I've tried to promote projects of my own on occasion, so I'm at least somewhat sympathetic to the difficulty involved in getting media outlets to pay attention to something you'd given a lot of time and effort, but one general rule: don't use events you have absolutely no connection to whatsoever to promote your music. Also, a note to Steve Cooke: it's might be helpful to spell Gabrielle Giffords' name correctly if you're dedicating a song to her.

Please tell me this song isn't actually the beginning of a new "Era of Music," because if it is, I welcome the Rapture on May 21st.

STEVE COOKE sets the tone for Endeavour’s last space flight with dedication of his song "GRAVITY” to NASA COMMANDER MARK KELLY and his crew.

British artist Steve Cooke is dedicating his Hollywood Music and Media awards nominated song Gravity to NASA Commander MARK KELLY and his crew, his wife GABRIELLA GIFFORDS, and British explorer CAPTAIN JAMES COOK.

The star studded song is featuring members of Madonna, Seals and Adam Lamberts band. The commander for Endeavour's final flight, slated for this Friday, is veteran NASA astronaut Mark Kelly. Kelly is the husband of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, who is in a Houston hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to the head she received during tragic January shooting spree in Tucson, but her doctors have given her permission to attend the launch. “This is fantastic news” Cooke said.

The US Space Shuttle Endeavour is named after the famous British explorer Captain James Cook, who discovered New Zealand and Australia.

In 1779, while the American colonies were at war with Britain in their fight for independence, Benjamin Franklin said: “...treat the said Captain Cook and his people with all civility and kindness, . . .as common friends to mankind.”

The US is once again welcoming a “Cooke” with the same kindness and welcoming spirit as in times past.

Thus heralds a new Era of Music, with Steve Cooke’s new single and video: “Gravity”. And a new song for the space shuttle team while floating in space and watching us down here.

So lets light this candle at god’s speed for a safe return.

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

The Space Shuttle Endeavour is delivering an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the International Space Station. What does it do, exactly?

You might think you learned in high school that the universe is made of atoms and molecules, protons and electrons, stars and galaxies, but over the last few decades astronomers have concluded — not happily — that all this is just a scrim overlying a much vaster shadowy realm of invisible “dark matter” whose gravity determines the architecture of the cosmos.

If they are lucky, scientists say, the Alpha spectrometer could confirm that mysterious signals recorded by other satellites and balloons in recent years are emanations from that dark matter, revealing evidence of particles and forces that have only been theoretical dreams until now.

Even if dark matter won’t ever become the ultimate diet — eat it and disappear — knowing what nature is made of could be useful someday in ways nobody can dream. Einstein’s curved spacetime, equally elusive to the senses, proved crucial to the function of GPS devices that were invented decades after Einstein’s death.

Or the device could find even something weirder.

[The New York Times]

• Josh Morgan

Tucson Weekly photographer Josh Morgan was on the scene for Tucson's slutwalk on Friday afternoon.

Why a slutwalk? It's a revolution against the idea that it's OK to assault a woman based on her manner of dress. You can find details here.

More photos after the jump.

From Twitpic user @Stefmara:

This is tough: I appreciate the wild ridiculousness of Metalachi, South Carolina's (???) Mariachi Cabos also know their way around a cover tune and might be slightly more legit. Maybe a doubleheader, local venues?

"Another Brick in the Wall":

"Beat It":

Big cheers erupted from the standing-room-only crowd gathered at Trident Bar and Grill early this morning as Space Shuttle Endeavour launched at 5:56 a.m. The shuttle is under the command of NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

"I feel like there's been a lot of mourning," said Penelope Jacks, who had turned out to see the Endeavour head into the Florida skies. "It's nice to have something to celebrate. Normally, I'm not much into space, but this is different."

We'll have more in print edition this week.

All systems are go for the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour tomorrow, although skies are a little stormy.

Wired has a roundup of where you can watch from home.

[Note from Dan Gibson: Stefan Shepherd has a day job like most of us, but on the side, he just happens to be an amateur expert in children's music, with news outlets like NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and Sirius/XM turning to him for information. Even if you haven't heard kids' music since Raffi was singing about bananas, you'll still find his website Zooglobble interesting. He seemed like the perfect guy to preview the Dan Zanes show at the Rialto on Sunday.]

It was not terribly surprising to me and probably appropriate that Dan Zanes played his first family show in Arizona in Tucson instead of Phoenix, where I live. That’s because the thing that really drives Zanes once you strip away the music — his obsession with community — is one thing that Tucson, from this vantage point, does better than Phoenix.

Mike McKisson runs TucsonVelo.com, a great site covering local cycling news. Once a week, he recaps the biggest local two-wheel, pedal-powered news for The Range.