So while I feel like Talk like a Pirate Day (it’s today) has gotten a little old, people are free to celebrate whatever holiday they wish. However, I did wake up to this on my Twitter this morning:

and I think it’s fair to say that no one is going to be able to top that. The Mars Phoenix rover is the first recorded instance in history of a Space Pirate. I’m tipping my hat to you, NASA! We’re one step closer to the dream.

Due to hurricane Ike, Xero (xerjester.com) and Katy are in a bit of trouble. Katy’s job has been without power for a while now, so soon they will be facing a rent problem thanks to the hurricane.

Xero has it up on his site that he’s taking commissions to try to make up for the lost wages. He will do color work, concept art, inking, web design, music, or get a wallpaper if anyone wants to donate instead.

Thanks for listening.

According to this story, a 12-year old boy in Oregon has developed a new kind of solar cell, one that can collect both visible and UV light. It has 500 times the light absorption of current solar cells on the market, and he got a $25,000 scholarship for it.

Can I get a do over? When I was 12, I was trying to decide who my favorite X-Man was.

Definitely Batman.

Yesterday Wallstreet went into major meltdown … today the Fed put $70 billion into the U.S. financial system to help relieve credit pressure, and the BBC reports that European markets are in a slide, feeling the weight of Wall Street’s own slide.

Jim Cramer of Mad Money made an almost prophetic prediction over a year ago … I’m not a hardcore Wallstreet guy, and I’ll be the first to admit that he sounds like a loon – but it’s pretty wild to see him flip out, call people out, and describe pretty closely what happened yesterday a year ahead of time.

(I know this is a little unusual to see on Applegeeks, but I’m kind of a news freak and yesterday was big news … !)

Just a heads up, I’m planning to take a week long vacation after Ramadan is over.

Here’s a piece called How I learned to love game pirates, and the title pretty much sums it up. It’s written by a fellow who is in the games industry and who has consistently fought pirates and DRM’d his games.

“What did I breathe in on September 11?” is a personal account written by Eric Gillin, a survivor on the street on 9/11. It appeared in Esquire this past 11th, and I thought it was an illuminating read, so I wanted to share it with you.

To summarize, it’s about the author’s quest to uncover what chemicals and debris were in the air the day the WTC came down. On that day, he put his messenger bag into a Hefty bag and kept it sealed away for 5 years. The story flashes back and forth between the present, where he meets scientist Thomas Cahill to analyze the debris on the bag, and the past, which recounts his personal experience on 9/11. All in all, a piercing look into something most of us were on the outside of – something that still follows those that experienced it today. (And to the author’s credit, the dramatization in those flashbacks is kept to an utter minimum – it’s his spare description that drives home how crazy things got.)