fun
6
|
country
life in france, or playing with birds
This page has moved to the France
zone.
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun071203
|
07.12.2003 |
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for blue sky optimists—the planet is stuffed full of oil, and bugs are making it!
part
2 | part
3 | part
4 | part
5
From an interview with a 83-year-old physicist-astronomer who claims
the planet is stuffed full of oil, and oil depletion is all a plot. He
is no geologist, but neither am I!
“Since the oil crisis of the 1970s, Gold has been saying that
the Earth is hugely well endowed with these hydrocarbons - hundreds
of times more so than most geologists, or oil companies, or OPEC leaders
believe. The general belief in scarcity that drives up gas prices and
causes fears of inflation, Gold argues, is a mirage that has served
vested interests among oil producers for decades.”
This I just loved—this is what you call a real scientist!
- Interviewer
- “In your book you talk about being so excited at finding the
sludge that you tried to analyze it yourself in a friend's kitchen.”
- Gold
- “That's right. I arrived on a Saturday in Mallorca with the
sample and I was alone in the apartment. So first of all I looked around
in the neighborhood and there was not a single shop open. I knew the
sample was oily - I could feel that - so I thought that maybe there
would be some nail polish remover to use as a solvent. I looked through
all the cupboards for nail polish remover but couldn't find any. Eventually
I decided hot water and kitchen detergent would be my best bet. The
sludge was like quite thick putty so I tried to dissolve it - it took
a lot of doing. In the end I had a clear liquid, light gray, and I thought
it was particulate. The grain size was so small that kitchen paper could
serve as a chromatogram - diffusion would take the black stuff some
way out through the paper, while the liquid went much farther. In such
a case you think first of a metal. So I thought, Well, iron is common
- is there a magnet in the house? There were magnetic door latches on
the cabinets, so I unscrewed those and put some of my liquid on aluminum
foil and immediately it made sharp lines between the poles. So it was
most likely magnetite.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun301103
|
30.11.2003 |
computer abuse—why we pay people to ‘work’ for the government
“One such recent example included the manufacturer's labelling
of equipment where the words "Master/Slave" appeared to identify
the primary and secondary sources. Based on the cultural diversity and
sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification
label.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun261103
|
26.11.2003 |
kool
kat satellite dishes
Pretty pussy.....
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun021103_2
|
02.11.2003 |
satellite
pictures
|
California fires on 27th October
1 pixel to 1 km image
Image A2003300.2055.115x150 courtesy
of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory,
NASA Johnson Space Center: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov |
trees
turning brown—
autumn in Eastern North America
This page includes a descriptive passage about the event, and has
links to larger versions of the image.
Image: image10302003_md.jpg courtesy
of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory,
NASA Johnson Space Center: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov |
|
Satellite
photo gallery
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun021103
|
02.11.2003 |
american
children get labelled like brands
“More and more parents in America are naming their children after
luxury brands. In 2001, there were 273 boys and 298 girls called Armani;
269 Chanels (all girls); 24 girls called Porsche and six male Timberlands.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun141003
|
14.10.2003 |
the
dna marked ‘exhibit a’ will go down for ten years
“ Today, DNA evidence is used as routinely as fingerprints to
help prosecute criminals as well as to help free those wrongly convicted.
Usually, in these cases, the accused has been identified. But New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg this month announced that the city would
henceforth begin indicting DNA itself when there is no known suspect.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun300903
|
30.09.2003 |
south
georgia, antarctica and icebergs from satellite
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun170903
|
17.09.2003 |
pretty pictures
from space
Nile
delta and Suez
France
showing the Alps and the Pyrenees
Saharan
dust blowing north across the Mediterranean
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun030903
|
03.09.2003 |
god the anti-social
Evelyn Waugh, Freddie (Birkenhead) and Randolph Churchill were on a military
mission in Croatia (1944).
They were cooped up in small quarters (halves?) and Randolph was driving
Waugh up the wall with his chatter. To shut him up, Waugh (a rabid catholic
convert) bet Randolph £20 (more like £250 nowadays) that he
couldnot read the Bible in a fortnight.
But the cunning plan went askew. Randolph, who had never read the book
before, is described as being hideously excited, and keeps on slapping
himself on the thigh and exclaiming, “God, isn’t god a shit!!”
So they still got no peace.
[The
letters of Nancy Mitford, pp.170, 171]
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun010903
|
01.09.2003 |
ten
commandments or the law
“Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended today pending
the outcome of an ethics complaint for his defiance of a federal court
order to move a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building
in Montgomery.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun230803_2
|
23.08.2003 |
let’s
have another panic—the church is killing its customers
“Ireland's Catholic Church said yesterday it would take seriously
a government minister's concern over the threat to health posed by incense.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun230803
|
23.08.2003 |
the
pope calls in rain dancers
“The heat and drought-driven fires across the continent prompted
Pope John Paul II to urge people to pray for rain.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun130803
|
13.08.2003 |
the
emerald isle from outer space
|
On the larger, linked image is marked the political border between
Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Image.A2003219.1340.1km courtesy of
Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center:
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
|
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun120803
|
12.08.2003 |
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun050803
|
05.08.2003 |