Newseum opens its doors

The national museum of journalism, the Newseum, opens its doors today in Washington DC -- and I'm extremely excited.

The Newseum, "where the news comes to life," is the most interactive museum in the world according to its Web site. Visitors can star in their own TV newscast in addition to learning about the impact new technology is having on the business, and the challenges journalists faced covering 9/11. There is also a Great Hall of News with live breaking news from around the world.It only makes sense for the landmark, pictured above, to be in a city with such a rich journalism history where journalism royalty like Woodward and Bernstein reined. The building is located on Pennsylvania Avenue and has a balcony that allows visitors to get a panoramic view of DC. From the picture, I see that the first amendment is printed on the outside of the building -- pretty awesome.

According to this New York Times review, the museum can be seen from the capital building.

It's all pretty symbolic if you think about it -- journalism is constantly overlooking the capital.

It probably is just me and my nerdy love for journalism -- and Washington DC -- but I think this is one of the coolest museums ever created.

The museum is free today. Here is ticket information for all other visits.

Interesting tidbit about squirrels

I just though this was an extremely random yet interesting Discovery News article about squirrels.

According to a recent study, all squirrels are part of a social network, kind of like the six degrees of separation but with squirrels it's only three degrees. My favorite part about the finding is that it appears squirrels have other squirrel friends -- they don't just hang out with any random squirrel on the street. Looks like they're not as brainless as I thought.

I know this is pretty quirky but doesn't it make you look at squirrels a little differently?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Law_Keven under Creative Commons license.