@ernie.: Worth every penny. They're the jackets the National Science Foundation equips everyone with on their Antarctic expeditions, which, if they're good at the South Pole, they're good anywhere.

@Level3Media: You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar! However, good luck getting Diaz to make a correction, especially to his NASA posts.

@Half the wheels, twice the fun: This movie is going to make Neil Degrass Tyson soooo mad!

@Gonzie: It's because we're all broke (state government included!) and our state's math test scores are well below average. Ironic, since the original purpose of the lottery was to pump more funding into the public school system.

@Adrian Izarraras: The suit makes the man, man.

@kaffenated: Balls. Me too, that would've been a great price for one with BluRay and dedicated video card.

@murph: What configuration do you have on your Zino HD? I've read that some of the lesser configs choke on HD & streaming video. Depending on the price point I'm planning on going with a Zino vs self-built HTPC.

Comcast has responded on their blog: [blog.comcast.com]

I like how the first person on the scene was the cameraman.

@CjalopC: Vuvuzelas.

@Ileee: With the girls. Plural.

I was invited as part of my astronomy club to a press event at Fermilab next week to view this thing, but can't make it b/c of work. After seeing this I am thinking of playing hooky that day.

@zeroprime: Here you go. NASA just got the scoop on Gizmodo and "leaked" the images themselves right on their Facebook page. Oh, and they must've "leaked" them to [spaceflightnow.com] and http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2010/11/sts-133-structural-defectcrack-found-on-et-137/ and [www.space.com] ...

These aren't the first photos (perhaps first hi-res and thermal) as the public had photos of the ET foam crack within the hour of the scrub from NASA TV. See: [www.spaceflightnow.com]

@moetop: That is the point exactly. Everyone is so quick to save 4-minutes of their precious time in exchange for their personal freedoms and privacy, what's to stop someone from taking 30-minutes worth of your freedom? 4-hours?

@jedimastereric: Right-O. Even 90-100mi from Chicago, our NE sky is still dominated by the Chicago skyglow. There really is nowhere to go in IL, once you start getting far enough away from the Chicago lights, you end up getting too close to Springfield or St. Louis.

@JakeMG: Waxing Pedantic: Our astronomy club has dark-site arrangements with farmers who own land about 100-miles from Chicago, near Dwight, IL. The weather is unusually clear, so I'll be spending a lot of time there this weekend!

@Matt Stempeck: Since the IDA was the only game in town for a while, I'd agree, but they've recently lost a lot of support, leadership and haven't been very effective. I would instead recommend supporting a local association, who generally have more legislative sway and influence in their specialized locales, like…

This kid needs some coaching from Paul Karl Lukacs on how to handle feds abusing their power over law-abiding US citizens. [knifetricks.blogspot.com]

Prisoner Zero has escaped. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated!