Yesterday was the anniversary of Frank Zappa's death in 1993. The good news is that the Zappa estate is releasing tapes of The Grand Wazoo tour and that Zappa Radio is back online. Wowie zowie.
PBS has posted a site dedicated to Nikola Tesla, my candidate for coolest scientist ever. Among other things, it includes a virtual tour o the Niagara Falls electrical generating plant and a fascinating hint that Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was created out of fear that the USSR had perfected his charged-particle beam weapon (you see, there's this huge controversy over what happened to his papers after his death).
Sigh, The Golden Compass opens this week and the kooks are out denouncing it as "atheist propaganda." I read—and greatly enjoyed—Pullman's trilogy and I thought it was more an argument with Milton than with God himself.
A partially mummified hadrosaur has been discovered in North Dakota. It's probably the most complete dinosaur ever found—it even has intact skin (with stripes) and possibly even soft tissue. But does it have a head? The head's the best part!
Jon Carroll is always worth reading, but you really don't want to miss a column that has this lede: "This is such a wonderful story. It should serve as an example to us all, and as a shining light to the young. Yes, you can do something positive for society, while still breaking the law and cheesing everybody off! It's win-win."