Kind Of Blue

Every Wednesday I share five things I've liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. What happens in the brain when someone improvises? Musician and researcher Charles Limb put jazz musicians and rappers into an fMRI to find out.
    
2. Last week, NASA's Juno spacecraft completed its first close flyby of Jupiter. The data it's sent back to earth has revealed Jupiter has a few surprises in store...
    
3. I was very sad to hear the author Denis Johnson died last week. His collection of short stories, Jesus's Son, is one of my favourites: Denis Johnson’s Perfect Short Story.
    
4. Billy Collins on finding your voice.
    
5. This week's musical recommendation is The Look by Metronomy. It's from their excellent album The English Riviera. I'm a big fan of the music video and that keyboard sound!

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and you'll get the next one delivered to your inbox.

Dreaming of 15°C

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s Five Things…

1. Good news seems to be something of a rarity these days but last week's announcement that astronomers have discovered a record seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a single star is a nice break from that! If all goes to hell here on Earth (and someone can find a suitable spacecraft capable of making the 39 light-year journey) perhaps we can all just move there? — Star's seven Earth-sized worlds set record
    
2. Do you know good music? This quiz will let you know. I thought I'd done pretty well getting 234 (the average score is 158 apparently) but that was before several friends managed to get over 240!
    
3. If you've been paying attention to previous Five Things posts, you've probably worked out that I listen to a lot of podcasts. My latest recommendation is this excellent interview with Naval Ravikant (the CEO and co-founder of AngelList). He's a fascinating and incredibly smart guy. It's a long listen but, in my humble opinion, a worthy use of your time.
    
4. These are the coolest business cards I've ever seen... and "cool" isn't a word I often use to describe something as *yawn* as business cards! Drew Tetz uses the phenakistoscope animation technique to create the illusion of a moving image. The magic happens when his cards are played on a turntable under a bright light and viewed through a camera. It's pretty clever. Here's an article explaining how it works and how, if you are feeling creative, you can make your own.
    
5. This week's musical recommendation is Kettering by The Antlers. It's a pretty intense, haunting song. The transition at 2:39 is fantastic.

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, sign up to receive future posts or check out my previous Five Things posts.