That guy was awesome.

Via Valerio.

Written and performed by alpinekat, aka Katherine McAlpine. Beats by Will Barras.

Best rap ever.

It was brought to my attention that “those wacky NASA guys” are hilarious, case in point the informational text on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft seen in this image.

Via Ben.

A tremendously interesting experiment and article.

Standout quote:

There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away.

Besides being completely worth it to read the entire article the whole way through (it’s long), be sure not to miss the videos or the link for the complete audio of the performance.

Gabe followed up today with an explanation and a email from Moore’s step-mother. Her 1,614 word email gives amazing insight into the back story and the probable reasons behind Moore’s claims. I am very thankful that I was able to gain the knowledge that I did from reading what she wrote, it truly is a remarkable story. Like Gabe says, as crazy as the kid may be, he’s apparently not stupid.

Choice quote:

“You say it over and over again, it is a historical fact, as Justice Long has pointed out, that marriage has been defined as between a man and a woman, but there are other historical facts that for a long time, women were property in the marriage relationship. For a long time, women could not make a claim of rape against a husband. There’ve been lots of ways in which the traditional idea of marriage and the relationship of marriage has changed, so why would we just simply defer. It’s historical. It’s over.”

That’s from some of the earlier proceedings in the Lewis v. Harris case decided yesterday. She certainly went out with a great opinion. If you have the time, be sure to read it on pages 70-89 of the court’s decision (PDF).

Volkswagen‘s new storage facility and their transparent factory in Dresden are very high in cool-factor.

I’d totally park my car in an automated garage over a traditional garage any day.

wayward writes “Students at Pope John XIII, a Catholic high school, were told to take down their blogs from sites like Xanga and MySpace or face suspension. Rev. Kieran McHugh, the school’s principal, said that he was trying to protect students from online predators. Not too surprisingly, free speech advocates got more than a little concerned.

The reason for the double take is that I attended Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, New Jersey. Yeah, the article and the summary both get the name of the school wrong, but that sure is Rev. Msgr. Kieran McHugh they’re talking about. I guess the person who wrote the article for the Asbury Park Press didn’t do too well with Roman numerals.

I’m going to be keeping myself abreast of the situation, and if I find out anything interesting, I’ll be sure to post about it.

It appears that NASA Astronaut Stephen Robinson owns the same shirt that I do and was photographed wearing it on the latest Discovery mission.

See the photo for proof. Very cool.

And apparently, it’s not just a new look:

2005-08-08 — 0.7.0 Release:
Stable release including all the fixes and improvements made in consecutive beta versions 0.7.0 Beta #2 and 0.7.0 Beta #1.

It was a little disconcerting to get a green bar when I was so used to the old familiar blue bar. But hey, it looks great.