There has been mildy interesting news from NASA,
The news and blogosphere is all abuzz with various theories and news, that they have found perchlorate, and this is surprising scientists at NASA,
Its been found in the soil near where the rocket landed, and it also occurs naturally on earth,
if you are wondering what perchlorate is, well its used in rocket fuel, and wikipedia has this to say about it;
Perchlorates are the salts derived from perchloric acid (HClO4). They occur both naturally and through manufacturing. They have been used as a medicine for more than 50 years to treat thyroid gland disorders. They are also used as an oxidizer in rocket fuel and explosives and can be found in airbags and fireworks. Both potassium perchlorate (KClO4) and ammonium perchlorate (NH4ClO4) are used extensively within the pyrotechnics industry, whereas ammonium perchlorate is a component of solid rocket fuel. Lithium perchlorate, which decomposes exothermically to give oxygen, is used in oxygen "candles" on spacecraft, submarines and in other esoteric situations where a reliable backup or supplementary oxygen supply is needed. Most perchlorate salts are soluble in water.[1]
Its not a definitive sign of life, or lack thereof either way, in fact its pretty much an issue of "well yeah, and?"
its a hell of a lot less exciting than when they proved the existence of water!
These perchlorates occur naturally, and coincidentally they occur naturally in the area of the Atacama desert in chile that NASA use as a testing ground for martian missions!
and even though this is one of the driest places on the planet;
The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 966 km (600 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains. The rain shadow on the leeward side of the Andes keeps this over 20 million-year-old desert[1] 50 times drier than California's Death Valley. It is the second-driest desert in the world, after the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica.[citation needed] The Atacama occupies 181,300 square kilometers (70,000 mi²)[2] in northern Chile, composed mostly of salt basins (salares), sand, and lava flows.It still plays host to plenty of life, nothing which is particularly large in size, but there are even microbes and some life forms that feed on the perchlorates in the soil!
What is particularly unfortunate about NASA releasing these findings is that the results whilst first detected several weeks ago,
using the Wet chemistry lab, they then tried to confirm using the gas analyzer,
but they haven't yet confirmed it as those tests remain incomplete!
As I already mentioned, they picket up these traces near where the rocket landed and plenty of scientists have pointed out that it could be contamination from the rockets
-However-Many other scientists have been quick to point out that the engines use hydrazine and not chlorine ( which is what they might have found)
and when they calibrated the wet chemistry lab after landing they found no traces of perchlorate.
So really its a big question mark that wont be answered until the Mars Science lab arrives, and that isn't even scheduled to launch until 2009
My disagreement with Richard Stallman
Why is free software important? Software and computers are all pervasive in today's world and thus demand our utmost diligence: The lives we live are run and organised by software, we depend on software, we trust our most intimate d... (more in the full post)
Journalists 'hack' journalists at internet security conference - Telegraph.co.uk
Some Old classic jokes - "groaners"
1. Two vultures board an airplane, each carrying two dead
raccoons. The stewardess looks at them and says, "I'm sorry,
gentlemen, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
2. Two weevils grew up in the country. One went to silicon valley,
created a startup tech firm, got rich and married a model.
The other stayed behind in the country and never amounted to much.
The second one,naturally,
became known as the lesser of two weevils.
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they
lit a fire in the craft, it sank proving once again that you
can't have your kayak and heat it, too.
4. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain
during a root canal? He wanted to transcend dental medication.
5. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and
were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament
victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the
office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they
moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting
in an open foyer."
6. A woman has twins, and gives them up for adoption. One of
them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Amal." The other
goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later,
Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon
receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she
also had a picture of Amal. Her husband responds, "They're twins!
If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal."
7. These friars were behind on their belfry payments, so
they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since
everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival
florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked
the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back
and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival
florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug
in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and
trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up
shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that: Hugh, and
only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.
Official Wigram Petition To Delay Plan Change
I just had a call from a Mr Denis Hampton (retired, RNZAF) regarding an official petition he is organising with National Candidate for Wigram Marc Alexander.
To cut a long story short, for the development to proceed it is dependant on a regional plan change being approved by council (to change the "Special Usage Aviation" designation of the land parcel as I understand it), this change has not happened yet. No plan change, no development, it can't proceed without it.
The catch is that this change is scheduled for final approval voting at the council meeting on the 28th of August, so the petition needs to be signed sealed and delivered by the 21st to have any hope of delaying the decision, so time is short.
The petiton reads:
"We the undersigned, urge the council to defer the decision to approve any plan (inclusive of plan change 12) to subdivide Wigram Airfield for housing until such time as all interested parties have been fully consulted and briefed."
Mr Hampton has indicated he will be collecting signatures in the afternoons this week on the street outside the North Entrance to Hornby Mall (ie entrance opposite the Warehouse). He already has collected 150 signatures.
A PDF scan of the petition form is available here:
http://sirius.gogo.co.nz/Petition.pdf
for any Christchurch folks who want to collect some signatures and post back to the petitioners (no fax, no email - it's got to be on the snail's back for this one).
Mr Hampton also advised that there will be an opinion article in the Press this Wednesday which is being effectively "rushed to print" by The Press to get it in before the date and should be an interesting read.
Mr Hampton also sent me a press release and article which are of interest here, he points out that "[The Minister of Lands and Ngai Tahu] were very clear that [Wigram] would be kept primarily for aviation purposes."
You can read the release and article from 1997 here:
http://sirius.gogo.co.nz/Articles.pdf
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