when irresistible suction force meets immovable vacuum object (part I)

News item: The Northern Illinois men's basketball had a chance to meet, and take photos with, Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who was in attendance at the Great Alaska Shootout on both Friday and Saturday.

San Diego...Storm...Rain...Whaaaaaa?...End Times??

Storm headed this way is no turkey
If the storm bearing down on the county lives up to its billing, it could bring some of the heaviest local rain in more than 3½ years. Rain should begin this evening but heaviest showers are expected after midnight.
~

Cupcake vs. Cupcake

When the idea for ESPN Classic was cooked up, this couldn't have been what they had in mind.

Navy lost to Notre Dame and Northern Illinois hasn't beaten a team with a winning record all year. Could they both lose?

I blame myself

This intriguing title is due for an October release... if we last that long...

Plait, Philip. Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End.... Viking. Oct. 2008. c.324p. illus. index.

Plait (Bad Astronomy) runs the popular blog BadAstronomy.com and is a former astronomy professor. Here, he describes the myriad ways that astronomical events could end life on Earth. These include comet and asteroid impacts, massive solar flares, supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, black holes, diseases of extraterrestrial origin, the eventual death of the sun, and the wobbly orbit of the sun around our galaxy that could expose us to cosmic rays.

Free at Last

R. Kelly acquitted on all 14 child pornography charges.

Can we all now agree that racism in this country is a thing of the past?

Things That Continue to Suck

Big 10 football. Please, no more Fuckeyes in the championship game. Let's see, they didn't play one team (before yesterday) with fewer than 4 losses. They played a bunch of cupcakes out of conference (all you need to know is two of them were MAC teams). They lost to Illinois at home. (Like Ohio State, Illinois was crushed in their bowl game.) Seeing as they were blown out last year, it's no surprise (with an even lesser quality team) they were blown out this year.

Speaking of awful... in case you missed it, a MAC team (Blowing Green) lost 63-7 in their bowl game. And they lost to TULSA! It was the largest margin of victory in bowl history, topping Alabama's 61-6 win over Syracuse in the 1953 Orange Bowl (who could forget dat one?).

And you know there are at least twice as many bowl games than there should be when the Big 10 are in eight of them and the MAC are in three of them. And they were a combined 3-8.

are we sure we know what our neighboring galaxies are up to?

News item: Jet From Supermassive Black Hole Seen Blasting Neighboring Galaxy

A jet of highly charged radiation from a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy is blasting another galaxy nearby -- an act of galactic violence that astronomers said yesterday they have never seen before.

finally, some good news (cont'd)

Here's an idea so good, so benevolent, so forward-thinking, so hope-inspiring, it's bound to rip a black hole in the universe or something...

Illinois chosen for experimental coal plant
(AP) — A government and industry research project to learn ways to burn coal without emitting global warming gases took a major step forward Tuesday as an industry group said it would build the facility at a site in Illinois, choosing the location over two potential sites in Texas.

The futuristic $1.8 beeellion power plant, known as FutureGen, will be built on several hundred acres near Mattoon, Ill., where construction is expected to bring hundreds of jobs and boost the local economy.

massive black hole emanating from United Center

Bulls take a Khryapa and slide thru it...

Toronto 101
Chicago 71
Final

Jamario Moon* was a surprise starter for the Raptors on Saturday, as they thumped the hapless Bulls. Moon had 12 points, six rebounds, three steals and one block in 23 minutes. He easily earned another start with this performance, although he got into foul trouble and will probably be inconsistent, statistically. Keep an eye on Moon, especially if you own the guy he replaced in the starting lineup, Jason Kapono.

*sounds like one of K-Mad's Kidz.

Nail down your possessions -- YOOOGE suction forecast for today

NIU basketball and football teams will be playing simultaneously in a few hours.

k-mad in our Nation's capital, feeling at home

Everyding here sucks too. Da Crapitals (5-8). Da Whizz (0-3). Da Navy (needed three overtimes to beat Notre Dame [which sucks titanically]). And don't get me started on da Gnats (hint: they SUCK).

Not to mention the Enormous Matter-Devouring Black Hole of a Gaping @sshole-in-Chief, da RezziDUNCE, George (Gee Dumbya) "Dumphokk" Bush (HE SUCKS).

supermassive matter-devouring things in the news

I gotta gets wunna dese

Using new techniques for peering into the dusty heart of the galaxy, Ghez's observations proved that scores of stars were rapidly orbiting what could only be a black hole. But it wasn't the kind of garden-variety black hole created when a star explodes and dies; it was hundreds of thousands of times as powerful -- a "supermassive" black hole, as they are now known...

It also appears that these cosmic monsters -- which can "eat" stars whole -- are key to understanding how galaxies were formed and are still being formed today...

Black holes appear, for instance, to be both creators and destroyers -- swallowing stars or gases that come too close while also spewing out jets of super-high-energy particles and radiation generated by this violent feeding process. The jets, which can be millions of light-years in length, are believed to seed galaxies with the mass and energy that will, in time, become new stars and perhaps even planets.