A dramatic slow motion montage of the Saturn V liftoff of Apollo 11, the first and only rocket to ever allow man to break earth’s gravity on its way to the moon. When watching keep in mind that each of its five F-1 engines are 12.3 feet in diameter and 19 feet tall, large enough to comfortably drive a moving van into. Most importantly, the payload is that of three human beings riding on the top of what amounts to a 36-story skyscraper filled with enough fuel to equal the energy of a small nuclear bomb.

I. Can’t. Stop. Watching. This. Video.

The adeptly chosen music playing in the background is from the Battlestar Galactica Season 2 soundtrack.

Saturn V Launch Views – High Speed Cams [YouTube link via Tom's Astronomy Blog]

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Heads up! Potentially free stuff!

Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com) is currently looking for 5,000 comments to a single blog post from which they will randomly choose winners of some pretty cool prizes including a Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card, Sennheiser PXC 350 headphones and a Microsoft Arc Mouse. The catch is that they are requiring the post gets at least 5,000 comments or else no prizes get distributed. All you have to do is post a comment with your City, Country and your current weather and you’re in!

Smashing Magazine – Hardware Giveaway: 5,000 Comments Challenge!

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In December 2009 a new room will be added to the International Space Station that will include a “cupola” — an observation deck with 360-degrees of windows. As you can see in the image above it looks like a small turret dome (although it doesn’t rotate) sticking out of the Node 3 room like a giant R2-D2 head. The panoramic view will be the perfect spot for astronauts to observe and photograph the earth and space, as well as offer better views to operate the station’s 57-foot robotic arm.

I always thought the ISS needed better windows, however one needs to consider the risks of such windows causing exposure to solar radiation and damage from micrometeorites. This observation deck certainly fits the bill and adds about +23 cool points to the ISS, as if it wasn’t awesome-tacular enough!

As an added bonus, now until March 20th NASA is letting the public vote on what name to give Node 3, which includes the cupola, when it gets added to the ISS. Click here to cast your vote at Nasa.gov.

Help NASA Name Node 3

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Practically everyone with basic cable knows Mike Rowe, host of Discovery Channel’s hit show Dirty Jobs. What you may not know is that early in his career in the 1990s, in addition to singing with the Baltimore Opera, he was a late-night host on the QVC shopping network. While peddling various nick-nacks and cheap jewelry, he still managed to present himself with the same humorous, sometimes naughty, dry wit that makes him probably the most entertaining host on TV today.

Of his time at QVC, Mike said, “I basically turned the whole thing into my own stupid David Letterman show – I made fun of the callers and made fun of the products.” Below are some of our favorite Mike Rowe QVC moments taken from the dozens of clips to be found on YouTube. Get ready to get dirty!

Mike Rowe on QVC – Precious Moments:

Mike Rowe on QVC – Katsak Cat Toy:

Mike Rowe on QVC – Noah’s Ark

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The cast of the original commercial turned pop-culture phenomenon, which had everyone yelling “Wassuuup!” until we all hated each other for it, have returned 8 years later with a new video. The new “Wassup 2008″ version illustrates just how much things have changed since 1999.

Suddenly I don’t hate “Wassup!” so much anymore.

YouTube Link [via BoingBoing]

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From FoxNews.com:

With southern California fighting wind-driven flames and spot fires breaking out across northern California, firefighters have fingered at least one arsonist: an unlucky squirrel.

Redding firefighters say the squirrel set off the blaze when it shorted out a power line, caught fire and dropped into dry vegetation.

 Flaming Squirrel Blamed for Northern California Wildfire [FoxNews.com]

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In another brilliant article at the weblog Consumerist.com, editor Carey Greenberg-Berger details the evils of one of the most blatant monopolies of our time, and how it goes far beyond the annoying service fees and convenience charges that tack on 30% to your ticket purchases.

Did you know you aren’t Ticketmaster’s primary customer? Sure, you and your friends bought 141 million tickets last year, but Ticketmaster’s loyalty belongs to their true customers: venues and promoters. Ticketmaster secures its monopoly by goading them into multi-year agreements that empower Ticketmaster to act as their exclusive vendor. In exchange, Ticketmaster gives them money. Lots and lots of money. Several million dollars upfront, sometimes.

Click the link below for the full, eye opening article.

Ticketmaster Is Evil And Must Die [Consumerist.com]

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Steps to creating a new Internet Meme:

1. Find a cheesy ’80s music video that everyone is familiar with [CHECK]
2. Overdub cheesy ’80s video with your own soundtrack which explains, in song, what is literally happening in the video [CHECK]
3. Post video to YouTube [CHECK]
4. Get link posted on BoingBoing [CHECK]
5. Repeat

Take On Me: Literal Video Version [YouTube via BoingBoing]

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Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) is a free software that stitches multiple photos together to create panoramas and 360-degree views. All you need to do is install the software and then drop your images into the window and ICE does all the work. After a few seconds of “solving” you’ll have a nearly, if not completely seamless panoramic available to export in a wide range of file types.

Having up until now dealt with AutoStitch, the often-frustrating stitching software bundled with my Canon camera, I nearly gave up on shooting for panoramics all together. (Ironically, one commenter on Lifehacker noticed that Matthew Brown, the original creator of AutoStitch, was once on the team at Microsoft Research’s Interactive Visual Media Group that developed ICE.)

I was skeptical about Microsoft ICE, until I started throwing all the panoramics I could at it, as it defiantly spewed back amazing results with no effort on my part. For instance, the NASCAR panoramic above, one of many I’ve taken over the years, even with all the straight lines of the track, moving clouds in the sky and thousands of people in the stands, I’m still having trouble spotting any noticable seams from the output provided by ICE.

Honestly, this is the first program in a long time that I’ve come away saying “Wow!” Even as a dedicated PC user, I’d have to say that Microsoft surprised me with this one. Microsoft ICE does one thing, does it extremely well and all without any useless features or confusing bloat. All software should be so streamlined. Pssst! Hey, Microsoft! More stuff like this, please!

Microsoft ICE works on Windows XP and Windows Vista with at least .NET Framework 2.0 installed.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor [via Lifehacker]

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YouTube Link [via BoingBoing]

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