Michael Perkins

If you want truth to stand clear before you, never be for or against. The struggle between for and against is the mind's worst disease.

-- Seng-ts'an

Tableau Public is a free service for creating sophisticated, interactive data visualizations. The obesity data visualization below, created using Tableau Public by Rina Bongsu-Petersen, won first place in a data visualization contest sponsored by ReadWriteWeb and Tableau. Select a region, state or county to get started. Be patient. The performance leaves a little to be desired.

Guitar legends John Williams and Julian Bream play the music of Manuel de Falla.

The Master soars past the sun and moon,
tucks the universe under her arm,
and is one with the ten thousand things.
She lets the confused stay confused
if that is what they want
and is always available
to those with a passion for the truth.
In the welter of opinions,
she is content with not-knowing.
She makes distinctions
but doesn't take them seriously.
She sees the world constantly breaking
apart, and stays centered in the whole.
She sees the world endlessly changing
and never wants it to be
different from what it is.

-- Chuang-tzu

Akihiko Matsumoto is a young Japanese composer and sound artist who works extensively with algorithmic composition techniques.  On his website, Akihiko describes his compositional methodology as follows:

Akihiko usually uses Openmusic and max/msp for algorithmic composition and uses RTcmix for generating sound.

Usually Akihiko's compositional style is called "meta composition." Because Akihiko sets the rules of generating musical material and structure before actual composition. It's the result of influence from meta compositional theory like Schenkerian Analysis.

But Akihiko's compositional technique and programming methods depends on aesthetics in each work. Example, "Violix"(2005) is collaboration of a computer generation and a human composition.

He has also integrated interesting visual elements into some of his pieces.

Akihiko also identifies himself as a guitarist, web designer, and web programmer. He is currently a graduate student at the Tokyo University of Arts.

The following is an example of his work:

Rinzai's disciples never got the Zen message,
But I, the Blind Donkey, know the truth:
Love play can make you immortal.
The autumn breeze of a single night of love is
better than a hundred thousand years
of sterile sitting meditation ...

 - Ikkyu

Special report from The Economist on the prospects and problems created by the abundance of data:

Elizabeth Loftus is generally considered one of the most important living psychologists. She has done ground-breaking research on false and biased memories. In this brief video, she describes some of the research that demonstrates the ease with which false memories can be created in human test subjects.

When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

-- The Buddha