Perhaps it's simply because his voice reminds me of Daryl Hall's, but I can't help but hear a strong resemblance to Hall's Sacred Songs in Thom Yorke's solo effort, The Eraser. As well, both men are engaging in half-hearted declarations of independence, although Yorke's apple has fallen much closer to the tree. So far (and I've only given it a couple listens), I'm impressed with The Eraser-- sounds very Kid A era, which is a good thing, in my mind.

As an aside, if you've never heard Sacred Songs, you owe it to yourself, especially if you're a Robert Fripp fan. Yep, it's a collaboration between Fripp and Hall & Oates' better half, which, on the face of it, sounds like an odd pairing, but it works quite well.

As an aside, a tip of the hat to the Allmusic Guide, easily my most reliable source for thorough, intelligent reviews of popular music, both current and historical. The guide started out as a book published and edited by the folks at Schoolkids Records in Ann Arbor (my second home during my undergraduate days), and while they continue to publish quite substantial tomes (now broken out according to genre-- rock, blues, jazz, classical, etc.), the natural home for this type of an undertaking is clearly on the web.

Return on Investment-- if you're in the business world, you probably toss this phrase around 10 times a day or more. Indeed, it's amazing how many decisions are made without taking ROI into account, and far from being a crass, soul-less way of killing initiative or creativity, there's actually an almost Buddhist-like stripping away of the extraneous and the irrelevant in considering whether the resources applied to a specific task result in a net gain or a net loss.

There's an article making the rounds on the social web (see Digg) that provides a method of cracking the code on the old standby MasterLock combination lock. According to the author, it takes as little as 10 minutes to do this using his straightforward system. Of course, the author admonishes the reader to use this method only to rescue locks for which the user has forgotten the combination.

All very well and good. However, a quick search on Amazon will show that the old standby goes for about $5.99; if you happen to make more than $30.00 an hour, you're wasting your time. Of course, if you're doing it for the challenge of it, knock yourself out; it's cheaper than going to the movies.

As Atrios notes, "Thank God the grownups are in charge." Bet you didn't know that Indiana has 50% more terrorist targets than New York and twice as many as California. I know I'll be a little more circumspect the next time I take the kid to Old MacDonald's Petting Zoo in Woodville Alabama.

I listened to this record today for the first time in many years. Featuring the music of Hildegard von Bingen as rendered by Gothic Voices, this is the one that arguably kickstarted the whole early vocal music revival and led to the popularity of groups like Sequentia (I was particularly fond of their vinyl-only "Spielmann und Kleriker"), the Anonymous Four, the Hilliard Ensemble, and perhaps even composer Arvo Pärt.

I don't listen much to this genre these days, but hearing Gothic Voices again takes me back to a time when I was in desparate need of some simple beauty as an antidote to premature jadedness.

All I can say is "What a brilliant upgrade!" The new sidebar (already feels indispensable-- "How did I ever work without it?" :-) ), interaction with Services (on my wishlist for many moons), adjustable font sizes in outlines, and access to the OS X font panel are just some of the new features that make this a must-have upgrade. Go see for yourself!