brazil joins the club

Lt Col Marcos Pontes has become the first Brazilian to go into space after a successful launch aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur.

and the award for best looking fire truck goes to:

farenheiht 451

easy with that 'phone, love

UK model Campbell charged in US

mind bender

anyone interested in attempting to know what space, time, and what constitutes reality means, is urged to read this book.

that it isn't fiction will really bake your noodle.

your sense of 'now' will forever be changed.

bush's arrogance is matched only by his self-belief

Iraq's Premier Asserts His Right to Stay in Office

let's shoe-horn democracy into iraq, on a timetable of your choosing, and then when it doesn't follow the path you would like, you withdraw your support and let everyone know that you'ld prefer someone else.

brilliant.

total solar eclipse tomorrow morning

nasa has a live webcast if you can get up early enough tomorrow morning (5:00am eastern time).

the address is:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html

bush's chief of staff resigns

from the new york times:

"Appearing to have tears in his eyes, Mr. Card turned to Mr. Bush and said, "You're a good man, Mr. President, and you do great things."

er, has this guy been reading "the emporer's new clothes" by any chance?......

i'm pretty sure that world history will not accord bush as either being a 'good man' (depends on who you ask) or having done great things.

some astronomy stuff for ya

that all the atoms in the stars, planets, gas, comets, dust and debris, etc. that make up all the galaxies account for only 4% of the total mass of the universe.

that means that 96% of the universe is made up of around 22% dark matter (hypothetical particles) and the remaining 74% dark energy - about which we know next to nothing.

yep. we only know what 4% of the universe we can see is made of.

from "the onion"

Poverty-Stricken Africans Receive Desperately Needed Bibles

sealskin is back in fashion

that's bad news if you're a baby seal.

three years on, george...

why don't you visit baghdad instead of your ranch in texas, and tell the iraqis how much better life is for them?

this is their reality. and yours...

to all my friends going to miami

have a great one:)

a very good thursday evening at science club. nice work, david.

the very unscientific scientology

see ya isaac!

i got stopped in the street a while back by a couple of these loonys with clipboards, and was asked if i had taken a personality test.


i replied "don't need to; i've got one"

just in case you're a bit unsure about scientology, this is from their 'mission' statement:

Man is an immortal, spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized — and those capabilities can be realized. He is able to not only solve his own problems, accomplish his goals and gain lasting happiness, but also achieve new, higher states of awareness and ability.

see; i have a bit of a problem with the immortality thing. there is absolutely nothing that is immortal. we like to see things on our timescale, but that is irrelevant to the laws of nature. everything dies. the very atoms in our bodies were formed by dying stars (like all the heavy elements).

that includes the carbon, water and oxygen in the bodies of scientologists.

ask any scientist.

what isn't a good sum?

George Bush's Trillion-Dollar War

At his press conference on Tuesday, President Bush made it clear that whatever the cost, American forces would not be leaving Iraq soon. When asked whether a day would come when there were no U.S. forces in Iraq, he said that decision would be made by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.

The meter's running. We're at a trillion dollars, and counting.

spring equinox

today marks the beginning of spring, that is, when the sun crosses northward across the celestial equator at a point called the vernal equinox. the vernal and autumnal equinoxes mark the time of year that day and night are of the same length from any location on earth.

on the first day of spring and the last day of fall, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west (and only on these days)

the season's are caused by the tilt of the earth's axis of rotation (23 1/2 degrees), and not by changes in how far away we are from the sun. the earth-sun distance varies by only about 3 degrees over the course of a year.

you don't hear this every day:

daisy came back from yoga this morning and said:

"i got deep into my 'pigeon pose' today"

tough six nations for italy

good win for scotland, but italy are a good addition, making for an interesting tournament, despite this year's performance.

all of england is rooting for wales against france, especially playing at cardiff arms park (sorry, millenium stadium...) kickoff 10:30am in the usa.

fabio

went to the hospital for a couple of mri's at 7 o'clock this morning (as you do). apart from the hour spent inside a giant magnet, at least there was the compensation of being able to listen to some music on headphones they provide, to help drown out the noise.

i can recommend this cd for anyone who has to put their head in a scanner for an hour.

did you know that:

the contrapositive of a conditional is formed by negating both the hypothesis and conclusion of the converse of the conditional.

i'm not making this up... it's from a geometry book.

dining in

daisy cooked a great meal for the gang on monday night.

special thanks to tanc and tiernan for the 'rugby 06' xbox game.

best line of the game so far:

the referee to matt dawson:

"i can't be held responsible for the lack of skill in your team".

england vs. france in paris.

and in 2006, it's unbelievable that

from the bbc:

"Almost 20% of the world's population still lacks access to safe drinking water because of failed policies, an influential report has concluded".

water-borne diseases killed more that 3 million people in 2002 alone. that's one person every 12 seconds; i think that might be slightly higher than those killed by terrorists....

since politicians are so desperate to tell everyone that they are making the world a better, safer place, perhaps they might actually improve the lot of the world's most needy - those without wealth.

when i was a kid growing up, headlines from around the world cited poverty and the availability of safe drinking water as being two of the most pressing issues facing the modern world as it turned the page into the twenty-first century. sadly, i'm still reading the same headlines.

if only the united states war machine had progressed at the same rate.

according to the dept. of homeland security, today there is an elevated risk - that is, there's a significant risk of a terrorist attack. and in the meantime, while i've been writing this, a few hundred of the world's poorest have died due to lack of safe drinking water....

34

that's right. 34 out of every hundred people. that's the latest approval rating for george bush. the 34 percent polled by CBS admitted that they were:

a) waiting for more tax cuts
b) members of the nra
c) living in south dakota
d) high ranking officials at F.E.M.A
e) haliburton shareholders
f) oil executives
g) american auto industry chiefs
h) pat robertson
i) untraveled outside of the U.S.
j) incapable of changing their opinion.

e-mail to creative audio

i have just had the sad misfourtune to use your software to try and record a cd from vinyl records via my mixer using your soundcard software on my alienware pc. the amount of time it takes to build, rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, rebuild... you get the picture.. a file is a joke. except that is, that it isn't funny. it took longer to make a cd and to get nero to make a copy than it did to make the recording.

truly astoundingly terrible, editing capability. and you have the nerve to call it a 'creative wave studio'!

perhaps a free prescription for some valium with every soundcard you ship might make it seem less painful, but i doubt it.

from moon of saturn, signs of water stir speculation of life

it's inevitable. the only questions are where and when.

i wonder how the creation fundamentalists will handle that one. i mean; you'ld think that life elsewhere would be important enough to tell us about, and not leave it up to science.

happy birthday

to my sister, tina :)

deny, deny ,deny. the american way...

yes. this is what barry bonds used to look like.

any questions?

e scorcho! in d.c.

76 degrees F

how mad are the english?

squirrels playing conkers at the 'world conkers championship' in 2004...

i mean; what else can they do to improve mining conditions?

U.S. Is Reducing Safety Penalties for Mine Flaws

CRAIGSVILLE, W.Va. — In its drive to foster a more cooperative relationship with mining companies, the Bush administration has decreased major fines for safety violations since 2001, and in nearly half the cases, it has not collected the fines, according to a data analysis by The New York Times.

good 'ol bushy and his crackheads never fail to disappoint.

decent night out

daisy and went out to see calibre and mathematics at five.
i thought mathematics was very good. kinda wished calibre had played a few mc-less tunes, but i guess beggers can't be choosers.

e-mail to staples

hello,

i just had a less than "that was easy" experience trying to order some sharpie pens, no less. according to your online chat representative, i was informed that staples is unable to order products it doesn't stock. we're talking some sharpie pens here! is that correct? and if so, then that's not so "easy".

for a company whose previous motto was "yeah; we've got that", you fail on both counts...

letter to the new york times in response to gas tax article

re: will it take a gas tax to go green?

like it or not, the american auto industry alone cannot be expected to provide a solution to america's love affair with oil. just note how many large pick-up trucks and suv ads you see advertised on television, compared to fuel-efficient vehicles, if one needs convincing.

government has the ability,(if it so chooses) to implement a change. as uncomfortable as no doubt unpopular, a painful to many gasoline tax makes tough sense, because it inevitably forces the change in consumer habits that is so badly needed. of course, consumers should not be expected to shoulder all the responsibility; after all, a government of the richest nation on earth that refuses to invest in public transportation is a sorry excuse for one that really does represent the needs of many, not just for now, but in the future. it's called planning; hardly the present administration's strongest card.

endless, broadsweeping rhetoric needs to replaced with a framework of policy and unpopular taxes. of course, such a prudent adoption of such a reality check will no doubt have an electorate, brainwashed into thinking of taxes as evil scourges, rushing to the polls to defend their present status quo. cutting taxes, no matter what the state of the economy is in, is hardly wise. in order for people to follow, a government must lead.

$2 a gallon and people are complaining?, about what! what do people think is going to happen? those that consider a gas tax so wrong and unjust, perhaps might also consider an analogy with the evolution of man. mammals (us), only ever had a real chance to evolve on earth once the age of the dinosaurs ended. i hear a lot of talk from the auto industry and government, but i see an awful lot of dinosaurs out there when i look out of my window or leave the apartment. and i live a few blocks from the whitehouse!

climate change? - not on my watch!

The global scientific body on climate change is expected to report soon that emissions from humankind is the only explanation for major changes on Earth.

President Bush's chief adviser James Connaughton said recently that it was pointless discussing a safe CO2 level as we could not be sure how resistant the world would be to greenhouse gases.

Maybe we could double CO2 with impunity, or maybe we could increase it threefold or fourfold; the issue was not worth discussing, he said.

let's hope he's right, but recent performance by bush's crack team of an administration gets an F across the board. if it was a child, it would be stuck in the corner with a dunce's hat on it, and a note on it's back saying "kick me; i'm stupid"

undoubtedly, the issue is not worth discussing........!! er, just what is worth discussing?

"hello, hello" anyone seen any cash lying around?

about 53 million 'quid. - that's $93 million dollars. britain's biggest ever robbery.