If you asked me for my new year resolution...

Today's soundtrack begins with Space is the Place, a live recording by Markus Reuter and Tim Motzer.

The annual list of banished words from Lake Superior State University includes "on fleek" and I have no problem with that. Or how about the word warrior's list of words that should be brought back into popular use such as "rumpus."

Few paintings have impacted me as much as Mondrian's Composition in Black and Gray 1919 and the description of it that I read in the WSJ on Christmas morning which is no coincidence considering that the artist himself said it has a Christmas mood "if one understands the Christmas idea in a really abstract way... the predominance of the spiritual." This painting exemplifies how something that on its surface is geometrically abstract can can convey the sublime. source (login required). If you just want to see another image of this painting, go here to the Philly Museum of Art.

What makes an abstract expressionist painting good? You do, to a large degree.

Actually, it's not all of you: just your brain. We can easily decide whether a painting was skillfully executed and beautiful. But abstraction requires us to think really hard about the third prerequisite: is it interesting? A Nobel-winning expert on human memory explains why abstract art gives us a good kind of brain ache.

Mark Rothko is not an action painter.

Geometric Watercolors by Jacob Van Loon.

NASA technology spun off a high-precision coffee brewer.

When the aural becomes visual: a musical score as geometric abstraction.

Maybe there are only 4 personality types: Envious (gotta be better than everyone else), Optimists (you and a partner will always make the best choice), Pessimists (make choices as the lesser of two evils), and the Trusting (will always cooperate regardless of win or lose).

Diffusion Choir is a kinetic sculpture that simulates bird flocking behavior. video

Vintage photos of B-17s in flight.

Science solves a mystery: the weird sound deep in the Mariana's Trench is a new type of baleen whale.

Light Masonry by Jason Bruges

Science proved that "empty space really isn't empty" and polarizes light traveling through a vacuum, something called vacuum birefringence (i.e. light is interacting with a vacuum).

And now science has measured how antimatter absorbs light.

Blade Runner 2049 teaser vid.

A live ghost shark was filmed for the first time. article and video 

Keep up with which animated film wins which award using Cartoon Brew's award tracker. Kubo and the Two Strings and Zootopia appear to be doing well.

I'm lovin' Aviation Week's annual photo contest winners.

If nature is more your thing, here are National Geographics' photo contest winners. I personally like most the 1st place winner for landscape.

Why Chattanooga converted first floors into basements by raising street level.

Naughty duck. Too bad Xmas has already passed. source

Know yer droppings.

A flight from NY to Paris had to make a pit stop in Ireland cuz passengers had to go. Bad.

And now, in beautiful 4K and 2 hours in duration, enjoy The Fireplace by PES.

...it would be to find out who I am. ~Cyril Cusack