Robot Twitter feeds

Just as your X-Box 360 could secretly be blogging, NASA's robots, probes, and rovers love the internet. Here are some Twitter feeds of unfeeling machines exploring space:

Phoenix Mars Lander: Maybe the first Twitter to make blog headlines with its discovery of water on Mars, the Phoenix Mars Lander is already a staaar on the internwobs.

New Horizons: The Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission is keeping us updated on when NASA posts mission updates, but it also gives you some interesting and fun facts about its destination. Hopefully there is enough trivia to keep it updated until it reaches Pluto in 2015.

NASA SDO HMI: Here is it's own description -- "I am the HMI instrument on board NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. I am a product of Lockheed & Stanford University. Look how sleek I am!" I feel like that's all I really need to say.

Cassini-Huygens: The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan has been gathering information and photos of Saturn's moons. The feed might be the least romanticized, but it updates with awesome fly-by pictures.

So uh, add all these dudes on Twitter! Space!

Restaurant Week

So this past wee was Restaurant Week here in the Diz. It technically ended today, but there are definitely restaurants that have extended their deals through next, so scope it out.

Against my better judgment, I ended up having two delicious RW meals, one at Ceiba & one at Georgia Brown's.


Ceiba, while delicious, was just not quite worth the money. The savings incurred were about $10, but I had to have that Pisco sour. It was delicious, and the shrimp was spicy and fruity (shown with pineapple salsa, the shrimp was glazed in Chipotle BBQ sauce).

Georgia Brown's was delicious, as always, but I fell again into the cocktail trap because of their delicious delicious Savannah Dew Drop drink. It's worth it, I promise. Also the fried chicken was perfection, and the portions were generous (an understatement; that is two meals right there). The appetizer I had was the Andouille sausage, which was like a tiny, spicy BBQ dish all on its own. Also, how many appetizers come with mashed potatoes? Probably not enough of them, that's what. The key lime pie dessert was alright, nothing thrilling, but at that point I was so full of delicious it was hard to power through.


Edit from Rob: K is right, a ton are continuing the week's festivities, and they can be found here.

Freaking terrifying

I've always had a strange obsession with mountain climbing, even though I've never done it myself. I suppose it's the fact that I just love the mountains. But the latest incident on K2 is just absolutely terrifying to read about. K2 is a harder mountain to climb than even Everest, and each year, groups attempting to summit are given a window of only a few days. Almost every year someone dies, but this year 11 have perished as of right night, with more possible.

Nick Rice, a climber who was keeping a blog during this year's attempt at the summit, wrote about the tragedy as it was happening. He had turned back and wasn't caught in the ice fall, but he knew some of the climbers. The part that seems most harrowing to me is this:

Cas, who downclimbed the bottleneck, and the Italian, Marco, who was rescued by Pemba after being discovered laying in the snow, with gloves off, harness half off, and unconscious are also heading down. Base camp is quite somber thanks to the enormous loss of life in such a short amount of time. The American Doctor, Eric, and a few others are working on the heli-pad and making a triage tent in preparation for the receival of the severely frostbitten climbers. As their limbs begin to thaw out, they will experience tremendous pain, and will need some very potent pain management.

It's worth reading everything from dispatch 62 until today's note. That said, I think I am going to go ahead and read the whole thing.

Here's hoping that those left are alright, and thoughts go out to the families of those who perished. Certainly, these climbers knew what they were getting themselves into, but it's always sad to see something like this happen.

Terps Football

It is now 25 days, 4 hours, and 50 minutes until the UMD Terps kick off their football season. Sure there is a QB battle, sure the running back might need some work, and sure the coach is restricting media access. But it's football! I get to go see football, I get to be a part of a college football fan base! And you know what, they might not be too bad this year. I really cannot wait, as college football is what really got me into the game (I was born and will die a UW Huskies fan) and I've never had the chance to be a part of a fanbase. Delaware, you'd best prepare to get your Blue Hen ass kicked by the Terrapins. We're more fierce than Turtle No. 72.

Dr. Horrible!

I meant to write about this earlier, but if you haven't watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog do it now. Take a break at work, do whatever. The songs are great, the acting is hilarious, and the whole thing is surprisingly good. It's here on Hulu, or right below. Go now, and be happy.

It doesn't suck to be this terp...

This Terp being Turtle No. 72 in Rock Creek Park, who discovered a marijuana field which then led to the arrest of some poor college kid. Way to kick some ass, take some names, and nibble on a berry or two.
You're my hero Turtle No. 72.