We hear today that our meteor-zapping powers may no longer be required.
One of your engineering companies has designed a spacefaring vehicle that can fly alongside any meteoroid calculated to threaten a collision with the earth - and the simple presence of the spaceship over a long enough period of time will just gently alter the course of the meteoroid away from the danger zone.
Slow and steady saves the human race?
Monday, 31 August 2009
Thursday, 27 August 2009
dutch courage
How we smiled to hear the news about the nugget of moon rock on display in Amsterdam for the past twenty years.
A gift from a US ambassador to a Dutch prime minister in 1969, now revealed to be a very earthly chunk of petrified wood.
Surely a gift also to your conspiracy theorists who like to believe the moon landings never happened.
A gift from a US ambassador to a Dutch prime minister in 1969, now revealed to be a very earthly chunk of petrified wood.
Surely a gift also to your conspiracy theorists who like to believe the moon landings never happened.
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
chocolate related news
Rumours have reached us that the divine Ritter Sport squares Are no more. They have ceased to be. They are ex chocolate bars.
Apparently the current economic climate has brought production at the family run firm to an end.
We can hardly believe this is true, but the minor godlet heard it from a college friend who was told by a woman who works at the confectionery stall in the local train station. So we fear the worst.
To take up the words of the heroic Harriet: if only those Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, you can be sure no chocolate manufacturers would have been harmed in the making of this global financial crisis.
Apparently the current economic climate has brought production at the family run firm to an end.
We can hardly believe this is true, but the minor godlet heard it from a college friend who was told by a woman who works at the confectionery stall in the local train station. So we fear the worst.
To take up the words of the heroic Harriet: if only those Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, you can be sure no chocolate manufacturers would have been harmed in the making of this global financial crisis.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Vacancies!
Guest bedrooms are being prepared; big-breakfasts researched; tour guides trained.
We want to make a good impression when those first tourists arrive in a year or two.
Especially as they will be the high rollers, the big spenders, people who expect The Best.
We wonder how long it will take for them to realise that once they've stepped over this particular threshold, there's no checking out again.
Sometimes it's better to watch and wonder, rather than to jump right in.
We want to make a good impression when those first tourists arrive in a year or two.
Especially as they will be the high rollers, the big spenders, people who expect The Best.
We wonder how long it will take for them to realise that once they've stepped over this particular threshold, there's no checking out again.
Sometimes it's better to watch and wonder, rather than to jump right in.
Friday, 21 August 2009
aloha hawaii
Let's hope the next 50 years see progress towards rebuilding the Hawaiian national and cultural identity that was swept away under a mountain of leis and crazy shirts on the island's incorporation into the American Dream on 21 August 1959.
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
HOW old??
Today is the day decreed by those who decide such matters that Jupiter can celebrate a birthday each year.
This year not such a special one, though it may be that next year will be a prime number (yes, Mr Google agrees) so that will be something to look forward to!
The intention is to spend the day gazing at some of the world's most beautiful and stress-reducing countryside - just hillsides and lake shores; imagining the soothing breeze off the water.
Somehow just thinking about it makes me feel better!
This year not such a special one, though it may be that next year will be a prime number (yes, Mr Google agrees) so that will be something to look forward to!
The intention is to spend the day gazing at some of the world's most beautiful and stress-reducing countryside - just hillsides and lake shores; imagining the soothing breeze off the water.
Somehow just thinking about it makes me feel better!
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Holiday Reading?
Back from his latest vacation visit the Minor Godlet brings details of two books he stumbled across at the home of his hostess - one he rates Alpha Plus, the other, Delta Minus.
To start with the loser, published five or six years ago, a supposed medical thriller by Robin Cook called Seizure:
Unlike some of Cook's other books (such as Coma) this one unfortunately failed to thrill right from page 1. There were characters you could hardly raise any interest in, having conversations in agonisingly stilted language and becoming involved in almost unbelievably ludicrous events. Obviously written post Da Vinci we had to put up with a trip to Europe to visit a Cardinal in connection with the Turin Shroud. Back home the Mafia were somehow dragged in from nowhere and through it all you had to wonder how the central characters ever managed to build up a business together. The medical plot was gripping, involving surely-not-far-off procedures in DNA manipulation as a way to cure progressively debilitating diseases such as Parkinsons, but it seemed as though that story, which surely started out as the whole point of the book, was completely swamped by all the junk.
In fact, after the obligatory 500 or so pages there was no time left for any kind of resolution of the issues raised. It felt as though the author must have received a request from the publisher for delivery of the manuscript and just typed a few closing paragraphs before he pressed Print and leapt into a taxi.
On the other hand, The Lazarus Child by Robert Mawson was rated an utterly gripping read.
Published a little earlier, in 1998, this also deals with the development of medical procedures whose time you feel is almost here, in the field of coma research. It is easy to feel drawn into the lives of these characters, centering around a family whose children are involved in a road accident. For the most part the writing cuts and jumps so that we helter-skelter along, though there are some slower, descriptive dream sequences. These fit perfectly into the flow of the book, despite seeming maybe a little LordoftheRingsish.
Mawson gave himself plenty of time to finish what he had started before the publisher's deadline hit, leaving the satisfying feeling that you can imagine how the lives of the characters continue after you put the book down.
Or maybe that's just me.
To start with the loser, published five or six years ago, a supposed medical thriller by Robin Cook called Seizure:
Unlike some of Cook's other books (such as Coma) this one unfortunately failed to thrill right from page 1. There were characters you could hardly raise any interest in, having conversations in agonisingly stilted language and becoming involved in almost unbelievably ludicrous events. Obviously written post Da Vinci we had to put up with a trip to Europe to visit a Cardinal in connection with the Turin Shroud. Back home the Mafia were somehow dragged in from nowhere and through it all you had to wonder how the central characters ever managed to build up a business together. The medical plot was gripping, involving surely-not-far-off procedures in DNA manipulation as a way to cure progressively debilitating diseases such as Parkinsons, but it seemed as though that story, which surely started out as the whole point of the book, was completely swamped by all the junk.
In fact, after the obligatory 500 or so pages there was no time left for any kind of resolution of the issues raised. It felt as though the author must have received a request from the publisher for delivery of the manuscript and just typed a few closing paragraphs before he pressed Print and leapt into a taxi.
On the other hand, The Lazarus Child by Robert Mawson was rated an utterly gripping read.
Published a little earlier, in 1998, this also deals with the development of medical procedures whose time you feel is almost here, in the field of coma research. It is easy to feel drawn into the lives of these characters, centering around a family whose children are involved in a road accident. For the most part the writing cuts and jumps so that we helter-skelter along, though there are some slower, descriptive dream sequences. These fit perfectly into the flow of the book, despite seeming maybe a little LordoftheRingsish.
Mawson gave himself plenty of time to finish what he had started before the publisher's deadline hit, leaving the satisfying feeling that you can imagine how the lives of the characters continue after you put the book down.
Or maybe that's just me.
Friday, 14 August 2009
engineering for beginners
We see your investigators have uncovered more details about how the early mortals used to live.
Looking at the stones used for tool making at one site around one hundred thousand years ago the investigators realised the stones had been heat treated to make it easier to split off the sharp flakes used as cutting tools.
But what the investigators can't see is that while those early engineers were working on the relationship between variables such as temperature and time and stone sizes, the early marketing people gathered round to talk up the tribe's new process for making the local stones fit for purpose to ensure a bright new tomorrow.
It amuses us to see that some things never change.
Looking at the stones used for tool making at one site around one hundred thousand years ago the investigators realised the stones had been heat treated to make it easier to split off the sharp flakes used as cutting tools.
But what the investigators can't see is that while those early engineers were working on the relationship between variables such as temperature and time and stone sizes, the early marketing people gathered round to talk up the tribe's new process for making the local stones fit for purpose to ensure a bright new tomorrow.
It amuses us to see that some things never change.
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
enjoy!
It's party time again up here - more than two thousand years now since we first started to celebrate this time of the year - and the sparklers are our speciality.
We hope you find time to sit down and watch - but if you miss the show this year not to worry; we'll be organising another one same time next year.
We hope you find time to sit down and watch - but if you miss the show this year not to worry; we'll be organising another one same time next year.
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
pain in the neck
We were sorry to see Michael Schumacher's return to F1 has been cancelled.
But at least it means we don't have to worry about asking the cherubim to get the clouds arranged for a viewing area - without Schumeister's participation I think we'll hold back the request for special favours until we hear you're up to something else worthy of attention.
But at least it means we don't have to worry about asking the cherubim to get the clouds arranged for a viewing area - without Schumeister's participation I think we'll hold back the request for special favours until we hear you're up to something else worthy of attention.
Friday, 7 August 2009
pirates of the 1930's
Minor godlet spent a few days landside recently, taking up an invitation issued before college finished.
One of the activities on offer was a trip out to see the movie Public Enemies, for which minor godlet has sent back rave reviews.
There was slight confusion early on when the young lady hosting the visit expressed surprise that the bank robber had a pistol named after him - until it was clarified that Derringer and Dillinger were not after all the same person.
Any overseas guest suffering confusion between Hoover, J Edgar of the FBI and Hoover, Herbert Clark 31st etc. wisely kept it to themselves.
One of the activities on offer was a trip out to see the movie Public Enemies, for which minor godlet has sent back rave reviews.
There was slight confusion early on when the young lady hosting the visit expressed surprise that the bank robber had a pistol named after him - until it was clarified that Derringer and Dillinger were not after all the same person.
Any overseas guest suffering confusion between Hoover, J Edgar of the FBI and Hoover, Herbert Clark 31st etc. wisely kept it to themselves.
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Prayer Time
This story has been back in the news following the conclusion of a court case, and has caused much discussion up here.
When people pray, they send their prayers up to the god of their choice. And presumably they expect some kind of response (even if it's only an increase in their prayer merit score) or why would they be bothering?
Many prayers include requests, and most of the requests are on behalf of other people.
So if your child is sick in bed, sure you might ask family and friends to gather round to pray for the child's recovery.
But you're putting a big ask up to your god if you don't do the regular thing too and get the doctor in to take a look.
OK, your god of course could heal the child without any mortal assistance, but miracles do seem a little thin on the ground these days, so the rational act of any parent with a sick child surely has to be to call the health line as well as spin the prayer wheel.
Are believers who demonstrate such blinkered faith on behalf of their own child, the sort of believers who give religion and god a bad name?
When people pray, they send their prayers up to the god of their choice. And presumably they expect some kind of response (even if it's only an increase in their prayer merit score) or why would they be bothering?
Many prayers include requests, and most of the requests are on behalf of other people.
So if your child is sick in bed, sure you might ask family and friends to gather round to pray for the child's recovery.
But you're putting a big ask up to your god if you don't do the regular thing too and get the doctor in to take a look.
OK, your god of course could heal the child without any mortal assistance, but miracles do seem a little thin on the ground these days, so the rational act of any parent with a sick child surely has to be to call the health line as well as spin the prayer wheel.
Are believers who demonstrate such blinkered faith on behalf of their own child, the sort of believers who give religion and god a bad name?
Sunday, 2 August 2009
additional duties duly completed!
After four weeks (and five weekends) of struggling to keep the loose ends from unravelling while other staff take holiday the end is nearly in sight.
Tuesday is due to see the return of the last traveller and there will then be a final push to make good the deficit in my own workload before the normal level of background backlog is resumed.
The pressure to keep the bosses happy while dealing calmly with their relentless demands (including their insistence that I shouldn't take all the responsibility for the loose ends by working evenings and weekends, and yet not making any other arrangments for the slack to be taken up) has certainly been almost overwhelming.
I am considering putting all this month's salary onto lottery tickets in an effort to buy my way out.
Tuesday is due to see the return of the last traveller and there will then be a final push to make good the deficit in my own workload before the normal level of background backlog is resumed.
The pressure to keep the bosses happy while dealing calmly with their relentless demands (including their insistence that I shouldn't take all the responsibility for the loose ends by working evenings and weekends, and yet not making any other arrangments for the slack to be taken up) has certainly been almost overwhelming.
I am considering putting all this month's salary onto lottery tickets in an effort to buy my way out.
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