taxidermied bullfrog playing an upright bass.

Pictures?

As soon as I get it (I think tonight). I believe it will be an excellent birthday present for my brother (who does in fact play bass).

I like this blog post:

MAAAAAARS!

I’m just sayin’, is all.

I love how crazy Twitter is going tonight. I love that people are gathering at Times Square chanting, “Science! Science! Science!” I think we needed this. Thank you, NASA. Life can suck sometimes… but today, humanity can be proud.

Mars! | Greta Christina's Blog

Chanting “Science! Science!" at Times Square sounds like a lot of fun.

Happy birthday, Scrappy!

Teppy, I have drug questions! My doc suspects my weight plateau might be related to my SSRI, Lexapro. She suggested a possible switch to Wellbutrin. I have no info on Wellbutrin so I'm not sure I want to monkey with this just to lose a few pounds.

Also, looks like I'm headed for thyroid issues. I'm going on a pill to stimulate my thyroid and see if that helps as well.

FUCK MY METABOLISM.

Happy Birthday, Scrappy! I hope it's awesome!

Birthday happies, Scrappy!!

Irish commentator reports on Olympic sailing. Not safe for work, due to language, but hysterical.

Happiest of birthdays to the Wisest of Scrappys!

But don't worry, we don't just love your for your brain. We also love you because you're hot.

Teppy, I have drug questions! My doc suspects my weight plateau might be related to my SSRI, Lexapro. She suggested a possible switch to Wellbutrin. I have no info on Wellbutrin so I'm not sure I want to monkey with this just to lose a few pounds.

Also, looks like I'm headed for thyroid issues. I'm going on a pill to stimulate my thyroid and see if that helps as well.

Well, I would recommend not messing with your antidepressant until you see how the thyroid medication does. If you started Wellbutrin too close to the thryoid medication and then did lose weight, there'd be no way to know what did it.

As for switching your meds, here's the thing: SSRIs can cause weight gain/inhibit weight loss. And Wellbutrin can cause weight loss. But sometimes Wellbutrin *doesn't* cause weight loss. (I took Wellbutin 2 separate times, about a year apart; the first time I lost weight, the second time I didn't. So I don't have a lot of faith in it as being helpful for weight loss.)

If Lexapro is working well for you, I honestly would say don't switch. Antidepressants are so dodgy (in terms of what works for one person but doesn't for another) that it is ridiculous to stop a drug that's proven to help your brain just because it *might* make you lose weight. Because it also might *not*, and then your brain is fucked. Or maybe you lose 5 pounds. Is that small of an amount worth fucking with your brain?

Irish commentator reports on Olympic sailing.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA, oh that was fantastic.

How cool is this?

A photograph of Curiosity during landing has been leaked!

A few hours ago, NASA's HiRISE team announced that it had acquired an image of Curiosity during its epic descent to the Martian surface. That image has originally scheduled to be released at NASA's morning press conference, scheduled for 9:00 am PT, but Spaceflight 101 and Discover magazine are reporting that the image of Curiosity has been leaked. Here is that image, which shows the rover descending toward the surface of the planet via its massive supersonic parachute:

To be clear: this is not a model, a simulation, or an artist's rendering. This is an actual photograph of the actual rover, descending on its actual freaking parachute, on a planet hundreds of millions of miles away. It was photographed from an entirely separate spacecraft that is currently orbiting Mars using HiRISE, the most powerful camera we've ever sent to another planet. It looks pretty convincing to us, but we'll have to wait until the press conference to see if it's the real deal.