Nicely done, South Africa! Their highest court just “ruled that same-sex marriages have the same rights as opposite-sex marriages”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/international/africa/02joburg.html?hp. It might get overruled by the legislature, but that’s not considered likely.
All posts by Chris
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!
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.
beck + qrio = robotastic
I, for one, welcome our new “robot dance overlords”:http://beck.com/media/video.php?id=00019. (Warning: your choice of crappy Windows Media or crappy Real Media.) Seriously, who knew that one day robots would be dancing like 80s pop stars dancing like robots?