"Some people hustle pool; some people hustle cars. Then there's that man you've heard about, the one who hustles stars!" Greetings, greetings, fellow stargazers! Looking toward your computer screen today, you'll find Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer, a five-minute show that has been in weekly production for over thirty years, airing in-betweensies on many PBS stations. Contrary to the cheeky bio on Jack's website, it wasn't always easy for Jack to "keep looking up!" This 9/19/1982 Miami Herald article reveals that he grew up as a sickly boy, eventually meandering to Florida to stumble into his avocation and vocation as Director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, only to watch his life's work almost crumble due to a PR nightmare. Since then, however, things have been much better: Star Gazer (originally called Star Hustler, then changed in 1997 due to internet search engines leading people to Hustler Magazine's website) has been nationally syndicated since 1985 (and internationally since 1989), chalking up over 1500 episodes. A book of his monthly cartoons has been published. The Astronomical League sponsors The Jack Horkheimer Award for Exceptional Service by a Young Astronomer. (2008's winner.) So whether you find Jack avuncular or creepy, Jack Horkheimer is, to many, the face of popular backyard astronomy. [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Dec 16, 2008 - 37 comments

The plan isn’t foolproof. For it to work, certain things must happen:
posted by oxford blue on Nov 20, 2008 - 59 comments

This is the city, Los Angeles California. I work Here. I carry a badge. My name's Friday. [more inside]
posted by tylerfulltilt on Jul 9, 2008 - 48 comments

Jack "Marvel" Whiteside Parsons was the right hand man to Aleister Crowley, a founder of modern US rocket science, and early partner to L Ron Hubbard. Celebrate July 4th by investigating this major character in the birth of our age. [more inside]
posted by unpoppy on Jul 4, 2008 - 36 comments

"When my daughter Alison was born, in the tradition of a new parent, I began to photograph her, initially in a separate and private body of work. However, in the process of documenting Alison's growth, I developed a passionate interest in human relationships and capturing intimate moments in the lives of family and friends...." A haunting photographic essay from Jack Radcliffe.
posted by dersins on Jun 24, 2008 - 42 comments

Seventy four years ago, something happened off La Jolla Shores, California, that changed the world of ocean recreation forever. An invitation-only group of watermen, the Bottom Scratchers became the founding fathers of free diving. Although the club would eventually grow to only 20 members, the men did everything they could to grow the sport and teach others how to spear fish, keep a good spear gun or get lobsters and abalone on breath-held dives.
posted by miss lynnster on Feb 14, 2008 - 9 comments

Walter Wolfgang, 82, was ejected from the Labour Party conference and stopped by police under the Anti-terrorism Act, for heckling Jack Straw. But when he spoke in Oxford... a Barbershop Quintet struck a blow for freedom of speech.
posted by Jahaza on Nov 19, 2007 - 17 comments

38 unreprinted Jack Kirby monster stories. [more inside]
posted by freem on Nov 11, 2007 - 11 comments

John Mulford "Jack" Rebney, The World's Angriest RV Salesman. Circa 1989. [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster on Sep 7, 2007 - 16 comments

"Never in the history of gaming has a judge ever asked to review a game before its release — and that is going to happen here tomorrow.” Judge Friedman asks Take-Two to produce a final copy of Bully, while Wal-Mart is poised to release the game on Tuesday. Everyone's favorite game censor Jack Thompson (discussed here, and here) couldn't be happier, meanwhile those who've played it say it's without blood or gore and generally innocent.
To add more twists to this plot, the employee picked by Take-Two that will play almost 100 hours of the game for the judge might be unable to make the flight to Miami because of the earlier-mentioned crash of a helicopter plane into a manhattan high-rise
posted by revmitcz on Oct 11, 2006 - 31 comments

Hydrogen fuel has been discussed many times on MeFi, but I wasn't able to find a previous link to this video clip (Google Video warning) showing Jack Nicholson, circa 1978, showing off his hydrogen powered car. The accents of the broadcasters, in case you're wondering, are east coast Canadian, possibly Newfoundland.
posted by Zinger on Aug 24, 2006 - 21 comments

Kerouac's essential On The Road is celebrating it's 50th year in publication next September. To commemorate, Viking Press plans to publish the raw, unedited "scroll version" that's been touring around the country. The hardcover -- due out somtime next year -- contains "some sections that had been cut from the novel because of references to sex or drugs" along with real names of characters, and "a different first sentence than the published novel, as well as a more abrupt ending."
posted by nitsuj on Aug 1, 2006 - 20 comments

ABC Streams full episodes of Lost, Alias, Desperate Housewives and Commmander in Chief for free in May via flash.
posted by blue_beetle on May 1, 2006 - 54 comments

So much has been said about Jack Thompson the anti-video game crusader. But now someone has called out his video game challenge hoping to win $10,000 (for charity) making, "a game so gory, so brutal, so devoid of logic and morals that it would make Postal 2 seem like Ms. Pacman. A game so terrible, so repulsive, that a 60-year old serial killer squeezed out his first tear in 40 years when he played the beta. The BETA.". I know they have won my heart *sniff*
posted by BrodieShadeTree on Feb 4, 2006 - 22 comments

Jack Thompson (1992 ACLU Censor of the Year) is an outspoken critic of violent video games. (Previously on...44150 and 44309) His recent "A Modest Video Game Proposal" offers $10,000 to the first game company which "creates, manufactures, and sells" a video game with the (fictional) premise of a father wreaking horrible vengeance on the video game companies whose twisted creations drove his son to bloody murder. More info (@wikipedia)
posted by BlackLeotardFront on Oct 12, 2005 - 32 comments

Anime from a religious perspective This could never get tiresome - Jack Chick and others may think they have cornered the market in (unintentionally) hilarious Christian interpretations of popular culture, but this excoriation of Anime by (I suspect) a Baptist and definitely a fundamentalist is wonderful reading, and provides some competition. Quite apart from the fire and brimstone article itself, the pictures are a good laugh too.
posted by tiny pea on Nov 29, 2001 - 14 comments

Job Rejection Letters by Jack Handey: In this week's New Yorker there was a great humor piece that will be sure to strike a chord with those trying to find a job in the technology field right now.
posted by matthew on Jun 6, 2001 - 19 comments