Audio NSFW:

NASA rocket scientists are preparing for tomorrow when Curiosity, a roving robot/laboratory is scheduled to land on Mars and begin gathering all sorts of interesting things for scientific research. But first the thing has to actually land on Mars, and the engineers have named the planned landing “seven minutes of terror.”

They’ve even come up with a groovy video illustrating how the landing (hopefully) will occur.

[SF Chronicle: Curiosity to Make Tricky Mars Landing]

[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]

Ex-Idaho Senator Larry Craig (R-Closet) is arguing that his infamous trip to the john in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in July 2007 was “official Senate business” and therefore it was okay to take almost a quarter of a million dollars out of his campaign fund and use it to pay for his legal defense.

The Federal Elections Commission begs to differ, stating that his legal defense in the sex-sting case had nothing to do with his official duties.

Fuck the money, all I can ask is, “It’s already been five years since wide stance?”

My, how time slips away.

[SF Chronicle]

What is it with all these asshats from Pennsylvania thinking that something that offends their sensibilities is as traumatic as 9/11?

Last week, it was a Penn State alumnus comparing the NCAA sanctions against the school’s football team to the attack that killed more than 2,000 people.

Yesterday it was Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), comparing the date of 8/1/12 with 9/11 and December 7 (Pearl Harbor Day for those of you still not fully awake).

Why?

Not because it would have been Jerry Garcia’s 70th birthday, but because it’s the day that the Affordable Care Act’s provisions went into effect requiring insurance companies provide preventative reproductive health care services to women, including free pap smears and equity in coverage of contraceptives.  Beware of the terrorist vagina avengers, all freshly cleaned and protected from unwanted pregnancies, out to attack AmeriKKKah.

[NY Mag]

A towering intellect – I met him twice at book signings and once again at a National Press Club event. He suggested law school … so he was wrong once.

On Monday the conservative website Daily Caller, home to colossal douchebag Tucker Carlson, was hacked by a merry bunch of pranksters. Their banner ads featured nothing but ads for hard-core pornographic websites.  (No word yet if the view/click numbers went through the roof as a million cheeto-stained teabagger hands clicked through).

In any event, what is the Daily Caller doing about this?

They have challenged their readers to track down the hackers, and if you find them, you win a free 9-millimeter pistol that has the Bill of Rights engraved on the side of it. It’s unclear if the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments are included.

If you don’t have the mad tech skillz, you can write an essay describing what you’d do to the hackers.

Submit your essay or technical information here.

[DCist]