Meet Mexico's own Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna.

And his Canadian pal:

Medusaceratops lokii

See my Blue Triceratops Head logo up at the top of the page?  As you probably didn’t know (and probably didn’t want to), his name’s Ol’ Horny. From this you might correctly infer:

1) That I’ve been a colossal dinosaur geek since early childhood.

2) That Triceratops horridus is my favorite dinosaur.

Also, that I have no sense of propriety. I trust you figured that out on your own.

Anyway, I like Ceratopsians. And while Triceratops is the King of the Ceratopsians, it tickles me when not one but two new species are admitted into the Dinosaur Pantheon.

Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna is described, a bit uncharitably, as “tubby.” He’s also credited with having the longest horns of any Ceratopsian, so I guess that’s something. Maybe he’s, you know, compensating.

What could be cooler? You know I’m gonna tell you!

Did you remember to hover your mouse over that second handsome dude (or dudette) up there? I always have mouseover text for my blog images, a trick I swiped from xkcd.

So anyway, I wasn’t joking about Medusaceratops lokii having the geekiest name of anything ever. Clearly, both names are mythological references. But that’s not where the ultimate geek factor comes in.

To start with, the first part of the name comes from the Medusa in Ray Harryhausen‘s original Clash of the Titans. The second name derives, not just from Loki the Norse god, but Loki the Marvel Comics supervillain.

It just doesn’t get any cooler than that.

Until now.

WARNING: Not safe for use as float toy.

You probably know already that 57-year old pilot Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III successfully crash-landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River. Nobody’s known to have died; if you click the name link there’s a Smoking Gun photo of the Airbus A320 – pictured above – floating placidly while passengers apparently exit onto an inflatable raft.

Now, that’s a great thing. First time in 50 years of commercial jet travel. The word “hero” has been overused to the point of profanation and pointlessness. I still think maybe I’ll go ahead and call ol’ Sully a hero.

There’re a couple other interesting things developing in the world of science and technology and things that generally take place overhead. (In the case above that activity’s flight; water landings don’t usually take place over your head unless you’re a Scuba diver or a fish. An extremely hardy fish.)

First. the methane on Mars thing. NASA and its minions. you’ve probably seen, are claiming it may indicate the presence life. I’m not sure what to think. In 1996 NASA claimed to have found evidence that fossilized microorganisms had been carried to Earth on a Martian meteorite dubbed ALH84001. That seems to’ve been pretty well debunked, or at any event seems widely doubted in the scientific community.

On the other hand, back in the 1970′s one of the biological tests carried out by the Viking lander came back positive for life. I recall vividly how in advance of the landing NASA hyped claimed that a positive on any one test would conclusively demonstrate the presence of life. Then when the Labeled Release came back with a big, Hell yeah!, NASA fell over itself backpedaling and debunking its own experiment.

Gilbert Levin, the dude who designed the LR test, still believes his experiment proves there’s life on Mars. I’ve long inclined the same way. So what I’m wondering is, if suddenly NASA releases definitive proof of Martian life, will it admit its strenuous poo-poohing was all wrong, all the time?

And if you’re wondering whether NASA would fudge or outright lie to boost its budget … of course they would. What rational reason have we got to doubt it? They’re government; they’re a hierarchy. They’ll say anything to serve their corporate interests. Why would they not?

The other Watch-the-Skies weirdness in the news concerns columns of light seen in the sky over Sigulda, Latvia. Check out the wild photos.

Anyway, I wanted to restore my technophile cred after my last post (I still love that damn Cthulhu poster!) by mentioning this:

Enter the Q-Drum!

In this case, science can lift you up. Specifically, it’s a cheap, hygienic, easy-to-use device for hauling water.It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out how handy this could be in rural areas, especially in your poorer segments of the Third World (if it is, please click the link above.)

This is the sort of simple fix that can greatly increase the quality of life for some people who really could use it, and not improbably save some lives.  I wish I knew of some way I could arrange to pay for a few of these things to be given out where they could do some good.

No doubt it’s coming.

Thanks to the Mr. Boat blog for the heads-up. When this guy says it deals with anything to do with water, he apparently isn’t kidding.

And if you’re wondering how I stumbled across that blog, I was looking for naked pictures of a beautiful Spanish model, thank you very much. Found one, too (NSFW.) (Duh: is nekkid picture.)

I’m sure you’re shocked. Shocked.