He who binds himself to a joy does the winged life destroy...

Stream a little ambient drone: Casiopia by Twigs and Yarn.

Too short? How about Here, for now, a 2012 collaboration of Celer and Nicholas Szczepanik. Stream it, like it, buy it.

Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park No. 29, 1970. Source: Dallas Museum of Art. This masterpiece was hung in a triangular gallery (open at each of the triangle's vertices) with diffuse natural light from above and a Motherwell and another painting on the opposite walls. Enthralling.

Have you seen this? The only known film of Mark Twain, shot in 1909, has been digitally restored.

Need help choosing which Don DeLillo book to read next? Here's help.

Esquire suggests 80 books every man should read. I've read 11, plus 3 more if you count seeing only the movie. Oh well, at least it included one Faulkner and a DeLillo (with high praise that the first 50 pages are the best ever written.) Completely awful site navigation that loads each of the 80 books as its own page with a "next" button that's tiny and twitchy.

Esquire also suggests 75 movies every man should see but after the books I'm too lazy to click through them all.

Here's a page full of maps that promise to teach you something about the world. Be sure to see #21, the ranking of countries by ethnical diversity.

Real-time interactive map of internet attacks.

Use this visualization to see when worldwide stockpiles of nuclear weapons peaked. Guess before looking at the graphic because you might be surprised at the year. Hint: it was the year I got married.

For those Disney fans out there, Hollywood Studios' Magic of Disney Animation attraction will close on 12 July. Rumor has it that a lot of construction at that end of the park is for a Star Wars themed area.

When it comes to visualizing information it's no secret I'm a fan of Edward Tufte. But here are 9 books on data visualization by other authors that come highly recommended.

Would you pay $125 for a caviar topped Twinkie? You can at the Orange County Fair.

Sobering "then and now" photographs of  U.S. Civil War sites. Here I've screen grabbed an image in the middle of its transition from then to now.

And here's an animated timeline map of 315 years of the slave trade.

Insightful article on the mid-life crisis. Some highlights:

• Young people are overly optimistic due to biased information processing.
• Reality sets in as we age and we realize it doesn't match our earlier expectations.
• Those who objectively have the least reason to complain often suffer most. They feel ungrateful and disappointed with themselves particularly because their discontent seems so unjustified.
• We hit bottom between our mid 40s to mid 50s before things get better because...
• The aging brain begins accepting life as it is and becomes less regretful about past events.

Pickles. If you're chronically fearful or shy or just have a tiny bit of social anxiety, eating a pickle can markedly reduce symptoms of those afflictions.

Was the opening drone music not your cup of tea? Maybe this "essential mix" from Four Tet and Jamie XX will be more to your liking.

...but he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise. ~William Blake