Did you read science fiction as a child? If so, take a look at this “SF Reading Habits Questionnaire”:http://sfquestions.blogspot.com/. It might be interesting to know who “our people” are…
“The purpose of this questionnaire is to provide material for a book called (provisionally), The Inter-Galactic Playground of Children’s Science Fiction to be published by McFarland Press.”
News that Virgin Atlantic is planning to offer “private double beds on the new A380″:http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/20/content_2485526.htm got me thinking. It really would be nice to spend most of a 14-hour flight sleeping in a real bed, kind of like travelling by train. The way it is now, the first and last day of any long trip are wasted “flying days”, and the nicest long flight I had was an “overnight” from San Diego to Sydney. Timing and melatonin helped us get almost a full night’s sleep (if sitting up) on the flight. (The worst long flight was the one on the way back, unfortunately.)
Apparently this is an “idea that’s catching on”:http://www.britishairways.com/travel/sleeptrial/public/en_gb :
“The Club World Sleeper Service now offers you up to five dining options throughout your journey, a more tranquil cabin with fewer announcements, the usual complimentary spa treatments and more. Designed to help you be ready for bed as soon as you take off, The Club World Sleeper Service will deliver you at your destination feeling rested and refreshed.”
Who says that beauty can’t be truth, that art can’t be science? It seems that a scientist at LSU has “found the long-lost sky catalog of Hipparchus”:http://www.astronomy.com/default.aspx?c=a&id=2773 in plain sight. Specifically, it’s on a statue called the “Famese Atlas”:http://sights.seindal.dk/img/orig/9456.jpg, a depiction of Atlas holding up the sky. Apparently the sculptor used one of Hipparchus’ catalogs to lay out the constellations on the 7-foot statue’s globe, with enough accuracy that the sky depicted can be dated to within 50 years.
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
“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.)