As announced last Friday, the world’s most irresponsibly deadly animated metal band, Dethklok, will be hitting the road starting June 2nd to annihilate the masses in real time. This is of course exciting in and of itself. But in addition, the barbaric five piece has been busy sharpening their guitar headstocks and Flying V tail fins for decapitations/impalings on the continuation of their second season on [adult swim], which will premier Sunday, May 18th at the only time imaginable (midnight). This follows up a wildly successful start:

In fall 2007, a real-life version of Dethklok, led by co-creator Brendon Small, embarked on a national tour, playing at college campuses around the United States. The college tour heralded the release of the hugely successful album The Dethalbum. The album features songs written and performed by Small from the first season of Metalocalypse, and it debuted at #21 on the Billboard Top 200 as the highest-charting death metal album of all time. Dethklok will embark on its second nationwide tour this summer when Adult Swim Presents Metalocalype’s Dethklok kicks-off on June 2 and travels to 28 cities.

Now that the US Supreme Court has ruled to uphold the use of lethal injections as a form of capital punishment, the state of California is chomping at the bit to off some of its more undesirable residents.

California hasn’t killed anyone since January 2006 when it sent 76-year-old triple murderer Clarence Allen down the River Styx. He was the oldest inmate on death row at the time and had his sentence delayed for health and age reasons. I guess they need to be good and healthy to die. There is, however, another hurdle to clear before the killings can continue.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose had ordered a temporary halt to executions in California after finding the state’s lethal injection procedures were unconstitutional. A decision by Fogel on whether a new execution protocol by the state meets constitutional requirements is pending.

A hearing in the case has been set for June, but [Chief Assistant Attorney General Dane] Gillette said it may be moved up as a result of today’s high court ruling. The state plans to ask Fogel to lift his court order and permit executions to resume.

Even if Fogel rules quickly for the state, another legal challenge pending in a California appellate court will prevent the state from executing inmates immediately. Gillette said the state would press for a quick resolution in that case, which was unaffected by the Supreme Court decision.

Once the executions resume, they’ll be housed in fancy new digs.

State officials last year began building a larger, better illuminated death chamber designed for lethal injection executions. Gillette said construction has been completed.

The old facility, built in 1937 as the state’s gas chamber, was criticized as dimly lit and crowded, relegating executioners outside the death room and making it difficult for them to properly monitor possible problems with the intravenous drug injections.

The new chamber cost $399,000 to build, which meant it didn’t need legislative approval. Gillette said it’s “certainly feasible” for executions to resume by the end of the year, at a clip of one lethal injection per month.

Heidi Montag was on TRL yesterday with Nelly and some dude that was sitting on his couch with a hand held camera decided to tape it. The quality isn’t great (cinematography wise) but the content is simply amazing. Our favorite Hills character Montag attempted to freestyle and it truly shows the depth of just how bad she actually sucks. Plus, I have a theory that she was actually created in a lab and is an no talent assclown cyborg from the future.

John A. Wheeler died of pneumonia Sunday at his home in Hightstown, NJ. He was 96 years old. Wheeler was a contemporary of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr and had been credited with coining the phrase “black hole” in reference to a collapsed star. If it weren’t for Wheeler, the term might have been the less-sexy “gravitationally completely collapsed star,” which would have been sucky.

Wheeler also had a hand in the creation of the atomic bomb. Unlike other people involved with the project, Wheeler’s only regret was that it wasn’t completed sooner to bring a faster end to the European theater of World War II, which claimed the life of his brother Joe in 1944. Wheeler later helped develop the hydrogen bomb.

Receiving his doctorate at just 21 years old, Wheeler also taught at Princeton and the University of Texas at Austin (Hook ‘em Horns!). One of his students was Richard Feynman, who went on to win the Noble Prize in 1965. Wheeler is survived by three children as well as some grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

It’s not as if most reasoning humans couldn’t have foreseen the day when science would tamper with the chain of life so drastically, but now there seems to be unmitigated technology to clone a human child.

Scientists used the the procedure to create baby mice from the skin cells of adult animals, and have found it more efficient than the revered “Dolly” technique - the process forged to create the world’s first cloned being, a sheep named Dolly.

Unlike the Dolly technique, however, the procedure is so simple and efficient that it has raised fears that it will be seized on by IVF doctors to help infertile couples who are eager to have their own biological children.

One scientist said this weekend that a maverick attempt to perform the technique on humans is now too real to ignore. “It’s unethical and unsafe, but someone may be doing it today,” said Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of American biotechnology company Advanced Cell Technology.

“Cloning isn’t here now, but with this new technique we have the technology that can actually produce a child. If this was applied to humans it would be enormously important and troublesome,” said Dr Lanza, whose company has pioneered developments in stem cells and cell reprogramming.

“It raises the same issues as reproductive cloning and although the technology for reproductive cloning in humans doesn’t exist, with this breakthrough we now have a working technology whereby anyone, young or old, fertile or infertile, straight or gay can pass on their genes to a child by using just a few skin cells,” he said.

The technique involves the genetic reprogramming of skin cells so they revert to an embryonic-like state. Last year, when the breakthrough was used on human skin cells for the first time, it was lauded by the Catholic Church and President George Bush as a morally acceptable way of producing embryonic stem cells without having to create or destroy human embryos.

However, the same technique has already been used in another way to reproduce offspring of laboratory mice that are either full clones or genetic “chimeras” of the adult mouse whose skin cells were reprogrammed.

Comforting to know that George W. Bush backs yet another potentially cataclysmic moral and ethical can of worms. Either way, this is something that should be scaring the hell out of everyone. I’ve seen Star Wars waaaaay too many times to ignore the threat of an army of clones. Granted, the ones forged by scientists might be more calculus-savvy, and not so much Jengo Fett, but the potential is frightening.

Here’s a link to a super uplifting post on io9.com called 12 Ways To Prepare For The Next Great Depression. I’m going to start stockpiling coffee and dried meats.

Get out of your mortgage before the housing market collapses any further. As this site says, if you paid $300,000 for your house and it sells for $200,000, you could end up not owning your house and owing the bank $100,000.

Buy some cheap land in a rural area. Build a house, or just get a used RV. Either way, make sure you own your home free and clear, so you can live rent-free and mortgage-free for as long as you need to.

Go off the grid. Get your own power generator — or, better yet, some of those solar helium balloons. Or some wind turbines. Don’t be dependent on the power company to keep all your necessities running.

Cultivate some skills that will always be in demand. Become a decent electrician, handy-person, carpenter or cook. There may not be much need for someone who understands content management systems during a total economic shutdown, but someone who can build a house will always have a place to crash.

Go read the rest and start saving that canned food.