A Leap in the Dark

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Galaxy_history_revealed_by_the_Hubble_Space_Telescope_(GOODS-ERS2).jpg

Paradoxically, a shadow can go even faster than light! We can [cast a shadow] first at one star and then toward another star. We can take two stars more or less the same distance from Earth, such as Acrux in the Southern Cross and Bellatrix in Orion (both are 360 light-years away from us). We point the flashlight at Acrux and then we make the beam slide slowly toward Bellatrix. Three hundred sixty years later, the shadow … (which will at this point have become huge and very fast) will reach Acrux, and just a few seconds later it will be at Bellatrix, after having crossed one quarter of the vault of the sky far faster than the speed of light. Can shadows do things that are physically impossible?

– Roberto Casati, Shadows, 2000

Musician Presses CD and VINYL into single disk

I’d never heard of musician Jeff Mills before today. He describes himself as “techno/classical/experimental,” and that’s a perfect description of what he’s pulled off with his new release titled “The Occurrence.”

With this album, Mills has become the first-known person to meld the analog and the digital world — musically speaking, anyway — into a single product. One side of the album’s five-inch disc is a standard compact disc that plays in any CD player. Flip it over, though, and it’s a vinyl record that you can play on your turntable.