After Apple previewed their glamorous, supermodel-slim MacBook Air it seems weightier laptops are feeling the pressure to be thin. "Has Apple considered the implications of its glorification of thin models? Has it once considered the feelings of my 'big boned' HP, and how she's felt living in a society where you're only as attractive as you are thin?," writes the director of this Yahoo short video. "And what about the young processors that are at an impressionable age. Do they need this pressure? I think not."
Soul is a well-known musical genre, and, considering it features amazing artists like Sam Cooke, Al Green, Irma Thomas and Bill Withers, one well worth exploring and enjoying. However, in a larger sense, all music is soul music. Think about it. As energetic beings, our very essence is vibration, and, in so far as the vibrations we perceive as sound resonate or fail to resonate with the core of our being, all music speaks to our soul.
Not only does music address us at the level of soul, it animates us. When two wave patterns meet, they intersect and a new one is formed. In just that way, music jostles us emotionally, literally lifting or dampening our spirits.
Given the profound power of rhythmic and melodic sound, imagine turning on the radio and only hearing song after song that you love. Free of Clear Channel at last, would you think you were dreaming? Would you wishfully hypothesize that the mysterious DJ making these pleasing choices must be your soul mate? Or would you smile, turn up the volume and succumb to the urge to dance?
Pandora.com, a site that free of any charge personalizes the play lists of individualized online radio stations, routinely gives its users just this sort of deeply satisfying experience. Just as there'd be no cloning or genetic testing without the Human Genome Project, Pandora.com relies on the similarly named Music Genome Project which uses a list of musical attributes and a mathematical algorithm to "capture the essence of music at a fundamental level." Different organisms vary in terms of genetic complexity, and so too do different sorts of music. Pop music, the amoeba, it would seem, of the musical world, contains approximately 150 genes, whereas rap has 350, jazz about 400, and classical and world music between 300 and 500.
While music might be complex, Pandora's user interface is not. Are you an aficionado of abstract lyrics, dirty organ riffs, gravelly female vocals or minor key tonalities? The beauty of Pandora.com is that you needn't have any idea. Merely type in the name of a favorite song or musical artist and press enter. The site does the rest by first decoding your selection and then finding its closest relatives. Your votes up or down as various new songs play refine the system's understanding of and ability to cater to your tastes.
Pandora.com gives a whole new meaning to the somewhat contemptible term "easy listening." Sit back and turn up the tunes. Whether or not they feature R&B influences, smooth vocals or any other attributes of Classic Soul, if you enjoy what's playing, your own soul will thank you.
When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time," he was making a generalization, not a prediction. Nonetheless, this famous correlation between numbers of people and knowledge does bring the prediction website Predictify to mind. Unlike the shrewd if depressive politician who was our sixteenth president, Predictify anticipates the savviness rather than the foolishness of the masses.
The site allows visitors to weigh in in response to questions about future events posed by other participants. The founders of Predictify got their idea from studies that demonstrate, much to the chagrin of high paid consultants, no doubt, that a large number of regular folks often out guess a smaller number of experts. By offering participants both the fun of a guessing game and the promise of occasional profit (however tiny and only when they guess the answer to premium questions correctly), Predictify taps into the font of collective wisdom.
Topics of questions posed range widely from economics, business and sports to tv ratings, natural disasters, and book sales. And, of course, in this season of high-stakes campaigning, political queries abound as well. So, if you're more concerned with who our forty fourth president will be than with what number sixteen said, visit Predictify. Whether you are a psychic channeler, an informed futurist or a wild guesser, my speculation is that you'll have some fun.
Google Maps now lets you create your own map-journeys and here are a couple you may enjoy!
1. The Earth as Art
From the Ganges River Delta to Snow-capped Colima Volcano, you can view the wonders of the world - right from your computer. Check out this image of the Ocean Sands off the Bahamas.
Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas.
Or if you're of the Monster mindset, check out The Map of Monster Sightings
Including the Yeti, the Blob, King Kong, Godzilla and Mothra.
Soul is a well-known musical genre, and, considering it features amazing artists like Sam Cooke, Al Green, Irma Thomas and Bill Withers, one well worth exploring and enjoying. However, in a larger sense, all music is soul music. Think about it. As energetic beings, our very essence is vibration, and, in so far as the vibrations we perceive as sound resonate or fail to resonate with the core of our being, all music speaks to our soul. 
When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time," he was making a generalization, not a prediction. Nonetheless, this famous correlation between numbers of people and knowledge does bring the prediction website 
1. 
