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NASA has released a highly detailed map of North America from a recent Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, showing the North American continent in great detail, but more interestingly depicting the remnants of an impact crater on the Yucatan Peninsula that is suspected to have caused “the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs as well as the majority of life then on Earth.” The maps are very detailed, showing subtle topographic features in vivid color as well as a “subtle, but unmistakable, indication of the Chicxulub impact crater.” Very nice…

Follow-Up: As an update to my previous post about the government threatening to regulate all model rocketry, apparently this regulation will only affect engines of 62.5 grams or larger, well above the size of A to D engines, the most popular for hobbyists. This “will make it more difficult to obtain and use the motors needed to make the more high-powered rockets fly,” but at least most casual hobbyists won’t be affected. The largest engine I ever used was a D engine, and that was to propel a six-foot (!) rocket, so I guess I can’t bitch about this too much now that it has been clarified.

The ActionScript Laboratory features a new, sometimes interactive, fractal every day. Pretty cool…

Now what is this world coming to when a man can’t advertise “ballsy Mexican cuisine” through the name of his restaurant?

In a culinary “Fuck You” of extremely lame proportions, restaurants in the three House of Representative office buildings will change the name of “french fries” to “freedom fries” and “french toast” to “freedom toast” as a protest to France’s refusal to back the United State against Iraq under any circumstances. Apparently, a Michigan restaurant has the same idea. I love the idea, guys, but c’mon, “freedom fries?!” You’ve gotta do better than that! How about following in the footsteps of The Simpsons by calling them “cheese-eating surrender monkey fries?” 😀

Update: The Borowitz Report runs with idea, suggesting “Fuck Fries” as a means of “telling our little friends the French to go fuck themselves.” Not subtle, but effective.

CNN reports on this year’s Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame induction held last night. The Police is my favorite group, so I take particular pleasure in this year’s class, although they are in great company. I totally forgot that they hadn’t played together in 18 years, but I guess that was for “Don’t Stand So Close To Me ‘86.” Man, I feel old. Anyway, I’m glad to see The Clash and Elvis Costello recognized, and of course AC/DC just rocks. I was so happy that the cover band we hired for our wedding reception played our request, “You Shook Me All Night Long!” I’m looking forward to VH1’s broadcast of the ceremony this Sunday at 9 P.M…

I so hope that this is some outlandish hoax…

The reunion that the music world has been anxiously anticipating for 25 years is apparently coming to pass: “C.W. McCall, who recited the C.B. radio-oriented lyrics in the original ditty ["Convoy”], is currently in Omaha, Nebraska, recording “American Spirit,” a patriotic album with fellow “Convoy” composer Chip Davis,“ including a remake of the anthemic "Convoy.” I haven’t been this excited since I found that giant Chee-to in the bag last night!

Apparently, new data suggests that the universe might be a much more complex shape than previously imagined. The New York Times reports (free registration, sorry) that “Rather than being infinite in all directions, as the most fashionable theory suggests, the universe could be radically smaller in one direction than the others. As a result it may be even be shaped like a doughnut.” Dr. Max Tegmark, a cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvania, says, “There’s a hint in the data that if you traveled far and fast in the direction of the constellation Virgo, you’d return to Earth from the opposite direction.” Whoa. 

According to The Washington Post, “’Startling’ Progress at [an Iranian nuclear] complex poses a challenge to the Bush administration at a delicate time.” I think that’s quite an understatement considering the current situation in Iraq, and more importantly in my mind, in North Korea. Time Magazine is also covering the story, making the obvious observation that “The new discoveries could destabilize a region already dangerously on edge in anticipation of war in Iraq.” I’m curious to see how W will handle this situation, especially whether he will play it off as flippantly as he has the crisis in North Korea.