Last night NASA successfully landed the Phoenix Mars Lander in the northern plains of Mars, where it will investigate whether the site could once have supported microbial life. This is a feat on its own, but Wil Wheaton just tipped me off (via Twitter) to the latest blog entry from Phil "The Bad Astronomer" Plait where he shows us another great feat. Not only have NASA landed on Mars again (The current odds for a successful landing is about 50%) but they’ve actually managed to photograph the Phoenix parachuting to the ground using the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is so awesome I don’t know what else to say. UPDATE: I uploaded a better and high resolution photo of the descent. You […] Read more

It seems congratulations are in order again. This year to Russia for pulling the longest straw in the Eurovision Song Contest. The song wasn’t really that great, but the ice skater skating around the performers, apparently on some foldable space age plastic really made the stage direction work. Norway ended up in 5th place, and at least we beat the Swedes, who didn’t even manage to get in the top 10 :PDo videnja Serbia, and Zdravstvuite Russia. See you there on May 16th 2009

May 17th (Norway’s National Day) was cold. Darned cold. It was actually the coldest May 17th in about 50 years. I had to stand outside in 6 degrees Celsius for two hours waiting for, and watching, the traditional parade. That has clearly taken its toll. I’m now mostly stretched out on the couch going into heat strokes and suddenly back into a cold shiver. Work is so definitely out off the question tomorrow.This is most definitely a good serious cold, or a stroke of influenza. In any case this qualifies as being a "man cold": YouTube