Celebrities don't die in threes

Do celebrities really die in threes? The answers is "No." Just look at this year's list of prominent deaths from recent weeks.

If there does happen to be three celebrity deaths in a row, it is just random.

A plane faster than a speeding bullet

Via Kottke.

The SR-71 Blackbird might be the most remarkable airplane ever built. The Smithsonian Magazine has a short profile of the plane:

Created as the ultimate spy plane, the SR-71, which first took to the air in December 1964, flew reconnaissance missions until 1990, capable of hurtling along at more than Mach 3, about 2,280 miles per hour—faster than a rifle bullet—at 85,000 feet, or 16 miles above the earth. It is the fastest jet-powered airplane ever built. At top speeds, the surface heat of the airframe could reach 900 degrees Fahrenheit. In their pressurized suits and breathing pure oxygen—mandated by the extreme altitude—the two-man crew looked like astronauts.

Pretty cool.

SportsCenter Top 10 play of the week

As I said before, always entertaining.

Aussie crop circle mystery solved: stoned wallabies

I'm not joking.

"We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles," the state's top lawmaker Lara Giddings told local media on Thursday.

"Then they crash. We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high," she said.

Though "Stoned Wallabies" would make a good name for a prog rock band.

Harold Ramis interviewed in GQ

Here is a very, very interesting interview of Harold Ramis in GQ. The only problem is that they don't have a single page option so you have to click "next" over the 11 pages of the interview. But it's worth it.

Here's a taste:

It seems like you’re the only one who didn’t end up on Saturday Night Live.
Lorne [Michaels] offered me a job, but at that point I was the head writer on SCTV. SNL was completely fueled by cocaine; the show was being written literally overnight. I didn’t want to stay up all night writing. And the show had a veneer of New York sophistication—very snide and superior. I thought, It’s just not me. Besides, we were already working on Animal House.