We're revamping our website infrastructure, so Huckleberry, Bagheera, and I will be taking the day off. Out guest cat-blogger in Mia, who is enjoying a special bonding moment with her human, Ayre's Steve Silberman.
<I>Specialization</I> seems to be an inevitable consequence of progress: As the products of man and God become more and more complex, they're called on to do fewer things in more focused ways.
A friend once described my audio ethos as "records, tubes, big amplifiers, and really big speakers"—I always picked warmth and musicality over antiseptic neutrality, even if the former came with a few extra colors in the tonal palette. Had I listed my criteria for an audio component, <I>transparency</I> wouldn't have been near the top, and might not have been listed at all.
Conceptually audacious, elegantly designed, executed with space-age precision, and remarkably compact, Grand Prix Audio's direct-drive Monaco turntable ($19,500) aims to turn the tables on the belt-drive designs that have dominated analog playback for three decades.
Apparently they pay off.
A family in Wales went to the beach last July and discovered an intact P-38 that went down in 1942.
Robert Cialdini's science of persuasion.
Those impressive profilers you see on TV and the movies? In reality, they're not quite as effective as they're portrayed—not by a long shot.
<I>"Rave on down through the corridors,<BR>
"Rave on words on printed page!"</I>—Van Morrison, "Rave On John Donne"