• Alma telescope opens its eyes – Awesome. In the original sense of the word.
• Mercury’s Explosive Volcanic History – Both beautiful and fascinating.
• Round Ireland with a Fridge – The Movie based on Tony Hawks bestseller – Full movie for a limited time only…

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Animal.” This animal was fast moving hence the slight blur but it was amazing to see this little fellah at such a short range. This was in Kamikochi, Japan. (I really wanted to include a picture from the Muppets but, for obvious reasons, I prefer to use one of my own images…)

I’ve been playing around with Google+ more-or-less since it launched, but I’m not sold on it yet. After a bit of thought, I think it’s because there’s a fundamental disconnect between the kinds of behaviour that it encourages and the kinds of behaviour that it’s actually good at. Or maybe I’m just using it wrong. Either way, I’ll explain my reasoning here.

First, I should describe my frame of reference. I use both Twitter and Facebook, but I like the former much more.

I’m 75% of the way to becoming a dad for the first time. What better way of displaying that progress — for a programmer at least — than as a Mac application? (Not currently available in the App Store.)

I thought for this weeks PhotoFriday theme, simply being “Inside” wasn’t quite enough. It had to show being inside which also implies that there’s an outside visible. So, here I was in Ireland, sat inside the car, waiting for the rain to subside. I thought that that made this a decent entry.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Glowing.” I’m entry number 184.

• Extreme Tidying Up – “He is a Swiss artist and comedian, who may or may not have an OCD problem.”

I’d walked across this square, in the City of London, for weeks before, one evening, I went past at dusk and saw that the pavement was “Glowing,” which, by strange coincidence, is this weeks PhotoFriday theme.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Near.” I’m entry number 164.

• Vintage 80s: Life on the streets – Images from London in the 1980’s.

This is about as “Near” — this weeks PhotoFriday theme — as I really want to get to a crocodile. Or alligator. Which ever this one is. It was in a farm, behind a fence, in Vietnam but still looked like a formidable creature.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Cars.” I’m number 193.

• Is Rick Perry a 21st-century Galileo? – No.
• Jobs Will Follow a Strengthening of the Middle Class – …or why “trickle down” economics — where the rich get tax cuts and everyone else magically benefits — doesn’t work.