"If they want to increase their rankings in U.S. News & World Report, an easy way to do that is to bribe high-scoring students to come to your university with non-need-based aid," said Richard Kahlenberg, a specialist in education at the Century Foundation.

I'd like to hope a fair share of them are accepting financial aid/loans because their parents are teaching them the value of money, but it still stinks for the rest of us with loans and debt for a degree in, ahem, journalism.

But I will share the Google Analytics graph below that I pulled tonight — mostly because it makes me happy and maybe it will inspire some of you to stick with it. Remember, the flatline you see early on in 2006 is basically what things looked like from 2004 until that point.

Inspiring post from MG Siegler. Be sure to check that graph out.

Wait, you guys don't think I'm lame, do you?

Nicknamed Curiosity, the rover will take eight and a half months to cross the vast distance to its destination.

If it can land safely next August, the robot will then scour Martian soils and rocks for any signs that current or past environments on the planet could have supported microbial life.

A very exciting time to be a space fan.

Fun fact for the day: The rover is running on a plutonium-base battery that should last for 10 years.

I've had the motivation for the last few months now to start my own blog, and after listening to this week's superb episode of The Talk Show, I decided it's time to just get it going.

This blog will be a smorgasbord of links, long-form posts and shameless, shameless self-promotion. I'll likely link to lots of stuff about Apple, photography, podcasting, running and other general geeky topics. And don't be surprised if I change the design six thousand times and leave this site stagnant for months on end.

So, without further ado, here we go.