A spectacular image from the Hubble Space Telescope’s newly-installed Wide Field Camera 3, showing a birthplace of stars in the nearby galaxy M83: Hubble Image Showcases Star Birth in M83, the Southern Pinwheel.

(Hat tip: Phil Plait, who has interesting commentary on how this image was generated, and what you’re seeing.)

The curvaceous top of the mouse is a multi-touch surface.Apple’s new Magic Mouse is a very nice mousie indeed. No obvious buttons, no scroll wheel, just a sleek multi-touch surface and some groovy new software that lets you scroll with momentum — similar to the way scrolling works on an iPhone.

I own a Wireless Mighty Mouse — the previous generation of Apple Bluetooth mouse — and was never happy with the tracking feel. It had a kind of sloppy quality and tended to lag behind hand movements. Some people don’t even notice it, but it was very annoying to me; so much that I always use a wired Mighty Mouse on my desktop machine.

But the connectivity and response of the Magic Mouse is a vast improvement. It feels exactly like a wired mouse, no perceptible lag at all. And the fact that there’s no scroll wheel that needs cleaning when it gets clogged up with gross finger oil makes this a really maintenance-free mechanism.

You can also use two-finger “swiping” gestures to move forward and back through web pages, photos, or other programs with a paged display. It’s a bit clumsy to hold the sides of the mouse while swiping with the second and third fingers, but maybe I’ll get used to it.

I also notice an improvement in the way the Magic Mouse handles its “one big button” to allow both right and left clicks. The Mighty Mouse would sometimes treat a right click like a left click, often enough to be annoying, but with the Magic Mouse right-clicking works flawlessly.

The Magic Mouse requires two AA batteries, for which I use two Eneloop rechargeables.

This probably won’t be the ultimate mouse for everyone — it has no side buttons or middle button. But the multi-touch surface and momentum scrolling are great features, and I highly recommend this rodent.

(Note: If you’re not buying a new Mac system that includes a Magic Mouse, you’ll also need to download and install Apple’s Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0, available for both Leopard and Snow Leopard.)

ABC News reports an identity for the Fort Hood shooter.

The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan.

UPDATE at 11/5/09 3:08:42 pm:

More information from CBS News:

CBS News investigative producer Len Tepper reports that Hasan, 39, is a licensed psychiatrist from Silver Spring, Md.

A Fort Hood press release confirmed that “more than one shooter fired shots into the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and Howze Theater on Fort Hood.”

According to Cone, the shooting began at 1:30 p.m. in the Soldier Readiness Center, a facility where soldiers receive medical treatment and fill out paperwork in preparation for deployment.

There’s been a shooting incident at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas, with up to 7 people dead and at least 12 wounded (this CBS 4 article says 20 wounded): Reports: Multiple Soldiers Shot At Ft. Hood In Texas.

FORT HOOD, Texas (CBS) ― Multiple soldiers were shot at Fort Hood in central Texas Thursday afternoon, CBS station KTVT-TV reports.

Army officials have confirmed a “violent incident” at the post, but have not released any other details.

CNN reported that at least seven soldiers had been shot dead, and 20 more were wounded.

UPDATE at 11/5/09 2:09:07 pm:

Latest word is that there were three suspects, all soldiers — the shooter was killed, but the other two are in custody.

UPDATE at 11/5/09 2:14:21 pm:

Latest news: 12 dead including the shooter, and 31 wounded, some of them seriously. The suspects were confirmed by Fort Hood media relations to be soldiers.

Pastor Stephen Broden from Dallas Texas gives the benediction at Michele Bachmann’s
“house call” protest against the health care reform bill, and immediately launches a political diatribe about “death panels!” and “death care!” and tyranny and socialism and anti-Christ abortion and violation of all the laws of God and nature. Really. It’s one hell of a benediction.

C-SPAN 3 is covering the Michele Bachmann anti-health care tea party swarm right now; as I write, Jon Voight is speaking on the steps of the Capitol.

I’d estimate the crowd at between 7.3 and 8.2 million people. At least.

UPDATE at 11/5/09 10:03:39 am:

The word of the day on the house callers’ signs is … “Mao.”

UPDATE at 11/5/09 10:32:49 am:

Slogans suggested so far today:

“Kill the bill!”
“No, you can’t!”
“NO NO NO NO NO, etc.”