Visiting the world after returning from an other-worldly experience...

... and I've finally shed that weird / bad feeling I was dragging around last week ...

On the my breast cancer blog: I hate cancer.  "Today, former Press Secretary Tony Snow died after living with colon cancer for three years. Yesterday, Olympic swimmer Eric Shanteau announced that he’s been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Journalist Leroy Sievers has cancer. North Carolina State University Women’s basketball coach Kay Yow has cancer. Patrick Swayze has cancer. These are the well-known folks, those in the public spotlight. Imagine how long the list gets when you take into account everyday people like you and me, like my neighbor and friend, who passed away just a few days ago after a short battle with metastatic breast cancer."  I hate it, too. 

There's quite a stir caused by the latest New Yorker cover, depicting Barack and Michele Obama.  Intended as "satire", it shows an AK-47-toting Michele bumping fists with a Muslim Barack, in the oval office, while an American flag burns in the fireplace.  Instapundit has a lot of discussion, Powerline analyzes ("If Obama loses, the conventional wisdom will be that it was because sleazy rightwingers portrayed him as a Muslim terrorist sympathizer"), and so too does Ann Althouse ("I have to say that I think the cover is a hilarious spoof of the fears and lies about Obama"), while Dave Winer applauds ("I don't think there's any doubt that this cartoon cover is one of the icons of our times").  I like the cover, but I'm not sure I agree everyone will think it is satire; I can imagine some pretty angry New Yorker readers... 

Did you see this?  Boeing is making a blimp that can lift 40 tons!  Wow.  That's more than twice as much as the biggest helicopters. 

While I was out, Mark Cavendish won another sprint stage in the Tour de France, and Ricardo Ricco won another mountain stage (the first "real" one).  Interesting that in today's stage neither of the two category 1 climbs were as tough as all five of the passes in the Death Ride... 

The newest Kuiper belt planetoid has been officially named Makemake.  "The object was referred to by the team of discoverers by the codename Easterbunny, and the name Makemake comes from the creation deity of Easter Island."  I am not making this up. 

Here we have the Periodic Table of the Elements YouTube Channel.  A short video for each element in the periodic table.  Very cool... 

The Moth sailboat class are having their world championships in Weymouth, England; check out this picture of a start: 

Awesome!