Last weekend, North Georgia was hit with the worst ice storm in recent memory. Several thousand people are still without power. This weekend, Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl, and coming to watch is a winter storm that is shaping up to be even worse.

Once again, I will be using my powers as an ordained minister for the forces of good, this time by joining my college friends Jeff and Mellissa in wedded bliss in Key Largo this May. The other wedding I did (and the reason I got ordained) was for my college friends Shawn & Gypsy.

Astute Readers Kim and Jen pointed me to The Poultry Site. There are so many things here I can’t begin to describe them all. If you’ve got the time, though, you can find out about every breed of poultry that exists, including all 6 gazillion types of chickens. For example, the Frizzles, the descriptive page of which shows a chicken bred to look like Sesame Street’s Big Bird. If you want to mix the sharp beak of a bird with the soft fur of a Persian cat, how about the Silkies? For you AOL’ers who got here by searching for pr0n, there’s a breed called Sex-Links. (I’m sure my daily traffic will triple once this entry gets indexed.) Of course, this site’s majesty is not limited to chickens… all the poultry are here. As well as a few sheep for good measure.

It’s about 20 degrees F here, with a windchill of about -5. I think I need some more malt-o-meal.

ObAthensLink: The Elephant Six Collective is a group of (mostly) Athens-based bands. A cross between a record label and a cooperative, the collective’s member bands are among the most original and conceptual in Athens. This page tells their story and has a sample from one of the highest-profile bands, Olivia Tremor Control.

More astronomy. The Hubble Data Archive contains over 100,000 Hubble Space Telescope observations of more than 20,000 targets. If you don’t mind digging a bit, you can find plenty of pretty pictures, including the famous deep-field shots showing uncountable numbers of galaxies. Please, try not to feel lonely and insignificant when you look at these. It’s tough not to, though.

While studying astrophysics at New Mexico Tech, I had many of the world’s best astronomy tools at my fingertips, ranging from the best astronomers in the world to the best observatories in the world. But, one thing I did not have was an F-18 Fighter Jet Mobile Telescope Platform. Dagnabit.

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Paul. Today’s weather will indicate how the year to come will turn out (so said Europeans in the 15-1600’s). Fair weather = good year. Windy = war. Cloudy = plague. Here in Athens, it’s cloudy with bursts of wind. Dagnabit.

In my ever-increasing effort to bring this weblog to the masses, I give to you Malkovich’s Nest. Thanks to Malkovich Effect.

Robot Wisdom is now featuring a “Cam of the Hour”. There’s no telling how long Jorn will keep this up, but while it’s there you’ll find live camera shots from around the world. Already this morning we’ve seen a spectacular sunrise and a snow-covered Montana mountain.