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Anyone worried about the sun frying Earth sometime in the next billion years can rest easy: Astronomers have devised a way to move our planet to a safer orbit.

In a paper accepted by the journal Astrophysics and Space Science , planetary scientist Don Korycansky of the University of California-Santa Cruz and colleagues detail a plan to remove Earth from its current orbit to a cooler one using ''gravitational slingshot'' tugs provided by massive asteroids or comets redirected to pass nearby.

''Large-scale planetary engineering is possible with technical procedures we know about now,'' Korycansky says.
- linda 2-15-2001 6:15 pm [link] [5 comments]

i guess salon has been running with the paranoia theme all week. today they have paranoid songs. heres a few i thought of that werent on the list. anybody have anything to add?

the kinks -- destroyer
nirvana -- territorial pissing
elvis costello -- watching the detectives
joe jackson -- is she really going out with him

and heres a bonus link to songs from the 80's that mention nuclear war.
- dave 2-15-2001 6:06 pm [link] [add a comment]

A smart type of plastic which automatically "heals" itself like human skin when cracked or broken has been developed by scientists, it was disclosed yesterday
- linda 2-15-2001 4:25 pm [link] [add a comment]

Spoonerisms and Ig-pay Atin-lay
- alex 2-15-2001 2:56 pm [link] [1 comment]

Schadenfreude, Dave? Is that an object lesson, or a broken link?
- alex 2-14-2001 9:10 pm [link] [1 comment]

Garbage in, garbage out?
The human genome turns out to be more, and less, than expected.
- alex 2-12-2001 6:14 pm [link] [add a comment]

blog you and for help
- Skinny 2-12-2001 1:07 pm [link] [add a comment]

I am experiencing (have noticed for a few days) a wackiness in the archives of all pages having them. Is this a singular experience do you think?
- jimlouis 2-09-2001 9:35 pm [link] [5 comments]

paging dr reich

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - All he was trying to do was ease her chronic back pain, but when Dr. Stuart Meloy placed an electrode into one patient's back, she groaned. Not in pain, but in delight. ``This is a direct quote -- she said, 'You're going to have to teach my husband how to do that','' Meloy, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in a telephone interview. Meloy had stumbled onto an unexpected side-effect of the pain device he was using -- an ability to cause orgasm. He has just patented this unexpected use of the device, a spinal cord stimulator made by device company Medtronic. Now he is trying to talk Minneapolis-based Medtronic into marketing the device for this use."

- dave 2-07-2001 8:46 pm [link] [add a comment]

Saint of circumstance?
- alex 2-07-2001 2:48 pm [link] [add a comment]

I'm going to go out on a limb and claim the lead in February's strange search request category with this one from 2/1/2001: http://www.google.com/search?q=endoscope+porn

Anyone care to top that?
- jim 2-06-2001 7:36 pm [link] [2 comments]

"Mesmerizing images whose meanings are up to the viewer." (!?) Of course they are refering to Rudi Stern and his amazing multimedia production "Theater of Light".


- bill 2-06-2001 4:26 pm [link] [2 comments]

love my new vaio!! its fast:>)
- Skinny 2-06-2001 2:51 am [link] [6 comments]

Speaking of parrot(head)s...
- alex 2-05-2001 2:56 pm [link] [1 ref] [add a comment]

sunday pundits?? no, another kind of squawkbox.
- dave 2-04-2001 3:49 pm [link] [add a comment]

linked off a drat fink post SMILE
- Skinny 2-03-2001 2:09 am [link] [add a comment]

found this on a dmtree search. he was digging in the arboretum last spring.
- dave 2-02-2001 7:30 pm [link] [add a comment]

monsters of christian rock
- dave 2-01-2001 5:16 pm [link] [1 comment]

how about this with a machu pichu extention??
- Skinny 2-01-2001 12:07 pm [link] [add a comment]

all the kidz on kapital hill luv the tickle me W doll.
- dave 1-31-2001 11:49 pm [link] [add a comment]

a lot cheaper but maybe not as much fun
- Skinny 1-31-2001 1:51 am [link] [add a comment]

Axiomatic, and coming soon, to a cathedral near you.
- alex 1-30-2001 2:47 pm [link] [1 comment]

The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!
err...no, they don't.
- alex 1-29-2001 2:51 pm [link] [11 comments]

The NY Post reports that Conde Nast is flip-flopping: first delaying, and now green-lighting, plans for websites for its magazines, including the New Yorker. I thought they were just afraid of losing newsstand sales, but I guess it's bureaucracy. I've been reading the New Yorker since I was a kid, or at least looking at the cartoons, but the current issue has a poem I quite like. I don't really keep up with contemporary poetry, but this one was close to my heart; expressing a particular nostalgia that makes me think the author is around my age. Since there's no site, I've transcribed it, and added a few links.
- alex 1-26-2001 3:52 pm [link] [1 comment]

After watching the news last night I was left with a minor realization concerning Cali's energy problems. The old notion of placing value in land where there is water somewhere on the property (either underground or running through it) comes to mind. Otherwise your indebted to someone with the water you need (Chinatown). Now it's each state which must have a sufficent domestic energy supply or have to purchase it from out of state. They pointed out Florida and lower New York state (amoung others) as hot spots of energy deficit. They went further to point out that it isn't even a peak use time of year and that we may be "in for it" this summer.

Funny Caifornia breaks down right at the time of the inauguration. Funny that W's Texas boys have shitloads of energy (to sell). And funny Alaska has shitloads of untapped oil and that all we need is enough *fear* to scare it up out of the ground.

1/30/01 : As promised, a NYT link (from today).


- bill 1-26-2001 3:46 pm [link] [2 refs] [add a comment]