Interesting shit from Slate:

"Euromail - What Germans can teach us about email"

"How to Win the US Memory Championships" [very cool]

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The other day I was droning on about the brilliance of Silent Alarm, so now I can also offer some goods. Get the whole album here.

Bloc Party / "Like Eating Glass"
I'm not sure if this direct link will work but if not, go to the Salon website (you might have to watch an ad or whatever) and check out their 3/16 Audiofile pick (pretty fair review as well). This is the album opener, and is a pretty good synopsis of the way the album is. It's starts out purposeful (Matt Tong's drumming is always doing something interesting) but doesn't really grab me until a couple minutes in, when everything just comes together over a pretty basic-sounding chord progression (well, there's almost no progression really, just kind of pounding and a little meandering of the bass) and Kele's howling "Like drinking poison! Like eating glass!" And he really emphasizes his English roots by pronouncing glass, "glaw-ess." Good stuff. Much of the stuff on the album is just very good, tight musicianship that gets put over the top by Kele's impassioned vocals (though for me they're a little whiney at times).

Bloc Party / "Little Thoughts"
This song kicks in sounding like it's going to be a Rick Springfield song; you can almost hear the cobwebs on the sputtering, phoned-in guitar that opens the song. But then the main guitar overlay comes in and you've got another furious head-nodder from Bloc Party.

I sometimes get very strong visual associations with a song, and with this one I can't help but picture one of those Ferris Buehler-ish scenese where the kids come running out of school, jump into an old convertible (you know, cool but not totally obnoxious), and then are laughing and goofing around in the car as they drive off and you get one of those cutaway shots with the car and some open road-type scenery. And it's important the kids be having way too much fun and be gesturing wildly, even though you can only hear the music and you kind of want to punch them in the mouth.

Bloc Party / "Tulips"
This song is not on the album, which is kind of a shame because it fits in with the general feel and quality of the rest of the LP. I've posted this before but give it a listen.

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As mentioned by Bill Simmons, Suns' benchwarmer Paul Shirley has a blog so good you wonder how long he'll get away with it.

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A pretty good-sounding yet totally obscure band is NYC's Bravo Silva. I especially like "400 Days." You can't download the mp3 directly, but look around your browser's temporary internet files and it will be in there.

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The two random industries I like the most are the automotive and beverage industries. Probably because I love cars and I drink a lot of soda. There's been a lot in the WSJ about Pepsi changing its brand strategy to focus on Diet Pepsi, while Coke continues to trudge on with Classic Coke because they can't really change that. I saw a little article here about the top-selling sodas and was surprised to see that Mountain Dew (my fave soda, regrettably) actually outsells Diet Pepsi, and is the #4 beverage overall. Probably won't last long though.