Wes Phillips

Is it cheating when athletes use the placebo effect to their advantage?

Gerard McBurney seems to share my Oliver Sacks blind spot (<I>Uncle Tungsten</I>, notwithstanding). I still haven't read <I>Musicophilia</I> and although I still intend to, I'm now less convinced that I will find it compelling.

J Mascis' soaring solo comes to a sudden end. Elizabeth walks into my office, tentatively.

Andrew Davidhazy, professor of Imaging and Photographic Technology at RIT, has spent a lifetime taking extremely high-speed photos of interesting phenomena like water dripping and stuff blowing up real good. Here's a gallery of his work.

Ex-professional football players expect to live with pain, the byproduct of a job well done, says Paul Solotaroff. What they don't expect is the shabby treatment afforded them by the game for which they squandered their good health. And with union representation like Gene Upshaw, who needs hostile team owners to do 'em dirty?

Busy here in <i>Stereophile</i> HQ. As the salsa blares ("<i>Clavo saca clavo!</i>"), we're happy to be working on Issue Number 1 of Volume 31. That's January 2008. And I just sent the 2007 Article Index to our copy editor, Richard Lehnert. Having compiled this list of every equipment report, column, interview, and feature we've published over the past year, I can confidently say:

Jonah Lehrer has been promoting his new book <I>Proust Was a Neuroscientist</I>, which means I've heard him interviewed on the usual chattering-classes suspects. And every time I hear him, I think I need to read his book.