NOT DEFYING GRAVITY:  Yes, of course, seeing normally terrestrial man falling through space is cool, but it's not as neat as this time-lapse photography of the usually-seen-in-flight Space Shuttle Endeavour making its way through the streets of Los Angeles.

HOPING FOR A GAME TIGHTER THAN HER DEREON JEANS:  Beyonce Knowles will headline the 2013 Super Bowl halftime show in New Orleans.

Totally acceptable choice, even if I'm mystified by the continued absence of a country performer. Shania Twain (2003) was the last to even co-lead, and before that you have go back to 1994's Rockin' Country Sunday with Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, and The Judds.

INTRIGUING!  I was caught off guard during this week's Hang Up and Listen podcast by the way SI's Grant Wahl kept pronouncing the word interesting with four syllables -- IN-tuh-res-ting -- when I (and I think most people) shortchange clarity in the middle to go with the abbreviated IN-truhs-ting. As The Big Book Of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide For The Careful Speaker by Charles Harrington Elster explains:

The three-syllable IN-tris-ting is a victim of syncope (SING-kuh-pee), the loss or omission of a sound or syllable from the middle of a word as in FAM-lee for family and KUHMF-tur-buul for comfortable. It is now probably the most commonly heard pronunciation in American speech. The noun and verb interest is also a victim of syncope and is usually pronounced in two syllables, IN-trist, although the older IN-tur-ist is still heard. The verbal adjective interested is often pronounced in four syllables, IN-tur-ES-tid, but the evidence of my ears says the three-syllable IN-tris-tid is more common.

LIKE MYSPACE USERS WHO STILL CHAT ON AOL INSTANT MESSENGER:  The NYT checks in on people who still own Blackberry devices, now that its market share has gone from 50 percent to less than 5 percent of the U.S. smartphone market over the past three years.

FROM OUR PURPLE AND ORANGE DESK:  Dunkin' Donuts is attempting to trademark the name Bagel Bunchkin for a new food offering. It is unclear what the product will taste like, or whether the trademark application will be successful.

YOU ARE NOW ABOUT TO WITNESS THE STRENGTH OF STREET KNOWLEDGE: "Hip-hop came from the clubs and sidewalks of New York City as a party music made with turntables and rhymes by performers who usually couldn't afford music instruments," explained Geoff Boucher in the LA Times a few years ago. "It was party music, but then it came west and got a beat-down by a swaggering collective that called itself N.W.A. Run-DMC gave rap its commercial shape and Public Enemy provided the politics, but it was N.W.A that took the genre to the dangerous side of the street.”

Not many artists are generally deemed responsible for two separate musical movements, yet it is impossible to tell the story of the West Coast hip hop sound, or the lyrical content of gangsta rap, without placing N.W.A. towards the start and very much in the center of the tale. In discussing Deep Purple last week, we got into whether a band could be inducted based on only one song. Well, N.W.A. only recorded two proper studio albums, but the first is the defining document of a genre, and the second was the first of its genre to hit #1 on the pop charts. Its members would go onto massive success as solo artists, as producers, as stars of family-friendly films, and as multimillionaire headphone entrepreneurs.

Did N.W.A. glamorize violence? Somewhat. Is the misogyny and homophobia throughout their lyrics uncomfortable to stomach? Absolutely. Is it somewhat excusable by the whole “we were only playing characters/reflecting reality” thing? We’ll get to that. The influence, however, is not debatable. Here’s what Chris Rock said in 2005 in placing Straight Outta Compton atop his list of the top hip-hop albums of all time:

N.W.A. is the most influential act of the last thirty years -- bigger than Nirvana, Madonna or the Sex Pistols. Nothing has ever been the same since they came. I remember I was in L.A. when I was a kid, and I brought Straight Outta Compton back to New York. More people were coming over to my house to listen to N.W.A. than were going across the street to the crack house. I had the real shit. It was kind of like the British Invasion for black people.

N.W.A. has made the final ballot for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; this is the first year in which it was eligible. To the Keltners!

COOKING ISN’T CREATIVE, AND IT ISN’T EASY. IT’S SERIOUS, AND IT’S HARD TO DO WELL, JUST AS EVERYTHING WORTH DOING IS DAMN HARD: NYTMag profiles Christopher Kimball and Cook's Illustrated magazine.