From BBC Planet Earth

Lady Gaga

I feel like so much of the American culture of my generation has been devoted to "the underground". I feel I amongst many others have developed the allusion that the depth of a work's artistic vision is measured by its relative distance from mainstream culture. I do believe distancing one's creative process from the mainstream to be beneficial as it distances your creativity from business and the idea that your creations must be marketable. However, on the other hand feel I that this "underground complex" also diminishes the possibility of there being actual artistic beauty in the mainstream.

I have only heard Lady Gaga's music in passing; listening for only a few seconds before tossing her in the bin with the rest of the pop trash. The other day Lady Gaga made this appearance on a Japanese morning news show and was rather impressed. For perspective, I recommend listening to the original version of the song as well.

Memes and Temes

Have you ever felt that science and technology are in some way developing themselves beyond the will of humans? That its impossible to push the stop button on them? Well Susan Blackmore might have found a way to better explain this phenomenon. Amazing talk from ted.com

Deer with two fawn

I recently moved back to Boulder, and can't get over how nice it is to
experience this calm, somewhat quiet lifestyle. Daniel Aaragon came
into town, went longboarding and past this deer with two fans along
our way! The quiet life.

Required Reading

I can't express how amazing this book is. You must read it for yourself if you have a chance. Bill Bryson is a well-known travel writer who decided to read a gazillion science books from astronomy to biology and publish the wonders in an everyperson's way of understanding. He keeps it impacting from beginning to end with humorous stories of crazed scientists (like Newton who stuck a needle in his eye to see what would happen) to the amazing facts (that if the length of your stretched-out arms represented the time of the earth, you could scrape away human history with a nail file). Another interseting point of his writing is his skepticism. Throughout the book he makes light of the limitations of science. All though we have come so far, there is still so much more to learn. And lastly the sense of scale he puts forth is quite humbling. From his point of view, the world of the small (microbes and viruses) rule over us. They have been around much longer and will probably continue to remain after we pass on. And to the opposite effect, our Universe is incredibly massive. We have a long way to go if we want to find another world like ours. All of this is fascinating stuff, so if you're into this sort of thing, check it out.

in b flat

This is absolutely magical.

in b flat conceived by Darren Solomon
Link: http://www.inbflat.net/ (Make sure to have some headphones.)