It’s Linnaeus’ 300th birthday today, and Wired.com is celebrating with a terrific article by Kristen Philipkoski.

The article also has a sidebar I wrote about Linnaeus, as well as 4-5 pages about Linnaeus from my book

Scott Rosenberg, co-founder of Salon and the author of Dreaming in Code, has posted at Salon an interview with me about Everything is Miscellaneous.

At his blog, Scott adds some “out-takes” from the interview, and recommends the book. Thanks, Scott. [Tags: salon scott_rosenberg everything_is_miscellaneous folksonomy taxonomy tagging]

Nick Carr writes a long disagreement with the book, based on my statement that the track is the “natural unit” of music. (Nick does not comment on anything beyond that sentence on page 9.)

Nick is correct. Tracks are clearly not “natural.” The book overall is an argument against there being a natural units and a natural organization of them. I meant the “natural” to be lightly ironic in this case. And he is of course also right that there is value in how albums arrange tracks so that the whole is more than the parts. [Added a few hours later:] But, in the third order of order, we can get not only the Beatles’ way of arranging their White Album, we can also get George Martin’s remix, how Ringo wanted it played , the revelatory way some unknown kid in Akron mixes it up with the Beach Boys, and the original order minus that one song we can’t stand (AKA “Revolution #9″). The miscellaneous isn’t about there being no order. It is about the potential for many, many orders.

So, I don’t agree with the characterization of the argument of the book he derives from this one phrase. I’m disappointed that Nick found this sentence to be a “stopper.”

Google has posted the video of my talk there.

The odd Page 99 site asks authors to post about what’s on page 99 of their  book. I have done so.

The weird thing is that the very same day I wrote the post, Shelley’s review of my book appeared, taking me to task for what I say on - wait for it -page 99.

Maybe things aren’t as miscellaneous as they seem. (Alternative explanation: We are not wired with a good sense of probability, so coincidences strike us as meaningful.)

Rob Paterson has a terrific review and consideration, focusing on the book’s themes of power and meaning…which are indeed at the heart of the book. (Also, he writes, “I tried to put it down but had to get up and read it until I had finished,” which makes me inordinately happy.)

See you at a talk and book signing at Kepler's Books, 1010 El Camino Real, in Menlo Park, CA tonight (Tuesday) at 7:30?

Here it is an iPod compatible download. (Try renaming it to .mp4 if your player thinks it can’t play it.)

At long last and overdue, I’ve posted the Prologue and Chapter 1 as samples.

Yahoo has posted a video of my discussion with Bradley Horowitz at Yahoo on Thursday. It’s also available in an iPod compatible form.

(Note: I should have credited Neil Degrasse Tyson for the Titan example. I usually do.)