Drop everything you are doing and go watch Dr. Horrible right now - it will be gone by midnight on Sunday!

If you’re curious, Dr. Horrible is a very funny supervillian musical made by the genius director/producer Joss Whedon. Trust me, it’s well worth your time to watch.

Check out this gorgeous photo of an assassin bug!

Assassin bug looking badass next to small purple flower

Assassin bugs are awesome predators. Similar to the giant water bug, all of the nearly 3,000 species of assassin bug have a powerful tubelike rostrum (aka “tube of death”, as I fancy it should be called) that is used to pierce prey.

An Assassin bug attacks it’s prey quickly and efficiently, gripping the unsuspecting bug with it’s sticky forearms and deftly sliding it’s rostrum into the victim. Using the strawlike rostrum now inserted deep into it’s victim the assassin pumps the bug full of venomous digestive fluid that instantly begins to dissolve tissue and organs. Within seconds the hapless prey is dead and the assassin can slurp back the contents of the bug as if it were a yummy bug-flavored milkshake.

I love, love, love this video - incredible!

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

A reminder that, no matter what our differences, we can all dance together if we just give it a try. Don’t you wish you could have been there to dance with Matt?

An excellent German video on the passage of time - from a rock’s perspective:

The Phoenix Mars Mission has officially landed near the northern polar region of Mars! You can check out the mission site to catch up on everything that has happened so far. Or I can just sum things up: they have landed successfully and a few preliminary images have been returned. Suh-weet!

I don’t know why, but this mission has really piqued my interest. Maybe it was the very detailed “real time” video describing the rover’s entry and landing onto the red planet (I love to know the details). Or maybe it’s because the purpose of Phoenix is to study the history of water and habitability potential in the ice-rich Martian soil (i.e. could Mars have supported life at some point in it’s past).

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Awesome.

Shannon got back from the eye doctor where they dilated her pupils. Freaky!

I was awoken this morning at 5:37am by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in southern Illinois. Nothing appears to be broken and everyone is ok.

This was the first time I have every been able to feel an earthquake and it was very cool (because no one was hurt). The bed vibrated rhythmically with enough force to wake me up (though oddly not enough to disturb Libby). It was as if the house was on top of a clothes dryer. I could hear a constant grumbling sound, like a mellow clap of thunder lasting for about 20 seconds. Then it was over and everything was silent again.

UPDATE: Early this afternoon I (and my co-workers) felt another aftershock. It was milder and shorter than the initial tremor, but still surprisingly strong for how far away the epicenter was.

I know it’s bad form to post three times in one day but I MUST celebrate what just happened…

I GOT A Wii!!

I am so unbelievably excited, it’s difficult to describe. I just can’t wait for it to arrive… should be here in a few days.

Circuit City still had a few left when I checked out (a co-worker was trying to get one too). Thanks to WiiTracker for the tipoff.