To carry out this elaborate project, Erika Iris Simmons sketched an outline of the composer and then cut up the center of the sheet with an X-Acto knife. She folded and arranged the pieces, doing her best to keep them in order and the notation correct. Simmons has similar pieces at her site, including a wave formed from the text of Benoit Mandelbrot’s The Fractal Geometry of Nature.

Link | Artist’s Website

This letter to an unnamed “Immortal Beloved” was found in the personal papers of Ludwig van Beethoven after his death in 1827. Though there’s debate over whom the letters were written to, there’s not much debate about whether or not Beethoven had it bad for the woman. A snippet:

My bosom is full, to tell you much — there are moments when I find that speech is nothing at all. Brighten up — remain my true and only treasure, my all, as I to you. The rest the gods must send, what must be for us and shall.

Your faithful

Ludwig

Read the rest on Letters of Note. Link

via Flavorwire

Sony had initially preferred a smaller diameter, but soon after the beginning of the collaboration started to argue vehemently for a diameter of 120mm. Sony’s argument was simple and compelling: to maximize the consumer appear of a switch to the new technology, any major piece of music needed to fit on a single CD…Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was quickly identified as the point of reference — according to some accounts, it was the favorite piece of Sony vice-president Norio Ohga’s wife. And thorough research identified the 1951 recording by the orchestra of the Bayreuther Festspiele under Wilhelm Furtwängler, at seventy-four minutes, as the slowest performance of the Ninth Symphony on record. And so, according to the official history, Sony and Philips top executives agreed in their May 1980 meeting that “a diameter of 12 centimeters was required for this playing time.”

Amazon Link via Marginal Revolution | Photo by Flickr user Leo-setä used under Creative Commons license

The seller is California businessman Paul Kaufmann, who first became aware that his family possessed the item in 1990. While searching among his late mother’s possessions, he happened on an ancient, pear-shaped box labeled “Beethoven.”

Years of investigation by historians and scientists make a compelling case that the box was labeled accurately. Exhibit A: Kaufmann’s great-great uncle was a physician closely involved in the 1863 exhumation of Beethoven (and Franz Schubert) largely for scientific study; according to several accounts, the physician kept Beethoven’s skull. Exhibit B: Tests of existing strands of the composer’s hair point to a DNA match. For Exhibits C through Z, see Dickey’s book.

The owner hopes to earn at least $100,000 for the skull. At the link, you can read about other famous collectible skulls.

Link via Digg | Photo: Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies

The sounds of a cat on bass purr, a loon on lead vocal, two owls, wood stork and cuckoo (solo) are the sole musical instruments in this furry arrangement of the classic, Fur Elise, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.

You can see who is currently singing at the botton of the screen.

– via SwitchZoo

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Tubehead.

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	Green Tie in Front of a Green Screen TMJ4 weatherman Scott Steele found out why you're not supposed to wear a green tie when giving the weather in front of a green screen: The news director told me to get a power tie, I just didn't realize how powerful it is ... It certainly made the weather report more interesting, perhaps all weathermen should wear green ties! Link
	Backwards Beethoven What happen if you play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata Fur Elise backwards? Here's Sean Wesche on the piano: Link Previously on Neatorama: Singing Backwards
	Yoshimoto Cube Forget Rubik's Cube - here's the Yoshimoto Cube, or if you want to get all technical, the transformation fo two stellated rhombic dodecahedron from a cube. Philip Brocoum explains: Link
	Bob Munden: Fastest Gunman Ever Here's Bob Munden, the self-proclaimed fastest gun who ever lived: Now in terms of time, Bob, how quick was that? I draw, cock, level, fire the gun and hit what I'm shooting at in less than 2 one-hundredth of one second ... Link
	Simpsons Duet: 2 Guys 1 Piano Here's Steven Worbey and Kevin Farrell of Katzenjammer (lit. cat's wail in German), playing the theme of The Simpsons. They're pretty awesome! Link

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