New Year: Wives cause alcoholism, and destroy the Earth.

Since I've been working two jobs the mental capacity that I retain has been significantly reduced. Contrary to popular (aka, my own) belief my intellect is, in fact, limited. Thus the reduction in posting frequency. Combine that with my lack of access to Facebook, the primary engine with which most people found my blog, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Still, life goes on. So, to reward those who are still listening, I provide you some really, really cool links.

First, have you ever thought "Gee, I wonder what would happen if an asteroid composed of iron half a mile wide crashed into the Earth at an approach vector of 45 degrees, travelling an average of 17 km/s?" If you're reading my blog, you probably have. Now this question can finally be answered. (It creates a crater 10.7 miles wide and 2300 feet deep. It also shakes window panes in Raleigh, NC.)

This amazingly awesome website, provided by Perdue University, allows you to find out exactly what would happen in the above scenario. Choose the composition of your deadly missile, how fast it's going, where it'll hit, what it'll hit, and presto! Google Earth image showing you how big the crater is, how far the seismic effects travel, the area covered by the fireball and even a nice summation paragraph at the bottom telling you exactly the effects on the Earth. Everything from a tiny little crater to the complete destruction of the planet is possible. Finally, now you too can destroy New York City from the comfort of your home.

Second, the news all you men out there already knew but scientists just had to spend thousands of dollars researching. Wives drive men to drink!

This fascinating study (which is 44 pages long, but the narrative is only 26ish) details the correlation between alcohol consumption and monogamy. They are very careful not to call it a causal relationship, but the implications are clear: The more monogamous the man, the more he drinks.

Third, another geekasm (that's a geek orgasm) engine. It's a calculator. For Relativity! It accepts input of the speed of the object travelling (either in miles or km/s or percentage of C) or the relativistic factor you wish to investigate, and bam! You can now know how much time dilates when you drive on the highway, or how fast you'd have to travel in order to outrun your nagging spouse. Ok, maybe not that last one. But it will tell you how fast you'd have to go to make one year seem like an eternity! (Answer: None. This occurs naturally. See alcohol consumption).

Finally, from the folks at NASA, a little, tiny, insignificant discovery. Arsenic based life.

The article speaks for itself. Granted, nearly every other credible scientist is challenging the findings and it does not appear likely that the question of whether this little microbe is actually arsenic based or if it just has an extraordinarily high tolerance to arsenic will be settled anytime soon.

But we can dream, can't we?