Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

* Peter Briffa's blog -- surely the cheeriest and funniest cranky-blog out there -- has turned four years old. That's one grand-daddy of a blog. Go and offer congratulations.

* Have you tried the web-radio/music-recommendation service Pandora? I've found it a pleasant alternative to my iTunes collection. The recommendations aren't bad, and the sound quality is better than that. Free is nice too.

* J. Cassian discovers that Saracens -- ie., Muslims -- once ruled the Swiss Alps.

* And we think train travel in the U.S. is uncomfortable. (Link thanks to New Economist)

* J.T. Kirkland has been doing some wonderfully entrepreneurial cultureblogging.

* Colleen once acted with Chris Penn.

* Lynn Sislo is annoyed with her cable company but loves "Modern Marvels."

* The Libertarian Scientist isn't crazy about what computer simulations mean for the study of biology.

* Alan Sullivan writes about what it was like for him and his co-worker, Tim Murphy, to put together their beautiful translation of "Beowulf."

* Mike Hill marvels at those zany, passionate Hasids, and includes some ear-bending clips from the Klezmatics.

* Another says-a-lot line from Steve Sailer: "Danes and Muslims don't agree on the basics of social organization and don't want to live under the same rules. That shouldn't be a severe problem. It's what separate countries are for."

* Brian Anderson writes that, under the guise of fairness, wealthy lefties are trying to suppress political speech.

* Yahmdallah's in storytelling/memoiring mode again! This time around he recalls his years as a part-time movie usher. I love Yahmdallah's wholesome-yet-offcolor yarns the way I love such other all-American gems as the films "Hoosiers" and "Breaking Away."

* Donna Moore shrinks the crime-and-mystery-fiction worlds down into one very funny list.

* The film of LeCarre's anti-big-pharma thriller "The Constant Gardener" hit Derek Lowe in all the wrong ways. Great line: "It's hard to enjoy yourself when you've just paid money to see the way you earn your living depicted as evil and destructive."

Best,

Michael

You are like the Utne Reader of cool web shit. Seriously. Why aren't you making money hand over fist doing this? (Oh, wait...neither is Utne Reader...)

Posted by: communicatrix on February 14, 2006 01:49 PM

I prefer Last.fm to Pandora. Actually, I haven't compared them closely for selection, but Pandora put me off by restricting the number of songs I can skip and by promising/threatening to "ramp up" a stream of advertising if I didn't subscribe to their pay service. Last.fm is a joy.

Posted by: Intellectual Pariah on February 15, 2006 05:10 AM

About Last.fm vs Pandora, here's a blog entry comparing their search algorithms:

http://webreakstuff.com/blog/2005/08/pandora-what-about-lastfm

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/01/pandora_vs_last.html

Posted by: Intellectual Pariah on February 24, 2006 01:20 PM

went to that pandora box (what an unfortunate name...like calling a newborn girl Medusa Gorgona) - and immediately spotted their major shortcoming. What if I don't know what music I like?Or they didn't know the singer I proposed?

Posted by: Tatyana on February 24, 2006 01:46 PM






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