Daily Archives: February 14, 2008

Navy Will Shoot Down Satellite

Some time in the next few days the US navy will fire a rocket in order to shoot down a satellite carrying 454 kilograms of the very poisonous substance hydrazine. By blowing the satellite up, the hydrazine tank will explode dispersing the gas to a low concentration level If the tank is not blown up, it would likely survive re-entry. If it burst on contact with the earth, several city blocks could be covered with deadly gas. Continue reading Navy Will Shoot Down Satellite

Linux X Server

To most desktop computer users, the difference between two “systems” (Linux, Windows, Mac, etc.) is in what you see when you turn the computer on, what you can click on with your mouse, how files are visually organized and manipulated, how menus work, and so on. This is the “look and feel” of a system. Since the “look and feel” has to do with how you actually use the computer, this can be the most important factor to a user choosing a system. But the “system” itself may have little to do with these differences.If you choose a Mac, you get a certain look and feel. If you choose Windows XP, you get a different look and feel. If you choose Vista, you get yet another. But if you choose “Linux,” you are able to choose among a wide range of LookAndFeels. Continue reading Linux X Server

Charles Darwin – Finches

Darwin’s finches are a classic and historically important example of a species radiation (sometimes called an “adaptive” radiation, but that implies a specific assertion about the cause of the radiation which may not be appropriate in all cases). During the five weeks that Darwin spent on the Galapagos in September, 1835, he made a number of observations of these birds, but they did not occupy his time or attention more than any other aspect of this remarkable archipelago of islands. It seems that Darwin did not recognize all of the finches as finches, thinking some were of an entirely different group of birds, and in some cases, the variety seen across some of 13 or so species was initially interpreted by Darwin to represent a notably large range of variation in a single species. Please remember, Darwin was a rock man more than he was a bird man, at the time. Continue reading Charles Darwin – Finches

Woman Arrested By “Religious Police” To Be Executed As Witch

The woman or or representatives were not allowed to attend the trial. Her conviction is based on a written confession to which her fingerprints are attached. She is illiterate and could not read the confession. There are indications that this “conviction” is actually a crime of retribution by a man who is impotent, and who blames his impotence on this woman. A higher court has overturned the conviction, but other courts have intervened and re-sentenced her to death on the grounds that it is in the public interest that she be killed, presumably, beheaded, which is the usual way in Saudi Arabia.

International agencies are asking The King to intervene.
[Source]