The Fredösphere

Gravity Lens found this Guardian piece on the resurrection of Prog Rock:

As Bill Bruford, the original drummer with Yes, points out: "Half the main protagonists had come from the church - a lot of organists and choirboys. Chris Squire from Yes sang in a choir. The Rick Wakemans and Keith Emersons were organists. So the church had quite a lot to do with it. There wasn't a note of jazz in it. Completely white. Completely pertaining to south-eastern, middle-class nice boys like myself. The classical influence came from the fact that classical was the only music being taught in school."

"Completely white" -- now that he mentions it, I see he's right.  I actually happen to like prog rock (hey, some of my best friends are white)  -- or rather, I like it when it's good, where "when it's good" is defined as most of the tracks from Yes' 90125 and almost nothing else.  Well, that's not fair, since my knowledge of the genre is far from complete.  I do happen to like Snow by the mega-coolly-named Spock's Beard.  Or at least I resoundingly believe it to be very close to quite good.  Most of the time.

The French have their own prog rock.  (Don't overlook the mp3 for downloading.)  The extremely clear diction must be what makes it prog.  I can understand every word -- or I could if I could understand French, if you know what I mean.  Nuit.  That means night, right?  See, I can understand it.

Unrelatedly, Virginia Postrel found this collection of aircraft ... aircraft ... well, I guess the best word is "designs," from the U.S. patent office.  If you're in a hurry, go straight to the deformed manta ray or the grass-skirted cutie or the conjoined miscarriage.