Link soup: Mostly science-related

First, though, commentary on whose responsibility is it, anyway, to prevent cars from hitting bicyclists and pedestrians?

Next - someone on the twit-machine just pointed out to me that the EPA has just put out a product cancellation order for certain pesticide registrations. I'm not especially familiar with the jargon and legalese, and there's a whole lot of information embedded in this. Any of you have a better idea of the implications?

Third, a pop-sci piece on quantifying one's gut microbiome over the course of a year, a task only recently made possible through the falling price for collecting bioinformatic-heavy data. Lots of interesting data to pore over in this one. I'm still finding this to be a fascinating area of science these days.

Lastly, instructions on how to construct a DIY bumble bee nest. Some day, I will have a pollinator garden. Some day.

Music phases

When I'm trying to do a lot of writing (and only occasionally succeeding), I don't listen to much music.

This week, however, I've needed some old Sufjan Stevens - "Come On Feel the Illinoise!"

I didn't know much about Sufjan Stevens when I wound up going to a concert of his, around the time of the Illinoise release, during a brief window in Arizona when, for some reason, I went to a fair number of concerts. That was the era of shows at Modified Arts, when YOBS was in its infancy (more BS than YOBS - that's "Ye Olde Bike Saviours," the house formerly occupied by the bike co-op Bike Saviours).

I have a love-hate relationship with Illinoise, but for what it is, it's an entirely appropriate, self-contained album, and it evokes delicate feelings well. Part of the love-hate could be summarized by what happened to the whole "Fifty States" project. Only Michigan and Illinois, really? And just a promotional gimmick, in the end. But - it's hard, if not impossible, to write such personal music about states, without having a strong connection to each one, as comes from living in them for at least a couple of years. Illinoise is also good enough to set a high standard for any additional states, even if created by other artists in other musical styles.

At least it's more musically interesting than the other two songs playing in a repeated loop in my brain - the duck song and the bananaphone song.