random notes (MLK weekend edition)

Titan looks a lot like parts of the California coast. Through an orange filter. At least that's what the first photos sent back from Saturn's largest moon by the Huygens probe that landed there. It's utterly amazing...and yet somehow so totally unsurprising because we reach for things like this and, just often enough to make the efforts more than worthwhile, we achieve them. Sometimes us Earth people, despite the seemingly unending litany of really stupid stuff we've indulged in over the centuries, do some of the coolest things in the world...or, more accurately in this case, in the solar system.

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Good intentions are indeed a good thing sometimes and so, for that reason anyway, I hope that the "Tsunami Aid" concert event that played on the NBC stations on Saturday night brought in a boatload of dough for the survivors. But, that said, somebody should have told them to put on a more interesting show if you were really trying to hold the audience's attention for two commercial-free hours. The combination of too many mopey, under-rehearsed, off-key performances, too many stilted speeches, and way too much Jay Leno seems a strange way to get into the goodwill...and the pocketbooks...of would-be contributors. The folks who put on the television event after 9/11 managed to put on a MUCH smoother, more engaging and moving program back in '01.

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The playoff teams that barely squeaked into the NFL playoffs all got slapped back to reality this weekend (though the Jets, bless their scrappy little hearts, did their best to buck the trend) and the teams with the byes in the first round prevailed with relative ease (again the Jets making the Steelers sweat for their pass to the conference championship round.)

The hard-charging Colts hit a brick wall (yet again) in Foxboro. Gaudy offensive statistics during the regular season don't really mean that much if you can't seal the deal in the playoffs. I am not a New England fan (Raider fan here...long memory, little forgiveness...the phrase "tuck rule" will forever make my blood boil :-) but I have to tip my hat to the way the Patriots completely shut down the League's MVP and most prolific scoring offense (as they say a great defense will almost over triumph over a great offense.)

The Eagles are still a force to be reckoned with even without Mr. Owens...something that comes as a surprise to a lot of sports pundits (and perhaps, deep down inside, to Terrell himself.)

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There is a great deal of wonderful...smart, funny, honest, pithy, silly, provocative, cool, downright amazing...writing out here in the so-called blogosphere (as I've found, much to my delight, while cruising sites via Blog Explosion and Blog Clicker...see below.)

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Some obligatory (well it seems that way anyway as I surf blogs) shout outs:

Firefox is a very cool alternative to IE:


And there is a lot of shared wonderfulness (and odd weirdness) to be discovered (and put out there for others to discover) via the blogs featured by these fine folks: