Undoubtedly you’ve read or heard about the NASA astronaut who is charged with attempted murder after driving 900 miles to confront a woman she suspected of being involved with a guy she liked. This astronaut, Lisa Nowak, had previously flown on the Discovery shuttle and seemed to be a relatively “normal” person. But I guess even astronauts are prone to outrageous fits of jealousy and hysteria.

One of the details of the story that a lot of people have been talking about is the fact that Nowak wore diapers on her journey — presumably so she wouldn’t have to waste time for bathroom breaks. At first, I thought she wore regular adult diapers, like Depends or something, but the latest AP article on this story says that she was wearing astronaut diapers.

Curious, I looked up that term and found this very interesting article that explains why astronauts need diapers. You know, I’ve never heard of such a thing in my entire life until now.

Anyway, the only reason this story is getting so much airtime is the fact that Nowak is an astronaut. If she were something more mundane, like a waitress or a teacher, I bet the news wires wouldn’t have even picked this up.