Phil Hill, the first American to win an F-1 world championship, died yesterday at the age of 81. Don't worry, Ellen didn't know who he was either. But I did! By accounts, Newman won't be far behind, so we'll have lost two motor sports greats this season.

Time has a way of marching, even speeding, on.

Other, classier, sites are making note of McCain's VP pick with serious discussion and analysis. We, however, choose a different route.

Ron gets a no-prize that'll spend most of its time rooting around in the muck for bringing us a crystallization of the first three or four thoughts every straight man had when he heard the news.

I have no doubt he would do exactly that. I still think the orange Jersey douches are funnier, but this guy was worth chuckle, for no other reason than it gives me the opportunity to yank a certain person's chain.

In 3... 2... 1...

The Phoenix lander team celebrated the probe's 90th day on the Martian surface by asking it to compose a special sort of post card. It would seem that, as the area in which Phoenix landed receives less and less sunlight, the probe itself does not have much longer to "live." I guess it was too expensive and/or heavy to equip it with a nuclear power source?

It seems the "ancient, pristine, and untouched" landscape of the Amazon is anything but. It's becoming increasingly clear that native Americans altered the western hemisphere nearly as much, if not equally so, as their Eurasian counterparts altered the eastern one. White explorers failed to see it because native populations were scythed away by disease long before Europeans penetrated the interior of the far more populous central and southern parts of this half of the world.

Put that in your "man as scourge of the pristine parts of the planet" pipe and smoke it!

Ever wonder what a town hit by a tornado looks like on Google maps? Wonder no more. On a lark I decided to look up my old home town of Dumas AR to see if Google had updated their picture cache of it with hi-res photos. They did, and (judging by what's there) they did it because of that tornado a few years ago.

At least, I hope they've actually cleaned the place up since then. With SE Arkansas, you just never know for sure.

Today's "idiot dog swallows something he shouldn't" story brought to you by...

Hey, are you sure this is right? This really is the town's name? No way. No f'ing way. Well, ok then...

By the Leamington Spa Courier. With most excellent X-ray goodness.

Those English. They'll name a town anything!

Not only are the Mars rovers still going strong, Opportunity has managed to make it out of the crater alive. They pitched it down into Victory crater last year not completely sure if they'd ever get it back out.

Hey, field stripping and reassembling an AR-15 in less than 60 seconds is a pretty nifty accomplishment for an 11 year-old girl. Well, I think it is anyway. Everyone's gotta have a hobby!

It's snakes in a mutha f'ing apartment:

Mark gets a hissy and hot no-prize for bringing us yet another reason not to live in a Tokyo apartment complex.

US analysts are saying at least two Russian aircraft were downed by friendly fire during the recent Georgian conflict. I guess that's what you get when you hand out fistfulls of manpads to a bunch of excitable "rebels."

I found the damage pictures mentioned in the article above here. Perhaps not quite as tough as an A-10, but it definitely seems the ol' Frogfoot can take a punch.

It's nice to see that the US isn't the only nation with an f-d up public school system. Some of you may think, "well at least they speak English." Keep in mind their immigration problem is actually a bit stickier than ours. They may boost the crime rate and create a built-in constituency for nanny-staters Democrats, but at least they don't try to blow us up on a regular schedule.

Eventually.

Ever wonder why there were so few critters running around at the bottom of the ocean, even though there's plenty to eat down there?

Ok, you're not playing this game correctly. Now nod and say, "Why yes, Scott, I have wondered that several times."

Well, you may not have wondered about the question, but I'll wager you'll wonder at the answer:

I wonder if perhaps the development of the nucleus, which distinguishes prokaryotes from eukaryotes, was driven by the need to escape from what presumably is this most ancient of arms races?

The new Nikon D-90 is out, and boy does it look sweet. At $1200 for the full kit, it's not anything we'll be picking up soon, but that "SLR video camera" thing sure does sound interesting. Maybe next year?

Personally I've always thought having a pretty face and being reasonably articulate in front of a camera were no great talents. Now I have (even more) proof. Remember folks, we're only supposed to do what they tell us to do, not what they do themselves.

I guess if you dive in exotic locations long enough, you're bound to see something really unique. Like, say, an albino whale shark. I don't know how many factors had to come together all in the right place at the right time to get those pictures. I'm just glad they did.

This year I was told since I was not in costume, I had to ride the elephant with Olivia. I have decided I want one. Except Scott won't let me have one. I only have a front yard.