Lucky for us, there’s surveillance footage.

[Redding.com via reddit]

The launch of a Taurus XL T9 rocket, designed by Orbital Science Corporation, was meant to carry the Glory climate change monitoring satellite into orbit. The rocket instead failed to reach orbit, costing the agency around $388 million.

A “mishap investigation board” put together by NASA in the aftermath of the failure determined that the rocket’s fairing system failed to open fully, causing the destruction of the rocket and its payload.

Fairings are clamshell-shaped nosecone devices that surround satellites on their way to orbit. Normally, fairings are jettisoned soon after launch when friction heat from the Earth’s atmosphere is no longer a concern. When Glory’s fairing failed to open, the fairing’s mass altered the rocket’s trajectory. NASA states in its report that the launch vehicle “likely broke up or burned up, or both, because of reentry loads and aerodynamic heating.”

Though the fairing was determined to be the cause of the failure, the NASA board was unable to figure out exactly why the fairing had not opened. The board, though, did narrow down the possibilities to some sort of failure with the frangible joint components of the fairing’s side rail system. Both NASA and Orbital are continuing to investigate the fairing system, and will be making improvements to future designs based on their findings.

(Image courtesy NASA)

The Bosnian Brooklyn Nets player had a pretty rough 40-or-so seconds in last night’s game against the Detroit Pistons. On three consecutive trips down the floor, Teletović airballed a shot. Check it out:

Everyone has bad days – even Kobe Bryant. We worked out the calculation and Teletović still made about $500 in that 40-second span of airballs. So, you know, we really are the peanut gallery.

“I had a few keys words written down to insure myself that I wouldn’t mess up. I just wanted to do my best. I promise it was from the heart,” Bryan said of the debacle. “If I offended anyone with my approach I sincerely apologize. Anytime I sing the anthem it is an honor and my heart beats out of my chest.”

Honestly, I kind of feel bad for the guy. Singers who tackle the anthem at sporting events are under the insanely critical eye of the masses, who, if forced to sing the anthem in front of a large crowd of people, would probably have some trouble remembering every single word to the song. People make mistakes, folks — it’s going to happen. Calling Bryan “unpatriotic” for his efforts is madness, as I seriously doubt he was attempting to insult the country by making sure he didn’t screw up. In fact, he was trying to prevent such a thing for happening.

Guess what? Bryan isn’t the first singer to botch his performance of the National Anthem, and, chances are, he’s not going to be the last person to do it. Below you’ll find a collection of videos from folks who, for whatever reason, didn’t rise to the occasion when they were tapped to perform the song for the masses. So get off Bryan’s back, already. Unless he was singing the song while burning an American flag, I seriously doubt he meant any harm.

And, because it’s funny, a clip from “Naked Gun”.

Truly, San Diego, bravo.

You’ve probably already seen the mishap in various YouTube videos – some of which have garnered a couple million views. But I bet you haven’t seen it like this.

YouTuber danwroy posted the show “up close and in HD (and LOUD).” He’s serious about that “loud” part. Check it out below:

“This is the best fireworks show, ever!” says one woman.

I don’t know about “best,” but I think San Diego has “pantsshittingly spectacular” on lockdown.

The “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!” campaign, created by the folks at the European Commission, was supposed to help get girls interested in science. Instead, it insulted the gender as a whole by issuing this peculiar little video featuring three attractive females strutting around a laboratory/runway while doing vaguely scientific things. I get what they’re attempting to accomplish with the clip — make-up and skin care products and what-not have their roots in science, after all — but they’ve failed miserably in the execution.

The backlash has been so considerable that the video has been removed from the campaign. Rightfully so. Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way, either. Below you’ll find some Twitter reactions to the video, which are understandably negative. Once you’ve seen the clip, there’s a very strong chance you’ll feel the same way.

Follow @williamsmj

mike williams
@williamsmj

offering 3/1 that that robert palmer band “science it’s a girl thing” vid is actually a stealth viral ad that works so well it makes you sad

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
4 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @r_rajen

Marshall. Almost.
@r_rajen

So they made this ad-campaign that’s called “Science: It’s a Girl Thing”. The website contains a link to the Lingerie Football League. #smh.

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16 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @starlustsiren

♠
@starlustsiren

This kind of thing makes me absolutely livid. #feministmode (http://t.co/nllVtZzj)

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1 day ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Follow @joehas

Joe Haslam
@joehas

Dear European Commission, give cash directly to start-ups. Do not spend it on Ad campaigns> Science: It’s a girl thing! http://t.co/ugEf3Hfg

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3 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Follow @cullej29

Julie Cullen
@cullej29

The Science:it’s a girl thing video has been withdrawn. I just watched it and thought I was watching a Maybeline ad. http://t.co/YJRLkLWT

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3 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Since Microsoft’s new Surface tablets will run on Windows 8, I suppose customers can expect to see the new frowny-face blue screen of death at some point. However, the screen was curiously lacking on Monday when a Surface tablet decided to become obstinately frozen during the middle of Microsoft’s big Surface announcement.

Watch the video below to see Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division at Microsoft, show off Internet Explorer on a Surface tablet, only to have it lock up. Even the home button on the device fails to fix the problem. Sinofsky tries his best to work through the setback but is obviously flustered, and eventually has to swap the tablet for a back-up:

Ouch. I can almost hear Steve Jobs laughing from beyond the veil of death. Though Apple’s computers aren’t quite as stable as they once were, the company certainly hasn’t had a product crash mid-debut. That sort of luck is reserved only for Microsoft. It’s too bad, because Microsoft was probably working on that presentation for weeks, and now the news of the flub will partially overshadow what appears to be a well-designed device. However, if Microsoft’s software can’t hold up, there is no point in dropping hundreds of dollars for a pretty tablet.

According to police in Madison, Wisconsin, two men were arrested after they attempted to sell stolen video games at a local video game exchange store. The police were waiting for the two thieves when they arrived, guns drawn. How did the police know they were going to try to cash in on their crime? Well, that’s the good part.

After making away with their loot (video games and DVDs from Target), our two master thieves started to discuss their crime. They talked about how they were better at stealing than other thieves, and how others fail to act nonchalant, and that’s their biggest mistake.

What they didn’t know was that one of them had butt-dialed 911, and an operator was listening to the entire conversation. Reportedly, this went on for about an hour.

The key part of their conversation (the one that eventually led to their arrest) was the tidbit about going down to the video game exchange to sell the stolen merchandise. After the 911 operator told the police of their plans, snagging the criminals turned out to be a pretty simple operation.

For some snippets of the unknown 911 call, check out this video below:

[ABC News via Kotaku]

Drinking on the job, while generally frowned upon, could be acceptable in some scenarios. For instance wine tasters, food critics, bartenders and possibly dentists all have perfectly acceptable reasons for throwing back a few while on the clock.

One group of people that should probably refrain from boozing on the job is United States congressional assistants. And if they must, it would most likely be advised that they leave the discussion of said drinking off social networking sites like Twitter.

All of this should have been covered in “Working for a U.S. Representative 101,” but was apparently lost on a few staffers working for House member Rick Larsen.

Tweets from the personal accounts of three legislative assistants to Larsen paint a picture of drunken debauchery taking place on the Hill. Most of the tweets come from a legislative assistant named Seth Burroughs (@therocketship1), but some mention other staffers (@betsybites and @byers_remorse). The accounts have been taken down, but the NW Daily Marker has screencaps of many of the controversial tweets.

The first batch of tweets hints at some office drinking. According to the NW Daily Marker, the hashtag #D2R refers to “December to Remember” – or in this case, it looks like December to not remember all that well:

Drinking on the job is tough to pull off, so I guess it’s oftentimes easier to just come to work already hammered:

To be fair, congressional staffers probably don’t have too much to do during a Summer recess, but come on man…

The tweeting genius went on to apply his skills as a filterless drunk to insulting his boss, the aforementioned Congressman Larsen:

Of course, these tweets were made by staffers and not the Representative himself – that would have been a scandal on a whole other level. But, if accurate, they definitely show that one doesn’t have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to get a job working on the Hill.

A spokesman for Larsen told the Washington Times that their office become aware of these tweets just recently, and everyone involved has been fired.

Neither Congressman Larsen nor his other staff were aware of the actions by these three staff members before today. Congressman Larsen is disappointed by their actions and takes this very seriously. He has made it clear that he will not tolerate this kind of behavior.

Situations like this are giving Twitter the reputation of a place where careers go to die.