Voting proceeds at a deliberate pace in my 2012 Top 100 records list. I'm using the same web app that we used for our 2011 Readers' Record poll, with a couple of tweaks: unlimited list size, can add records at any time. So far, ~130 records, ~2700 votes counted. Been at it since Christmas. Whew.

I tried to listen to all the records at least once before I started, but I skipped a few, thinking I knew them well enough. As voting has progressed, I'm finding time to listen to all those I skipped, and this changes how those records fare in the voting; I either over- or under-estimated the record, pre-listen. And that makes me think I need to get more votes in, which gives me more time to listen to more records, which changes my opinion of them, etc. ... The circle of life.

Anyway...

Anyone think there's a market for this voting app ? If I were to clean it up, make it more generic, etc.. ?

"Psychedelics are thought of as 'mind-expanding' drugs so it has commonly been assumed that they work by increasing brain activity," said David Nutt of Imperial College London, who gave a briefing about the studies on Monday. "But, surprisingly, we found that psilocybin actually caused activity to decrease in areas that have the densest connections with other areas."

These so-called "hub" regions of the brain are known to play a role in constraining our experience of the world and keeping it orderly, he said.

"We now know that deactivating these regions leads to a state in which the world is experienced as strange."
...
It found activity decreased in "hub" regions and many volunteers described a feeling of the cogs being loosened and their sense of self being altered.

Brains are cool.

Pat Benetar – Original “Heartbreaker” Demo

Conservative Values

Perhaps this is more appropriate, given the circumstances...

Etta James, "At Last":

Today in high self esteem:

“If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.’”

That's Mark Wahlberg, telling Men's Journal about how he would've handled being on one of the 9/11 planes (as he was apparently scheduled to be).

Alas, it seems that all the people on those planes were pussies, unlike Mark Wahlberg.

Yuengling is now the biggest American-owned beer brewer in the US. It just passed Sam Adams. Seems crazy, since it seems like you can find Sam anywhere in the US, while Yuengling is pretty much only available on the east cost (plus Ohio and Alabama).

The Shakespearean Insulter

Police setting up a sting in a restaurant parking lot had a description of the man who used the Internet to solicit a 15-year-old girl for a sexually explicit photo shoot. Still, they didn't expect Santa Claus.

Police arrested John Thomas Peters, known as Santa John on the Triangle Santa Buddies website, at the shopping center on Highway 64 and Lake Pine Drive in Apex. When they set up the Wednesday sting, police expected a man named Brad Taylor to enter the McDonald's restaurant.

...

"This morning I felt dirty," said Capehart. "I look in the mirror in the mornings, and I see Santa Claus winking back at me - but this morning I felt tainted. Why? Because the Santa oath and commitment has been violated by a Santa Buddy. It's painful, hurtful to the image. It's sad."

That last quote makes it sound like a Will Farrel Movie.

Authorities say medical officials found no signs of injury during an exam of a man suspected of smuggling a handgun into a North Carolina jail.

...

Deputies said last week a gun was found inside the cell of Canton, who used another person's identity when he was booked. Authorities wanted medical officials to evaluate Canton for possible injuries to his rectum, where deputies think he concealed the unloaded .38-caliber, six-barrel revolver.