Just in time for finals week, the HackCollege blog recommends studying to a continuous ambient music stream from SomaFM called Groove Salad. If you can’t stand the drop-dead silence of the library but also can’t concentrate with lyrics, ambient music’s the ticket. Groove Salad, “a nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves,” will stream directly to your music player for free. Been tapping keys to it myself as I rewrite the Lifehacker book. Here are more good study music…

Get Productive to Groove Salad [Music]

“confess. if you read this blog, you are addicted to data. this means you do not like Christmas presents. in fact, you hate those information-less presents your friends buy you each year. even after patiently telling them ‘any present should self-update at least each 30 seconds’, last year’s Christmas was still a disaster, despite that wireless weather station from your wife that is now measuring the temperature & humidity of those boxes on your attic.

starting from $15, here are infosthetics’…

infosthetics shopping guide for the data-addicted

“Paul McHenry Roberts (1917-1967) taught college English for over twenty years, first at San Jose State College and later at Cornell University. He wrote numerous books on linguistics, including Understanding Grammar (1954), Patterns of English (1956), and Understanding English (1958).”

How to Say Nothing in 500 Words

Archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann makes color reconstructions of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. His work is on display at Harvard University’s Sackler Museum. From the Wall Street Journal:

The fashion for white antiquities dates back to the early 16th century, when the Renaissance began excavating works that had lain buried in the earth for centuries. Color traces still visible to the naked eye, deep in the folds of draped clothing, for instance, went unnoticed. Following what they…

Gods in color

Reader-diners know the pain of trying to balance a thick book and a meal without losing your page or spilling food. As a regular lunchtime reader, I went searching online for a tool that would allow for comfortable hands-free reading – and eureka! Cleverly designed, this diminutive device is replete with intelligent features: a little pull-out stand supports the book, two sturdy clips hold the pages in place, a pair of pull-out legs holds the book upright on a table. Best of all,…

BookGem

I found this advertisement in a manila folder while decluttering a bit in my office today. If an accompanying magazine cover is to be believed, this ad appeared the April 29, 1940 issue of Life.

If Arthur Murray were still living, he’d be 112 years old, and he would no doubt still, in a whisper, insist on Kleinert dress shields, even if the “the positions of the dance” nowadays are likely to reveal much more than underarms.

And lo — Kleinert’s is still making dress shields in Elba,…
Kleinert's dress shields

Four stand-out new albums, as chosen by the Soundcheck staff.

Glenn Gould: “The Young Maverick” (CBC Records)

This new six-CD box set is drawn from radio broadcasts of the legendary Canadian pianist from the early ‘50s. Gould was a fearless performer, and the medium of live radio only heightens the sense of risk-taking here. –Brian Wise

“The Young Maverick” is available for purchase at Amazon.com

Doveman, “With My Left Hand I Raise the Dead” (Brassland)

This has been a…

Soundcheck’s Picks of the Week (Soundcheck: Wednesday, 05 December 2007)

Designer names to come

UK cover is first, US cover is below it.

I don’t know that I’m in love with the music notes and staff approach to the text (although it is growing on me), but I do know this: that picture of Sacks on the US cover is creeping me out and it’s making me think of what surely is history’s greatest t-shirt:

Musicophilia

Have a look at this NYT article Perfectionism before you buy that next self-help book.

I have learned to get along with my slight perfectionism. I find my best work is always done with a sense of effortlessness and enjoyment. Blogging, maybe not my best work, is completely effortless. I sometimes look back on a post and wonder how I did it.

Perhaps the deepest link to eating disorders and an exessive concern with body image is with perfectionism. Most steroid users are ordinary guys…

Perfectionists