Spectacular view from the new Mars rover Curiosity: [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500”] Jupiter, Venus and Earth in the sky from Mars[/caption] Jupiter, Venus and Earth in the sky. Amazing to think where science is these days, and the sheer achievement of landing that rover in the first place is a testament to technology and its advancements. How long until we land humans on Mars?

Fantastic obituary to make anyone think their life is pretty boring - Count Robert de La Rochefocauld, former Resistance fighter in WWII: Cycling to Bordeaux to meet a contact who was to arrange his return to England, however, he ran into a roadblock, taken prisoner, and imprisoned at the 16th-century Fort du Hâ. His explanations that he had been out after dark on a romantic assignation were not believed and, in his cell, La Rochefoucauld considered swallowing the cyanide pill concealed in the heel of his shoe. ...

I’m sure this is going to get this little website banned in China, but yesterday the censorship of the internet there went through the looking glass: In an unlikely coincidence certainly unwelcome to China’s communist rulers, the stock benchmark fell 64.89 points on Monday, matching the numbers of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in the heart of Beijing. On the popular Sina microblog site, searches using ‘June 4’, ‘64.89’, ‘stock market’, and ‘benchmark Shanghai Composite Index’ were all blocked. ...

Bronte Capital on the ‘Failbook’ IPO: The Wall Street Journal… derides Michael Grimes (the Morgan Stanley Banker) for not standing up to David Ebersman (Facebook’s CFO) and allowing Facebook to sell too many shares at too high a price. This is tits-up-backward. David Ebersman in this context is the client. He paid the fees. Michael Grimes had a duty to act in Ebersman’s interest. Ebersman wanted to sell more shares at a higher price. Michael Grimes and Morgan Stanley obliged even at the cost to their own franchise. ...

Aaron Sorkin delivered a commencement speech at Syracuse University last week, ranging over a wide field of topics as is usual for Sorkin. Two things I found were incredibly poignant and to the point on relationships: There’s a story about a man and a woman who have been married for 40 years. One evening at dinner the woman turns to her husband and says, “You know, 40 years ago on our wedding day you told me that you loved me and you haven’t said those words since.” They sit in silence for a long moment before the husband says “If I change my mind, I’ll let you know.” ...