Global Spin

How to pronounce Huygens - come on, you know you’ve worried about it…. :-)

Posted by Deana in Space on January 16th, 2005 | 4 Comments »

I am not kidding. William “Kirk” Shatner is back in the music (?) business in an album with Ben Folds (famous from Karen’s shirt, at least in my world) called Has Been. The link is to a site that has mp3s and reviews, but I actually heard about it on NPR this evening….

Posted by Deana in Music on January 12th, 2005 | Comments Off

In case you’re still keeping score:
* Weapons of Mass Destruction found before invasion: “0″:http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/07/sprj.irq.un.transcript.blix/
* Weapons of Mass Destruction declared by US before invasion: “LOTS”:http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/28/sotu.transcript/
* US Cost in dollars: “150,000,000,000″:http://costofwar.com/
* US military deaths: “1,357″:http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html
* Iraqi civilians killed: “15,289″:http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
* Weapons of Mass Destruction found after invasion: “0″:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/12/international/middleeast/12cnd-wmd.html

Posted by Chris in Politics on January 12th, 2005 | 1 Comment »

While the Sparrow reminded me of a gigantic shnoz, this one reminds me of a fish (one of those tall, skinny ones, not a blowfish).
Would you want to do 150 MPH (top speed) in this thing? Or 0 to 60 in 4 seconds?
Amazingly, it is not easy to tip.

Posted by Steve in Technology on January 11th, 2005 | 6 Comments »

Why are monster-movie zombies so horrifying and talking animals so fascinating?

Posted by Deana in Kitchen Sink on January 11th, 2005 | Comments Off

“Whoa”:http://space.com/scienceastronomy/aas_exoplanet_050110.html. (OK, it’s not as visually impressive as “that Topanga boulder”:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/photos/popup.asp?SubID=458&pubdate=1/10/05, but stunning nonetheless.)

Posted by Chris in Space on January 11th, 2005 | Comments Off

The Depressed Democrat’s Guide to Recovery. ‘Nuf said. Enjoy!

Posted by Deb in Politics on January 10th, 2005 | Comments Off

This is just ridiculous, but I can’t help it. A few days ago, just for fun, I decided to search for “kitten” at Wikipedia (Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit). Here is their entry for ‘kitten’. Totally adorable. What I love the most, though, is the subsection entitled “Perceptions of Cuteness.”
Entries [...]

Posted by Deana in Reference on January 10th, 2005 | Comments Off

You bet it is. Good luck to the “next crew of the shuttle Discovery”:http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=650513.
(I still get a kick out of the fact that the average age of the 7-person crew is 45. The “youngster” is 8 years older than me. Mission Specialist Charles Camarda is making his first flight into space at 52. [...]

Posted by Chris in Space on January 7th, 2005 | Comments Off

A recent study has shown that a whistling language developed by shepherds in the Canary Islands is “processed by the brain in the same way as ordinary speech”:http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=598140. It implies that the brain can process other non-verbal communication as language, too.
If you’ve read David Brin’s “Startide Rising”:http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue154/classic.html, this should ring a bell. [...]

Posted by Chris in Language on January 6th, 2005 | 5 Comments »