To live is to suffer...

As I write this I'm streaming the album A Winged Victory for the Sullen by Atomos. This is my first listen and I know nothing about the artist.

Who's the best blogger in Fort Worth? Have you voted yet?

The most common job in each state, animated in timeline form. Between 1996 and 2014 D.C. went from janitor to lawyer which makes sense - they're both cleaning up other people's messes.

Begin Science

"We live in an age when all manner of scientific knowledge faces organized and often furious opposition." In this article from National Geographic we find toward the end a relatively simple but understandable distinction between two camps. Science embraces the truth over the tribe, others embrace the tribe over truth.

Even NPR dips their toe into this issue with "science denial has actual real-world consequences."

Where's C.P. Snow when you need him?

Exactly how do science and the public differ? A lot. Genetically modified foods, animal research, nuclear power. Or so says the Pew Research Center.

So to all you anti-vaxers out there, do you have a parental right to refuse to have your kids vaccinated? Given all the other shitty things we let parents do to their kids, sure. But don't for a minute believe that your stupid decision is inconsequential. Perhaps your germy kids shouldn't be allowed in public schools. I certainly don't want them in my house or in the airliner I'm on.

And then there's this children's book written about "the benefits of having measles." The reviews on Amazon are better than anything I could write, like this one: "My infant daughter went blind after contracting measles from an unvaccinated child, and yet there's no braille version of this wonderful book for me to give her someday to explain to her how awesome the disease that took her sight away is."

End Science

Google Earth Pro is now free. So what could I use it for? (Be certain to see the special license key on the right side of the page.)

Great photo of the Mars Curiosity Rover taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. source

From Earth to our solar system. Riding on Light is for you astronomy geeks and shows our solar system as viewed by a photon emitted by the sun. Jupiter shows up at about 45 minutes. Which should emphasize physical size given how fast light is. Don't worry - the video has a nice soundtrack by Steve Reich.

And in something only tangentially related to astronomy, here's Wikipedia in 3D galaxy format: WikiGalaxy.

The periodic table of spices. source

More? How about a periodic table of sexy talk. Along those sames lines comes an article from The Onion that made me LOL.

More videos? OK, here are trailers from this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts. (The style of The Dam Keeper's animation looks pretty damn good.)

And it's worth taking a look at this compilation of the Oscar for best animated film being presented if only to see Elke Sommer and Don Knotts giving the award to Chuck Jones' The Dot and the Line. (Of which I have an original cel.)

Franz Kline, Orange and Black Wall. Too often we think of Kline in terms of  blacks, whites, and browns but his use of color is equally stunning. source

You can take a stroll through the exhibition of Matisse's cutouts.

What teh interwebs was meant for: a collection of Milwaukee bus passes.

How well do you know the sounds of technology? Find out by playing Name that Beep.

Normally I put all my Aviation Pr0n on my Pinterest page but this photo essay on construction of the SR-71 Blackbird was too good to pass up.

For something truly zen-like, here are demotivational posters made from Werner Herzog's quotes. This is my favorite: "Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of chaos and darkness."

This article's subtitle is "Your future smartphone may be made out of poop metal." Interested now?

And finally, enjoy the rest of your day playing this Daft Punk console.

...to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Live in Paris by Robert Fripp & Brian Eno

The one word that best
describes this live performance
must be courageous.

Listening to Robert Fripp and Brian Eno's album Live in Paris May 28, 1975 is a bit like engaging in musical archaeology, not because 1975 was a long time ago but because this rare (and recently cleaned-up) recording captures two pioneers of electronic and ambient music creating collaborative and improvisational soundscapes before such a thing even had a name.

The live recording on discs 1 and 2 is gritty, the performance avant garde, the listener experience arresting (in hindsight), perhaps baffling (to the contemporaries). You can get a taste from the video below.

The third disc features Eno's tape loops in their full studio glory.

Keep in mind this performance was pre-digital and Eno's work was all analog and live. Yet he and Fripp deliver an eye-opening peek at future possibilities.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.

6 Reflections by Markus Reuter

This gift of music
reveals itself in new ways
with each listening.

I hope you took advantage of Markus Reuter's gift to his fans and music lovers everywhere when he made his album 6 Reflections available for free at the end of 2014. (I tweeted; don't blame me if you missed out.)

3 of the 6 tracks are studio recordings, Glaus Haus 1-3. Two tracks are live recordings from the Crimson ProjeKCt tour. And the remaining track is a remix of Glaus Haus 1. All feature Markus' work on Touch Guitar. These works are open, breathy and contemplative - as opposed to inwardly ponderous - and sinuously layered. They are a perfect backdrop for relaxed thought or working on the computer. Give one a listen:

The album is available from iapetus for €4 (digital download only). Whatever the price, 6 Reflections is a beautiful work. Thank you, Markus, for this gift.

Markus' website is www.markusreuter.com.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review other than downloading the album when it was freely available.

Enjoy present pleasures in such a way...

Let's begin with a little chill from Robin Guthrie, recorded live at KEXP, in the first three videos of this playlist.

Music on CD sounds better than music on vinyl. I can hear the purists howling now. I can hear the kids asking now: "What's a CD? What's vinyl?"

Magnified in both space and time, corals and sponges reveal themselves in the video Slow Life.

When you drill through the Antarctic ice sheet to a depth of nearly 2,500 feet and hit the sea floor, you might not expect to find fish.

Geek out with every issue of Popular Electronics magazine from 1954 to 1982.

America's top jobs for 2015: #2 Software Engineer, #12 Mechanical Engineer, #25 Sales Engineer.

How many of you thought that door was a real movie set? Welcome to the age before digital effects - matte paintings - as used in Star Wars.

More scifi film stuff. Art of the Scene dissects the iconic chesterburster scene from Alien, one of my all-time favorite movies. In the video there's a line about the set design of the Nostromo and its claustrophobic quarters: "The habits and vices of human life springing up in the cracks between machines." I found this to be an apt parallel to the actual chestburster, alien life springing up between the cracks in the human ribcage.

This sonnet was created from my Twitter stream by Poetweet.

Big thinkers share big thoughts about the next 15 years and what 2030 will be like. The guy from the Council on Foreign Relations was a real downer (The world of 2030 "will resemble today's, only almost everything will be more difficult to manage and solve.") while others sound like unfounded happy thoughts (Stanford: "Within two decades, we will have almost unlimited energy, food and clean water.") I kinda like what Esther Dyson said about childhood education and health.

Prefer more near-term predictions? Check out these predictions for 2015 including a Google-Twitter merger.

This may be my favorite map of all time: every goat in the United States, 500 per dot.

College students can now major in beer, the main difference relative to prior decades is that it actually appears on your diploma.

Everyone likes pizza. Therefore, perpetual pizza.

...as to not injure future ones. ~Seneca

Memory and Matter by Manual

Always by your side,
You always want to be touched.
I'm not going cruel.

Jonas Munk's (aka Manual) Memory and Matter is a 2 CD compilation of mixes and unreleased tracks and I'll steal another reviewer's words to describe them: "lush vibes."

One of the tracks that really resonated with me was the remixed Annie Barker track Cruel. The way he's layered the recording expands Barker's vocals and the backing work to fill the entire room. This is notable because it's not the type of tune I normally bond with. Hear for yourself with the video below. (Plus the lyrics prove the song isn't exactly what you think it's about.)

Also, I found Miraparque to be a throbbing, intoxicating arrangement. You can hear it on the Bandcamp page where the album is for sale.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.

There is danger in being persuaded...

Turn on the rainy mood.

Stream this collaboration of Taylor Deupree and Marcus Fischer.

Singles from Trey Gunn's upcoming The Waters, They Are Rising are available on Bandcamp. They include his live improvised intros to Here Comes the Flood from the Security Project tour.

Jazz defined by 100 tracks. A lifetime of reading defined by 100 books. I think I counted 14 or 18 of the latter.

Gerhard Richter, Fuji, up for auction next month with an estimated price of $400,000.

Ray Lewis thinks the tuck rule is the only reason Tom Brady is famous. Of course, I think we all know why we know who Ray Lewis is.

"Creative spontaneity takes practice" and other thoughts on wit.

"Joviality, joking, relaxed kidding are the essence of creativeness.

"What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important."

Are you programming a "safety critical" application? If so, you might be interested in NASA's ten rules for writing such code. #4 No more than 60 lines of code per function.

The most iconic restaurant in each state. Texas = Salt Lick BBQ. OK, I get that one.  Ohio = The Golden Lamb. Never heard of it.

Most popular food by state. Texas = Tex-Mex? Sure. Ohio = Soup? What the hell is that?

Craft pr0n: umbrellas, Japanese wooden dolls.

Famous Disney artist Walt Peregoy recently passed away. In his memory, I rewatched 4 Artists Paint 1 Tree, one of the most interesting Disney things I've ever seen. What I wouldn't pay for 1 of these and to have all 4 would be too much to dream.

When a penny is worth $2.5 million - the 1792 Birch cent. And this only slightly outdid the $2.3 million paid for a 1793 Chain cent.

This seems incredibly cruel but for $10 you can have a package of glitter mailed to your friend (who will soon be your enemy when the stuff goes everywhere).

Science shares 8 reasons why reading real books is better than e-books. #4 Turning pages aids comprehension.

Who is too young for you to date? Half your age plus 7. 33? Really?

Think you know your hex color codes? Do you know them well enough to play and win Hex Invaders? I got through level 5.

...before one understands. ~Thomas Wilson

The Heist by Daniel Silva

The old witch told him
no harm must come to the girl.
She's at the center.

The Heist is the latest in a long line of novels I've read by Daniel Silva. It's centered on the exploits of Gabriel Allon, master restorer of Baroque Christian paintings and super spy from Israel's intelligence service.

This time we find Gabriel between jobs - he's restoring an altar masterpiece in Venice before returning to Tel Aviv to take over as head of The Office. So what better time to be tasked with locating one of the most famous stolen paintings: Caravaggio's Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence.

Where there's one stolen painting there are bound to be more and what complicates matters is who's stealing them and for what purpose.

Although the ending left me a bit unsatisfied, I enjoyed this installment perhaps more than any other of Silva's books and look forward to seeing what he has in store for Gabriel when he arrives home.

I received no compensation of any kind for this review.