RIP Tristram Cary (1925-2008)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/news/080424_news_01

Film and television composer who scored electronic and orchestral music for cult BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who and the Alec Guinness Ladykillers.

First honorary blackbelt in veterinary jujitsu?

People should know how to defend themselves from animals. This is one of the basic primitive skills. (See, e.g., the wolf attack in Conan the Barbarian. Then stop after the wolf attack. The rest of the movie is bad for you.) I refer to this art as veterinary jujitsu, though I have yet to actually assemble any instructional formula (and probably am insufficiently motivated to actually do so...).

In the following article, however, you will see an example of someone who excels at this art:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7327984.stm

It kind of sticks in your craw...

"What doesn't happen when you are drunk?"  --A great Russian (click for story)

Superlaser coolness

Article at http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/texans-build-wo.html

Scientists at UT/Austin, with help from the National Nuclear Security Administration, have built a petawatt laser (1*10^15 watts) which they intend to ramp up to about 1.5 petawatts.  They report that is enough power to simulate the inside of a supernova, and they can maintain it for a few femtoseconds.

Swedish Authorities to Help Virgin Galactic with Regulatory Barriers

I love how far a little ingenuity goes in law. "Spaceships are basically hot air balloons. Have a tax cut."

Swedish Authorities to Help Virgin Galactic with Regulatory Barriers

via Res Communis by PJ Blount on 4/1/08

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

From Space.com:

PARIS - Swedish authorities planning to host flights of the Virgin Galactic suborbital space plane hope to lower the costs and regulatory barriers to the operation by having it classed as a sounding rocket and given the tax advantages of hot-air balloon flights, Swedish and Virgin Galactic officials said April 1.

The press release from the Swedish Space Corporation is also available.