Barack Obama, showing the eloquence he’s famous for, makes the point in the light of the Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman case that America is not (yet) a post-racial society: There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often. ...

See that pale whitish-blue dot over on the right, under the rings? That’s the Earth as seen from Cassini, orbiting around Saturn. Beautiful.

News today of a Calvin & Hobbes documentary coming - here’s the trailer: I love Calvin and Hobbes in a way that I’m not entirely sure how to express - it’s a shame that there’s not more being made, but there were more than enough created that each time I see a strip it feels funny and fresh, and brightens my day. The artwork is superb. Looking forward to seeing the full version of this documentary. ...

I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear this from the US, but Australia, really? 41% of Australians don’t know the Earth takes a year to orbit the sun: Three in 10 people aren’t aware that evolution is still occurring, with a similar proportion of the public dismissing the idea that humans influence evolution in other creatures. On all of these measures, Australians’ knowledge has declined in the past three years, when the academy last polled the public. ...

Possibly a little late to be jumping into the schemozzle that was Federal Politics last week, but now that Kevin’s back, there’s quite a few people giving Labor another look. It’s fascinating to me because the policy differences between Rudd and Gillard are minimal, so the difference boils purely down to personality and perception. Anyway, that point aside, here’s Pollytics on how the 2013 Election is actually shaping up to be a very, very interesting one: ...