DrHGuy Cyber-Bookmarks: October 28, 2006
Cyber-Bookmarks From DrHGuy are annotated links to arguably worthwhile, recently published online reading, new or revised websites of potential utility or ostensible interest, and other internet-accessible experiences that, were it not for the casually collected, cavalierly collated, & capriciously collocated components comprising these posts, could easily be overlooked - which would be, in some cases, a shame,
Readings
Time After Time Catrinel Bartolomeu. Nerve.com 11 Oct 2006
This piece consists of an interview with Daniel Levitin, a one time musician and rock producer who earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and recently published This Is Your Brain on Music. While portions of the book itself are dry discussions of music theory as interpreted through the principles of cognitive psychology and neurological processes, this article features the author’s skillful and intriguing connections between the music and the feelings it evokes. While this Nerve.com interview, in keeping with the site’s focus on sexuality, focuses on music and coupling, an NPR interview is more wide-ranging and has the advantage of providing illustrative musical samples. Links to the NPR interview can be found at
NPR Interview With Daniel Levitin: “This Is Your Brain On Music”
Ad Report Card Seth Stevenson, Slate.com
Ad Report Card is an ongoing column, offered weekly (more or less) by Slate.com, that is variable in quality but often answers my questions about one or another ad I’ve seen (the question is usually along the lines of “What the heck was that about?” or “What were they thinking”). Three recent examples of such columns follow:
- Can Rosa Parks Sell Pickup Trucks?
Chevy’s icky, exploitative new ad. Oct 09, 2006 - This Is Your Ass on Drugs
The new case against pot? It makes you lazy. Sep 25, 2006 - The Divorcemobile
Ford’s bizarre new SUV ad. Aug 28, 2006
830! Stefan Fatsis. Slate.com. Oct. 26, 2006
“830″ refers to the winning score in the Scrabble game that is the fulcrum of this article. The game, between two low-ranking players, shattered the record for high scores in a game (830 for one player and 1320 total) and most points on a single turn (365 for QUIXOTRY). The description of the winning game itself is fascinating, even though I haven’t played Scrabble in years, but the discussion also lends insight into the nature of sports and setting sports records in general.
Web Sites
Flightstats.com is the best site I’ve sound for checking real-time flight conditions at any airport. The site also provides a status report of all inbound and outbound flights for a given airport (including estimates of duration of any current delays) and flight tracking for planes in the air. The FAA also has an official government-sponsored site at www.fly.faa.gov that provides information about flight delays.
A DrHGuy’s Cyber-Bookmarks Special Section: Simple Comics Explicated
I spontaneously stumbled across references to both of these old-fashioned, simple comics, Nancy & Marmaduke, within the same hour a couple of days ago. While neither is on my personal hit parade, both seem to have fans among internet denizens. In any case, the temporal coincidence of their discoveries seemed to mandate sharing those references with (i.e., foisting them off on) Heck Of A Guy readers.
How To Read Nancy, a well-written 1988 essay described in Away With Words as “the definitive critique of the Nancy oeuvre,” is now available in PDF form at How to read Nancy, and has received accolades from BoingBoing and others.
Joe Mathlete Explains Today’s Marmaduke is the site on which, well, Joe Mathlete (who is also the leader of the indy band, The Mathletes) explains today’s Marmaduke cartoon.
