I am a science aficionado. Did you know that tomorrow, in addition to being Independence Day here in the States, is also the day the Earth is farthest from the sun? It's called aphelion and at the moment the sun appears about 3% larger than at perihelion when the Earth is closest to the sun. Go
here to see an actual comparison.
Out in space everything is in motion including the Earth and Mars and right now the two planets are drawing closer. If you go
here you can actually see the distance decreasing. We are now about 15 1/2 light minutes from each other (meaning it takes over half an hour to communicate with the Mars rovers and to receive a reply).
New Scientist has done a poll to find out who is
The Most Inspirational Woman Scientist and it's Marie Curie. There are nine other women listed most of whom I have heard of except for Sophie Germain*. In her place I would have put Barbara McClintock.
The New York Times yesterday had an
article on the current mania for vampires and how they are influencing the fashion world though to be honest I don't see much difference between the Goth look which has been around for years and vampire-inspired clothes. Go look at the
slideshow (which includes a photo from BtVS - from "Dirty Girls"?).
The July issue of the Smithsonian magazine has a Last Page essay titled
There Oughta be a Law -
Centuries hence, historians may wonder: Where exactly did Congress store all those pork barrels? LOL
* I just googled her and discovered that the heroine of the play and movie "Proof" was inspired by her so that's probably how she came to be so well known in our time.