YESORNODC

The latest twitter from the Phoenix Lander is in, and it’s a doosey. That mysterious hard white layer found underneath the Martian soil? Yep, you guessed it, ice - water ice! Next up: getting ice into the lander, and testing it for organic compounds.

I’ll start off with something you obviously don’t hear about enough making your rounds of the techno-blogosphere - NET NEUTRALITY. Yes, defenders of net neutrality have been warning us for years, explaining that without government intervention to preserve the internet as it is today, broadband providers may move to drastically limit our access to the internet based on the price we pay for it (think cable tv). Alarmists? Maybe. Hopefully! But a recent announcement by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo may indicate the coming of the inter-pocalypse we all fear - ordering ISPs Verizon Communications, Sprint and Time Warner Cable to “shut down major sources of online child pornography.” (more…)

Guess what, Apple? No one cares about your new, possibly 3G, possibly solar powered, probably exactly the same but slightly faster and cheaper iPhones. Oh wait, everyone does. PS - this is what you are missing at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference right now:

Probably the best, and most hated show on Adult Swim has come to both the DVD and CD formats! For those of you unaware of the genius sketch comedy that is Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, check it out - buy the dvd, watch it online, or even watch it on your television, if you have to. For fans of Tom Goes to The Mayor, and fun in general.

So it was true - X-Files 2 is real. Enjoy the teaser.

Do you miss ‘Galactica’? So do I - but fret no longer! It’s coming soon to a hopefully uneventful friday evening near you. But that’s not all - Sci Fi channel has just green lit ‘Caprica’, a prequel to Battlestar Galactica set 50 years before the events of the original (reimagined) series. Chances are we’ll see at least two or three more of these spin offs before Lost goes off the air.

No single science fiction novel has spawned as much crap as Dune. From uninteresting spin off novels and sequels, to the awful David Lynch Dune movie, with the occasional mediocre video game thrown in between, Dune has got to be the most wasted intellectual property of the 20th century. Can Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg turn things around? One can only hope. And yeah, I guess the sci fi channel miniseries was ‘decent’.

Can you imagine a world without the sleek nose hair trimmers and ‘ionic breeze’ air-filters you’ve grown to rely upon? I sure can’t. That’s why Sharper Image’s bankruptcy comes as a complete shock to me. What does the loss of this ’90s institution really mean? Are Americans finally fed up with overpriced crap electronics? Is this a recession? The coming of the post-post-industrial economy? Whatever the case, I know that Sharper Image and all it’s strangely comforting crap will be sorely missed by this blogster.

In what may be a metaphor for the current state of affairs of those of us who would elect a democrat comes this almost meaningful story - but the real question here: How far would you take it to see your preferred democratic candidate reach the fabled state of ‘nomination’?