She's a Fighter: NASA's Mars Expedition Rover Spirit landed on the Martian surface on Jan. 4, 2004, three weeks before her sister rover Opportunity touched down. The mission was planned to last three months, but five years later both robots continue to explore Mars. However, Spirit has had the hardest time; she's lost the functionality of one wheel, she's suffering bouts of amnesia and she's currently stuck in a sand trap.

via news.discovery.com

NASA has a plan to save the Spirit Rover, which is stuck on a sandtrap on Mars. That sounds like a song:

Stuck in a sandtrap on Mars.

Yup, definitely sounds like a song.  I wonder if some auto accessories like chains would help the Rover?

I finally caught a couple episodes of the V remake from ABC.  It's pretty good, actually.  Better than I expected.  From what I remember of the original it's pretty much the same thing but seems to have a bit clearer method for delivering the plot.  And of course better gadgets, screens, and special effects.

The woman playing the alien leader Anna is very striking.  She surely does not need to know any secrets for how to lose belly fat fast.  I love the way she will blink her eyes three times fast in a very reptilian way.  Genious direction and acting.

If you want to see the show V streaming online for free, the first episodes are available on the ABC web site:

http://abc.go.com/shows/v/

This week's episode of Fringe...  well, I enjoyed it.  The creepy faux kidnapped kid was just plain evil.  Spoiler alert folks, if you don't want to have the surprise ruined, then read my reviews AFTER you watch the show, k?

I love the evilness of Massive Dynamic and Nina.  I want to see her bionic arm some more... that was cool in one of the first episodes.   The idea that there are all these creepy brain altered tyler clones seeded through the world is just plain creepy.  Sometimes the yuck factor of Fringe is one of the better best diet supplements I have in my life - and by that I mean it's a total appetite suppressant - LOL. 

I am interested to see what is going on next week - the previews show a whole bunch of "The Observor" guys.  Good stuff.

The only negative I have --- someone needs to give Joshua Jackson some Visine.  And fast.

I've been a really loyal Tivo fan for years now.  I love the ease of use of the interface.  There are a lot of DVRs available out there, but the ones that I have seen just have a cludgy interface and I found myself frustrated by getting lost in layers of menus.  Tivo really has it going with ease of use.  Even my kids can use them.

Slingbox seems to have an interesting group of products that lets you manage your DVR and TV from any Internet connection, including mobile devices. I think its great that nowadays we can manage our TV viewing instead of letting it manage us.   I love to have my favorite shows recorded so I can watch them when I am ready to.  Add some movies to the list, shows for the kids, and its very convenient and entertaining.  I am seldom at the mercy of whatever is on.

This week's episode of Stargate Universe was interesting.   The go through the gate to find a video camera (kino) with footage of themselves on it.  Only its things that haven't happened (yet).  The story has a clever time fluctuation plot, and some good character development as we see the team in some very difficult situations.

I did not like the kino video footage.  It looked like the Blair Witch project done in fly vision.  (like from the viewpoint of a fly) 

This is a two parter, so there was a bit of a cliff hanger.  We will have to see if they are able to resolve their problems the third time around.

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Check out this amazing photo from the NASA Earth Observatory web page.  It was taken from the International Space Station and shows a storm over the horizon over Brazil.

This is a neat web site - it features a "photo of the day" each day.  All the photos feature views of Earth taken from the unique viewpoint of space.  It's a big blue marble for sure.  Not a kettlebell folks, it's like a pretty swirly marble.

If I were a scientist I would want to be a meteorologist or climatologist.  I am fascinated by weather and climate dynamics.  So much of human suffering is due to severe weather, drought, and flooding.  No matter how sophisticated and technologically advanced the human race becomes, we are still at the mercy of Mother Nature.  We effect climate with emissions, CO2, etc. but in many respects we are just one of many types of animals that inhabit Earth and a subject to the whims of weather, air and water currents, sunspots, climate cycles, and many types of factors we don't totally understand.  Then when we add in human impact...  things get very complex.