Awesome. One of the best books ever, and probably the best section of it - the game of Eschaton in Infinite Jest (by the sadly gone David Foster Wallace), now in music video form. I can't say it totally matches the feel I get from reading the chapter, but it's a pretty good shot at depicting something that probably wouldn't otherwise make it beyond the page.

 There's something seriously wrong with the prosecutors down in Georgia. Really? Your son gets hit by a drunk driver and you get prosecuted? It's so hard to process (for me) that this could happen. It's about moving people (and goods) - not about moving cars. Cars are a tool, one of many in the toolbox. Maybe jaywalking isn't the best idea, but given the situation is it really worth a possible 3 years in jail? And the drunk driver who's had multiple hit-and-runs only get 6 months on a plea? What constitutes a reason for a plea in this case? I'm an idiot and I live in Georgia?

"Nelson will be sentenced Tuesday and faces up to 12 months in prison for each of her three charges ... for a maximum of three years, which would be 30 months longer than the driver who killed Nelson’s son served."

•  James Blake - James Blake
  • Beauty of an album, from the odd combo of folky vocals and mellow dubstep backing. The arrangements, such as they are, are sparse. His voice, and the simplicity of the whole thing brings it along nicely.
• The Stuyvesants - Brooklyn's Finest
  • A couple of guys from Brooklyn mashing up a wealth of soul. And it's free.
• Criolo - Nó na Orelha
  • Something from Brazil. Don't know too much about it, kinda found it by chance. Another freebie.

A wonderful montage of time-lapse video...

Timelapse - The City Limits from Dominic on Vimeo.

 It's such a simple concept, and it works really well. Seeing where your taxes actually go. Maybe just a little it will keep people focused on what really matters when we tax or cut.

If you can write about particle physics and be funny - and funny that a non-physicist can get - then you're awesome. This article on atom-smashing of gold atoms from The Register is great:

(To explain: Normal humdrum matter and antimatter have zero strangeness. Rarely, strange, or even positively-strange stuff may be seen. Most outrageously of all, it is possible to have matter or antimatter whose strangeness is not zero, not positive, but negative. This strangely-strange stuff, by definition unstrange - ultramundane – infraboring – twists and mangles not only the fabric of spacetime but that of the English language too.)

Love the Choppertone. This guy created his own custom MIDI controller 'instrument' to remix/mash samples on the fly. The tune in the vide is great. The backing beat could use a little work, but not too bad anyway.

Saw Dego from 4Hero perform live a couple years ago at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple (opening for The Herbalizer and some local collective/band who I can't remember), and looked like he had something similar to this. Was a little hard to appreciate the angularity of his tracks in a mostly empty and consequently super-bright room like at the Temple, but was an interesting show nontheless.

 Amazing time-lapse photography of auroral displays. Looks unreal.

So more than 5 years ago, before I was at my current job, I spent about 4-5 months doing research for an author for his next book. The book has finally been published! It's called In Motion: The Experience of Travel, and the author is Tony Hiss.

When I was doing research, the working title was 'Why We Travel', but that's not exactly what it's about. Tony's notion of 'Deep Travel', what you might say is the state of mind that one achieves through travel, is really the focus of the book. It's not the only reason why we travel - but it is the biggest and most interesting reason. I was instantly familiar with what Tony talks about, yet the concept is so varied and works at so many levels, it is easy to delve deep into bits and corners of it - and that's exactly what Tony does.

I'm about halfway through the book and love it so far. But then, Tony is a great writer. And a great guy. Congrats Tony!

There are a lot of musicians playing in the NYC subways. Most of them are forgettable, some of them painful to listen to, and some pretty good. And then there are the gems you discover. I first heard the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble in Grand Central. You just can't beat a good horn section. And so my latest discovery is Moon Hooch. Two saxaphones and a drummer. They had a pretty big crowd captivated at Atlantic Ave, and a whole heck of a lot of bills in the suitcase they had placed out. The tags on their bandcamp page are drum & bass and house. Cross those two with the saxaphones, and it sounded pretty good. Their playing isn't super-polished, so I'm kinda expecting the recorded tracks to not quite hit me the way they did live. That's ok. I'll just have to see them again...