Update on the mystery of exploding manure pits

Pop! Goes the Pig Dung


NASA discovers 100 million year old dinosaur footprints in its backyard

Information, discussion and links at io9 regarding this (and other) footprints found on the grounds of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

First they came for the athletes... Lance Armstrong and the Fiefdom Epidemic

Setting aside the question of his guilt or innocence, Lance Armstrong’s statement touches on the epidemic of quasi-governmental entities and big agencies increasing their reach and impact with significant enforcement power in this country.  This isn’t about USADA and cycling, but about essential freedom.

Remembering Neil Armstrong… When Men Walked on the Moon

Nice post here.

And this seems appropriate:

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

 - Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee, No 412 squadron, RCAF, Killed 11 December 1941

The History of the @ Symbol

At Smithsonian mag.  Also, The History of the Exclamation Point.

via Althouse.