Wednesday, December 29. 2004
Russia to Stop Giving Free Trips to US Astronauts Russian Space Agency said on Tuesday it will stop giving free space trips to U.S. astronauts. The agency chief Anatoly Perminov quoted by Reiters said they “will put U.S. astronauts into orbit only on a commercial basis” from 2006.
Russia has been servicing the International Space Station alone for almost two years since the crash of the U.S. Columbia shuttle. The United States has often funded Russian cosmonauts’ trips to the station on its shuttles and since the tragedy Russia has done the same for U.S. astronauts.
A spokesman of the Russian agency quoted by Reuters said Perminov will go to the United States early next year with a proposal. It says, the United States would write off debts of man-hours that Russia owes for work carried out on the station in exchange for Russia launching its astronauts. NASA officials have not commented this information yet.
U.S. officials have said Shuttle flights could resume in May, an event Russia is keenly awaiting. “At the beginning of next year I will go to America to personally make sure that the preparation for the resumption of Shuttle flights is going according to plan,” Perminov said.
Sunday, December 26. 2004
Cruel coincidence befalls UPS driverSo the other day a UPS driver in New Hampshire was on his way to the Cheshire Medical Center in Keene to deliver some much-needed parts for a piece of medical equipment when he got into a crash. He suffered a head injury and was taken by ambulance to the very same hospital he was headed to, but they weren’t able to do any of the tests they needed because the brain scan machine was broken—and the parts needed to fix it were sitting in his wrecked truck on the highway. If only there were some word to describe situations like these…
Friday, December 17. 2004
Gillette hopes to power shaver sales to women with Vibrance
By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY Gillette (G) will announce Thursday its strategy to go after a bigger cut of the women's shaving market this spring, including two new products in its successful Venus line and - in an unusual move in personal care products - equality with similar men's products in price. The company will roll out a battery-powered Venus Vibrance shaver, similar to its men's M3Power, that sends little vibrations to the skin to raise the hair for a closer shave. It also will add Venus disposables.
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Friday, December 3. 2004
What with Chaunuka around the corner, me driving all over the freaking New England area, and all the Mass-holes who drive like they're team has won 26 World Championships, I am adding this to my wish list. 
Sunday, November 28. 2004
NASA sending hammer to space Frank D. RoylanceBaltimore Sun Nov. 28, 2004 12:00 AM You can learn something about a rock by looking at it. But what most geologists really want is to smack it with a hammer.
And that's just what planetary scientists will do July 4 when NASA's Deep Impact mission reaches the comet Tempel 1 after a trip of six months and 80 million miles.
If all goes well, an 820-pound copper "hammer" the size of a bathtub will separate from its mother ship and, 24 hours later, smash into the comet's icy nucleus at about 23,000 mph.
The high-speed impact will wallop the pickle-shaped comet with energy equivalent to 4.8 tons of TNT, said Michael A'Hearn, a University of Maryland astronomer and principal investigator on the $311 million mission.
Nobody's sure what will happen next. There's a small chance the impactor will blow the 2 1/2-mile-long comet to smithereens, or simply bore right through it like a bullet through a snowball. More likely, scientists say, it will blast open a crater the size of a football stadium. It all depends on what Tempel 1 is made of.
Which is exactly what scientists hope to learn.
The blast also will reveal the comet's interior chemistry and nail down more precisely what conditions were like when it formed at the solar system's birth more than 4.5 billion years ago.
The Deep Impact spacecraft is undergoing final tests at Cape Canaveral, Fla. It will blast off atop a Delta 2 rocket Dec. 30, and if all goes well, rendezvous with Tempel 1 on Independence Day.
Thursday, November 18. 2004
" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" />" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" />;"> " style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" />" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" />;">Sunny The Swearing Royal Navy Parrot Goes Back to Sea
By Chris Court, PA
Sunny, the swearing Royal Navy parrot, has rejoined her shipmates on a warship after seven months ashore, it emerged today.
The African Grey – currently the only serving parrot in the Navy – had to leave Type 23 frigate HMS Lancaster while she was undergoing a refit in Plymouth, Devon.
Sunny, whose service number is RN Parrot No.1, has now resumed her place in the wardroom among the officers.
Her keeper, Lieutenant Mari Duffy said today: “With the return of Sunny the parrot to HMS Lancaster the ship’s company now feels complete.”
Sunny became famous in March when she met the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at Portsmouth Naval base.
At the time the ship’s company were worried about her squawking expletives when meeting the Royal couple.
But Sunny did not let them down and kept a civil tongue.
The warship’s crew was concerned because during a Middle East tour Sunny let loose a string of four letter words during a visit by Navy top brass – audible despite her being hidden in a broom cupboard.
Her volley of abuse was overheard by the fleet’ s Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Alan West but he ignored her and carried on briefing the crew in the mess.
Sunny’s colourful language has become familiar aboard the frigate her vocabulary includes “b******s” and “arse”.
Among her other phrases are “You ain’t seen me, right” and “Zulus, thousands of ’em”.
HMS Lancaster is currently undergoing sea trials after completing a refit in Plymouth.
She is due to begin sea training in January next year and is scheduled to sail home to Portsmouth in March.
Click here for Sunny's Royal Navy Webpage
A meteor is coming and we're all going to die: teacher tells pupils
LONDON (AFP) - A schoolteacher, attempting to motivate her pupils into making the most of each day, told them a meteorite was about to smash into the Earth and that they should all return home to say goodbye to their families. The teacher at the high school in Manchester, only realised her lecture was misjudged when many of the assembled teenagers started crying, The Sun newspaper said Friday.
The unnamed female teacher made the announcement to around 250 pupils at St Matthew's Roman Catholic High School during their regular morning assembly.
Saying she had bad news, the teacher announced that a meteor would strike the Earth in 10 days' time, and that they should return home and say their "final farewells" to their parents.
After the crowd of 13- and 14-year-olds looked on in horror, and many burst into tears, the teacher swiftly explained that she was only trying to encourage them to "seize the day".
"Some of the children were 100 percent convinced they were going to die," the father of one child told the paper.
"God only knows what this teacher thought she was doing." Yahoo News
Wednesday, November 17. 2004
Bruce Friedrich, left, and Karin Robertson, right, are seen in a Nov. 12, 2004 photo at PETA headquarters in Norfolk, Va. The two are heading a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) campaign against eating fish. Animal-rights activists have launched a novel campaign arguing that fish are intelligent, sensitive animals no more deserving of being eaten than a pet dog or cat. Associated Press photo by Gary C. Knapp Sympathy for the guppy: PETA campaign pitches fish as smart and sensitive
Brought to you by the SFGate. Home of All Lame Ass Causes.
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Tuesday, November 9. 2004
Friday, November 5. 2004
Eco-Friendly Disc Stores Data on Corn Nov. 4, 2004 — Giving a new meaning to the term grassroots music, Pioneer Corp. said Thursday it had developed a next-generation disc made of corn to let the eco-conscious consumer dispose of data in the soil. The Japanese electronics maker said the Blu-ray optical disc, which can be written once and stores 25 gigabytes of data, is 87 percent natural polymer derived from corn and biodegrades. "If the starch polymer is incinerated, it will not emit dioxins and any other harmful chemicals," the company said. While the disc can theoretically be eaten, it is coated by a 0.1-millimeter (0.004-inch) thick layer of resin and is too hard for even the strongest teeth. Pioneer has yet to decide when to market the disc. Earlier this year, Sony Corp. and another Japanese company, Toppan Printing, said they had developed a paper disc that can be destroyed with scissors for fool-proof data security. Picture: AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno | The Disc and Its Ingredient Japanese electronics giant Pioneer researcher Tasuo Hosoda displays a prototype model of a blue-ray disc made of corn starch polymer. Discovery
Thursday, November 4. 2004
Man In Wet Suit Storms Governors Island Nov 3, 2004 6:44 am US/Eastern
NEW YORK An emotionally disturbed man in a wet suit tried to seize Governors Island by hoisting a pirate's flag. The incident caused a massive response by the U-S Coast Guard and New York City police.
Police arrested 41-year-old David Nash of Amherst, Virginia. The New York Daily News says Nash told police he swam to the island - although police said he did not have an oxygen tank or mask and his wet suit was dry.
The newspaper says Nash claimed he was trying to seize Governors Island for the Blue Tulip Party, a political organization he started.
Police took him to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Workers on Governors Island saw Nash raising a pirate flag at 6:40 yesterday morning and they called the Coast Guard.
Nash's mother, Pat, in Amherst told The News that her son suffered from psychological problems. She says he was in New York to sight see. Nash said he was a presidential candidate in 2000, running for the Blue Tulip Party.
Tuesday, November 2. 2004
A former Russian nuclear scientist has handed over to police eight containers of plutonium-238 he had stored at home for eight years. The 400g (14oz) of plutonium-238 - a highly radioactive compound - came from a disused laboratory in Siberia. Former employee Leonid Grigorov said he removed the containers for safekeeping after the lab was looted and stored them in a lead case, Russian media say. He may face criminal proceedings, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency says. A spokesman for Russia's Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), Nikolay Shingaryov, insisted that "this is not weapons-grade plutonium, but an isotope widely used in various instruments". Counter-terrorism experts have repeatedly warned that radioactive material from decrepit Soviet-era installations could fall into the hands of militants. 'Morally right' Mr Grigorov is quoted as saying he had written letters to his former bosses warning of the risk posed by radioactive material left in the laboratory in Zmeinogorsk, which was abandoned and looted after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. When his letters failed to elicit a response, Mr Grigorov says he was obliged to remove the material himself "to prevent anything bad from happening". He says he took the plutonium from his garage to the local police, in response to a newspaper advertisement announcing a cash reward for surrendering weapons. (Note From Salty: This is my favorite part, I mean imagine the expression on the face of the desk clerk when "Crazy Ivan" dumps off 14oz of Plutonium. Marty today we go back to the future!!!"
Zmeinogorsk police are quoted as saying Mr Grigorov was morally right to have hidden the hazardous material but he may nonetheless face criminal charges. Itar-Tass said a legal case had been brought against the physicist for "illegal storage of radioactive substances". Plutonium-238 can be used with ordinary explosives to make a "dirty bomb", potentially contaminating a large area with radiation. Source: BBC News
Tuesday, October 26. 2004
Brain in a Dish Flies Plane By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Oct. 22, 2004 — A University of Florida scientist has created a living "brain" of cultured rat cells that now controls an F-22 fighter jet flight simulator. Scientists say the research could lead to tiny, brain-controlled prosthetic devices and unmanned airplanes flown by living computers. And if scientists can decipher the ground rules of how such neural networks function, the research also may result in novel computing systems that could tackle dangerous search-and-rescue jobs and perform bomb damage assessment without endangering humans. Discovery Channel
Wednesday, October 20. 2004
(10-19) 10:58 PDT SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Iraqi militants who kidnapped an Australian reporter in Baghdad and threatened to kill him Googled his name on the Internet to investigate his work before deciding to release him unharmed, the journalist's executive producer said Tuesday. John Martinkus, the first Australian confirmed as having been abducted in Iraq, was seized in Baghdad early Saturday and held for about 24 hours before being freed. Returning home Tuesday, Martinkus demanded an apology from Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who had said the journalist was abducted when he went a Baghdad neighborhood that he was warned not to visit. "He was advised not to go to, but he went there anyway," Downer told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
Tuesday, October 19. 2004
We’ve seen USB Flash drives come in all shapes and sizes, but the new SolidAlliance (they brought us the USB duck drives) sushi drives set a new standard in conjoining the Japanese obsession with plastic food and our obsession with weird USB drives. Unfortunately your tekka maki only comes in sizes from 32 to 128MB, so we may hold out until they hook up some 512MB+ fugu drives. http://akiba.sorobangeeks.com/news_8786.html
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