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. Maybe I’ll do something as cool in 20 years…)
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. (If you haven’t, consider this a recommendation.) The book has neo-dolphins and humans communicating in a common language, developed to allow either species to make the appropriate sounds.
[Deana points out an "earlier post about Silbo":http://www.globalspin.com/mt/archives/000184.html, the language in question. The new article is more about how the language is processed in the brain. ~c]
Here’s hoping that “2005 will be better than 2004″:http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2005/01/04/a10a_Iraq2005edit_0104.html.
…or “yet another reason to buy a Mac”. Over the past few years, Apple has set up a “hardware recycling program”:http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/ for old computers. If you send your old Mac to them, they’ll disassemble it and recycle the parts, diverting up to 90% from the landfill. If you live in Cupertino, they’ll even take your old PCs.
The program has been very successful, recycling hundreds of tons of materials each year. The Apple site has a fascinating “recycling flow diagram”:http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/nationalservices/diagrams.html which shows where all that stuff ends up.
Today is the Winter Solstice! Sit back, have a hot beverage, listen to some music, and enjoy these two stories, one “true”:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2003/12/wintersolstice.html and one “fanciful”:http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/penna/solstice.html.
From all of us Radcliffs to all of you Global Spin readers and authors, we hope you have a wonderful holiday.