Before Lady GaGa took up residence in a spaceship on Planet Weirdo, she performed her signature piano ballads (barefoot, you guys!) at an NYU Talent Show under her boring name, Stefanie Germanotta. Bonus points if you wait until the judge at the end warns, “Watch out, Norah Jones.” Yeah, Norah Jones, you'd better watch out, or this girl's going to pull the space trannie rug right out from underneath you!

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The Best Links:

1. via The Daily What
2. GaGa at The Bitter End
3. Stefani Germanotta on MTV’s Boiling Points

The premise of this game is that there are some things in space that you need to blow up. Like, right now. Some great boss battles in this one. Have fun.

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The Relax Far Infrared Ray Sauna spa treatment doesn't actually use a Snuggie, but in following a similar framework, allows for total arm freedom during while one allegedly burns off “more calories in 15 minutes than a 45-minute cardiovascular workout.” Also, you're a fat robot now. WORTH EVERY PENNY!

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The Best Links:

1. Learn More!
2. Far Infrared Ray Sauna Hothouse
3. via Gothamist

NASA unveiled a new service today where you could add your name to a list that will be included in the next shuttle to Mars, and two reddit users took advantage of the oppurtunity to make their voices heard.

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The Best Links:

1. Send Your Name To Space!

Check out this super-cool photo of a Russian volcano eruption as seen from space. Those lucky duckies on the International Space Station took it, and scientists are excited because it shows the shock wave and top of the blast steam bubble. I'm excited because it looks like a marshmallow covered with that disease my goldfish always get.

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The Best Links:

1. Russian Volcano Shocks the World
2. Volcano Photo From Space Shows Earliest Stages of Massive Eruption

A small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for a beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years.

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SCIENCE BUZZ: NASA may name a space toilet after Stephen Colbert after he urged viewers to vote for him. Falling behind were nominees “Earthrise,” “Legacy,” “Serenity,” and “Venture,” which Colbert claimed sounded more appropriate as flavors of “organic tea.”

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The Best Links:

1. Later, Xenu! Hello, Colbert!
2. “Come On, Serenity?” Colbert Said On His March 10 Show. “That’s Not a Space Module, That’s a Glade Plug-in.”
3. “When Al Gore Got the Most Votes, He Didn’t Even Get a Toilet Out of the Deal.”

SCIENCE BUZZ: After a five-year long alcohol-induced slumber, NASA's Mars Odyssey Orbiter awoke yesterday, wondering, “Woah, Universe, where am I?” Hope you slept well, sweet prince. Now just dust off those space rays and get back to work.

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The Best Links:

1. Mars Odyssey Orbiter Reboots for First Time in Five Years

SCIENCE BUZZ: Check the east/southeast sky tonight around 9 to catch a glimpse of this wee, green comet. It's a mere 30 million miles from Earth, but you'll still need binoculars at the very least to see it.

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The Best Links:

1. Best Chance to View Comet Lulin is Here!
2. Tips on How To See Comet Lulin
3. Where to See Comet Lulin

If the Milky Way were navigable via the London Tube, it might look something like this. The transfer from the Outer Line to Sagittarius at Galactic Center takes forever during rush hour.

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The Best Links:

1. Made by Samuel Arbesman, a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard
2. Via Notcot

On December 24th, 1968, Apollo 8 Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell & William Anders sent a Christmas message back to earth as they orbited the moon. Less than a year later, humans walked it. Seasons Greetings, from the John F. Kennedy Space Center!

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The Best Links:

1. Apollo 8 Christmas
2. Utah Space Expert Recalls Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Message
3. The Apollo 8 Christmas
4. 40 Years Ago Today

I don't know what crimes these teddy bears committed to deserve this treatment, but they were sent up into space in a homemade weather balloon by a group of schoolchildren in England who are a lot smarter than I am. More great images of the teddies' journey and the full story here .

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The Best Links:

1. Teddy Bears in Space: First Pictures
2. First Teddie Bear Astronauts Conquer Space
3. The Daily Mail Story

A rare astronomical event aligned the stars on December 1st: Venus and Jupiter twinkle like two eyes above a crescent moon. This is an amazing shot.

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The Best Links:

1. Via Vanessagx’s Photostream

SCIENCE BUZZ: A handful of spiders were shot into space for a study on how they spin their webs in zero gravity. I can't help but imagine this as the first mistake in some sci-fi movie about spider-aliens taking over the International Space Station. Gives me the heebie-jeebies!

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The Best Links:

1. Classroom Spiders, Butterflies Headed to Space
2. The Itsy Bitsy Spider Floated Into Space

Astronaut Donald Pettit created this video out of dozens of still photographs he took from the International Space Station. Kinda makes the eight months of training and many millions of dollars it takes to get up there as a private citizen seem worth it.

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The Best Links:

1. From Above: Animated Aurora, City as Art
2. Profile of Donald Pettit
3. Auroras, City Lights and Astrophotography

Scientists are trying to figure out what this weird blue glow over Saturn could possibly be. Photos captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft show a blue-green glow near Saturn's north pole unlike any other astronomers have ever seen.

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The Best Links:

1. ” ‘We’ve never seen an aurora like this elsewhere,’ said Tom Stallard, a scientist working with Cassini data at the University of Leicester.”

SCIENCE BUZZ: NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander has finished its mission and powered down, and science fans will mourn its passing. As fall turns to winter on the Martian surface, the Lander will be buried in carbon dioxide ice as temperatures plummet. Its batteries are dead and the robot, which discovered the first proof of ice on Mars, has stopped transmitting. Farewell, sweet prince.

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The Best Links:

1. Phoenix Mars Lander’s Farewell Transmission From Mars
2. Phoenix Mars Lander’s Goodbye Series on Gizmodo
3. MarsPhoenix’s Final Twitter
4. Nasa Holds An Irish Wake for the Mars Phoenix Lander
5. Phoenix Mars Mission - It’s Over

The story, told in pictures, of an early Russia experiment of firing a pig into the air after first getting it drunk. It would appear the pig remained drunk for the duration of its flight.

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TECH BUZZ: The Japanese are exploring the development of a $5 billion dollar space elevator that will potentially take radioactive waste, solar generators, and even people to space. If it seems like a work of science fiction, that’s because it is! The space elevator was first envisioned by Arthur C. Clarke in his classic 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise . Now, Japanese engineers are hunched over a copy of that very book trying to figure out how the heck to make it work.

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The Best Links:

1. Japan Hopes to Turn Sci-fi Into Reality With Elevator to the Stars
2. Japanese Scientists Plan to Build Space Elevator
3. Space Elevator Reference Tool
4. Japan Set to Cross Another Invention Off Arthur C. Clarke’s List
5. The Spaceward Foundation
6. How Fast?

CULTURE BUZZ: Stephen Colbert is all set to have his DNA blasted off into space, as part of a human time capsule dubbed “Operation Immortality”. In the ever-more-likely scenario that Earth is destroyed, Stephen Colbert will live on amongst the aliens to represent humanity. But he’s not the only one up there! His DNA will be joined by other celebs like Kevin Rose , Robert Scoble , and American Gladiator Beast !

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The Best Links:

1. Stephen Colbert to have his DNA sent into space
2. 3001: A Stephen Colbert Space DNA Odyssey
3. No Bears In Space
4. Stephen Colbert Will Outlive Us All
5. About Operation Immortality
6. Operation Immortality
7. ColbertFeed
8. Stephen Colbert Goes Intergalactic (Press Release)