I was just looking at the newly released Time Top Ten Space (science) Moments of the year. This is a little unfair, actually. The year is not over. Something could easily happen between now and January 1, 2013. Anyway, there are things on this list I didn’t know, so I therefore assume that you did not know them either.

It appears that the Moon sunk the Titanic. At first this sounds silly, but it is actually quite possible and even if an exaggeration of sorts, interesting. On January 4th, before the Titanic sailed, there was a Spring Tide. This is the monthly (in lunar months, obviously) extreme high tide caused by the opposition of the Sun and the Moon. On this day, however, Earth was at it’s annual perihelion in its orbit around the Sun, and the Moon was at a 1400 year orbital low in relation to the Earth. So, the Spring Tide that month was extremely extreme.

This, then seems to have lifted large ice bergs that would have normally been grounded and put them back into action, and one of them went over to the Titanic and sank the damn thing.

One of the items I knew about but want to remind you of: An Earth-like planet was spotted at Alpha Centauri. Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

The others are all more commonly known, and they are good choices for a list of top ten space science events. Interesting, though, that the strangest and in some ways most unexpected one is about an early 20th century boat.

UPDATE: The pages are DONE. Good work, Miriam!

Let’s try to act like a civilized society, for at least a few minutes, OK? There is a facebook page called “No respect for suicidal teens” that seems to have been put up by someone annoyed by attention given to someone who killed herself that the facebook page creator has judged worthy of death. Thus the page. It almost looks like a persona vendetta of some kind.

Miriam Mogilevsky has created a petition asking Facebook to take this page down. I should note that there are actually two almost identical pages; either the person who created them was incompetent, or that person created two pages in order to cause some confusion so it would stay up longer.

A lot of teenagers commit suicide. An even larger number try. Those who use inadequate methods or who otherwise don’t succeed tend to get help and usually get past that period in their lives and survive. Those who use, say, a handgun tend to die. Clearly, suicide is not inevitable. There is about a 100% chance that someone close to you, whom you know and love as a adult attempted suicide at one time in their past and you don’t even know it.

I’m sure the person who put this web site up is emotionally immature and ignorant. Or, possibly a sociopath, but I’m assuming the former. They may get past this stage in their life when they are being an unmitigated ass. Let’s help that person get past the unmitigated ass stage by getting Facebook to take notice of these pages and take them down.

My friend, Aslhey Miller, just wrote this thing and it is important. She has fallen in love with someone that her father does not approve of, and he, her father, has gone ahead and “disowned” her (a strange word when you think about it) for that reason. You should read this because it is socially and politically relevant, and Ashley is a social and political activist and a great writer. But she wrote it because she is a writer and needs to write about these things. This was not easy for her … not easy to make the decision to write about this experience. I would appreciate it if you would go and give her some kind words.

This is the essay: Racism, homophobia, and how I lost my dad last week.

But if you ask her for more details she’ll get mad at you. Watch:

Governor Brewer, two things: First, you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. Second, you need to learn to govern. You are the “govern”or. Act like it.

Hat Tip Archy

The Carnival of Evolution is one of the few remaining carnivals. As such it is probably not so much as an atavism as another unique bloggy thing which still has a function in this world even if all of its nearest relatives are extinct. Like Aardvarks.

Anyway, Carnival of Evolution #54: A Walkabout Mount Improbable is HERE

I have discussed rabies before. In Attack of the Hound of Malembi. Or, “Whose are these people, anyway?” I discussed a personal encounter with a rabid dog, which killed my cat and bit six friend. In Ode to Rocky I discuss an encounter with a cute little raccoon which probably did not have rabies, but since this was during the Great Rabid Raccoon Scare a few years back he got busted anyway.

And now, we have Skeptically Speaking #190 RABID … last Sunday’s show which is now a podcast available for you to download.

This week, we’re talking about a viral menace that’s one of the scariest – and deadliest – known to science. We’ll talk to WIRED editor Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy about their book Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus. And on the podcast, we’ll speak to post-doctoral researcher Elisabeth Whyte, about a crowd-funded project to use computer games to help adolescents with autism improve social skills and face processing abilities.

Get your rabies shot first, then CLICK HERE.

These three things are intimately connected.

Well, OK, they’re not really connected at all, but all will be the subject of discussion on the next Skeptically Speaking. I believe Desiree will be speaking on Sunday, December 2nd with James Pinfold about Dark Matter … apparently there is new information bringing an explanation for it into question … and the other items will be added into the podcast to be released on Friday, December 7th. Details here.

(This is for US citizens)

President Obama speaks to the American people from a busy factory floor in Pennsylvania about the urgent need to pass the middle class tax cuts, which will give families and businesses preparing for the holidays the certainty they need going into the New Year. Democrats and Republicans must come together to pass one thing that everyone agrees on—extending income tax cuts for 98 percent of American families and 97 percent of small businesses, and there is no reason to wait. The President urges Congress to take action to help grow our economy and strengthen the middle class.

Click here and fill it out.

Then… call or write BOTH of your members of Congress.

Here’s Joe being a regular guy, picking up some cookies, a pie, some kids toys, and a big-ass TV.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Hat Tip: Becky Crew