Milky Way

Back in this post, the comments turned to how many here in the US have never seen the Milky Way. When I found this 180° panorama recently taken in Death Valley by David Sharpe I just had to share it.

Google Music Launches

If nothing else this is a great fun little video.

Huh!? Upload 20,000 songs for FREE?*
*songs must have been legally acquired, it says.

On This Day

A few random things that happened on November 16th which caught my eye.

EVENTS

1914 – The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.
1938 – LSD is first synthesized by Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann
1973 – Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4
1973 – U.S. President Richard Nixon authorizes the Alaska Pipeline.

BIRTHS

1907 – Burgess Meredith, American actor (d. 1997)
1964 – Diana Krall, Canadian jazz pianist and singer

Source: Wikipedia

Today’s Chuckle

G+ Cheatsheet

This little gem is in wide circulation but helpful if you’ve not yet seen it.

Click to see full-size. Created by Simon Laustsen

Writing Instruments

The Hise Scribble Toolbox

My good friend of nearly 60 years Tom Hise has posted a nice summary of the writing instruments he prefers. Bear in mind he was an electronics engineer with Collins and was involved in the beginning of the GPS project we all rely on and which may explain his penchant for Rapidograph-like things.

I especially like the way he ends his post commenting about the good old yellow #2 pencil including something about them I loved but never thought about. A link to his blog is in my sidebar but here’s a direct link to the post.