How about some nice academic news? Prof. Solomon Golomb, who just finished his 50th year at USC, will receive the National Medal of Science from President Obama later this year. A Harvard Grad School alum and former engineer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Golomb currently holds the Viterbi Chair of Communication and is most famous for creating the mathematical codes that enabled NASA to communicate with Apollo astronauts via radio and which are still used by Mars land rovers to transmit HD pictures. Golomb is the third USC professor to receive this honor. You can read his interview with Neon Tommy's Max Schwartz in the link above.