This made me laugh today...

For the Battlestar Galactica fans - if you haven't seen this yet, you have to check it out. The blooper reel from the season 3.0 cast wrap party. Very funny, careful though, some NSFW content!

Jack's Back

24 has finally returned, and in fine style, if you're really into torture, that is. I'm sure tonight's torture scenes were no worse than some of the previous seasons (that one with the power sander still tops the list as far as I'm concerned). I guess it's just been a while and I had forgotten. I definitely found it a bit disturbing, but of course, that's the point, it's supposed to be disturbing. It's supposed to make us question our beliefs and think about the price of our safety and our freedom. Which, yeah, it does pretty well, but mostly, it's an hour a week of heart-pounding non-stop action. I'm so glad it's back, even if I have to look away from the torture occasionally.

TVSquad dug up this handy and impressive web page that lists all the people that Jack has killed (and how he did it - complete with pics and video of every kill) in his efforts to keep America safe. 136 people in the first 5 seasons, that's slightly more than one person an hour. Of course, he added to the body count tonight, including the dude he took out vampire-style. Gross.

Tomorrow is the exciting "conclusion" to the premiere (anybody else think it's odd that the promos are calling hours 3 and 4 a conclusion?). I'm thinking about playing 24 Bingo.

This made me laugh today...

The Tools of Public Transportation

I admit that since moving to Houston, I miss the DC metro. As I sit in the ridiculous NASA Road 1 traffic (seriously people, my 3 mile commute should not take 30 minutes), I often wax nostalgic about my metro experiences. This post though, reminded me of some of the less attractive aspects of public transport. I had almost forgotten about the pole-spooners.

More news on NASA's 07 budget

Well, it's not looking good for science. This article in Aviation Week talks about the funding situation and Griffin's priorities for making up the 1/2 billion in shortfalls due to the continuing resolution situation.

"We will find what we believe are the lowest priority half-billion dollars in content, and we'll extract it, across the agency," he says, stressing that does not mean programs at the core of the redirected U.S. space program as defined by President Bush almost three years ago.

"I will do everything I can to keep Orion and Ares I on schedule," he says. "That will be right behind keeping shuttle and station on track, and then after that we'll fill up the bucket with our other priorities."

None of this is surprising of course, and Griffin really has no choice, there just is not enough money to go around. The important thing is that the money we have for science is spent wisely. Griffin's plan, as he's said many times in the past is to target "...a fairly new, lower priority effort where not a lot of money has already been invested, and by stopping it now you can react and not have to spend future money that you know you're not going to get." This, in the abstract, is the right plan, but reality is never quite so simple.

The truth is that from the day he took over, Griffin has already been facing an impossible task, expected to accomplish too much with too little. Unfortunately, the continuing resolution issue has seriously compounded his problems this year. I wish him luck.

What kind of American Accent do you have?

This was kind of a fun quiz. Apparently I cannot escape my roots, even after being away for nearly a decade, I guess I still sound like a Minnesotan:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."

What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Going Metric on the Moon - update

So NASA apparently made the official announcement yesterday that we are definitely going metric on the Moon. Space.com also has some comments on the topic.

The funniest thing I found on the internet today

Ever play that game where you add "in bed" to the end of your fortune cookie fortune? This guy has substituted "pants" into several hundred lines of Star Wars dialogue. For example, "These aren’t the pants you’re looking for." Enjoy.