stephen colbert

NASA wants your vote on what to name its SUV-sized Mars Science Laboratory that remains parked on Earth until 2011 -- but Stephen Colbert won't get the chance to add this piece of space hardware as a new namesake.

No longer content with simply having bridges and minor league hockey mascots named after him, Stephen Colbert has taken his quest for domination beyond the stratosphere. The results from NASA’s contest to name Node 3, a new International Space Station module, are in. The write-in winner? “Colbert.”

From the same state that scuttled Stephen Colberts presidential election campaign (South Carolina), comes the Zipit Wireless Messenger 2 (Z2). Building on the limited successes of the original Zipit Wireless Messenger which was released in 2004, Zipit Wireless, Inc. has upgraded the palm-sized instant messenger with a handful of nice features and a $149.99 price tag. A color LCD with 320x240 resolution, mini-SD port, backlit keyboard, MP3 music playing capability, and image viewing software are standard features of the Z2. There is no mention of a Linux OS kernel, though. And it was that very feature that endeared the original Zipit to DIYers. Linux in the palm of your hand for less than one hundred bucks. Now those were the days.

(Image: Zipit Wireless)

Yes, he's joking. Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert is always joking, in a serious, important kind of way. But his strange new half-novel, half-comic-book, Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure is, for the Popular Science fan, light years beyond funny.

A good mix of intergalactic politics, ridiculously absurd technology and Colbert's unique brand of vanity, the Tek Jansen novel, available here, is best read in bits. But you might also want to try skimming the glossary for the definition of terms like autoslide or the Sterling Photochromic Memorachip. Whereas the book has an old-school, cobbled-together, geocities-era look, the comic is slick, well-drawn and professionally done. Tek, the Colbert-based hero, has a radioactive robotic monkey sidekick, loads of girlfriends and a giant energy void for an enemy. He's also naked for the last few pages of the first issue.—Gregory Mone

You know how much we here at PopSci HQ love animal-related live web cams— well, I spotted another one today that takes the herds of drinking wildebeests we couldn't stop watching last fall and raises them an adorable newborn symbol of our nation. That's right, a spiky-haired baby bald eagle recently hatched in California's Santa Cruz Island National Park, and the good folks at the Nature Conservancy have a 24-hour streaming nest cam to monitor the proceedings. Bets on how long it takes for Stephen Colbert to pick this up? —John Mahoney

Link [nature.org]