I missed this last week: a NASA report conjectures that a space elevator is could be only 50 years away. Amazing. Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy deals with space elevators in a spectacular way. Of course, his trilogy dealt with many subjects in a spectacular way: economics, sociology, science, politics. If you haven’t read them yet, you should.

The USDA regulates the size of holes in swiss cheese. The current minimum hole size is too large – high speed slicing machines have problems with the cheese, so the USDA is considering making the minimum cheese hole size smaller. They’re taking your comments through the end of the day. The article tries its best to make it sound like this isn’t just a frivolous government program, but I didn’t buy it.

The Brunching Shuttlecocks give us the surprising answer to the question How many Austrian women’s prison wardens does it take to change a light bulb?

I’ve been laughing – out loud – for the last couple days over the gagsta rap found over at MC Hawking’s Crib. Hawking’s Old Skool astrophysics writings were a major reason why I went into the field myself. I just have a BS degree in Astrophysics, but Hawking’s got all of them. Several times over, I’d imagine. He’s written books. He starred in a movie. Now, he’s doing gangsta rap. There’s three MP3s there, so you can check him out yourself. WARNING: It is gagsta rap, after all, so expect a ton of cussin’ and offensive lyrics.

Ah yeah, here we go again! Dn! This is some funky st that I be laying down on your a**. This one goes out to all my homey’s working in the field of evolutionary science. Check it!

Space Ghost and company get interviewed at Amazon.com.

When in Boston, watch the Kaiju Big Battel. The rumble I’d most like to see? Club Sandwich vs. Kung Fu Chicken Soup.

At some point when I wasn’t looking, it seems Bovine Inversus has started to be written by my college buddy Phil de Cat with Grape Jelly.

I got my first paycheck from my super-secret second job yesterday. I can’t give the specifics, because I’ll get fired, but it involves only eating food. I get paid to eat. It’s a dream job, except my pay is $30 a month, maximum. Maybe it’s something I can build on. The beginnings of a multi-national getting-paid-to-eat gravy train. Mmmmm….. gravy…..

My kitty has to wear a cone on her head. I feel mighty guilty for finding her pitiful and funny at the same time. I was gone the last two days, and missed her first day with the cone on. Last night, she cuddled next to my head all night, getting as close as the plastic would allow. She’s going through a lot just to keep her from having babies. When are they going to come out with kitty Norplant?

The American Museum of Natural History currently has an exhibit of Mongolia’s “Fighting Dinosaurs”. The website has a photo of a cute Velociraptor with a full head of feathers.