One of my fave science shows of all time was Cosmos, hosted by the heavily eyebrowed Carl Sagan. Now here's a gorgeous autotune remix of the show called "A Glorious Dawn" featuring Carl and including a visit from Stephen Hawking. (Next time I'd like to see a rap battle, tho.)

Hat tips to Buzzfeed!

Only for the next five minutes. So many solahhh pahnalls.

Dear Mr. and Miss Fancy Pants: If you're currently worried about something that might be considered wildly trivial in the grand scheme of things, but have kind of forgotten what the grand scheme of things looks like? Here's what the grand scheme of things looks like.
It's a short video about how the Hubble Telescope took a picture of deep, deep, DEEP space called the "Hubble Ultra Deep Field"—which would be cool enough, but these guys have animated the photo and go a step further by making it 3-D, and… well, let's just say this moving image of 10,000 galaxies is dripping with "grand scheme-iness."
Watch this in "full screen mode" and prepare your ego to be reduced just a smidge.

I hereby declare that today—and every Thursday forthwith—shall henceforth and hitherto be known as ICE McDONALD THURSDAY.

"Ice McWho?" you ask?

"ICE McDONALD," I respond.

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE YOU.

Yes, that is a throne of ice.

No more excuses! You need to start dating immediately if not sooner, and I am more than willing to play matchmaker since you are so obviously desperate. Take a gander at Trenita, who I think is a perfect match for most of our Blogtown regulars. Why? Because she likes to see movies for free, she HATES people who are laid back, and she's a fan of Nine Inch Nails. Oh, and she might have sex with you, too.

(P.S. We don't have any "Love," "Dating," or "Relationship" tags, so I tagged this post "Astronomy." Because you and Trenita are in the STARS, baby!)

Hat tips to BWE!

Oh. My. God.

LISTEN:

That Christmas classic is from the 1980 album A Christmas in the Stars. Says Wikipedia:

The album is notable for featuring the first professional recording of Jon Bon Jovi (credited as John Bongiovi), who sings lead vocals on the song "R2-D2 We Wish You A Merry Christmas." Jon's cousin Tony Bongiovi co-produced the album and ran the recording studio, where Jon was working sweeping floors at the time.

Know what we call that? A Christmas miracle.

OKAY FINE ONE MORE.

LISTEN:

Oh, those sweet, sweet dulcet tones. Thanks to Zac Pennington; to all a good night, etc.

Attention all geeks, nerds and Poindexters who still argue over who is faster, "Superman or the Flash." One of the greatest arguments of all time has been settled. Now, via this hilarious video, you can finally find out who would win in an intergalactic war: the crew of Star Trek: Next Generation or Darth Vader from Star Wars.
HEY, STOP SCOFFING! THIS SHIT IS IMPORTANT.
Besides, who ever thought that you'd be rooting for Darth Vader? Enterprise, two nerdgasms to beam up!

The past two times the Mercury editorial staff has gone to Vegas in order to get ourselves drunk and throw away all of our money, I've somehow managed to trick some of my less fortunate coworkers into going to Star Trek: The Experience with me. At Star Trek: The Experience, which is hosted deep in the dusty, long-forgotten bowels of the Las Vegas Hilton, you get to pay entirely too much money (like 50 bucks or something similarly ridiculous) to ride a so-so Star Tours-ripoff ride and look at a bunch of old Star Trek props. (People get married there, too, on a replica of the Enterprise's bridge.) But hands down the best part of Star Trek: The Experience is Quark's Restaurant and Bar, where Klingons and Andorians wander about making small talk, and where you can order bullshit novelty drinks like a "Warp Core Breach" and bullshit novelty food like a "Hamborger." If nothing else, it's a really great place to get drunk off of shitty beer with blue food coloring in it Romulan Ale.

Or, rather, it was. Since all good things must come to an end (HA!), today word comes that Star Trek: The Experience is closing its super-futuristic doors, thanks to steadily declining attendance and the fact that the Las Vegas Hilton believes that more "money could be made using the space for other purposes."

The whole story's over at Trek Movie, where the comments are better than the actual article. They range from "Frak that," to "My wife and I live here in Vegas and go to SSTE about twice a week," to:

Stupid stupid mistake! I wanted to get married there. of course i needed to find someone first. This sucks!

does the words live long and prosper mean anything?

Indeed.

On this date in 1947, not far from here in the skies surrounding Mt. Rainer, pilot Kenneth Arnold spots unidentified flying objects while on a search mission for a downed military transport plane. Here’s a synopsis of events from Wired:

As Arnold recalled, the afternoon was crystal clear, and he was cruising at an altitude of 9,200 feet. A minute or two after noting a DC-4 about 15 miles behind and to the left of him, he was startled by something bright reflecting off his plane. At first he thought he had nearly hit another aircraft but as he looked off in the direction the light had come from, he saw nine "peculiar-looking" aircraft flying rapidly in formation toward Mt. Rainier.
As these strange, tailless craft flew between his plane and Mt. Rainier and then off toward distant Mt. Adams, Arnold noted their remarkable speed -- he later calculated that they were moving at around 1,700 mph -- and said he got a pretty good look at their black silhouettes outlined against Rainier's snowy peak.

During a report to the media about his close encounter, he coined the term flying saucer.

The zaniness soon began! Here’s to over 60 years of hoaxes, grainy photographs, cover-ups, X-Files, Steven Spielberg, wing-nuts, and alien autopsies. Not sure if the truth is out there, but at least it’s entertaining and maybe even a little creepy at times.


Spermatozoa, dust on the lens, swamp gas, aluminum foil Frisbees