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.