Chiharu Shiota

Japanese-born artist Chiharu Shiota wraps objects from floor to ceiling in miles of black wool. Her work's quite moving, in a way I can't quite explain. Have a look.

Mars

Here are 2 paragraphs from CNN.com's story on NASA's Phoenix Lander (I gather this is essentially a NASA press release):

"It's surprisingly close to what we expected and that's what surprises me most," said Peter Smith, the mission's principal investigator. "I expected a bigger surprise."

The Sunday landing on the Red Planet's arctic plains -- which ended a 296-day journey -- was right on target, a feat NASA's Ed Weiler compared to landing a hole-in-one with a golf ball from 10,000 miles.

Anyone else have a problem with this?

Jack Handey's Flag

If you "get" Jack Handey, you'll love this.

Eno

Interesting Wired interview with Brian Eno. His thoughts on the current US political climate are right on the money.

Emo Lincoln

Yep, it's Emo Lincoln.

Birthday

Guess who'd be turning 51 years young today, had he not died a rock and roll death back in 1979? Yes, Sid Vicious.

Here's Sid's infamous version of "My Way".

Spirograph

An interesting critical reconsideration of Spirograph - the design toy any kid from the seventies will remember. I spent a fair amount of time with Spirograph, and enjoyed the hell out of it, but now I have to agree with the notion that it really wasn't unlocking creativity.

Mudcrutch

Before Tom Petty formed The Heartbreakers and launched his very successful career, he was a member of Mudcrutch, a regional Florida bar band that played mostly cover songs for hordes of rowdy drunks back in the early 70's. Suddenly, Tom has decided that Mudcrutch should live again.

This sounds like a cool movie plot.

Hitsville UK

Fantastic online archive of vintage UK punk and new wave single sleeves.

My heart = warmed.