After some severe set backs last year



The world's biggest physics experiment is ready for a restart this weekend



CERN - The LHC is back

I do appreciate some history and a good visualization.
Pedro M Cruz illustrates the rise and fall of four empires over the last two centuries, like simple organisms.



(via Neatorama)

It seems I'm a sucker for some Sagan.

• Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan
  
  

Which, thanks to YouTube and auto-tune, was more recently followed by:

• A Glorious Dawn - Carl Sagan ft Stephen Hawking
• We Are All Connected - Sagan, Feynman, Tyson, & Nye

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via BrianPickings - Carl Sagan + Sigur Rós & Physorg - Glorious Dawn: Sagan, Hawking Sing
SymphonyOfScience

Niftiest thing I've seen in a while:
The club-winged manakin Bird "Sings" Through Feathers.

Germans in the Woods by Rauch Brothers Animation in association with StoryCorps

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1515 Operation Enduring Freedom
4680 Operation Iraqi Freedom
So it goes.

iCasualties.org, defenselink.mil

By a narrow margin, the Affordable Health Care for America Act was passed by the U.S. House last night. That was the easy part, it's still a long way from law.
For anyone who feels like fact-checking the pundits, the full bill as introduced is available through the Library of Congress:

H.R.3962 Affordable Health Care for America Act (Introduced in House)

Scanning through it, I imagine nearly everyone would agree in principle with at least some parts, unless they've been eating Libertarian cool-aid straight from the packet.

Text of amendments can be found in the House Floor Proceedings for Nov 7.
Also available is the CBO cost assessment, which projects a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $109 billion over ten years if it is enacted.

Lu Guang photographic documentary: “Pollution in China”

Chris Jordan photographs albatross chicks on the Midway Atoll.

They were overdue. My last pair was a few years old.
I didn't bother with contacts. Maybe next time. Lately, their inconvenience and irritation hasn't seemed worth the effort for an image, a little illusion of better genetics. As for lasik, most I know who've had it seem satisfied, but a brief stint working in optics impressed on me that it is best not to be shot in the eye with a laser, and there are those rare adverse effects.
So glasses for now.