Canberra appears on Jetstar radar

See full article: http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/canberra-appears-on-jetstar-radar/1094178.html

Canberreans, you will have other option to scape to nicer spots.

Four hands guitar

WONDERFUL !

Featured music: Jazzed up Beatles

These tracks are great to play in the background while you are doing something else. I have no idea who the heck plays it (the album is 'A bite of the apple'), so I decided to upload a painting instead. Inspired by the trivia night yesterday at BoZo, which, by the way, we won with my fellow students from RSBS, I propose the following challenge:

For a pint: whose painting is this?

If you can also correctly state the title and year, I take off my chapeau and you don't have to prove your artistic erudition ever again.

A kilo of cotton does NOT equal a kilo of iron

A group of scientist from ANU and CSIRO discovered today that a kilo of cotton doesn't equal a kilo of iron. These hypothesis has been involve in many jokes all over the world and in many different languages. "Today we have found evidences that demonstrate and validate the hypothesis " said Dr. Yves Al' Godon. The experiment was carried out in the labs over Cave Beach, Australia, where a 2 kilos iron pan was placed on sea water, and after a couple of minutes it floated. The same protocol was then applied for a cotton T-shirts , and for the surprise of the scientist the t-shirts sank immediately!
More evidences were compiled from independent sources, for instance a colleague form the Gold Coast in Australia noticed that humans get rid of the cotton clothe before getting to the water... Moreover, speedos and wet-suits are in general made of lycra and NO cotton.

The formula that validate the hypothesis:

Ct = 2Yp + 69

Where:
Ct = cotton T-shirt
Yp = Yves' pan
69 = our wishes for your weekend


For more information check the cotton article in the Crappypedia web site.

As you can see, lunches at Disco are more than a good occasion to feed yourself.

You might know that we're always behind the last news in science...

Travel log.

hi everyone - recently I caught up with some old mates........

....as you can see, Regis is looking forward to his trip to the Netherlands. We made a trip to Amsterdam where Jan was our host.....
We had too many Belgium beers and had to get a lift home in the "Tuk Tuk".....

.....it was cosy inside.

Tomorrow I leave Lausanne to start the last leg of my trip in Spain: firstly in Madrid with Lucia, Regis and family and friends then to Cordoba with Marga et al.
cheers, David.

A must

Como cantaba un amigo... "La naranja se pasea de la sala al comedor, no le tiren con anfeta, tirenle con tafirol..."

Have a bloody nice week!

Poll Results: King Shaun

Once again, popular consultation has helped us determine the truth (?). This time, in response to Jose's false dilemma (also known as false choice, false dichotomy, falsified dilemma, fallacy of the excluded middle, black and white thinking, false correlative, either/or fallacy, and bifurcation).

After a heart-stopping votation, Shaun narrowly beats Agustin by 9 to 7 and gets the crown of heavyweight gossipers. I wonder whether the Howard v. Rudd race to the PM's seat will be so thrilling.

He did it again

The guy is a machine. Skotomorphowhat?

I don't wanna know

Hampshire police thought it would be a good idea to advertise on the rear of a bus. Their planning did not take into account the position of the exhaust pipe.

Happy birthday mate!

Oh my god!!! 33!!!

Palabras de Fidel

Fidel's words...

We have to show both sides of the story in this blog.
Sorry, nowadays Fidel only writes in Spanish, but if you want to see his article in English you can click here (I don't know how good is the translation). Remember that Cubans only have access to this news (The Granma), other opinions are forbidden.

Reflexiones del presidente fidel castro
El debate de la Cumbre

Las paredes, la distancia y el tiempo se redujeron a cero. Parecía irreal. Nunca había tenido lugar un diálogo parecido entre Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno, que en casi su totalidad representaban países saqueados durante siglos por el coloniaje y el imperialismo. Ningún hecho podía ser más didáctico.

El sábado 10 de noviembre de 2007 pasará a la historia de nuestra América como el día de la verdad.

El Waterloo ideológico ocurrió cuando el Rey de España le preguntó a Chávez de forma abrupta: "¿Por qué no te callas?". En ese instante todos los corazones de América Latina vibraron. El pueblo venezolano, que debe responder sí o no el próximo 2 de diciembre, se estremeció al vivir de nuevo los días gloriosos de Bolívar. Las traiciones y los golpes bajos que recibe diariamente nuestro entrañable hermano, no harán cambiar ese sentimiento de su pueblo bolivariano.

(...)

Fidel Castro Ruz
Noviembre 12 de 2007
Hora: 4 y 45 p.m.

Click here to see the rest of this article in Spanish.

Guess the bird

This little fella got locked in my garage the other day. Actually, there were two of them, but the other one got away before I could take the pic.

I offer a beer to the first who correctly gives the name of the species. A bonus point (pint) if you also provide the gender.

Luciana is ruled out of the contest because I've already told her.

Xavier Rudd

Mr. Rudd played yesterday at the Canberra Theatre. Yves, Tara, María and me were there, and Luciana and Juan almost... This guy can play a dozen of instruments, at the same time! It was really good.

"I guess I should say,

This is all that I need,

Music and you and the air that I breathe.

And I guess I should say,

These feelings we have,

Come out from the soul make you just want to dance.

And I guess I should say,

We are lucky today,

And cheers my friends for the vibes you bring.

I guess I should say,

This is all that I need,

Music and you and the gift of the trees."

A followup

Chávez you SUCK.

SHUT UP!!

That's what Juan Carlos, King of Spain, said to Hugo Chávez, president of Venezuela. This happened in Santiago de Chile, last night.




Good for the King!! I am with him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7089131.stm

Who is the King of the Gossips?

If you want to keep a secret there are some people that you should avoid... or if you want something in the grape vine then you should tell them the "secrets"...


There are two candidates to be the King of the Gossips... which one do you think should be the winner?

-----La Chounie or Agustin? If the decision is too tough... a draw could be the answer... ;)

Olga the alga and Karl the coral

Once upon a time in the reef ... long before all types of life were created, an alga called Olga was traveling around the tropics. Suddenly Olga saw something in the bottom of that warm and lovely sea and she went to have a look to that weir fellow.

Zara: Hello stranger. Who are you? What is your name?
Fellow: G'day mate, I'm a coral, my name is Karl.
Zara: Oh, nice to meet you Karl! Actually I'm a homeless and I'm looking for a place to spend the night, and you seem to have some room over there, don't you? Would you mind if I stay here for tonight?
Karl: No, I don't, but how will you pay me?
Olga: I can do photosynthesis and give you some of that energy ... basically, I'm able to feed you.
Karl: Ohhh! that's great!

And Olga the alga and Karl the coral live together for ever ever...

These is the story that we were told in the aquarium by the lovely old volunteer :) Isn't it great?

Have a great weekend!!!

New species in the Great Barrier Reef

In a reef nearby Townsville (Tropical Queensland, Australia) a group of scientist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science discovered three new species (see picture below) that might evolved in a combination from apes and fishes. One of the scientist, Dr. Mick Dundee said that these discovery supports that Man is descended from the apes but also add that that transitional stage in which "Man" lost the hair was in a reef.



As you can see, we're always following the latest news in science!

Have a nice day

So much house work, so little time

Shaun: "One of the best things about tango is that it teaches women how to walk in high heels."

Anne: "Except that most of the time you walk backwards. Forwards, well forwards is another thing all together."

Leah: "Didn't you once say that stilettos are good for housework?"

Shaun: "Wearing stilettos to do the housework in well, that looks pretty good. Oh, let me clarify that: for women that is....hee hee hee."

Hmmm. Red t-bar metallics for sweeping, blue satin ankle straps for dishwashing, black patent leather for cleaning the shower (Mee-ooow!)

I dunno, but Shaun looks pretty excited about taking these babies home, putting on some Queen ("I want to break free") and getting out the Hoover ;-)

Leah: "I never let the truth get in the way of a good story Shaun."

Poll Results: Loonie Keith

This was a close one: Keith 4, Mel 3, Tom 2 and Mike 1. To be honest, at first I doubted whether it would be appropriate to classify Keith Richards as a lunatic. But now, given that he got the most votes, that he fell from a coconut tree in New Zealand (what the f...?) and that he sniffed his dad's ashes with cocaine, make me feel reassured: he is completely out of his fucking mind. And he's awesome.

By the way, check out the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks, it's great.

"This is an urban legend"

I finally found the report that I was looking for!


Some time ago I had a strong discussion with a colleague about cooling water in plastic bottles o warming food in plastic containers (specially designed for microwaves and so on...) into the microwave oven. He pointed that I was contaminating the microwave (or the water, but in that case the 'injured' would have been myself) with dioxins, and basically because of that everybody would get cancer.
Today, I received an email form a friend that was supporting his idea (bugger!)... but it looked like a spam. The good thing was that there where a reference to The John Hopkins University. I went to the JHU site and the report saying that the e-mail is spam was there to be read. Basically the issue of cooling water in plastic bottles or warming food in plastic containers is an urban legend, there are not scientific proves supporting that idea.

Part of the report:

Question: What do you make of this recent email warning that claims dioxins can be released by freezing water in plastic bottles?

Answer: No. This is an urban legend. There are no dioxins in plastics. In addition, freezing actually works against the release of chemicals. Chemicals do not diffuse as readily in cold temperatures, which would limit chemical release if there were dioxins in plastic, and we don’t think there are.

Question: What about cooking with plastics?

Answer: In general, whenever you heat something you increase the likelihood of pulling chemicals out. Chemicals can be released from plastic packaging materials like the kinds used in some microwave meals. Some drinking straws say on the label “not for hot beverages.” Most people think the warning is because someone might be burned. If you put that straw into a boiling cup of hot coffee, you basically have a hot water extraction going on, where the chemicals in the straw are being extracted into your nice cup of coffee. We use the same process in the lab to extract chemicals from materials we want to analyze.

If you are cooking with plastics or using plastic utensils, the best thing to do is to follow the directions and only use plastics that are specifically meant for cooking. Inert containers are best, for example heat-resistant glass, ceramics and good old stainless steel.

Question: Is there anything else you want to add?

Answer: Don’t be afraid of drinking water. It is very important to drink adequate amounts of water and, by the way that’s in addition to all the coffee, beer and other diuretics we love to consume. Unless you are drinking really bad water, you are more likely to suffer from the adverse effects of dehydration than from the minuscule amounts of chemical contaminants present in your water supply. Relatively speaking, the risk from exposure to microbial contaminants is much greater than that from chemicals.

And here’s one more uncomfortable fact. Each of us already carries a certain body burden of dioxins regardless of how and what we eat. If you look hard enough, you’ll find traces of dioxins in pretty much every place on earth. Paracelsus the famous medieval alchemist, used to put it straight and simple: it’s the dose that makes the poison.--Tim Parsons

Have a nice weekend!
And win some money betting horses...

Following up the discussion

Science 26 October 2007: Vol. 318. no. 5850, p. 550 DOI: 10.1126/science.318.5850.550b

Prev | Table of Contents | Next

From Science

PUBLIC POLICY:
Watson Condemned for Comments on Intelligence

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

(...)

Watson has apologized for the remarks, which also prompted London's Science Museum to cancel a scheduled talk. "I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said," he told The Associated Press. "To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly." But in a 19 October commentary published in The Independent, Watson seemed also to put up a defense. "The overwhelming desire of society today is to assume that equal powers of reason are a universal heritage of humanity," he wrote. "It may well be. But simply wanting this to be the case is not enough. This is not science."

Neither were his own comments, says Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner. "He has taken an extremely complex set of issues--what is intelligence, what is race, how valid are IQ tests--and reduced them to a provocative sound bite," says Gardner. As someone "of almost unique prestige in the scientific community," Gardner notes, Watson "has a special responsibility to watch his tongue."

To read the entire article, follow this link (only if you have access to Science): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5850/550b