In Brief: Independence Day Edition

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• This blog is expressly not about politics, and we do our best to stay on the topic of classical music and the arts. This does not mean that we are not interested in current affairs, but our expertise is not in politics or foreign affairs. That being said, when it comes to the incredible news coming out of Iran in recent weeks, some great coverage has come from, of all places, a news parody show on Comedy Central, reporting on the post-election fallout and showing the human side of life in Iran, even interviewing people who have since been arrested by the government there. [The Daily Show]


• American readers, take a chance to cherish your freedom by viewing the entries in this Photoshop contest, remaking the Statue of Liberty. [Worth1000]


• Just when revisiting the recorded corpus of Michael Jackson's songs had you feeling good about being a child of the 80s, a 13-year-old kid writes a feature piece about having to give up his iPod for a vintage 80s Walkman. It took him three days to figure out that a cassette tape has two sides, and he noted that there was no shuffle feature. OMG: I'm so old. [BBC News Magazine]


• With hat tip to Boing Boing, an aerial survey of the English countryside drew attention to some circular and oblong irregularities in a farm field near the village of Damerham, which turned out to be major archeological sites. Underneath the ground, only about 15 miles from Stonehenge, is an enormous complex that includes two long barrows, large tombs covered by mounds and thought to be 6,000 years old. Researchers have also found the ruins of wooden temples. [National Geographic]


• Following in the footsteps of Paul McCartney and others, Michael Jackson apparently had plans to do a crossover classical album. According to David Michael Frank, the composer whom Jackson enlisted to help him with the orchestration, Jackson had an impressive knowledge of classical music and had some of the pieces he wanted to write semi-completed in his head. [The Guardian]