Hi, I'm Elle.

Don’t let this happen to your internet

The internet belongs to all of us. It’s an open, fair, democratic place that we’ve all helped to create, together. On February 26, the FCC is going to decide whether to leave the internet in our hands…or whether to turn it over to the cable companies.

You don’t want them to pick the cable companies. 

Join everybody on the internet and help the FCC do the right thing.

Harper Lee in 2007 — images via Getty and animal-kid.com

AHHH WE’RE SO EXCITED!  You’ve probably heard by now that Harper Lee is set to release her second novel this summer, after more than 50 years. The Guardian is reporting that the book, called Go Set a Watchman, has Scout returning to her hometown of Maycomb as an adult.

“She is forced to grapple with issues both personal and political as she tries to understand both her father’s attitude toward society, and her own feelings about the place where she was born and spent her childhood,” her publisher, Penguin Random House, said in announcement.

Lee wrote it in the mid-1950s — and then set it aside, and, amazingly, forgot it. Through her publisher, she tells readers that “after much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication. I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years.”

Go Set a Watchman will be released on July 14, under the William Heinemann imprint, which originally published To Kill a Mockingbird.

Thor’s Helmet: Skywatcher Sees Glowing Gas Space Bubble

Astrophotographer Bill Snyder captured this spectacular view of massive cosmic cloud commonly known as Thor’s Helmet.

Snyder took the image in June 2011 from his home observatory in Connellsville, Penn., and recently provided. Multiple exposures are made to collect enough light for an image that would otherwise not be evident to the eye.

The emission nebula lies in Canis Major, about 15,000 light-years away from Earth. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

Richard Feynman

Land’s End Introduces New Science T-Shirts Just For Girls

via Jezebel:

After one mom took the company to task, Land’s End has rolled out science-themed t-shirts for little girls. Finally, some NASA amid the pink-and-purple sparkles!

Land’s End introduced the shirts three weeks after a mom’s Facebook complaint drew attention to their measly offerings. The Huffington Post reports that Lisa Ryder’s daughter spotted science-themed t-shirts in the boys’ section of the catalog, only to discover they offered zilch for girls. 

Simply Stunning Saturn - Breathtaking shadow cast upon the rings of Saturn, and stunning electric blue aurora around the pole.

Newly discovered dinosaur had neck half the length of its body.

     Welcome to historic Launch Complex 26 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, the place that launched America’s absolute first venture into space. This complex operates two launch pads, 26A and 26B. On January 31, 1958 at 10:48 PM EST, our first satellite, Explorer 1, lifted from launch pad 26A, shown in the top two photos. The launch tower and platform are now gone, but some remnants and scorch marks remain. This place really started it all. Explorer 1 proved Wernher von Braun’s capabilities as a space engineer, and set him on a road that would lead humanity all the way to the moon.

     Standing in the cramped quarters of launch control gave a real feel for how raw and real everything was in those days. There were no digital systems involved whatsoever. The blockhouse was positioned 400 feet from the launch pad, because that was the maximum distance they could transmit a clean signal along a wire to the rocket systems. Each launch controller looked at a panel of analogue instruments and gauges for every individual system. Now, there are so many systems that software has to monitor all of it. We simply don’t have the manpower to watch each aspect, as the early launch controllers did.