Weekend Web Dump

Since we're headed into the weekend that will be spent (by some) in various states of Guinness and Corned Beef nirvana, I thought we'd go into the weekend with a smattering of links from around the web that ought to keep you all occupied once you've sobered up.  Or something.

First, there are a lot more stars now.  Or to be more specific, there are a lot more objects in the universe as we know it.  Some of them might be asteroids hell-bent on destroying our planet, but hey, that's why we went looking in the first place, right?   

 And speaking of space, we now have a date for the first attempt at a private space vehicle docking with the International Space Station.  SpaceX's attempt this spring will not be any massive technological leap, but it's a huge deal for those of us who'd like to see someone continue to explore possible solutions for getting off this rock.  (See also: hurtling asteroids)

Good news for physicists everywhere.  All that homework they did predicated on the idea that nothing with mass can move faster than light is still valid...for now.  It looks like those neutrinos weren't moving faster than light afterall.  Personally, I was hoping they had, if only because it would have called into question most of the last century's physics--and that kind of thing is always fun.  

In the vein of time travel, here's a neat opensource prject called ChronoZoom, which will certainly come in handy if you ever need to explain to someone just how small human history is on the scale of time as we can measure it.  Or if you ever have a couple hours to kill.  

Last but certainly not least is the news that Netflix has made a deal with TED, the extemely popular ideas conference, to bring curated TED Talk Shows to their sttreaming library.  Hopefully this will bring this format a wider audience.