Thanks to Christmas I’m now the proud owner of a Celestron SkyScout. It’s pretty wonderful. The software to update it is lousy, though! Here’s what I’ve found, Internet, because Google was just not helpful at all. The software updater won’t work with any 64 bit version of Windows. Hugely inconvenient! Luckily I had an old…

Performed live on German TV’s “Gala-Abend der Schallplatte” in 1967. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKdcMYRhUeA TV used to be so classy.

I’m currently reading The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart. It’s not the kind of book I usually read… It’s turning out to be extremely gory and there are some gut-wrenching scenes of brutality, but there’s just enough interesting things happening in each chapter to keep me reading. Anyway, I wanted to share the cover…

Hilarious. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH-8FFOdh5o

The original 8-bit Super Mario Bros turned 25 this year. To celebrate, Nintendo is re-re-re-releasing the old bird in a limited edition manufacturing run of Super Mario Allstars for Wii. Spend some time and be sure to check out the exhaustive guide to SMB glitches, complete with inline illustrative animated GIFs. There’s some tricks in…

Americans are pretty angry about these full-body airport scanners. I’m kind of ambivalent about them. I haven’t been on an airplane in a few years though. Maybe I’d feel differently if I had to go through one. Their effectiveness is debatable because they don’t penetrate skin and, let’s just say it, everybody has a butthole…

Mel Henke was a pretty straight-laced guy.  He was a masterful piano player and earned his living scoring commercials and a few TV series from the late 50s and into the 60s. Most of his studio albums were, to my ears anyway, pretty conventional arrangements of then-current-day hits.  Nothing to write home about. But his…

What I knew: Don’t mix wasabi and soy sauce into some weirdo dipping paste because it’s gross and ruins the fish taste. What I learned: Use your hands to eat anything with rice. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-fYp_N9kX4

In 2005, Six Flags New Orleans closed in preparation for Hurricane Katrina.  It was completely flooded when the levees broke and never reopened. Someone recently walked through to document the site in HD.  The quality of the camera work is quite good. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4DmNf251CA The site will be totally demolished in January.

Every year it seems like a half-dozen huge yellow pages books show up on my doorstep. I usually just throw them straight in the recycle bin, but now I don’t have to anymore. http://www.yellowpagesoptout.com/ Put in your zip code and it’ll give you a listing of the opt-out web pages (if any exist) for every…