"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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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