Links for 03-10-2007
Loads more music reviews, some analysis of the Radiohead album release, genetic influence on economic decision-making, why increasing oil prices aren’t stopping people driving SUVs …
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1 – Album review: The Insect Guide – 6ft In Love
“Shoegazer duo deliver nine tracks of pure stratospheric fuzz-pop bliss.” Good stuff – poppy, fuzzy and bitter-sweet.
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2 – Album review: Foreign Born – On The Wing Now
“It’s plain that the guys behind Foreign Born have a vision – an ideal toward which they are straining in the tradition of all great artists. The trouble is that they haven’t yet communicated to me what it is about that vision I should be so interested in
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3 – Album review: A Whisper In The Noise – Dry Land
“If you have a thirst for beautiful melancholy, take a step onto Dry Land; Steve Albini puts the polish on some true Southern Gothic.” An astonishingly good album, seriously.
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4 – Album review: Don’t Mess With Texas – Los Dias De Junio
“So, you’re a bunch of Croatian post-rock musicians, and you need a name for your new band. What better choice than an anti-littering campaign slogan from an American state famous for cowboys, oil and the most inept president in modern history?”
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5 – Album review: J. D. Souther – Border Town – The Very Best Of
“… if I asked you to name five of the best known songs by country-rock legends The Eagles, the odds are good you’d pick five songs that Souther co-wrote.”
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6 – Interview: Pox – Mark Meyers, vocalist/guitarist
“Paul Raven talks to Mark Meyers – a Belgian musician of legendary status – about his new band Pox, and projects past and future.” Member of the original line-up of dEUS, you know.
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7 – School libraries in crisis over lack of funds
“School libraries are wasting away, unused by children and underfunded by headteachers, according to research which found that pupils borrow on average only one library book a term.” Sad, but unsurprising.
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8 – Large Genetic Component To How People Play Economic Game
“Yes, there are genetic differences out there that influence economic decision making. So there are genetically caused behavioral differences upon which natural selection can act.” Intriguing – and very sf-nal.
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9 – Welcome to GalaxyGarden.net
“The Galaxy Garden is a 100-foot diameter outdoor scale model of the Milky Way, mapped in living plants and flowers and based on current astrophysical data.” Space AND plants – what’s not to love?
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10 – Why $100-per-barrel oil would be no big deal (Hint: Two words that both start with ‘c’)
“What happened? Why did oil demand keep growing right along with price, against economists’ predictions? Why didn’t U.S. consumers … seriously cut back spending after oil hit $40, $50, $60, $70, and now $80?”
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11 – New Fingerprint Tech Could Mean Never Losing Your Keys Again
“… allows them to “unwarp” distorted prints. The technology could prove especially important in mass-market biometric access systems, which have remained elusive because of small but significant rates of false positives and negatives.”
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12 – Radiohead’s In Rainbows: A Look at Anti-Marketing in the Music Industry
“Why not just let your fans do all the talking? Distributing a much anticipated music album online and not setting a fixed price (“Its up to you”) is a gesture that generates buzz. It’s flippant. It’s casual. It’s a me-and-you relationship.”
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