It only seemed appropriate that the International Olympic Committee's vote on the inclusion of golf into the 2016 Games happened at approximately the same time that NASA's LCROSS rocket landed into a 60 km-wide crater on the surface of the moon.  Because neither has seemingly been met with a lot of fanfare so far.

First, the Olympic part.  Both golf and rugby sevens made it into the Olympics this morning.  Rugby sevens made it in with a wide margin.  The Congress voted 81-8 in favor.  Golf was squeakier.  Requiring 53 yea votes, golf did just ten better in a final tally of 63-27. 

Considering the end result, it is apparent now why Ty Votaw, Peter Dawson, and the IGF led such a strong charge in the final days leading up to the vote.  The powerful IOC President Jacques Rogge - re-elected unopposed to a second term as President - put his neck on the line before his re-election by making a public endorsement for the Executive Committee's recommendation for golf.  Both must have paid off in the end in stemming any backlash from the lukewarm response to golf in the Executive Committe vote, or the denial of other sports vying for this opportunity.

Second, did you know that NASA fired a rocket into the moon this morning?!  The LCROSS rocket  landed succesfully in the Cabeus crater this morning, shooting debris from the impact miles into space.  That debris was to be analyzed by the spacecraft and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to see if there is water under the permanently dark soil surface of the moon.

And neither seem to be drawing that big of a reaction.  Why?  Both are freakin' amazing! 

For as much as I object to the money-grubbing that may stem out of this Olympic bid that may have been driven by other aspirations, Ty Votaw and crew achieved a fantastic win today.  A two year campaign to swiftly get golf into the '16 Games is pretty impressive.

And, then around the same time, we flew a rocket into the moon!  How cool is that?  Not only is it great that the moon didn't explode, but we may find out whether or not there really is water there.  Some NASA scientists sat in a room and said, "Let's cut the crap about water on the moon.  Why don't we fly a rocket into it to generate a massive explosion, and then analyze the debris?"  And they did it.  It takes a lot of stones to fly a rocket into the lone satellite that this planet has which controls tides, among other things.

Then, on top of all of that, our President somehow wins the Nobel Peace Prize!  What?!  Did any American even know he was up for consideration for the award?  He barely made the deadline to be nominated, which was Feb 1 - just 11 days after his inauguration.  He beat out a record 204 other nominees for the award, narrowed to a short list of 5 to 20 nominees.  The committee said Obama won for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," whatever that means, since he was a Senator just 12 days prior to his nomination (and an inactive one at that).

But, hey, some really cool stuff happened today and everyone seems to be so blasé about it.  Celebrate.  Drink a beer - or ten!