So it seems that an unusual law has been passed in Alabama. It is now illegal to buy/sell sex toys after lobbies from the cucumber industry …
i don’t even want to check if this is BS or not – i just want to believe it. Much funnier that way …
video here
[what makes it more funny is that the video has been flagged as inappropriate for young viewers!]
Another great video on youtube today from Pat Condell. It finished with the line “Peace to everyone, especially Christians, with guns, who support the death penalty.”* Pat is a very smart, funny guy whose comedic subject matter is religion – sharp lines like this are sure to bring a giggle. And the coments are usually good for a laugh too – “i will kill you because you do not believe in god. you will burn in hell”, “all atheists will burn in hell” etc. etc.
video here.
A Bill Hicks quote comes to mind… after a gig where he made a few jokes at the expense of religion he was approached by a few people who had seen the show. “Hey Bill, we heard your jokes and we didn’t like them. We’re christians and don’t take too kindly to that kind of stuff” [i am paraphrasing this - can't recall the exact words but this was the jist]. Bill replies: “You’re christians?” “yes, we are!”, “Oh … well forgive me then.”
* the sad thing is is that the cardinal number of this set is non zero …
The Economist it seems has compiled a list of the most peaceful nations on Earth – based on many factors. They rank 121 countries based on many factors. Not surprisingly Norway tops the list, followed closely behind in 4th place by Ireland. Not too bad for my home country! The list does seem to correlate well with wealth as the top 25 or so nations are all what one would call wealthy (EU nations, Japan, NZ, Australia, etc.) The top 25 is:
1 Norway
2 New Zealand
3 Denmark
4 Ireland
5 Japan
6 Finland
7 Sweden
8 Canada
9 Portugal
10 Austria
11 Belgium
12 Germany
13 Czech Republic
14 Switzerland
15 Slovenia
16 Chile
17 Slovakia
18 Hungary
19 Bhutan
20 Netherlands
21 Spain
22 Oman
23 Hong Kong
24 Uruguay
25 Australia
This is good information – where are cool places to visit where i will be completely safe and unlikely to be mugged/shot/killed? Well there’s 25 nations for you!
Not surprisingly the least peaceful nation in the world is Iraq (oh what a shock!) which is in 121st place. In 120th place is Sudan. The bottom 10 are:
112 Angola
113 Ivory Coast
114 Lebanon
115 Pakistan
116 Colombia
117 Nigeria.
118 Russia
119 Israel
120 Sudan
121 Iraq
Also the US has just manged to sneak into the top 100 safest countries – it finished in 92nd.
[Also in related news i imagine that Lebanon is on the way up this list - what with Colonel Gadafe making many a deal with Tony Blair in recent times (yes there's oil in Lebanon). According to my newspaper they are also said to be on first name terms! Well there you go!]
This is also good information – where do i go if i want to get mugged/shot/kidnapped/etc. – well now you know …
Godd luck to everyone doing Part 3 Exams!!
It seems that a golden eagle has been hatched in Ireland for the first time since they became extinct in 1910!! Cool! Ever since 2001 there has been an initiative to re-introduce this and other birds into Ireland. A number of birds were shipped to Glenveagh National Park in Donegal and now, finally a chick has been born! More to come hopefully!
The lovely little guy is shown here.
and again here…
A fine video from a funny Scottish* man on youtube who goes by the name of Mark Day.
* I am following protocol suggested by a Californian friend of mine by adding this advice for american people: scottish = willie from simpsons; irish = lucky charms guy.
This is cool – have a look.
Did you know that it would take 600 billion rice crispies to fill up the Lovell Telescope – that’s 24 million boxes! This is a good example of weird things astronomers think about in their spare time … and another reason to listen to the Jodcast!
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995) was an absolutely amazing astrophysicist. He studied a physics degree in India (graduating in 1930) and did so well that he was awarded an Indian government scholarship to study in Trinity College, Cambridge. He obtained his PhD in Cambridge (graduating 1933) whilst mingling with the likes of Dirac, Eddington, Milne and Bohr. After his PhD he remained in Trinity for a few years before moving to Chicago where he would remain for the rest of his life.
Throughout his career he worked in many areas of astrophysics but what perhaps impresses me the most is his discovery of a maximum allowable mass for white dwarfs (named in his honour) while on a boat to England from India! Apparently he became ill (or so i’m told) and was confined to his cabin and so kept his time productive by making ground breaking discoveries in theoretical astrophysics!
He also had a policy of switching his research interests every decade or so. He strongly advised others to do this also. He said that this was especially important if one had been successful in a particular area. That might sound unusual but Chandrasekar was able to stay fresh and discover a vast array of things in varying fields – very impressive I think! Throughout his career he studied white dwarfs, stellar dynamics, radiative transfer, quantum theory of negative H ion, general relativity, black holes, gravitational waves and geometric arguments in Newton’s Prinicipia. He also managed to find time to collect a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.
A true genius.
