As I mentioned last week, I spent a few days traveling for my brother’s wedding, and now I’m getting back into the whole writing thing again. Expect a real post later today!

• The Associated Press covered NASA tweetups in an article today, including the one I attended at Langley. (And yes, I was interviewed for it.)
• As a jazz musician (albeit one who hasn’t played in years), I loved Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s comparison of astronomy to jazz.
• The most widely-accepted model of the formation of terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) involves the accretion of planetesimals into larger bodies. At least some asteroids and meteoroids are leftovers from that early formation period, and now observations of the asteroid Lutetia show it to be of the same composition as the building blocks of the terrestrial worlds, lending strong support to the model.
• Nature is wonderful. However, it also wants to eat you, as a new Tumblr from science writing ninja Ed Yong points out. Don’t read it if you’re easily scared or creeped out by parasites, predators, and generally spooky-looking critters.
• Finally, “Magnetic Cow Smackdown” would make a great band name.