Add this to the “everyone knew already but thanks for checking in” file: former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has revealed that President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were involved in the illegal outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, and lied about it. Said McClellan:

“I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice-president, the president’s chief of staff and the president himself.”

Obviously. Anyone with the barest hint of intelligence untainted by partisan idiocy could tell the Bush and Cheney were knee-deep in the Plame affair, and poor Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby was forced to take the fall to cover it up. This only cements Bush’s reputation as the worst president in American history, and Cheney’s full-nelson deathgrip on the ‘most evil man in America’ title.

And the really galling thing is that they’ll probably never be held to account for breaking the law and endangering a cover agent all for some partisan vendetta. I have no idea why the American people, usually loathe to tolerate malfeasance in their elected officials, aren’t demanding Bush and Cheney resign.

I correct myself: some folks are calling for their removal. Still, I can’t help but feel this is all too little, too late.

The men with flammable pants: time for some justice.

Giant aquatic scorpions. From the CBC:

The researchers said the scorpion lived between 460 and 255 million years ago and would have been among the top predators in its environment, feeding on early vertebrates and smaller arthropods…

…Some geologists believe that the giant arthropod evolved due to high oxygen levels, while others argue that they evolved in an “arms race” alongside their prey, the early armoured fish.

Arms race? How did that work? “Oh, so you’ve got armour. Yeah? Well I’m freakin’ huge“. It’s at this point in the fantasy where all the other fish start chanting “Served… served… served”.

I’m pleased that among its many other marvels, evolution also managed to make the world less terrifying. The 2cm spider outside my window makes me vaguely uncomfortable. An 8ft sea scorpion would make me insane.

If you can get past the 46cm claws, our giant friend here may actually be an efficient and carbon-neutral form of transportation.

If you’ve already purchased the Sesame Street: Old School, Volumes 1 & 2, you may have noticed something strange: they come with strange warnings:

“These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

The hell? How were my needs as a preschool child any different from today’s kids? Virginia Heffernan, author of the excellent The Medium blog at the NYT, is also concerned. Her post on Adults-Only Sesame Street is truly awesome.

Here’s a sample:

At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

In other words, Sesame Street is another victim of a society that treats children like ultra-breakable ming vases, denying them the opportunity to actually experience the world. I can tell you one thing: my kids will only watch the early episodes. I freaking hate Elmo.

The Cookie Monster. Parents beware: he can get a little blue.

2007 marks the 70th anniversary of the fiery destruction of giant airship and symbol of man’s monumental lack of respect for the explosive power of hyrdogen, the Hindenburg. And what better way to ceommemorate than to launch a giant airship of your own? Nippon Airship, banking on the eternal appeal of going places very slowly, will launch Zeppelin NT later this week. Yes, the dirigible is not just for football games anymore.

The new airship is the largest in the world, at some 75 meters long- roughly the length of a jumbo jet. It was built by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, a company that apparently stays afloat despite an annual global dirigible deman of about 3 units. And the new airship is nothing if not horribly inefficient. Whereas a 747 can accomodate around 400 passenges, the NT can hold eight people. Eight people, incidentally, who are somehow able to spend around $1100 for a 90 minute flight. I tells yah, it’s the only way to travel.

I should point out that the NT is filled with helium. That’s right, good ol’ non-explosive helium. As well as being safer than the hydrogen-deathtrap Hindenburg, the NT also has the potential to turn any slow-leak situation into a hilarious spectacle. Just imagine the passengers attempting to cope with an emergency in squeaky, high-pitched voices.

In related news, Mothership, the Led Zeppelin greatest hits collection, is in stores now.

Zeppelin NT en route to Japan. For some reason, they had to send it by ship, despite the fact it can, you know, fly.

I think the enduring appeal of books and magazines in this oh-so-ditigal world of ours is their potential to be things of genuine and surprising beauty. With that in mind, check out The Book Design Review’s 25 best book covers and The American Society of Magazine Editor’s best magazine covers of 2007.

They’re all great, but I must confess to having a favourite:

Ever since the Ghostbusters film franchise went mysteriously dark in 1989, the rumour mill has been awash in stories that a third installment of the truly awesome sci-fi/comedy series was in the works. If these reports were to be believed, it was going to be called something like “Ghostbusters 3: Ghostbusters Go to Hell”. But nothing ever happened. And then the Friday the 13th films ripped off the title, and sent Jason to Hell instead. And then, Dan Ackroyd confirmed in early 2007 that the new film would be called “Ghostbusters: Hellbent“, would star Ben Stiller, and would be all CGI.

Yikes.

As of this writing, there’s still not a lot of evidence to suggest a new GB film is in the works. But there’s some exciting news out about the next best thing: a Ghostbuster III video game, written by Ackroyd and Harold Ramis (aka Ray and Egon). Here’s some actual in-game footage, and some nerdish folks talking about it:

Looks pretty great. Still, it’s unclear if this is a companion piece to a new GB film, or a stand-alone project. If it’s the latter, then chalk one up for the convergence visionaries. In their world, video games are the new sequels. 

Nov. 19, 2007 marks the 144th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s inconic Gettysburg Address, one of the greatest- and shortest- speeches ever made. Fitting that today would also see the discovery of a new photo of Honest Abe, moments before he delivered his legendary address.

The photo was found by an amateur historian with a thing for steroscopic images of Gettysburg. Stereoscopy is a method for creating 3-D images by placing two, slightly different images of the same subject in a special viewer. That’s right, folks. The new Lincoln photographs are three-dimensional.

Photos of Lincoln, 3-D or otherwise, are extremely rare. There are only about 130 known examples, only one of which depicts the 16th President of the United States at Gettysburg.

The photographic discovery has not yet been confirmed by the Library of Congress, but its veracity seems pretty solid. I mean, how many other 6′4″, beared men wearing a stove-pipe hat could there have been in Gettysburg that day?