Burning Ones

So on Friday at 4AM we are leaving for Chicago- yay! Tim’s uncle’s family lives out there and their youngest daughter is in Bye Bye Birdie so we’re going to go see one of the performances. I LOVE going out there… one of the reasons being the 12 hour car trip (in all seriousness). I checked the weather and today tomorrow’s gonna be like a high of 12.. which.. is cold. We’ll be getting back sometime on Monday.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | UK set for 15% renewables target

The European Union is expected to tell the UK that 15% of energy needs must be met from renewable sources by 2020.

Someone explain to me why we can’t do this here?

MacWorld 2008: MacBook Air Announced | MacApper

Could this be the next G4 Cube?  We shall see…

Promoting bike-sharing in Philadelphia | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/16/2008

“I saw the future,” he said. “This could solve some of our problems.” Reduce traffic congestion in Center City, encourage healthier lifestyles, improve the air quality, save people money and time.

Very Cool.

Huck, the Constitution and ‘God’s standards’ - First Read - msnbc.com

At least he’s bold… :)

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | ‘Darkest ever’ material created

Researchers say it is the closest thing yet to the ideal black material, which absorbs light perfectly at all angles and over all wavelengths.

This is what batman needs to paint his bat mobile with. That, or ninjas must use it to increase their stealth capability… Oh the possibilites.

New program targets gangs, violence in S. Philadelphia | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/17/2008

Teen gangsters in South Philadelphia got a stern warning yesterday from Administrative Judge Kevin M. Dougherty: Land in court and expect to “kiss your mother goodbye” - because street violence will no longer be tolerated.

I can’t really tell what this means.  Is there just a nebulous program that has been started, or was some real law passed (such as the 3 strike law) that will now make it more likely that repeat offenders will be imprisoned?  That would really stink as the prison system is really just a place where criminal go to become completely wrecked for real world life…

Anyone else heard about this?

‘Wii warm-up’ good for surgeons

The fine hand control required to play these games acts as a warm up and hones scalpel skills the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Centre team claim.

This is just awesome! :)

Leading scientists have urged peers not to block the use of human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

Quite frankly, this is just scary. I recently picked a book called Next by Michael Crichton. It wasn’t any good and I decided to sell it or donate it to a library about mid way in, mainly due to it’s high sexual content and pervasive language issues. Just not something that I particularly wanted to be pumping into my brain. The reason I mention it in this context is because the book is all about our genetic world and, to be honest, it freaked me out a little bit. I just had no idea the ramifications of Genetic research. Now I understand, mind you, that Next is a work of fiction, but at the same time it was built around various true reports and research that have come out recently. It was really those that caught my eye most. It’s scary what the scientific community is doing in the name of research.

So, all that being said, I want to emphatically declare that I am against this type of research. I feel it is too unnatural and would be incredibly dangerous if it continued. We have to reign our egos in somehow and just accept that mankind should have some limits.

This is a really great move on MySpace’s part. It’s wonderful that they chose to cooperate with it.

Now, if we could only get people to just stop using MySpace altogether… :)