Harry Houdini was a clever showman, media savvy performer and magician whose feats have rarely been equaled. It's interesting that not one of the media properties discussed focus on his considerable skills, but create new ones conforming to shows going back to the dawn of movies.  

One way to understand why Thelonious Monk plays the way he does comes from the following story floating around the jazz firmament: Monk was pianist at Minton's Playhouse in Manhattan  where bebop was being born, with Thelonious as one of the fathers. He discovered to his dismay that anything he played one night was…

Ah, movie scifi. Don't have time to look up the Nova series about this. There is no end to the universe as such; it's the end of what we can see-a very long way away. If we have developed starfilight (faster than light) then we know a lot more about this subject, by definition. When Anne gets to the end, she'll see…

There were Americans who flew for the Polish Air Force at the beginning of the war. that was where Blackhawk came from, originally.

Wouldn't it be funny if Disney put some actual physics in this movie?
For example black holes consume any matter that falls into them. But what about the Dark Matter that contitutes most of the matter in the known universe? It's supposed to be made up of very heavy unknown particles. Yet dark matter has been around as…

Doubtless few have figured out that money passed from Drake's people to Amanda Bynes' people for this Twitter post. Considering Ms.Bynes' problems on set her people may be in a state of flux right now.

Martin obviously glanced at the show ideas he published in a short story collection a while ago. Doubt any of these will fly.

And here I thought On the Road was based of Kerouac's attempt to follow the tenor player Brew Moore out to the West Coast.
Lots of luck finding Brew's recordings from either coast.

Seth MacFarlane's Anti-Semitic, racist, mysoginistic, rancor filled spiel could be excused as his say-anything humor, in an anything is fair game cop-out. But it exactly corresponds to the position of the most hateful irrational wing of the Republican Party-they will be in power if things go the way it's looking it's…

It may interest people to learn that a comic by Mark Millar and Frank Quietly with this title has just appeared at TFAW.com. The book is labeled with a #1. The female character on the cover looks exactly like Mila Kunis. Here we go.

While for sure the lone wolf stuff was overdone, the action illustrates a truism about politics of any kind: Nothing gets done unless there is one person pushing for it perpetually, for years or more at a time. I used to know the guy who got New York City to flouridate its water - it took him 20 years of trying.

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a type of mystery story called "a police procedural". It derived its interest in the actions of ordinary policemen going about their job. Perhaps there would be a detective who was better than most. See Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels for a very good example. Never made into a…

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a type of mystery story called "a police procedural". It derived its interest in the actions of ordinary policemen going about their job. Perhaps there would be a detective who was better than most. See Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels for a very good example. Never made into a…

Read this statement carefully; nothing in it takes back the negative statements made in statement 1. 
Angus Jones learned much (life lessons!) from all the people on the show, and what did he learn?
See statement 1.

Read this statement carefully; nothing in it takes back the negative statements made in statement 1. 
Angus Jones learned much (life lessons!) from all the people on the show, and what did he learn?
See statement 1.

Nina Simone was winning prizes for her classical piano playing when a girl; that talent of course went nowhere in those days…she surfaced in New York doing very creative, daring versions of popular jazz songs (on piano) and equally great arrangements of vocal tunes, like I Loves You Porgy, which became a "hit" among…

Nina Simone was winning prizes for her classical piano playing when a girl; that talent of course went nowhere in those days…she surfaced in New York doing very creative, daring versions of popular jazz songs (on piano) and equally great arrangements of vocal tunes, like I Loves You Porgy, which became a "hit" among…

Obvious problems with the movie:
1. there's only 1 robot
2. if there is robot technology this complex available for sale, no sign of our current world would still be around-everything would be automated.
3. The science fiction shelves are full of stories about this future. Some may actually be funny.

Obvious problems with the movie:
1. there's only 1 robot
2. if there is robot technology this complex available for sale, no sign of our current world would still be around-everything would be automated.
3. The science fiction shelves are full of stories about this future. Some may actually be funny.

The  Moluccan cockatoos are endangered because for every one captured in the wild, there are 20 or thirty killed. If the captured birds have this self-destructive behavior it means that they will not be able to be bred in captivity successfully. Thus, with many killed in the wild, and no captive breeding the bird is…