Neil Hannon, aka The Divine Comedy, has both annoyed and charmed critics (often within the same song). Reviews of his most recent album, Bang Goes The Knighthood (released in Europe last May, now released in the US but only via iTunes) have described the split like this:

"Divine Comedy albums are always an arm-wrestle between two incompatible personas. One is the elegant and witty balladeer, a precocious hybrid of Scott Walker and Randy Newman, heard on such commanding cuts as The Dogs & the Horses and Sunrise. The other is the insufferably bumptious japester queasily evocative of Gilbert O'Sullivan, most notably culpable for the enragingly jaunty sing-along National Express (which, rather depressingly, remains The Divine Comedy's biggest hit)."

[more inside]
posted by ericthegardener on Jul 28, 2010 - 35 comments

Historic Bridges of the U.S. This is the most complete database of historic bridges I've seen. The front page is blog style that seems to have an emphasis on preservation, and which links to a database that is actively being updated & expanded. You can search by state or by county, and look at each bridge's individual page, including a wealth of stats, and a high-res photo, when available. [more inside]
posted by Devils Rancher on Aug 17, 2009 - 31 comments

Next Act Won't Be as Easy as the First. Gates once conceded: "Google is still perfect, the bubble is floating and they can do everything. You should buy their stock at any price.” And just this week they affirmed this statement with their release of Google Earth, showing the world that their scope is beyond just websites. But is google growing too ambitious? is this desire to "search all of the world's information" signaling doom?
posted by merc on Jun 30, 2005 - 22 comments

The Grand Canyon, up close and personal. Start with the series of photos titled 'Royal Arch Trip'. [more inside]
posted by Slithy_Tove on May 4, 2002 - 4 comments