Well yes, obviously—but Mexican epidemiologist Rodolfo Acuña-Soto thinks that the 16th Century plague that reduced the Aztec population from 22 million to 2 million was <I>not</I> smallpox brought over by the Spaniards. Aztec historians of the time referred to it by a different name than smallpox, with which they were familiar(!), and, after 12 years of research, Acuña-Soto concurs.
Okay, no list of 50 could be perfect, but this one's pretty good. I could probably come up with a list of 50 that <I>also</I> changed music without any overlap, but that's one of the pleasures of the list game.
Pat Metheny on Kenny G. First we use fairness and logic, <I>then</I> we kicks 'em in the yarbles.
What happens if the Earth switches magnetic poles? It <I>could</I> happen—and soon.
Pimp your crapper.
Some days I feel like <I>Stereophile</I>'s designated audio antichrist. After all, I wrote an automotive audio column for the magazine about 10 years back—a feature that prompted more than one reader to send the pages carrying my column back to Santa Fe as "not what I subscribed for"—<I>and</I> I reviewed the <A HREF="http://stereophile.com/mediaservers/934/ ">iPod</A>. So, not really being a glutton for punishment, I wasn't wildly enthusiastic when Edelman account executive Stefani Gudis tendered an invitation to hear the Infiniti/Bose "Studio On Wheels" model G35 sedan. It wasn't that I didn't think that car audio could be a valid musical experience, I simply had been disappointed too many times by car manufacturers touting "audiophile" sound packages, which, upon examination, were probably more about preventing aftermarket add-ons by car audio installers. BTDT, as the kids text-message.
Even though the European Commission okayed the merger of Sony and the Bertlesmann Music Group (BMG) in 2004, Europe's second-highest court—the Court of First Instance—annulled the merger on July 13. The decision came about because of a challenge from independent record labels that claimed the EU regulators shouldn't have approved the merger in the first place. This is the first time a European Commission decision has been overturned and it requires the commission to examine the complex merger again.
Answer this one at your own risk: If you had to choose, which would you dump, your spouse or your audio system?
In the fall of 2005, while the People's Republic of China continued to hold political dissidents in prison without due process, the US government wiretapped its citizens with impunity, tensions rose on the border between Chad and Sudan, Israeli citizens annexed thousands of acres of land from poor Palestinian farmers, Saudi Arabia executed more petty thieves and adulterers in the name of Allah, Russia "lost" a few more tons of nuclear armaments, and the polar icecaps continued to recede as the levels of preventable greenhouse emissions climbed out of control, a small band of middle-aged men took to the Internet to express their seething outrage.
Record playback could have been designed to go from the inside out instead of the other way around. With most pieces of music ending louder than they started, doesn't it make more sense to end the side at the widest circumference, longest wavelength, least congested part of the groove spiral? Compact discs read from the center hole out, and they don't even have to.