24 years after the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, a new video has surfaced capturing the incident from afar.

The four minute video, shot by retired optometrist Jacob Moss, is believed to be the only amateur video of the event.

[Check it out via Alltop]

The list, which can be found in the March edition of the magazine, drew upon data such as “death rates from alcoholic liver disease, booze-fueled car crashes, frequency of binge-drinking in the past month, number of DUI arrests, and severity of DUI penalties.”

The top 10 drunkest cities are:

1. Fresno, Calif.
2. Reno, Nev.
3. Billings, Mont. 
4. Riverside, Calif.
5. Austin 
6. St. Louis
7. San Antonio 
8. Lubbock, Texas
9. Tucson
10. Bakersfield, Calif.

Los Angeles comes in at 48 and NYC comes in at 93.

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Did you listen to Sarah Palin’s final speech as the Governor of Alaska? Were you confused? baffled? What the heck was she uttering you might be wondering.. Well.. as it turns out – it was really a poem!!!

OK – it wasn’t.. but it certainly sounds better as one as we found out last night when William Shatner read her speech as a poem on the Tonight Show.

Slate.com is responsible for the above hilarious image of what Obama’s News Feed MIGHT look like on Facebook (assuming of course all the folks on that feed actually had accounts on there). Great stuff – had me laughing for some time. I particularly liked the Nancy Pelosi humor (“Did not” vs “Did too”). Thx to Phoebe for that linky!

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Here’s an awesome time-lapse video of the sky overhead a Texas Star Party. The galactic center of the Milky Way goes right on by before morning..

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[Check it out via News.com]

1. Technobabble. We all know Trek suffered from too much technobabble through the years - from Star Trek TNG all the way to ST Enterprise. For Star Trek, we’ve got one MAJOR technobabble. RED MATTER. WTH.. this red goo which looks like blood is arguably the most powerful and destructive force known to the Star Trek universe. I mean - IT CREATES BLACK HOLES FOR GOODNESS SAKES. Now with that said.. why in God’s name is Spock carrying so much of it when a simple drop of Red Matter creates the black hole necessary to suck in that supernova anyhow?

2. The Supernova premise. You’re telling me there was a supernova so large that it posed a galactic threat? Excuse me?

3. So Nero sees Romulus get destroyed.. he blames Spock so he decides to go after him at the same time Spock is trying to stop the supernova. They both get sucked into the black hole.. and then each appears in different points in time in the past. You’re telling me that Nero was sooo hell bent on making Spock suffer that he sat around for 25 years waiting for him to appear? You’re telling me he figured out exactly where Spock would appear? Nero is a mining guy right? Guess he’s pretty bright in science too.

4. Uhura orders a Cardassian drink. Uh.. hello.. Cardassians weren’t introduced until the 24th century Trek

5. Speaking of not being introduced yet, at this point in time, Earth shouldn’t be aware of what the Romulans look like. Vulcans don’t even know they’re related to the Romulans mind you (Re: Unification Parts 1 and 2). Starfleet doesn’t first see a Romulan until Balance of Terror episode in ST TOS.

6. I’m sick of Time Travel and all the paradoxes it provides. Sure one could argue this is a parallel universe of sorts but come on now.. Spock goes from one alternate timeline and effects the past - thereby changing everything. Actually it’s Nero who really starts messing thins up. ANYHOW, once Spock and Nero changes things in the past, it affects the future and therefore their own destinies. And hence, we have these time travel paradoxes. LAME!!! Trek continually suffers from overuse of Time Travel stories. Let’s be original Trek.. think of something else

7. OK.. so let’s get this straight. A core dump of the Warp Engine is going to help the Enterprise escape a frigging black hole. And what is the Warp Engine? A delicate balance of matter and anti-matter according to traditional Trek lore. Sure.. combine the two and you’re gonna get a big bang.. but here’s the problem. You dump the core, the Enterprise drops out of warp and guess what? It should get sucked into the black hole IMMEDIATELY. Yet somehow.. it manages to stay just far enough so it won’t get sucked in immediately. Yeah. right.

8. The Space Jump from Pike’s shuttle. Um.. first of all - shouldn’t the more advanced Romulan mining ship have picked up three small blips flying down towards the drill platform? Second.. once they pick up these three small blips - won’t that piss them off and make them attack the Enterprise? If so.. then wouldn’t it have made more sense for the Enterprise to simply fire their phasers at the drill? I mean seriously now.. the Romulans were going to figure out that the drill was being sabotaged.

9. Which brings me to the notion of blocked communications and transporters. Um.. let’s get this straight.. the Enterprise couldn’t impulse themselves to the other side of the planet to get a clear transmission to Vulcan? You’re telling me that single drill was going to block transmissions all around the planet?

10. BTW - where is the vaunted Vulcan fleet? Those of you familiar with Star Trek First Contact and Star Trek Enterprise know the Vulcans have far better vehicles in space. Um.. where are they exactly? Vulcans look a wee bit backwards here don’t they?

11. The poor Vulcan elders.. they’re standing in this cavern that happens to be crumbling around them and you’re telling me that they don’t think at all to escape? It takes Spock to run in to make them realize something’s afoot? Uh lame.

12. Why in the world would Nero need the subspace codes from Pike when his ship is clearly more powerful than anything Starfleet has? He destroys one ship after another and he needs to sneak into Earth orbit? Um. yeah.OK.

13. What’s up with the lame Starship command structure? The first officer and captain are incapacitated and all hell breaks loose?

14. Remember the Kelvin? Explain to me how this starship doesn’t get its arse wiped out of space by the Romulan mining ship? This is the same Romulan ship that destroys the incoming armada of Starfleet vessels in no time (actually in a few minutes since the Enterprise got stuck back at Spacedock to the exterior inertia dampeners). So a starship 25 yrs older manages to survive long enough to ram into the ship. Right.

15. So Spock shows Scotty how to perform transwarp beaming. Why doesn’t he go ahead and show Scotty and the rest of the Enterprise how to make their phasors more powerful.. or their deflectors better? I suppose that would take too long but guess what? Time’s already screwed up so why not screw it up some more?

16. Oh yeah.. the Enterprise goes OUT OF ITS WAY to save the Vulcan elders only to have the elders stay on the ship while the Enterprise attacks Nero’s ship. If the Enterprise is destroyed, bye bye Vulcan elders.

I’m sure there are more.. but that’s it for now.

In a word… Star Trek is full of holes that make the story utterly ridiculous. I miss BSG.

For you BK and Star Trek fans out there – the Warp Five Wedgie (and a defense for it).

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The Onion is out with a new video clip entitled “Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film as ‘Fun, Watchable’”. Yes.. all you hard core Trekkers/Trekkies will appreciate this one (or maybe not?)

[Check it out via Wil Wheaton’s blog]

Ever feel like you’re insignificant in the grand scheme of things? Well to help encourage that line of thought – the above image tries to put everything in perspective by comparing the sizes of various objects in space.

Yes it truly puts all of us in our place doesn’t it? (Tho yes, if we end up being the only life-forms out there, it also means we’re rather unique eh?)

What I want to know is.. where the heck are the 12 colonies?

Thanks to Samad for this linky.

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