Comets are time capsules that hold clues about the formation and evolution of the solar system. They are composed of ice, gas and dust, primitive debris from the solar system's distant and coldest regions that formed 4.5 billion years ago. Deep Impact, a NASA Discovery Mission, is the first space mission to probe beneath the surface of a comet and reveal the secrets of its interior.

[ Shoot a smart, 800 lb bullet into a comet and see what gets blasted out... pretty cool... -k]

NASA - Deep Impact Mission to a Comet

Why the current obsession with the acoustic/electronic rivalry, with the analog/digital interface? Why are so many people trying to make natural sources behave like machines and machines like humans?

[ Kind of interesting, if only a quick grazing...

I'm reminded of a record played by my compatriot R which was recorded by a friend who was bored at work. Working at Kinko's, he got the idea to record the sounds made by those big, 12 foot long, multistage ueber copy machines, doing all the various things they do, and release it. It was compelling in a similar way to what this guy is saying, though not, to be truthful, a masterpiece. The track names were cool too... think along the lines of "500 copy run of double sided cardstock, collated, not stapled".

Anyway, I heard the Symphony for DotMatrix some years ago, and the Bad Plus and Brad Mehldau both perform outstanding Jazz trio/quintet versions of Aphex Twin (Film, by Bad Plus) and Radiohead (not electronic, but not really analog either...). -k]

Globetechnology: I sing the music electric

Vile wrote: If you have any further questions, I am happy to answer them. Thanks for the interest! I know much about many topics. I always like to enlighten. So, opheria, now you know...and you know what they say about knowing? It's half the battle!

I have bestowed this award upon you for your ability to craft targeted and strategic posts to piss off the largest amount of people possible. I also award you for your own sexual insecurities that allow you to imply that homosexuals are not "actual human beings." Kudos to you! Oh, and please do not neglect to visit the url below to receive this prestigious award. Thank you for your time...and attention.

And because of your unique disregard for human life and everything that pertains, we will stray from the normal policy of not feeding the trolls. Eat up.

World's Greatest Poster Award - given to Vile

I just wanted to say that I passed my second qualification exam (oral exam) on Tuesday, and am now officially a PhD candidate. Yay!

[ Holla! Seriously, congrats. I'm surprised to see such coherency though... if i was you, i'd have been drunk from tuesday afternoon until, i dunno, at least the fourth of july. -k]

w00t!

So the city of Houston has this crazy idea: as long as they’re adding WiFi to the city’s parking meters for verifiying credit card info (yes, that means no more fishing for quarters), why not open up the WiFi network so that the general public can get online, too?

[ I can think of one or two reasons that wifi parking meters beaming credit card data back and forth may be, well, not a *great* idea. -k]

Houston thinking about using WiFi parking meters for citywide wireless network - Engadget - www.engadget.com

Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in -- Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.

[ GOOGLE OWNS YOU! -k]

Google Earth - Home

Thirteen Kutztown Area High School students are facing felony charges for tampering with district-issued laptop computers.

According to parent testimony and confirmed by an otherwise vaguely-worded letter from the Kutztown Police Department, students got hold of the system's secret administrative password and reconfigured their computers to achieve greater Internet and network access.

[ Yeah, that'll show 'em! Downloading pr0n will RUIN YOUR LIFE, and if it doesn't WE WILL!

Totally fucking asinine. Take the computers away and suspend the kids for a week or 2. Simultaneously, have a drink and fucking relax. If it comes out that they were h4x0ring the actual school server to change grades or whatever, then fine, that's more serious, but this is some penny-ante shit.

And also, that's a fucking retarded password. It's a little better than HACK_ME, but not much. -k]

Berks-Mont Newspapers - Kutztown Area Patriot - 13 teens face felonies

Whodathunk Wimbledon — with its sober traditions, dutiful curtseys, and annual Tiger Tim emotional drubbing — would be the latest showcase for high tech gadgetry? ... Shot Tracker (or Hawkeye) provides a three-dimensional animated image of every rally not just to commentators, players or coaches but now to punters and yobs alike on the wimbledon.org site.

[ That's rad. -k]

Wimbledon goes hi-tech with Shot Tracker - Engadget - www.engadget.com

France was chosen to host the world's first nuclear-fusion reactor, ending a deadlock with Japan over a location of the 4.6 billion euro ($5.6 billion) experiment involving the European Union, Japan, the U.S., Russia, China and South Korea.

The six members of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, which means ``the way'' in Latin, agreed in Moscow today to build the facility in the southern French city of Cadarache, rather than Rokkasho-Mura, the Japanese location favored by the U.S. and South Korea.

Bloomberg.com: Japan

Looking for work is an exercise in selling yourself. You write cover letter after cover letter, listing the parts of you that you respect the least, listing the selling points that make you valuable in a buyer's market. You leave out the little details that you tell yourself in the morning to make things okay. You don't mention the way your heart flutters when you meet your lover's eyes across the table, the way your feet felt like lead at your aunt's funeral. You write cover letter after cover letter, listing the same store bought traits in the same wording, day after day, hoping to find another job.

And then maybe one day you just snap a little. You sit down to write a cover letter, and something entirely new comes out.

And you send it anyway.

[ Excellent. -k]

Overqualified