After last week’s rant about Pluto, Sarah kindly pointed me in the direction of The Pluto Files, a PBS special hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The website has all sorts of great info about our favourite planet, including an mp3 (with transcript) of Alan Stern, head of NASA’s new mission to Pluto, defending the “little guy”, as they put it.

There’s an interactive bit where scientists give a thirty second promo for their favourite planets, and then readers are invited to cast their votes for the best planet in our solar system. Currently Earth is in the lead, but Saturn’s a close second. Poor little Pluto ranks fifth – surely we can do better than that?

The best part of the whole site, however, is the hate mail from third graders outraged over Pluto’s demotion. Hells, yes.

There’s lots of other great stuff on the site, too. Check it out.

Now on to your signal: Continue reading »

Wondering what to buy that special twisted someone for Yule, Agnostica, Hanukkah, Kawanza, Christmas, Giftmas or whatever else it’s possible to celebrate in December?

Books

Classics such as At the Mountains of Madness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and of course The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories are must haves.

For the occultniks on your list there’s Simon’s cheesy The Necronomicon, H. R. Giger’s Necronomicon, or Phil Hine’s Pseudonomicon.

There’s also Anthony B Pearsall’s compendium, The Lovecraft Lexicon, several biographies and Lovecraft’s selected letters for those who like to get behind the scenes and learn more about the author and solve that endless riddle: where did he get those ideas from?

Sculptures & busts

For the serious enthusiast there are many strange artifacts one may purchase. Continue reading »