The FCC has released a policy statement intended to help guide broadcasters understand how it determines decency and indecency, but in reading it, I can’t get over how entertaining it is simply standing alone. The excerpts of things that have been sanctioned by the FCC range from hilarious to sick; also interesting is how much DJs try to get around the rules, and how little the FCC lets them. (In addition, I had no idea that the Monty Python “Sit On My Face” lyrics had been found to be indecent by the FCC!)

NASA launched the Mars Odyssey surveyor this morning, starting its 6-month trip to the Red Planet on the hunt for water. The best part of the launch is that there were on-rocket cameras; from the launching pad to takeoff to booster separation to bare-bones, the images are pretty damn cool. The Houston Chronicle also has a seven-minute video from the on-rocket camera… whoa.

Do yourself a favor and check out the two stunning pictures that are part of MSNBC’s Week in Pictures — dog with tigers and spiral galaxy. (The home link is here; after this week, it will most likely move here.)

Speaking of pictures, the Astronomy Picture of the Day site had a great week. First came Aurora Alaskan Style, a great picture of the hazy aurora over Fairbanks caused by the sun’s massive ejection last week. Then, APOD displayed Equinox + 1, an image of the sun rising above an east-west water canal in Tempe. And lastly, they reported on the American victory over the Russians in the first space Quidditch match (which, if you hadn’t guessed, was their contribution to this year’s April Fools library).

Is there something I’m missing in this quote?

The Senate needs to leave enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person’s race.

This week, I decided to build myself a new, blazing desktop, and last night was the night I brought everything home to build the beast. I learned a few things: those infernal rear-panel punchout templates can make or break an ATX computer case, all PC133 SDRAM is not the same, and always upgrade to the latest motherboard BIOS before beginning the installation. All in all, though, everything went as it should have, and I’m very happy with my new machine.

Which leads to a minor note: this server will be down for a few minutes later today, so that I can upgrade a piece of hardware that was pulled out of my old desktop.