The US is shooting down a satellite amid fears that when it burns up in reentry later this month its entire supply of highly toxic and reactive fuel will cause significant health problems. Honestly, this is like the coolest thing ever done by the U.S., except, maybe, stopping Hitler or whatever. But not everyone thinks so ( Read more... )

Tonight I got a private showing at the largest observatory in New York. They were taking pictures of the sky where the newest planetoid, Eris, is, but they swung it over to the Andromeda Galaxy. I got to actually look through the eyepiece and see it.  I know it makes me a geek (but we knew that already), but this REALLY was one of my life goals - ( Read more... )