New Orleans Saints. Super Bowl. First Time. Wow!

"New Orleans Saints to meet Indianapolis in Super Bowl"
BBC Sport (January 25, 2010)

"The New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts will meet in the Super Bowl after two thrilling conference title games.

"The Saints beat the Minnesota Vikings 31-28 in overtime to advance to the NFL finale for the first time...." [emphasis mine]

Someone told me that if the New Orleans Saints made it to the Super Bowl, it'd be a sure sign of the coming apocalypse. He was kidding, but I've also heard that the Saints haven't been considered the 'most likely to succeed' team lately. So yeah: It's kind of a big deal, their making it to the Superbowl.

"Saints Win Over Vikings Means Super Bowl History vs Colts"
Football News Now (January 24, 2010)

"A little bit of history has been made thanks to the New Orleans Saints 31-28 victory over the Minnesota Vikings in overtime of Sunday’s NFC Championship game.

"For the first time since 1993 the two No. 1 seed in the playoffs will meet in the Super Bowl...."

I've heard that there was a lot of celebrating going on, down in New Orleans, last night.

More, about the New Orleans Saints:

• "New Orleans Saints"
  Sports Encyclopedia
• New Orleans Saints History.com
• Who Dat Dish
• WhoDatZone
  • If you don't know why "who dat?" is important, you're probably not a Saints fan
  • (I didn't, myself, until a few minutes ago)

Monday Hit With Unusual Severity in Virginia: With a Meteorite

"Meteorite punches hole in doctor's office"
Daily Press (January 21, 2010)

"Esther Lynch was sitting in Warwick Boulevard traffic around 5:20 p.m. Monday when a "football-sized fireball" whizzed across the Peninsula skyline.

" 'It was spectacular but I had no idea what it was,' said Lynch. '"I just knew it was something that was not of this world.'

"Turns out, Lynch was right.

"Lynch most likely saw a meteorite that moments later crashed into a two-story doctor's office in the Northern Virginia community of Lorton. No one was hurt in the incident...."

The meteorite hit on Monday, January 18, 2010.

"Meteorite Crashes Through Virginia Doctor's Office"
Space.com (January 21, 2010)


(Linda Welzenbach/Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, via FOXNews, used w/o permission)

"A small meteorite fell from the sky and crashed through the roof of a doctor's office in Virginia, but luckily no one was hit, experts say.

"The half-pound meteorite struck the Lorton, Va.-based office of Dr. Frank Ciampi, a general practice physician, on Monday evening while he was on the second floor of his two-story building.

" 'It went through the roof. It through one wall partition and then passed through a particle board ceiling into the floor of an examination room,' said Linda Welzenbach, manager of the meteorite collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which confirmed that the object was indeed a meteorite from outer space. 'It's not really big. It's about the size of your fist.'..."

That fist-sized chunk of rock may have been going 200 miles an hour when it hit the roof.

This isn't all that common an event: the doctor's was Virginia's fourth recorded meteorite fall.

I suspect that they'll be reported a little more frequently: More people live in Virginia now, than when the State House was built in Jamestown, so someone's more likely to be nearby when these rocks come down.

Who's Watching, What's Watching, Underwater

"Watching and being watched underwater"
The Right Blue™ (January 23, 2010)

"Recreational divers are essentially underwater sightseers. Just like sightseers on land, they take in the scenery and observe 'the locals' going about their business. In this case, of course, the locals are the critters that inhabit the reef....

"...At least we knew Brutus [a barracuda] was there -- really, you couldn't miss him! But sometimes creatures in the sea watch or even stalk divers while the diver is oblivious to their presence. As an example, we once posted a photo of a sneaky shark approaching a diver from behind, while the diver -- engrossed in what he was photographing -- remained unaware of the shark. Based on our own experiences, we think scenarios like that happen very often...."

There's quite a bit more - anecdotes and a discussion of why divers may not be all that aware of their surroundings - ending with this bit of good advice:

"...What to do? When you are diving, we suggest that you periodically glance up, and down, and look over your shoulder to see who or what may be watching you."

There's a photo with the article - but not of the shark and the diver.

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UPDATE (January 26, 2010)

Here's a link to that "sneaky shark" photo: therightblue.com/2008/09/sneaky-shark.html.

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A tip of the hat to bnsullivan, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.