Being addicted, or even just a fan of <I>The New York Times</I> means you have to suss out the necessary assumptions and become expert at translating what's really going on there. Even overlooking the woeful sports section and regular incidents of pathetic pandering—a recent travel piece by Robert Kennedy Jr. comes to mind—the institutional psychoses and attitude, subtle as they may be, that the paper infuses, again ever so delicately, into everything is quite amazing.
John Marks sends along this article about the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, a 32-ton, 6398-pipe, three-story organ that I, for one, am going to have to make a sonic destination. Be sure to visit the photo essay and other links while you're reading about the Cooper organ—there's a ton of fascinating information there.
Vinyl Recorder has an interesting graphic on how groove modulation works. Check out the home page, too—VR sells DIY cutters!
As a member of the Park Slope Food Coop, I've been seeing signs warning of an international organic banana shortage for months now, but I assumed it was just a seasonal fluctuation, coupled with last year's brutal hurricane season. <I>The New Scientist</I> claims it may be a genetic apocalypse.
Jon Iverson sends along this site devoted to the ideas of experimental film pioneer John Whitney, who wrote <I>Digital Harmony</I>, a book that has fascinated JI for years.
"They Thought You'd Say This: Unlikely phrases from real phrase books" is a hoot. When I lived in Peru, I collected tourist phrase books from our local second-hand book kiosk—a place that had a two-for-one trade-in policy on books in English. Since I was teaching ESL to folks that wanted to get jobs in tourism and on the police squad dedicated to tourist-related matters, I figured that they'd need to know a lot of these common phrases. I was stunned at how many books had unlikely scenarios, but few of them were as outlandish as in this article.
As the plane approached the chaos of John F. Kennedy International Airport, I turned my head towards the small oval window to look out onto the bright City skyline.
<I>The Home Entertainment Show 2006, running June 1–4 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Los Angeles, is only weeks away. Here is a sampling of some of the giveaways and special events that will take place at the Show. Several of these should be of particular interest to home-theater enthusiasts.</I>
At <I>The Telegraph</I>, Gillian Reynolds isn't convinced Barenboim made either of those arguments at all.
Over at <I>The Times</I>, Terence Kealey begs to differ, not just with Barenboim's (and Plato's) premise that music uses sound to educate the soul in virtue, but also that "making music and playing it in an orchestra is the best way to understand democracy."