Jesus. Wept.

Soviet moon lander discovered water in 1976.

This could have should have been crucial. Getting water out of the Earth's gravity well for use by astronauts is expensive, almost prohibitively so. Water is part hydrogen, which can be used for fuel.

We could have had a better functioning and forward advancing space program over the past 35 years and the US government pissed it away.

Perfect Spot For a Duel

Anybody Want Some Gum?

"The best anti-spasmodic is a joke. Take a leaf from Catastrophe Theory, which is really the science of the punch line. IT's the thing that suddenly takes you out of the locks system and helps you go meta." - John Perry Barlow

Are You Us or an Extinct Them?

Following human migration. Humans traveled across Asia 50,000 years ago. Everything else is being debated.

This

The RAW publications rejection form.

I'd like to see people chain themselves to seaweed!

Mowing down seagrass meadows will cut loose carbon - environment - 20 May 2012 - New Scientist

Beck's Beginning - TRON: Uprising - Disney XD Official

Disney has released the 30 minute premiere of Tron: Uprising in advance of the series beginning in June.

This is nice. I like this, and I say this beyond just the my usual love of heroes. This is good.

How About an Idiocy Defense?

Court rejects insanity defense on "exorcism" murder.

After her son wouldn't drink oil and vinegar as part of his mother's plan to rid him of demons, the mom smothered her son until he suffocated. She says she expected him to spring back to life.

"No Research is Good Research"

Congressional panel wants to cut biofuel use by the US military.

Maybe This Will Be the Last Name Change

Do magnets repel sharks?

Scientists at Stanford University has invented a light powered "bionic eye".

"Who are you?"

Interview with Christopher Doyon, aka Commander X of Anonymous.

A Life in the Art

Alan Moore, and a few others, interviewed about the life and art and Art of Austin Spare.

The sound is deep in the dark

Am I the last to discover this?

How to describe The Wormworld Saga? This is a webcomic graphic novel, barely started it seems, that reminds me ever slightly of Jeff Smith’s Bone and the work of Wendy Pini, but that isn’t quite correct. It’s obviously storywise somewhat related to those two, while artistically reminding me of the work of Mike Ploog with his lush rural landscapes and haunting beauty.

I can easily see Studio Ghibli adapting this for animation.

This is something that I’d love to have a collected edition for the shelf, except that can’t happen with Herr Lieske’s layouts. He plays to the strength of his medium. the only other person to do this in a webcomic is Scott McCloud. 

Croczilla

Fossils found of a 27ft long crocodile around Kenya has been named crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni. It roamed the deep water lakes of the region around two to four million years ago and appears to have swallowed early humans whole.

Never Trust a Necromancer

While looking for something else, I found Steven Erikson's Bauchelain and Korbal Broach. This is a collection of novellas about a pair of completely nasty necromancers set in Erickson's Malazan series. I set the book aside some months ago having stopped at the last story, "The Healthy Dead", and for some reason, didn't pick it up to finish.

Which is odd, as I enjoy Bauchelain and Broach's, um, endeavours? Erickson is playing games with perceptions of protagonists with these two, and the manservant Emancipor Reese, in that, while they frequently are heroes and do the right thing, those two (that trio?) are villains. They're just usually better than their opponents. They are not anti-heroes. Villains.

Which seems to be the norm for Erickson. I've only read a little of his Malazan series and it seems that the golden boy, the hero, worked for the Evil Dark Lord, and the troop of thugs, barely worth calling them soldiers, fights for right?

More reading of Steven Erickson's fiction is required.

Koch-heads in the Heartland Against Wind and Sun

The usual suspects are all implicated in a memo detailing propaganda plans against solar and wind power initiatives.

Miss the 90s Jazz HipHop

And I'm sure someone will inform me it's still going on. Share the wealth. Name some bands.

New Name, New Mission, I Hope

Five For Fighting: Five science links for the afternoon of May, 2, 2012

Alpines being used to test equipment for future manned Mars mission.

Dinosaurs appear to have been plagued by pests ten times as big as modern fleas. Their "bite" would feel more like a flu shot than a flea bite.

Meteorite fragments that landed in California is of a rare type called chondrite. Chondrite contains carbon and organic materials such as amino acids and is suspected of seeding the Earth with the building blocks of life.

Spring is starting sooner than previous experiments have suggested.

And Death valley doubles for Mars as a test center for NASA's Curiosity rover.