On the Autumnal Equinox, Astronomy Picture of the Day came down to earth and dispelled the myth of egg balancing.

Elvis Costello is making the American talk show rounds this week in support of his new album “North.” Most notably, he will be performing for two hours on A&E;’s Live By Request on Thursday. Elvis says of the new album: “It’s the only record I’ve ever made that aspired to beauty as the prime objective.”

I had a terrible time finding stores that stocked a selection of good quality flannel sheets in California. This is not a problem in the state of Washington.

Curious about Itzhak Perlman’s recovery from shoulder surgery in February, I did a little searching around. He is back to a “normal” touring schedule, however he has been substituting less strenous pieces. In Baton Rouge he replaced the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with Beethoven. He helped close the Tanglewood season with Mozart’s Third Concerto, in lieue of the originally planned Bruch concerto. With his full schedule, he is likely avoiding overworking the shoulder and recovering at a suitable pace.

As any well-bred letter writer knows, appropriate stationery of high quality paper is essential to proper social correspondence. But even before the advent of electronic mail, society had been reduced to pre-printed “Thank You” cards and floral, bunny rabbit, fruit stationary. The stationery set of the lady of the house used to be stocked with correspondence cards, folded notepaper (with an embossed monogrammed perhaps), and very formal letter sheets. In excerpts from Eaton, Crane & Pike Company’s The Etiquette of Letter Writing even more variations are specified such as “stationary for country house use” and “stationary for use on board a yacht” (readers may wish to consult with their own yacht club or clubs as to the appropriate display on banners or insignia).

Duct tape is silver. Duct tape comes in colors and even camouflage patterns. But, really, duct tape is silver. 3M is stretching the meaning of duct tape by marketing transparent duct tape for “the end of ugly repairs.” It’s also supposed to last six times longer than normal duct tape. But, it’s “not recommended for use on flues, chimneys, mufflers or tailpipes” which I think means you shouldn’t use it on ducts. Since it isn’t silver, maybe you wouldn’t have anyway.

Fast throughput and economy of space are the differentiators for a brand-new fully-automated parking garage in Hoboken. Parkers drive their car onto a steel pallet, get out, insert a card in a slot and step back. The car is whisked away by Robotic Parking‘s patented system which uses a separate motor for each direction to achieve better reliability and redundancy, an improvement over older automated garages. A similar parking garage under an apartment building near the White House uses a system by SpaceSaver Parking. While robotic garages cost more to build, there are other savings besides space. Since the engines are never on and people don’t enter the garage, there’s no need to install a ventilation system, pedestrian elevators, fire doors or emergency staircases. (source: N.Y. Times)

The easiest mnemonic for remembering locations participating in Intel’s Free Wireless Day on Thursday, September 25 appears to be “Starbucks Starbucks Starbucks.” There are plenty of other places in the database, but you know how ubiquitous those Starbucks are.

This exploration into the reasoning behind the differences between the British and American editions of A.S. Byatt’s Possession is enlightening and slightly maddening. (via leuschke)

There’s more news on those flavored milks that are hitting the shelves. There was the weblog-infamous Raging Cow from Dr Pepper/Seven Up launched this summer, and Coca-Cola has decided to sell Swerve only in schools. The odd thing about Swerve is that you could call it a “diet milk” as it is sweetened with sucralose (Splenda) and is made with skim milk. It’s designed to be palatable to those campaigning against soft drinks sold in schools. Mac Farms Inc. who makes the carbonated e-MOO drink, has another carbonated milk drink it is marketing to schools. The replacement of soda with these milk concoctions is not an improvement in some nutritionists’ opinions.