I feel a hell of a lot worse about the collective rationale of our species. A time capsule DVD compiled by the California-based Planetary Society was attached to NASA’s Phoenix probe as part of its mission to explore the red planet’s arctic for signs of life and water. With a destination 70 million miles away, the DVD is the single most exclusive disc in the history of mankind. Eat your heart out, Axl.

The idea is to give future Martians a snapshot of how they’re viewed on Earth, because it would only make sense that aliens traveling millions of light years across the universe would make a pit-stop in an arctic crater on a dead planet with a sulfuric atmosphere to check out the DVD selection. Naturally, nobody thought to include a region-free DVD player with the probe, but I’m willing to bet that that won’t make much of a difference.

I first checked Ratatat out in 2004 when someone recommended their self-titled album on an underground torrent trading site. Oh yeah, that’s right. Sometimes illegal piracy actually results in people checking out new bands whose stuff they eventually pay money for. But let’s not get sidetracked.

Last week I got my hands on LP3, their newest album, which hits the street tomorrow courtesy of XL Recordings. I threw it on, and for the first 10 minutes or so, I wasn’t sure if it was a legitimately new LP, or a Classics remix album. And that’s the upside and the downside: Yes, it’s as good as Classics. But I’m a little disappointed to hear not a trace of growth or development.

If you live in California, you’re no stranger to union strikes and all the drama that comes with their various protests. Even if you don’t, no doubt you recently felt the impact when every television show (except for Celebrity Fit Club, thank Jesus) was forced to take a little break because Hollywood writers ran out of creativity or money or something- but I digress…

Recently, union struggles have severely impacted the University of California (UC) campuses. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents some 20,000 University of California healthcare and service employees (5,400 employed at UCLA alone) has organized its members who have been working for months on expired contracts.