Nothing is so firmly believed...

Here's an audio head-scratcher to get things going. Vexations by Erik Satie consists of a simple part repeated 840 times. Just so you think this isn't a product of new-age music, it was composed in 1893. Pianoless Vexations is therefore self-descriptive; artists play Vexations on any instrument other than piano.

For something a bit more traditional and jazzy, here's the track Not So Square Dance from the Levin Brothers CD.

Anoka Faruqee, 2014P-06, 2014

You've got about 50 days to contribute to Adrian Belew's Kickstarter campaign for FLUX, his music app that never plays the same thing twice. I just made my pledge so this ought to be interesting.

And if you're an iPad user and a Genesis fan you might want to download the free, interactive version of Armando Gallo's book Genesis - I Know What I Like.

Leave everyone you meet drooling with this mouth-watering Cincinnati 3-way (spaghetti, chili, and cheese) Chili t-shirt.

I think C.S. Lewis nailed it with these words on true friendship. "That is the kingliness of Friendship. We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts. This love (essentially) ignores not only our physical bodies but that whole embodiment which consists of our family, job, past and connections."

For Cold War buffs:

• You can read about Operation Washtub, an 8-year program that trained stay-behind agents in Alaska in case the Soviets invaded that state.
• You can try to read a redacted report about the NSA and the supercomputer industry.
• And then there's this trove of documents, The Original Wizards of Langley, about analysis of Soviet science and technology.
• The Able Archer 83 Sourcebook (i.e. the war games in Europe in 1983 that got the Soviets all riled up thinking it was a prelude to an actual nuclear first strike)

They made a movie about painter Gerhard Richter.

Ladies, you might want to rethink your fixation on six-pack abs. Science has proven that men with bellies are better lovers.

Let's make buying beer easy with can colors that match the contents. 

If you'd like a little art in your Twitter feed try following one of these museum bots.

Enjoy Dripped, an animated film that wonders if you can enjoy painting with senses other than sight.

And now waste away the afternoon by making your own visual music with SUPER-LOOPER.

...as that which we least know. Montaigne