Wes Phillips

Next, we have this article, submitted by Jonathan Scull, which says the lectures rail against "passive noise pollution"—that Daniel Barenboim claims we are too frequently forced to hear music over which we have no control and, thus, we listen too infrequently to music we have actually chosen.

Over at The Times, 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."

At The Telegraph, Gillian Reynolds isn't convinced Barenboim made either of those arguments at all.

Yes! Find out that it's a lot harder than you think to make a vinyl record. Best part: Incorrectly centering the disc. (Most record presses do a pretty good job of this.)

On December 31, 2006, the UK will pay off its post-WWII debt to the US. "Nobody pays off their student loan early, unless they are a nutter," Dr. Tim Leung explained. Well, the full story is a bit more complicated than that. Or maybe not.

Huckleberry looks pensive—which is definitely not in his nature.

At least, that's what In-Stat's survey shows. Seems low to me, but maybe a lot of folks are putting white earbuds on those $25 flash-drive players.