Have you voted in my "splintered" feed survey?  If not, please do.  Oh, and if you have no idea what this is all about, please see my RSS cookbook.  If you read a lot of blogs, RSS is the coolest thing since sliced bread.  You will thank me, I promise!

Okay, so what's happening?  Well, let's see...

SpaceX has posted a new update: Fire on the Launch Pad, which means you have to read it.  "As you may have read, we test fired Falcon I on our launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base.  Vandenberg, for those that don’t know it, is the primary US launch site for polar or close to polar orbits and is located about a third of the way up the California coast.  The five second test was picture perfect this time around, starting on schedule at 9:00:00 am and finishing at 9:00:05 am."  This is the coolest company, they really are going to make space travel a reality. 

So, it's hurricane season again.  Have you checked out the National Hurricane Center website?  A great way to follow the progress and predictions for Arlene or any other tropical storm... 

The Economist frets about a post-dot-com bubble: An echo of a boom?  "Investors with stakes in big internet companies, and Google in particular, might pause for thought.  Although revenues and profits are rising steeply, valuations are rising disproportionately quickly—suggesting that another correction is likely at some point."  Google seems lighter than air, for sure... 

Here's an interesting discussion on GNXP: Is it really bee-cause of culture?  "There are many good reasons to doubt cultural explanations a priori, but a more direct test is available.  One possible way to control for distinct ethnic values is simply to raise the children of higher or lower scoring racial backgrounds in another ethnocultural environment of purportedly different values."  The question, why do Indians excel in spelling bees? 

James Pinkerton on the really intelligent designers.  "The evolution vs. creation debate will never stop.  But that endless wrangle is destined to take some new turns.  How so?  Because the evolution side of the debate, which is to say, the science side, is about to beget some serious creationism of its own -- that is, creations by human scientists."  I sure hope the debate will stop, someday.  We no longer debate whether the Earth orbits the sun...  [ via Panda's Thumb ] 

Another bag gets tossed from the balloon: No New Command Line for Longhorn.  Looks like Microsoft is creeping up on Shorthorn, bit by bit.  Except that AFAIK they're not fixing paging, and not fixing networking. 

The other night I saw something I was sure I would never see.  The Dodgers were playing the Brewers.  Dodgers at bat, runner on third.  The Brewers decide to intentionally walk Mike Rose.  Wild pitch!  Runner scores!  No way!!  I have always maintained that the intentional walk is the least interesting play in baseball.  Why not allow the pitcher to say "okay, intentional walk", and let the batter take first?  Why waste time with four crappy lob pitches?  Well now we know.  If you live long enough, you will see everything :)  The picture at right of Brewer's pitcher Wes Obermueller kind of says it all. 

Are you a Sprint customer?  (I am.)  Do you think their customer service is poor?  (I do.)  Well, you're not alone, apparently; they finished last in a J.D.Power survey of customer satisfaction rankings.  So why do we continue to use them?  Well in my case it is because they are the only provider with a signal at my house.  So I'm locked in. 

Fly the friendly skies.  Reassuring, isn't it?  [ via Gerald Vanderluen ] 

This site is just, well, weird.  Extremely weird.  Check it out and see.  Just when you think you've seen everything, you realize "everything" is so much more than you thought.  [ via Clive Thompson ]