Science Friction

NIB report

The Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has published the report of the inspectors into National Irish Bank. You can download PDFs from here.The report is available either as one single document or as individual chapters. Unfortunately, the report and many of the chapters are simply scans making it impossible to do a keyword search.

X-Prize attempt scheduled

It's official. Scaled Composites has announced that it has officially notified the X-Prize organisers that SpaceShipOne will make its first official attempt at the $10m prize on September 29. SpaceShipOne must make two successful flights to an altitude of at least 100km carrying a pilot and the equivalent ballast of two passengers within a fortnight of each other. However, Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan has said that if the September 29 flight is successful, the second flight could be as early as October 4, the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik.

Heroes or zeroes?

There is an article in today's Evening Herald celebrating the 'heroes' of the Dunnes Stores boycott. For those too young to remember, a number of checkout operators at Dunnes Stores refused to handle South African produce. The anniversary of their action falls around now.

I'm probably not going to be very popular for writing this but I don't consider them to be heroes. For the record, I found the South African Apartheid regime to be obnoxious and I was proud to boycott South African produce. But that was MY choice. By refusing to allow Dunnes Stores customers to purchase South African produce, the checkout operatives were imposing their political viewpoints on other people. This, in my view, made them no better than the regime they opposed.

It's Official

Apple has confirmed the Newsweek story below. However, I was off on Irish pricing. The 20GB new iPod will sell for €339 but without dock while the €40GB will go for €449.

Monday's iPod Revealed

Gizmodo, Engadget – who annotated the photograph with the new features – and the Unnofficial Apple Weblog are all reporting that Apple will release new iPods tomorrow. The Newsweek article seems to tell the whole story.

UPDATE: Apparently the new iPod will be thinner by 1mm, will offer 12 hours of battery life, will only be available in 20GB and 40GB models which will be cheaper by $100 than current models. Euro pricing has yet to be announced. However, based on current pricing expect the 20GB model to retail for €349 incl VAT and the 40GB model to go for €448.99

Typo of the week

Well it's not really a typo since it was made on radio. On Media Matters, Newstalk 106's media review of the week one of the Newstalk people was reading out the story of Chris de Burgh buying a piece of science fiction movie memorabilia referred to the "Alias creature."

Hmmmmm. Jenifer Garner bursting out of John Hurt's chest. Now that might be worth seeing.

High and Mighty cut down to size?

I was in Arnotts today and I found out I'd missed most of the sale. The High & Mighty department (no connection with the chain of stores in the UK) was looking particularly forlorn. High & Mighty is the section of Arnotts that sells clothes for generously proportioned gentlemen like myself. I was shocked when I found out that the store was considering not restocking the department. It's the only shop in the centre of Dublin that has clothes in my size.
It looks like I'll have to start shopping in Mr Big. I've nothing against Mr Big except that it's in Goatstown which means having to take the car and parking there can be difficult.

Probe as 90% fail degree finals

The BBC is reporting that 54 students out of a class of 60 at the Central University in Birmingham failed their exams. As a result the course has been suspended. The Pro-vice Chancellor Professor Phil Walkling has said that there is no one reason why so many should fail but he attributed it in part to the fact that many students were obliged to work full time due to financial pressures. [BBC News]

Try walking between these raindrops

The BBC is reporting that scientists have observed the biggest raindrops recorded on Earth in clouds over Brazil and the Marshall Islands. Droplets as large as 8.8mm were recorded and Professor Peter Hobbs of the University of Washington believes they could be as large as 1cm. [BBC News]

KKK - No Way

I voted NO! So the KKK can go f**k itself.