As punishment for violating the city’s noise ordinance by playing loud rap music in his car, an Urbana man was sentenced to listen to 20 hours of symphonic music or pay a $130 fine. The symphonic selections included Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, DeBussy and other composers. He lasted 15 minutes and chose to instead pay the fine. I think I would have sentenced him to listen to an entire atonal opera. 
Classical Music as Punishment
Entry posted on October 11, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Richard Serra
Entry posted on October 10, 2008 at 8:52 am
“I don’t give a shit but I care quite a lot.” –Richard Serra
Wikipedia Chooses Ubuntu
Entry posted on October 10, 2008 at 7:05 am
Wikipedia has chosen Ubuntu to power its 400 servers that run the website. From Computerworld:
Wikimedia’s switch from Red Hat to Ubuntu is also likely a result of Ubuntu’s making the enterprise server and consumer desktop versions of its operating systems available for free to all users, with no lightening of the systems for nonpaying customers.
Slacker on Hulu
Entry posted on October 9, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Slacker is on Hulu. To know this film, is to know Brian Griffin. 
Georges Boulanger
Entry posted on October 7, 2008 at 6:59 pm
I was familiar with Georges Boulanger as the composer of several interesting pieces performed by some of my favorite fiddlers, ie. Roby Lakatos and Abram Shtern. But I was unaware that Boulanger was an accomplished violinist himself, who studied with renowned pedagogue Leopold Auer. I have gathered several examples of Boulanger’s playing below, which I hope fellow violinophiles will enjoy.
Linux turns 17
Entry posted on October 6, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Happy Birthday, Linux. The OS I’m proud to call $HOME is 17 years old. 
Flickr Explore Panda
Entry posted on October 4, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I’m not sure of the story behind the Explore Panda, but I think it must have been inspired by this drawing.
Another Way to Die
Entry posted on October 1, 2008 at 2:28 pm
New video for the theme of the upcoming Bond film Quantum of Solace. “Another Way to Die” performed by Alicia Keys and Jack White.
Speech Accent Archive
Entry posted on September 30, 2008 at 6:27 pm
The Speech Accent Archive contains audio clips of people from different regions reading the same paragraph of English words.
Oil Consumption by State
Entry posted on September 29, 2008 at 9:10 am
Map of oil consumption by state. Texans use 1,129,174,000 barrels a year. HOWDY! 