"Paranoid Android" is a song by English alternative rock band
Radiohead, featured on their 1997 third studio album OK Computer. The
lyrics of the bleak but intentionally humorous song were written
primarily by singer Thom Yorke, following an unpleasant experience in a
Los Angeles bar. Six minutes long, and in four distinct sections, the
track is significantly influenced by The Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm
Gun" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". "Paranoid Android"
takes its name
from Marvin the Paranoid Android of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy series. When released as the lead single from OK
Computer, "Paranoid Android" charted at number three on the UK Singles
Chart. It was well received by music critics and highlighted in many
reviews of OK Computer. The track has appeared regularly on lists of
the best songs of all time, including Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest
Songs of All Time. Its animated music video, directed by Magnus
Carlsson, was placed on heavy rotation on MTV, although the network
censored portions containing nudity. Since its release, the track has
been covered by numerous artists working in a variety of musical
genres.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoid_Android>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1770:
British explorer James Cook and the crew of HMS Endeavour made their
first landfall on Australia on the coast of Botany Bay near present-day
Sydney.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endeavour>
1862:
American Civil War: Union forces under David Farragut captured New
Orleans, securing access into the Mississippi River.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farragut>
1882:
German inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens began operating his
Elektromote, the world's first trolleybus, in a Berlin suburb.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/trolleybus>
1916:
World War I: Khalil Pasha of the Ottoman Army accepted the surrender of
Major-General Charles Townshend and the British Mesopotamian
Expeditionary Force, ending the Siege of Kut.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Kut>
1968:
The controversial musical Hair, a product of the hippie counter-culture
and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opened at the Biltmore Theatre on
Broadway, with its songs becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War
movement.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair_%28musical%29>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
napiform (adj):
Shaped like a turnip; spherical at the top, but with a tapering bottom
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/napiform>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
He who hopes to grow in spirit
will have to transcend obedience and respect.
He'll hold to some
laws
but he'll mostly violate
both law and custom, and go beyond
the
established, inadequate norm.
--Constantine P. Cavafy
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Constantine_P._Cavafy>