Monthly Archives: November 2005

british gettin’ hitched invasion

Just wanted to congratulate “Elton John”:http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid22912.asp (and David Furnish) and “George Michael”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4483552.stm (and Kenny Goss) on their impending nuptials. It’s nice to know that someone is moving forward on this. Go UK!

Oh, the perversion of muggles

My inner child has had a crush on Daniel Radcliffe since I first saw him interviewed about the Harry Potter movies and he was so nice to a wheelchair-bound kid in the audience (and Rupert Grint definitely WASN’T). Plus, well, glasses just do it for me. As it turns out, I’m not the only one with latent (and rather inappropriate) Harry appreciation. Check out the Harry Potter Legal Age Countdown Clock.

falcon 1 launches this friday

SpaceX announced that Falcon 1, the first privately-developed liquid-fueled rocket designed to reach orbit, will launch this Friday. If successful, it will mean a new era of safe, low-cost access to space; Falcon has both the lowest cost ($7 million) and highest reliability rating of any American launch vehicle. Go Falcon!

UPDATE: The November 26 launch was scrubbed due to technical problems. The next launch attempt is scheduled for December 17th.

news flash: cuddling babies is good

It’s an obvious one, but it’s good to see the science being done. A “Daily Mail article”:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_article_id=369379&in_page_id=1799 says that recent studies have shown increased levels of oxytocin and arginine vasopressin, hormones involved in social bonding, in children who were held, cuddled, and otherwise lavished with love and attention as babies. The hope is that this research will help to understand why orphaned children have trouble bonding with adoptive families, with the possibility of developing a treatment.