I did not know that Dean Stockwell was in Blue Velvet. I mean, it's been probably 10 years since I saw it, but I don't remember him in it at all.

He lipsyncs Roy Orbison while singing into a lightbulb while being thoroughly decadent, drugged up and fey.

The base on Antarctica is doing okay, isn't it?

Got it, Dana. Thank you so much! I'm going to go get some groceries and listen to it in the car, and undoubtably weep my ass off. Score!

Not to be too terribly crass, but until the culture of NASA gets over being squeamish about people dying, I don't see it doing too well in the manned space business. The only thing the shuttle is allowed to do right now is to visit a moneysuck/lifeboat because *gasp* space is dangerous.

That's a tremendous culture to overcome.

LOS OLIVOS, Calif. - Michael Jackson's accuser is distressed and having "a difficult time" dealing with the not guilty verdict against the pop singer, the prosecutor in the molestation case said Wednesday. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon told NBC's "Today" that he spoke to the accuser immediately after Jackson was acquitted on all counts Monday.

Probably realizing he's going to have to cover all those promises he made when he thought he was going to make big bucks off the case.

OTOH, the Space Shuttle has two basic design flaws that have been recognized since the '70s, and which were responsible for the two shuttle accidents. So just about anything else should offer a significant improvement in safety.

eta: I think the shuttle is much safer as a result of work done since the two accidents, but OTOH, losing two shuttles in a little over 100 missions is a rather high accident rate.

How old is he now? He's still an adolescent, right?

As long as all the meetings of all the committees and groups and teams exist to recommend things rather than actually making them happen, we never have to do any work. On the down side, it means the meetings go on forever.

Wait, do you work at the same place that I work or something???

The problem isn't the vehicle, it is the culture. It's incredibly risk averse.

Eh, I probably shouldn't get into it. NASA, to me, is an incredibly leaden bureaucracy. When it comes to big missions, I'm just really doubtful that they can be at all visionary. Its time has passed, short of blowing it apart and starting over. Smaller, contracted out missions, sure, but...

eta: Dude, they named a telescope after an administrator. That's just not done.

In follow-up news on the bones underneath the Mormon Tabernacle:

Richard Talbot, director of the Office of Public Archaeology at Brigham Young University, said that during excavation for the TRAX light-rail line, archaeologists found evidence of a Fremont Indian village dating from A.D. 900 to 1300.

"The evidence so far shows a large Fremont Indian village basically underneath downtown Salt Lake," he said.

Without analysis, it isn't known whether the remains are from that period or ethnic group, "but we know the Utes and other groups lived in that area as well. It's very possible those kinds of groups could have lived on and buried their dead in the same general area."

As for the possible presence of additional remains under the Tabernacle, Talbot said Fremont Indians didn't typically use common burial grounds. "They would bury people anywhere it is convenient."

They left the bones where they were when they were first found because they couldn't determine which tribe he belonged to.