March 14, 2008

Overthinking a platter of Beethoven

An analysis of 376 recorded performances of Beethoven's Eroica (Symphony #3), broken down by such variables as the age of the conductor, length of the recording, and tempo variations. [more inside]
posted by pjern at 11:00 PM PST - 25 comments

Oratory, Politics, and Video

If one can look past the Obama/Political filter, here is a fascinating series of debates between two masters of the ancient art of oratory. The setting: The 2004 Illinois senate race. The participants: Barak Obama and Alan Keyes, (who are about as different as politicians get in the US). The arguments: various subjects of national interest such as the war in Iraq, the 'axis of evil' and world diplomacy', gun control, legislative experience, and abortion, trade, poverty and globalism. [more inside]
posted by dawson at 9:41 PM PST - 72 comments

The Cowboy Junkies revist their most popular album

Back in 1987, the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies recorded The Trinity Session (which featured their one big hit, Sweet Jane), ). To celebrate the album's 20th anniversary they brought a few fellow musicians to the church where the album was originally recorded to see what 20 years experience would do to the same set of songs. Here's a video from the session, with Natalie Merchant on backing vocals. [more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:10 PM PST - 35 comments

Somewhere, Richard Feynman is smiling.

Swinging from pendulums and facing down wrecking balls, MIT professor Walter Lewin shows students the zany beauty of science.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:46 PM PST - 10 comments

Just what it says...Map My Run

MapMyRun.com
posted by konolia at 8:37 PM PST - 24 comments

This is very beautiful, and yet very untrue.

John Ruskin: Of The Pathetic Fallacy
posted by generalist at 6:00 PM PST - 29 comments

Dance and drink and screw, because there's nothing else to do

First, Archie met The Punisher. Now he's Common People.
posted by bwg at 5:10 PM PST - 21 comments

Was today's Champion's League draw a set-up?

Did UEFA fix today's Champions' League quarter-final draw? [more inside]
posted by uk_giffo at 12:34 PM PST - 35 comments

A-one and a-two and a-chicka booma chick!

Bert and Ernie perform "A Divine Proclamation for Finishing the Present Existence" by Last Days of Humanity. Turn your speakers down if you're at the office. [Single link, YouTube.]
posted by beaucoupkevin at 11:52 AM PST - 52 comments

So raise your glass high for tomorrow we die

For the fourth single off their second album, My Chemical Romance shot a World War II mini-movie^ that was turned into the video for The Ghost of You. Fast-forward to MCR's third album and a fan-made animated storybook video that continues the story from The Ghost of You video, incorporating the plot from the concept album Welcome to the Black Parade^, and set to the song Mama. Fans are sometimes pretty awesome.
posted by FunkyHelix at 10:55 AM PST - 26 comments

asleep at light speed

Google Sky we'll help us find our way, someday.
posted by plexi at 8:47 AM PST - 32 comments

I See Dead People's Books

I See Dead People's Books (wiki) is an impromptu project by LibraryThing members to catalog the libraries of famous dead people, from Tupac Shakur to Ernest Hemingway to John Adams. Many more in the works, anyone is able to create a dead library with all the attendant features of LT.
posted by stbalbach at 8:46 AM PST - 22 comments

Visualize this...

Dozens of the web's best visualization tools. Neat choices include TuneGlue's music map using data from Amazon and last.fm, Packetgarden's weird world grown from your websurfing habits, Akamai's real-time network visualization, the many widgets of last.fm, the hypnotic maps of the mood of blogs from We Feel Fine, the beautiful galleries of Visual Complexity, and a neat list of tools for drawing diagrams. [some prev]
posted by blahblahblah at 8:45 AM PST - 8 comments

They're judging your hardbone.

At colleges across the country, students judge meat. Eighty-plus years of meat-judging contests.
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:11 AM PST - 21 comments

Lost! On an island!

While watching LOST, did you ever think, "Boy, what this show needs is an 80's-style theme song?" If so, you're in luck.
posted by UKnowForKids at 8:00 AM PST - 89 comments

pee in this!

Federal Court rules Drug-Free Workplace Laws are unconstitutional. A federal appeals court ruled Thursday a city can't require all job applicants to be tested for narcotics and must instead show why drug use in a particular job would be dangerous. Decision here (warning PDF)
posted by parmanparman at 7:05 AM PST - 95 comments

Brok en Pip e l ine

An unprecedented five consecutive years of stagnant funding for the National Institutes of Health is putting America at risk - a few prominent research institutions get together to voice their concern over flat funding of the National Institutes of Health over the past 5 years, in their report The Broken Pipeline (pdf). Bloggers comment [1, 2, 3].
posted by Gyan at 3:46 AM PST - 40 comments

"An execution is an execution."

Mecca's Executioner.   A 2006 interview with Abdullah Bin Said al-Bishi, a man who wields his sword as one of Saudi Arabia's official executioners. (11:30 minute .wvx Windows Media file or written transcripts.)
posted by paulsc at 12:35 AM PST - 75 comments

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