Odd Lots: Exploding Comets, Sexuality, Karl Rove...and More!

Not only were there fireworks on the Fourth of July, there were explosions in space as well, as NASA's $333 million "Deep Impact" project crashed a probe into Tempel 1 comet and recorded the event from a nearby mothership (today's No. 22 top link). "Amazing," says the blogger at Spyndle.com. "Stratospherically irresponsible" retorted a Russian astrologer who sued NASA for possibly endangering the history of civilization (No. 9 link). Beneath the Pendulum blogger calls the lawsuit either "insane or inspired."

Always something sexy...
The sex-crazed among us have plenty of reading material today, including the New York Times' coverage of a new report on bisexuality (No. 2 link). Blogger Ken Sain says the issue hints at deeper issues and needs more study. An op-ed piece in the same publication blames heterosexuals -- not the gay community -- for most of the problems plaguing traditional marriage (No. 27 link). Pandagon sums up the piece with some feminist context. Meanwhile, the United Church of Christ has endorsed "full marriage equality," (No. 28 link) making the Christian Agnostic once again happy to be called Christian. Searches for the terms "full marriage equality" now cover the UCC's decision and recent votes in Canada, Belgium and Spain.

The Rove factor
And then there's Karl Rove, who's been identified as the Bush insider who talked to jail-bound reporters Matt Cooper and Judith Miller about the the identity of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. "Boy genius" is how Gawker describes the weird turn of events, while Lawrence O'Donnell at The Huffington Post calls it Rove's "I Did Not Inhale" defense. The News Hounds blog, ("we watch Fox News so you don't have to"), notes that since the Rove link has been alleged, the Foxies have been far less vociferous about the "news" value of the leaks.

Wooden iPods, Santorum's spoutings, and the life of pi
Other blog discoveries today include Flickr's collection of stylin' wooden cases for iPods, excerpts from Sen. Rick Santorum's upcoming book, and the tale of a Japanese man who recited pi to 83,000-plus characters. Infinitely impressive.