17. januar 2004

Hubble to be scapped The Hubble Space Telescope, which has provided us with unique insights on cosmos, will surprisingly be scrapped. Due to mechanical failures, the telescope needs regular maintenance to continue to function, but Nasa boss Sean O'Keefe has now decided that all trips into space by the remaining Space Shuttle fleet will be exclusively for the International Space Station, for which the US has international obligations. When making trips to the ISS, the crew will have a possible lifeboat in space if something should happen making return to Earth too dangerous, similar to what occured to Columbus. For shuttles going to Hubble, there is simply no such emergency option. A lot of pundits are already claiming this is the cost of Bush's announced Moon/Mars programme. However, it appears this timing is coincidental, if unfortunate. 10:00:00 PM    comment []  trackback []

The season of the clones I seem to remember a certain UFO sect was very much in the news quite exactly one year ago, over absurd claims that it had cloned a number of human babies. Now it's the controversial American fertility expert Dr Panos Zavos who claims he has implanted a cloned human embryo into a woman's womb. You may remember Dr Zavos as partner of the Italian embryologist Dr Severino Antinori, who shortly after Dolly's birth announced he would make human clones to help infertile couples. The two know a lot about fertility treatment, but cloning is frontier-level genetics, a whole different area, and the two have no relevant publications between them, having demonstrated exactly zero credibility and capability on cloning. "Research" published exclusively through the newsmedia is one of the earliest warning signs of pseudo-science and fraud. Also, a lot of evidence suggests that cloning of primates the way "Dolly" was made is simply not possible. Cloning is still a hugely complex task, very prone to failure, and not exactly something the proverbial mad scientist can do in his basement. I am very confident this claim is false. I suspect Dr Zavos makes outragous claims in the media for the same reason Clonaid/Rael did the same: advertising. 9:45:42 PM    comment []  trackback []

Well, it's not only the Russians that struggle with this joke Two related but strange factoids from last week: 2. Jack Straw's favourite joke: Name three fish which begin and end with the letter K. The answer: Killer shark, Kwiksave frozen haddock and Kilmarnock (a place in Scotland). He admits it's terrible. 3. Straw once told the joke to his principal private secretary, while sitting in his office waiting for his Russian counterpart to come on to the phone. His PPS said: "Hang on Foreign Secretary, the Russians may be listening."  And then a voice piped up: "The Russians are listening.  We are trying to understand the joke." My working hypothesis is that it's not meant to be understood, just appreciated as a totally absurd thing to say. That probably is a necessary quality in the foreign service. 6:57:45 PM    comment []  trackback []

Iraq: What now? If you have missed this week's debate in Slate: Liberal Hawks Reconsider the Iraq War, you have some catching up to do this weekend. Many good points and arguments made Monday through Friday. 6:28:02 PM    comment []  trackback []

More local US-expertise VG continues explaining things American to its Norwegian readers, and shares its insights on the presidential campaign: "Dick Gephardt is one of the favourites to win." That depends on how you define "one of" and "favorites." 12:34:38 PM    comment []  trackback []

Or Zaphod Beeblebrox has been reincarnated "Taiwanese scientists say they have inadvertently developed a two-headed fish." (Ananova) 8:01:16 AM    comment []  trackback []

"Pornstar firefighter is too hot for colleagues" Firefighter Alexa Jones has reportedly made seventeen of her male collegues quit their jobs because she frequently discussed her other career while at work. She stars in pornography. The irate firefighters walked out claiming that Alexa Jones had talked about pornography while at work with her husband - Assistant Fire Chief Roger Jones. Captain Herb Collier, one of those who resigned, said: "We feel pretty strongly that there needs to be a separation between the pornography and the fire service." A lot of illusions about what kind of men become firefighters were shattered with this story. 7:59:05 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.02.2004; 11:32:39.