Hurricane Models & Forecasts

At:
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/?index_region=at


It's the best one I've found.  When something's active, there's a thumbnail model forecast map below the main map.  Click on it, and the tracks from the best models are displayed.  Updates at 10 & 4 am & pm.


Um, enjoy.  Or at least try not too freak out too much.

OK, one more shuttle post

Eight minute mission summary at YouTube.  If there's a YouTube video worth eight minutes of your life, this is the one.


And the last reentry as seen from the ISS:

Last Shuttle Down

And things went well.  But the slight sting of the last STS flight happening – with no clear follow-on manned program in sight – on the 42nd anniversary of the first moonwalk should not be lost on anyone.

Here's to what's next!  Whatever that may be.  SpaceX's Dragon capsule has already flown, so maybe we won't have a repeat of that six year Apollo-to-Shuttle gap.

Last Shuttle Lands Tomorrow.

So then, what's next?  Here, the BBC has a good summary.

Yes, it really is this weird.

5 insane scientific theories about our big stupid crazy universe,  courtesy of DVICE.  And there may still be whole levels of weirdness we haven't yet plumbed.

And We'd Just Left the Beach

...after shooting fireworks.
Beach Crash After Pursuit

90 mph?  90 mph!  I wouldn't do 90 mph on Beach Blvd stone cold sober, in daylight, with a cleared course.  Of which items at least two out of three these gentlemen didn't have, and three out of three blanks is a definite possibility.  Stranger and stranger...
Well, go read the article.  If you know a little about local politics and can read even a tad between the lines, the whole thing is even more weird.

I remember...

...seeing these in some older comic books when I was a kid.  Born just five years earlier and I would've had one.  Damn.

And despite the hyperbolic commentary at Picture is Unrelated where this picture turned up, the contents of this science kit were about as dangerous as a smoke detector (a pinch of americium) and a couple of Coleman lantern mantles (a trace of thorium).

The Surprising Roots of Donkey Kong

Thirty years on, the truth is finally revealed here.
Once you know the Dark Secret, scroll through the rest of the slide show.  It's worth a minute for the trivia.

Fireworks, from an onboard POV

Seen here.

Micro digital video taped to large bottle rockets, 2:16 minutes long.  Just click the link and watch it.  Possibly the most fun you'll have all day.

In Other Caffeine News...

Picked up a Chemex coffee maker a month or so ago.  It's very nice.  The resulting coffee is slightly tastier than out of the Mr. Coffee, and doesn't take too much longer.  It's also slightly more of a ritual, so I still use the Mr. C on weekday mornings and the Chemex when I'm not so rushed.
Next from the Caffeine News File, I picked up a case of Monster Rehab last weekend, and wow that stuff is good.  Not very sweet, sort of an iced tea/lemonade cross flavor, and it's only 20 calories a can with no weirdo chemicals – either on the label or in the taste – that I can discern.  Not carbonated either, which is a plus in my book.  Just about right in summertime when you'd have coffee but it's a little too hot.  And it's full of B vitamins, so it's sort of a drinkable bug repellent too.

ps: and now I've got that damn Amy Winehouse song stuck in my head.  *sigh*  Guess I'll go put on that album now.

Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA

YES.

Tried one last night (thanks again, Renzo).  Read about this amazing substance here.