Nick Drake (1948–1974) was an English folk singer/songwriter and musician best known for his acoustic, autumnal songs. His primary instrument was the guitar, but he was also proficient at piano, clarinet, and saxophone. Between 1969 and 1972, Drake recorded three albums, which though they failed to find a wide audience during his lifetime, have steadily grown in stature since, to the extent that he is now widely considered to be one of the most influential acoustic songwriters of the last 40 years.
Drake signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old, releasing his debut album Five Leaves Left in 1969. However, none of his albums sold more than 5,000 copies at the time, and his reluctance to perform live or to be interviewed were contributors to his lack of commercial success.
Drake battled with depression, insomnia and acute shyness throughout his life, and the topics would often appear as the subject of his lyrics. Upon completion of his third album, 1972's Pink Moon, he drew back from both live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural Warwickshire. On November 25, 1974, Nick Drake died from an overdose of antidepressants, at the age of 26.
The Spanish Royal Family traditionally send a family photo to the citizens of Spain to warm their hearts in the festive season. Last year, due to agenda pressures, they were unable to come together for the photo; instead they pasted one together using PhotoShop. This had the result of warming the Spanish hearts even more than usual, and has created a cult of followers who try to improve on the original attempt.
From BBC News (17/10/2006):
An interesting animated GIF of a dripping tap, as featured as Wikipedia's picture of the day, 29th October 2006.
El mono aullador de manto (Alouatta palliata) (Fotografía: T. Urquiza-Haas)
(from El Mundo Ciencia on 6th October 2006): Una gigantesca ballena jorobada ha muerto tras pasar varios días vagando cerca de una playa en el estado de Washington, y finalmente quedar varada en la arena.
(from El Mundo Ciencia on 6th October 2006) Un japonés recita de memoria 100.000 decimales del número Pi. Después de terminar la proeza, Akira Haraguchi señaló: "Tampoco creo que sea nada excepcional, simplemente he vaciado mi memoria de todo lo demás y he recitado los números".
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