on my good name.”

This song seems apt given the recent controversy about a recent post of mine that sparked some controversy:

P.Z. Myers strikes me as the embodiment of the following song. Just an observation.

This is actually better than the versions from which it borrows:

Evidently, some enterprising people with too much time on their hands have been creating remakes of songs, this time in rendering minor-key songs in the major.

Here is a major key version of R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion,” which was originally written, and for good reason, in A minor:

Yuck. Yes, there’s a reason why it was written in a minor key. This is the original by comparison:

Here is another bizarre ear-bleeding tune:

This post is mostly unrelated to the type of content that I typically post here, but I wanted to take a minute to highlight some music that I have recently found to be quite exceptional. Within the last couple months — I wish it had been sooner — I have become acquainted with Spotify, which makes available nearly every recording ever produced, with a few notable exceptions like The Beatles and Pink Floyd, etc.

I “came of age” when grunge was cool, so my favorite bands are from that early- to mid-1990s era: Nirvana, STP, Pearl Jam, Bush, Dinosaur Jr., R.E.M., Counting Crows, Green Day, etc. But for 30-somethings like myself, there is still plenty of new stuff to appreciate and dive into. Here are some selections that I have been enjoying as of late:

• New from Green Day: Stay The Night and F*** Time. Check out the new albums Uno and Dos.
• Tame Impala – Be Above It
• Tame Impala – Why Won’t They Talk to Me?
• Tame Impala – Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
• Tame Impala – Elephant
• Fiona Apple – Daredevil
• Cloud Nothings – No Future/No Past
• Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless
• Cloud Nothings – Separation
• Japandroids – The Nights of Wine and Roses
• Japandroids – Fire’s Highway
• Japandroids – Evil’s Sway
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Mladic
• The Smashing Pumpkins – Quasar
• The Smashing Pumpkins – Panopticon

Here is a map showing the wide fluctuations in gravity concentrations on the surface of the moon:

compared to gravity levels on Earth:

ESA's GOCE mission has delivered the most accurate model of the 'geoid' ever produced. Red corresponds to points with higher gravity, and blue to points with lower gravity. CREDIT: ESA/HPF/DLR

For further reading:
Best Gravity Map Yet Shows a Lumpy, Bumpy Earth
Violent past revealed by map of moon’s interior

And now for R.E.M. on the subject:

I hate to see this end. It would be impossible for me to articulate what R.E.M. has meant to me in the last 20 years. The influence is immeasurable.

Here is a compilation of songs, news coverage from the BBC:

Arguably the saddest song ever written (and Michael Stipe’s favorite REM song):

And here is a live version:

This is not your grandfather’s Austin City Limits: