Hosted by the UA College of Science, the gathering attracted amateur astronomers and the general public who setup on the UA Mall to look at the Sun through specialized solar filters. When Flandrau ran out of $3 solar viewing glasses people turned to welding masks, boxes turned into camera obscuras and other improvised viewing devices. As the sun began to set the crowd slowly moved to follow the light before dispersing.

Flandrau's free admission to the science center drew a large crowd, lined up to view the exhibits.

The newest restaurant to call the Fourth Avenue area home is Buddha's Dog House at 425 N. Fourth Ave., and it was open for business this weekend. I was in a hurry and didn't get the business hours, but here's a look at the interior and the menu board.

This advice is totally useless if you're not watching Mad Men — and if you're not and you're someone who actually owns a TV, I'm not exactly sure what you're doing with your life — but the weekly edition of Mark Lisanti's Mad Men Power Rankings, now hosted at Grantland.com, is really one of my favorite reoccurring online features. Sure, it's spoiler heavy, so don't read it until you've seen the most recent episode, but Lisanti's non-recap-recap of the show is incredibly funny and far more interesting than the standard "here's what happened" style of most TV show recaps.

A highlight from this week's edition:

9. Meredith the Idiot Receptionist and the Tiny Plane on the Pedestal (tie) (last week: not ranked)

If you're not going to perform your basic job function, you can't really be surprised when someone throws a tiny plane at you.

I spent the hour or so yesterday when the sun was obscured by the moon trying to keep my kids from looking directly into the apparently astronomical spectacle, possibly blinding themselves forever, so I missed the action, but this YouTube video collected from photos by Cory Poole seems like an adequate substitute for the real thing.

[Laughing Squid]

Watch 'The Information Diet': More 'Conscious Consumption' Needed? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

I need to buy Clay Johnson's new book The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption, although the irony of a blogger recommending a book that seems to suggest that we should consume less media-wise is not lost on me. Johnson appeared on PBS' Newshour on Friday, dropping this particularly interesting quote:

It's important to realize that no matter what crazy thought that enters your head, there's now a minor media outlet out there willing to tell you that you are right.

And who wants to hear the truth when they can hear that they are right? And so now, whenever we feel uncomfortable, we can sort of go on Google or go and turn on our television set and tune in to someone who is willing to affirm our beliefs. And we get trapped in the sort of reality dysmorphia, this idea that we can just view what it is that we want to see in the world without that actually being attached to reality.

And that's really troubling for the electorate.

[HT: ShortFormBlog]

Somehow I've managed to miss the two previous James Bond films with Daniel Craig in the title role, not because I dislike Craig (I don't) or because I don't like the premise (I do), but they just haven't been a priority, I suppose. However, I might have to get back in the swing of things with Skyfall, at least based on the trailer. Spooky espionage antics, stuff blowing up...yes and yes.

From the genius behind Yo, Is This Racist? comes Yo, Should I Dump This Asshole?, a wildly profane guide to...well, you can figure it out. As a helpful guide, if you're asking if you should dump someone, probably just go ahead and do it. That's just my theory, but the site is still quite entertaining.

The Tucson Weekly took home five awards this year in the Arizona Press Club’s annual contest—including a first-place award for Margaret Regan in the Arts Criticism category.

The results of the awards, for work done in 2011, were announced Saturday, May 19, at The Duce in Downtown Phoenix. In the contest, the Weekly competes in the Metro category, along with all of the state’s largest newspapers, including The Arizona Republic, the Arizona Daily Star and the Phoenix New Times.

Regan—the dean of Tucson arts writers who is widely regarded as the state’s top arts scribe—won two awards, including the aforementioned Arts Criticism first-place, for a selection of her 2011 arts reviews. About Regan’s work, judge Ben Waterhouse remarked: “Regan’s admirably jargon-free essays show both an impressive descriptive ability and a strong awareness of the greater cultural context in which the art exists. Not many visual art critics are capable of both.”

Regan’s other award came in the Arts Reporting category, in which a selection of her work took home third place.

Tom Danehy nabbed second place in the Sports Reporting category (behind only The Arizona Republic's investigation of the Fiesta Bowl scandal) for “Rez Ball” (March 3, 2011), his report on the love of high school basketball in Arizona’s Native American communities.

Leo W. Banks earned the third-place honor in the Immigration Reporting category for “Digging for Dollars” (April 7, 2011), his report on drug tunnels in Nogales.

Finally, Mari Herreras won third place in the Social Issues Reporting category (behind two Phoenix stories) for “Family Portraits” (Pride, June 16, 2011), her report on the struggles that nontraditional families are having in Arizona.

Craig Harris, of The Arizona Republic, was named the Virg Hill Journalist of the Year, in part for his aforementioned Fiesta Bowl-scandal coverage.

Other big awards went to Nick Oza of The Republic (Arizona Photojournalist of the Year), Mike Rice of the Arizona Daily Star (Arizona Designer of the Year), Beatrice Richardson of the Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review (Arizona Community Photojournalist of the Year) and Marley Shebala of the Navajo Times (Arizona Community Journalist of the Year).

I'd hoped to talk about a lot more on last night's Political Roundtable, but the discussion about the race between Democrat Ron Barber and Republican Jesse Kelly to complete Gabby Giffords' term ended up stretching through most of the show. Still, we managed to touch on a new state law that forces cities, towns and other jurisdictions to have all their elections at the same time as the presidential or gubernatorial elections and Secretary of State Ken Bennett's new embrace of birther politics.

• The ladies of Expose

One thing that's worth noting about Ann Curless, one of the members of Exposé's classic lineup, who are playing the TCC Arena tomorrow night as part of the Freestyle Explosion package concert: she seems like an exceptionally nice person. She apologized for missing our original interview time, made small-talk about the city, mentioning that she feels "spiritually connected to Tucson" (she came to town early to spend time with some childhood friends), and really cares about providing a good time for her group's fans. Ann's charm isn't probably a tipping point on whether you should go to the show tomorrow night, but it can't hurt right.

The group is re-emerging from a challenging time following their 2003 reunion, as they fought off their original managers in a battle for the group's name, so Curless feels a real sense of optimism about the state of Exposé. "We're captains of our own ship now," she said, "so it's more about figuring out where to go." The group has recently finished their second single as a reunited group, "Shine On", getting together remixes for its release. "It should be the beginning of more music from us, but we're geographically challenged, plus we don't want to put out sub-quality material."

Still, tomorrow night, Curless knows that people will come to hear the classic material. "You'll hear all the hits, as many as we can play in the time we have," she enthusiastically shared. "There's going to be a lot of great energy, people get to remember the good times they had, and we love to give that experience to our fans."