artist. You could spend hours looking at all the work on his website.

You can also spend hours with Multitrack Love where you can take songs apart track by track during playback.

I give this slightly naughty joke an A for the analogy but a C for execution.

OMG Laser Guns Pew Pew Pew

...sophisticated, frivolous, or superficial effects. ~Hans Hofmann