Category Archives: News

Current affairs

Leon Brooks is back!

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Well well, less than 2 months ago I wrote:

Leon, I hope you make a speedy and thorough recovery. Get well soon.

Well, check this out, here’s Leon’s first blog post since the accident! Leon – you are amazing!

My brain is now essentially OK — modulo some bits of Short Term Memory killled by the total loser’s antics — and the body is steadily rebuilding, so I do have a viable future as this develops.

The most disturbing part of it is that the subtext of his post implies that the “accident” was anything but – he writes:

I truly have ZERO appreciation for a selfish waste of space and oxygen who hurts people for the hell of it, including that it had already hurt several others before applying it’s stupid malice to me.

Sometimes I despair for humanity, but then people like Leon come along and give me some hope. Leon – it is so good to see you back in the virtual world again – keep fighting!

Venus Express Telemetry is Good!

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The last piece of the puzzle is in, the ESA have confirmed that they have telemetry from Venus Express and have held a press conference to announce everything looks A-OK with the spacecraft. Congratulations to all involved!

Emily quotes Don McCoy, Venus Express Project Manager saying:

In fact we have quite a bit margin of fuel on board. We allocate extra fuel for a bad launch, for maneuvers on route, [and everything was nominal] so we probably have enough fuel to do the extended mission, and quite frankly I think we could do another one after that. We have enough fuel for 4 and a half to 6 years.

This could be a really interesting mission..

Venus Express Arrives!

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The Planetary Society’s Emily Lakdawalla is reporting from Darmstadt that the European Space Agency’s Venus Express is in orbit!

She does sound one note of caution though, saying:

while the S-band signal has indicated that the spacecraft has shut down its main engine properly, it does not yet indicate the full health of the spacecraft; that will only happen at 11:13 local time, when (if) they detect the X-band signal from the spacecraft’s high-gain antenna.

So congratulations on getting there, and here’s hoping the spacecraft reports it is in good shape!

White House Admits Bush “Leaked” Intelligence

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OK – so now they’re arguing about whether it was really a “leak” if the president ordered that classified information be released. Their spokesman said:

Because of the public debate that was going on and some of the wild accusations that were flying around at the time, we felt it was very much in the public interest that what information could be declassified and that’s exactly what we did.

Common Sense Rules in UK Book Copyright Case

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Hooray, it appears that the law and common sense has triumphed in the case of Baigent & Leigh versus The Random House Group Limited over the fiction work “The Da Vinci Code“. From the judgement:

2.1 Holy Blood Holy Grail does not have a Central Theme as contended by the Claimants: it was an artificial creation for the purposes of the litigation working back from the Da Vinci Code.

and

2.3 Even if the Central Themes were copied they are too general or of too low a level of abstraction to be capable of protection by copyright law.

Report: Failing to Curb Greenhouse Gasses May Hurt Australias Economy

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Here’s an interesting news item from the ABC about a report commissioned by 6 big companies (not known to be Eco-warriors or Greenies) including BP Australia and the Australian Conservation Foundation and carried out by CSIRO and Allen Consulting Group which claims that delaying action on climate change would harm the Australian economy when compared with having to take action later.

The ACF’s press release on the report is here and the actual report is linked from here.

Interesting points from the press release:

  • A 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is possible while maintaining strong economic growth, with real GDP averaging 2.1 per cent p.a. through to 2050 if early action is taken;
  • In comparison to early action, delaying action to 2022 would result in lower real GDP growth by an average of 0.2 per cent p.a. through to 2050, and concentrate any disruptive shocks over a shorter period;
  • An additional 3.5 million jobs will still be created in the economy under the early action scenario over the period 2013-2050; equating to 250,000 more jobs than under the delayed action scenario.

Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) and Pro Hart (1928-2006) – RIP

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A sad day for the arts with the loss of a Polish science fiction author and an australian painter.

Stanislaw Lem has died (Via Alec – though it’s not obvious unless you grok Unix humour or click on the link). A controversial character, he was the author of books such as The Cyberiad and The Futurological Congress.

Pro Hart has also died (via ABC news) who had been ill with motor neuron disease. He was largely self taught and is famous for his “cannon art” where Christmas tree balls were filled with paint and fired at a canvas by a home made cannon.