I'd rather be hated for who I am...

Must-see video of the week - an animation of the sheet music for Miles Davis' So What.

Too big? source

Marc Andreessen, the Netscape guy, thinks software is eating the world and offers as proof Apple (largest market cap, more cash than the U.S. of  A.), a 40x growth in broadband usage over the past decade, 5 billion people with smart phones, Amazon v. Borders, e-books, Netflix, Pandora, Zynga, Foursquare, Skype, and the computerization of traditional businesses like automobiles, healthcare, investing, and more.  Andreessen identifies three challenges we face before these software-centric businesses mature.  First, it's hard to build and grow a company of any kind in the current economic environment.  Second, too many people lack the education to participate.  Third, all these software-based businesses need to prove that they're not another Pets.com.

Games like Curvy drive me nuts.  I don't know why I bother.

The scourge of online collections continues with vintage bottle caps and chrome logos.

I've mentioned before that I enjoy the movie The Fifth Element.  One scene in the film features an operatic alien being performing an aria.  The filmmakers had a real opera singer record the song for the actor to lip-synch.  Supposedly, the singer was initially astonished by the score because it was unsingable because of the range.  Here's a video with part of that aria being sung.  I would like to think it's real.

How well do you know the layout of the Linux file system? 

The popularity of beer and wine in the U.S. seem to be converging in this poll.  When asked what they drink most often, 36% say beer (a decrease) and 35% say wine (an increase).  This continues a trend since 1992 when beer bested wine 47% to 27%.  (64% of U.S. adults drink alcohol.)

Learn to code the fun and easy way with Code Academy.

Bob Parsons, the Go Daddy guy, has 16 rules.  I'd quote one of them here but they come with a copyright provision that I can't be bothered with.  So I'll just say there's nothing profound here.  On the other hand, Bob did somehow manage to hire all them Go Daddy girls.

The geometric-inspired work of Andy Gilmore.

Beloit College, the Mindset List guys, have published their annual list of things to be aware of in the mindset of incoming college freshmen, the class of 2015.  For example, #37 Music has always been available via free downloads. Ignoring the "free", that means they probably have no experience with compact discs let alone LPs.

Math controversy! What does 0⁰ (zero raised to the zeroth power) equal?

• 1
• 0
• undefined

It's been a while without any new NYAN CATs so check out this smooth jazz Nyan Cat.

Video of pistols being fired underwater.  What's next, running a lawnmower in the Sahara?  Implanting a TV in your stomach? Installing an air conditioner in a fish tank?

The Inception of reading lists: The Top 10 "Top 10" lists for entrepreneurs.

From the movies I've watched more than once department, Ridley Scott is supposedly going to direct a new installment of Blade Runner.  In the same news story, it's said that he has finished a prequel to the Alien franchise called Prometheus, due out in summer 2012.

I wanted a Shakespeare brain (powerful writing can literally change the way we think - pun not mine) but got this one instead.  image source  (Don't be put off by the picture - read the Shakespeare article.) (Damn, putting a disclaimer on a joke.)  (Or is it an apology?)

I didn't know beer had any secrets but apparently scientists have only just discovered a species of wild yeast that makes lager beer possible.  Somehow this yeast from Argentina made it's way to Germany where it hybridized with a local yeast and voila - Budweiser. 

It's never too early to start making websites: HTML for Babies.

If vim is your editor, you might also like Vimium - an extension for Google Chrome that lets you browse the web in a vim-like way.

I've never been in any of the world's 18 strangest elevators.  We have an elevator in our 2-story office and the ride, frankly, isn't that great.  It's kinda hot and smells funny.  I think the strangest elevator I've ever been on is the one in the St. Louis Arch.

Self explanatory: public toilet survival kit. Me?  I'd just get the pee towel. (And you can get one too from Etsy.)

I don't drink diet soda and don't use margarine so I'm not sure how I feel about fake barf.  And I wonder what would happen, god forbid, if one of their workers got sick on the job.

Check out this robot-inspired print called Where's WALL-E?  Can you name all these robots from sci-fi?  They say posters will be available soon.

I'm gonna live to be 90, or so I'm told by the Lifespan Calculator.  Yee haw, 41 more years of Horse Bits.

I may have mentioned before that the music to be played at my funeral is Jean Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela.  (Tell everyone to shut up, play the tune once, send everyone home.)  Here's a thought-provoking article about Sibelius including this observation: "His work is strikingly architectural, rather than paralleling in music the syntax, semantics, and grammar of language."

Check out these NASA blueprints of a Saturn V, Hubble, Apollo, Mercury and more.

No time to get to Dayton? Take a virtual tour of the National Museum of the Air Force.  Go straight to the R&D wing and lay eyes on the XB-70. 

What about Vegas? If your travels take you to Las Vegas later this year, visit the Chuck Jones Experience in Circus Circus.  It's an interactive and historical exhibit centered around the legendary animator and his work including Wile E. Coyote and The Roadrunner.


...than loved for who am I not.  ~Kurt Cobain

And experience indicates that I'm getting my wish.