A Georgia restaurant owner has come under heat after selling T-shirts depicting a picture of Curious George eating a banana with “Obama in ‘08″ written underneath. The proprietor, Mike Norman, claimed ignorance to the racist connotations, claiming his motive was simply that Obama and the cartoon character “look so much alike.” Curious George publisher Houghton Mifflin has denounced the characterization, and a dozen Cobb County, GA residents protested outside Norman’s restaurant.

Southeast regional director for the Anti-Defamation League Bill Nigut had this to say of Norman: “He can pretend he doesn’t understand what the message of that T-shirt is, but he knows full well that’s an offensive and demeaning stereotype used to insult African-Americans.”

“Look so much alike”? Yeah buddy, nice try. Either you’re openly racist, or a complete and utter dumbshit. But I guess if you’re the former, you also qualify as the latter…

If you’re a college student, right about now you’re probably in the throws of some epic study seshes for your upcoming finals. So is Moshe Cavalin, a second year student at East Los Angeles College, working hard to maintain his A+ average. He also happens to be 10 fucking years old:

“I’m studying statistics,” says the alternately precocious and shy Cavalin, his textbook lying open on the living room desk of his parents’ apartment in this quiet suburb east of Los Angeles.

Within a year, if he keeps up his grades and completes the rest of his requirements, he hopes to transfer from his two-year program at East Los Angeles College to a prestigious four-year school and study astrophysics.

Kinda makes you want to give up and just get a job sweeping floors somewhere, huh? Actually it makes me want to have a bunch of kids in the hopes that one of them turns out like Moshe and eventually figures out the meaning of life. Mine will probably just be a bunch of fucking jerks though.

Today NASA announced that they’ve discovered a recent supernova - recent in geological terms (140 years ago). I do know that a “Supernova” is the term when a star explodes, but apart from that I’m not even going to pretend I know anything about interstellar physics. So let’s let the professionals discuss this one, shall we?

From Nasa:

The supernova explosion occurred about 140 years ago, making it the most recent in the Milky Way. Previously, the last known supernova in our galaxy occurred around 1680, an estimate based on the expansion of its remnant, Cassiopeia A.

Finding such a recent, obscured supernova is a first step in making a better estimate of how often the stellar explosions occur. This is important because supernovae heat and redistribute large amounts of gas, and pump heavy elements out into their surroundings. They can trigger the formation of new stars as part of a cycle of stellar death and rebirth. The explosion also can leave behind, in addition to the expanding remnant, a central neutron star or black hole.

Sweet! You see, they did a much better job of explaining that than I. I could discuss how badass John Squire’s guest lead guitar playing was in Oasis’ “Champagne Supernova,” but that’s as close as I would get. I say let the techies and Trekkies handle this one:

From Wired News:

Scientists using a combination of radio and X-rays have found the most recent supernova remnant observed in our galaxy, located about 26,000 light-years from here. It’s the youngest, most energetic supernova we know and could shed light on just exactly how the stardust we’re made of — heavier elements and all — gets created. The finding also lends some support to astronomers’ calculations that there should be about three supernovae in our galaxy per century, although they still need to find dozens more similar supernova remnants to confirm their suspicions.

Here’s a video of a famous supernova.

One of them was an extra on the Lord of the Rings. The other one looks like an ogre librarian. Together they are Flight of the Conchords, and they leave Tenacious D quaking in their boots. Here’s the premeire of their video for “Ladies of the World,” available on Sub Pop records.