We've started The Great Texinian Astronomical Hill Henge Project (Stone, Allen, Allen, et al) in which we propose to construct an astronomical observatory in the tradition of the great henges of Eld(Stonehenge, Adam's Calendar, etc). Like those venerable projects, we propose to start small, with a single central stake, about $2000 worth of calibrated optics, $120,000 worth of heavy equipment, 3 dogs, 2 wooden posts, several pencils, and a laser. You know. Gotta keep it simple to start.

We detail the difficulties we've yet to encounter but know are ahead of us, based on past experience. On the whole, we think the project will give us a much clearer perspective on the difficulties the ancients needed to overcome in order to construct their fantastic stone circles and henges.  It will allow us to communicate this knowledge to all of you in a much more concise fashion, so that all of you will have a greater understanding of why it's really fucking hard to build these things.

We talk about the astronaut who returned to earth after nearly a year in space, two inches taller, smarter, with newly activated "space" genes, an increased life span due to an inexplicably higher telomere count, and a large genetic drift from his identical twin brother who stayed earthside while his bro was evolving in space.

We also discuss the newest research papers released by the Comet Research Group re: the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, some responses and rebuttals, and how a totally innocent cow was framed for the enormous Great Chicago Fire.