The Trash Of The Titans

Last night I watched The Trash Of The Titans, the 200th episode of The Simpsons.

Homer becomes Springfield’s Sanitation Commissioner but spends the entire year’s budget in just one month. To keep to budget, Homer allows other cities to ship their watse to Springfield, which he buries in an abandoned mine. It fills up and the waste bursts up all over Springfield…
U2 are special guests in this episode:
Bono: “Hold on! He’s talking about waste management… and that affects the whole damn planet.”
The Edge (under his breath): “Oh, boy, here we go.”

So, I wake up this morning to read that the UK government is doing the same thing. Nuclear waste from abroad is being buried in Cumbria, despite government promises that this would never happen.

D’oh.

Great Bustard

Great bird news this week! The Great Bustard is returning to the UK.
I love this great, hulking bird. For information, check out – where else – GreatBustard.com

The Bustard is an exquisite fowl
With minimal reason to growl
It escapes what would be
Illegitimacy
By the grace of a fortunate vowel.

RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Do you want to be part of the world’s biggest bird event?

Just watch your garden (or local park) for an hour on either Saturday 24 or Sunday 25 January 2004 – and note down which species of bird you see.

According to the RSPB website, capercaillies are to be found in Scotland; I think we should all look hard to find them elsewhere in the UK. Please let me know if you see a bird that looks like this…..

Mars Photos

The first colour pictures from the Mars rover Spirit have been released by NASA.

When I taught the General Studies A Level, one of the topics that was always hotly discussed was the issue of spending on space exploration. The BBC are asking: Are Mars missions worth the money? Some interesting viewpoints.

Follow the news about Mars exploration with the BBC.

Parallel Universes

Scientific American: Parallel Universes
My doppelgänger is likely to be in a galaxy about 10 to the 10²⁸ metres from here.

This article also answers a question that has concerned me for some time, namely: Does the number of universes exponentially increase over time? The surprising answer is no.

The Secret Lives of Numbers

The Secret Lives of Numbers. I stumbled across this webpage earlier this year: an interesting idea, beautifully executed. Background information on the data can be found here.