<I>BBspot</I> claims to have obtained the super-duper-secretest-ever legal decision flowchart used by the RIAA. Everything now makes so much sense!

More proof, as if needed, that the true definition of a gentleman is someone who can play the bagpipe, but won't.
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John Atkinson sends along this link to <I>The Vintage Knob</I>, which shows the naughty bits of some classic '70s gear.

I've mentioned <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/121406something/">my problem with sleep</a>. It's not that I can't <i>fall</i> asleep. I'm usually so tired that I'm completely gone before my head meets pillow. I could go to bed at 7pm and fall asleep, no problem. I'm half-asleep right now.

Lest I begin every blog entry in a negative fashion let me begin by saying, I love the music of Led Zeppelin.

When John Atkinson and I were driving from Kansas to New Mexico after recording <A HREF="http://ssl.blueearth.net/primedia/product.php?productid=22&cat=1&page=3…;, we spotted a crop duster spraying a roadside field. I was stunned by his precision at high speed&mdash;and by the exuberant loops with which he terminated each run. It looked incredibly difficult, and also like he was having a ball.

Somehow, the November issue of <I>Technology Review</I> made it to the top of my Empire State Building pile of unread magazines and I happened upon this fascinating recollection by Freeman Dyson about working for the Operational Research Section during WWII.

Philip K. Dick, far from being too paranoid to be prophetic, might not have been paranoid enough. After all, even <I>my</I> comments section makes you prove you're not a robot (<I>Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?</I>) and there really <I>are</I> cameras everywhere for our protection (<I>Through a Scanner Darkly</I>). Oh yes, and legislation aimed at protecting us from terror may have invaded our privacy (<I>Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said</I>).

It's funny, but one of the topics Jeff Wong and I have been discussing, seemingly on a daily basis, has been the endless barrage of negative reviews of <I>300</I>. I have my misgivings&mdash;principally the film's depiction of Hoplite warfare that completely ignores the existence of hoplon armor or Hoplite tactics.