Before, they didn't know what the hole's origin was. Now they have a theory: According to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters, the vertical cave—"213 feet (65 meters) across and some 262 to 289 feet deep (80-88 meters)"—may be a collapsed lava tube, which could provide a perfect shelter for a future moon base:

Lava tubes, underground cave-like channels through which lava once flowed, are commonly found on Earth. Because lava tubes are sheltered from the harsh environment on the moon's surface, such tubes could one day be useful for lunar bases.

Their theory is that the flowing lava left the tunnel a long time ago, with a lava roof that later collapsed.

I'm reading their report and only two things come to my mind. One, the awesome lunar base in Stanley Kubrick's 2001. Two, a sci-fi horror movie flick directed by Roger Corman, in which the moon base is invaded by slimy aliens, pissed off because the humans built their base on top of the entrance of their hidden colony. Based on real events, of course.

OK, maybe I have three things in mind, because now I can see Sybil Danning there too, as the queen in "Amazon Women on the Moon." No hole connection there, though. Or maybe there is. I don't know. Whatever. Leave me alone. I'm drunk.

[Space]

Anthony Quintano also sent us this video on the setup of the camera that will offer the closest view of the time ball tonight, broadcasting the event to the entire world.

I'm not surprised, because it's a truly unique moment, one that happens at Saturn's equinox, which is an event that only happens twice in 10,179 Earth days. And this time, we had Cassini there to take this amazing photo, just when the sun illuminates the rings edge-on. As Carolyn Porco—Cassini imaging team leader—puts it:

The geometry revealed structures and phenomena in the rings we had never seen before. We saw this famous adornment spring from two dimensions into three, with some ring structures soaring as high as the Rocky Mountains. It made me feel blessed.

The team used Cassini during a week to take photos of vertical clumps in the ring, and when the equinox happened, they could measure their true size looking at the shadows. According to NASA's Bob Pappalardo at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time. This is among the most important events Cassini has shown us.

Well, Bob and Carolyn, Carolyn and Bob and the rest of the Cassini team, all I can say is thank you for an amazing work, and the stunning desktop backgrounds in 2009. [NASA Full Resolution Image]

A remote wand for controlling the operations of a media system is provided. The wand may be operative to control the movement of a cursor displayed on screen by the position and orientation at which the wand is held. As the user moves the wand, the on-screen cursor may move. The user may use the wand to control a plurality of operations and applications that may be available from the media system, including for example zoom operations, a keyboard application, an image application, an illustration application, and a media application.

I wish they fixed Apple TV instead, so it could play any media, and not only iTunes-branded stuff. Actually, if I were Apple, I will forget about wands and license Microsoft Natal to integrate it in all their computers, especially the iMac. [MacRumors]

But then again, I'm a Lego sucker. Big time. So, while the Lego Photo application is obviously not my dream virtual Lego construction app, I definitely like it very much. It's elegant, well designed, and the results—which convert your images into pretty 1x1 Lego mosaics—are pretty.

I wish they add an option to give you a list of bricks needed to complete the mosaic in real life. [iTunes—Thanks John]

It's quite clever. The app responds to motion, clinking when you do the toast, with the champagne moving like it will do in a real glass.

It has two modes: Standalone and toast with another iPhone. The latest is the funnest, as you can exchange contact information with the other iPhone owner when you toast, and have the toast appear automatically in Facebook. [iTunes Store]

The technical name for this is coitus interruptus.

The possibility of Apophis hitting our home planet problem is extremely remote. When it passed by in 2004, the probability was 2.7%. The next flyby will happen in 2029. Predictions say that there will be no possibility of impact at that time. In 2036, the latest simulations models point out that the probability will 1 in 250,000. Extremely low, but still higher than the odds of being hit by lightning. Furthermore, NASA says that Apophis is not large enough to create a global catastrophe.

Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian's Federal Space Agency, disagrees. He says that a "scientist recently told him" that Apophis may hit Earth in 2032. If that happens, there's a big chance of it hitting Russia, as most of the south of the country is right on the path of impact risk. The mission, according to Perminov, would not use nuclear weapons, just the laws of physics.

I don't know who is right here, but I have mixed feelings. On one side, if the Russians make any mistakes, they may cause a cosmic clusterfuck. On the other, I'm happy that someone is doing something about this. While there is no official announcement about what the project would be, it's nice to see that someone considering building an space interceptor. [Space, Nuclear Stockpile, Wikipedia]

The image—released last week—was created by combining three exposures using red, green, and blue spectral filters, which results in a natural view, showing the true color of saturn. Cassini was taken 808,000 miles away, and each pixel in the full resolution image represents 45 miles. [NASA—Full resolution image]

That's what Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab—the crotchbomber—did, and that's what he wrote about himself. He was just a sad lonely loser trying to find an online friend or a wife. Writing under the name Farouk1986, the fortunately-failed terrorist wrote 310 posts in Gawaher's Islamic Forum. His writings, adorned with sad emoticons exactly like the yellow one above, read like this:

First of all, i have no friend. Not because i do not socialise, etc but because either people do not want to get too close to me as they go partying and stuff while i dont, or they are bad people who befriend me and influence me to do bad things. Hence i am in a situation where i do not have a friend, i have no one to speak too, no one to consult, no one to support me and i feel depressed and lonely. i do not know what to do. And then i think this loneliness leads me to other problems. As i get lonely, the natural sexual drive awakens and i struggle to control it, sometimes leading to minor sinful activities like not lowering the gaze.

I'm sorry that you were such a bloody lonely loser, Faruk, but I feel no sympathy for someone who turns his sadness or loneliness into so much hate that he decides to take the live of hundreds of innocent people in an airplane. That's not a nice way to make friends. [Gawaher via Danger Room via Boing Boing]

Correction: I posted the wrong quote following Boing Boing. My apologies for not checking it first. The above is the correct quote. Needless to say, my opinion still stands: Zero sympathy for people who try to mass murder.

The Lego version of the classic Nebulon-B Class rebel frigate Redemption is 4 feet and 6 inches long. That's 172 studs long, and I'm not talking about The Hoff. It's big enough to dock one mini-Millennium Falcon and three X-Wings. [MOC via Brothers Brick]

But it has to be a silk robe with a drawing of David Hasselhoff embroidered on the back.

What I really want is to turn on the gas fireplace, and display a looping fireplace background video on the special TV. Why? Because I secretly hope to destroy the Universe one day. [Helex via Bornrich]

I am the developer of Tits & Boobies and Pussy Lovers.

I received a call from someone at Apple and he said that the apps were being removed from the store as they were deemed inappropriate for the iTunes Store. Although I did not ask him if they received complaints, upon inquiring about what it was that was inappropriate about the apps, I was told that the title did not match the content and was asked to change the title and the "Education" category. I asked him if I could change the content instead, as there were other similarly named apps on the store, and got back something that equated to a maybe (though he did specifically say that they weren't asking me to put pictures of Vaginas in the Pussy Lovers app).

Essentially my understanding is that it is okay to sell an app on the store called Tits and Boobies as long as it has pictures of women's breasts (the more common meaning of those words) but it is not okay to sell a funny app called Tits and Boobies that has pictures of birds in it. Those apps are quite popular with combined over 300,000 downloads and most people we have shown them to get a laugh out of them and use them to play pranks on friends.

From a developer's perspective, we just want some consistency and more communication in the way the apps are reviewed and featured on the iTunes Store. Our Kamasutra application was initially rejected twice for containing inappropriate content even though it was rated 17+. Recently we discovered other similarly themed apps on Sexual Positions in the store and re-submitted and it was approved this time around. When where the policies in the store changed and why were we not informed so that we had an opportunity to resubmit our app.

Editor's note

This is a new twist to the old Apple iPhone app rejection story. This time it is not the content, but the "mismatch" between title and rated G content, even while the text is technically accurate. They have to change the content—although no vaginas would be ever allowed in the iPhone—or change the titles and categories. And there's no way around that.

I can see Apple's side of the story: The title and descriptions may be correct, but obviously designed to be misleading. Even while there is no real harm if someone makes the mistake—the applications were free—it sets a precedent.

But Samir has a point too. The apps are harmless, the descriptions are technically accurate, and the content is completely clean and apt for people of any age. Yet, other apps with the same descriptions, and full of potentially conflictive content—at the public relations level—are available for purchase in the store.

At the end, the fact is that the rules are still confusing. The apps were approved for the Education category after the titles were censored by Apple. So I guess that there was an active effort to test the app, understand what it does, and approve it according to whatever guidelines the iTunes Store people use. So why take it down? Just because it got published in Gizmodo and it was put under the spotlight? Was it just a mistake on the approval level? Or did Apple make this new rule after the article, to avoid a public relations problem?

Whatever it is, one thing is clear to me: Nobody is ever going to be happy with this process, which I'm afraid will remain imperfect forever.—Jesús Díaz

Dear Google, you may be as evil as everyone else, but it's ok, after publishing Weekly World News in Google Books, I forgive you. [World Weekly News via Mleddy via BoingBoing]