We are made wise not by the recollection of our past...

Finalists for the Academy Award for Animated Short have been announced. Garden Party looks like my favorite; beautifully animated and funny.

Watch Glen Keane animate Ariel in 3-D live.

I'm a huge fan of RareNoise Records and hope you'll become one after listening to their RecentNoiz playlist on Soundcloud which is kinda like a "best of" recent releases.

As I say every year, if you listen to only one mashup make it DJ Earworm's United State of Pop 2017.

Without impressionism there might have been modern art.

This untitled work by Norman Lewis is part of a gift of works by black artists to the St. Louis Art Museum.

Squatty Potty does it again.

When did life first appear on earth? Probably at least 3.5 billion years ago.

Thelonious Monk wrote 25 tips for musicians including "What you don't play can be more important than what you do play."

Pantone announced ultraviolet as 2018's color of the year.

The Washington Post ranked the top 10 chain restaurants. Last with a grade of F is a place I've frequented (too) often. Olive Garden comes in at #4 with a C (but I'm addicted to their salad and breadsticks). #1 may surprise you but when I thought about it I had to agree.

Have any of my Boston friends visited the International Museum of World War II?

It's the time of year for predictions. Here's Fortune's predictions for 2018 for business. India gonna grow.

Vistage, of which I am a member, shares their trends for 2018 and beyond in four areas: politics (gerrymandering may - will likely, IMO - be found unconstitutional), economics (overall  positive except Brexit's impacts), tech (machine learning - I need to learn what that is - and then later 5G), and sociology (healthcare at a tipping point?).

...but by the responsibility for our future. ~George Bernard Shaw