The album of last week was The Shins’ Wincing The Night Away.
Month: January 2007
A Real Music Store Sprouts Online
Speaking of Other Music, they are launching a digital music store. They’ll offer DRM-free high-quality MP3s at slightly higher than iTunes prices.
Other Music 2006
Like last year, I made a playlist from the Other Music year-end recap.
Stephenson’s Diamond Age Miniseries
George Clooney will executive produce a miniseries of Neal Stephensons’ The Diamond Age for SCI FI Channel.
When a prominent member of society concludes that the futuristic civilization in which he lives is stifling creativity, he commissions an interactive book for his daughter that serves as a guide through a surreal alternate world. Stephenson will adapt his novel for the miniseries, the first time the Hugo and Nebula award winner has written for TV.
The Torn-Up Credit Card Application
This is why I shred credit card applications and those annoying checks they send you that let you borrow money at insane interest rates.
RAW Essence
Robert Anton Wilson passed away yesterday at 4:50 AM.
A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
A funny take on the original Star Wars movies that posits that R2 and Chewbacca are top Rebellion operatives manipulating everything behind the scenes.
20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He’s there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda’s. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk[sic]? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it’s his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion’s best ship.
Going Ape
Another take on the Paleolithic diet.
Ms Garton looked for inspiration to the plant-based diet of our closest relatives, the apes, and devised a three-day rotating menu of fruit, vegetables, nuts and honey. The prescribed menu was:
- safe to eat raw;
- met adult human daily nutritional requirements; and
- provided 2,300 calories – between the 2,000 recommended for women and 2,500 for men,
Volunteers could also drink water. In the second week, standard portions of cooked oily fish were introduced – a nod to a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Eastern Standard Tribe: the podcast
Cory Doctorow is podcasting his entire novel, Eastern Standard Tribe.
Vi In the News
There have been a couple of interesting articles about [vi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi) recently. [This essay](http://blog.ngedit.com/2005/06/03/the-vi-input-model/) describes why the vi input model is great for laptop keyboards. Also, [The Register](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/bill_joys_greatest_gift/) has a bit from Bill Joy on the origins of vi.