Victoria Crater on Mars

Here's the largest crater yet visited by a rover on Mars. Reaching the expansive Victoria Crater has been a goal for the robotic Opportunity rover rolling across Mars for the past two years. Victoria crater has about five times the diameter of Endurance Crater, which Opportunity spent six months exploring. Opportunity reached Victoria last year, and was cautiously probing the edges of the stadium-sized crevice while waiting for large dust storms to clear. A safe path was found, and Opportunity has slowly entered into Victoria Crater. It is hoped that Victoria Crater will show a deep stack of layers uncovered by the initial impact, and hence new clues into the ancient surface history of Mars. Visible in the distance in the above mosaic is the far rim of Victoria Crater, lying about 800 meters away and rising about 70 meters above the crater floor.

Moon Over Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Once a year, the Light Station at Pigeon Point near San Francisco, California, is lit as it was over 100 years ago. During this time, light generated by five kerosene lamps pours through 24 rotating Fresnel lenses, warning approaching ships to stay away. Early last week, light emanating from the Pigeon Point Lighthouse was particularly picturesque because of a thin fog, also blurring the distant Moon. During the latter 1970s, the lighthouse was guarded by an 800 pound pig named Lester. In modern times, the light house is still active but has been supplied with a more efficient flashing aerobeacon.

Kill Whitey - The Series

Bloody Versions:

Vader with Puppets?

G-FORCE HAS STAR POWER

Nicolas Cage, Steve Buscemi and Tracy Morgan will provide the lead
voices in Disney's G-FORCE, the live-action/3D-animated feature,
according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Slated to open May 1, 2009, G-FORCE marks the directorial debut of
Oscar-winning VFX Supervisor Hoyt Yeatman (THE ABYSS), who also shared a
technical. It's about a super-smart group of animal commandos that work
for the government and try to thwart an evil billionaire. Bill Nighy and
Will Arnett are among the live actors.
Jerry Bruckheimer is producing.

Cage voices the mole Speckles; Buscemi voices hamster Bucky; and Morgan
voices the guinea pig Blaster.

Courtesy of Dan Sarto

CANADIAN RED CROSS ENLISTS ANIMATOR IN FIGHT AGAINST MALARIA

Multi-award-winning animation producer and director Firdaus Kharas has
been enlisted to create a series of Public Service Announcements as an
educational tool for those trying to reduce malaria infections in
Africa. Initial funding of $25,000 is being provided by the Canadian Red
Cross to support the project.

"During my travels in Africa, I have been struck by the fact that more
children die of malaria than any other disease," says Kharas. "I want to
support the efforts of organizations like the Canadian Red Cross, which
help prevent malaria through massive free net distributions in Africa."
Initially five spots will be created, with a total of 30 spots planned,
subject to funding. The series will be provided free of charge to any
organization that requests them. A comprehensive website
(www.bednets.ca) is being developed where copies of tapes and DVDs can
be requested online. The campaign builds on the success of "The Three
Amigos," an animated HIV/AIDS prevention campaign currently in use in 72
countries.

Courtesy of Dan Sarto

Point & Shoot

Watch this interactive essay by Philip Jones Griffiths called Point & Shoot.
He's poignantly documented violent conflict with unabashed honesty and disdain for its consequences.

Balki

There's Something In The Water

Ultra-Rare Nintendo Game Up For Sale

A 1990 Nintendo World Championship NES cartridge is up on eBay with a "Buy-It-Now" price of $12,000. There were only 116 ever made, and this is one of 90 grey ones given to semi-finalists. The other 26 are gold, like the old Zelda cartridges, and were given to winners and runners-up of a Nintendo Power contest (one recently sold for $20,000+). Check out the Wikipedia page for more details on the competition. The cartridge has versions of Super Mario Bros., Rad Racer, and Tetris on it.

See it on eBay
via technabob

Spy Pen Detects Wireless and RF Signals

The Auto Detective pen detects wireless and RF signals. The light starts blinking when it detects "signals within the ranges of 900-3000MHz". The faster the blinking the closer you are to the spy device you're detecting. As an added bonus it's supposed to have some feature that helps detect counterfeit bills. The unit runs $16 and is made in China. I've already placed my order. I have reason to believe my girlfriend bugged the house because she suspects I'm cheating. Which I am, but she'll never catch me. The bag-lady and I only make love at the bus-stop. I don't invite her over because she smells like urine.

Courtesy of
Auto Detective Pen to Identify the Rat in your Crew [uberreview]

Cool Business Card Designs

I know there have been posts like this before, but I have yet to see any of these, some are pretty clever. Click here to see plenty more.

QVC Bloopers - Hilarious!

Writers Guild Strike

Pulp Muppets

Sony's flexible OLED mini screen

Cool things to do with a USB drive

Click image to see more.

Monkey Statues

Entirely synthetic, no taxidermy : )

Balloon Art