I guess I'm not the only one who is so over it.



















Word. Kathryn Janeway? Best. Captain. EVER.

I think it goes without saying, but I don't want anyone cursing my existence, so *spoilers*

Wow, sometimes I am totally stoked to be living in the 21st century:

Google Earth to allow Exploration of Oceans, Mars

YES! How exciting.

But sometimes, I am both stoked and totally frightened:

'Fantastic Voyage' Revisited: The Pill That Navigates

Philips Research in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, has developed a prototype for a pill that can be programmed to navigate toward a specific trouble spot in the body and deposit its medicine there, radioing dispatches to the doctor as it travels.

This is HUGE. But eek, scary implications for things like biological weapons, suicide bombers, privacy, and personal freedom.

On a side note about personal freedom, oy vey, guess which catalog arrived for me at my generally gun-shy workplace?

Trevor and I also got one at home a few days ago, and I was wracking my brain thinking about how we could have gotten on their list, until I got the one at work today. We had bought each other these sweet tactical flashlights last year (I shipped his to my work), so it's obvious Surefire thinks we are militia members and our names got sold to into proper channels!

But truth be told, as someone who loves authentic (and vintage) military equipment, cheap ammo, and shooting mad guns, the catalog is RAD. But there are some creepy things in there. Like the Kuwait Liberation Medal, "awarded to members of the U. S. Armed Forces who participated in the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi forces between 1990 and 1993."

I suppose there are collectors of that kind of stuff, but c'mon, you just know who else, among others, is buying this stuff and why. Thinking about it makes me do the wince and squirm that I do when other people are embarrassing themselves!

Woohoo for the inauguration, hey? I'm sure y'all watched the festivities, so I won't go into how wonderful it feels to be an American right now, or how Obama's inaugural address and first day in office were absolutely inspiring. All I will say at this point is that I'm glad my president is not only inspiring, but also so NICE.

January 20th was a good day.

January 21st was also a good day. Trevor and I got up early and took BART and Muni into San Francisco to take advantage of free admission day at the newly renovated California Academy of Sciences, located in Golden Gate Park on the beautiful Music Concourse.

Holy smokes, was it crowded! But it was totally worth it. Definite highlights were the T-Rex and (87-foot!) blue whale skeletons, the Living Roof, and the Morrison Planetarium -- where we saw the most amazing digital show on the cosmos on their tilted 75 foot diameter projection screen. It felt like we were flying through the universe. Highly recommended!

Though the planetarium absolutely blew us away, of course the Steinhart Aquarium was the big draw. Gorgeous sea creatures, many that I had never seen before in person.

Some favorites:

Beautiful little jellyfish















Creepy nautilus -- it's like it's getting ready to jump out and suck on your face!















Morays



















And of course, penguins! The penguins are African penguins, and they are situated at the end of a vast hall of really cool African dioramas. The approach is striking.















But the most fascinating animals in the aquarium were these small endangered fish from Australia, leafy and weedy seadragons. They are apparently very difficult to obtain, and must be procured through approved captive breeding programs. The aquarium had been on a waiting list for two years!

These little creatures were mesmerizing.

Weedy seadragons (and random German tourist)



















Leafy seadragon















And hey, what do you know? My crappy iPhone camera did alright next to Trevor's new toy, a Canon Powershot -- a new toy which was, incidentally, bought with credit card points. And here I thought that stuff was a scam!

Anyway, another exciting, excellent day in a week full of excitement and excellence.  Here's to a terrific weekend.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A delicate ribbon of gas -- a remnant of a supernova that occurred more than 1,000 years ago -- floats eerily in our Milky Way galaxy in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. The supernova was probably the brightest star ever seen by humans and surpassed Venus as the brightest object in the nighttime sky, with the exception of the moon.

We live in a mysterious and beautiful world.

Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens.

Sweet.

But the million dollar question is: unlike human women, will the Vatican allow their "extraterrestrial brothers" ordination?

Two words have overtaken my life.

Battlestar. Galactica.

Holy frak.

This show is worth it for Edward James Olmos alone, yo. Equally amazing: how Briton Jamie Bamber as Apollo consistently has a better American accent than any American I know.

Oh yes, and one more thing...Helo. *swoonage*

Remember, I don't have a TV! Don't give anything away! I'm only mid-season 2.5, despite the fact that most evenings all I can bring myself to do is make carbalicious dinners and sit on my ass plowing through DVDs.

Oh glorious 2 more seasons of goodness ahead of me!

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.

Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008
The Exploration of Space, 1951

RIP