h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nicolas Sarkozy's opinion of fellow leaders: Dim, callow, irrelevant

http://tinyurl.com/dytnjo

Well, except for Berlusconi apparently, there's a good chap. "The important thing in democracy is to be re-elected. Look at [Silvio] Berlusconi. He has been re-elected three times."

Yeah, wasn't Saddam Hussein reelected often, too?

(Besides, since Berlusconi was elected three times, he was only re-elected twice.)

Just to give the world a taste of what's going on in part of Canada:

'South of Winnipeg, the Red River flood crest may have passed, but water still covers at least 40 per cent — about 135 square kilometers — of the Rural Municipality of Ritchot.

Water is funneling at near-record levels through and around Winnipeg, but Bob Stefaniuk, the mayor of the RM of Ritchot, said getting around towns such as St. Agathe and St. Adolphe south of the Manitoba capital is a challenge when the river is 16 kilometres wide. The towns are protected by ring dikes, but neighbouring farmland is under water in every direction as far as the eye can see. '

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/04/17/mb-flooding.html

Considering the information in this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkin

this headline from Faux News certainly caught my eye:


'Merkin Was Warned About Madoff in the Early 1990s'

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/merkin-warned-madoff-early-s/

Ségolène Royal apologises to Zapatero for Sarkozy's alleged remarks

Two weeks ago she apologised in Dakar for some offensive speech Sarkozy made while visiting Senegal about two years ago

And I want to apologise for all these clowns who took the place of proper French politicians.

The king of Spain said to Hugo Chávez during a latinoamerican summit:
¿Por qué no te callas?! Why don´t you shut up?!

It would be great if someone say that to Sarkozy, or still better, to Berlusconi, no one compares to that stupid histrion.

This story caught my attention because it's almost 2.5 years old, yet somehow it surfaced again today in the BBC online's "most popular now" articles

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6161691.stm

Condoms 'too big' for Indian men

I heard this was part of a regular cycle by Pakistani men out to embarass Indians. Every so often they flood the BBC site with views on that page and it comes up on "Most Viewed".

I expect the same would happen with Scots if a similar story appeared about Englishmen and condoms

'All sugars are not created equal when it comes to how our bodies metabolize the sweeteners, a new study suggests.

People who drank beverages sweetened with fructose, but not glucose, showed an increase in intra-abdominal fat and blood lipid levels and decreased sensitivity to the hormone insulin, researchers reported in this week's issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

The findings suggest that fructose-sweetened beverages can interfere with how the body handles fat, leading to medical conditions that increase susceptibility to heart attacks and strokes.

The results could be important given that in 2005, the average American consumed 64 kilograms of added sugar, a sizeable proportion of which came through drinking soft drinks, said study author Peter Havel of the University of California at Davis and his colleagues.

Consumption of sugars and sweeteners in the U.S. went up by 19 per cent between 1970 and 2005, according to a commentary accompanying the study.'

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/04/20/fructose-glucose-drinks.html

this new study is the news, not the fact that fructose is dangerous, which has been suggested for years. Maybe now the brakes can be put on the food industry.

as a diabetic who uses sweetners regularly, this is quite worrying

my levels have been climbing regularly recently despite taking the regular amounts of insulin i normally do.

Japanese on the rocks, anyone?

Today, as expert Whisky tasters meeting in London prepare to name this year's winners, Suntory and Nikka, Japan's two biggest distillers, are again preparing to ruffle a few traditionalist feathers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/21/japan-whisky-industry

interesting:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7998931.stm

"An Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species"

have to hunt down the original paper and see how true it is first though!

F64198?thread=6507944

I've not had much interaction with Pheloxi, but,

On a different subject:

'SINGAPORE, APRIL 16, 2009 - Scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have succeeded in unlocking the potential of carbon dioxide – a common greenhouse gas – by converting it into a more useful product. Using organocatalysts, the IBN researchers activated carbon dioxide in a mild and non-toxic process to produce methanol, a widely used industrial feedstock and clean-burning biofuel.
Published recently in leading international chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie,1 IBN’s report has been designated a ‘Hot Paper.’ In addition, the Institute’s findings have been determined by reviewers to be “very important” – a recognition provided to less than 10% of the journal’s manuscripts. IBN scientists have made carbon dioxide react by using N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), a novel
organocatalyst. In contrast to heavy metal catalysts that contain toxic and unstable components, NHCs are stable, even in the
presence of oxygen. Hence, the reaction with NHCs and carbon dioxide can take place under mild conditions in dry air. IBN’s research shows
that only a small amount of NHC is required to induce carbon dioxide activity in a reaction.
“NHCs have shown tremendous potential for activating and fixing carbon dioxide. Our work can contribute towards transforming excess carbon dioxide in the environment into useful products such as methanol,” shared Ms Siti Nurhanna Riduan, IBN Senior Lab Officer, who is also pursuing her Ph.D. at IBN under the Scientific Staff Development Award.'

http://www.ibn.a-star.edu.sg/images/cms_press/press_49.pdf

Shouldn't really but...........


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8010203.stm

Smart car, driver....?

Walking seal

"Natalia Rybczynski unearthed the new animal at Devon Island, Canada and worked out that it must have swam through the waters of the Arctic circle around 20-24 million years ago. She named it Puijila darwini after an Inuit word referring to a young seal, and some obscure biologist..."

http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/04/puijila_the_walking_seal_beautiful_transitional_fossil.php?utm_source=readerspicks&utm_medium=link

Spot on Tumsup

Study finds pirates 10 times more likely to buy music

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/21/study-finds-pirates-buy-more-music

The headline really made me laugh - images of hordes of somali pirates in HMV!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8014153.stm

Bull in a local grocery store.

- robotic penguins!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16996-bionic-penguins-take-to-the-water--and-the-skies.html

and even better, later on there are helium filled ones that 'swim' through the air! I want a squadron of robotic flying penguins, now!