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The Auto Assault 12 Combat Shotgun is the first built from the ground up specifically for the military. “There’s no way that anybody within 200 yards can face this weapon and survive it. It’s just destroying everything in it’s path. …”

This picture of a crater resembling a “happy face” (click to enlarge) was acquired by the Context Camera (CTX) on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on January 28, 2008.

The unnamed crater is about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) across. It is located among the Nereidum Montes, north of the Argyre basin. North is toward the right and sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper right. Credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS

This isn’t the first happy-looking crater to be photographed from Mars. A more famous one, otherwise known as Galle crater, has been imaged by Viking, Mars Global Surveyor and by Mars Express (that one made the cover of the March/April 2007 issue of The Planetary Report).

But I really like this one; it’s more goofy.

Great game notwithstanding, for some the Super Bowl is all about the commercials. There were some pretty good ones this year. These were some of my favorites:

Bud Light - Breathe Fire

Pepsi - Magnetic Attraction

Diet Pepsi Max - What is Love

Audi - Truth in Engineering

Budweiser - Clydesdale Team

FedEx - Carrier Pigeons

Bud Light - Wheel Suck

Bud Light - Jackie Moon

In what was perhaps one of the best Super Bowl games in recent memory and maybe the most watched in Super Bowl history, the New York Giants ripped victory from the jaws of the New England Patriots with 35 seconds remaining in the game to clinch the title and spoil the Pats’ hopes for a record 19-0 perfect season. The Patriots had one last gasp to try to regain their lead and save the game, but Tom Brady’s desperation pass on fourth down fell incomplete. NFL Game Center has the stats and key plays.

Dawn and I watched the game with a group of close friends on Michael & Sisko’s new 73-inch Hi-Def flat screen TV. Now, that’s the way to watch the Super Bowl! We still had all the yelling and screaming those at UofP Stadium experienced, but with far better seats, much better company and, without a doubt, way better food. After the game, we retired to our hosts’ cigar room and enjoyed some of Michael’s finest, perfectly paired with appropriate wines and engaging conversation. It was a wonderful Super Bowl party!

Today I’ll be licking my wounds, paying off a couple of bets I’d made on the Pats, and collecting on one I made (no points!) on the Giants. All in all I came out about even.

Mike sent this in response to last week’s post about exotic juices. A hidden camera settles the debate once and for all…

I was going to post something this morning about the NFL cheerleaders participating in this year’s big game. But the Giants don’t even have official cheerleaders! How lame is that?

Let’s face it, the Super Bowl has evolved into a colossal economic event. From hotels, to commercials, to ticket sales, it dwarfs every other sports event by a mile. And when it comes to the reselling of tickets, the melding of technology and the law of supply and demand have created a buying frenzy nothing short of “shock and awe.” This years average ticket price? $4,322!

Here’s the breakdown: University of Phoenix Stadium will seat 75,000 for Super Bowl XLII. The Patriots and Giants each received 17.5 percent of the available tickets. After the teams dealt with their own needs (key sponsors, owners and others), each held ticket lotteries to distribute the remaining tickets to their season ticket holders. Usually, Super Bowl teams weight the lottery based on the number of years someone has been a season ticket holder. The Cardinals received 5 percent for hosting the game. The other 29 NFL teams split 34.8 percent of the tickets. Most tickets allotted to individual teams are shared with corporate sponsors and season-ticket holders. The NFL offices retained 25.2 percent of the seats, most of which end up with sponsors and league officials. The 1,000 tickets made available to the public come out of the league’s share.

Face value for Super Bowl XLII tickets is $700 and $900, but “Street” or resell prices surge close to $4,000. Asking prices for tomorrow’s game range from $2,450 to $19,446 at StubHub, a unit of eBay Inc. and the biggest of the online resellers. Officials there say the average price so far is $4,300 for tickets that the National Football League originally priced at either $700 or $900.

How much did tickets cost for Super Bowl I? $6 and $12. And the Los Angeles Coliseum, the host of Super Bowl I, wasn’t even sold out that first Super Sunday when the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs!

So most of us will be watching the game from the comfort of our living rooms on big screen TVs. We’ll have better seats, instant replay, cheaper beer and better company. Is it the same as being there? Of course not. But we won’t have to mortgage our homes to enjoy the game, either.

How do I predict the game will end? Well, I never predict. But after the Patriots win their fourth Super Bowl in seven years and become only the second team in National Football League history to finish an entire NFL season undefeated (Dolphins in 1972, 17-0), I’ll collect my winnings and talk about the game with dear friends while we sip a little wine and perhaps light up a fine Cuban. Later, Dawn and I will drive home, about a 25 minute trip, and think, ever so briefly and with a smile, about the poor fools who paid a big chunk of their annual salaries to see the game at UP Stadium and are now stuck in two hours of heavy traffic trying to get back to their hotels. Yes, life is good.

So I was flipping through my friend Steve Jobs’ diary (honest!) and discovered that he doesn’t particularly care for football. Wasn’t even aware of Sunday’s Super Bowl. Seems he’s partial to European sports like cycling and cross-country skiing, and thinks it’s outrageous that we don’t have tai chi on television in this country the way they do in every country in Asia. Who knew?

Well, I and everyone else I know will certainly be watching the big game. And the megabuck ads. Fox is asking as much as $2.6 million to $3 million for a 30 second spot!

Did Steve buy one? Apple’s not on the lineup but, with Steve, you never know.

This dreamlike view looking south from the historic mountain top Pic du Midi Observatory combines moonlit domes, a winter night sky, and the snowy peaks of the French Pyrenees. Encroaching on the night, lights from the La Mongie ski resort illuminate the mountain slopes nearby while the glow along the distant horizon is from urban areas in southern France and Spain. The image was NASA’s January 25 Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Leave it to San Francisco to experiment with a new way to brew the perfect cup of java. Coffee nervana? Perhaps, if you can believe the publicity.

Called a siphon bar, it was imported from Japan by San Francisco’s newly opened Blue Bottle Café at a total cost of more than $20,000. The cafe has the only halogen-powered model in the United States, and getting it here required years of elliptical discussions with its importer, Jay Egami of the Ueshima Coffee Company.

Professionals have long been willing to pay prices in the five figures for the perfect espresso machine, but the siphon bar doesn’t make espresso - It makes brewed coffee. Here’s how it works: A siphon pot has two stacked glass globes. As water vapor forces water into the upper globe, the coffee grounds are stirred by hand with a bamboo paddle. The goal is to create a deep whirlpool in no more than four turns without touching the glass.

Siphon coffee has a brewing cycle of 45 to 90 seconds. Is it really “all that?” James Freeman, owner of the Blue Bottle, is betting it is. And he may be right. Another system, the $11,000 Clover, has been gaining in popularity. Still something of a cult object with just over 200 machines scattered around the world, it makes one cup at a time. But it might soon become a common sight: Starbucks has just bought two.

Dawn and I plan on dropping by the Blue Bottle next time we’re in the City. I’ll let you know if we think the siphon bar really brews the perfect cuppa.

The German Bo-105 is a light twin engine multi purpose utility helicopter initially developed by Bölkow, and then built by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) which now belongs to the Eurocopter Group. Eurocopter sold the Bo 105 until 1997. It was replaced by the new EC 135.

Being the first light twin-engine helicopter in commercial service, it gained widespread use over rural areas (police and EMS/medevac) as well as offshore. The four-blade hingeless main rotor with composite blades ensures extreme maneuverability. All main systems (hydraulics, electric, fuel, lubrication) were designed to be fully redundant. The pilot is Charlie Zimmermann, German helicopter aerobatic champion.

Thanks Michael!