news & archives
fun 6

topic archives: fun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 III-2004: 03 08 08-2 22

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

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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

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

kool kat satellite dishes

Pretty pussy.....

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun021103_2

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

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

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

south georgia, antarctica and icebergs from satellite

the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun6.htm#fun170903

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

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

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

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

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

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

friendly space invader waves hello to russia from the clouds   Image.2003197-0716 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#fun050803

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